We recently wrote a post where medical professionals revealed the health “lies” people should stop believing. In the comments, more doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals revealed the misconceptions you need to know. Here’s what they had to say:
1. “If you think you might be having a heart attack, DO NOT DRIVE YOURSELF TO THE ER. If you pass out, you can kill someone else on the road! You’re better off calling an ambulance — if you start to die on the way there, the EMTs are better equipped to help you.”
“They can also hit the lights and sirens and get you there much faster than your neighbor or your spouse driving. Yes, I know it’s expensive, but there are programs to help with costs, and hospital financial offices will work with you on payments.”
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2. “NPO (nothing by mouth/nothing to eat or drink) in reference to a surgery or procedure does include ice chips, chewing gum, mints, candies, Listerine breath strips, cough drops, dipping/snuff/chewing tobacco, etc. Basically, anything you put in your mouth that will increase salivation — this will increase your risk of aspirating during a procedure with sedation/anesthesia due to the increase in saliva and digestive fluids. Even if it is a small amount, NPO means NPO.”
“Typically, you will have to wait at least two to four hours after the last item (if the amount was small) before proceeding with the procedure, depending on the anesthesiologist or policy. Just embrace the stinky dehydration breath and follow the rules, people! Makes our lives easier. Note: This is how it is for my facility; others may be different.*
3. “Antidepressants aren’t cures for mental illnesses! They help, but you still need to do therapy in order to help with your mental health. It’s like when you break a leg, and you need a cast for a period of time. Once it comes off, you need physiotherapy to help the leg regain strength and go back to working. The same applies to the brain with mental illnesses.”
“Working in mental health, I often have people telling me that they’re on medication for their mental health, so they don’t need therapy (and vice versa) when the most effective treatment for mental illnesses is a combination of therapy and medication. For the bulk of people, they won’t need to be on medication forever, either; it’s just to help them through this tough stage.”
—Anonymous, 31, Australia
“Severe mental illness is unlikely to be ‘cured.’ Recovery is not a black and white thing. Recovery is a gradual thing that looks different for each person. It could be unrealistic to expect your loved one, or yourself, to live exactly the same life as before the onset. But it’s also unrealistic to think life with a severe mental illness can’t be active and rewarding.”
—Anonymous, Early 30s, California
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4. “DMD, MPh here. Root canals do NOT cause cancer. Research and literature have repeatedly DISPROVEN that they cause cancer, specifically breast cancer. Teeth are the ‘strongest organs’ in your body, made primarily of non-organic material. A root canal does not leave a ‘dead’ organ in your body. They work by removing the organic material (nerve and blood vessels) and disinfecting the inside of these canals. The inorganic tooth structure remains.”
“BUT if you don’t get a final restoration on top of the root canal, like a filling or crown as recommended by your doctor, the root canal isn’t protected and WILL eventually fail from bacterial infiltration of those canals again.”
—Anonymous, 34, Ohio
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5. “Pharmacists are not holding your medication hostage. Either we didn’t get a prescription (yes, you may have seen your doctor type it up on your notes, but they didn’t send us anything or sent it to the wrong place); the doctor didn’t write it correctly (which happens a lot, and we have called them and they haven’t answered); the medication may have an interaction with something else you’re on or may make a known medical condition worse, and we need to clear that with your doctor; we may not have the medication or it no longer is being made (I’ve seen older doctors write for medications that were discontinued years ago); or your insurance won’t cover it or says it’s too soon to fill.”
“We don’t want to kill you or ruin your life by not giving you your medications, but we have limits to our job just like everyone else, and are trying our best to help you, so don’t yell at us.”
6. “Getting your head wet in the rain or going outside with wet hair will not cause you to get sick. Germs, like bacteria and viruses, make you sick, not the weather or a wet head.”
—Anonymous, 52, Georgia
7. “Taking the ambulance to the emergency room for non-life-threatening complaints does not get you seen any faster than if you had just walked into the waiting room.”
—Anonymous, 22, Canada
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8. “Being someone’s significant other means nothing when it comes to medical decision making if you’re NOT married, unless there is a medical power of attorney document in place. You can be with someone for 20+ years and have no say in decisions if you aren’t married because you’re not considered next of kin according to the law.”
“If you don’t want to get married but want your partner to be your medical decision maker, put it in a legal document!“
—Anonymous, 38, Virginia
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9. “Mental health therapist. We don’t judge you because you’re having difficulties coping. Also, we don’t have the answers for your life. Our job is to help you find what works for you, not tell you what to do.”
10. “Do not clean your wounds with hydrogen peroxide. People think that hydrogen peroxide just kills bacteria in wounds. That’s an old way of thinking. Hydrogen peroxide kills good and bad cells, so it actually prevents your wound from healing. The best thing to use is actually just soap and water.”
—Anonymous, 46, Arizona
11. “Please do not tell your child that an injection won’t hurt. It will, so let’s get it done now.”
—Anonymous, 72, Colorado
12. “‘Wait and see’ with a developmental delay is almost never the optimal plan. So many people think that maybe their kids are just ‘late talkers’ or ‘late walkers,’ and sometimes kids are. But parents don’t know enough to assess that and determine if waiting is the best course of action. Please, please, please come see a PT, OT, or SLP who knows what to look for and how best to assess your child’s skills and challenges.”
“Early intervention leads to much better outcomes, so please don’t wait!”
—Anonymous, 34, Maryland
13. “Water fluoridation works. Research has proven it works. At the recommended and monitored amounts, it has no impact on lowering people’s IQs, and it’s not mind control. As I tell my anti-vax and anti-fluoride dad, I don’t pay enough per unit of fluoride to control your mind…if it could, I’d probably pay more.”
—Anonymous, 34, Ohio
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14. “A professor of nursing here. Often, patients say they are allergic to morphine and codeine because they experience nausea and vomiting with these medications. This is NOT AN ALLERGY. This is a side effect, and now, we administer anti-nausea medication before giving it.”
—Anonymous, 70, Pennsylvania
15. “Don’t go to the ER or doctor’s office with a common cold. It’s a virus. There’s no ‘cure’ for it. It is airborne, and you’re spreading it everywhere each time you sneeze or cough. Call the doc to get suggestions on what to take to relieve symptoms. Or better yet, ask your pharmacist. Drink plenty of fluids and rest.”
—Anonymous, 80, New York
16. “MBU RN here. Please. I understand that tensions are high, and people are excited at the birth of a new baby, but please: If I’m handling a baby, don’t try to reach over me to try and ‘help.’ I’ve been doing this for over 17 years, and thank God I’ve never dropped a baby, but you sticking your hands in front of me can lead to a different outcome.”
“Also, hiccups are completely normal; you get hiccups as an adult, and you live — so will the baby.”
—Anonymous, 56, Virginia
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17. “Plastic and orthopaedic surgical specialist offering a bit of advice: If your family or friend is in the operating room undergoing a procedure that seems to be taking longer than originally projected, it very rarely indicates something has gone wrong. It’s commonplace for encounters during operations to add complexity or take additional time to operatively address during procedures. If no communication is coming from the OR staff, silence is not a precursor to unwanted news at the completion. It just means the entire OR team is occupied concentrating on the unexpected issue(s) at hand, the vast majority of the time leading to better operative outcomes for your loved ones.”
“It’s hard to wait unemotionally, but please recognize that this is a normal part of the unknowns going into any operative procedure.“
—Anonymous, 67, New Jersey
18. “You don’t get the flu from the flu vaccine.”
—Anonymous, 80, New York
19. “Radiation therapy treatment does NOT make you radioactive (unless they inject or insert radioactive sources into your body). If the doctor does not explicitly tell you NOT to hold a young child in your lap, then you’re no more radioactive than anyone else. You will not miss the warning, and it won’t be in fine print if you are, in fact, radioactive.”
—Anonymous, 36, Alabama
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20. “I work in radiology, specifically CT scan. In my service area, we have six CT scanners to facilitate over 450,000 members. Since radiology has become the gold standard in diagnosis, and we only have six machines, our scheduled appointments are super busy. That said, you do need to show up ON TIME for your appointment.”
“Nothing frustrates us more than when someone shows up 15 minutes late and gets mad when we tell them they are now considered a walk-in. It’s so frustrating!”
—Anonymous, California
And finally…
21. “Labor nurse here. We are not like other departments; we can’t turn patients away. People come into the hospital unscheduled in labor 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to have babies. If you have an appointment for an induction, it does not mean you have a room on hold — it’s not like a hotel reservation. We have to take the laboring patients who walk in the door unscheduled, too.”
“Please don’t scream at us that we gave your room away. It is labor and delivery. We cannot predict the future, so please show us some grace.“
—Anonymous, 50, Texas
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Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals, what are some other health “lies” and misconceptions that more people should know? Tell us in the comments, or if you prefer to remain anonymous, you can use the form below.
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