Mind Over Emotions

You should not swallow a gum. It’s indigestible. It will stay long in your stomach.

Everyone had surely heard about this fair-seeming claim about chewing gum. That’s exactly what my parents told me when I was a kid. Since then, I kept that fallacy in mind. Every time, I chew a gum, I am very careful not to swallow it though I was not so sure what would really happen to me if I did.

Now, that “swallowed gum” thingy seems to be just like an old wives’ tale to me.

There’s nothing to support that rumor. No matter how sticky chewing gum might appear, once it’s sent down the digestive system, it would surely be eliminated as human waste in the same way as other swallowed matter. Although gum resists the body’s efforts to break it down, it does not linger in the stomach. Chewing gum is quickly worked into an unchanging mass in the mouth that, unlike other food stuffs, barely gets smaller no matter how hard or how long we chew it. Its resistance to being broken down by the teeth works to support the ideal notion that it has special properties which allows it to lurk in the digestive system.

And it’s not food. About 15% to 30% of it is gum base, a natural or synthetic indigestible rubbery substance that makes the treat resilient to hours of jawing. Vegetable-oil derivatives can be added to keep gum soft. Glycerin maintains moistness. Sorbitol and mannitol add sweetness to sugarless gums and mannitol is often used to dust the gum, along with starch. Artificial and natural flavorings, colorings, preservatives, sugar, saccharin or corn syrup can also be added.

Rat urine is poisonous to humans. This statement is not entirely true, not entirely false either.

Are you one of those people to have read in their email few years ago, stating that certain people have fallen ill and eventually died just days after coming into contact with contaminated soda cans? The cans were claimed to be smeared with dried rat urine.

Did you know that the verity of these stories was being questioned? Why? How come that the victims’ names were left unmentioned? Those incidents were not even found in the news. Commonly, if a person dies of mysterious or intriguing causes then you can expect a media raving soon enough. That’s not to say though that rat urine stories haven’t been in the news after all.

Urine or any other kind of waste discharge from a healthy rat isn’t potentially deadly to humans. From a sick rat, however, it’s a whole different thing.

Leptospirosis, also known as Weil’s disease, is a hidden destructive illness brought by bacteria found in sick rat’s waste as well as on frog, rabbit, and snake’s waste. It can be acquired by ingesting, swimming, or splashing in contaminated water. That is why you should never play in the rain where the streets are flooded, especially in areas where parasite infestations are high. More prone to this disease are those with open cuts and wounds.

 

It is therefore, advisable to wash or wipe soda cans (so as glass, plates, and other utensils) before using them. It’s not just rat urine that causes danger to us but also from other disease-carrying species, including humans came into contact with it long before you did.

 

Source: http://www.snopes.com/toxins/raturine.htm

 

If you’ve ever tried killing a cockroach, then you know what it means to be frustrated.

Not only are the creepy, disgusting, disease-carrying critters quick and dodgy, they’re pretty sturdy and unyielding as well. Not even cutting off their heads will do any good at least, not for about another month.

If a human head is to be severed, the poor victim will instantly bleed t death. Not so with cockroaches since they are built very differently. They do not have the same degree of blood pressure as we do. So if their heads were cut off, they wouldn’t have to worry about their blood oozing and their bodies drying up. Neither do they require their heads to breathe. Cockroaches have what are called spiracles, a cluster of tiny holes found on their sides. These holes lead to thin branching tubes, which then carry oxygen to the rest of the insect’s anatomy.

 

What use are their heads then? that’s where the eyes, mouth, and antennae are attached. Without its head, a cockroach can’t see, eat, smell, and drink. Without its head, it definitely won’t bleed to death nor suffocate, but after a few weeks, it will eventually give in to starvation or dehydration.

 

sources: Reader’s Digest, August 2003

http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/noflash/roaches/pg00214.html

->Tongue brushing is more of an option than a necessity.

 

We don’t necessarily brush our teeth to remove germs but to break up the plaque that forms in our mouth. It’s the same reason why we should also brush our tongue —- to remove stuck particles that cause odor.

The tongue’s anterior portion does self-cleansing (many tongue movements enable the anterior portion to firmly brush itself against the hard palate,thus, performing a cleansing action) and so, it prevents getting huge numbers of odor-producing germs.

On the other hand, the posterior aspect of the tongue is found to keep the bacteria that cause bad breathe because it only rub itself against the soft palate. This soft palate contact does not provide motion to create or do any significant cleansing. So, the posterior tongue is the most important area to clean.

How to clean your tongue effectively? Brush as from near the throat as possible in an outward motion. Be sure not to press too hard (you don’t want to damage your tongue, do you?). For even better results, try wetting the brush with a mouthwash. Also, use a toothbrush with soft bristles and one that minimizes gagging reflex.

 

source: http://hjm.cjb.net