Top 10 Turkmen Health Beliefs

1. Spinach raises your blood pressure (sometimes causes high blood pressure).
2. Drinking water makes you fat.
3. Consuming cold liquids and solids will cause a cold or cough (so will cold wind from your window, or a fan blowing on you while you sleep).
4. The wind makes you feel bad (emotionally) and as a consequence raises your blood pressure.
5. Apples contain a lot of iron and will cure anemia.
6. A meal that doesn’t contain a large amount of animal fat is unhealthy.
7. Anything made with flour will make you fat and raise your blood pressure (yet, nearly every meal is made with flour, bread is the #1 staple of the Turkmen diet)
8. Praying Mantes will eat your warts to make them disappear.
9. Putting bread under your pillow wards off bad dreams.
10. Injections/shots work better than tablets.