MOM REALLY DOES KNOW BEST
Stinky Situations
What Your Bad BreathMay Mean
Perhaps an onion sandwich isn’t the best choice for your dinner date, but if you’re struggling with bad breath on a regular basis, the noxious scent escaping from your mouth may be telling you something else — besides your culinary tastes — is very wrong. Stop popping breath mints and learn what your bad breath may be telling you. Dental Problems Twice daily brushing, flossing, and rinsing is recommended to maintain a healthy smile, but failing to adhere to a regular dental hygiene schedule can leave your mouth caked with food, grime, and plaque — a recipe that’s ripe for bad breath. What’s more, that nasty scent can also be a sign that your teeth and gums are not healthy. Bad breath can signal gum disease, cavities, mouth sores, tooth decay, or infections from oral surgery. If you suffer from chronic dry mouth disease, your breath can also have a bad stench, as your body is producing less of the saliva it needs to act as nature’s toothbrush. Serious Conditions While most conditions that produce bad breath can be easily mitigated, others are more serious. Cancer, diabetes, pneumonia, and liver and kidney problems can create bad breath because of the chemicals these conditions produce. Chemical discharge resulting in bad breath can also be a sign of chronic reflux disease. These chemicals waft from your stomach to your mouth, acting as a stinky symptom. Chance Encounters Sometimes your bad breath is a sign of an outside source causing other symptoms in your body. For example, smokers or tobacco users commonly have worse breath because tobacco use can cause dry mouth disease. Medication side effects can also commonly include dry mouth disease, while some medicines have compounds that can produce stinky breath after they break down in your body. Lodged foods in either your gums or your dental appliances could also be the perpetrator of your bad breath. If you think your bad breath is something more than too much garlic, H. Charles Jelinek Jr., DDS can help. Schedule your appointment by visiting NorthernVirginiaDental.com or calling 703-584-5996.
3Wives’ Tales Proven True
“Make a face like that, and it’ll stay that way forever.” You may have heard something like this from Mom’s book of wisdom. Maybe you never disputed the idea that mother knows best. But as you grew up, it slowly became clear that hair doesn’t grow back faster and thicker if you shave it, cracking your knuckles doesn’t cause arthritis, and gum doesn’t stay in your stomach for months after you swallow it. After a whirlwind of wives’ tales over the years, many common claims have been put under scrutiny. Wives’ tales have been known as pseudoscience and blind intuition, but even as many were disproved, some surprisingly proved to hold weight. Here are three wives’ tales that have proven to be true. Garlic Cures Colds For decades, moms have professed the healing properties of garlic, suggesting it can cure colds and help the body fight sickness. It turns out they were absolutely right. Garlic has antiviral properties that strengthen the immune system and nutrients that help combat illnesses. The effects of garlic can actually be more effective than over-the-counter flu medications. Some studies show that regular consumption of raw garlic lessens the likelihood of getting a cold, so if you feel a tickle in your throat, try a clove before you open the medicine cabinet. HeartburnMeans a Hairy Baby It’s hard to list wives’ tales without bringing up one about pregnancy. Many are solely based on intuition, but a few that sound odd are legitimate. In 2007, a study done by Johns Hopkins attempted to debunk the myth that heartburn during pregnancy would mean a hairy baby at birth. Instead of proving it wrong, they found that 82 percent of women with severe heartburn during pregnancy gave birth to hairy babies. Turns out the hormones that cause heartburn in pregnant women also affect fetal hair growth. Joint Pain Predicts the Weather Did you ever look at your mom with skepticism when she would predict rain because her knees hurt? If so, you might owe your mom an apology, because there is a scientific connection. The drop in barometric pressure that’s common during storm weather causes pain in arthritic joints.
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