Cause for worry?

I was talking to my dad over the phone just now and he mentioned something which I found to be quite disturbing - disturbing because this is the first I've heard about it, and also because many people in this country, including myself occasionally, use it. The worrying news has to do with mouthwash.

Do you use it?

If you use Listerine, Plax, or any other mouthwash that contains alcohol there is a potentially higher risk of you developing oral cancer. Yes, you read that right - using those brightly-coloured, minty (or citrusy, take your pick) flavoured liquids may lead to cancer. I was rather skeptical when my Dad talked about it, so I looked it up and true enough, there have been reports about such a claim. The Australian Dental Association had apparently published a paper concerning the use of mouthwashes and this was what was said:

"There is now sufficient evidence to accept the proposition that developing oral cancer is increased or contributed to by the use of alcohol-containing mouthwashes."

You can read more about it in this article from the Daily Telegraph, an Australian newspaper, which was published way back in January 2009. The actual paper may be read here if you're interested.

Having said that however, a supposedly comprehensive study along the same lines published in the Journal of the American Dental Association (ADA) in 2003 claims that there is no link between alcohol-based mouthwashes and oral cancer. The ADA even recommends that such mouthwashes be used as part of your oral hygiene regimen.

Conflicting conclusions means nothing is conclusive yet. So, the ball's in our park - do we err on the side of caution, or not?

Emergency Aids

Life can be pretty challenging sometimes. It's already tough enough without having to endure the many trivial physical discomforts below. How many of these have you experienced before?

• Difficulty in hearing a conversation
• A painful injection
• Sinus problems
• Acid reflux
• Toothache
• Dizziness
• Nervous attacks
• Pins and needles
• Difficulty in remembering a speech
  

Not very serious problems, but when they do come, it can still be quite uncomfortable. But I recently read that there are simple things we could do ourselves to make dealing with these discomforts that bit more easier. And where should I find these tips? A health magazine? Some fashion magazine? No. From a magazine for owners of a certain brand of car for all things! You'd think that all you'd read from such magazines would be articles on cars, their accessories, tyres, motor oils and what nots. But, it was interesting reading. I have not tried any of the supposed 'cures' yet, so I can't verify if they really work or not. Anyway, here's what I found out:

• Hear better - Lean in using you right ear to listen to the conversation as it's better at following rapid speech patterns. However, when it comes to identifying a particular piece of music, your left ear does it better.

• No more pain - Try coughing the next time you have to be pricked with a needle. It's supposed to lessen the pain as the cough causes an abrupt, momentary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, and so reduces the pain-signalling structures of the spinal cord.

• Easier breathing - Alternate thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth and pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. It is supposed to loosen congestion and your sinuses will usually clear after about 20 seconds. Apparently this will rock the bone that runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, called the vomer bone, and so frees all the clogged pipes there.

• Stomach acid - Sleep on your left and you're less likely to suffer from acid reflux. Reason? When you sleep on your left, your stomach is lower than your esophagus, and with gravity's help, prevents your food and stomach acid from sliding up your throat.

• Pain in the tooth - Rub some ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped webbed area between your thumb and fore finger. This stimulates an area of the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands.

• Light headed - Too much drinking can make you feel all woozy. To regain your balance, put you hands on something stable. This provides tactile input to the cupula (that part of the ear that's responsible for keeping you in balance) and makes you feel more in balance.

• Stay to the rhythm - Getting anxiety attacks is not a nice feeling. Remember to blow on your thumb the next you get all nervous. Breathing can control the vagus nerve which is in charge of heart rate. Work your thumb, baby!

• Sleeping hands and feet - When those prickling sensations come, rock your head from side to side and those pins and needles will go away in less than a minute. The action loosens the neck muscles and which in turn releases all the compression of the nerves in your neck, the usual cause of those tingling sensations.

• Memory technique - Finding it hard to memorise that speech you're supposed to deliver in front of a huge crowd? Try sleeping on it. Review your speech just before you sleep and it's more likely that it will be encoded into long-trem memory, as most memory consolidation happens during sleep.

Let me know how it goes. Carol, you can use some of these preparing for that emcee job that's coming can't you?

:)

I'm too sexy for my blog...

Read through any newspaper and you're bound to be come across several full page spreads of slim women, several before-and-after photos, a celebrity or two endorsing the effectiveness of the product, some testimonials by highly-satisfied clients, not forgetting the promise of a more beautiful you. You know what I'm talking about: slimming centres.

While I have nothing against slim women (they are rather pleasant to look at...), but I sometimes wonder why there is such a pre-occupation with slimness. Sure, being slim is supposed to be synonymous with being healthy. But I suspect that's not the whole or even the main draw of being slim for the many who opt to undergo the slimming sessions to reveal the 'true, new, you'. There seems to be a strong undercurrent of negative culture that says if you're not slim, even if you're slightly on the bigger side, you're not beautiful. Anything more than a certain size, then that's not what you're meant to be, and you need to do something about it. Need I say that such an obsessive outlook of body size has spawned cases upon cases of people with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia?

The mass media doesn't help as well. How many of the so-called reality shows, showing supposedly you average person, have a bigger person as one of the participants? From the little that I've seen, I don't remember any. How about in magazines? Any advertisements showing off the beautiful curves of a person other than that of slim one? Can't recall any as well.

I know this topic is rather passe, but I think it's still relevant because we're still being fed the same images, the same ideas, day in and day out, and because of that, there'll always be the danger of the whole idea of being slim becoming an obsession - even to the point of death.

My take - no one size fits all. Health is prime, not beauty.

Here's something I wrote some time back about the topic that I'd like to share.

Ode to a Supermodel

Shall I compare thee to a supermod'l?
Thou art in truth more skinny and more vain.
How strange the manner they stride down the aisle,
And those stilettos; are they not in pain?
Sometime but a morsel is on their plate,
And often is their dress size less than eight;
And tho' fair from fair naturally decline
Thank heavens for Botox - spare not a dime;
But thy utter sticklikeness shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that gait thou hav'st;
Nor shall Health brag thy fine physical shape;
When quite plainly, thou look'st sorely listless,

So long as men will see that waif's lovely,
So long lives this - this skewed philosophy.