Illustration: Dan Page

Scared Straight by “Meth Mouth”

Visiting a friend in Idaho, Jennifer Towers, director of research affairs at the School of Dental Medicine, couldn’t help noticing all the people in their twenties and thirties who had really bad tooth decay, missing teeth, and even full dentures.

“It’s meth,” her friend explained.

Methamphetamine, the cheap, powerfully addictive drug with a disproportionate grip on rural youth, ravages the mouth, and fast. It dries up protective saliva, induces sugar cravings, and compels users to gnash their teeth, creating tiny fissures in the enamel.

The good news, however, is that directing kids’ attention to the “meth mouth” phenomenon could help steer them away from the drug. Towers went on to develop a meth-prevention campaign in Idaho, and as part of the research for it, she showed a focus group of teenage girls before-and-after pictures of meth addicts—mug shots from successive drug arrests. The physical degeneration was shocking, the impact on her young subjects undeniable. “I knew that something dramatic was going on to get a group of fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds to be silent for fifteen seconds,” she says.

(FROM TUFTS DENTAL MEDICINE)

Photo: BSIP/Photoresearchers, Inc.

B-12 Deficiency and Dementia

Being even mildly deficient in vitamin B-12 may put older adults at a greater risk for accelerated cognitive decline, according to a study from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts. It is well known that severe B-12 deficiency speeds dementia, but this more recent research, which appeared in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, suggests that shortfalls of the vitamin may be affecting even more seniors than had been thought.

Martha Savaria Morris, an epidemiologist with the center’s Nutrition Epidemiology Program, and colleagues examined data from 549 men and women enrolled in a cohort of the Framingham Heart Study. The subjects, who had an average age of seventy-five at the start, were divided into five groups based on their vitamin B-12 blood levels. Scores from dementia screening tests given over eight years revealed that being in the two lowest groups was associated with significantly accelerated cognitive decline. “Men and women in the second-lowest group did not fare any better in terms of cognitive decline than those with the worst vitamin B-12 blood levels,” Morris says.

Animal proteins, such as lean meats, poultry, and eggs, are good sources of vitamin B-12. Because older adults may have a hard time absorbing vitamin B-12 from their diet, the USDA recommends that people over fifty also eat foods fortified with B-12 or take supplements.

(FROM TUFTS MEDICINE)

Illustration: Ward Schumaker

Tuna for Cats: How Safe?

If pregnant women avoid canned tuna for fear of exposing their babies to mercury, should your kitty be dining on the stuff? According to Cailin Heinze, a veterinary nutritionist at the Foster Hospital for Small Animals at Tufts, caution is warranted. “We lack data about how much mercury is actually in tuna-based cat foods, as well as statistics about mercury levels in cats that eat those foods,” she says. “However, it seems reasonable to assume that when a cat eats tuna as its main diet, it ingests far more mercury on a body-weight basis than a human does, even a human who eats a lot of tuna.”

Owners should limit their cats to “occasional treats of canned chunk-light tuna”—not albacore, for which mercury levels are “almost three times higher,” she advises. Such indulgences “should account for no more than ten percent of a cat’s daily calories.” And if Fluffy has a problem with that? “Try replacing tuna-based foods with those made from fish that have lower concentrations of mercury, such as salmon.”

(FROM CUMMINGS VETERINARY MEDICINE)

Photo: iStockphoto

Caveats of a Mediterranean Diet

If you’ve followed the headlines, you know that studies link the so-called Mediterranean diet with a range of health benefits, including reduced risk of cancer and heart disease. But if you’re serious about reaping those benefits, it’s best to think of such a diet as simply a Mediterranean-flavored version of the government’s latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

“What the studies are really showing is that a diet consistent with the current guidelines, whether it is called a Mediterranean-style diet or a heart-healthy diet, is effective,” says Alice H. Lichtenstein, the Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at the Friedman School and director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts. There’s not much room in the current guidelines for some of the foods we often think of as Mediterranean. If you believe sausage is essential to Italian dining and lamb is synonymous with Greek cuisine, you’ll need to practice moderation with both. Pasta could be another problem. Healthy Mediterranean eating plans, like the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, emphasize whole grains, but the grains used in familiar pasta dishes are processed. Says Lichtenstein, “I have not seen whole grains in Italy or Greece.” The heaping helpings of cheese we associate with pasta dishes are out, too.

Even olive oil may not be as good for us as many assume. Lichtenstein cites research showing that vegetable oils higher in polyunsaturated fats—such as sunflower, safflower, soybean, and corn oil—are more heart-healthy than the mostly monounsaturated fats in olive oil.

(FROM TUFTS NUTRITION)