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Comment by hawski | Hacker News Reader

With every similar news I feel dumb. Because my parents and my grandparents used to say same things. It was easy to dismiss all the advice as grumbling, but I really should refresh air before sleeping, humidify air in heating season, eat more vegetables... etc. etc.

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Not all of it was correct. My parents' generation "learned" to avoid eating fats to not become overweight. My grandmother knew that you shouldn't eat fresh bread before it cooled down (unhealthy or so).

We researched the latter recently and found out, that this idea was spread after the war so that the children would not eat too much of the freshly baken bread, because it tasted better. No health implications at all.

The problem is that parental figures previously based such general information on gut feelings, personal anecdotes and old wives tales. A lot of what parents say can be correct, but when there is a lack of information to fill the gaps to a childs understandable inquisitiveness it's filled with ignorance or scorn by the parents that are going through the motions who have no answer. It's an interesting dynamic with the resources available for information to the general public that it will be the children that can quash misconceptions perpetuated by parents. We all, including future generations, will become better parents for it.

I agree, but at the same time I feel that we are losing some of this common folk knowledge. It is strange, because we are in this information age, however it's full of noise. I'm not saying that it's bad to know how things are extensively with scientific rigor. It's good, but we are sometimes throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

My parents had limited vocabulary, but in a way they meant the same thing. Stale air (a hopefully faithful translation from my language) can have many meanings, but in context it means air with high CO2 concentration. I'm wondering how much of this is also the disconnect caused by fast technological progress and evolving language with it.

I thought the same. Rearing a newborn recently, I find that much of the parental/pre-parental advice works well. However, I just now realized, they probably actually understood the problems. But since only the advised actions stuck in my mind, without the problem analysis, I came to think they would act on gut feelings. I think this is sort of a child/grandchild bias.

This leaves aside parental scorn/ignorance as you describe it. Sounds like stressed-out parents, if I may say so. However, I don't know how future generations will get better at it, only that you may get better at it.

Drinking cold drinks in winter makes you cough.

Interesting, do you have an explanation for this?

Not the parent, but cold temperatures in the face/throat increase mucus production to protect your membranes, and excess mucus in the respiratory system will need be coughed up.

Of course it varies greatly depending on the person, temperature, state of immune system, humidity, etc.

But it's just the opposite of hot tea helping you cough less.

well it would have helped if they explained it or knew why. they just “felt” those things. if I knew it’s because co2 was building up and it can make you dizzy, i’d open the window

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