Holiday Health Myths: Sugar, Suicides, and Cold-Weather Clothes

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Are holiday "facts" fiction?

The holiday season is a great time for family, friends, and well, old wives’ tales: Who hasn’t been told to wear a hat because you lose the most heat from your head?

There are some real holiday health hazards (see 11 of them here). But an analysis in the British Medical Journal suggests that your mother’s—or even your doctor’s—holiday hazards often lack rock-solid evidence to back them up.

Rachel Vreeman, MD, and Aaron Carroll, MD, of the Indiana University School of Medicine, did a reality check by poring over the medical literature and doing Google Internet searches.

Here’s what they found.

Next: Myth: Sugar makes kids hyperactive