MONDAY |FEBRUARY 25, 2008| PHILIPPINES

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‘There is no scientific basis for the need for extra oxygen among people who are not short of breath.’

Practical
health tips (2)


 

Last week, we recom-mended holding our breath whenever we use hair sprays or household chemical cleaning sprays, etc. to protect our body from the adverse effects of these chemicals. Some people, while not even practicing the simple measure we suggested above, go to the other extreme of a reaction, which is likewise harmful to our body. I am referring to a new "fad" very popular in Las Vegas and other big cities: "Oxygen Therapy." This useless, money-wasting, and even dangerous, "treatment," claims to invigorate the body by inhaling this "extra and pure oxygen," for only a few dollars for so many minutes. The cost of a session will be enough to buy at least a sack of rice. You will see the ignorant, unsuspecting victims, sitting on bar stools, with nasal cannula, breathing in oxygen (filtered through bubbling colored water for visual effect), much like ICU patients, sans the color. There is no scientific basis for the need for extra oxygen among people who are not short of breath. Too much oxygen is even bad for our lungs. The amount of natural ambient oxygen we have in the atmosphere is "perfect" for us, except in polluted areas. But even in those areas, using a mask is better than inhaling oxygen. The ambient oxygen level is enough, even in such places, but what we want is not to inhale the pollution. And inhaling more oxygen does not accomplish that. So, beware of this fraud.

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Another scam is the sale of "air purifier" necklace, available in many shops, like Sharper Image, Brookstone, etc. If you were in an enclosed room, with an air-conditioner, which is an air purifier to a great extent, the use of modern multi-layer air purifier system is effective and healthy. But using an "air purifier" necklace, even if held close to the nose, is useless. One does not have to be a rocket scientist or a physician to understand that unless you have an air-purifier that can clean the ambient air around you (effectively filtering the air of the entire space you are in, as in a room), that purifier is worthless. As a matter of fact those room air purifiers have a specified effectively or coverage limit as to what size room it can clean. So, if you want to wear one around your neck, make sure to get one that will clean the air of the entire city you are in. And that will surely be a pain in the neck, indeed.

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Microwaves are convenient in this day and age of our hurried life. But make sure you do not stand within 5 feet from it. For one thing, the lens in your eyes might get "cooked," and lead to premature opacification, cataract. Other effects of this "microwave radiation" are still being debated. It is prudent to be careful, anyway. In a similar vein, avoid laser pointer "red beam" from hitting the eyes of people and animals.

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When taking public stairs or using an escalator, it is best not to touch the hand rails, whenever safely possible. Thousands of hands, many of them contaminated from unhygienic personal habits or from handling paper money and coins which have passed through possibly millions of hands, are loaded with bacteria. These germs are therefore on handrails on public places, office buildings, shopping malls, etc. A laboratory culture on these handrails has shown them to be teeming with germs, which could cause infections. A good personal habit to wash hands after using the bathroom, after eating, after doing any chores, or after touching any objects in public areas. Using plain soft and water, or even water alone, is enough to reduce the infection rate dramatically.

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Some people wipe their hands with alcohol, others use anti-bacterial soaps. Alcohol dries the skin fast, so it is a good habit to use skin moisturizer after washing our hands or face or body. Skin lotion helps keep our skin moist and healthy, just like the protective amniotic fluid when we were in our mother’s womb. The use of antibacterial liquid soap, if done often, might cause bacterial tolerance or resistance, just like ingesting antibiotics pills often, especially without the physician’s advice. In these situations, if the abuse is continued, there will come a time when the antibiotic, when needed to treat a bacterial infection, will not longer be effective. A good example of this is the so-called "MRSA" (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) flesh-eating bacteria, which bug used to be successfully killed by first generation (cheaper and less toxic) antibiotics. Frequent hand washing with clean water, with or without soap, is good for our health.

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Billions of dollars are being spent for weight reduction for better health, but one simple (no-brainer) idea in weight management is to eat less (lower calorie-intake) and more physical exercise (greater calorie output). Since our body weight is to a great measure a result of the balance between calorie intake and calorie burned, the more we burn calories by exercising, and the less calories we take in, the lower our weight will be. Drinking a tall glass of water before each, for instance, to "fool our satiety center in the brain to make it "think and feel" that the stomach is fuller, will make us eat less. If one is underweight and would like to gain weight, the opposite can be done: eat more while maintaining the same daily exercise level. This will increase the calorie balance. This strategy is the healthier and cheaper way of weight control and maintenance, compared to buying expensive diet suppressant pills and beverages, which have harmful side-effects, and usually ineffective in the long term.

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