October 6, 2006, 5:04 AM CT

Tongue scrapers only slightly reduce bad breath

Bad breath is a common problem for a number of people, given the wide variety of substances traveling through our mouths daily. Some people avoid offensive foods and drinks, chew gum, use mouth rinses, or eat mints to mask unpleasant odor. Others cannot escape bad breath quite so easily. At least 40 million Americans suffer from halitosis. Unfortunately, there is no standard therapy for it.

As per a research studyin the September/recent issue of General Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry's (AGD) clinical, peer-evaluated journal, halitosis is a term used to describe any disagreeable odor of expired air. Bad breath is a generally accepted term for foul smells emanating from the mouth. Oral malodor is a term reserved for unpleasant smells originating from the oral cavity. "A common reason for bad breath is post-nasal drip, which coats the back area of the tongue with bacteria-rich mucous," says AGD spokesperson, June Lee, DDS, MAGD. "A tongue scraper is often effective in relieving oral malodor caused by sinus drainage".

The study evaluated literature examining the effects of using tongue scrapers to brush the tongue, rather than using a toothbrush to scrape the tongue. Data revealed that a tongue cleaner/scraper demonstrated a significant difference in reducing volatile sulfur compounds (VSC) levels, which are produced when bacteria and amino acids interact to produce bad breath.........

Posted by: Janet      Permalink         Source

October 6, 2006, 5:00 AM CT

Methamphetamine Use On The Rise

It's cheap, addictive and can harm your smile for life. Its use is also rapidly increasing both nationally and world-wide. It is methamphetamine. As per the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than 12 million Americans age 12 and older reported they had tried methamphetamine at least once in their lifetime. The Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) advises it is imperative that the public and dental professionals learn about the severe oral health effects the drug is having on a number of users' mouths.

As per a report that will appear in the November/December 2006 issue of General Dentistry, the AGD's clinical, peer-evaluated journal, methamphetamine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant that produces prolonged euphoria and is relatively easy to make, inexpensive to purchase and distribute. Its use is on the rise and can have serious adverse affects on one's oral health, including highly visible widespread cavities and rampant decay.

Meth abuse patients may have a higher tolerance for anesthetics, experience unpleasant effects due to drug interactions or have anxiety regarding dental therapy which combined with meth use can cause serious problems. Their teeth have been described as "blackened, stained, rotting, crumbling, or falling apart," as per information in the study obtained from the American Dental Association (ADA). Some teeth are in such poor condition that they are unsalvageable and must be extracted.........

Posted by: JoAnn      Permalink         Source

October 6, 2006, 4:48 AM CT

Babies With Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension

If he can figure out which babies will be born unable to breathe properly, Dr. Stephen M. Black thinks he can help change that.

"When these kids are born, you have a short amount of time to intervene or you get brain damage," says Dr. Black, cell and molecular physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia Vascular Biology Center.

Unfortunately, persistent pulmonary high blood pressure comes as a surprise in full-term babies, says Dr. Jatinder J.S. Bhatia, chief of the MCG Section of Neonatology. The pregnancy seems uneventful until the hours following birth when breathing trouble requires rapid transport to a neonatal intensive care unit.

"What happens in utero is that all your gas exchange is through the placenta, so there is only about 8 percent of cardiac output actually going through the lungs," says Dr. Black. "When you are born, obviously there is 100 cardiac output and you need to breathe".

When babies can't breathe well, physicians quickly determine whether the primary problem is the heart or lungs, Dr. Bhatia says. When it's the lungs, babies first get oxygen treatment and possibly mechanical ventilation. If it is pulmonary hypertension, the powerful vasodilator, nitric oxide, is used to reduce high pressures in the pulmonary circuit and allow the transition to a normal circulation. Neonatologists also have begun using the popular erectile dysfunction drug, Viagra, to dilate tiny pulmonary vessels.........

Posted by: Emily      Permalink         Source

October 6, 2006, 4:41 AM CT

Cola Might Increase Osteoporosis Risk

As per the National Osteoporosis Foundation, approximately 55 percent of Americans, mostly women, are at risk of developing osteoporosis, a disease of porous and brittle bones that causes higher susceptibility to bone fractures. Now, Katherine Tucker, PhD, director of the Epidemiology and Dietary Assessment Program at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, and his colleagues have reported findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that cola, a popular beverage for a number of Americans, may contribute to lower bone mineral density in older women, a condition which increases risk for osteoporosis.

Tucker, also a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts, and his colleagues analyzed dietary questionnaires and bone mineral density measurements at the spine and three different hip sites of more than 2,500 people in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study whose average age was just below 60. In women, cola consumption was linked to lower bone mineral density at all three hip sites, regardless of factors such as age, menopausal status, total calcium and vitamin D intake, or use of cigarettes or alcohol.

However, cola consumption was not linked to lower bone mineral density for men at the hip sites, or the spine for either men or women. The results were similar for diet cola and, eventhough weaker, for decaffeinated cola as well.........

Posted by: Janet      Permalink         Source

October 5, 2006, 10:14 PM CT

Child custody with abusive ex-spouse?

What influences women when they are making child custody decisions that will bring them into future contact with a violent or controlling ex-husband? Fear, pragmatism, and the belief--sometimes reinforced in mandated divorce education classes--that their children will suffer if both parents are not in their lives, as per a University of Illinois study in the August Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

"Will the mother and father be able to co-parent without a recurrence of violence or controlling behaviors? That's the most important consideration in making child custody decisions," said Jennifer Hardesty, a U of I assistant professor of human and community development.

Unfortunately, other factors, including fear, practical considerations about money, and guilt over breaking up the family, influence such women heavily when they are making custody decisions, the researcher said.

Hardesty conducted extensive interviews with 19 abused women of varying backgrounds and in varying stages of the divorce process to develop a theoretical model for future research. The study was conducted in two Missouri counties that mandatory divorcing couples with minor children to attend a class on post-divorce parenting.

"Fear was very important in the women's decisions to leave, but guilt over breaking up the family was more influential in making custody decisions," she said.........

Posted by: JoAnn      Permalink         Source

October 5, 2006, 10:00 PM CT

Brain Mapping Safe For Children

Dispelling a stubborn myth, scientists at Johns Hopkins have shown that children with strokes, brain tumors and other cerebrovascular diseases can safely undergo a potentially life-saving brain-mapping test that a number of doctors have long shunned over concerns for side effects. Analysis of 241 cerebral angiograms performed on 205 children at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center between 1999 and 2006 showed that not a single patient suffered complications during or immediately following the procedure.

Results of the analysis, thought to bethe first study in more than 25 years to look at the safety of cerebral angiographies in children, are published in the recent issue of Stroke.

Performed by threading a catheter into the patient's groin, through the abdomen and the chest and upward into the arteries of the neck, cerebral angiography is the most accurate brain-vessel imaging technique available and a critical diagnostic and therapy tool, says Lori Jordan, M.D., a pediatric neurologist at the Children's Center and a co-author of the report.

"The assumption that angiographies in children are more dangerous than in adults haccording tosisted over the years-mostly due to lack of evidence," says study senior author Philippe Gailloud, M.D., an interventional neuroradiologist at Johns Hopkins. "When we ask parents to sign consent for an angiography, their first question is how safe it is, and up until now, we didn't have any hard data to show them. Given the very low risk of complications we see, pediatric neurologists should not hesitate to order the procedure, and we can say to them that we have research showing this procedure is indeed very safe in children".........

Posted by: Daniel      Permalink         Source

October 5, 2006, 9:57 PM CT

Tumor Suppressor Promoteing Cancer Cell Growth?

Scientists have shown that the tumor suppressor gene H-REV107-1 may actually stimulate tumor progression in some non-small cell lung carcinomas. The related report by Nazarenko et al., "H-REV107-1 stimulates growth in non-small cell lung carcinomas via the activation of mitogenic signaling," appears in the recent issue of The American Journal of Pathology.

Tumor suppressor genes function by regulating normal cell growth and proliferation. When a tumor suppressor gene is turned off, by mutation, deletion, or blocked expression, cell growth can proceed without safeguards, contributing to cancer cell proliferation. However, this appears not to be the case in some non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC), in which a tumor suppressor (H-REV107-1) actually promotes cancer cell growth.

Nazarenko et al. found H-REV107-1 expression in a portion of human NSCLC samples examined. When they further characterized this expression in relation to normal lung tissue, H-REV107-1 was found in nonproliferating and proliferating cells in normal lung tissue, localized mainly to the nucleus. In cultured NSCLC cells, however, H-REV107-1 was found in either the cytoplasm or both the cytoplasm and nucleus.

The group then examined whether cellular localization of H-REV107-1 in NSCLC tumor samples is linked with tumor behavior. Strikingly, cytoplasmic localization correlated with decreased patient survival (24 months versus 41 months for nuclear localization). These data suggested that cytoplasmic H-REV107-1 stimulates cell growth. This was then confirmed by suppression of H-REV107-1 RNA, which inhibited cell proliferation, and overexpression of H-REV107-1 protein, which stimulated cell growth pathways and increased proliferation.........

Posted by: Janet      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 10:38 PM CT

Chocolate Chip Cookies Lower Cholesterol

Right Direction Chocolate Chip CookiesTM lower cholesterol and improve lipid subfraction profile, lowering the risk of heart disease, as per a published study in The Journal of Nutrition (October). The chocolate chip cookies, made with a combination of psyllium and plant sterols, are a tasty all-natural approach to reducing cardiovascular risk linked to cholesterol.

The American Heart Association estimates at least 50 percent of the American adult population has high cholesterol. The study revealed eating two Right Direction Cookies daily showed a ten percent decrease in LDL cholesterol as well as shifting the LDL particles toward a less atherogenic pattern.

Normal cholesterol levels are commonly linked to a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, but not always. Recent studies reveal small, dense LDL particles have been associated with increased formation of fatty substances and cholesterol buildup in the arteries, even for individuals with total cholesterol levels under 200 mg/dl.

The randomized, double blind study researched 33 healthy adults with moderately high cholesterol between the ages 3565 at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. Participants were randomly assigned to the Right Direction Cookie group or the placebo cookie group. Two cookies per day were consumed for four weeks. After a three week washout period, subjects received the other cookies for an additional four weeks. At the end of each therapy period, two blood samples were drawn on different days (to control for day-to-day variability) and collected.........

Posted by: Janet      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 10:31 PM CT

Overweight Children At Increased Risk

Research published recently in Journal of the CardioMetabolic Syndrome (JCMS) presents data supporting that adult diseases, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and sleep apnea are now recognizable in childhood. The underlying link between them is a disorder of insulin resistance, which is worsened by childhood obesity. The annual National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention observed that about one-third of U.S. children today, about 25 million, are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.

One study in this special issue reports data on the effect of age and sex on cardiovascular risk in overweight children, aged 11 years and older. Results showed that hypertension and dyslipidemia in overweight children is high, with overweight males 11 years and older having a higher prevalence of these risk factors than females and younger males. This may explain the earlier appearance of cardiovascular disease in overweight adult males.

Scientists from Wisconsin, lead by Dr. David K. Murdock examined the effect of elevated body mass index in 247 healthy school children of which 28 percent of 2nd graders and 33 percent of 11th graders were overweight. Data from the study revealed that biomarkers of increased risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes were already present in the overweight children.........

Posted by: JoAnn      Permalink         Source

October 4, 2006, 10:23 PM CT

Parent's Conversational Style

Parents who use a particular conversational style with their children--drawing them out to elicit detailed memories about past shared events and to talk about emotions--contribute to the child's secure attachment, sense of self-worth, and eventual social competence, says a new University of Illinois study published in a September special edition of Attachment and Human Development.

"As soon as children start talking, parents develop conversational patterns with their kids, and different parents have very different patterns," said Kelly K. Bost, a U of I associate professor of human development.

In the study, Bost and her colleagues compared the conversational styles of 90 mothers and their three-year-old children with assessments the researchers had made in the home of the children's attachment security. The research confirmed that mothers of securely attached children use a more elaborative conversational style than those of insecure children.

"In elaborative conversations, parents provide rich detail and lots of background information and try to get their child to provide new information from his memory as the conversation goes on," Bost said.

Experts believe elaborative conversations aid in memory development, foster the ability to organize and tell personal stories, and promote a sense of shared history with the parent, she said.........

Posted by: JoAnn      Permalink         Source