Misconceptions About Health & Wellness

Misconceptions About Health & Wellness

Does cracking your knuckles give you arthritis? How much water should you REALLY drink a day? And what the HECK do crystals do for my health?

In this episode of Misconceptions, host Justin Dodd (@juddtoday) answers these burning questions about your health. Don’t believe everything you read out there, your body will thank you.

Mental Floss is the home for all things curious. Subscribe here for new Mental Floss videos every Wednesday at 3pm est (and don’t forget the bell!): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpZ5​​…

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50 Comments

  1. 122172639 on May 31, 2022 at 10:03 pm

    You kind of failed to point out the possible "what is the cause and what is the effect?" problem with knuckle cracking. I played flute for decades, and the REASON I used to crack my knuckles was because they were a bit swollen and damaged so cracking them alleviated some of the pain… they would get stiff and even if purely a placebo effect, that pop had a very real effect on pain perception. It forced my brain to stop fixating on the stiff swollen almost pulsing sort of pain and get ‘zapped’ in a sense by the sudden jolt of sound and physical motion of the cracking. Even if purely through distraction, my pain lessens when I pop them because they’re swollen. I don’t think I’m the only one who does it to improve how loose/flexible my fingers feel (toes, too-I can’t splay them as far apart or stretch them as high and low before popping them as after). Just a thought. Surprised it wasn’t mentioned. Still a great video!



  2. cynical cenobia on May 31, 2022 at 10:03 pm

    Your pronunciation of the names of Hungary’s best scientists needs some serious work – it’s like you weren’t even trying. Which in itself is fine, they are hard, but within the context of a video that is meant to be educational…pretty poor effort.



  3. Cheryl Campbell on May 31, 2022 at 10:06 pm

    I’m a big fan of Dr. Pauling. Interesting side anecdote: in 1963-4, when i was a kid, our Mom would megadose us with Vitamin C to help clear up poison oak, which was rampant in the woods around our house. Our faithful daily dose was 250mg, but those times with poison oak, it was 1,500-2,000. I really do think it helped. I have a vague memory that she did this because of Dr. Pauling’s work. We lived in the Portland area, which is where Dr. Pauling was based, so it could’ve been a local news item. He was a cool guy, definitely.



  4. Lachlan Doig on May 31, 2022 at 10:07 pm

    I love the shout out to Dear Hank and John.
    Lacroix boix for life



  5. Phosphorus4 on May 31, 2022 at 10:07 pm

    That Mary looks like princess Lea…
    …healing touch eh?…



  6. Gensan Living on May 31, 2022 at 10:07 pm

    Sweet potato in chicken noodle soup? Why?? I’ve never heard of this before, sounds gross 🤢 lol



  7. justcogitating on May 31, 2022 at 10:08 pm

    I wish they would have John host again at least occasionally.



  8. Muꭥn on May 31, 2022 at 10:10 pm

    would have liked more science/evidence behind the crystal declaimer. i hate the woowoo and understand the placebo effect is very real especially regarding stones but this vid wont sway anyone who already believes in it. would have been nice to here scientifically how stones don’t emanate energy or how it hasnt been shown that our body regeisters or absorbs any from them. to as stone enthusiast this is just some internet guy saying it doesnt work. i wouldnt be persuaded personally



  9. Stephen Miles on May 31, 2022 at 10:11 pm

    I’m on several medicines that tend to make one thirsty – I average more like 4 liters of water (7 fills of my 20oz Contigo) just in water alone every day.



  10. omitted on May 31, 2022 at 10:12 pm

    It’s not a misconception that Justin is a fine male specimen 😍



  11. Elizabeth Athineu on May 31, 2022 at 10:13 pm

    La Croix sucks, long live Waterloo, Aha, and Good & Gather! But seriously, people’s perceptions of vitamins and minerals are often very, VERY wrong.



  12. Chic Style and a Winning Smile on May 31, 2022 at 10:13 pm

    Great upload, thanks for sharing! Stay healthy and safe! 👍😊🍓



  13. helmeteye on May 31, 2022 at 10:14 pm

    Is the knuckle crack suppose to be as contagious as a yawn?



  14. helmeteye on May 31, 2022 at 10:16 pm

    I never heard that vitamin C prevents a cold. I always heard that it was good for a cold to get rid of it.



  15. Cory M on May 31, 2022 at 10:16 pm

    I drink nowhere near that much and an perfectly healthy. Maybe 1-2 cups of liquid per day. Drink when you are thirsty and you’ll be fine.



  16. Clay Soggyfries on May 31, 2022 at 10:18 pm

    We can thank TikTok for why chicks are obsessed with colorful rocks



  17. Don Gorday III on May 31, 2022 at 10:18 pm

    In studies I have read I have found that the placebo effect is pretty awesome. It works even if you know it is a placebo. It works better if the placebo is an injection rather than a sugar pill. It also works better if the person administering the placebo is dressed like a medical professional.



  18. Mojos Bigstick on May 31, 2022 at 10:19 pm

    Pliny rhymes with skinny.



  19. Ritchie Henshaw on May 31, 2022 at 10:20 pm

    No need for the gender-specific pronouns when discussing someone believing in crystals.



  20. Drewbert on May 31, 2022 at 10:21 pm

    Oh geez. Linus Pauling’s quackery. Guys, come on, get some context and fact-checkers. Lots of citation required in this vid. Better hope Miles Power doesn’t come for you.



  21. Dave Stambaugh on May 31, 2022 at 10:22 pm

    Humans beings come in a lot of sizes. The average adult is one hundred and ninety five pounds. The amounts of water needed depends on what size you are. What i go by is an half ounce of water for every pound of weight.



  22. neil5280 on May 31, 2022 at 10:23 pm

    Captions have a nice extra commentary on Vitamins fast tracking you to Nobel prizes.



  23. What You Need To Know on May 31, 2022 at 10:24 pm

    Hi. We made this video https://youtu.be/UgizCwaeFZs about Wellness and thought you and your viewers might find it interesting. Please leave a comment if you like, and feel free to share the link.



  24. 122172639 on May 31, 2022 at 10:24 pm

    Rant ahead, warning given!
    Linus Pauling is someone I still have to undo the work of as a healthcare professional… people don’t point out that it can increase your chance of heart attack taken in high dose supplement form-it draws iron into your bloodstream from muscle tissue both weakening the muscle tissue and flooding your blood vessels with iron, you know, the reason heavy red meat eating guys and women who don’t lose blood from menstrual cycles are often, if they aren’t eating the red meat for an iron deficiency, are told they should consider donating blood to flush out the excess… Sending that iron from muscle tissue into the bloodstream as it is leeched in by ascorbic acid… ugh… just… eat a freaking orange. Stop taking forms you can’t digest, already, people… MOST vitamins can NOT be digested when taken in multivitamin form-too many competing chemicals that cancel one another out (and if there’s calcium in there, it will impede the digestion of them anyway) and you shouldn’t be taxing your kidneys and bladder, anyway, with things that your body isn’t using, your very costly urine. Take what you NEED and actually can’t get sufficient amounts of (or what your medications lower levels of, etc)-something only complete bloodwork with specific tests will tell you properly. Also know what -forms- to take (ie for iron, carbonyl iron is much more easy on the GI tract and absorbs better-pharmacological studies have been done on pretty much ALL necessary vitamins). For calcium, calcium citrate absorbs better but nothing beats food-and EVEN with citrate, you’ll only generally absorb a small percentage of it, under 25% the concensus among research I’ve read, 15% kind of the upper number for people deficient in calcium or who need extra (ie women, elders, kiddos who cannot get it from food because of allergies etc) so it has to be taken 5-6x a day if relying on it for over half your daily amount… Folic acid is one that pregnant women should absolutely take along with people taking many prescriptions (many seizure medicines I have to prescribe patients interfere with absorption of it so those people have to take an extra milligram-a prescription dose-a day; methotrexate used in conjunction with arthritis/lupus and other medications or even as a monotherapy OR as part of a chemo regimen causes horrible nausea for many, and folic acid, up to 5mg a day depending on the MTX dose, can alleviate much of the nausea that lasts beyond the first day after taking -you can’t take them the same day or neither will work!)-I’ll leave at that and just say the obvious: this is the tip of a giant iceberg people crash into repeatedly only getting help after their boat is sinking a thousand kilometers from land. People don’t naturally know these things, which is why we ask about ALL SUPPLEMENTS and good docs ask about your diet in detail… that said, I had to SEEK OUT information even in med school-about the most basic thing, the stuff people are putting in their bodies. I took pharmacology courses all five years, two specifically for people studying to become pharmacists-those two were about interactions (many things block absorption of nutrients, and many nutrients only absorb if consumed WITH other things-hence whole foods being THE way to get nutrients, NOT pills that are hard to absorb because the body doesn’t even see most forms of supplements as nutrients-after all, if they’re grinding copper pipes for the ‘copper’ in your Centrum and grinding rocks or clam shells, etc. for others (if it says calcium carbonate chances are it came from seafood processing factories-their waste is bought at prices barely higher than the cost to dispose of them and those clam/scallop/oyster shells, things we cannot digest but which impair our digestion instead and often cause constipation in high doses like with TUMS-even causing osteoporosis long-term from nutrient deficiencies… yeah, your centrum is recycled scrap metal, food waste, and lab-made/isolated components, and it’s worse than snake oil because they’ve become so normalized people trust that the government must have ever checked them…
    I would’ve stripped that a’hole’s prize from him for the number of healthy 20-somethings I had to, while in med school, witness and help when coming in with tight chests, trouble breathing, and indeed cardiac arrest… because they emergen-C’d their way to the ER over and over (the worst cases WERE bodybuilders who ate a lot of lean meat and women taking birth control pills or iron supplements because they had ample iron to flood their blood vessels and clog them up thanks to ascorbic acid). A little goes a long way in the case of Vit. C… and a lot goes 6 feet underground. It’s exhausting teaching this to classes, but I teach nutrition courses FOR health professionals (along with the majority of my students, the aspiring ones-MD/nurse/dentist/hygienist candidates) because once I was asked to teach it since it’s a huge part of my work [you wouldn’t think neurology would pair well with it, but the brain does dictate how things are handled everywhere else] I couldn’t let all of these people go through the course without being properly terrified of the misinformation that is purely a product of a zero-oversight, zero-regulation (besides the "The FDA has not evaluated these statements and does not endorse this product" tiny tiny print) money-grubbing industry.

    /rant … sorry MF for taking over this box of space. At least it hides most of it by default!



  25. Victoria on May 31, 2022 at 10:24 pm

    I just noticed that the way his mouth moves when he talks looks a lot like Donald Trump when he talks.. I can’t unsee it🙈



  26. Cassie Oz on May 31, 2022 at 10:25 pm

    How did any of us old folks survive before the compulsion to carry a water bottle and chug water constantly?



  27. Dorrit on May 31, 2022 at 10:27 pm

    I drink around 6 litres…



  28. Clay Soggyfries on May 31, 2022 at 10:28 pm

    My mental health is so ass



  29. Elizabeth on May 31, 2022 at 10:31 pm

    I used to believe Herpes can’t be cured, just as the other doctor’s told me, until I met Dr Ado on YouTube and got completely cured from 2years Genetials herpes in just 10days.



  30. Francois Botha on May 31, 2022 at 10:32 pm

    Another one: "sugar gives you a sugar rush" is a myth. Thanks, Aaron Carroll.



  31. The Internet Peasant on May 31, 2022 at 10:33 pm

    As for the Virgin Mary and healing touch, you should do a little research into th springs of Lourdes, France. Some legit medical miracles have occurred regarding them that are well outside the bounds of the placebo effect, and that are regularly examined by doctors and scientists, who can’t explain many of them. No shit. Check it out.



  32. DoomRater on May 31, 2022 at 10:34 pm

    Mental Floss: Opens with the water fallacy
    Alan Thrall: Hold my 5 GALLON DRUM OF WATER, please



  33. J LA on May 31, 2022 at 10:34 pm

    Thanks for this. I get SOOO irritated by 95% of the constant bombardment of "health" bullshit. Drink when you are thirsty, eat a variety of foods, (less processed the better) get exercise and watch your portions. Simple, and easy. Meat is fine vegans, SHUT UP! If you want to be vegan, whatever, but it’s one of the most over-used words in the US and also complete bullshit. You feel better now that your vegan?? That’s funny, cuz I heard the same testimonials from every person who tried the Atkins diet. Eat what you want, just watch portions try to include a variety of foods and be mindful of where your all of your food comes from.



  34. jliller on May 31, 2022 at 10:39 pm

    I drink copious amounts of water because I’m frequently thirsty.



  35. Brandon Kennedy on May 31, 2022 at 10:40 pm

    What about the legitimacy of cleanses? Isn’t that like what your liver and kidneys are for?



  36. Chris G on May 31, 2022 at 10:40 pm

    Great show, Justin!



  37. Jessica Richmond on May 31, 2022 at 10:41 pm

    I just want the small little clip about crystals and I want to show it to every annoying girl on Facebook who is praying with a stone instead of going to a doctor.



  38. YeeSoest on May 31, 2022 at 10:46 pm

    06:15 Bro, did you bump your head sneezing? You should have the bump or lump on your forehead checked out when your cold is over!!



  39. Eric Taylor on May 31, 2022 at 10:47 pm

    12:10 Wait, is he talking about focusing the sun’s rays with a magnifying glass?



  40. Thomas PC on May 31, 2022 at 10:48 pm

    I get about my 8 glasses of water whenever I mow my Texas lawn in the summer. You sure go through a lot of water doing that.



  41. seatbelttruck on May 31, 2022 at 10:48 pm

    I always figured the chicken soup thing was just because it was easy to digest and has a pretty good variety of nutrients to keep you going even if you’re feeling to lousy to eat much of anything.



  42. alhypo on May 31, 2022 at 10:49 pm

    It’s not like I’d be able to stop cracking my knuckles even if I knew it was bad.

    And about grip strength… I went to physical therapy after getting surgery to fix my broken distal radius. The therapist would measure my grip strength each time. I only ever got back to about 80% of the strength compared to my uninjured hand. But that was still 300% of the therapist’s grip strength and she didn’t have any hand injury. So it’s all relative. Unless your grip is too weak to hold on to the things you need to hold, it probably doesn’t matter if you have slightly weakened hands from knuckle cracking.



  43. Qui Quae Quod on May 31, 2022 at 10:50 pm

    It’s harder to take these videos seriously without the bathtub.



  44. TJ Wash on May 31, 2022 at 10:50 pm

    John Green always spoke so fast you had to really pay attention and kept his info concise. This guy is talking so slow that my mind wandered and 3.5 minutes in when he was still rambling about water I just gave up and stopped watching. Nothing against him personally, just the format and the script.



  45. Jacquelyn Smith on May 31, 2022 at 10:51 pm

    I’m a fan of SOME alternative medicine, such as herbal remedies. A lot of modern western medicine was derived from plants, such as aspirin and some antiseptics. The chemical compounds in medicinal plants are fascinating!



  46. J.R. Caldoon on May 31, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    Linus Pauling and Henry Heimlich are two of the best examples of respected scientists who ended up going just a _bit_ off the rails later in their careers.



  47. Dewayne Gunter on May 31, 2022 at 10:56 pm

    Stop joint damage now, remove the stems 😀



  48. Theron Gilliland, Jr. on May 31, 2022 at 10:59 pm

    What the heck do you weirdos put in your chicken noodle soup?! 🤨



  49. YeeSoest on May 31, 2022 at 11:01 pm

    Of course caffeine isn’t dehydrating, how could all the extreme sports activities be sponsored by RedBull, Rockstar and Monster if they weren’t truly helpful and contributing factors for the great performances of these athletes who drink nothing else, ever? 😉



  50. Alexis Durand on May 31, 2022 at 11:02 pm

    aaaaah drinking sounds #misophonia