Jane Brody on Health Facts You Don’t Need to Know

Has it really been 45 years since Jane Brody started writing about health and medicine? No wonder she’s so damn good. In this piece in the New York Times, Brody boils those four and a half decades of knowledge down to eight "facts" that have spread like a virus through popular culture, and are, in fact, not facts at all. Here are the five faves of Geezer, who is never in danger of being mislead, because he can never remember anyone’s advice long enough to follow it.
1. Don’t swim after eating.
2. Take painkillers only for serious pain.
3. Natural is safer than man-made.
4. Drink eight glasses of water a day.
5. Use cotton swabs to clean your ears.
Read more about these widespread misconceptions, and others, at the New York Times.