Originally Posted by fuglystick

So how many of you drool? Do you find that it helps you focus?

I drool constantly. The margins of all of my notebooks are filled with drool. I focus on drooling various shapes. Some end up looking like strange gourds. I drool a variety of morning glory-type flowers on almost every page.

Originally Posted by shesus

drooling causes people to lighten up. I think more people should make drooling part of their daily (or nightly) routine.

Originally Posted by Xerxys

Just the fact that it's now in nonsense, made it loose all it's awsomeness!!!

Originally Posted by ngdawg

Mono causes drooling???

Hm....I reread this...didn't see anyone making fun of physical maladies....

Back to the important things:

Originally Posted by ngdawg

Mono causes drooling???

Hm....I reread this...didn't see anyone making fun of physical maladies....

Originally Posted by spectre

There better not be anyone making fun of physical maladies. It's cruel to think that someone would laugh at a person with an ailment that causes drooling like count choculitis or spontaneous dental hydroplosion.

Originally Posted by flat5

There is an old musician's joke.
How to check if the bandstand is level:
See if the banjo player is drooling equally from both sides of his mouth.

Originally Posted by JumpinJesus

Relating this to doodling is even that much more over the line. Doodling is the mind's way of focusing concentration and drooling has nothing to do with that. Making a doodling-drooling connection is humorless at best and fascist...

Originally Posted by cdwonderful

which still doesnt answer my question.......
DO SPIT BUBBLES COUNT?

Originally Posted by Tophat665

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Originally Posted by some spit authority

What is Saliva?
Saliva is a fluid of mostly water which is secreted out of three pairs (for a total of six) of salivary glands within the mouth.

These pairs are called the parotid, the submandibular and the sublingual glands. Indeed, these are the big three, responsible for every spit and every puddle of drool on one’s pillow in the morning.

Now, what is the chemical composition of saliva?

The stuff is mostly water (98%), and this portion of it is really somewhat inconsequential and no different from what comes out of the kitchen faucet.

Obviously, if saliva was only water, one might as well just have a bottle Disani laying around at all times for all the good it would do. Indeed, it's the remaining 2% that's the key to the importance of saliva.

Saliva Chemicals
This deceptively small portion contains several different chemicals – mucus, electrolytes, antibacterial compounds, and enzymes – all of which play their own particular role in one’s mouth.

The enzymes in particular are pretty crucial, and one of them specifically: Ptyalin (from the amylase family of enzymes) serves to break down the starches in the food we eat, beginning the crucial processes of digestion long before the food ever reaches the stomach. It would surely be missed if it was gone.

The small amount of mucus within saliva turns it into what’s called an alkaline chemical, meaning that it acts to neutralize acids in the mouth.

Why is this important? Well, when the urge is felt to vomit and the brain sends signals to the mouth to rapidly increase salivation, one should be grateful, because the acid from the stomach can be quite hazardous inside the mouth, throat and teeth. Saliva, in other words, protects the mouth from vomit.

Other Qualities
One could go on for some time – saliva acts to lubricate food in order to allow it to slide through the esophagus without any unnecessary discomfort, it solubilizes dry food which allows one to taste what is being placed in the mouth, and it aids in oral hygene by cleaning unwanted microbes and bacteria from the mouth (the fact that the salivary glands slow down production during the night is the reason for “morning breath”), and the list goes on.

As for licking wounds... saliva definitely has an antibacterial element to it (and even trace amounts of hydrogen peroxide), which does, in fact, make it a bit more effective at cleaning wounds than actual water.

In this light, perhaps this is one of its intended purposes that we simply don't use often enough.

Nerve Growth Factor
Additionally, it has been shown that in some animals (mice in particular), saliva contains a product known as NGF (nerve growth factor), which is actually a very capable healing agent for wounds.

It has been shown that a wound dosed in NGF heals up to twice as fast as a wound without it. Alas, such a substance has never been shown to exist in human saliva, but scientists haven't given up hope of finding it.

Saliva is not just a gift to animals, but it is an important one to humans as well, and one that is far too often taken for granted.

Originally Posted by uncle phil

does swallowing her tongue count?