11 things you didn’t know kissing does to you

~Vanguard Nigeria. Friday, September 2, 2016. 

We all enjoy a really good kiss, but did you know that locking lips with someone makes you live longer, helps prevent tooth decay and burns calories?

Apart from the obvious bacteria swapping and reducing stress levels, it turns out there is plenty more to know about a good snog with your partner, lover, or whoever else you happen to be swapping saliva with.

Author David Wolfe has produced a video on the 11 thinks you never knew about kissing, and these are the surprising facts, captured UK’s The Sun.

1. It increases life expectancy

Men who kiss their wives in the morning live five years longer than men who don't.

2. It prevents tooth decay

Kissing increases the mouth's production of saliva, which helps to clean the mouth and prevent tooth decay.

3. We swap more than just germs

We swap an average of 9ml of water, 0.7mg of protein, 0.18mg of organic compounds, 0.71mg of different fats and 0.45mg of sodium chloride when we lock lips.

4. But there are still A LOT of germs involved

One millilitre of saliva contains about 100,000,000 bacteria.

5. It actually burns calories - get kissing, ladies

Couples can burn anywhere between 2 and 26 calories per minute while kissing and can use up to 30 muscles.

6. We do a lot of it

Affairs with married women are not as 'safe' as men think – Reader

Written by Bunmi Sofola
~Vanguard Nigeria. Sunday, August 28, 2016.

FROM time to time, I get letters from you readers that are so interesting that I feel I ought to share them with the rest of you. A few days back, a letter simply signed "Iyabode" popped up on my e-mail and I couldn't help chuckling to myself as I read it. She wrote: "Dear Bunmi, I am one of the regular readers of your articles in The Vanguard every Sunday, and I do not even know how fully I can express my feelings about your articles. If I may tell you, they have really improved my lifestyle and I always make copies available to friends whenever the need arises.

Bunmi, I shall be grateful if you can please help write something one of these days on: Why men of today prefer married women as girlfriends. Honestly speaking, it is a vogue in town these days. Please help emphasize on the following points:

Class: This set of married women are known for their own class. Most of them are wives of rich and notorious men. These men also go out at all times with extremely younger girls, leaving their wives and kids at home, thinking that money can fix everything, forgetting about love and happiness.

Sex: This category of ladies are preferred by men because they do have wide sexual experiences and they are very safe as they don't pester the men for marriage.

Fashion: These ladies are very fashion conscious. They are seen in designer dresses and at beauty parlours. They do not mind how much they spend on manicures, pedicures and professionally

Caught red-handed by her mother!

Written by Candida
~Vanguard Nigeria. Sunday, August 14, 2016.


Some few months back, at one of these private A-list parties, Dora was having the time of her life. So were a few of us that shared a table.


We were all social friends and the banter was smutty but harmless, until Greg walked in. An obvious hunk, he was way beyond our reach because of his young age – barely 35. He obviously knew Dora as he stopped for a chat, his after-shave almost fouling the air. You know these seemingly cock-sure men, just before making an entrance at any function, they top up on their aftershave, ignoring the less-is-more doctrine.

As he exchanged banter with Dora, his eyes were firmly fixed on her cleavage. In fairness to the poor bloke, the top Dora had on left very little to the imagination. They exchanged phone numbers. What for; I thought fleetingly? Later Dora let it slip that Greg was the older sibling of her daughter's boyfriend. Safe enough, I thought. But how safe sort of burst into the open some four months later. Greg had apparently found his way into Dora's pants. None of their escapades would have been noticed if Tade, Dora's husband, hadn't chucked her out.

"It's Gloria's fault", she fumed as I let her in when she begged to be put up for the night. "And she's going to pay, mark my word," then she burst into heart wrenching tears. What happened?

"Tade found out about Greg and I from Gloria," she spat.

It took a few seconds for me to figure out who Greg was. "You slept with Greg?"

I asked, appalled.

"I couldn't resist him", she confessed. "He pursued me endlessly, said flattering things to me. You know Fade's libido had been down for a while and it was quite flattering when Greg sent me steamy texts of all the things he would love to do to me if he had half a chance. I texted him back. What started as harmless bantering took a wild turn the day I agreed to see him at his flat. I'd hardly touched my drink when he pounced. He was also muscular – a far cry from Tade's sinewy, middle-aged body. I wanted him – all that young, hard rippled sexiness. And he was well worth the risk of my marriage as we made wild passionate love.

High cholesterol is dangerous, prevent it!

Written by Rotimi Adesanya

~Punch Nigeria. Wednesday, August 17, 2016.

Web for more health tips: www.doctoradesanya.blogspot. com

During the last festive period, a woman in her middle age developed partial stroke and was admitted in the hospital. She recovered fully but the family felt that the problem might not be stroke since the woman's blood pressure had never been high and her blood sugar level had always been within the normal range, meaning she was not hypertensive or diabetic.

Her blood sample, which was sent to the lab for investigations, showed elevated blood cholesterol, a condition called hypercholesterolemia. It was later found that high cholesterol was responsible for the first stroke she suffered.

Hypercholesterolemia, or high cholesterol, occurs when there is too much cholesterol in the body. Cholesterol is a soft, waxy, fat-like substance that is a natural component of all the cells in the body. The body makes all the cholesterol it needs. However, added cholesterol, which comes from the foods eaten, may cause harm.

High cholesterol raises the risk for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. When there is too much cholesterol circulating in the blood, it can create sticky deposits (called plaque) along the artery walls. Plaque can eventually narrow or block the flow of blood to the brain, heart, and other organs. Blood cells that get caught on the plaque form clots, which can break loose and completely block blood flow through an artery, causing heart attack or stroke.

While heredity may be a factor for some people, the main culprits are lack of exercise and diets high in saturated fat. High cholesterol can be prevented, sometimes with lifestyle changes (diet and exercise) alone. If these do not work, your doctor may recommend medications to lower your cholesterol levels.

Signs and symptoms

In the early stages, there are usually no symptoms of high cholesterol. The only way to tell if the cholesterol is high is through a blood test.

Five reasons you should sleep naked

~Punch Nigeria. Sunday, August 14, 2016.

It encourages greater intimacy

Apart from making sleeping next to a loved oneexciting, our naked body releases oxytocin, often referred to as the "love hormone."

A 2009 study published by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, says"Oxytocin reduces bloodpressure, cortisol levels and helps to reduce stress.

Thishormone does not only help relationship, but also your health!

It can keep you cool

One way to be cool during sleep is to abandon cloths.

It may help relieve insomnia

According to Dr. Cameron Van den Heuvel of University of South Australia's Centre for Sleep Research, regulating sleep temperature may bring some relief to sufferers of insomnia.

"Studies of sleep onset insomniacs show that they consistently have a warmer core body temperature immediately before initiating sleep, when compared with normal healthy adults. This results in a state of heightened arousal that prevents them from falling asleep when they go to bed, probably because they have to wait for their bodies to lose the heat that's keeping them awake. We're only talking about a half to one degree but that small temperature change can result in significant differences in arousal between insomniacs and people without sleeping problems."

The implication is that sleeping naked relieves insomia.

It can help relieve stress

Sleeping naked can relieve stress because itlowers cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone commonly referred to as the "stress hormone," and when levels are chronically spiked, health problems can arise, such as a propensity towards high blood pressure, weight gain, and a compromised immune system.

It can make you look and feel young

During sleep a variety of growth hormones, as well as anti-aging hormones such as melatonin, are released. These hormones serve to keep us looking and feeling young. To encourage the optimal release of these growth hormones, we need to get those seven to eight hours of sleep.

Uncommon encounter: I never knew my lecturer was the man who performed the surgery on my mum that made my birth possible

Written by Chinelo Obogo
~The SUN Nigeria. Monday, August 15, 2016.

...As medical student meets surgeon who enabled his mum conceive

• I never knew my lecturer was the man who did a surgery on my mum's blocked womb. The surgery led to my birth, he says.

On November 15, 2015, Professor Godwin Ajayi, a consultant gynaecologist/obstetrician and fertility expert at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) had just concluded lecturing final year medical students at the College of Medicine, Idi-Araba, Lagos. Then he got the surprise of his life.

One of his students, 23-year-old Oluwatosin Akinduro, walked up to the professor after the lecture. He wanted to thank Ajayi for a favour he said the lecturer had done in the past.

"I was very impatient and thought that Oluwatosin only wanted to ask me to help influence his posting for housemanship. I immediately told him that I was in a hurry, and that he should write down what it was and bring it to my office," Ajayi, who also runs a prenatal diagnosis and therapy centre at the College of Medicine, said.

Oluwatosin did as he was told. He wrote the letter and dropped it at the professor's office. Ajayi told the reporter that after reading the letter, tears fell from his eyes.

It turned out that back in 1992, he (Ajayi), had performed a delicate corrective micro tubal surgery on a woman, who, for 11 years, was trying to conceive. The surgery, which is usually performed on damaged fallopian tubes, enabled the woman to conceive naturally shortly after. The woman was Mrs. Oluwemimo Akinduro. And Oluwatosin was the child that was conceived after the surgery.

How to be an authority in your field

Written by Azuka Onwuka
~Punch Nigeria. Tuesday, August 9, 2016. 
"A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring" - Alexander Pope

Azuka Onwuka

Knowledge is critical to success in life. High flyers never get weary of learning. They never believe that they know enough. Therefore, they try to learn at every opportunity. Even as wise as he is known to be, Socrates is reputed to have said: "The only I know is that I know nothing."

They do not want to talk or operate from the standpoint of ignorance. So, they develop a voracious and undiscriminating appetite for information.

The result is that they are soon seen as authorities to be consulted in their field. The reason is that many people are too lazy to scratch beyond the surface. For example, even with an Internet-enabled phone, many people will prefer to call someone or send a message asking for the simplest of information that Google can supply in a second. Most people tend to assume that the so-called authorities know more than they actually do. And when a person is constantly consulted in his area of business, he will definitely succeed more and make more money.

Some people erroneously think that being an authority in a field is such a difficult matter. They think that they may never know much to be listened to in a particular field of knowledge. But everybody can become an "authority" by making a little effort.

Two experiences made me believe that once a person is determined, it does not take much effort and time to cross over from the sea of ignorance to the spring of knowledge. About a year before the 1994 World Cup in USA, I was not very knowledgeable in football technicalities. I loved football very well like most young Nigerian men, but I could not talk with any certainty who played what position in a match. I also knew little outside the Nigerian league. My condition was not helped too by the fact that I was outside Lagos before 1994, where I did not have access to much information as Lagos provides.