AP

MONDAY, Sept. 12, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Gum disease has far-reaching effects and may increase your odds of developing dementia, a new study suggests.

In a review of 47 previously published studies, researchers in Finland found that tooth loss, deep pockets around teeth in the gums, or bone loss in the tooth sockets was tied to a 21% higher risk of dementia and a 23% higher risk of milder cognitive decline.

Tooth loss itself — an indicator of gum, or periodontitis, disease — was linked to a 23% higher risk of cognitive (mental) decline and a 13% higher risk of dementia, according to the study.

“Maintaining adequate periodontal health, including retention of healthy natural teeth, seems to be important also in the context of preventing cognitive decline and dementia,” said lead researcher Sam Asher, from the Institute of Dentistry at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio.

Asher noted

MONDAY, Sept. 12, 2022 (HealthDay News) — A single blood test that can screen for more than 50 cancers seems to work fairly well in the real world, a preliminary study reveals.

found that of over 6,600 apparently healthy people aged 50 and older, the blood test detected a possible cancer “signal” in Researchers roughly 1%. When those individuals had more extensive testing, cancer was confirmed in 38%.

Experts called the findings an “important first step” in seeing how the so-called multi-cancer early detection test could fit into real-world care.

“This is not ready for prime time,” stressed study co-author Catherine Marinac, a researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

But if further studies confirm the blood test’s usefulness, she said, it could become a “game changer.”

The findings come from a study called Pathfinder, which is being run at multiple medical institutions across the United States to evaluate

By DANA GAURUDER – Associated Press

By ADAM BEAM and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

FRIDAY, Sept. 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Up to 9% of American teens say they’ve engaged in what’s known as “digital self-harm” — anonymously posting negative comments about themselves on social media.

As is the case with acts of physical self-harm such as cutting, this “virtual” self-harm is associated with a higher risk for thinking about or attempting suicide, according to a startling new study.

It found that teens who engaged in digital self-harm were up to seven times more likely to have considered suicide and as much as 15 times more likely to have made an attempt.

“We can’t say that one causes the other, but we do know they are connected in some way,” said lead author Justin Patchin. He’s co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

But why would anyone want to virtually trash themselves to begin with?

Patchin said that

FRIDAY, Sept. 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Many teenagers have a hard time discerning between accurate health messages and “fake news,” a new study finds.

Presented with a choice between fake and true health messages, about two in five teenagers considered both messages equally trustworthy, researchers found.

Further, about one in 10 actually considered the fake message more trustworthy than the accurate information, according to the report published Aug. 29 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

“There has been an explosion of misinformation in the area of ​​health during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said principal researcher Dr. Radomír Masaryk, of Comenius University, in Bratislava, Slovakia.

“As teenagers are frequent users of the internet, we usually expect that they already know how to approach and appraise online information, but the opposite seems to be true,” Masaryk said in a journal news release.

For the study, Masaryk and his colleagues

FRIDAY, Sept. 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Yes, you can get monkeypox at the gym, but there’s no need to panic, one expert says.

“We have plenty of ways to protect ourselves in this setting,” said Dr. Thomas Giordano, chief of infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

First, wipe down equipment including weight machines, dumbbells, barbells and yoga mats, before and after use. Don’t share gym towels because the virus can be spread by touching a towel used by someone who has the virus.

“Most of the surfaces you’re coming across in the gym are hard, like plastic and metal, and not porous, like towels and linens,” Giordano said in a Baylor news release. “Because many gyms provided cleaning solutions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, you can easily wipe away the virus from those hard surfaces.”

You can also bring your own cleaning solution, with permission