Left eye twitching means good fortune, right eye twitching means disaster? Minor illnesses keep coming, but major illnesses don't? Are these "common sayings" scientifically based?

In daily life, we often hear some "sayings" about health: If you want to stay healthy, keep your stomach full; if you have minor illnesses all the time, you won't get a serious illness; if your left eye twitches, you'll have good luck, but if your right eye twitches, you'll have disasters...

Many proverbs we have heard since childhood seem to have gradually become "facts" and we will follow them unconsciously and gradually develop habits. So, do they have any scientific basis and are they reliable?

If you want to stay healthy, keep your stomach empty.

Whether this statement makes sense or not depends on how you understand "always have an empty stomach". Many people think that it means to stay hungry all the time, but this is actually a misunderstanding.

On the one hand, when there is no food to absorb and digest in the stomach, gastric acid is still secreted. At this time, excessive gastric acid will damage the gastric mucosa and cause inflammation. On the other hand, frequent hunger means less food intake, which can easily cause malnutrition, especially hair loss. In addition, for some people with chronic diseases such as diabetes, it is likely to aggravate the condition and threaten life.

The real meaning of this sentence is actually to remind everyone to eat properly, not to eat too much , and to be 70% to 80% full. This way you can take in the necessary nutrients, avoid excess calories, and reduce the excessive burden on the gastrointestinal tract.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

Although this saying is a bit exaggerated, apples are rich in nutrients and eating them regularly is indeed good for your health .

Apples are rich in pectin, which can help lower bad cholesterol levels and stabilize blood sugar, thereby protecting the cardiovascular system. The anthocyanins, polyphenols, and flavonoids they contain are highly effective antioxidants that can help fight inflammation, kill bacteria, and prevent cancer. They also contain the mineral elements boron and manganese, which can strengthen bones and help prevent calcium loss.

So eating an apple every day is indeed a good habit.

Drinking soup before meals is better than taking medicine

This saying is also true. Drinking soup before meals can bring three major benefits:

Drinking some soup before meals is equivalent to adding some "lubricant" to the mouth, throat, esophagus, and stomach, which is the part of the digestive tract that makes food easier to swallow and prevents dry and hard food from irritating the digestive tract mucosa .

At the same time, a small amount of soup can stimulate the secretion of gastric acid, which is beneficial to food digestion and absorption , and greatly reduces the probability of suffering from diseases such as esophagitis.

In addition, drinking soup can enhance satiety , reduce the intake of some high-carb, high-calorie foods, and is more conducive to weight loss.

It should be noted that it is best to drink some light vegetarian soup before meals rather than long-simmered meat soup , which is high in fat and purine. Long-term drinking is actually not good for your health. It is best to drink it about 20 minutes before meals.

In addition, drinking soup before meals is not suitable for everyone . For patients with gastroesophageal reflux, drinking soup will increase the pressure in the stomach, making acid reflux and heartburn more likely to occur. For patients with severe chronic atrophic gastritis, gastric ulcers, etc., their gastric acid secretion is low, and drinking soup will dilute the gastric juice and affect digestion.

Walk a hundred steps after a meal and live to be ninety-nine

This statement makes sense, but you need to pay attention to the time. It is not that you should go out for a walk right after eating, but you should rest for 20-30 minutes before going out for a walk , otherwise it will be bad for your health.

If you take a walk right after a meal, the blood circulation of the human body will be quickly transported to other parts of the body, and the blood supply to the gastrointestinal tract will be reduced accordingly, which may cause the food not to be fully digested. For some people with poor physical constitution or even multiple diseases, it may easily induce functional indigestion.

Especially for people with coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, cerebral arteriosclerosis, hypertension, anemia, etc., walking immediately after a meal can easily lead to accidents and threaten life, so it is better to rest before going out .

Grinding teeth at night, there are worms crawling in the stomach

When I was a kid, I always heard the old people say "grinding your teeth while sleeping means you have roundworms in your stomach". In fact, there is no scientific basis for this statement . The causes of teeth grinding are very complex and are often caused by the synergy of many factors:

• When you are under great mental stress, especially when you are angry, anxious, resentful, or pessimistic, your teeth will be more severe.

• Poor tooth occlusion will prompt the human body to grind the teeth to achieve a better bite.

• Some people who take psychiatric drugs may also experience bruxism.

• Smoking, drinking alcohol and drinking large amounts of coffee can also aggravate bruxism.

Teeth grinding is not a trivial matter. Long-term teeth grinding will increase the wear of teeth and make them loose. It may also cause facial changes and even cause headaches and tinnitus... Therefore, people who have the habit of teeth grinding should seek timely intervention and treatment .

Left eye twitching means good fortune, right eye twitching means disaster

This statement has no scientific basis. The scientific name for eyelid twitching is " blepharospasm ", which is affected by two muscles: the orbital orbicularis muscle and the levator palpebrae superioris muscle.

Generally speaking, lack of sleep, excessive use of eyes, excessive caffeine intake, etc. may cause eyelid twitching.

However, this physiological eyelid twitching is often transient, short-lived, irregular, with mild symptoms and will recover on its own.

If eyelid twitching lasts for more than a week and is accompanied by blurred vision, difficulty opening the eyes, sore and red eyes, and other discomforts, it may be eyelid allergy, conjunctivitis, keratitis, etc., and you need to see a doctor promptly .

Minor illnesses continue but major illnesses do not come

Some people always think that people who often suffer from minor illnesses such as colds and headaches will not suffer from serious illnesses; but some people who seem to be very healthy are prone to serious illnesses. Is this true or false?

To some extent, this does make sense, because after getting sick, your immunity will be enhanced .

Every time we get sick, including colds and fevers, our body's immunity is activated to help us fight bacteria and viruses. Therefore, the body's "self-defense" ability will be improved, just like giving the body a "vaccine".

People who are often sick tend to pay more attention to their health than those who are less likely to be sick. They will seek medical treatment at the slightest discomfort. Relatively speaking, they will also maintain more good living habits on a daily basis, including regular physical examinations.

Not getting sick often shows that your resistance and immunity are strong, but it also has a bad side - if you don't get sick often, it is easy to form an illusion that your body is in good health and will not get sick. As a result, when something strange happens in your body, you think it is a minor illness that you can get through. This makes it easy to miss the best period for treatment, delay the disease, and even develop a serious illness.