If you have to undergo surgery, make sure to pack an iPod in your hospital bag. A recent review of 14 clinical studies found that music may help reduce post op pain. Don’t expect tunes to replace pain-relief medications, but researchers reveal that music is a good compliment.

The review of the studies, which included a total of almost 500 patients, found that those who listened to music after surgery reported less pain than patients who didn’t. They also found that the positive impact was pretty much equal for patient who got to pick their one tunes and those who didn’t.  “Before, we didn’t know if music worked,” say lead reviewer M. Soledad Capeda, M.D., professor at Javeriana University School of Medicine in Bogota, Colombia, and faculty member of the aneshtesia department at Tufts-New England Medical Center. “Now we know that, at least for acute postoperative pain, music dcreases ints intensity. Due to our research findings, music can be added to the physucuan’s armamentarium for postoperative pain.”

Cepeda estimates that music has the same effect as about 325 milligram of acetaminophen (Tylenol); however, he say this isn’t enough to treat moderate to sever pain. The review was done by The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates health care research. It appears ina recent issue of their publication The Cochrane Library, and also reveals that music did reduce patient’s need for morphine-like drugs.

Actually there are eighteen different poisons in a cigarette. Some of these attack the delicate membranes of the windpipes. Others enter the bloodstream and interfere with the normal circulation of the body. But the most important is the tar, a carcinogenic or cancer-producing substances, and Tobacco Nicotine.

The tarry substances are transferred to the bronchial tubes and the lungs through the smoke, and then deposited on the mucous membranes lining these tubes, where they cause much local irritation. In fact, these mucous membranes may become four or five times thicker in the heavy smoker when compared to the non-smoker. This increases the resistance to the passage of air into the lungs and makes it that much harder to breathe.

Extracts of the tarry substances are used by scientists to produce cancers in mice and other experimental animals. But why take such poisons into your own system and run the risk of developing cancer of the lung yourself?

Nicotine is one of the most potent substances known to man. As a poison it is second only to the cyanides in its destructive effect on the human body. Fortunately, most of the nicotine is destroyed when the tobacco is burned, but enough of it gets into the smoker’s lungs to give him a “lift”. In other words, nicotine whips up the nervous system. However, this temporary stimulation is followed by a letdown which in turn calls for another smoke. It is the nicotine addiction that is responsible for the addiction to tobacco.

The membranes of the nose and throat are tough, but they can be injured by many things including nasal sprays and nose drops and various medications when used to excess. A deformed nasal septum may also interfere with the normal exchange of air. So will inflammation of the sinuses or sinusitis. All such conditions should be corrected as soon as possible, for breathing is most important to health.

The trouble does not always stop in the nose and throat. Often it extends down to the larynx or voice box, causing hoarseness or laryngitis.  From there it may descend into the lower respiratory tract, causing bronchitis and perhaps even pneumonia.