Healthy News for Healthy Nation

He hated them. “They were too perfect,” Mr. Gafni said. “My nickname in college was Lite-Brite.” As a child, Lite-Brite’s natural teeth had grown in with gray striations, a result of antibiotics he had taken. So when he turned 21, he covered the offending teeth with veneers — wafer-thin pieces of porcelain that are bonded atop filed-down teeth.

Two years ago at 40, Mr. Gafni decided it was time to trade in his flawless teeth for veneers that look natural, but not flawless.

Rebecca Trachtenberg, a nurse practitioner in San Francisco, also asked her dentist to make her veneers subtly less than perfect. “I didn’t want them too white, so he graded them so they get darker as they go back,” said Ms. Trachtenberg, 31. “I also didn’t want them too symmetrical.”

Veneer placements are the third-most-performed cosmetic dental procedure in the nation, according to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, a nonprofit organization with 8,000 dental-industry members.

The veneerification of American mouths is most noticeable on reality television makeover shows, where new sets of straight, gleaming white teeth are often showcased. Nationwide, veneers have been so widely embraced that our smiles are becoming as indistinguishable as so many Starbucks.

Such uniformity isn’t every veneer seeker’s cup of tea. Lately, an influx of patients who want each fake tooth to be unique have visited the laboratory of Laura Kelly, a dental ceramicist in San Ramon, Calif., to discuss the shading and shaping of the veneers she designs. “Patients in the lab?” she said. “It never would’ve happened five years ago. In the beginning of veneers, people wanted teeth all white and straight.” Now, she explained, they’re requesting more translucency on the edges and a gradation of color from the top to the bottom, a slight rotation in the tooth and a rounded corner.

Dr. Jeff Golub-Evans, a dentist on the Upper East Side, encourages patients to allow him to slightly rotate a tooth, or to vary the length of teeth. “What I’ve found is that if someone has perfectly symmetrical features and you put perfectly symmetrical teeth on that face, you ruin their face,” he said.

Roughly a third of Dr. Golub-Evans’ clients, however, still ask for teeth that are as big, as white and as straight as possible.

“The trend towards those thick, perfect-looking teeth started out because celebrities were getting them because they look good on camera,” said Gretta Monahan, a host on the upcoming season of “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style.” “Normal people then took pictures of those teeth to their dentists and saying, ‘I want that.’ For a long time if you had an overbite or a space, you wouldn’t want to duplicate that with veneers.”

Indeed. There was a poignant moment on a recent season of “America’s Next Top Model” when two finalists were told to get veneers. Joanie had a snaggletooth that she was eager to get rid of; Danielle, the subsequent winner, welled up just thinking about parting with her gap à la Lauren Hutton, but she eventually agreed to have it reduced. “I had to suck it up, bite my lip, and get my gap closed as much as I don’t want to,” she said on the show.

Dr. Jonathan Levine, a dentist on Fifth Avenue, has encouraged many patients to keep their gaps, but most of his patients choose subtler so-called flaws (if they want any at all). “They can have ‘clean healthy natural,’ which is like Sarah Jessica Parker,” he said. “Her smile has some imperfection — little rotations, a side tooth that’s subtly set back, a little wear at the edge of the tooth and color that isn’t that bright. More like the color people went for 10 years ago before the whitening craze.”

Or they can copy Mariska Hargitay’s smile: “white but with perfect imperfections,” he said.

But even Ms. Parker or Ms. Hargitay most likely will look lousy in the wee hours, no matter how great their teeth are by day. Why? Many dentists say that taking care of veneers means wearing a mouth guard overnight. Every night.

Talk about imperfection.

When I had my heart attack at 43, all my doctors were really surprised. I was young, I’m not overweight, and I don’t eat a lot of fatty foods.

In fact, I never eat junk food. My father had a heart attack, but he was in his 70s, so that is not a significant risk factor.

However, a closer look at my medical records would have suggested there was a problem. My total cholesterol was around 400, and my triglycerides, which are really affected by diet and exercise, were 600 to 700. A healthy number is 150 or below.

I was not on a statin, but the doctors were urging me to start exercising more and to cut down on refined carbohydrates, like pasta and bread. That can really make your triglycerides shoot up, and I love all those things.

The night of my heart attack I was home, and I felt a lot of pressure in my chest. Not pain, really. I thought it was indigestion. It went on all night and even though my wife Ingrid urged me to go to the hospital, a heart attack was the last thing on my mind.

The next morning the pressure was so great I could barely walk, so I took a taxi to the hospital. I know you are supposed to call an ambulance, but that’s what I did. When I got to the emergency room, I knew what to say: “I have chest pressure, and I think I am having a heart attack.” It was 6 a.m. and they wheeled me in and started giving me blood thinners right away.

The doctors were excellent, and they told me they were going to give me an angioplasty. That scared me because after my dad had his angioplasty, he had to have open-heart surgery. I didn’t want that. Health Magazine: How doctors diagnose and treat a heart attack

The oddest thing about the angioplasty was that for six hours they told me not to move my foot, and I didn’t know why. Turns out there is a plug in your skin where they put the needle in, and if it comes loose your blood shoots out like shaken Champagne because you are on blood thinners. I wish they would have told me that, because I didn’t know why I needed to hold my foot still.

I ended up having three angioplasties, but my heart attack was mild. It turns out my heart was less than 5 percent damaged. I ended up on a lot of medications. I take a statin, TriCor, and Plavix, and a baby aspirin every day.

I have a stress test every year and a half, and so far my cholesterol looks OK; it’s about 160. I don’t think about myself as a person who had a heart attack, but I think my wife worries.

I still hate to exercise, and I do eat bread and pasta, but mostly my diet is fine.

The worst thing about being a young heart-attack survivor is knowing I will have to be on these medications forever. I am convinced that if I became a strict vegetarian and got all the stress out of my life I could go off the meds. But that would require me to quit my job and move to the country, and I am not ready to do that yet.

Experts believe everyone over an age threshold - possibly as young as 50 - should be told to take the simple painkillers to ward off serious cardiac problems.

Aspirin lowers the chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke because it helps stop blood clots forming in the arteries of the heart or brain.

Under current guidelines, GPs only prescribe it to a patient who has already had a heart attack or stroke, or who is considered at high risk of another attack in the near future.

Previous studies have already suggested taking aspirin could cut the chance of having a heart attack or stroke by a third and the risk of a fatal attack by 15 per cent.

New joint research by Nottingham and Sheffield universities bolsters the view that blanket prescriptions could help millions of people later in life.

Analysis of 12,000 patients indicated men as young as 48 and women from the age of 57 could benefit from taking the drug every day.

Researchers, writing in the journal Heart, also claimed many of those who should be receiving aspirin under the current system were falling through the net.

The study suggests it would be easier to have a specific age threshold as a catch-all to ensure everyone is treated.

It found that by the time men are 47 and women 58, the risk of coronary heart disease was 10 per cent, which it deemed a proportion worth tackling.

Only if the patient could suffer dangerous side effects, for example if they had a stomach ulcer, diabetes or were at high risk of bleeding, should they be exempt, it concluded.

Lead author Dr Iskander Idris said routine prescriptions for people in these age groups were feasible, but added: “The final decision about use of aspirin must eventually be made after discussion with a healthcare provider.”

Dr Mike Knapton, director of prevention and care at the British Heart Foundation, warned further “robust research” was needed before blanket prescription could be recommended.

“We would encourage everyone to examine their own individual risk and take steps to reduce it by adjusting their lifestyle,” he said.

Previous research has already indicated patients resistant to aspirin are four times more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or blood clot, and six times more likely to die.

Another study suggested the drug could also help prevent osteoporosis, the painful condition also known as brittle bone disease.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2008) — Their gentle nature, large size, odd sounds and low-maintenance care have made Madagascar hissing cockroaches popular educational tools and pets for years. But the giant insects also have one unfortunate characteristic: Their hard bodies and feces are home to many mold species that could be triggering allergies in the kids and adults who handle the bugs, according to a new study.

Researchers have identified 14 different types of mold on and around this species of cockroach, including several molds associated with allergies and others that can cause secondary infections if they enter the lungs or an open wound.

“This is mainly a point of public awareness,” said Joshua Benoit, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in entomology at Ohio State University. “We are not criticizing their use. We are just saying that if you handle these cockroaches, you should wash your hands when you’re done.

“It’s also best to maintain the cage. It’s not a pet you can ignore,” he said. “Without regular cleaning, feces will build up, and the old exoskeletons they shed will build up. And that’s where a lot of the problems happen.”

The natural life of the Madagascar hissing cockroach, or Gromphadorhina portentosa, is not well understood. But in captivity, the insects thrive on dog food and fruit, reproduce plentifully and do not bite. They grow to between 2 and 3 inches long and 1 inch wide, and will make their characteristic hissing sound if they are squeezed or otherwise feel threatened.

Benoit, an allergy sufferer himself, suspected the insects’ large bodies and moist living environments might combine to create a prime breeding ground for mold.

Some people are allergic to the species of cockroaches that are household pests. In those cases, the bugs’ actual bodies contain allergens. In the case of the Madagascar hissing cockroaches, the most potent mold allergens live on and around the insects instead.

Benoit and colleagues examined the insects from an Ohio State-based colony as well as those found in home collections, zoos, pet stores and science classrooms across Ohio.

The research group tested the feces first, and, as expected, found mold in the bugs’ waste. Then the team examined the giant cockroaches themselves, both outside and inside their bodies, to see what other allergens might be present.

The most commonly found mold species found on the body surfaces of young and adult Madagascar hissing cockroaches were Rhizopus, Penicillium, Mucor, Trichoderma and Alternaria, several of which are listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as common indoor molds. Colonies of the mold species Aspergillus niger, a common contaminant of food, were particularly plentiful in the feces and external shells that had been discarded as the insects molted.

Few molds were found inside the cockroaches’ bodies.

Molds are fungi that grow best in humid conditions, and spread and reproduce by making spores. Benoit said all of the mold species found on and around the hissing cockroaches are capable of producing huge quantities of spores. And the spores themselves can get on bug handlers’ skin or be inhaled, triggering allergic responses in those sensitive to the molds.

For people who are allergic to molds, exposure can cause symptoms such as nasal stuffiness, itchy or burning eyes, wheezing or skin irritation, according to the CDC. Some people with serious allergies to molds may have more severe reactions.

Benoit now is pursuing additional studies on one surprise among the findings: Symbiotic mites also live on the cockroaches, and help keep them clean.

“The mites sweep the surface and remove old food particles and debris, so they remove places on which fungi can grow,” Benoit said.

The research is published in the March issue of the journal Mycoses. Benoit conducted the project with Jay Yoder and Brian Glenn of Wittenberg University and Lawrence Zettler of Illinois College.

Original here