Well Dr Bob has been very late with his December issue while he roots through the Christmas issues of the medical journals looking for stories to amuse and I hope enlighten you a little. 

 One that caught my eye  was an article on medial myths in the British Medical Journal (1).  While even the intelligent layman might not believe that hair and nails grow after death the canard that everyone should be drinking 8 glasses of water per day has become widespread.  This has been repeated widely in both the press and by the purveyors of bottled water and ‘sports drinks’.  Search for scientific evidence for this by unavailing but they did find  a 1945 recommendation that 2.5 litres of water was required by the ‘average’ person (presumably with in ‘average’ temperature, humidity and physical exertion) but the sentence continued with the  statement that most of this was contained in the food of a normal diet!  Drinking like breathing is best left to the prompting of the body- drink when you are thirsty especially when there is beer of offer!  Drinking because you are told to, particlualry during exercise or because it is fashionable leads to hyponatraemia collapse and possible death(2).

A reader has provided the following interesting little contribution and suggested that maybe smoking might not be so bad for you. Dr Bob may be a little of an iconoclast but he’s not going to start endorsing tobacco.   All he can say is that he notes that it is American doctors and to wonder if there might be money involved?  From what I can recall from the dim and distant past Camels are pretty disgusting I’d stick with the Capstan full strength.

So Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!