Given the number of pharmaceutical medications I’m on, I have the most horrendous breath. I’m getting desperate for cures.
Duct tape has hundreds of uses, but apparently researchers at Hebrew University Hadassah School of Dental Medicine felt that fixing a malodorous mouth shouldn’t be one of them. So they experimented with other, less restrictive ways to stop the stench, including shining some light on the problem. In a study reported in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, the scientists exposed saliva samples to various wavelengths of light and then conducted a sniff test. The winner: blue light–by a nose.
"It induces the production of oxygen radicals, which are harmful to anaerobic bacteria, the producers of bad breath," says study author Nir Sterer, D.M.D., Ph.D.
Treat Sleep Apnea with a Didgeridoo
"A didgeri-what?" you ask. While aborigines in Australia have been playing this long wooden trumpet for centuries, it’s just recently been redefined as a modern-day medical device. Researchers reporting in the British Medical Journal evaluated 25 people with sleep apnea–a breath-stealing condition caused by flabby throat muscles–and found that those who took 4 months of didgeridoo (DIH-jeh-ree-doo) lessons had about 31/2 times less daytime sleepiness than the folks who didn’t blow their own horns. The newly minted musicians also snored significantly less. Credit this uncommon cure to vibrations that exercise tissue in the mouth and throat, says researcher Milo Puhan, Ph.D. "When these muscles are strengthened, the tongue has less tendency to obstruct the airway."Make it work for you: If huffing on a wooden tube to treat your sleep apnea sounds a tad too weird, then you probably aren’t familiar with the alternatives. The most commonly prescribed option is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which involves spending every night hooked up to a machine that pumps air down your throat to keep it from collapsing. The other approach is surgery, and that’s only 30 to 60 percent effective. Now are you ready to toot the didgeridoo? You can pick up a beginner-friendly model for about $80 at L.A. Outback (laoutback.com). And don’t worry; it’s intuitive to learn, says co-owner Barry Martin. You purse your lips and blow into it with the beat.
