Science and Your Health

A new study has given hope to researchers that brain damage caused by Alzheimer's disease may not only be slowed down, but reversed. In their study, published in the journal Science, University of Minnesotaneurology professor Karen Ashe and her colleagues bred mice with a human gene linked to dementia. When they activated the gene, the mice revealed signs of dementia through a decreased ability to swim through a water maze. But when the researchers de-activated the gene, not only did the signs of dementia decline, but the mental functions of the mice were actually restored. The researchers found that by blocking the production of tau--a mutant protein that's been linked to Alzheimer's--some of the affected neurons were able to recover. Researchers have been unable to pinpoint the cause of Alzheimer's, a creeping brain degeneration that affects about 4.5 million Americans.

Could the findings affect how the disease is treated? The findings give hope that it may one day be possible to save sick cells by protecting them from the protein. Alzheimer's drugs available today only treat the symptoms of the disease.

Save Your Teeth: Stop Smoking

Smokers are about six times more likely to develop gum disease than non-smokers, according to new research published in the in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology. Kicking the habit, though, can keep smokers from losing their teeth.

For a year, British scientists studied 49 smokers who suffered from chronic gum disease, which is marked by a build-up of bacteria that causes the gums to recede and bleed. The risk of developing the disease increases with the number of cigarettes smoked daily. In severe cases of the disease, a patient's teeth may fall out or need to be pulled.

In the study, the researchers at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne noticed a significant improvement in the gums of the one-fifth of smokers who quit, compared to those who did not.