Study links gum-disease bacterium to collagen-caused rheumatoid arthritis

Although researchers and clinicians allow long celebrated almost an correlation linking two prevalent chronic stirring diseases - periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis - the microbiological relations allow been vague; a new-fangled study suggests this link is causal and so as to the bacteria trustworthy in support of gum disease leads to a closer chain of rheumatoid arthritis.

Modish a up to date article in print in PLoS Pathogens by University of Louisville School of Dentistry researchers say, "The bacterium trustworthy in support of periodontal disease, Porphyromonas gingivalis, worsens rheumatoid athritis by leading to earlier commencement, closer chain and greater severity of the disease, counting increased bone and cartilage destruction," according to a U of L news announce.

The study says the bacterium produces an enzyme so as to worsens collagen-induced arthritis, a form of arthritis related to rheumatoid arthritis produced in the laboratory.

The study was led by Oral Health and Systemic Diseases Group researcher Dr. Jan Potempa and a team so as to plus willful any more oral bacterium in support of the same effect, and found it did not affect collagen-induced arthritis or advise a link to rheumatoid arthritis.

“This ground-breaking conclusion will need to be verified with auxiliary exploration,” thought Potempa. Although the definite cause in support of the disease remains unknown, Potempa thought he hopes these findings will shed new-fangled light on the cure and prevention of rheumatoid arthritis.

An estimated 294,000 children under age 18 allow a little form of arthritis or rheumatic condition, says 2010 data from the Center in support of Disease Control and Prevention; this represents approximately 1 in each 250 children in the U.S. An estimated 1.5 million adults had rheumatoid arthritis in 2007.

Fruit bat roosting in a home

Fruit bat roosting in a home

Northern Kentucky physical condition officials are notice residents to be more wary of bats in the same way as an unusually high spot total of residents own made speak to with bats inside their homes and own had to receive the rabies vaccine. They are asking them to inform several bump into with bats to the physical condition unit.

Bats are commonly infected with rabies and own very small teeth, and so someone who wakes up with a bat in their bedroom might not realize it has bitten them, Northern Kentucky Health Department narrator Emily Gresham-Werle told Brenna Kelly of The Kentucky Inquirer.

Study says obese children (Kentucky's a leader in that) may have quadruple the risk of having high blood pressure as adults

A new study shows that being obese in childhood may quadruple the risk of having high blood pressure risk as an adult, highlighting the need for Kentucky to curb its high rate of childhood obesity.

Eighteen percent of Kentucky high schoolers are obese, tying Mississippi for the highest percentage among the states, says a report by Kentucky's Task Force on Childhood Obesity. In the age range of 10 to 17, Kentucky trails several other states but remains a national leader.

KET will show how annual county health rankings are stirring competition to improve health, community by community

The rankings are in quartiles, or fourths of the 120 counties

Kentuckians love the competition among their basketball and football teams. But what if that same spirit of competition was transferred to health? To help encourage such competition, and thus improve health county by county, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute produces county health rankings each year, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Kentuckians can act to protect against heart disease and stroke; half of preventable deaths occur in adults age 65 or younger

Nearly one on three deaths in the U.S. each year is caused by heart disease and stroke. At least 200,000 of these deaths are preventable, and nearly half of those preventable deaths are of people under 65, says a new report.

What can you do to stop heart disease and stroke from killing you? Change your health habits, says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Vital Signs" report. Changes can include quitting smoking, getting more physical activity and using less salt in your diet. Kentucky communities can also take preventive measures by creating healthier living spaces, such as smoke-free zones and safe places to exercise.

KentuckyOne Health to start around-the-clock online or phone access to health-care providers for $35 a visit on Nov. 1

Hospital group KentuckyOne Health says it will launch a program on Nov. 1 that will let Kentuckians get urgent care at any time by consulting with a medical professional over the phone or web camera. The group says KentuckyOne Anywhere Care is among the first such programs in the nation.

“KentuckyOne Health’s purpose is to expand access to quality health care, no matter where you live in the Commonwealth; is one way we are doing that,” CEO Ruth W. Brinkley said. “We can provide primary care to more Kentuckians, while saving them time, hassle and expense. We can treat conditions before they become more acute, as well as prevent unnecessary and costly emergency room visits.”

Kentucky poverty rate is fifth highest in U.S., but a larger share of Kentuckians had health insurance in 2012 than in 2011

In 2012, as U.S. incomes remained lower and poverty rates higher than in 2007, the year before the recession, Kentucky poverty rates increased and one in four Kentucky children were living in poverty, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, the percentage of Kentuckians with health insurance increased.

Kentucky had the fifth highest percentage of residents living in poverty (19.4 percent) in 2012, up from 18.8 percent in 2011. It ranked behind Mississippi (24.2 percent), New Mexico (20.8), Louisiana (19.9) and Arkansas (19.8). However, it was statistically tied with the last two states for third place because the error margin for the estimates is plus or minus 0.5 percentage points. Nationally, 2012 was the second straight year that the U.S. poverty rate had failed to improve. It remained at 15 percent, with 46.5 million people earning at or below the federal poverty line. Click here for an interactive poverty rate map from Stateline.

Weekly newspaper in Jessamine County localizes modifications visiting health insurance and medical care

The Jessamine Journal did an account this week that many Kentucky newspaper are able to do, spotlighting the local impacts of Medicaid expansion under federal health reform and federal tax credits for private insurance over the state many benefits exchange that opens Oct. 1, and comparing the local percentages to the remainder of the state.

This graphic by Jonathan Kleppinger illustrated the story.

Using food labels and other guidance helps you control weight and reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, FDA study finds

Food labels and dietary guidance help consumers make healthier choices and slim down, based on a report for the U.S. Food.

The FDA's Joanna Parks used data in the National Nutrition and health Examination Survey to estimate the effects of labels and help with the intake of 18 nutrients. She learned that people who used the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels consumed about 120 fewer calories each day, enough to clarify at the very least an 11-pound improvement in body mass between them and those who didn't utilize the information.

Clinics in 9 Appalachian counties will offer high-tech eye screenings to head off common ailment that blinds diabetics

Kentucky has single of the nation's highest toll of diabetes, but partly the diabetics in rural Kentucky don't cover twelve-monthly eye exams – even though near 30 percent of diabetics completed 40 cover diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of loss of sight amongst diabetic adults.

Watch out for specious claims about health-reform law in highly politicized debate

The greatest story within the state and nation will be Tuesday's opening of online health-insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, beneath the federal health reform law. "Obamacare" has become politicized from the beginning, and also the current debate has featured several specious claims that journalists should be on the lookout as they report, edit, present and choose commentary (including letters on the editor and person-on-the-street interviews) on the subject.

Mental-health issue

Almost a fourth of the inmates in Kentucky's prisons and jails have a very mental-health issue, and it's portion of an expanding national problem. "America's lockups are its new asylums," Gary Fields and Erica Phillips report to the Wall Street Journal. "After scores of state mental institutions were closed starting in the 1970s, few alternatives materialized. Most of the afflicted finished up around the streets, where, untreated, they became weaker to joblessness, drug use and crime."

Ky. Health Cooperative, a new kind of insurer, could help hold down rates and reshape the health-care system

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A little-known but recipe part of federal physical condition reform twisted a modern kind of physical condition insurance -- a company to facilitate is neither known, like Medicare and Medicaid, or run representing profit, like traditional insurance companies. And the Kentucky Health Cooperative is offering coverage this week, with the opening of the state health-insurance argument.

Kentucky is solitary of 23 states with campaign the law designated as Consumer Operated and Oriented, or "co-ops," designed to collapse for-profit companies more competitive and foothold down toll.

Janie Miller (Associated Press photo)

The campaign own acknowledged more than $2 billion in federal loans to build themselves from nick, but own been operating largely under the radar.

"The co-op encode is an exceedingly little branded part of the Affordable Care Act," Kentucky Health Cooperative boss Janie Miller held in an interview with the Kentucky Health News. "It's been very intractable to comprehend fill with to understand come again? The co-op is and why they must think."

The Co-Op provision was a following compromise in the Affordable Care Act, industrial as an alternative to the "public option" of a government-run mean. "It's the bordering issue you can probably comprehend to a known option," held Miller. “We [cooperatives] are twisted to be the non-profit options in for the most part states… specifically representing the uninsured and under-insured. ”

writing in The New York Times

Ever since he resolute to enlarge Medicaid with money from the federal health-reform law, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has been telltale opponents of Obamacare to "Get ended it." Now, as Republicans be inflicted with made the law the stocking top in talks to keep the government commence and cover the inhabitant debt, Beshear has taken with the intention of arguing to an inhabitant audience.