It's Good For You

Two stories were in the news this week, buried under an avalanche of Foley stories. Unlike Foley, though, these stories could impact your life.

Memory Preserver:

Aftenposten (Norway) reported Wednesday about a study showing that keeping your teeth helps you keep your memory.

Dentists, psychologists and neurologists in Stockholm and Umeå in Sweden and Tromsø in northern Norway, are cooperating on the Betula Project, a study of age, memory, senility and health. The Betula Project has been going on for nearly 20 years in Sweden, and has Center of Excellence status.

A study of around 2,000 persons in Umeå revealed a clear tendency that those who kept a full set of teeth had better powers of memory than those who lost teeth.

"We have tested the problem from every angle and reached the same result," said Professor Jan Bergdahl at the Institute for Clinical Odontology at the University of Tromsø. Bergdahl is both a dentist and psychologist and works closely with the research centers in Umeå and Stockholm.

Their conclusion that older persons with their own teeth have better memory that those without is now going to international publication.

Japanese researchers have seen similar results in mice, "with mice learning to find food in labyrinths but forgetting this knowledge when their teeth were pulled." I'm a little skeptical about this study. If I were a mouse who knew how to find food in a labyrinth, and somebody pulled out all my teeth, I think I'd be a little too traumatized to worry about finding food I can't chew in some stupid maze. It's not that I'd forget. I'd just have other things on my mind.

"We know that own teeth are important for elderly health. Chewing brings oxygen-rich blood to the head and one chews better and harder with one's own teeth," Bergdahl said.

They plan to continue the study, to see if particular teeth are the magic ones, and if the titanium implants give the same results as real teeth. If I see a follow-up, I'll let you know.

Tea Time:

The Telegraph (UK) reported yesterday on a study showing that drinking tea reduces stress levels.

Stress hormone levels fell by nearly twice as much in tea drinkers compared with those given a tea-like drink, after all had been put under stress.

The research from University College London was designed so that neither the drinkers nor the scientists knew what was taken during the exercise.

The research involved 75 young men who were regular tea drinkers. All gave up normal tea, coffee and decaffeinated drinks for six weeks and drank one of two "tea" mixtures, four times a day instead.

One group had a tea-coloured drink which was caffeinated and fruit-flavoured, containing all the constituents of black tea. The other was a fake tea, identical in taste but with no tea properties. The participants could add milk to their "tea" or not as they chose.

After six weeks they were give role-playing tasks to put them under stress. Both groups exhibited significant levels of stress measured by increased levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, increased heart rate and raised blood pressure.

Fifty minutes after the task, levels of cortisol in the real tea group had fallen by 47 per cent compared with 27 per cent in the fake tea group.

There was also an effect on blood platelets, linked to blood clotting and heart attacks. The tea group showed less platelet activity and reported a "greater degree of relaxation" after the task.

One of the movies I like to watch now and then is Sense and Sensibility. In it, whenever there's a problem, the solution is to make the beleaguered person a cup of tea. It helps. The British have always known that. Now the rest of us know too.

Time for a cup of tea...