Does a diagnosis of severe physical illness elevate suicide risk?

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Dona Matthews reviews a retrospective cohort study of 47 million people exploring the risk of suicide after diagnosis of severe physical illness, such as low-survival cancers, chronic ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and degenerative neurological conditions such as Huntington’s disease.

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Can treating periodontitis help prevent heart disease?

heart attack

Periodontal disease is associated with cardiovascular disease. This Cochrane review looks at whether treating periodontal disease can prevent further heart disease. Unfortunately the available evidence is limited to a single trial at high risk of bias.

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Is this toothache or am I having a heart attack?

heart attack

Pain from cardiac ischaemia can have a range of presentations. This can include chest, arm, shoulder pain, face or jaw pain.  While sudden chest pain that may travel down the arm is a typical presentation classic teaching is that cardiac ischemia can present with tooth, jaw, or facial pain as its sole symptom.  The aim [read the full story…]

Gum disease does not cause heart disease

heart attack

Links between gum and heart disease have been noted for over 100 years, but  in recent years there has been a surge of interest in this topic as evidenced by the increasing numbers of papers published since the late 1990s. A selection of some of the reviews published since 2000 is listed below.  The aim [read the full story…]