Yes, you can swim right after you eat. No, you shouldn’t pee on jellyfish stings to stop the pain.

Fake health information is all around us, borne from health gurus on the internet, long-held beliefs, or even information once believed by doctors that turned out to be untrue. With the constant evolution of healthcare research, doctors are often combating both old and new medical myths with patients over and over again. “Social media is definitely a breeding ground for misinformation,” says Dr. Douglas Paauw, physician at the General Internal Medicine and Virology clinics at UW Medical Center-Roosevelt.

How do medical myths become so pervasive in the first place? Most people are simply trying to figure out how to stop their pain, says Dr. Peter Olson, physician leader with Swedish Medical Group. And when your health is on the line, turning to the internet for hope may feel like the best option. “They’re just really searching for answers to feel better,” says Olson. “When you understand that, that’s the core reason for them seeking out these potential alternative treatments, I think it gives you a lot more context and ability to work with them to try to solve their symptoms.”

Vaccine disbelief

By far, one of the most common medical myths facing doctors and patients is a distrust in vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy and disbelief has long been a popular frame of thinking, only fueled in recent years by the rise of Covid-19 and the vaccines to fight it, says Paauw. One study of 600 adults in Florida found that, among previously vaccinated adults, 49% of respondents believe that Covid-19 vaccines contain a live strain of the virus, and roughly 40% believe that vaccines can cause you to become sick with the virus.

Even before the pandemic, misconceptions that vaccines cause autism and can make you sick have long been circulating. “I think one super common one is that people believe they can get the flu from the flu vaccine,” says Paauw. “Really the only reaction is, when a person gets a flu vaccine, they’re going to have a little bit of pain at the site, because there’s a little bit of an inflammatory reaction there.”

For a long time, both patients and doctors believed that the flu vaccine couldn’t be given to those with egg allergies, says Paauw. Many flu vaccines are “grown in eggs,” and it was once thought that giving that egg protein to someone in the form of a vaccine would cause an allergic reaction. However, studies over the past two decades have proven that to be untrue, he says. “Trying to help people unlearn takes a lot of explaining,” says Paauw. “We find the same thing with doctors – even when some doctors know it, they’re scared to change, because they say they might get sued.”

Natural always means safe

Just because a piece of fruit has a sticker on it labeled “organic” doesn’t mean it’s actually any better for you than the bargain bin produce.

The idea that things labeled natural — whether it be organic foods, raw milk and dairy products, or supplements — are better for you has been a hot topic among social media wellness influencers for years. “There’s a movement and a cultural craving for things that are more grounded in nature, and I think that can make us biased to labeling,” says Dr. Raj Sundar, family medicine physician at the Kaiser Permanente Burien Medical Center.

However, the concept that something natural can’t hurt us is a lie, says Sundar: If it’s strong enough to have an effect, then it’s strong enough to have a negative side effect. This rings especially true for taking supplements. Sundar notes that some studies have shown high levels of contamination in herbal medicines and supplements, “meaning their chemical composition wasn’t exactly what they said it is.”

And as it stands, this industry is entirely unregulated by the FDA, meaning that supplements companies don’t have to abide by the rigorous standards that regular pharmaceuticals face. Because of this, supplements are “a black box,” says Olson. “We do not know. So when someone says ‘it’s natural, it can’t hurt me,’ that’s not factual.”

It’s just a stuffy nose

Do you get searing headaches and blame it on the weather? Turns out, your sinuses aren’t the problem, says Paauw.

Commonly, migraine variants are mistaken for recurrent sinus headaches, Paauw says, with many claiming they get sinus headaches several times a year. Because of this, many treat their migraines as they would a sinus infection: using antibiotics and decongestants that don’t actually work. In one study looking at 3,000 patients claiming they had sinus headache, 88% of them met migraine criteria.

“There’s a variant of a migraine headache that makes people feel they have a sinus headache,” says Paauw. “It can cause pain in the maxillary area (next to the nose and eyes) and on the forehead, both sides. It’s very uncomfortable.” Then, whatever treatments for sinus infections they’re taking, they feel better after a few days, and attribute their healing to the wrong treatments. In reality, the only thing that healed their migraine was time.

You can sleep when you’re dead

If you are a night owl with an early-morning job, you should probably consider going to bed earlier, says Sundar. Catching up on sleep is actually far more difficult than one would expect.

People can quickly accumulate “sleep debt” that is hard to get rid of, says Sundar. Though people think the weekends are meant for sleeping and resting, our bodies are also clocks that need sleep regularity. That means sleeping 5 hours a night during the week won’t be paid off by 12 hours a night on the weekend. In fact, Sundar says, it can take approximately four days to recover from just one hour of sleep debt. And good sleep is vital to our health: A lack of sleep has been linked to decreased metabolic health, weak immune systems, a risk of heart disease, and worsening mental health.

“We’re noticing how important it is for your health in so many ways,” says Sundar. “It’s more important to go to bed a little bit earlier so you’re getting more sleep every day, rather than catching up for two hours on Saturday and two hours on Sunday.”

How to avoid falling for medical myths

With how easy it is for information to spread in the age of social media, most people have believed a medical myth at least once — especially if they are simply searching for a way to feel better.

But the question to always ask yourself when encountering medical information on the internet or in the media is: Who is doing the talking, says Olson. For example, if an influencer on TikTok is trying to sell you magnesium supplements, they may spin up information about the substance’s benefits for sleep and stress.

The next step is to look at the opposing viewpoint. Researching why people don’t believe vaccines are safe or why they trust raw milk is vital in understanding what people may be scared of. “I think it’s informative for me to discuss that with my patients — it gives you the contrary viewpoint, to find out where there’s holes in your thinking.”

But if you are hunting for a fix for something that’s hindering your health, the first line of defense should always be your doctor. When approached by a patient who believes medical misconceptions, “listening is the first step,” says Sundar. “Talking to your doctor is a good step, because first is understanding what it is that you’re trying to solve for your health or mental health, understand what tools are available for you, and trying the tools that have been tested,” Sundar says.