Don’t swallow gum: 10 medical horror stories of our childhood

… And you might even die! Such a myth had previously circulated among children and was actively supported by some adults. The reasoning was this: the chewing gum will get stuck in the intestines, stick and remain in the body forever, poisoning it with “harmful chemistry.”

In fact, when chewing gum enters the stomach, it travels the same way as any other food, and, pushed by the walls of the intestine, leaves the body naturally. Under the influence of gastric juice, which is a concentrated acid, chewing gum loses its stickiness and does not stick to anything.

Only in one thing the doctors are unanimous: you do not need to chew gum on an empty stomach, it activates the secretion of gastric juice, and this “idle work” is not good for an empty stomach.

This scarecrow was necessarily accompanied by a story about a certain boy from a nearby school, who, after this very meningitis, although he survived, but “became a fool”. This boy himself, however, has never been seen.

Let’s figure it out. What is meningitis? It is an infectious disease caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi. With meningitis, the membranes of the brain and spinal cord become inflamed. Bacterial meningitis is called the most dangerous of all types. The disease is insidious, because the symptoms are very similar to the flu. Meningitis is fraught with disability and, in the most severe cases, death.

Anyone can catch meningococcal infection, but it is most dangerous for people with weakened immunity and for children under 5 years of age whose immunity has not yet formed.

Hypothermia of the head may well cause a weakening of the immune system and provoke the development of meningococcal infection. Walking in cold weather without a hat does not guarantee meningitis, but it may well cause it.

Well, who thinks about some future children in the carefree 16 years old? In the 90s it was fashionable to flaunt in mini-skirts, in the XNUMXs – to freeze the kidneys to an icy crunch in short jackets and jeans lowered on the hips, nowadays young people are terrifying with their manner of sparkling in January with their bare ankles from under shortened trousers.

Why is hypothermia dangerous? The emergence of inflammatory processes and circulatory disorders due to constant vasoconstriction. Inflammation of the uterine appendages can become chronic and cause obstruction of the fallopian tubes. That is, in fact, infertility. So the mothers were right. Girls need to protect the pelvic organs from hypothermia.

Just about to become an adult, I inhaled beautifully on a thin cigarette, gracefully blew out the smoke, and here you won’t grow up! What will not boring adults come up with to ruin a person’s life …

The growth of our body continues up to 25 years. But if you become addicted to smoking during the period of the most active growth, that is, during adolescence, then you really run the risk of slowing down this process. And all because smoking negatively affects the absorption of vitamins by the body, inhibits the production of growth hormones and testosterone, and provokes oxygen starvation of muscle tissue. However, the growth of guys, not girls, suffers most of all – this is evidenced by the results of medical research.

In fact, you will not go blind “for good”, but you can catch the “bunnies”, and even risk getting your eyes burned if you look very close.

It is not for nothing that welders wear a special mask – the electric arc gives off powerful ultraviolet radiation that can burn both the skin and the cornea of ​​the eyes.

We will deal at the same time with lying reading, the harmfulness of which also frightened us. If you read in good light and hold the text no closer than 30 cm to your eyes, then nothing bad will happen. True, doctors say that in the supine position, the body is tuned to rest, so the information is remembered worse.

In fact, the bacterium Helicobacter pylori causes stomach ulcers, and frequent stress, smoking and alcohol abuse stimulate the onset of the disease. Of course, spicy and fatty foods also play a fatal role, diet soups would be much healthier.

Doctors also did not find any connection between the absence of soups in the diet and the development of gastritis. The main thing is to take care not to weaken the immune system. However, hot soups are good for stimulating the immune system during cold weather.

But patients with stomach ulcers and duodenal ulcers generally need to be more careful with soups – they cannot be categorically thick, rich, on concentrated meat broths.

Interestingly, a frog from contact with you will not have warts, but you will certainly have …

Parotids, that is, bumps on the skin of a toad, are nothing more than a passive way of this animal to protect itself from external aggressions. And it looks tasteless, and even such a skin can sprinkle with a caustic liquid. Therefore, if a child crushed the frog to the point that it damaged its skin, make sure that he does not lick this unfortunate amphibian.

But a toad with a man cannot share warts in any way. This cosmetic defect is caused by the human papillomavirus, which can sleep in the body for years and become more active with a weakening of the immune system.

But for playing with stray kittens and puppies, your parents did not scold you in vain: it is quite possible to get shingles from them.