Dental link to heart attack

By Philip Chua

Cebu Daily News

GINGIVITIS (inflammation of the gums), dental plaques and other bacterial infection of the mouth are more dangerous to health than commonly known.

The yellowish build up of calcium on your teeth, the swollen, bleeding, and tender gums are not only local oral disease but conditions that are associated with increased risk for the development of other health problems, including heart attack,  Alzheimer’s dementia, diabetes, arthritis, and even premature births.

The observation linking dental infection to heart disease has been known for decades, but somehow it has come to the limelight only the past few years.

While several studies have shown that the bacterial infection of the mouth threatens over-all health, they are not clear about the link and how it adversely impacts on other organs in the body.

Published in the Journal of Periodontology and The American Journal of Cardiology in 2009, the “consensus paper on the relationship between heart disease and gum disease was jointly developed by the American Academy of Periodontology and The American Journal of Cardiology.” This has put the spotlight on a very important public health issue.

A bacterial link?

Some other researches postulate that coronary heart disease, which causes heart attack from the build-up of calcium deposits on the walls of the artery leading to arterial blockage, could be due to bacterial infection and not to high cholesterol. And that the bacterial infection itself is the culprit that triggers inflammation on the inner wall of the arteries which induces cholesterol to cling to the walls of the arteries. Since bacteria travel through the blood stream, they are in the circulation and get to all organs of the body.

Gum disease and diabetes

Patients with diabetes are more prone to gingivitis compared to non-diabetics because diabetics are easier targets for infection, especially when the blood sugar is not well-controlled.

On diabetes, the interesting question is whether subtle chronic bacterial or viral infection of the pancreas, and eventual destruction of its beta cells, which controls insulin production, be the cause of Type II diabetes, especially IDDM (the insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus).

Alzheimer’s dementia

Clinical investigations on Alzheimer’s have revealed that patients with this dementia have amyloid plaques in their brains, much like the cholesterol plaques on the inner walls of the coronary arteries of the heart. Those with high levels of cholesterol by the time they reach age 40 are 1-2 times more prone to develop Alzheimer’s.

The dementia research is still trying to solve the mystery as to what causes Alzheimer’s. Is it the high cholesterol? If it is, the next question is, “Is bacterial infection elsewhere in the body inducing (causing) the cholesterol to destroy the brain tissues and to replace them with amyloid, rendering that damaged part of the brain useless? We are still waiting for the final word on this issue.

Peptic ulcer

Ulcers of the stomach were once thought to be due to intake of spicy foods and alcohol, until it was proven by studies that they were caused by an infection due to Helicobacter pylori bacteria. That discovery revolutionized the management of this disease. Instead of surgery, the treatment for peptic ulcer today is with antibiotic pills. This particular event has inspired many researches on various conditions like heart attack, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s, etc., as to the possible role bacterial infection could have in the causation of these disease.

The common denominator in all these studies is bacterial infection and inflammation.

Researches around the world continue to unravel these medical mysteries and hopefully provide us answers that will benefit mankind as a whole.

Queries from readers

Will tinted glasses help relieve my migraine?

Individuals with migraine are highly sensitive to stressful visual stimuli, like bright light, among others, which leads to “excessive activation in the brain’s visual cortex,” and which could precipitate migraine. Prescription tinted glasses may reduce the stimuli, and help minimize migraine.

Does eating red meat increase risk of cataracts?

Yes, red meat is not only associated with heart attack and cancer, arthritis and Alzheimer’s, but also with the formation of cataracts. Scientists at the University of Oxford in England, found among the 27,670 subjects of their research that “vegetarians and vegans are 30 percent to 40 percent less likely to develop cataracts than people who eat a lot of meat.” Smoking, diabetes and exposure to sunlight are other contributing factors.

Can I really prevent cancer?

As we have stated in this column a few times in the past, to a significant extent, yes, you and I can prevent cancer. Clinical evidences and outcomes tell us that there are three most significant key factors in the development of cancer, all of which, fortunately, are actually within our control.

These three cancer “connections” are summarized in this word: FEW. The letters stand for Food, Exercise, and Weight. To these, we should add two common toxic agents, which statistics show tremendously increase cancer risk: Smoking and Alcohol.

A diet consisting of fish, vegetables (greens and other colorful variety), whole grain, nuts, legumes, and fruits protect us from cancer, cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s, and metabolic illnesses, such as diabetes and arthritis. Red meats, processed food items, and other high cholesterol, high fat items increase the risk of cancer, heart attack, stroke diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s. Lack of daily physical exercise and excess body weight have also been shown to increase the risk for cancer and for the other four diseases mentioned above. A healthy diet, daily exercise, maintenance of normal weight, total abstinence from smoking, and disciplined consumption of alcoholic beverage are essential parts of a healthy lifestyle regimen that prevents diseases and maximizes longevity.

Remembering FEW and applying the principle to our daily life will bring us many rewards and benefits money can’t buy.

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HARDNESS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SIZE OR FREQUENCY

A couple hugs as they share one umbrella in Manila Bay. RICHARD REYES/INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines—The long and short of it, gentlemen, is that it’s not the size or the frequency that matters, but the hardness of your manhood.

The latest Ideal Sex in Asia survey conducted by global market research firm, Harris Interactive Asia showed that eight in 10 Filipino men and seven in 10 women deemed erection hardness or the ability to maintain an erection as the most important factor for a optimum sexual experience.

The study was released on Wednesday by Pfizer, a US research-based drug company that brought to the market Viagra or popularly known as the “blue pill” to treat erectile dysfunction (ED).

The drug company has recommended the conduct of the study to provide a better understanding of “ideal sex” in a relationship and assess the impact of “suboptimal” erection to couples.

The 2010 survey comprised of 3,282 sexually active men and women, aged 31 to 74 from 10 Asian countries—China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines.

Of the respondents, 255 Filipinos—135 male, 120 female—participated in the study.

The study showed that 79 percent of Asian men and 80 percent of Asian women put premium on the quality rather than the quantity of sex with their partners.

The same figure also agreed that men with “optimum erection” felt happier and more confident with themselves and had fewer sick days.

Women whose spouses achieve such erection also said they were also significantly happy and satisfied than those whose partners could not achieve optimal erection.

Less than a quarter of Asian men and women respondents also agreed that frequency of sexual intercourse is most important to achieve sexual pleasure and only one in three people or 38 percent of the male and 31 percent of female respondents deemed the extent of the deed as most significant.

Doctors present at the briefing explained on Wednesday that “optimum erection” or “Grade 4” Erection Hardness Score (EHS) could be likened to a cucumber while “suboptimum” erection or “Grade 3” EHS could be compared with an unpeeled banana.

The EHS Grades, based on the scale developed by the European Association of Urology, is used by physicians to assess the severity of erectile dysfunction among men, according to Dr. Juliano Panganiban, a urologic surgeon.

A Grade 1 indicates that the penis is larger but not hard; Grade 2 means the penis is hard but not hard enough for penetration, while Grade 3 shows that the penis is hard enough for penetration but not completely hard while a Grade 4 score shows that the penis is completely hard and fully rigid.

But more than achieving sexual satisfaction, an “optimum erection” has been considered an indication of a generally healthy condition among men, said Panganiban.

However, not all men are capable of reaching “Grade 4” erection because of some other health conditions, such as diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases, according to Dr. Anthony Leachon, Pfizer medical director.

“Because of macho mentality, a lot of Filipino men are suffering in silence from erectile dysfunction,” Leachon told the media.

He underscored the importance of men with ED seeking medical help as such condition “can be the start of something more serious.”

Earlier studies showed that 60 percent of male with erectile dysfunction were more likely to have diabetes or heart problems later on in life.

Scientists: Stinky sock smell helps fight malaria

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — What do mosquitoes like more than clean, human skin? Stinky socks. Scientists think the musky odor of human feet can be used to attract and kill mosquitoes that carry deadly malaria. The Gates Foundation announced on Wednesday that it will help fund one such pungent project in Tanzania.

If they can be cheaply mass-produced, the traps could provide the first practical way of controlling malaria infections outside. The increased use of bed nets and indoor spraying has already helped bring down transmissions inside homes.

Dutch scientist Dr. Bart Knols first discovered mosquitoes were attracted to foot odor by standing in a dark room naked and examining where he was bitten, said Dr. Fredros Okumu, the head of the research project at Tanzania's Ifakara Health Institute. But over the following 15 years, researchers struggled to put the knowledge to use.

Then Okumu discovered that the stinky smell — which he replicates using a careful blend of eight chemicals — attracts mosquitoes to a trap where they can be poisoned. The odor of human feet attracted four times as many mosquitoes as a human volunteer and the poison can kill up to 95 percent of mosquitoes, he said.

Although the global infection rate of malaria is going down, there are still more than 220 million new cases of malaria each year. The U.N. estimates almost 800,000 of those people die. Most of them are children in Africa.

"This is the first time that we are focusing on controlling mosquitoes outside of homes," said Okumu, a Kenyan who has been ill with the disease himself several times. 

"The global goal of eradication of malaria will not be possible without new technologies."

Some experts worry eradication is unrealistic because of the lack of an effective malaria vaccine and because some patients have developed resistance to the most effective malaria medicines.

"This is an interesting project," said Richard Tren, the director of health advocacy group Africa Fighting Malaria. "But there is no magic bullet. We are going to need a lot of different tools to fight malaria. Certainly we need to solve the problems of insecticide resistance and preserve the effectiveness of malaria drugs that we have at the moment."

Other scientists — including some funded by the Gates Foundation — are also researching equally novel ideas, including breeding genetically modified mosquitoes to wipe out malaria-spreading insects and creating a fungus that would kill the parasite.

Okumu received an initial grant of $100,000 to help his research two years ago. Now the project has been awarded an additional $775,000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada to conduct more research on how the traps should be used and whether they can be produced affordably.

Okumu said more research was needed to find the right place to put the traps. Too close would attract mosquitoes near the humans and expose them to greater risk of bites, but the devices would be ineffective if too far away.

The current traps are expensive prototypes but Okumu hopes to produce affordable traps that can be sold for between $4 and $27 each. He said they hoped to develop the devices so they would work at the ratio of 20 traps for every 1,000 people.

Edward Mwangi, who heads an alliance of 86 aid groups working to eradicate malaria in Kenya, said keeping costs low was key to developing successful technology in the developing world.

He said the current interventions such as the treated nets and malarial drugs had managed to reduce the child deaths caused by malaria in Africa by 50 percent.

"It's African innovation for an African problem being developed in Africa," said Dr. Peter A. Singer, the head of Grand Challenges Canada, one of the project's key funders. "It's bold, it's innovative and it has the potential for big impact ... who would have thought that a lifesaving technology was lurking in your laundry basket?

"

Three steps to avoiding depression

Think positive–‘If we can lovingly accept ourselves and our emotions, then negative ones don’t stay very long,’ says American psychologist Diane Tillman

By: Marge C. Enriquez

Philippine Daily Inquirer

In 1990, American psychologist Diane Tillman met an accident when a female driver broadsided her car towards the rear. As her car turned over three times, Tillman hit her head in different spots. She admits losing some of her intelligence after that, but she did not allow herself to be affected by the accident.

“I used to be really smart, and I’m not as smart anymore,” says Tillman. “If I look at my friends, which ones do I prefer, the ones who are really smart, or the ones who are really sweet?”

To her, depression is an opportunity to learn or to acquire inner power.

“I allowed myself to lovingly accept the things that happened in my life. This is one of the keys to preventing depression and dealing with pain. If we can lovingly accept ourselves and our emotions, then negative ones don’t stay very long. If I’m a little bit sad about something, an event, a death or a misfortune of someone, I surround it with this light of love. As I comfort that part of myself that is feeling sad, it doesn’t stay long. It’s like I’m giving love to the person that I’m concerned about and I’m giving love to me.”

Tillman is a California-based, licensed educational psychologist, family therapist and author of “Living Values” series. She takes the positive psychology approach to dealing with depression.

Causes

It becomes depression when the sadness or ill feeling about something lingers for weeks. Depression comes in various degrees—mild, moderate, severe, down to a major depressive disorder with psychosis.

By convention, people are described as clinically depressed if they’ve been despondent and felt hopeless for a prolonged period and if they’ve lost interest in what they usually enjoy.

When something unexpected or against our liking happens, there is a tendency to become either disheartened or arrogant.

“It knocks us off our seat of self-respect and love,” she says.

Another reason depression becomes part of a person’s nature is that there is a deep-seated negative imprint in the subconscious mind.

“For some people, it feels very old. A little thing happened, yet there’s a wailing inside.”

Depression is also caused by the weakening of the core values of love and purity, says Tillman. Over time, people are influenced by ego, attachment, anger, greed and selfishness.

“When I want love and attention from that person, then imperceptibly other people stop being so important to me. As negative traits build up, I lack love towards many and even start abandoning the people I profess to love. I then feel sad or a loss. So every time I feel that loss, it becomes a trait and if I start reacting to that trait, it grows bigger and bigger. For some, this tendency to become sad is like a baggage.”

In therapy, Tillman observes that patients often express hurt and abandonment when they indulge in their old pain, especially when triggered by a minor event. She adds that people tend to base their self-respect on the approval of society. If they don’t get it, they become depressed.

“Take your self-respect from what is real—who you truly are, because each one of us is absolutely beautiful. We all have gorgeous virtues and traits,” she says.

She shares her three-step program to preventing depression:

Step 1: Positive energy

“The first step is to increase your positive emotional and spiritual energy,” she says. Meditate or pray, take in love and peace.

“Have a screen saver in your mind. Think, I’m a jewel of contentment. When there is spiritual energy, it’s really hard to be unhappy.

“At night, write down the positive things, write letters of love to God or letters of happiness. If we can stay in the present and fill our mind with love and peace, then we collect emotional and spiritual energy until we have a reservoir.”

Positive energy can only be increased if there is care for body.

“If you tend to be sad, angry, hurt, tired or lonely, you need to be very careful. Get extra rest, eat well and nurture yourself. When I do therapy with people who are depressed, if I can get them off white sugar and artificial sweeteners, then my job is 50 percent easier. Their depression lightens up! ”

Chocolates can give only a temporary high and artificial sweeteners can deepen the depression.

“Sugar is very destabilizing emotionally. Go off sugar for three months and see what happens. It is an addiction. It will really be very hard for the first two months, then it will really be easy. I know that a healthy diet is bad news. If you have half a cup of brown rice, the serotonin (the chemical for well-being) in your brain will increase dramatically in 30 minutes.”

Step 2: Avoid guilt

“Step two, learn how to avoid automatic negative habits you’ve acquired over the years: Don’t gossip, don’t compare yourself with others, don’t feel guilty,” says Tillman.

“Guilt has been very useful for us because it’s kept us good. But for how long are you going to need it? It is very useful, but only for five seconds. When I do something I’m uncomfortable with, I say to myself, ‘Okay, Diane, join the human race. You, too, are human, you made a mistake. Now, get over it. What would you do next time?’ Then I envision the virtue that I need, I develop it.”

On comparing the self with others, Tillman quotes Max Ehrmann’s “Desiderata”: “If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.”

Tillman explains: “Understand that each one of us has a beautiful puzzle piece and has to make it as beautiful as it can be. If you don’t make your puzzle piece beautiful, the whole picture will not be nearly as beautiful.”

Step 3: Create an inner dialogue

We have to deal with our pain or sadness when it occurs. Just be aware of our emotions and lovingly accept our emotions. “Don’t feel sad unnecessarily. But when you are afraid, feeling down, angry or tired, be aware of what’s going inside.

“Do any of us have a critical voice inside? It’s time to say goodbye to it. In transactional analysis, we have an inner child and there’s another part of our self that is like a critical parent. The latter will try to suppress the voice of the inner child.”

Repression subsequently leads to an outburst of negative feelings. “You get angry, sad, or feel worthless. You don’t know why you’re unhappy. It’s because that negative part is trying to keep the inner child under control.

“It’s time to have a dialogue with the critical parent and say, ‘Critical parent, you are not helping me. Nurture me and love me and then you can help me grow,’” she says.

“There’s a nurturing parent inside that can actually nurse the part that is depressed and give us love, because basically our human need is to be loved. Why do we get depressed? Because we’re feeling a loss of love. We’re afraid we won’t be happy. We’re afraid things will not be okay. When you feel bad, you can actually deal with yourself and find a solution. The nurturing parent is the wise part of you. The inner child is the mind. Take the inner child out of the victim mode.”

Exercises

Tillman recommends an exercise when you feel troubled: Take out a piece of paper and put the inner child on the left side and put the nurturing self on the right. Write on it the first thing in the morning. Find out where the answers are.

“This wise part can talk to you. You will find then that the child will become an adult. It will let you know when you are vulnerable. If we nurture our inner child, it can grow into the adult that is the source of strength, comfort and protection for us. When you feel bad, don’t commiserate over it for months. Look at the root and see what’s happening so you can change. Find out what needs to be done instead. What is the virtue I need to have, that I’d like to develop, or what is the quality I need to have.”

Walking is a great way to stimulate the endorphins, the hormones that reduce pain and create pleasant feelings. Also, talk to a friend you trust, says Tillman.

Try not to give any solution. When people express a problem and get an unsolicited advice, they just feel rejected as if they’re doing something wrong. “So first, listen,” Tillman maintains. “Appreciate, give them love, and then ask, ‘Would you like the problem solved?’”

Listening to others is a sacred offering that is valued when people feel bad. “Listening is an act of respect and love. Do you feel better when you’ve been listened to? The reason is that we as human beings do not accept our own emotions. So when you are listened to in a sacred space of love, you are getting love and respect. The problem doesn’t feel so big and you’re able to then perhaps deal with it better, accept yourself more, and come up with some other solutions.”

“The antidote to depression is positive thoughts for all others. Always have good wishes and pure feelings for everyone all the time. Then there’s no space for this fear. Talk sweetly to yourself. Create a nurturing parent.”