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" Never shave above the knee or you&amp;#039;ll get super hairy thighs. Expert Consensus: BS So many of you reported being told this whopper. Where did it come from? We think mothers across the country must have banded together to posit this theory in the hopes of putting the kibosh on sex. (Maybe we&amp;#039;d stop his hand from creeping up our thigh if we thought his fingers would get entangled in fuzz.) Nice try, moms: &amp;quot;There is no science to support that your hair will grow in thicker if you shave it,&amp;quot; says Wanda Filer, MD, an American Academy of Family Physicians board member practicing in York, PA. &amp;quot;Hair growth is a function of genetics and hormones.&amp;quot; Ladies, you can safely score silky-smooth stemswithout turning into a werewolf. The best way to deal with a mean girl at work is to take her out for coffee to talk about the situation. Expert Consensus: Kinda True Even though getting cozy to the office bitch is the last thing you want to do, mom&amp;#039;s technique is actually successful 50 percent of the time, according to Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster, authors of Mean Girls at Work. To find out whether it&amp;#039;ll work for you, test the waters during a quiet moment when you find yourself alone with her in the hallway or bathroom. Say something like, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve been sensing some tension between us and I&amp;#039;d really like to clear the air.&amp;quot; If she acknowledges the weird vibe, then ask her out for coffee\u2014chances are, she&amp;#039;s jealous or threatened by you, so talking it through in a low-key atmosphere can help her chill the f*ck out. But if she claims not to know what you&amp;#039;re talking about, you&amp;#039;re out of luck. &amp;quot;In that case, don&amp;#039;t counterattack by gossiping to other coworkers about what happened,&amp;quot; Crowley urges. &amp;quot;Your best approach is to rise above it, detach yourself, and focus on your job.&amp;quot; You can&amp;#039;t get sunburned if you use tanning oil\u2014it protects you from the sun. Expert Consensus: BS Uhhh\u2026this advice is so off the mark, we&amp;#039;re speechless. &amp;quot;You can get burned and raise your risk of skin cancer and premature aging of the skin if you use tanning oil or suntan lotion with less than 15 SPF,&amp;quot; Dr. Filer confirms. Duh. Never date a guy who doesn&amp;#039;t have a good relationship with his mother. Expert Consensus: Kinda True First off, is his mother more like supermom Michelle Obama\u2026or Jenelle? &amp;quot;Men should only have a good relationship with their mom if she was a decent mother,&amp;quot; saysSeth Meyers, PhD, author of Dr. Seth&amp;#039;s Love Prescription. &amp;quot;Scores of women have kids when they&amp;#039;re not mature enough, and their connection with their sons will suffer.&amp;quot; As long as his mom is pretty great, then having a close bond with her is a sign that he values and respects women. And if she wasn&amp;#039;t exactly mother of the year material? &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s better if he has resolved major problems with her before getting involved with you,&amp;quot; Meyers notes. &amp;quot;Otherwise, watch out for anger issues that could add a lot of tension to your relationship.&amp;quot; Always clean your plate. Expert Consensus: BS &amp;quot;In general, it&amp;#039;s not necessary to finish everything,&amp;quot; says Dr. Filer. &amp;quot;What&amp;#039;s more important is to be aware of what normal portion sizes should be\u2014and many of us have lost perspective.&amp;quot; Not helping matters is the fact that portions have about doubled since your mom&amp;#039;s day, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (For example, 20 years ago bagels were three inches in diameter; today they measure six inches and have more than twice the calories.) Plus, a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that the average restaurant meal contains a staggering 1,327 calories\u2014nearing the recommended amount for an entire day. When you&amp;#039;re eating out, split an entr\u00E9e with a friend or ask for a to-go container and box up half your meal as soon as the waiter brings it out. At home, put food on your plate in the kitchen before sitting down, instead of bringing serving dishes to the table to keep you from going back for seconds or thirds you don&amp;#039;t really need. Men won&amp;#039;t buy the cow if they can get the milk for free. Expert Consensus: BS Again, moms&amp;#039; attempts at enforcing chastity come crumbling down. &amp;quot;Having sex now doesn&amp;#039;t mean what it used to\u2014that you&amp;#039;re easy or promiscuous,&amp;quot; affirms Meyers. &amp;quot;Women can have sex these days without worrying that they&amp;#039;re diminishing themselves in the eyes of men.&amp;quot; That said, sleeping with someone new can put you in a vulnerable position, so think about how you&amp;#039;ll feel before hopping between the sheets. Like, will you be upset if he didn&amp;#039;t call you afterwards? If so, it&amp;#039;s smart to hold off until you know the guy better. Don&amp;#039;t crack your knuckles or you&amp;#039;ll get arthritis. Expert Consensus: BS There is no proven association between knuckle cracking and arthritis, according to a study in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. Still, think twice before you get your pop on: Research published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases found that habitual cracking can result in swollen hands and diminished hand strength.  Using tampons can cause cancer.  Expert Consensus: BS Yeah, we couldn&amp;#039;t believe that this myth was circulating either. &amp;quot;This is a total old wives&amp;#039; tale,&amp;quot; says Rebecca Brightman, MD, ob-gyn in clinical practice in New York City. &amp;quot;Tampons do not cause cancer. The only concern about them is TSS (toxic shock syndrome), a rare infection sometimes associated with tampon use.&amp;quot; It was more common when tampons first came out\u2014in your mom&amp;#039;s day\u2014but now they&amp;#039;re are less absorbent and made of different materials, so it&amp;#039;s extremely unusual (most ob-gyns will never see a case of TSS during their career). "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/advice/a4414/words-of-wisdom/>