misadvice or old wives (husband ) tales

[grog]

Don't do deep knee bends. you'll hurt your knees.

grog

 

[daxs]

Running destroys your knees...

 

[--M.]

Running destroys your knees...

Running DOES destroy your knees (you just haven't realized yet in your own life). It's evil, and sent from the devil to ruin otherwise active people! Call me a bigot (go ahead!), but running is BAD, and anyone who does it is setting a BAD example for the others!

Saving lives here,

--M.

 

[UNFROZENCAVEMAN]

...don't go out in the cold without a jacket or you'll catch a cold. As a doctor from Tulane medical school (IIRC) once said: going out in the cold without a jacket increases your chances of freezing to death; it doesn't increase your chances of catching a cold one bit.

I had this argument with my Father the other day - he said, "I can't believe you don't catch more colds going in and out of the car and into sales accounts without putting a jacket on." I said, "It has nothing to do with it." He said (quite sarcastially), "Really?" I replied, "Unless you lower your core body temperature long enough to decrease the effectiveness of your immune system. And went onto say, "If that were the case I'd be sick all the time, I hardly ever wear a coat when I'm hiking - you stop for a bit and start to get chilled you simply start hiking again." He was pissed I was arguing and simply remained silent after that. I watch him put his "majic" coat on to walk 10 steps from a car into a factory and just laugh...creature of habit. Oh, and he got really sick about a week ago - I wanted to ask him what happened to his "majic coat" but I kept my mouth shut

The advice that I heed (especially being an ADD'r) is this:

"Don't believe everything you think!"

 

[grog]

look up

Pounding destroys all. smoooothness heals.

grog

 

[spider solo]

put sand in your shoes...

I think it was Earl Shaffer who belived in this. He would cut the heels off his boots and sand in his shoes as a good way to toughn ones feet.

....If you walk around barefoot all the time you'll get flat feet..is that real advice or mis advice..?

 

[Squintyken]

don't swim for one hour after eating, etc.

"don't swim for at least one hour after eating" is one old tale somewhat related to hiking.

I suppose smaller meals / snacks when exercising feels much more comfortable than a large sit-down gorge-fest.

more broadly speaking:

most human communication is unexamined hearsay.

snopes.com is one of my favorite sites, randi.org, etc.

but if you go far enough with examining everything you may end up asking "why oh why didn't i take the blue pill?" - Cypher, the Matrix.

 

[Mongoose]

My kids give me grief constantly about this one. "How about all those hiker people you met on the web, huh dad?" I tell them not to worry, I'm very careful about all of you!!!

Tell them that people you meet over the internet do weird things like walk around in a storm when it's -20F and sleep in the snow.

 

[daxs]

M I am 48. If running hasn't killed me or my knees yet and don't think it will.

 

[yonkers]

If you Google this, you will find lots of people telling you to boil water at least 3 minutes. I did not find any page that said just bringing water to a boil was ok.

its pretty amazing the different times i saw when i goggled it, the times on us govt, hiking and back country sites varied from 1 min to 10 minutes, many said 3 min and 5 minutes.
water boils at 100 Celsius at sea level,
at 5000 feet 94.8 Celsius, 10,000 feet 90 Celsius.
i believe all the pathogens that hot water tempature can kill die at under 90 celcius.
so just bringing water to a boil is enough.
i saw one site that agree's with me
boy scouts high adventure training

 

[Bobby]

"don't swim for at least one hour after eating" is one old tale somewhat related to hiking.

If you eat microwaved food, you only have to wait 1/2 an hour

 

[KayakDan]

How about, don't meet with anyone you contacted over the internet.


.

Too late. I met her...then I married her. Mrs KD and I met online,on Compuserve,way back before it was fashionable. It' s almost 10 years ago!
At first her family figured I was an axe murderer. Nope,worse...a hiker!

 

[Oldsmores]

...I think Giardia cysts are easily destroyed at around 70 - 80C but to get all the other pathogens 3 minutes is the standard.

US EPA recommendation
US EPA says 1 minute. Of course, EPA's credibility is not real high