Dr. Bob's Mouthly Report

Sure, it’s fun to share a good laugh. But did you know it can actually improve your health? It’s true: laughter is strong medicine. It draws people together in ways that trigger healthy physical and emotional changes in the body. Laughter strengthens your immune system, boosts mood, diminishes pain, and protects you from the damaging effects of stress. As children, we used to laugh hundreds of times a day, but as adults, life tends to be more serious and laughter more infrequent. But by seeking out more opportunities for humor and laughter, you can improve your emotional health, strengthen your relationships, find greater happiness—and even add years to your life.

Why is laughter the sweetest medicine for the mind and body?

Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hope, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert. It also helps you release anger and forgive sooner.

With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use.

Read more at HelpGuide

(CNN)The US Food and Drug Administration issued its final guidance for e-cigarette makers to submit premarket tobacco product applications, giving these companies a clearer path to seek official authorization to market their products, the agency announced Tuesday.

In doing so, companies must show that their products "would be appropriate for the protection of the public health," the agency says.

The announcement comes about a month after a federal judge ordered the agency to speed up its review of thousands of vaping products now on the market. That decision, part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by multiple health groups, said that the agency has acted illegally by allowing e-cigarettes to remain on the market until 2022 before requiring companies to apply for FDA authorization.

"There are no authorized e-cigarettes currently on the market," Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the agency's oversight of such products "is critical to our public health mission and, especially, to protecting kids from the dangers of nicotine and tobacco-related disease and death."

Read more at CNN

Good oral care habits are about more than just your teeth—a healthy mouth means a healthy body. That’s why it’s so important to see your ADA dentist regularly. Those visits can help prevent and monitor dental health issues that could lead to more serious conditions and require more expensive treatment, such as cavities, tooth removal, root canals and even oral cancer.

But shopping for a dental plan—or any type of healthcare coverage, for that matter—can be an intimidating process. There are endless options to choose from with different types of plans, levels of coverage and costs. Even when you think you know what type of plan you want, the paperwork can be full of unfamiliar terms and acronyms that make the terms of the plan hard to understand.

Dental plans also function differently than most health insurance plans, adding another layer of complexity to the process. But don’t worry! We’ve got you covered. Below you’ll find resources to help you through every step of the way, including figuring out how much coverage you need, what common insurance and dental terms mean and additional resources for finding affordable dental coverage.

Read more at Mouth Healthy

WASHINGTON – U.S. regulators has moved to discipline vaping companies for inappropriately promoting their flavored nicotine formulas through so-called influencers on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

The Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters Friday to four companies that used paid social media influencers to pitch nicotine solutions to their online followers, including flavors like watermelon patch and strawberry kiwi.

The posts didn't include a mandatory warning that the vaping liquids contain nicotine, which is addictive. The FDA, joined by the Federal Trade Commission, sent the letters to Solace Vapor, Hype City Vapors, Humble Juice Co. and Artist Liquid Labs. The companies did not immediately return calls and emails seeking comment Friday.

Facebook prohibits e-cigarette ads even with warnings and the FTC has been pressuring influencers – people with many social media followers who promote products and services – to disclose when they are being paid to endorse something.

The action comes as the FDA and other government agencies struggle to reverse what they call an epidemic of underage e-cigarette use. Researchers have linked the trend to a surge in online videos, photos and other posts about vaping, some of them generated by companies, advertising agencies and paid influencers.

Government figures showed a nearly 80% jump in vaping by teens last year, with 1 in 5 high school students reporting that they used the devices in the previous month.

Read more at The Journal Gazette

To identify bacteria, labs still rely on century-old techniques from Louis Pasteur — putting a few drops of blood or other sample in a lab dish and waiting days or sometimes weeks to see what germs grow. To test for a virus, a doctor usually has to guess what the patient is sick with. Testing for a fungus or some other things can take a long time.

Several companies and university labs now offer gene-based tests on blood or spinal fluid. Once fragments of foreign DNA or other genetic material are found, their code is analyzed, or sequenced, to identify bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites causing sepsis, meningitis, encephalitis and other deadly illnesses.

“The key advantage of sequencing is it can look for everything at once” rather than doing separate tests for each virus or other microbe that’s suspected, said Dr. Charles Chiu, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Francisco.

Read more at AP