THE DECAY PROCESS-ADVANCES AGAINST GUM DISEASE

THE DECAY PROCESS 

Decay, essentially, is an acid-etching process. The acid is formed when bacteria, always present in the mouth, digest food particles left in the mouth. The acid attacks the enamel, the outer layer of the teeth which, even though it is the hardest substance in the body, will dissolve in acid. Decay is sneaky. Even a tiny hole, one you cannot see, through the enamel can be enough to allow acid to enter to start dissolving the dentin, the softer structure under the enamel. 

When the decay process finally reaches the pulp, the living part of the tooth containing nerves and blood vessels, you may feel pain, but not necessarily. A tooth may r. be almost completely rotted away and abscessed without causing pain. It would be bad enough if the effects of decay in a tooth were limited to the tooth, but a diseased tooth can allow bacteria to enter the blood- stream to be circulated to the rest of the body. Dr. J. C. Muhler, of Indiana University, one of the country's leading dental researchers, has written:

ADVANCES AGAINST GUM DISEASE 

Meanwhile, gum disease-technically known as periodontal disease-has come in for hard study. And not only have effective methods to help The Armed Forces always had been faced with a serious dental disease problem. Entering servicemen had an average of seven decaying teeth each, and developed more while on duty; service dentists couldn't begin to cope adequately. In 1961, the Army set up a small-scale experimental program. 

Servicemen had their teeth cleaned in the dental chair, but instead of finishing up with the usual abrasive polishing paste to make the teeth gleam, Army dentists used a paste with fluoride added.

Along with bright teeth, servicemen also got fluoride burnished into the enamel during the polishing. In the same sitting, a topical fluoride solution was dabbed on. 

They were then sent away to make regular daily use of a fluoridated toothpaste. . By 1963, Army dentists had expanded the program so it reached more than 300,000 men. It has been expanding since, and in the Navy and Air Force as well. Result: huge reductions in new cavity formation. A comparison study at the Navy's New London, Connecticut, base, for example, showed an 86 percent reduction in the decay rate among men on the program. 

After two years of experience with the program at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Admiral Kyes could report that "midshipmen now have a caries expectancy of one new cavity in ten years," versus the average rate of university students of the same age of two new cavities each year. 

Female Sex Glands and Mensturation - Ovulation

THE FEMALE SEX GLANDS

 Like the testes, the two ovaries have more than one function. They produce the ova, or eggs; they also secrete hormones needed for both reproduction and feminine characteristics. The ovaries lie in the front part of the abdomen, below the navel, and each is connected with the uterus by a fallopian tube. 

The ovarian hormones are estrogen and progesterone. They are produced in small amounts before puberty and after menopause, and in abundance during the childbearing years, the period when a woman has her regular monthly cycles.

MENSTRUATION AND OVULATION

 Menstruation involves the discharge of the extra blood and tissue built up in preparation for conception but not used. Cycles vary among women and even in the same woman, but generally the time from one menstrual period to the next averages about 28 days. Doctors customarily count the first day of menstruation as day 1 in a cycle. During the first 14 days of the cycle, the ovary contains a follicle, a small hollow ball about the size of a pinhead. Within the follicle is an egg. The follicle grows during the two weeks until it becomes about as large as a pea. 

As it grows, it produces estrogen. Follicle growth as well as the menstrual cycle in general is under pituitary gland control. On about day 14, stimulated by the pituitary, the follicle bursts and the egg is discharged from the ovary to enter the fallopian tube on its way to the uterus. If sperm are present in the tube at this time, fertilization may take place in the tube. The fertilized egg then continues its journey to the uterus where it implants itself on the wall of the uterus.

Meanwhile, the ruptured follicle from which the egg carne is transformed into a yellowish, solid ball, now called the corpus lute urn, or yellow body. The corpus luteum produces a second hormone, progesterone. Scientists now know how to make synthetic hormones to control ovulation. Contraceptive pills imitate the natural body processes in preventing ovulation, as discussed elsewhere in this book. 

Estrogen and progesterone help build up the lining of uterus, making it thicker and providing it with a rich blood supply to feed the unborn baby. During the last 14 days of the cycle, the two hormones are produced by the corpus luteum. The fertilized egg secretes a hormone that causes the corpus luteum to persist in producing estrogen and progesterone from the fertilized egg is necessary because at the end.Pregnancy has not occurred, the corpus luteum degenerates and its retions stop. 

With cessation of hormone production, the rich blood supply built up in the uterine lining sloughs off and menstruation occurs. Menstruation and menstrual difficulties are discussed in detail elsewhere in this book.

MENOPAUSE

 Menopause, or change of life, is as natural for women as menstruation is. There should be no dread of it: nothing more disastrous occurs than the tapering off and cessation of the monthly cycle. True, some changes, natural ones, occur. Estrogen secretion is reduced. The follicles no longer release eggs. Menstruation stops, suddenly or gradually. 

After menopause is well established, in about a year, there should be no more bleeding. Be certain to consult a physician immediately if bleeding or spotting occurs, since this may signal cancer or an- other disorder requiring prompt treatment. Actually, unfounded fears are to a large extent responsible for the emotional disturbances some women experience during menopause. 

Certain physical symptoms may occur because of the glandular changes taking place. If they become troublesome, they may be relieved by hormone treatment. We discuss menopausal symptoms more fully elsewhere. 

Drug use and rescue measures - heroin and it effects on health

SUSPECTING DRUG USE Rehabilitation of a chronic drug user can be a long, hard process. Prevention and intervention-turning youngsters off when they start turning themselves on-are problems of parental concern.

How can a parent begin to suspect that a child may be taking drugs? It's important to note any unusual changes from normal behavior. If a child who has always been friendly and outgoing suddenly becomes withdrawn and hostile, something is wrong though it may not necessarily be drug use. 

Some experts suggest that a youngster who keeps to himself for long periods in his room or in the bathroom, who is often on the phone and who is called by persons who will not identify themselves to parents, may be taking drugs. Other possible indications include a sharp slide in school grades, disappearance of clothing and personal belongings and thievery at home (used to pay for drugs), alienation from old friends, and taking up with strange companions. There are physical indications.

Person smoking marijuana has a strong odor of burnt leaves on both his breath and clothes which persists for hours after use of the drug. Marijuana dilates the pupils of the eyes and sometimes reddens and inflames the eyes. Other symptoms include sleepiness, lack of coordination, wandering mind, increased appetite, and craving for sweets. There may be a tendency to laugh and giggle excessively. 

If a person is high on LSD or another hallucinogen, the symptoms are almost unmistakable: severe hallucinations, incoherent speech, cold hands and feet, strong body odor, laughing and crying jags, vomiting. Symptoms of amphetamine usage include aggressive behavior, rapid speech, giggling and silliness, confusion of thinking, extreme fatigue, shakiness, loss of appetite.

Those for the barbiturates are stupor, dullness, blurred speech, drunk appearance, vomiting. If pills are found on children who deny they are illicit drugs, the pills can be identified by a druggist or physician. If cigarette papers and possibly small seeds are found in clothing pockets, they may well indicate marijuana usage. When a child is sniffing glue or drinking cough medicine containing narcotics for kicks, he may have a dreamy blank expression and a drunk about that, the seriousness of the situation justifies the invasion.

There should take effort then to find out whether the child has only experimented a drug regularly. In discussing drugs with a child, the parent can, and should, use an intelligent, reasonable approach. It is far more likely to be successful than an authoritative pronouncement. A youngster can be reminded that LSD usage is extremely dangerous risk-taking; that it has caused hundreds of victims to end up in mental institutions or to suffer injuries such as three University of California at Santa Barbara students suffered when, on an LSD trip, they stared 50 long at the sun while holding a "religious conversion" that they never again will be able to read. A youngster resists any argument that marijuana is as addictive or is dangerous as heroin. 

Drug addiction and stimulant drugs - effects on

STIMULANT DRUGS 

Amphetamines-stimulants for the central nervous system-were first introduced in the 1920's. Best known for their ability to combat fatigue and sleepiness, they have many medical uses.

Under some circumstances, they may be employed as an aid in weight reduction because of their appetite-suppressing effect. They are sometimes used in the treatment of mild mental depression. In some children-who tend to be overactive and irritable, behavior problems in school and at home--the amphetamines have what seems to be a paradoxical effect: though basically stimulants, in these children they have a valuable calmative effect. 

Stimulants have been widely abused. There has been a heavy illegal traffic in such agents as Benzedrine, Dexedrine, and Methedrine, commonly called pep pills, bennies, and speed.

While these drugs produce no physical dependence, a tolerance to them does develop and increasingly large doses are required to achieve the same results. Their effects are many: increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, palpitations, dilation of the pupils, dry mouth, sweating, headache, diarrhea, paleness. 

The drugs stimulate the release of norepinephrine, a neurohormone ordinarily stored in nerve endings. Norepinephrine be- comes concentrated in higher brain centers. When seriously abused, the stimulants can produce exhaustion and temporary psychosis which may require hospitalization.

 When used for long periods for "kicks" or for staying awake, the drugs have another danger: they may lead people to try to do things beyond their physical capacity, leaving them seriously exhausted at best and, at worst, leading them into serious and even fatal accidents. "Speeding," the injection of Methedrine into a vein, has still other dangers. An unaccustomed high dose can kill. 

And injections may lead to critical serum hepatitis. Heavy chronic users of stimulant drugs tend to become irritable and unstable and, like other chronic drug users, may suffer social, intellectual, and emotional breakdown. In our heavily medicated society, the abuse of stimulants is not limited to young people and thrill seekers. 

Many otherwise intelligent persons get on a kind of pill-go-round, using sedatives to calm themselves down and fall asleep and stimulants to wake themselves up and keep going. 

Benefits of Stopping smoking

THE REWARDS OF STOPPING

It is better, of course, never to start smoking. But the rewards of stopping are great. Recent studies show that if smoking is stopped before lung cancer has actually started, lung tissue tends to heal itself. Even for those who have smoked long and heavily, the lung cancer risk begins to decrease about one year after the habit is abandoned and then continues to decrease progressively until after ten years it is very little higher than for people who have never smoked regularly.

 One recent study compared the lung cancer death rate among British physicians, a large proportion of who have stopped smoking, with that of the population in general. The physicians' death rate from the disease declined 30 percent while the lung cancer rate for British men in general increased 25 percent. The death rate from coronary heart disease decreases rapidly with cessation of smoking. 

And while some people who stop smoking weight, and overweight is a factor in heart disease, it has been calculated that a man of average weight who has customarily smoked 40 cigarettes a day and stops would have to gain at least 75 pounds to offset the added years of life he can expect from no smoking. In chronic bronchitis and emphysema, for which immediate cessation of smoking is an essential part of treatment, elimination of the habit reduces cough and other symptoms within a few weeks.

While lung tissue destroyed by emphysema is not replaced, usually the progress of the disease is slowed down and may even be arrested. According to Dr. Donald Frederickson, Director of New York City's Smoking Control Program, who has had considerable experience with people who wish to give up smoking, a major reason for the desire, even among the young, is to avoid not just possible death from lung cancer or heart disease but to minimize the risk of early disability.

Dr. Frederickson reports that many smokers tell him: "Dying doesn't bother me- after all, once you're dead, you're dead. And I calculate my chances of developing lung cancer to be relatively small. But the idea of spending fifteen or twenty years with a chronic disease, that interferes with the enjoyment of life and reduces my ability to function-well, that's too much. 

Smoking just isn't worth it." There are, in addition, many other rewards of abandoning the habit: a better taste in the mouth and a better taste of foods; reduced fatigue and shortness of breath; sounder sleep; amelioration and even disappearance of cough and nasal stuffiness; fewer headaches; reduced tensions; greater safety. Cigarette breath will disappear. 

There will be no more cigarette burn holes in clothing, furniture, rugs, and table cloths. And there will be money savings, a significant amount in the course of a year. There are, at this writing, 19 million ex-cigarette smokers in the country.

About one of every five adult men has dropped the habit. And those who give it up report a great sense of satisfaction, a tremendous pride in being able to do it.