Coconut Oil May Help with Tooth Decay

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Coconut oil may be able to attack the bacteria that causes tooth decay. A team from the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland tested the antibacterial action of coconut oil in its natural state and coconut oil that had been treated with enzymes. The oils were tested against strains of Streptococcus bacteria which are common inhabitants of the mouth. They found that enzyme-modified coconut oil strongly inhibited the growth of most strains of Streptococcus bacteria including Streptococcus mutans — an acid-producing bacterium that is know to be a major cause of tooth decay. In the future the researchers plan to examine how coconut oil interacts with Streptococcus bacteria at the molecular level and which other strains of harmful bacteria and yeasts it is active against. The team also showed that the enzyme-modified coconut oil was harmful to the yeast Candida … Read more

Do Migraines Lead to Cognitive Decline?

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While many experience migraines, there are many unanswered questions. One such question researchers are interested is whether or not those who experience migraine headaches are also more likely to experience cognitive decline when compare to those who don’t suffer. Previous studies have shown that migraines lead to increased risk of stroke and structural brain lesions. A study that appeared in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on August 8, 2012 says “Previous studies on migraines and cognitive decline were small and unable to identify a link between… [migraines and cognitive decline]. Our study was large enough to draw the conclusion that migraines, while painful, are not strongly linked to cognitive decline.” The researchers looked at data from the Women’s Health Study, a cohort of nearly 40,000 women, 45 years and older. In this study, researchers analyzed data from 6,349 women who … Read more

The Risks of Cheerleading

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I am not sure how many consider the risks and hazards of cheerleading, but c ertainly one thinks of the risks of other sports like football, hockey, and basketball. In actuality cheerleading is the second leading cause of catastrophic injuries in high school sports after football. The following infographic presents some informative information on the risks of cheerleading and questions whether or not it should nationally be made a sport. www.GlobeLifeInsurance.com

Behavioral Issues Come to Children with Migraine

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A new study in Cephalagia shows that children who have migraine headaches are much more likely than other children to also have behavioral difficulties, including social and attention issues, and anxiety and depression. This is no surprise to me. Marco Arruda, director of the Glia Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, together with Marcelo Bigal of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York studied 1,856 Brazilian children aged 5 to 11. The authors were studying how children’s behavioural and emotional symptoms correlate with migraine and tension-type headaches. Children who experience migraine had a much greater overall likelihood of abnormal behavioral scores than controls, especially in social, attention, somatic, anxiety-depressive, and internalizing domains. Children who experience tension-type headaches were affected in the same domains as migraine sufferers, but to a lesser degree. For children with either migraine (23%) or tension-type … Read more