Most people may not know that their mouth contains about 700 different types of bacteria. Some are good for us while others not so much. However, according to a new study, which the journal Microbiome recently published, people who drink one or two alcoholic drinks each day have a lot more bad bacteria in their mouths and a lot less good bacteria. The problem is that a larger amount of bad bacteria in the mouth can lead to gum disease, certain types of cancer and even heart disease. Meanwhile, good bacteria prevent harmful microbes from evolving and maintain a good health of the entire body.

According to Jiyoung Ahn, the senior investigator of this study, this is the first research of this kind, which deals with the impact of alcohol on the health of the mouth. Ahn and her colleagues wanted to find out more about how diet and lifestyle actually influence the oral microbiome. So, in order to discover this, they asked 1,044 healthy people to help them with an experiment. They were between 55 and 87, and most of them were white.

Drinkers have more bad bacteria in their mouths, which can be dangerous

It seems that 270 of the people were nondrinkers, 160 were heavy drinkers, while 614 were moderate drinkers. The experiment was actually a spit test. Then, the team of experts analyzed the samples and quantified the bacteria that each person had in the saliva sample.

This is how they managed to find out that, in comparison with nondrinkers, heavy drinkers had more bad bacteria in their mouths. This is yet another reason to worry about heavy alcohol intake, apart from the fact that it can cause chronic diseases, liver disease and even cancer. However, the researchers are saying that they need to research more to find out if this is also true for casual drinkers, in comparison to nondrinkers.

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Certain people’s blood pressure rises suddenly when visiting a doctor’s office, an unusual condition which is known as “white coat hypertension”. However, even if it may seems like something which should be ignored, a new study, which the New England Journal of Medicine published, claims otherwise. This mysterious condition reportedly affects about 30% of all American people. It occurs when the person’s blood pressure rises when at a doctor’s office as opposed to when it’s taken at home.

The general idea was that stress was actually involved in this phenomenon. However, it seems that is not really the case and “white coat hypertension” might signal something dangerous. According to the new study, people suffering from this condition had a risk of death which was twice as high when compared to normal people. Experts are saying that this condition is not a benign one. In fact, if a white coat makes your blood pressure rise, many other stress factors will do too. And this is not good at all.

The dangers of “white coat hypertension”

In order to reach this conclusion, the team of researchers followed 64,000 people over the course of five years. They think that usually, blood pressure taken at home is a much better indicator of a possible cardiovascular death. That is in comparison with readings at the doctor’s office. This is why doctors are encouraging patients to read their blood pressure at home, in the environment where they feel the most comfortable in.

It’s also important for people to know how to use a home blood pressure monitor. They should not drink caffeinated beverages, smoke or exercise within half an hour before measuring the blood pressure. Also, you should sit correctly, with your back straight and supported, most preferable on a chair, not on the sofa. Apart form this, make sure to measure it at the same time everyday and take multiple readings to be sure.

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Among older people, falls are among the leading causes of severe injury and death. Official numbers tell us that back in 2014, falls had to do with about 33,000 deaths of older adults. So, if you are worried about falling in old age, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has released a list of recommendations which the journal JAMA recently published. So, for older people who may want to decrease the risk of falling, it seems that regular exercise might be the way.

In order to reach this conclusion and come up with these recommendations, the group analyzed evidence from 20 studies. They all included adults aged 65 or even older. Upon combining the data from all of these studies, the team found that regularly exercising might drastically reduce the risk of falling. The team also studied a wide range of exercise programs which seemed to be effective. They were mostly focused on resistance training and strength, as well as gait and balance.

Regular exercise might be the key to avoid falls in older age

According to the paper, when it came to the Vitamin D supplementations, it seems that they did not help at all against falls in older age. According to the team who wrote the editorial, it seems that there will most probably be more evidence regarding this issue in the near future. The Vitamin D issue is still undecided, as some studies showed that it might help against fractures and falls. However, other studies claim that it does not help with anything, in fact.

Currently, there are two clinical trials in both the United States and Europe that are testing the effects of 2,000 IU daily vitamin D versus a placebo. The conclusion of the editorial is that soon, these results will establish a clear situation. Until then, regular exercise is the key, especially in older age.

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According to what doctors reported on Monday, it seems that immune therapy drugs might completely transform the usual treatment for lung cancer. Moreover, it might even give the patients a few more years of life. It seems that the only condition for this therapy to work is to treat cancer patients before they have surgery. This will melt away the tumor while also limiting or even stopping it from spreading. In the past, certain combinations of immunotherapy drugs have helped patients get off the standard but more toxic chemotherapy and added extra years of life.

Experts agree that this impressive discovery might work on all lung cancer patients, as they should receive immunotherapy before undergoing surgery. This is a huge progress that will certainly help lung cancer patients a lot more. It’s worth noting that immunotherapy works by helping the body’s immune system fight off cancer. It employs a variety of different methods to do so among which are boosting the activity of the immune system or targeting tumors with engineered immune system proteins. They also include a special class of drugs that seem to have stopped former President Jimmy Carter’s melanoma.

Immunotherapy might be the key against lung cancer

Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in the entire world, including the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine has recently published these impressive new results in a study. It seems that the more creative use of these miraculous drugs can help fight off lung cancer too.

For the study, a team of researchers treated 20 cancer patients with one of these drugs. Then, they underwent the surgery they needed for their type of the disease, lung cancer. About 1 year later, 16 of the patients were alive and well, and they didn’t suffer from cancer anymore. For two more people the cancer returned but after extra treatment, they were healthy. The remaining two people died, one of cancer, and the other of an unrelated head injury. So, 18 of the initial patients were still alive at the end of the experiment, proving how useful these drugs could prove.

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If you are one of those people who like to stay up late or who struggle to get up in the morning, more commonly-known as night owls, you might be in for some trouble. According to a new study, which the journal Chronobiology International recently published, this might bring with it diabetes, psychological issues and most importantly, an increased risk of early death. The researchers reached this conclusion after tracking about half a million adult people in the United Kingdom over the course of six and a half years.

According to Kirsten Knutson, the leading author of the study, the idea is that these night owls have problems adapting to the external world because their internal clock says otherwise. This is why this issue, paired with an irregular schedule, might in time lead to serious health issues. Some older studies have also shown that people who tend to go late to bed have a lot more problems, including heart disease and diabetes. However, this is the first such study to also look at the risk of mortality among those people.

Being a night owl is unhealthy

About 433,268 people participated in this study and over the course of the six and a half years, 10.000 of them died. After taking into account certain factors like age, sex, smoking status, body mass index, and ethnicity, the researchers found that 10% of the people who identified as “definite evening types” had a higher risk of early death. This was in comparison with the people identifying as “definite morning types”.

There are many other problems that come with being a night owl. Those include neurological, psychological, respiratory, and gastrointestinal issues. Moreover, people who went to sleep late were two times more likely to develop psychological disorders than the other category. This could also be the root for things like anxiety and depression, but the team needs to research more.

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Residents of Youngstown, Ohio have lately been facing something even scarier than the raccoons’ tiny, human-like hands: their zombie-like behavior. It seems that the local police have been gathering reports on incidents involving very aggressive and zombie-like raccoons since March. These raccoons are reportedly extremely scary, bare their teeth, walk on their hind legs and what’s even more worrying, they are no longer afraid of humans. According to a resident called Robert Coggeshall, he met such a raccoon while he was walking his dogs.

The animal would stand up on his hindlegs, which raccoons don’t usually do, bare its teeth and immediately fall back in what looked like a coma. Something else is strange about their behavior: it happens during daylight. Raccoons are nocturnal animals. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, this zombie-like behavior that has been affecting the animals is most likely a side effect of canine distemper. The fact about distemper is that it doesn’t only affect dogs, but many other animals too.

Raccoons in Ohio are displaying a bizarre behavior

Most of the animals that can get affected by distemper have evolutionary links to dogs. They include ferrets, skunks, raccoons and sometimes, even bears. Distemper usually affects the nervous system, the gastrointestinal and the respiratory system. Some of its symptoms include muscle twitches, head tilt, a bizarre behavior and even partial or complete paralysis.

If this is indeed the correct diagnosis, these scary raccoons don’t want to eat people and their pets’ brains but have uncontrolled muscle spasms. Moreover, their nervous system goes haywire and they cannot control themselves anymore. Fortunately, this virus doesn’t affect humans, but pet dogs can become infected. So, the best idea would be to vaccinate your pets if you live in the area affected by the zombie raccoons.

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While the debate regarding the health benefits and dangers of coffee continues, a California judge recently made up his mind. His final verdict is that all coffee sellers in the state should put cancer warnings on the coffee. According to him, this is all because of a dangerous chemical that is produced in the bean roasting process. It is a famous carcinogen and it has been the reason why this debate is still going. Also, it was in the middle of an 8-year legal battle between Big Coffee and a small, nonprofit group.

Initially, the Council for Education and Research on Toxics wanted that chemical, called acrylamide, removed from the coffee processing. This was similar to how potato chip makers did when it sued them a few years ago too. The other option was to disclose the presence of that chemical and the dangers it poses in labels or warning signs. The entire industry, which has Starbucks Corp. as a leader, said that the level of that chemical in coffee is very small and not harmful at all for consumers. Also, that the benefits of coffee far outweigh the risks coming from acrylamide.

Coffee should come with cancer warning, judge thinks

Now, on Wednesday, California Judge Elihu Berle said that the coffee makers failed to present the proper grounds at the trial to win the case. In his ruling, Berle wrote that the plaintiff presented evidence that coffee consumption harms infants, fetuses, children and adults. However, the defendant’s experts did not present any opinions on causation.

Actually, a 1986 controversial California law made this legal battle possible. This suit was brought against Starbucks and 90 other companies under it. According to this law, cancer-causing chemicals should be cut from myriad products. The debate regarding the health benefits and dangers of coffee consumption has been going on for years, with no clear end. Time will tell what is going to happen in this legal battle too.

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According to a new study which the journal The Lancet recently published, sudden infant death syndrome might be caused by a genetic mutation. This condition affects seemingly healthy babies under one who die without explanation in their sleep. It seems that this mutation affects the respiratory muscle function and was associated with a number of sudden infant death syndrome cases. According to the researchers, it causes a dysfunction that makes it more difficult for babies to low oxygen levels in the blood, or hypoxemia. This also changed the shape of a “sodium channel” which is responsible with the stimulation of muscle contraction.

According to Dr. Michael Hanna, the lead author of the study, the evidence is pretty compelling in this case. Many sudden infant death syndrome cases are caused by a mutation in the “sodium channel”. It’s all about a certain vulnerability and in this case, is that channel that is making the babies vulnerable. When this syndrome happens, death often occurs while the baby is sleeping without any explanation and completely unexpected. Every year, about 2,400 children are dying because of it in the United States. For years, doctors have associated this syndrome with the child’s sleeping positions and exposure to cigarette smoke.

Sudden infant death syndrome might be genetic

Hanna says that a big campaign in America and Europe helps prevent these deaths. Its name is Back to Sleep and it involves teaching parents to put their babies to sleep on their backs. This way, they reduce the possibility of the syndrome by 60%.

Other experts agree with this reveal that this dreaded syndrome has a genetic cause. The researchers who conducted the study found a very rare mutation in the SCN4A gene. It was present in four out of the 278 cases of SIDS that they analyzed. Exerts think that having four cases in a number of almost 300 babies is huge. This is no coincidence. However, Hanna also said that only 1.4% of the babies died because of this mutation. All of the others were probably affected by other factors too.

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According to some Monday reports, a team of Italian archaeologists has uncovered the skeletal remains of a woman who was buried while pregnant. The team found the medieval grave near Bologna, Italy, and noticed that the skeleton had a 38-week-old fetus between her legs. According to experts, the woman probably gave birth after being buried in a phenomenon known as “coffin birth”. It seems that the child’s legs didn’t even make it out of the pelvic cavity, but the head and the torso did. This means that the baby was only partially delivered.

The researchers also explained that the mother’s skeleton exhibited a 5-milimeter hole in the skull along with a forehead cut. She was probably the victim of a primitive form of skull surgery. Coffin birth usually happens a few days after the mother has deceased because of the gas pressure inside the dead body. The fetus therefore gets released from the vaginal canal. However, in this medieval woman’s case, the baby was already dead when she was buried. It’s worth noting that this case was first uncovered back in 2010, when the archaeologists first found the remains.

A strange case of “coffin birth”

Archaeologists Have Discovered a Ghastly ‘Coffin Birth’ in a Medieval Grave https://t.co/kc1yYF92wy

— ScienceAlert (@ScienceAlert) March 26, 2018

It’s interesting that the burial of the woman seemed intentional, so she probably died during the procedure. The results of a further investigation were recently published in the journal World Neurosurgery. It seems that the woman was between 25 and 35 years old when she died. Given the position of the baby and the fact that the head and torso were already out, it means that the fetus was already in the cephalic position, ready for birth.

As for the hole in her skull, it was probably the result of a procedure called trepanation. It was usually the treatment for eclampsia, a hypertensive pregnancy disorder. The details fit in perfectly with the woman so, this was probably the reason she died about a week after the surgery.

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In the US, the officials are trying to lower the number of people who smoke cigarettes. Paradoxically, the laws on marijuana are more and more permissive. According to a new study, the marijuana smoke can be even more dangerous that the smoke from regular cigarettes. This research showed that secondhand marijuana smoke has an impact on the arteries that is 3 times bigger than the one of regular cigarettes.

Is Marijuana Smoke Dangerous?

To conduct the study, the researchers tested both marijuana and cigarette smoke on mice. They observed that the secondhand smoke from tobacco expanded the arteries for half an hour until the body recovered. Meanwhile, secondhand marijuana smoke hindered the expanding of arteries for more than 90 minutes before the body recovered.

The researchers mentioned that most people think marijuana is safe because it is natural. Despite this fact, marijuana smoke still causes health problems, just like regular cigarettes do. What’s new is that even secondhand marijuana smoke has an impact on your health. While the health community focused on the secondhand cigarettes smoke, they were unaware about the effects of marijuana smoke.

Secondhand Smoke Damages Your Health Too

It is important to understand that secondhand smoke from any source has an impact on health. Even though the researchers were unable to show why secondhand marijuana smoke has this reaction on the body, it shows that it is better to avoid both marijuana and cigarettes smoke as much as possible.

The CDC mentioned that the cigarettes smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals. From these, over 70 are known to cause cancer. Researchers mentioned that marijuana still needs to be tested before they can know for sure whether it is healthy, and if it doesn’t have any side-effects. Until we’ll have more information on this topic, it is better to avoid inhaling secondhand marijuana smoke if you want to avoid health problems.