25 Biggest Body Myths And Why You Need To Stop Believing Them (3 of 5)

Stress is just a mental health issue

Most people think that stress is just a mental health issue. However, that is not completely true. Stress not only affects your mind but also your body. Most people think stress is something that is a very big thing or something one cannot handle. This is why when they start experiencing the symptoms like weight gain, fatigue, back pain, or insomnia, they are unable to comprehend how stress is affecting their life. Moy adds that lower stress levels every day can make you more prone to the common cold, sore throat, headaches, and chronic illnesses as well.

Depression and anxiety can only be cured with medication

While prescribed medication can be a lifesaver for a lot of people dealing with depression and anxiety, there are a number of natural things that you can do to improve your mental health. Villanueva points out that millions of people suffer from these two mental health conditions across the world, and in most cases, just finding out what is causing that anxiety can give you some sort of relief. For instance, by improving your gut health you can improve your brain health too. Multiple experts have pointed out the fact that exercise plays a crucial factor in treating mild forms of anxiety and depression.

Sex during periods won’t make you pregnant

A lot of people falsely assume that having sex during periods will help them avoid pregnancy. However, that isn’t true, and while it is difficult to get pregnant during periods, it isn’t impossible per se. Amy Stephens, an OB-GYN in Ohio points out that there is a very minuscule chance that one can get pregnant even during the periods, especially someone who has had a long history of irregular periods or someone having a shorter period cycle than average.

Periods are painful all the time

Most women believe that they will experience pain during periods no matter what and that they can do nothing about it. However, NavNirat Nibber, a naturopathic doctor points out that periods don’t necessarily have to hurt.

When your endometrial lining starts to shed, uterine contractions take place which leads to some discomfort. However, anything more than mild pain should be investigated by your doctor. A lot of the time, women come in pointing out that they take over six to seven painkillers over just a span of a couple of days of their period, points of Nibber. Such disregard for the pain can make us overlook some of the more serious underlying conditions that can often end up getting worse with time and can impact fertility. There are a lot of reasons for painful periods, some of which include PCOS, STIs, and endometriosis.

Your food habits have nothing to do with the quality of your skin

Just a small walk around the beauty aisle is more than enough to realize that there are at least a dozen products for each of the issues we might think we have. While you may be lured into buying dozens of health improvement bottles, trying some on yourself does not mean that you will see your skin glowing the very next day – or rather, ever. Instead, the very first step you should take is to figure out the underlying cause for your poor skin quality and then work your way out.

Often, people invest hundreds of dollars into getting their acne fixed, only to get slight improvements before it comes back again, Nibber adds. She also points out that it is very important to take care of your gut health, which plays a major role in how good your skin looks.