Researchers have long known that gum disease is associated with increased risk of heart problems. The link appears to be inflammation, which plays a role in the buildup of cholesterol in arteries. In this new study, published on BMJ.com, researchers examined whether the number of times people brush their teeth has any bearing on heart disease risk.

It does. Compared to individuals who brushed their teeth at least twice a day, those who picked up a toothbrush less often had a 70 percent higher risk of heart disease. Infrequent brushers also showed signs of increased inflammation in their bloodstreams.

The good news: 71 percent of the 11,000 adults interviewed in the study said they brushed their teeth at least twice a day. Six out of ten said they visited a dentist every six months, as recommended.

In 2007, the FDA began requiring more prominent warnings on Viagra, Cialis and Levitra after isolated reports of sudden hearing loss in men who used the drugs. The latest findings underscore those worries. Examining data from 11,525 men, McGwin found that men who used erectile dysfunction drugs, known as PDE-5 inhibitors, were twice as likely to report hearing loss as men who didn’t use the pills. The clearest association showed up for Viagra. But that may be because the studies included far fewer men using the newer drugs.

Erectile dysfunction drugs work by increasing blood flow to certain tissues in the body. Researchers speculate that by increasing blood flow in the inner ear, they may lead to hearing loss.

If that turns out to be true, men will have to make a hard choice between maintaining their sex lives or preserving their hearing as they get older.

In a study conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester and the Eye Institute at Tel Aviv University, students who played video games that require intense hand-eye coordination–”Unreal Tournament 2004″ and “Call of Duty 2″–improved their ability to discern subtly different shades of gray by 43 percent compared to students who played “The Sims 2,” which doesn’t require the same level of coordination. The two photos below show what that difference in contrast would look like.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that contrast sensitivity can be improved by simple training,” said Daphne Bavelier, PhD, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, who led the study. “When people play action games, they’re changing the brain’s pathway responsible for visual processing. These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it, and we’ve seen the positive effect remains even two years after the training was over.”

Contrast sensitivity, according to Bavelier, is the primary limiting factor in how well we can see. The sharper your contrast sensitivity, in other words, the better you see. She believes action video games could be used along with eye-correction techniques to overcome a variety of vision problems.

© 2009 PDQhealth

The intestinal bug called Clostridium difficile flourishes when antibiotics disrupt populations of benign bacteria that normally reside in the gut, where they help break down food, allowing the bad bug to take over. Unfortunately, C. difficile itself has become increasingly resistant to antibiotics. It’s also become far more toxic, research suggests. In a 2003 outbreak in Quebec, cases of C. difficile increased almost four-fold and deaths associated with the infection increased more than 10-fold compared with the previous year.

“I wouldn’t wish this illness on anybody. C difficile is one of the most terrible things that I’ve been dealing with in my whole life, and I’ve dealt with a lot of things…”

The words are those of a 76-year-old patient, identified as Mr. S., who was quoted in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Mr. S’s problems began when he was given two powerful antibiotics to treat a urinary tract infection. Shortly after he was discharged from the hospital, he began to suffer bouts of diarrhea. After several weeks, he was given another antibiotic to treat C. difficile. He recovered briefly, only to develop diarrhea again, along with loss of appetite, fever, chills, and weakness. Tests showed that he was still infected with C. difficile. Doctors prescribed an alternate antibiotic. It, too, failed to stem the infection. In the months that followed, Mr. S. had to be hospitalized several times for diarrhea. Even now, although intensive antibiotic treatment has eased his symptoms, it’s not clear he is rid of the stubborn bug.

Like Mr. S., most people are probably exposed during stays in the hospital. Between .5 and 1 percent of hospital stays end up exposing patients to the bacterium. All told, 350,000 Americans each year develop the infection after being hospitalized. Many others are infected in nursing homes and other health care facilities. Small wonder. The bacterial spores can withstand drying, fluctuations of temperature, and even many antibacterial solutions. Remaining viable for long periods, the spores cause infection when ingested. All you have to do is eat or drink from a contaminated container, in other words–or touch a contaminated surface and then your mouth–and become infected.

The bug can pass from person to person, putting people who share a household with someone who carries the bacterium at increased risk. Only about 20 percent of infections take place outside of health care facilities, studies suggest.

Although infections can usually be eliminated with powerful antibiotics that target C. dfficile, many patients develop recurring infections. In extreme cases, when the infection becomes life-threatening, doctors have to remove the intestines in order to eliminate the germ.

In the face of the rising threat of C. difficile, health care experts say hospitals and other medical facilities need to do more to cotrol its spread. If you visit a friend or family member in a medical facility, be vigilant about hand washing and avoid touching surfaces unless necessary. Using antibiotics only when they’re necessary could also help lower the risk of infections. If you develop severe diarrhea after taking a course of antibiotics, call your doctor immediately.

© 2009 PDQhealth

At the same time, 59 percent of the hospitals surveyed are experiencing a drop-off in elective and non-emergency surgeries such as knee replacements and hernia repairs. Forty-one percent report a moderate decline. Eighteen percent say the fall-off is dramatic.

Together, those trends mean hospitals already ailing financially are slipping into even worse shape. Many report laying off staff and cutting programs. The big worry: care won’t be available when people need it.

More and more doctors in private practice, meanwhile, are also seeing the effects of the slump. According to the Medical Group Management Association, which represents 22,5000 medical practices in the US, a growing number of physicians report an increase in patients failing to show up for appointments or putting off preventive care visits. Deferring some check-ups may be okay for a short period. But many doctors worry that patients are putting themselves at risk or suffering unnecessarily. But for people who have lost their jobs (and often their insurance) there may be little choice.

Now some of those docs, concerned about their long-term patients’ well-being, are cutting deals.

More and more are discounting their rates for office visits, for example, for patients who have lost their jobs, lost their insurance, or who have seen their incomes shrink. Some are turning to installment payment plans. Others are offering one free office visit during the year or piggy-backing one type of office visit onto another less-expensive one, a kind of two-for-the-price-of-one deal. 

One physician has devised a clever membership plan in his clinic. For $75 a month, patients receive up to 12 office visits a year and a variety of basic tests.

Not all doctors are offering a lifeline to financially ailing patients, of course. PDQhealth applauds those who do. Helping patients, after all, is what medicine is all about.

© 2009 PDQhealth

A team led by nutritionist Michael Ristow of the University of Jena in Germany asked a group of young men to exercise after giving half of them moderate doses of vitamins C and E. In the pill-takers, exercise failed to improve insulin sensitivity, which is believed to be one of the important benefits of activity. (The more sensitive the body is to insulin, the better able it is to convert glucose into energy, keeping blood sugar levels on an even keel.) Antioxidant takers also failed to experience a boost in their body’s natural defense mechanism against oxidative damage.

Quoted in The New York Times, Dr. Ristow didn’t beat around the bush. “If you exercise to promote health, you shouldn’t take large amounts of antioxidants,” he said. As he points out, the study results suggest that taking antioxidant vitamins may short-circuit the body’s own natural antioxidant system.

The researchers were quick to say that antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables are fine, since they contain many substances that are known to be healthy.

This isn’t the first study to point to potential risks from taking high doses of antioxidants. But then other findings continue to suggest that there may be real benefits. In people with early signs of macular degeneration, for instance, a mix of antioxidants seems to slow the progression of the vision-robbing disease. And there’s provocative evidence from early trials that a mix of antioxidants may prevent or slow noise-induced hearing loss.

For now, it’s probably wise to go easy on antioxidants unless your doctor says you need a supplement. And, of course, to help yourself to an extra serving or two of fruit or vegetables.

© 2009 PDQhealth

The tour was postponed after the comedian underwent major surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in March to replace his aortic valve, repair his mitral valve and treat an irregular heartbeat.

In a statement released by Mr. Williams’ publicists today, the comedian quipped: “This little break has given me more energy than ever. Plus it’s wonderful to have a cow valve … If you don’t mind the grazing, it’s quite invigorating.”

If laughter is the best medicine, Mr. Williams is one of the best docs around. Get well fast!

The study, which looked at self-reported folic acid supplementation among 38,033 participants in a study by the National Institutes of Health, recorded a 70 percent decrease in very early preterm deliveries and a 50 percent drop in early preterm deliveries (28 to 32 weeks) in women who took folic acid supplements during the year before pregnancy.

The finding “makes us optimistic that taking folic acid for at least one year before pregnancy also may greatly reduce the risk of premature birth and reinforces our message that every woman of childbearing age should consume 400 micrograms of folic acid daily,” said Dr. Alan R. Fleischman, MD, senior vice president and medical director of the March of Dimes.

© 2009 PDQhealth

In a clever experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center, 88 cancer patients with nausea were divided into three groups. One group served as controls. Volunteers in the other two groups were given acupressure wristbands. One of the wristband groups was given a handout with information telling patients that the wristbands have been shown to be very effective at reducing nausea. The other wristband group received a handout with much more neutral information.

The control group patients experienced only a 4.8 percent decrease in nausea, compared to a 23.8 percent reduction in the two wristband groups. Tellingly, no difference was found between the two groups that received handouts. “In this study, we attempted to manipulate the information we gave to patients, to see if their expectations about nausea could be changed. As it turned out, our information to change people’s expectations had no effect– but we still found that the wristbands reduce nausea symptoms,” said Joseph A. Rosoe, PhD, one of the authors of the study, who is a research associate professor at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at URMC.

The benefits, in other words, did not appear to be linked to the placebo effect.

Proponents of acupuncture won’t be surprised. For centuries the wrist has been identified as an acupuncture point associated with nausea. By stimulating the point, acupuncture practitioners say, they can unblock fhe flow of universal energy known as chi.  If you’re a cancer patient suffering nausea, wristbands are well worth a try.

New findings presented at the International Association for Dental Research in Miami suggest that the high levels of citric acid in sports drinks can erode enamel, making teeth much more vulnerable to decay. The scientists immersed cows’ teeth in samples of sports drinks for 75 to 90 minutes in order to simulate the effect of sipping the beverages over the course of the day. Afterwards, the teeth showed evidence of erosive tooth wear, caused when acids eat away the hard enamel coating and penetrate the bone-like material underneath. The condition is believed to afflict one in 15 Americans.

Dr. Mark Wolff, chairman of the department of cariology and comprehensive care at New York University College of Dentistry, who led the study, offered this advice: “To prevent tooth erosion, consume sports drinks in moderation, and wait at least 30 minutes before brushing your teeth, to allow softened enamel to re-harden. If you frequently consume sports drinks,” Dr. Wolff added, “ask your dentist if you should use an acid-neutralizing remineralizing toothpaste to help re-harden soft enamel.”

© 2009 PDQhealth