February 2007

Acetaldehyde

It’s a very, very bad thing.

I’m a regular reader of New Scientist, it’s possibly my favourite magazine – it’s fantastic!  Last week’s was no exception.  One article was particularly interesting and shocked me a little bit.  I discovered that this thing called acetaldehyde (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetaldehyde) is very nasty. Acetaldehyde basically is produced by your liver as it breaks down ethanol and causes, among other things, the infamous “hangover”. But there is so much more to it. If you drink, smoke or have bad dental hygiene read on…

Firstly alcohol is bad for your: -

- brain
- kidneys
- gonads
- skeletal muscle
- liver
- heart
- uterus and
- digestive system

Acetaldehyde, which comes from drinking alcohol is also created:-

- from tobacco smoke
- from exhaust fumes
- in foods, such as fresh bread and dairy products such as yogurts
- naturally in ripe fruit, Sherry, Calvados and coffee (Calvados drinkers are twice as likely to get oesophageal or oral cancer compared to win drinkers)
- by the barrel load from bacteria living in your mouth and guts (luckily the body as a battery of detoxifying enzymes that break 99% of it down, but any acetaldehyde molecules are left over it could cause permanent damage to your inners)
- from bad dental hygiene, which could lead to mouth cancer

It also: -

- attacks DNA
- is partly responsible for cancer and liver disease
- is possibly responsible for Alzheimer’s
- linked to rheumatoid arthritis and heart attacks, colon and rectal cancer
- messes up protein structure and function
- is a 30 times more toxic muscle poison (compared to ethanol)
- possibly linked to breast cancer
- is a human carcinogen (any substance which is an agent directly involved in the promotion of cancer), so can trigger mutations and chromosomal problems

If you are Japanese, Chinese, Korean or Taiwanese then it’s even worse. Such people genetically have faulty detoxifying enzymes, so one drink could cause: -

- facial flushing
- elevated heart rate
- diluted blood vessels

Then: -

- dizziness
- headaches
- nausea
- vomiting

Plus people have a higher rate of head and neck cancer and are at greater risk of cancer of the upper gastrointestinal track and liver.  And don’t think that once your hangover is gone you’re safe, cells don’t forget, it could take 20 to 25 years before the affects are felt.

Apart from that acetaldehyde is fine (!!!)

There is possibly a chewing gum and mouthwash that would help fight acetaldehyde, plus a type of sugar but the moral of the story is you’ve got to keep it clean. Don’t drink or smoke or sit near smokers, clean your teeth regularly and don’t breathe in car fumes.

My pet hates are…

Following on from my previous entry, Parship also wanted my pet hates, so…

My pet hates are…

… unfaithfulness
… dishonesty
… untrustworthy people
… politicians
… smoking
… rudeness
… discrimination (any kind)
… people who think violence solves problems
… untidiness (though I can live with it if I have to)
… arrogant people
… posh people (sorry, they do get on my nerves sometimes)
… people talking badly behind people’s backs (it’s a shame people don’t communicate more, there would be less problems and more solutions, things linger so long that they become bad and even unfixable)
… people not thinking of others

There are loads more so will add them as I think of them.

I wish I could…

I’m an Independent reader and today they had this Parship dating questionnaire (see http://independent.parship.co.uk/ for more details). So for a bit of fun I registered and went through the very long questionnaire (no I don’t think I’ll get any response). The interesting part was the ‘About me’ section where it asked you a few interesting questions, one of them was “I wish I could…”. So here are my answers (open to updates and changes ):

I wish I could…

… be better looking (well couldn’t get any worse )
… find those bloody curtains I need to give back to my Mum, lol
… worry less and relax more
… trust at least one person
… take a photograph around strangers without worrying about them or me
… be in better shape
… eat healthy food and like it
… cook
… enjoy life more
… speak another language
… play an instrument, hmmm, like a violin
… be far more confident
… buy a house (not in my lifetime methinks )
… see my dog more
… pay off my bills
… find the right girl
… take up some training (art, photography, first aid, computer courses maybe)
… fly like a bird
…write better articles for my blog
… win the Lottery (well who doesn’t?)

Do you think I have too many wishes?

One thing I hate about MS Windows

It gets on my nerves more and more as time goes by. I like to multi-task, get more things done in a shorter space of time, but when you set off one window or program to do something then open up something else, if that first thing does something like refreshes or displays a message then it brings that to the front. So I’m happily typing or working away in my new window then the first window pops up in front of it. So annoying!! If I’ve selected that window to work in the background then it should stay there until I selected otherwise.

Ah well, small moan for the day, LOL.