Dispensary Corner 30 Sep 13
September 30, 2013
Maybe they were too busy
training to brush or floss?
Around 20% of athletes
competing at last year’s London
Olympic Games had bad teeth,
according to a study published
in the British Journal of Sports
Medicine.
Scientists from the University
College London studied data on
the competitors, and said that
“for a similar age profile, the oral
health of athletes is poor”.
Lead researcher Professor Ian
Needleman cited a range of
factors including regular ingestion
of sugary energy drinks, stress on
the immune system from intense
training as well as a “fixation on
training, preparation and other
aspects of health [which] may
leave little time or awareness of
oral health”.
The data was gathered from
athletes who attended a free
dental clinic at London 2012,
which offered check-ups and
mouth guards.
“Of the 302 athletes examined,
from 25 sports, 55% had evidence
of cavities, 45% had tooth erosion
and 76% had gum disease,” the
BBC reported.
Imagine dispensing this.
Researchers from Mount Sinai
Hospital in New York, USA, say
that “bottled bowel mucus” could
one day be used as a treatment
for some gastrointestinal
diseases.
The team have been looking
at why the bowel lining doesn’t
react to bacteria living in the
intestine, and found that bowel
mucus acted as a barrier and
also helped to calm the immune
response.
Dr Andrea Cerutti said the
scientists were able to show that
glycans (or sugars) attached to a
mucus protein called MUC2 was
the key dampener.
Although the research is at very
early stages, they postulated that
one day it could be possible to
create artificial mucus to treat
some chronic bowel diseases.
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