Report: Does incense make you high?
Of course not, but that doesn't prevent scientists from issuing research papers with titles such as this (I'm not making this up): "Incensole Acetate, an Incense Component, Elicits Psychoactivity by Activating TRPV3 Channels in the Brain."MSN's Health & Fitness gives us the popular treatment:
Now, as soon as the author strays from the science his commentary gets fairly useless very quickly.... Frankincense—the incense traditionally burned in religious ceremonies—can act on the brain to lower anxiety and diminish depression.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Hebrew University administered incensole acetate, a component of frankincense, to lab mice and learned that it lit up areas of their little mouse brains that control emotion, including nerve circuits affecting anxiety and depression.
I wonder, however, if these sorts of findings could be used as backdoor argument to convince liberal parishes and liturgy commissions to allow incense back into the celebration of Mass? Hmm....
Labels: catholic oddly-enough, liturgy, science


































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