The reason that salt affects the way your lips feel is because of osmotic pressure. If you put a high concentration of saltwater on one side of a semipermeable membrane, and a low concentration of saltwater on the other side of the membrane, water will flow from the less concentrated side to the more concentrated side, in an effort to equalize the concentration of salt. The cell walls in your body are semipermeable membranes, so salt in your diet contributes to the amount of fluid in the interstitial spaces, or the areas in between the cells. Eating large quantities of salt will cause bloating of the tissues, or a feeling of swelling. Conversely, getting salt directly on the surface of your lips will pull moisture out of the outermost layer of cells in your lips, and give the surface a strange feeling. So if you have large lips to begin with, and play entirely on the red as I do, you will be more susceptible to the changes that salty foods cause. If you play on the white, and believe that "on the red" players have no business playing the horn, as some people on this list apparently do, then you probably have very little empathy for those people who have to watch their diet in order to be effective hornists.
Marty Layman, DDS > > message: 1 > date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 10:05:59 -0800 (PST) > from: Evan Hayes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > subject: [Hornlist] Re: Lips > > I totally aggree with the comment about salty foods > and playing. I have had to cut out salt on the fries > with cafeteria lunch because it would utterly kill my > embouchure for afterschool rehearsal. I didn't make > this connection at first, and consquently suffered > through many poor rehearsals. I too would like to > hear from the MDs out there. Any other > foods/substances that people have found that might > effect the lips? > > __________________________________ > ************************************ _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
