New Report : Burning Incense Increases Risk of Respiratory Tract Cancer

Burning incense has been used as a part of religious ceremony for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, and persists until today. Incense is widely used in Asia region, yoga and Zen practitioner in west, and some Christian monastery in Europe. Because it is used as a part of ceremony itself, no one has ever questioned its benefits, and its risk.

CANCER, a journal of the American Cancer Society, on their Oct 2008 issue that long term use of incense increases the risk of developing cancers of the respiratory tract. They reported that the duration and intensity of incense use were associated with an increased risk of squamous cell carcinomas in the entire respiratory tract, and specially on upper respiratory tract.

Earlier studies shows that burning incense—which is made of plant materials mixed with oils—produces a mixture of possible carcinogens, including polyaromatic hydrocarbons, carbonyls and benzene. In a research held in Taiwan on 2001, it has been proved that burning incense will result to slow accumulation of potential carcinogen on spot, specially if it's burned in poorly ventilated area. Carcinogenic chemical agent accumulated on its smoke and inhaled by its users, so researchers then tried to link the carcinogen accumulation to lung cancer case in incense-using population, but there was no consistent results.

But latest research involving 61,320 Singapore Chinese shows that incense use seemed to add to the increased risk of upper respiratory tract squamous cell carcinoma. They added that duration and intensity of incense use were associated with an increased risk of squamous cell carcinomas in the entire respiratory tract.

"Given the widespread and sometimes involuntary exposure to smoke of burning incense, these findings carry significant public health implications," they wrote "Besides initiatives to reduce incense smoke exposure, future studies should be undertaken to identify the least harmful types of incense," they added.

Beer : Friend And Foe

Beer has been man's best friend since we were in tender high school graduate, and has accompanied us at bar, lounge, party, even at boring wedding party. But for many of us who entered third decades of age, it becomes worst foe because it awarded us with annoying big accessories : beer-bellies.

In my first year at third decades, I've already got a quite charming-beer belly, and I had to change my trouser size twice in last 4 years! It's a shame to see my full-rounded belly, while watching Michael Phelps swimming fast like a shark with excellent body. I doubt that he loved beer like I do.

Wait. Did my beer-belly really grown ONLY by beer? I surfed in internet and found this article in askmen.com. Yes, beer contains high calories that enough to boost our waistline size bigger than your erection, but it's not the only factor leading to our beer-belly problem. There are so many factors, ie high calories consumption from food, gender( male body tend to store extra fat around waist, while female body tend to store it on hips, thighs and buttocks ), declining metabolism rate ( usually after age 35 ), and lack of sport/activity. So, it's not fair to blame your extended waistline size only to beer.

Okay, and how about beer's benefit to our health? Surprisingly some old time beer have significant benefit to our health. Old time / traditional beer usually fermented with Lactobacillus bacteria, like what you found in yogurt fermentation, which encouraged the growth of good bacteria. And most of the beers were made from raw sprouted grains, which increases their nutritive content big time. Result : traditional beer contains significant amount of Vitamin C, Vitamin B, enzymes, mineral, ion, and useful bacteria that support our digestion process. Although traditional beer also contains alcohol, but the alcohol percentage tended to be lower than modern day beer.

But how about our modern day brewed beer? Unfortunately we can not compare traditional beer's benefit to modern beer's benefit. Unlike traditional beer, modern beer commonly made by yeast fermentation, which produces lower nutritional content. And most of mass-produced modern beer usually Pasteurized, make it lost all the bacteria and other living inhabitant, including the useful bacteria.

It's too bad that most of beer displayed at store are modern mass-produced beer with lower nutritional benefit than traditional one. Beer have been accompanied human being from earlier civilization ( it is said that Egyptians has produced beer since 4000 years ago ) and it's pity to see how beer has lost its value in modern civilization. Due to this consideration, I've got to decrease my consumption and trying to get rid on sport activity. I've already devastated to write this posting, so let's go to my bar...

8 Tips To Avoid Halitosis

Get good-looking awesome face? That's good.
Have plenty of money? Chicks will love it.
Have halitosis problem? Pity on you.

Many people are aware of HIV/AIDS, bird flu, anthrax, and other fraightening disease plague, but did anyone aware of halitosis plague? It won't kill you, but it will destroying your confidence and kill your chance to date some hot chicks.

So, what should I do to avoid halitosis? Just try this:

1.Don't forget to clean your tongue
Yes, halitosis could be originated from food deposit on your teeth cavity, but only few people aware that MOST of halitosis case originated from food deposit on your posterior part of tongue. So, don't forget to clean your tongue! You can clean your tongue with tongue scraper.

2.Avoid smoking
Smoking kill us, everybody knows that. Smoke odor in mouth triggers halitosis. So, why should we keep on smoking?

3.Chewing gum
Dry mouth is good habitat for halitosis-triggering bacterias. Chewing gum will induce our mouth to produce more saliva, which will kill that bad mouth bacterias. But don't pick sugar coated chewing gum, since it will trigger bacteria population. Instead of sugar coated chewing gum, choose xylitol coated one, or anti odor chemical contained chewing gum.

4.Try natural remedies
Fennel seed, cinnamon sticks, and fresh parsley have been proven as anti-halitosis natural remedies. Throw your cigarette, and choose natural remedies, right now!

5.Drink water
Too simple? Yes, avoiding halitosis is quite simple. Just drink more water, and bad mouth bacteria will eliminated.

6.Gargling mouthwashes
Gargling mouthwashes before night sleep is good for maintaining oral hygiene. You can also gargling mouthwashes in daytime, but the effect is shorter than doing it in night.

7.Go to dentist
Teeth cavity is save-heaven for food deposit and their good companion, the bad mouth bacteria. Go to your dentist and have your teeth corrected!

8Find out other possible cause
If 7 tips above failed, find other causing disease. Even the percentage is rare, sometimes diabetes mellitus, liver failure, and some metabolc dysfunction triggers halitosis.

Have you eliminated your halitosis yet? If the answer is "yes", congratulation, now you're ready to dating some hot chicks!

Giro Sponge, A New Design For Kid's Toothbrush (Maybe For You Too)

I've got small problem.
My small nephew hate toothbrushing, especially when it's already his bed time and he is sleepy. My sister always had to argue with her little son every night, and I'm getting sick for watching it. So I surfed the net, and found this interesting toothbrush.

It's started by a industrial designer from Brazil called Fabio Dabori. He was challenged to create a new kid's toothbrush design, and here is his result. The concept named as Giro Sponge, is electric battery powered toothbrush, and he replace the brush with specially designed and engineered bristles. The bristles is designed with kid's favorite picture, so it toothbrushing won't be a traumatic for children anymore.

Giro Sponge is designed for both kids and adult, and suitable for those who's got sensitive teeth. He also suggests that Giro Sponge could be used for pets. This is not yet final, since he is currently researching for his toothbrush's market.

Interested to produce similar toothbrush like he did? Sorry, Fabio Dabori already has patents for his creation, so don’t get any ideas.

I guess nobody of you interested to have this cutie minie toothbrush didn't you? Maybe we have to ask Dabori to put Pamela Anderson's boobie to his toothbrush's brustle.

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