Kissing not only feels good on your lips and in your nether regions, smooching is actually beneficial to your health. As two tongues touch, nerve endings fire off messages to other parts of your body: various muscles clench, your lungs start to work harder and your lips swell (who needs Botox?), to name but a few. As your heart rate increases, your veins dilate and all that rushing blood can make you feel hot and sweaty. A French kiss requires the use of more than 30 facial muscles (bonjour!), toning your jaw and cheek, which in turn reduces the likelihood of sagging chops. A good make-out session burns about half the calories of jogging and makes your mouth water, which helps flush out plaque and prevent cavities. And, kissing is good for your soul, too. Physical touch boosts certain hormone levels in your body, which can create that warm, fuzzy, feels-good-all-over sensation. Nurturing, bonding and loving, the therapeutic power of a kiss may have started the first time your mom kissed a boo-boo on your elbow.
You know I'm a kinda of expert in kissing therapy... But what you don't know is:
Kissing Can Kill Some People
People with nut allergies can have reactions if they kiss someone who has recently eaten the offending substance.
For people with allergies, the term "safe sex" often has a broader definition than condoms and sexually transmitted diseases. People who are allergic to peanuts, walnuts or other nut products may also have to ask, "What have you eaten in the last 6 hours?"
In a questionnaire involving people with peanut and tree nut allergies, we found 5% who voluntarily stated that they had had a reaction after kissing someone who had eaten a type of nut to which they were allergic.
These people stated that they had had reactions up to 6 hours after the kisser had eaten the food. In most cases, the kisser was a spouse, although some children said that they had been kissed by a relative, and one grandparent had been kissed by a grandchild who had eaten peanut butter. Some respondents were single people who had had a reaction in a dating situation.
The investigators were struck by the long time delay after eating the food that the allergen was present in the mouth of the kissing partner. Among married couples, the spouse had often taken several precautions, such as brushing teeth and using mouthwash, which proved to be ineffective against preventing a reaction.
Among the 17 respondents who could recall the treatment necessary for the reaction, one child had an anaphylactic reaction and required emergency treatment in the hospital.
This is a mode of exposure that people with nut allergies need to know about. They need to make sure family and friends know that they can be exposed to an allergenic substance by kissing someone who has eaten this substance. Even the social greeting kiss may need to be modified.
59th Annual Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Orlando, Florida November 19, 2001
KMC Community Forums
Kisses for All!
Mar 17th, 2005 04:06 AM
I see how it is!
But what you don't know is:
tx
