{"id":67278,"date":"2014-11-21T13:31:28","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T13:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=67278"},"modified":"2014-11-21T13:31:28","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T13:31:28","slug":"one-kiss-shares-80-million-bugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=67278","title":{"rendered":"One kiss ‘shares 80 million bugs’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A single 10-second kiss can transfer as many as 80 million bacteria, according to Dutch scientists.<\/p>\n

They monitored the kissing behaviour of 21 couples and found those who kissed nine times a day were most likely to share salivary bugs.<\/p>\n

Studies suggest the mouth is home to more than 700 different types of bacteria – but the report reveals some are exchanged more easily than others.<\/p>\n

The research is published in the journal Microbiome.<\/p>\n

Locked lips<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A team from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) asked 21 couples a series of questions to assess their kissing habits, including how frequently they had kissed in the last year and when they last locked lips.<\/p>\n

Scientists took bacterial samples from the volunteers’ tongues and saliva before and after a strictly timed 10-second kiss.<\/p>\n

One member of the couple then drank a probiotic drink, containing an easily identifiable mixture of bugs.<\/p>\n

On the couple’s second kiss, scientists were able to detect the volume of bacteria transferred to the other partner – on average 80 million bacteria in a single 10-second kiss.<\/p>\n

But while bacteria in the saliva seemed to change quickly in response to a kiss, bug populations on the tongue remained more stable.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/div>\n
The kiss-o-meter is an interactive exhibit at Amsterdam’s museum of microbes<\/div>\n

Prof Remco Kort, who led the research, said: “French kissing is a great example of exposure to a gigantic number of bacteria in a short time.<\/p>\n

“But only some bacteria transferred from a kiss seemed to take hold on the tongue.<\/p>\n

“Further research should look at the properties of the bacteria and the tongue that contribute to this sticking power.<\/p>\n

“These types of investigations may help us design future bacterial therapies and help people with troublesome bacterial problems.”<\/p>\n

Microbial museum<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dutch scientists worked in collaboration with the museum Micropia, the world’s first museum of microbes, based in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

In a newly opened exhibition, couples are invited to share a kiss and are provided with an instant analysis of the bugs they have exchanged.<\/p>\n

A growing number of researchers are looking at the microbiome – an ecosystem of some 100 trillion micro-organisms that live in and on our bodies.<\/p>\n

Scientists say these populations may be essential for health and the prevention of disease.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A single 10-second kiss can transfer as many as 80 million bacteria, according to Dutch scientists. They monitored the kissing behaviour of 21 couples and found those who kissed nine times a day were most likely to share salivary bugs. Studies suggest the mouth is home to more than 700 different types of bacteria – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":67279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15,51],"class_list":["post-67278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chinese","tag-ports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}