I remember, as a child, burning my finger on a hot frying pan and my mother putting butter on it to stop the burning. However, little did she know that it actually served to fuel the burning of my finger! Why did she use butter? Because that’s what her mother did it, that’s what her mother before her did it, and so on. It’s easy to fall into the myth trap: A friend passes along a tip, and then you pass it on to several individuals you know. One day you hear the same tip repeated, so you figure it must be true. Today, we know that if you burn your finger on a hot frying pan you should hold it under cold running water to stop the burning. Myths carry on over time until we learn that that’s all they are – Myths!

Myths and half-truths are still abundant in the fitness world today (even though good science has proven them to be falsehoods). Just as my mother never took the time to find out if butter really helped relieve the pain of a burning finger, many individuals never take the time to investigate what someone tells them about a fitness belief. And some of these myths may be keeping you from getting the workout you need.

As boomers, we need to base strength and fitness programs on sound scientific evidence in order to maximize our time spent on staying healthy. So let’s cut through some of these myths and get to the truth of the matter.

Myth #1; Muscle turns into fat when you stop working out:

This is one of the oldest myths in the fitness world and completely false; muscle cannot turn into fat and fat cannot turn into muscle – they are two different body tissues. How did this myth come about? In the early days of fitness, men especially, would weight train to increase muscle size which also required eating more calories. When these individuals stopped working out, their muscles began to atrophy, reducing in size and strength. However, they did not take into consideration that their bodies no longer needed the volume of calories they were consuming while training. Those extra calories that were used as fuel while they were training was then stored as fat because the body no longer required that much food. The outward appearance seems as though their hard earned muscle was turning into fat, but the reality is that their bodies were getting fatter because they were taking in more than needed.

If you cut back on your training, or stop, you must reduce your calorie consumption because your body will store those excess calories as fat.

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Dr. Keith Hopcroft of The Times has put together his list top 9 medical myths. Can having sex cause a heart attack? Are headaches a sign of brain tumors? Is breast self-exam actually useless? Can the flu shot give you the flu? Put your medical knowledge to the test. Check out the myths, inside…

9. Having sex can cause a heart attack in men.
Mostly untrue. Per hour, the chances of a 50 year old, non-smoking male suffering a heart attack is about 1 in a million. During sex this increases to 2 in a million which is still negligible.

8. High blood pressure causes headaches.
Very untrue except for in extreme rare cases. High blood pressure usually has no superficial symptoms at all.

7. Diabetics crave sugar.
Mostly untrue. Some diabetics require sugar if their glucose is too low but craving sugar by itself does not equal diabetes.

6. Women need to self-examine their breasts.
Very untrue. Research shows that self-exam has no effect in terms of breast cancer outcomes because it isn’t sensitive enough to detect important lumps. In fact it can cause harm by subjecting examiners to increased anxiety. The same holds true for testicular self-exam in males.

5. Diet cuts cholesterol.
Mostly untrue. In clinical trials, diet alone could only cut cholesterol by 10%. Doctors rarely suggest diet changes alone if your cholesterol really needs lowering.

4. Headaches alone can be a sign of a brain tumor.
Totally untrue. Actual tumors produce other symptoms like personality change, fits, or shaking.

3. You shouldn’t mix antibiotics and alcohol.
Totally untrue with the exception of the antibiotic metronidazole. Most interactions between alcohol and antibiotics are so small that they’re irrelevant.

2. Your tiredness may be caused by anemia.
Mostly untrue. Tiredness by itself is common and usually caused by lifestyle issues. Many times people with tiredness have blood tests that reveal anemia but it was probably not the actual cause of the tiredness.

1. Flu shots give you the flu.
Totally untrue. The vaccine does not contain live virus so it cannot cause the flu. However, many people will contract the cold or the flu around the time of their flu shot and link it to their flu shot.

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