Brush your teeth, save your life?

edition.cnn.com — ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Oral surgeon Dr. Gary Bouloux is about to pull a diseased wisdom tooth from his patient's mouth, using forceps that look like a pair of silver pliers. "We're in good shape," Bouloux assures his patient. In a smooth, quick motion, Bouloux snatches the white molar from the woman's gum with a loud snap. "Strong bones," Bouloux quips to his numb patient. "You'll never break your hip." And it might help cut her heart disease risk, too. In theory, by removing his patient's teeth ravaged by gum disease, "we reduced the number of inflamed and infected sites in her mouth, which may reduce her overall inflammatory burden and thus reduce her risk for cardiovascular disease," said Bouloux, an assistant professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. read more...

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Protein in Spinal Fluid May Contribute to MS: Study

health.msn.com — A protein that helps keep immune cells quiet -- and has been suspected of being tied to multiple sclerosis -- is more abundant in the spinal fluid of people with MS than those without the disease, a new report says. The finding, by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, may help give scientists new drug therapies to prevent and treat MS, which is caused by misdirected immune attacks on the protective lining that coats nerve cell branches. The extra protein, TREM-2, was found floating freely in spinal fluid. It previously had only been seen on the surface of immune cells. read more...

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