In simple term “halitosis” is bad breath or unpleasant odor in breath or exhaled air and it is the third most common reason (dental carries and gum diseases are the commonest causes) why people visit dentists. There are several factors that affect the quality of the exhaled breath and all these factors can cause bad breath. Most people suffer from bad breath occasionally but for some people bad breath is permanent problem and the worst part is many (probably most) people with halitosis are unaware of their problem. Sometimes friends and relatives do not inform the individual about the bad breath, thinking that the person may not take it positively. The factors which may cause halitosis may be in the mouth, airways, GIT (stomach or esophagus).

The term “halitophobia” is used to denote fear of suffering from halitosis or the fear of those who are already suffering from halitosis.

Jet lag is a fairly common problem among people who undertake international travel, especially transmeridean travel. Jet lag is not seen if the journey does not involve transmeridean travel, even if journey is of several hours duration, e.g. traveling from London to Cape Town, a 7 hours journey.

What is jet lag?

The medical term of jet lag is “desynchronosis”. Jet lag is a condition due to alteration of normal cicardian rhythm of sleep by transmeridian air travel and there is disturbance in sleep, tiredness etc. Jet lag occurs due to transmeridian (east-west or west-east) air travel. More than 75 million people undertake transmeridian air travel annually and many of them experience jet lag.