Daily non-political popular news in brief.

Smoking and sleep top the list of lifestyle factors impacting oral health

05-16-2007 · EurekAlert!

There are many lifestyle factors that can impact a person's health, such as nutrition, amount of sleep, mental stress, tobacco use and exercise. A study in the May issue of the Journal of Periodontology identifies lifestyle factors that have the most impact on periodontal health.

Keywords: smoking, sleep, top, list, lifestyle, factors, impacting, oral, health, factor

« Previous | Next »

Similar news on "Smoking and sleep top the list of lifestyle factors impacting oral health":

Studies identify modifiable factors associated with exceptionally long life
02-11-2008 · EurekAlert!
A healthy lifestyle during the early elderly years -- including weight management, exercising regularly and not smoking -- may be associated with a greater probability of living to age 90 in men, as well as good health and physical function, according to a report in the Feb. 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Similar news · Read more »
Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
Similar news · Read more »
Men who avoid certain risk factors in midlife may have longer, healthier life
11-14-2006 · EurekAlert!
Avoiding health risk factors in midlife such as smoking, being overweight, excessive drinking and hypertension is associated with a longer and healthier life in men, according to a study in the Nov. 15 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on men's health.
Similar news · Read more »
Lifestyle and cancer prevention: Making choices that change cancer risk
12-07-2007 · EurekAlert!
How do the lifestyle choices we make affect our chances of developing cancer? Today, at the American Association for Cancer Research's Sixth Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, being held from Dec. 5 to 8 in Philadelphia, Pa, researchers will present some answers to questions regarding daily decisions in diet, exercise, smoking and other lifestyle factors.
Similar news · Read more »
Low literacy equals early death sentence
07-23-2007 · EurekAlert!
Low literacy impairs people's ability to obtain critical information about their health and can dramatically shorten their lives. A Northwestern University study shows people with inadequate health literacy had a 50 percent higher mortality rate over five years than people with adequate reading skills. Low health literacy was the top predictor of mortality after smoking, according to the study.
Similar news · Read more »
Studies explore lifestyle choices and heart risks
03-24-2007 · EurekAlert!
Genetics and family history play a large role in a person’s risk for heart disease, but factors in diet, lifestyle and the environment are also thought to influence susceptibility to the disease. A number of studies presented today at the American College of Cardiology’s 56th Annual Scientific Session look at how health-related behaviors can influence a person’s risk for cardiovascular disease.
Similar news · Read more »
New study shows smoking increases risk of psoriasis
10-29-2007 · EurekAlert!
Another disease can be added to the list of smoking-related disorders -- psoriasis. Researchers have found that smoking increases the risk of developing psoriasis, heavier smoking increases the risk further, and the risk decreases only slowly after quitting. Investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, the Harvard School of Public Health, all in Boston, Mass., US, and Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada, have published the results in the November 2007 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
Similar news · Read more »
Work time is the largest influence to the duration of a person's sleep
09-01-2007 · EurekAlert!
Work time is the primary lifestyle factor with the largest reciprocal relationship to a person's sleep time -- the more hours a person works, the less sleep that he or she gets, according to a study published in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.
Similar news · Read more »
Sleep deprivation can lead to smoking, drinking
06-12-2007 · EurekAlert!
Sleep loss or disturbed sleep can heighten the risk for adolescents to take up smoking and drinking, two habits that may prove to be detrimental to their health.
Similar news · Read more »
Researchers investigate impact of lifestyle on GI health
05-21-2007 · EurekAlert!
According to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week® 2007 (DDW®), lifestyle factors like choosing your diet regimen or ordering an appetizer for dinner may have a significant impact on the gastrointestinal (GI) system, affecting your risk for certain diseases, weight and general GI-related activity.
Similar news · Read more »