Update on Juul ban
On June 23, the FDA issued marketing denial orders (MDOs) to Juul Labs for all their vaping devices and related products, including the Juul device and four types of Juul pods. But a court granted Juul’s request for a temporary stay on the order the next day, with the company seeking to extend the stay as it cites a “backdrop of immense political pressure” that it said influenced the FDA’s decision.
Study: Regular dental visits may reduce health-care costs for people with diabetes, heart disease
Because previous research has linked periodontal disease with other medical conditions including heart disease and diabetes, a Mayo Clinic research team set out to evaluate how regular, preventive dental care might impact overall health-care costs. The results? Regular care appears to help prevent some more significant and costly health challenges for those with diabetes and coronary artery disease.
Exercise in pill form?
Researchers have identified a molecule in the blood that is produced during exercise and can effectively reduce food intake and obesity. The hope is that if they can understand the mechanism by which exercise triggers benefits such as weight loss and appetite regulation, many people’s health could be improved: “For example, older or frail people who cannot exercise enough, may one day benefit from taking a medication that can help slow down osteoporosis, heart disease, or other conditions."
Gum disease and preterm birth
A small study that compared oral inflammation and microbes in women whose babies were born before 37 weeks of pregnancy with women who had full-term deliveries indicates “that women with premature births more often had inflamed gums, with pockets and loss of the supporting tissue around their teeth compared to their peers with full-term pregnancies.”
Five COVID numbers that “don’t make sense”
From what’s considered “fully vaccinated” to the six-feet social distance benchmark from the pandemic’s early days, The Atlantic breaks down “some of the COVID numbers that have stuck most stubbornly in our brains these past 20-odd months [that] are now disastrously out of date.”
