Significant association between gingivitis and preterm birth
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Pregnant women will want to include a periodontal evaluation as part of their prenatal care. That’s because researchers found that periodontal treatment significantly reduced the risk of having a preterm birth or a low birthweight infant, according to a study published in the Journal of Periodontology.
“We found a significant association between gingivitis and preterm birth after adjusting for the major risk factors for preterm delivery, suggesting that gingivitis, the earliest form of periodontal disease, is an independent risk factor for preterm birth and low birthweight,” said Dr. Ne’stor J. L?, Professor of the University of Chile. “Periodontal therapy reduced preterm birth and low birthweight infant rates by 68 percent in women with pregnancy-associated gingivitis.”
Music training may change the brain
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New research shows that the special training of music conductors seems to enhance the way their senses work together - enabling them to quickly tell who played a wrong note, for example. Scientists hope the research will lead to new discoveries about how music training may change the brain.
“Studies have shown that while students who get music training may sometimes do better academically, no research has explored whether this training actually causes changes in the brain,” said Jonathan Burdette, M.D., associate professor of radiology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Exercise capacity is a powerful predictor of death in patients with coronary artery disease
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Exercise capacity, as measured in terms of VO2max, is a powerful predictor of death in patients with coronary artery disease, not just patients with heart failure. That is the finding of a Mayo Clinic study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2005 in Dallas.
VO2max is the maximum amount of oxygen a person can take in during exercise. In a VO2max study, a patient walks on a treadmill for about 5 to 15 minutes and breathes through a valve; the oxygen and carbon dioxide in the expired air are measured. Results are given in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min).
Link Between Sleep Apnea, Body Position in Children
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Researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston have discovered that toddlers with sleep apnea experience more respiratory disturbances when they sleep on their backs than in other positions. Their findings, which contradict earlier studies on the subject, were published in this month’s issue of Archives of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.
Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a serious medical problem affecting 500,000 children every year in the United States. Pediatric OSAS is commonly caused by enlarged tonsils and adenoids and is characterized by episodes of partial or complete upper airway obstruction that occur during sleep, including snoring, cyanosis (a bluish color of the skin and mucous membranes), and poor sleep quality. Daytime symptoms can include mouth breathing, behavior problems, hyperactivity and excessive daytime sleepiness.
In Autism, Related Disorders, Recognizing Emotion Is Different Than Identity
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In contrast to previous reports, for those with autism or Asperger’s syndrome, recognizing facial expressions is separate from identifying familiar faces, according to a study published in the November 22, 2005, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Those who had an impaired ability to process facial identity were no different than those with normal facial identity ability, when it came to processing facial expression.
Led by researchers in the U.S. and Canada, the study examined 26 adults diagnosed with either autism, Asperger’s syndrome, social-emotional processing disorder, or both Asperger’s and social-emotional processing disorder. The shared trait of these disorders is social dysfunction. The individuals took a variety of tests to measure famous face recognition, recognition of non-facial emotional cues (from voices or bodies), recognition of basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, fearful), and recognition of a complex mental state (reflective, aghast, irritated, impatient) presented by a pair of eyes.
Heavy Drinking Falls with Age; Men and Smokers Slower
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BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that people reduce their average alcohol consumption as they age. In the new study the researchers sought to determine whether the percentage of heavy drinkers—that is, men who have at least five drinks in one sitting and women who have at least four drinks — also reduced as they aged. This latest study was based on data from 14,127 participants, aged 25 to 74, in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, first administered between 1971 and 1974, with three follow-ups through 1992.
FINDINGS: While the researchers noted that heavy drinking declined with age, they found it fell more slowly among men compared with women and among smokers compared with non-smokers. A higher probability of heavy drinking was associated with being unmarried, having less than a high school education, an annual income below the median, and not living in the Southeastern United States. Heavy drinking also declined faster among those who got married or quit smoking between follow ups.
Spouse Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Patients Show Higher Risk of Gingivitis
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Caregiver spouses of patients with Alzheimer’s disease develop gum disease at twice the rate of their non-caregiver counterparts, researchers report in the latest issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
Because there was little difference in oral hygiene between the two groups in the study, the researchers say the difference may be related to stress.
Hunger kills 6 mln children a year: UN
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The United Nations’ food and farming body on Tuesday renewed its plea for more effort to improve agriculture in poor countries to ease hunger and malnutrition, which kill nearly 6 million children a year.
In its annual report, “The State of Food Insecurity in the World”, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the world is way behind on hunger reduction goals for 2015 set at political summits over the last 10 years.
Breast cancer vaccine may prevent recurrence
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A vaccine using a protein that is a biological “marker” for breast cancer, called HER2/neu, prompts a specific immune response and may prevent recurrence of the disease in certain patients who have become disease-free after treatment for breast cancer, according to researchers.
“While our results are preliminary,” lead investigator Dr. George E. Peoples told Reuters Health, “we are encouraged that this type of trial, evaluating cancer prevention as opposed to cancer treatment, will ultimately reveal the power, and appropriate future use, of cancer vaccines.”
Cervical cancer vaccine wins some conservative favor
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Conservatives who fought against wider access to a “morning-after” pill are speaking favorably about vaccines against a sexually transmitted cause of cervical cancer, but some groups may still call for limited use.
The makers of the still-experimental vaccines, Merck & Co. Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc, have been meeting with advocacy groups to dispel any concerns that giving the shots might promote sexual activity by young girls.
Experts warn of bird flu risk during haj pilgrimage
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Millions of pilgrims who gather in Mecca for the annual haj pilgrimage risk creating the conditions in which a pandemic strain of flu could emerge, health experts said on Monday.
“It’s the worst case scenario we can have,” said Didier Pittet, director of the Infection Control Programme at Geneva’s University Hospitals.
When Mum’s stressed at work kids feel it too
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Researchers say that children whose mothers do not enjoy their jobs also suffer increased stress.
A research team from the universities of Bath, Kent and Bristol, say they found higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in those children whose mothers found their jobs less rewarding or left them feeling emotionally exhausted, compared to women who reported more enjoyment from their work.
Who gets bird flu vaccine first when there’s not enough to go round?
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According to the top health official in the U.S., it will be three to five years before the United States can produce enough bird flu vaccine to inoculate its population against a potentially deadly outbreak in humans.
Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, says that until production capacity is sufficient for the entire population, supplies would have to be rationed in the event of an outbreak.
Viagra improves urinary symptoms in men
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Treatment with Viagra (sildenafil) can improve urinary tract symptoms in men with erectile dysfunction and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a common disease in older men that involves urinary symptoms due to enlargement of the prostate gland, according to study findings presented here Monday at a meeting of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America.
“The improvement in urination with Viagra is dramatic,” lead author Dr. Kevin V. McVary, from Northwestern University in Chicago, told Reuters Health. “The improvement is on par with what we’ve come to expect from some of the medications commonly used to treat BPH symptoms. In fact, better than some of the other medications.”
Tamoxifen reduces the risk of invasive and noninvasive breast cancer
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Data from additional years of follow-up of a large randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial of tamoxifen for the prevention of breast cancer confirm that the drug reduces the risk of invasive and noninvasive breast cancer, according to a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (P-1) began in 1992. More than 13,000 women aged 35 years and older who were at high risk for breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or tamoxifen for 5 years. In 1998, the study’s independent data monitoring committee recommended that the study be unblinded.
