Illustration: Stuart Bradford

Health News from Tufts

DENTAL

Pregnant? See a Dentist

For too long, there has been a misconception that dental treatment is risky during pregnancy, according to David Leader, D85, MPH13, an associate clinical professor of diagnosis and health promotion at Tufts School of Dental Medicine. In fact, Leader notes, “not only is going to the dentist while pregnant a good idea; it’s a great idea—because if you wait until after the baby is born, who’s got the time?”

More importantly, as scientists now know, a pregnant woman’s oral health can affect her newborn’s future. One common hazard is that mothers will pass on cavity-causing bacteria to their babies. Such bacteria can persist in the body, endangering the teeth that will soon emerge. Yet not enough expectant mothers get dental care. Data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2010 show only about half of pregnant women in Massachusetts had their teeth cleaned while they were expecting.

New guidelines from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, crafted with the help of Leader and other experts at the dental school, will protect the future teeth of the 70,000 babies born in the state each year. And they’ll do it by strongly recommending dental care for their moms-to-be, making it clear that such care is anything but risky. (FROM TUFTS DENTAL MEDICINE)

NUTRITION

Greens on the Brain

Researchers have known for a while that a diet rich in lutein is good for your eyes. People who consume more of this deep yellow pigment found in dark green leafy vegetables and brightly colored fruits are less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration, for example.

But Americans don’t get enough of the stuff. While there is no recommended dietary allowance, it takes six milligrams of lutein per day to lower the risk of age-related macular degeneration. The average adult gets less than two milligrams per day.

Now it seems the consequences of the deficit could be more far-reaching than previously thought, since lutein may have a special role in brain health. In an article for the journal Nutrition Reviews, Elizabeth Johnson, a scientist in the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, made a case for studying lutein’s cognitive benefits. She pointed out that the brain absorbs more lutein than it does beta carotene, lycopene, or any of the other healthful pigments in fruits and vegetables. One study found that having a lutein-rich brain was associated with better scores on a wide range of cognitive measures, including executive function, language, learning, and memory. The need for lutein may start early, Johnston wrote. Because children have twice the percentage of lutein in their brains as adults, there is a good chance that lutein is important for neural development during the first years of life. (FROM TUFTS NUTRITION)

MEDICINE

Can Hospital Websites Be Trusted?

In the course of a year, three-quarters of Americans seek medical information online, according to a recent study. A common destination is hospital websites. But just how reliable is the information they provide?

To find out, Mariah Kincaid, M15, working with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, reviewed the websites of 262 U.S. hospitals promoting a relatively new procedure for heart patients called transcatheter aortic valve replacement. The results, published this past January in JAMA Internal Medicine, showed that the websites put an overwhelmingly positive spin on the procedure. Some 99 percent described at least one benefit compared with the more conventional surgery. Yet only 26 percent mentioned any of the risks, which can include stroke.

In a commentary accompanying the study, two bioethicists—Yael Schenker from the University of Pittsburgh and Alex John London at Carnegie Mellon University—observed that hospital websites function in part as a medium for advertisements. “Patients who are referred to such pages to learn about a procedure may not be aware that they are consuming promotional materials rather than impartial educational resources,” they wrote. (FROM TUFTS MEDICINE)

CATS & DOGS

Diets for Pets with Cancer

When pets get cancer, they can’t log on to the Internet and build up a store of misinformation. But their owners can, and Cailin Heinze, a veterinary nutritionist at Cummings School, worries about that. Take the claim that pets with cancer should consume a raw diet. Such a diet can be dangerous for an animal whose immune system has been compromised by chemotherapy or the cancer itself, she says. That’s because raw food is often contaminated with bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria.

Just as troubling, Heinze says, is the common recommendation to reduce carbohydrates, thus “changing the course of the cancer by starving its cells.” It’s true that cancer cells require more energy than healthy ones, and may seek out extra carbohydrates for quick-and-dirty production of that energy. But the bodies of cats and dogs control the amount of carbohydrates in the bloodstream very tightly, Heinze says, so “it’s not clear that we can alter it with diet enough to make a difference to cancer cells.” (FROM CUMMINGS VETERINARY MEDICINE)