How to deal with Bad breath, farting and other interesting bodily functions
December 1, 2006
You’re sitting in class and you smell something awful coming from the back of the room. Who could it be? The guy in the hat and sweatshirt who looks like he just rolled out of bed? The girl who looks like she spent all morning getting ready and would never own up to it? Or is it your own stench that is making your classmates gag as they sit through another thrilling day of Ancient European History? Surely, it couldn’t be you. Could it?
It might be body odor; it might be gas. Whatever the random ailment is, it’s probably something no one likes to talk about publicly.
But all of us have quietly had to deal with it on the giving and receiving end: Gas, bad breath, body odor and other embarrassing ailments have been a part of everyone’s lives at one point or another. So, before you start losing friends, here’s how to avoid these and other bodily malfunctions, and what to do about these ailments if preventive medicine fails you.
Halitosis (Bad Breath)
This is a terrible affliction that can affect your social, school, or work life without anyone ever mentioning the problem. It can lead to late night failure with that special someone you’ve been eyeing and it can turn job prospects into bad memories.
According to doctors at American Breath Specialists, 85-90% of bad breath comes from within your mouth and can be treated with a healthy dose of breath mints and some basic dental hygiene (brushing your teeth and tongue and flossing). Experts also suggest keeping your stomach acid calm and your nasal passages clear to avoid scaring away your neighbors.
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Low-carb diets are all the rage - but do they work?
December 1, 2006
For years, many dieters have believed that a low fat diet — including pasta, breads, and even low-fat cookies — is they key to achieving successful weight loss. But if Dr. Barry Sears, creator of the Zone diet, and his fellow low-carbohydrate proponents are correct, then there are a lot of mistaken dieters out there.
When Sears’ book “The Zone” was released in 1990’s, most popular diets of the time advocated eating lots of carbohydrates like vegetables and fruits, and cutting out proteins and fats like red meat and butter. However, Sears’s book resurrected the idea of the high protein, low carbohydrate diet, which was first popularized by Dr. Robert Atkins in the 1970s. There are now a multitude of variations on these low carbohydrate diets, including Sugarbusters, Protein Power and Get Skinny on Fabulous Foods.
The Zone advocates eating carbohydrates, protein, and fat in a 40-30-30 ratio. The Zone is supposed to work because it’s tailored to a person’s lean body mass (total weight minus weight of fat) by adjusting the amount of food consumed according to a specific formula Sears developed.
In theory, the Zone optimizes the body’s performance by eliminating quick fluctuations in insulin levels due to the consumption of certain foods. Insulin removes sugar from the blood and stores it as fat; by suppressing large fluctuations in insulin, the amount of fat the body stores is theoretically reduced. Most of the low carbohydrate diets follow some variation on Sears’ reasoning that insulin is “the fat molecule”.
Jim Benson, MD, an endocrinologist at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, takes issue with the depiction of insulin as the reason for weight gain.
“Proponents of these diets make insulin sound dangerous,” Benson says. It’s not — insulin is a naturally created hormone.
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!Take your last drag, How to quit smoking
December 1, 2006
This article was sent in by one of our guest authors Jason Viena 31 days after he had his last puff. Congratulations Jason!
Quitting smoking blows — but it’s worth it
When I weighed 300 pounds as a college freshman, there weren’t many excesses I didn’t enjoy. I drank. I made good use of the all-you-can-eat dining facilities. I snacked zealously after late night pizza runs — which was the only running I did. As the year trickled down, I finally realized I needed to lose weight. To make a long story short, I started eating right and I exercised, and I dropped half my weight in a little over a year.
To make the short story more detailed, I couldn’t have done it without Salem Ultra Lights.
I believe that people start smoking for one of three reasons (there are more, I know, but this is my theory. Hang with me.)
#1 : The principal reason is to look cool.
#2: The second is because tobacco companies employ the greatest marketing minds in America, and cigarette ads are very effective.
#3: The third reason people start smoking? Some people can’t help themselves. They’re born to become addicts.
I have one of those addictive personalities, and I went from being a food fiend to a nicotine junkie. I got hooked.
But today, nine years after my first puff, a bad respiratory infection finally convinced me to quit. That was about a month ago. If you think it’s hard for someone to lose half his body mass, try making him kick a decade-old addiction. For me, cigarettes were more many times more powerful than a bag of chips or trip to McDonald’s.
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!Fight the freshman 15, can students stop the urge to chomp?
December 1, 2006
For almost as long as there have been freshman, there have been stories of the dreaded “Freshman 15,” that notorious addition of 15 pounds or more to a typical freshman’s weight between September and May. But all you freshmen out there don’t need panic. Just because you’re a first-year student doesn’t mean you have to gain weight.
The causes of the Freshman 15 aren’t difficult to spot.
Walk into any dining hall and the temptation is spread out before you: Slices of pepperoni pizza oozing with extra cheese, plates of golden-brown Tater Tots, plump chili-cheese dogs, chocolate chip cookies and — what the heck — some big brownies topped with ice cream for dessert. Add to these choices an increase in late-night snacking and/ or beer consumption, and weight gain is not surprising.
But controlling weight gain is up to you, and it begins with the choices you make at mealtimes. With so many tasty choices before them in the all-you-can-eat cafeterias, many students find themselves choosing their meals based on what they can fit on their trays. Don’t fall into that trap.
University of California at Los Angeles food manager Antoinette Rutledge says most UCLA students chow excessively at mealtimes because they take a serving of everything that appeals to them.
“I know it’s hard because of the variety available,” Rutledge says, “but if they just asked for a smaller portion it would probably help a lot.”
But tired and stressed students not only eat a lot — they also eat for instant gratification rather than long-term health.
“Kids don’t have their food monitored” in college, says Mary McKay, UCLA Medical Center chief clinical dietitian. “They can say, ‘Oh gee, I can have ice cream for breakfast,’ just because it’s there.”
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!How to turn cafeteria food into the perfect Dinner Hall Gourmet
November 28, 2006
It’s a college past-time to whine and bitch about dining hall food, but with a little imagination, dorm food doesn’t have to turn your stomach.
Some people hate the idea of eating in a cafeteria. They envision women in hair nets doling out globs of institutional mystery meat, of entree options that involve limited innovation and few fresh ingredients, and of weekly cycles that bring the same tired dishes back to the steam table again and again.
I like to think of cafeterias as creative playgrounds, a well-stocked kitchen where I don’t have to rinse my own lettuce or scrub pots and pans.
It takes a little training and an open mind to escape the tyranny of the cafeteria menu, but it’s well worth it. You may have to eat off a tray, but there comes a point when every employee at the local Domino’s recognizes your voice, when your sodium level soars at the thought of any more Ramen noodles. So let your dining hall table be your kitchen counter and let your mind be your cookbook.
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!College students and sperm donors
November 27, 2006
College students comprise 90 percent of American sperm donors. Why? They’re smart, cute and virile — everything a would-be mom wants.
Jeff Salkin was struggling to pay his bills when he saw an ad that seemed too good to be true: a clinic would pay him to masturbate.
“I was having a hard time coming up with enough money for food and rent. I found out selling sperm is pretty easy, and at 40 bucks a whack, it’s pretty lucrative too,” said the University of Oregon senior, whose name was changed to protect his privacy.
Salkin is one of thousands of college students nationwide who cover their expenses by selling DNA. Commercial sperm banks, which exploded in the early 1970s and now number more than 150, have clustered around universities where the “natural resources” are plentiful: intelligent people who need quick cash and have sperm to spare. By 1993, frozen sperm was a $164 million a year industry, and companies like California Cryobank were aggressively recruiting on the campuses of brand-name schools like Harvard, MIT, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley.
“At least 90 percent of our donors are college students,” said Melonee Evans, California Cryobank’s client relations manager. “Students are more eager to donate because they need the money and have more flexible schedules.”
Those who can make the time and the maximum donation, which usually means siring up to 10 children can net upward of $6,000 in one academic year.
“Most students do it because they really need the money,” said Geo Low, an employee at Berkeley, Calif.’s Reproductive Technologies, Inc. “And some think their genes are cool and want to spread them around.” According to Low about 15 students make “deposits” to her bank on an average day.
Students at top schools say they can hardly walk across campus without finding ads soliciting donations from the young, brainy and virile.
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!What is college like for ADHD students?
November 27, 2006
ADHD PhD
Most of us don’t think of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder symptoms as making for success in college. What’s college like for ADHD students?
The tousled brown hair that weaves so mischievously around his head may hint at the way he feels inside. He is seven years old and has already had to repeat a grade. He has an imagination that puts other children’s to shame, but nothing seems to hold his attention for more than five minutes. He was recently diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
This description is familiar to some students who discover they have the disorder as they progress from elementary school to high school to college.
According to the Fourth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM-IV, a psychological reference book), some characteristics of students with ADHD are that they “may fail to give close attention to details or may make careless mistakes in schoolwork or other tasks…individuals often have difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities and find it hard to persist with tasks until completion.”
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