Robert L Nelson, DDS PC

Stillbirth linked directly to mother's oral bacteria
by Kate Melville

Confirming long-held suspicions, a Case Western Reserve University researcher has for the first time established a direct link between a mother's oral bacteria and the death of her fetus. Researcher Yiping Han's revelations about Fusobacterium nucleatum and its likely role in pre-term labor and stillbirths appear in the February issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The mother in question carried the baby fullterm, but during the 35-year-old's pregnancy she reported excessive gum bleeding, a symptom of pregnancy-associated gingivitis. Around 75 percent of pregnant women experience gum bleeding due to the hormonal changes during pregnancy.

The bleeding associated with the gingivitis allowed the bacteria - normally contained to the mouth because of the body's defense system - to enter the blood and work its way to the placenta. Even though the amniotic fluid was not available for testing, Han suspects that the bacteria entered the immune-free amniotic fluid and eventually were ingested by the baby.

Han explained that normally a mother's immune system takes care of the bacteria in the blood before it reaches the placenta. But in this case, the mother also experienced an upper respiratory infection just a few days before the stillbirth. "The timing is important here because it fits the time frame of hematogenous [through the blood] spreading," Han said.

Postmortem microbial studies of the baby found the presence of F. nucleatum in the lungs and stomach. The baby had died from a septic infection and inflammation caused by bacteria. After questioning the mother about her health during the pregnancy, Han arranged for her to visit a periodontist, who collected plaque samples from her teeth.

Using DNA cloning technologies, Han found a match in the bacterium in the mother's mouth with the bacterium in the baby's infected lungs and stomach. "The testing strongly suggested the bacteria were delivered through the blood," Han said.

Happily, with preventative periodontal treatment and oral health care, the mother has now given birth to a healthy baby. Han suggests women who are considering a pregnancy seek dental care to take care of any oral health problems before conceiving.

What about the fathers periodontal bacteria?  The baby sitter, the day care later, Grandma and Grandpa?  Friends, neighbors, family?  Insist that everyone around the baby is healthy.

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High-fructose diet increases men's blood pressure; gout drug protective American Heart Association meeting report

A high-fructose diet raises blood pressure in men, while a drug used to
treat gout seems to protect against the blood pressure increase,
according to research reported at the American Heart Association' s 63rd
High Blood Pressure Research Conference.

"This is the first evidence of a role of fructose in raising blood
pressure and a role for lowering uric acid to protect against that blood
pressure increase in people," said Richard Johnson, M.D.,
In the study, excessive fructose consumption seemed to increase new
onset of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors associated with
the development of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. On the
other hand, the gout drug seemed to halt it — most likely by lowering
uric acid, which affects blood pressure.

Fructose, one of several dietary sugars, makes up about half of all the
sugar molecules in table sugar and in high-fructose corn syrup, a
sweetener often used in packaged products because it's relatively cheap
and has a long shelf life. Glucose makes up the other half. Fructose is
the only common sugar known to increase uric acid levels.

Patients with high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney disease often
have high uric acid levels and gout. But all the ways in which those
conditions might contribute to the development or worsening of the
others isn't completely understood, Johnson said.

After only two weeks on the diet, the high-fructose plus placebo group
experienced significant average blood pressure increases of about 6
millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) in systolic blood pressure (the pressure
when the heart beats) and about a 3 mm Hg rise in diastolic blood
pressure (the pressure between heartbeats). They were measured with
strap-on monitors that record blood pressure periodically around the clock.

In contrast, men on the high-fructose diet plus allopurinol had
significantly lower uric acid levels and virtually no increase in
systolic blood pressure (only 1 mm Hg). The blood pressure levels of
most of the men returned to normal within two months of the study's
conclusion when the participants returned to their normal dietary
intake, Johnson said.

The study also found changes in the incidence of metabolic syndrome. The
United States and the international community define the syndrome
slightly differently, so researchers used both criteria in the study. In
general, metabolic syndrome is defined as having three or more of these
five risk factors:

* Increased waist circumference;
* High triglyceride levels;
* Low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), a component of
total cholesterol thought to have a protective effect;
* High blood pressure; and
* High fasting blood sugar.

After just two weeks, the incidence of metabolic syndrome more than
doubled in the men who consumed a heavy fructose diet and took the
placebo pill.
Among men consuming fructose plus allopurinol, virtually no change in
the rate of metabolic syndrome occurred — perhaps because the gout drug
prevented the blood pressure rise associated with increased fructose
consumption.

Allopurinol treatment appeared to lower low-density lipoprotein
cholesterol (LDL), a component of total blood cholesterol linked to the
development of cardiovascular disease, compared to placebo, the
researchers reported.

"These results suggest that fructose may be a cause of metabolic
syndrome," Johnson said. "They also suggest that excessive fructose
intake may have a role in the worldwide epidemic of obesity and diabetes."

Fruit, which has just 4 g to 10 g of fructose per serving, also contains
many beneficial substances including antioxidants, vitamin C, potassium
and fiber that are believed to counter the effects of fructose alone.
The main risk for excessive fructose consumption in the Western diet
comes from sweetened drinks and foods rich in sugar or high fructose
corn syrup, he said.

"When you give fructose to animals, they absolutely develop every
feature of metabolic syndrome: they get abdominal fat, high
triglycerides, low HDL, their blood pressure goes up and they get
insulin resistance," Johnson said. "However, you must give massive
amounts of fructose to rats to raise uric acid levels, because rats and
most other animals have an enzyme that breaks down uric acid. Humans
lack that enzyme. It turns out humans get gout but other animals don't."

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Heart disease is exacerbated by inflammation which can be caused by bacteria from 'icky'gums.

Study makes first connection between heart disorder and Alzheimer's disease

Study of more than 37,000 patients shows relationship between atrial fibrillation and development of Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City believe
that they have made a breakthrough connection between atrial
fibrillation, a fairly common heart rhythm disorder, and Alzheimer's
disease, the leading form of dementia among Americans.

The study found:

• Patients with atrial fibrillation were 44 percent more likely to develop dementia than patients without the heart disorder.

• Younger patients with atrial fibrillation were at higher risk of developing all types of dementia, particularly Alzheimer's. Atrial
fibrillation patients under age 70 were 130 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer's.

• Patients who have both atrial fibrillation and dementia were 61 percent more likely to die during the study period than dementia
patients without the rhythm problem.

• Younger atrial fibrillation patients with dementia may be at higher risk of death than older AF patients with dementia.

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  Brush your teeth...floss to keep from worsening your other diseases!
Currently, the known risk factors for Alzheimer's are age, family
history and genetics, though injury may also be linked with the disease.
Heart health has long been suspected to play a role, but has not been linked.

"The study shows a connection between atrial fibrillation and all types of dementia," said Bunch. "The Alzheimer's findings — particularly the risk of death for younger patients — break new ground."
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Laser tests could silence the dentist's drill 
 
Laser tests which spot weaknesses in dental enamel in time to repair the surface before more drastic intervention is needed are being developed.

Dentists currently check for cavities with X-rays and metal probes, but these cannot detect weaknesses in the enamel while there is still a chance to repair it. David Wang, a graduate student at the University of Sydney in Australia, instead studied whether the propagation of sound waves through the enamel could provide an early warning (Optics Express, vol 17, p 15592).

Short, low-energy pulses from a laser generate weak bursts of acoustic waves in the surface of the enamel. In tests on an extracted tooth, Wang detected these vibrations by collecting infrared laser light reflected from the surface of the tooth. He found that changes in mineralisation of the enamel which signal the onset of decay appear to cause characteristic changes in the pattern of acoustic waves.

The next step, Wang says, will be to develop a more compact system. "The ultimate goal is to come up with a quick, efficient, cost-effective and non-destructive way to evaluate mineralisation," he says.

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