HealthyConcerns.com

My Christmas gift to you: sex is healthy!

Hat tip to Kevin MD for pointing me to these two articles:

-10 Reasons to Make Love, from iVillage

But seriously, iVillage, how can pleasure not be on your list. Do you really think women need these other 10 reasons to consider a roll in the hay? Sheesh.

-40 mistakes men make whilst having sex with women from The Joke File.

Now, that's more like it!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

And I ain't getting 'em.

:(

Still have my temporaries in. Unlikely to get the permanent caps in time for a trip I'm making to NY in the middle of next month!

I'm very dentally disappointed this Christmas.

I hope all of you out there are having a wonderful holiday season...and that you're appreciating your teeth :)

Brush, floss, avoid getting into car accidents and biting your steering wheel.

Speaking of the dentist...

I'm on a cranky roll right now.

Almost 26 years ago I broke my two front teeth in a car accident. After 4 years spent with temporary porcelain fill-ins, I finally got caps. Caps, apparently, are only meant to last for 5-10 years, but I had the same ones for over 20 years, until I finally decided that I better replace them as my dentist (the same once since I was 17) has long urged. It was vanity that did it...they were starting to separate, and they had kind of started sinking out of my gums, so you could see a line at the top.

I have very NOT fond memories of getting these caps in the first place. I can't understand why anyone would do that for cosmetic purposes. My least favorite part: getting the impressions taken. You have your mouth shoved full of nauseating goo. You're tipped back in a chair feeling it start to drip down your throat. For several minutes at a time. For a mouth-breather with a strong gag reflex like me, it's very uncomfortable.

Getting these replaced has been quite a saga...

What's up with those nasal strips?

OK, so can someone please explain to me why nasal strips, like these Breathe Right ones, are supposed to do anything? I've been having bad allergies, so my fiance brought me home some of these strips, saying I've been snoring. (It's fairly ironic, since he snores pretty badly, occasionally driving me to sleep elsewhere!)

I put this thing on, and honestly I can't imagine what it's supposed to do. Why not just stick a piece of tape on your nose and save the money?

Now, this is all exacerbated by the fact that I'm a mouth-breather anyway! That's what years of chronic congestion will do to you. (And explains why I loathe the dentist, since I always feel like I'm practically going to suffocate when they're working in my mouth.)

Meh. I don't buy that they do a damn thing. And I'm cranky about it.

Only at a healthcare conference

I spent early this week in Washington DC at the Healthcare Blogging Summit, speaking on a panel.

During the actual panel I got a tickle in my throat and could tell pretty quickly that it was only going to escalate if I didn't do some good coughing and drink some water. So, I believe for the first time in my public speaking career, I got up and exited the room to cough. While out there in the hallway a tall,slender, Abraham Lincoln-esque man (without the facial hair) stopped and asked me if I was OK.

I said I had a tickle in my throat, and he said "let me see your wrist." I could see the letters MD on his name badge, so I dutifully held out my wrist. At first I thought he was taking my pulse, but no, he was kind of rubbing a section of my right wrist.

He looked at me and said "cough gone?"

Which it was.

He smiled wisely, said something like "Lung #7, works every time" and walked off into the sunset.

Apparently acu-pressure or something like that.

And it all seemed remarkably fitting, given I was at a healthcare conference.