Can allergic rhinitis be cured? Can nutritional supplements be taken as medicine? Here comes the list of scientific rumors in April →

1. Can allergic rhinitis be cured?

Rumor content : Allergic rhinitis can be "cured" through surgery, which is minimally invasive, has a short treatment period and quick results.

Truth interpretation : Allergic rhinitis is currently incurable. Treatment can be symptomatic medication and desensitization therapy. But even desensitization, the only globally recognized causal treatment, cannot be said to be a cure, because allergic antibodies will always exist in the patient's body. It's just that the patient's symptoms will decrease or disappear. Patients still need to minimize contact with allergens. Exposure to a large number of allergens can also induce symptoms. Patients with real allergic rhinitis do not have to be pessimistic. First of all, conventional treatments for allergic rhinitis, such as nasal sprays of corticosteroids and antihistamines, have relatively small adverse reactions. Although allergic rhinitis is incurable, through desensitization therapy, most patients' symptoms will be significantly alleviated or even disappear. They may occur intermittently and occasionally, requiring intermittent medication, but most of them will not significantly affect the quality of life, and few people need to take medication every day all year round.

Source: Tencent

2. If you want to cough or sneeze, can you cover your mouth and nose and force yourself to endure it?

Rumor content : Sneezing or coughing and splashing droplets onto others is both unhygienic and impolite. You can cover your mouth and nose and try to be patient without coughing or sneezing.

Truth Interpretation : Coughing and sneezing are both normal rejection reactions of the human body. If you want to cough or sneeze, but cover your mouth and nose and hold it back, the airflow in the respiratory tract will not be relieved, and the blocked airflow suddenly changes direction, which may damage the eardrum, respiratory tract, and throat. In severe cases, it may even cause serious consequences such as eardrum perforation, hearing loss, and head blood vessel damage. The correct way is to cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or handkerchief when coughing or sneezing, or bend your elbow to cover your mouth and nose, which can effectively prevent the spread of droplets. Do not throw away tissues that have touched your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing. Throw them into a covered trash can in time. After coughing or sneezing, you should wash your hands and elbows with hand sanitizer and running water as soon as possible for at least 20 seconds. If conditions are unavailable, you can use a wash-free disinfectant to disinfect your hands and elbows.

Source: People's Daily Health Client

3. Health supplements can treat many diseases without any side effects. Are they better than taking medicine?

Rumor content : Health products are advertised as being able to cure all diseases and have no side effects, and taking health products is safer and more effective than taking medicine.

Truth interpretation : By definition, health care products are just a kind of food with health care functions, and are not intended to treat diseases. Therefore, health care products are first of all a kind of "food". Medicines are products used to control, prevent, and treat diseases, and have clear indications, applicable populations, usage and dosage. The difference between the two is self-evident. As a food, health care products, like rice, noodles, and steamed buns, do not have the function of treating, preventing, and regulating diseases , while medicines are the "correct answer" to diseases. Blindly believing in health care products may result in the loss of money and delay of illness. Some unqualified health care products may even cause excessive intake of effective ingredients and threaten health. It is not that we cannot use health care products, but we should not expect them to cure diseases, nor can we rely solely on taking health care products to the point of ignoring healthy living habits.

Source: Science Refutes Rumors

4. Digital rectal examination is uncomfortable and embarrassing. Can it be skipped during the physical examination?

Myth : Digital rectal examination is uncomfortable and embarrassing, and other methods can also detect anal-related diseases, so this examination can be skipped.

Truth Interpretation : Many friends only vaguely know that the digital anal examination seems to be used to check for hemorrhoids and cancer, but the function of the digital anal examination is far more than that. The digital anal examination can identify many kinds of diseases of the anus, rectum and colon, and can intuitively distinguish certain digestive tract cancers from other diseases. For example, the bleeding situation can be used to check whether there is colon cancer and other colon diseases, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, etc. In addition, the severity of the anal fissure can be determined and whether surgery is required. In short, the digital anal examination is really useful. If your doctor recommends a digital anal examination, please don't be shy or afraid, and follow the doctor's advice to do the examination.

Source: Science Refutes Rumors

5. Eggs are high-cholesterol foods, so it is best not to eat eggs if your cholesterol is high?

Rumor content : Eggs, especially the yolks, are high in cholesterol. People with high blood lipids should not eat them. Healthy people should also pick out the yolks and not eat them to avoid increasing cholesterol.

Truth interpretation : This statement is not rigorous. Eggs contain high-quality protein, trace elements, lecithin, etc., which can promote brain development and improve immunity. They are very good food. As long as you choose the right kind of eggs, supplemented by proper cooking methods and good ingredients, even patients with hyperlipidemia can eat eggs appropriately. First of all, compared with meat, the cholesterol content in egg yolks is not ridiculously high, and there are eggs that are fed with special feeds and have greatly reduced cholesterol content. In addition, there is no need to worry about not consuming too many eggs per week. For example, eating 4 to 5 eggs is a good choice. When cooking eggs daily, you can combine them with vegetables, beans, fungi, and whole grains as staple foods, which is more conducive to nutritional balance and disease prevention.

Source: Science Refutes Rumors

6. Children won’t learn their lessons unless they are beaten. Will they remember their lessons only if they are beaten?

Rumor content: Beating children moderately will help them remember their mistakes and correct them, which can achieve the purpose of education without causing harm to the children.

Truth Interpretation : Beating children will damage their memory, reduce their intelligence, and affect their brain development. Beating children cannot fundamentally solve the problem. Children are likely to either choose to obey out of fear, but gradually become inferior and cowardly; or deliberately disobey out of anger, but slowly turn to perverseness and rebellion. Children caught between retreat and rebellion are more likely to pretend to obey because of confusion, hide their behavior in order not to cause direct conflict, be well-behaved and sensible under the eyes of their parents, and act recklessly in places where their parents are unaware, which puts them in deep contradictions and chaos. All of these are very detrimental to the development of children.

Source: Science Refutes Rumors

About the Science Rumors List

Released by the China Association for Science and Technology, the list is reviewed by experts every month. Based on criteria such as timeliness and harmfulness, hot rumors are selected for special interpretation and pushed across the entire network.

Jointly published: Scientific rumor-busting platform, China Internet Joint Rumor-busting Platform, "Study to Strengthen the Country" learning platform

Supported platforms: Weibo rumor refutation, Toutiao rumor refutation, Tencent Jiuzhen, NetEase Health, Toutiao Health, Baidu Knows, Douyin

Scientific rumor debunking: Sponsored by the China Association for Science and Technology, the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Emergency Management, the State Administration for Market Regulation and other ministries and commissions, guided by the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, and jointly created by national societies, authoritative media, social organizations and scientific and technological workers, it aims to effectively improve the dissemination, guidance and influence of rumor debunking information, so that rumors can stop at the wise and let science outrun rumors.

List of review experts

(In order of the number of strokes of surname)

Ruan Guangfeng, Director of Science and Technology Department, Kexin Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center

Han Hongwei, Researcher, National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center

Yang Xiaoyang, Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Sichuan Normal University

Chen Rui , Associate Professor, Institute of Communication Psychology, School of Journalism, Communication University of China

Tang Qin, Chief Researcher, Department of Science Popularization, Chinese Medical Association

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