• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Laser Out That Bad Breath

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 December 2004, 15:00 CST

IF brushing your teeth and using a mouthwash don't improve bad breath, an Israeli scientist may have the solution - laser treatment. Yehuda Finkelstein from the Meir Hospital at the Sapir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, Israel has successfully treated 53 patients suffering from bad breath, or halitosis, with a new 15- minute technique.

"Now there's a laser treatment for one of the worst forms of halitosis, a rarely diagnosed version wafting from the tonsils," New Scientist magazine said recently.

Bad breath is usually caused by the build-up of bacteria around the gums and teeth which release foul-smelling gases but in more serious cases bacteria breed in grooves in the tonsils. More than half of the patients were cured after one treatment, while the others required two or three more sessions, according to the magazine.

* TAKING "nutritional doses" of antioxidants seems to reduce men's risk of cancer, says a French study. Men who eat less fruits and vegetables also have a lower level of antioxidants in their blood. If they increase their intake of these foods, they may be less likely to develop cancer, the new findings suggest.

"Our results show the importance of a lifelong diet rich in fruits and vegetables," Dr Serge Hercberg of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, told Reuters Health. Hercberg and colleagues studied more than 13,000 men and women aged 35 to 60 years. This approach doesn't do much for women, however, probably because they eat more healthily than men to begin with.

* A VISIT to the church may be good for the soul but not so good for the lungs, a new study shows. Maastricht University scientists found that burning candles and incense in church can release dangerous levels of potentially carcinogenic particles, according to research published in the European Respiratory journal.

"After a day of candle burning we found the levels about 20 times as much as by a busy road," Theo de Kok, the author of the study said. "These levels were so high we thought we should report it to the public."

The air at a Maastricht basilica contained 20 times the European Union limit of PM10 particles after a simulated mass ceremony. Tiny PM10 particles can be inhaled and are therefore a potential hazard. "The exposures are worrisome, not so much for the occasional church goers, but priests, choirs and other people working in churches," he said.

* THIS is the picture a new study paints of how different levels of alcohol affect a driver's brain: The first drink makes it harder to stay in your lane, while the second makes it easier to ignore the fact that you're headed for the ditch. It was published in the current issue of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Nine test subjects made a series of simulated drives in a brain- scanning device after consuming drinks intended to raise their blood alcohol level to 0.04 or 0.08. Researchers Dr Vince D. Calhoun and Dr Godfrey D. Pearlson of Yale found that the first drink appeared to produce a slight impairment of gross motor activities. In that condition, the subjects actually drove a little better and a little slower, apparently aware of their possible impairment, Pearlson said. The second drink saw a significant decline in gross motor functioning. People were less aware of the consequences of their actions.

"They were poor judges of their deteriorating skills." As a result, they drove faster, left their lanes more often and were involved in more simulated collisions.

* IN a small new study, the chemical that makes chocolate a mild stimulant outperformed codeine in suppressing coughs. Treating anything with chocolate always has its fans, but what is of greatest interest to the researchers is the way the chemical, theobromine, appears to work.

Codeine and other opiates fight coughs by acting in the brain, reducing activity in its socalled "cough centre," said the paper's senior author, Dr Peter J. Barnes of Britain's National Heart and Lung Institute. But they also slow down other brain activities, inducing sleepiness. Theobromine, he said, seems to work in the lungs, suppressing the firing of the nerve fibres there that send signals to the cough centre.

In the study, published in the December issue of the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 10 healthy volunteers were given theobromine, codeine or a placebo during a series of tests. The researchers used capsaicin, the chemical in hot peppers, to provoke coughing. It took about a third more capsaicin to set off coughs after the subjects had taken theobromine compared with a placebo. Codeine was only slightly more effective than placebo, Barnes said.

* MORE time outside for baby in the afternoon goes along with more quiet time at night, according to a British study in The Journal of Sleep Research.

The study compared babies who slept well with problem sleepers and found that the good sleepers had been exposed to twice as much light between noon and 4pm.

The study's author, Dr Yvonne Harrison of Liverpool John Moores University, said since increased daytime exposure to light has been found to decrease sleep disturbances among the elderly, Harrison decided to test whether light exposure could be related to sleeping patterns of babies six to 12 weeks old.

The researchers found that better-sleeping children were exposed to twice the intensity of light in the afternoon compared to poorer sleepers. Harrison conceded that the findings might just reflect "energy or enthusiasm for outdoor activities" among mothers whose sleep was being interrupted less.

* TEENAGERS whose bodies clear nicotine unusually slowly from their systems became addicted to cigarettes at more than twice the rate of their peers, a study has concluded. In recent years, researchers have come to believe that genetic factors make some people more susceptible to addiction to tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, along with social and environmental factors, said the study's lead researcher, Dr Jennifer Lee O'Loughlin of McGill University in Montreal. The study focused on genetic defects that have moderate or severe effects on the liver's ability to metabolise nicotine. It involved 281 seventh-graders who had begun to smoke but were not yet considered addicted.

Thirteen per cent had one of the defective versions of the gene. Over five years, 25 per cent of the teenagers who were the slowest to process nicotine increased their smoking to the point of dependence, compared with nine per cent of those with normal nicotine metabolism and 10 per cent who were slightly impaired, the study found.

Having nicotine remain in the brain longer appeared to speed the habit- forming process, O'Loughlin said. On the other hand, it also meant that the teenagers with the severe genetic defect went longer between nicotine cravings - they smoked half as many cigarettes as tobacco-addicted teenagers with normal genes.

Source: New Straits Times

More News in this Category