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An antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission
(penntoday.upenn.edu)
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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Hmm… microplastics or flu and herpes… school didn’t prepare me for these decisions.
If you're old enough to have this thought, you're already screwed by the microplastics.
adds extra Teflon to his scrambled eggs
Teflon is not unhealthy. Only when overheated the fumes are dangerous, not the substance itself.
Good thing we don't use it in potentially high temperature situations with stuff we directly put into our bodies. Could you imagine?
/uj
Using Teflon on non-stick pans is all but guaranteed to get it in you, either by overheating the pan accidentally, or when the coating begins to flake. The average person isn't likely to have consistently great heat control of the pan, and eventually the coating degrades and begins to flake even with gentle use IME.
Eating teflon is entirely fine.
Breathing the fumes is unhealthy.
When using a metal spatula carelessly in a teflon coated pan just isn’t hitting hard enough.
Don’t worry, 90% of the population has herpes by the time they are 50. The vast majority do not know they have it.
Edit: If you'd like to learn more, I found this doctor's youtube channel incredibly helpful: https://www.youtube.com/@DrBretPalmer
And god only knows what it’s doing to everyone. There’s at least one hypothesis it causes Alzheimer’s. You’d think we’d be hearing about a vaccine by now like we do for HPV.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181022-there-is-mounting-evidence-that-herpes-leads-to-alzheimers
I'm kind of amazed I've managed to dodge it so far. I know the risk of infection is primarily during breakouts but statistically speaking I MUST have had some partners that I've kissed that had it.
I make sure my partners are tested prior to sex but not for kissing. Does anyone do that?
How do you know you don't have it? Tests are barely even able to detect it, with a high false negative rate. There's a reason it's not part of the standard testing regiment
Specifically asked for it on a STD panel.
Entirely possible they didn't do anything special and I've just gotten a false negative on the 10+ that I've done.
The blood tests are extremely unreliable. And I don't say this to say "Yeah you have it dummy", just that you really can't know for sure and IT DOESN'T MATTER because almost everyone has it anyway. Watch videos on youtube by doctors addressing herpes and you'll see that they just don't see it has a big deal because it's so common. Most don't even think you should do blood tests because they're basically worthless, and that's why they aren't included in a standard STD panel.
I recently had to learn all about it after a potential partner disclosed, and I found this British doctor's youtube channel to be incredibly straightforward and informative:
https://www.youtube.com/@DrBretPalmer
plastic-free chewing gums do exist.
Both natural and synthetic chewing gum shed plastics as you chew: https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2025/march/chewing-gum-can-shed-microplastics-into-saliva-pilot-study-finds.html
I know that’s what the study supposedly says, but it makes no sense. Natural chewing gum is plant-based. Where is the plastic coming from if the product isn’t made from plastic?
Weren’t microplastics found in plants already? Take that naturalists!
The plastic in toothbrushes makes a lot more sense to me but what do I know... I just heard from another lemly user
Easy, teeth mash the plants into plastic 👍 makes sense if you squint real hard and have a few TBIs
The article does not mention a sample size.
The article states that this is the first study of its kind.
There needs to be more research done before this is shared as absolute fact.
They actually do: it's 5/5 natural/artificial gum brands, 7 pieces each, and chewed by one person.
Agreed with the rest though
I read it twice trying to find the sample size. I missed it both times. I should slow down on my reading.
Thanks for the update.