28 January, 2015

Chewing gum — good for your oral health?

Just 10 minutes of chewing gum can remove 100 million bacteria from your mouth, according to a new study which suggests chewing gum may be as good as flossing. Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that chewing gum can trap and remove bacteria from the oral cavity. In the study, five biomedical engineering students were recruited to chew two different standard types of spearmint gum for various lengths of time ranging from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.

Afterward, the gum was spit into a cup filled with sterile water to be analysed, ‘Medical Daily’ reported. There were were about 100 million bacteria detected on each piece of chewed up gum, with the number increasing as chewing time increased. However, after 30 seconds of chewing, the gum starts to lose its adhesiveness, meaning it traps fewer bacteria overall. ‘Trapped bacteria were clearly visualised in chewed gum using scanning-electron-microscopy,’ researchers said in the paper published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Previous research has shown that using a new, clean toothbrush without any toothpaste can remove around 100 million colony-forming units (CFUs) per brush, which would put chewing of gum on par with the mechanical action of a toothbrush. In another experiment with three human volunteers who used 5 cm of floss wire, researchers found that ‘the mechanical action of floss wire removes a comparable number of bacteria from the oral cavity than does chewing of a single piece of gum.’  ‘Chewing however, does not necessarily remove bacteria from the same sites of the dentition as does brushing or flossing, therefore its results may be noticeable on a more long-term than those of brushing or flossing,’ researchers said.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

28.01.2015

The world’s first `emotional robot` designed to serve people with dementia

 A new robot has recently been developed that help take care of people with dementia by recognizing their emotions. At Nishi-Koigakubo Ninjin Home, a special elderly nursing home in western Tokyo, elderly dementia patients recently spent time with Pepper, a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence being developed by SoftBank Mobile, Stuff.co.nz reported. Said to be the world’s first robot designed to serve people by recognizing their emotions, Pepper is set to retail for 198,000 yen on the consumer market in February.

SoftBank Mobile hopes to develop its robot to act as a conversation partner for those suffering from dementia. During its visit, Pepper played a game and showed off its dancing skills, because of the installation of a prototype program. To help prevent the condition of elderly patients from deteriorating to the point where they require nursing care, the firm hopes to give people more options than simply relying on efforts by the central and local governments. The company plans to develop a program to provide better support for dementia patients, such as by adding a function to encourage the elderly to talk about their memories.  

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

28.01.2015

A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, need less, smile often, dream big