Playing Video Game May Boost MS Patients’ Balance

An exercise component of the popular Nintendo Wii video game may help multiple sclerosis patients improve their balance by rewiring their brains, a new study suggests.

Playing Video Game May Boost MS Patients' Balance

No medications exist to preserve balance in MS patients, and some drugs make balance worse, said study lead author Dr. Luca Prosperini, a neurologist at Sapienza University in Rome, Italy.

It appears that patients who use the Wii Balance Board five days a week — moving to snowboarding or dance games, for example — may help reduce their risk of falls and boost certain brain connections, possibly because they’re coordinating their movements with a figure on a screen, Prosperini said.

There are caveats to the research, however. The study was small, and there’s a risk that patients could hurt themselves by falling, although they can play seated rather than stand on the balance board.

“Patients with MS should be encouraged to start using this system only under supervision,” Prosperini said. “Once well-trained, they may use it at home.”

Multiple sclerosis is a nerve disorder that affects how the brain communicates with the body. “Balance problems are quite common and arise due to the effects of MS on a number of functions that are important for balance,” said Nicholas LaRocca, vice president for health care delivery and policy research with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Among other things, MS can disrupt vision, coordination and the body’s balancing mechanism, he said.

Patients turn to a variety of strategies to support balance, he said. Canes and orthotic devices (shoe inserts) help some people, and rehabilitation can build strength and coordination. Some patients try electrical muscle stimulation to maintain or regain control of their muscles, he said.

Prosperini was inspired to study a video game treatment for MS when he saw patients in rehabilitation using a balance-boosting system that reminded him of an old Atari video game. Then a commercial about the Wii Balance Board caught his attention. The balance board, shaped a bit like a weight scale, detects a person’s movements and allows them to be translated into action on a TV screen.

Prosperini tried to get a grant from Nintendo to support research. The company wasn’t interested, he said, but he obtained funding from the Italian MS Society.

His previous research has supported the idea that patients regain balance when they use the Wii Balance Board. The new study aimed to understand what’s happening in their brains.

In the new study, published online Aug. 26 in Radiology, 27 MS patients were split into two groups. One group spent three months doing nothing special while the other group played with the Wii Balance Board for 30 to 40 minutes daily, five days a week. Then the groups reversed roles: Those who had done nothing special used the balance board for three months, while the others stopped using it.

Another 15 healthy people tried the system, too.

All participants had specialized MRI scans to detect any physiological changes in the brain.

The researchers found that patients regained some balance, presumably by using the board, and their brains actually changed. Using the video game was tied to improvements in the protective sheath around nerves, leading to better conduction of impulses between the body and brain, Prosperini said.

It’s not clear if other kinds of training might also help MS patients regain balance, he said. But video games like those that use the balance board might have similar benefits because they require patients to mimic movements that they see on screen, potentially providing an extra brain boost.

LaRocca, of the MS Society, said the study is valid but has limitations. For one, it’s difficult to interpret what the brain changes mean, he said. Also, he added, the research suggests that the improvements in balance aren’t permanent, requiring patients to keep at it to make the benefits last.

“Training needs to be ongoing, just like any other form of exercise,” LaRocca said.

While the study found an association between the video-game balance board and balance-enhancing brain changes, it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship. Prosperini said more research is needed, especially since the study was so small.

“There is increasing evidence of the clinical benefit of playing with the balance board, and more in general with highly interactive video games,” he said. But researchers don’t know enough about why the patients are getting better, he added.

Source: webmd

‘Dead’ man rescued 2 hours later when family notices body bag moving

A 54-year-old Brazilian man may be suffering from terminal cancer, but the docs got it wrong when they told his family he’d died of respiratory failure and multiple organ failure Saturday night.

'Dead' man rescued 2 hours later when family notices body bag moving

Two hours later, when family members went to the morgue to dress Valdelucio de Oliveira Goncalves’ body, they noticed the closed body bag moving up and down as if he were still breathing

They implored staff to free him, given he was tied up and his ears and nose were stuffed with cotton wool. The family, who was told three months ago that the man is dying of terminal cancer, has already opened an inquiry into the matter,

“Hospital directors will meet the team who saw the patient to clarify the course of action taken,” the local health department said in a statement. Bizarre as it is, this type of incident is far from unheard of; earlier this year, one man who tried to commit suicide and was pronounced dead at the hospital woke up just before being embalmed, and a man in Mississippi also woke up in a body bag.

Source: fox news

Best Herbs for Women

Best Herbs for Women

Have you heard of Shatavari?

One of the Best Herbs for Women!!!

Shatavari ( Asparagus racemosus ) is a climbing plant, grows up to a height of two meters. This plant is popular across Sri Lanka, India and the Himalayas.

Best Herbs for Women2

It is best known for the beneficial actions for female organs.

It is used for treatment of loss of libido and infertility – stimulates the production of healthy ova.
It is very good in pregnancy – relieves morning sickness and during the period of breastfeeding stimulates normal lactation.

Maintains balance hormones and regulate ovulation and menstruation. It relieves premenstrual symptoms – pain, bloating, irritability.

Also is used for the treatment of vaginal infections.

Best Herbs for Women3

Apart from this, helps at:

  • – rejuvenation and detoxification of cells and organs,
  • – respiratory diseases,
  • – stress reduction,
  • – problems with digestion and stomach,
  • – helps at pain from sciatica or arthritis.

Source: secretly healthy

‘Ban E-cigarette use indoors,’ says WHO

The World Health Organization says there should be a ban on the use of e-cigarettes indoors and that sales to children should stop. In a report the health body says there must be no more claims that the devices can help smokers quit – until there is firm evidence to support this.

WHO experts warn the products might pose a threat to adolescents and the foetuses of pregnant women. But campaigners say regulations must be proportionate.

'Ban E-cigarette use indoors,' says WHO

Tempting flavours
According to the WHO legal steps need to be taken to end the use of e-cigarettes indoors – both in public spaces and in work places. And the report focuses on the potential for products to spark wider cigarette use in children. The health experts call for a ban on advertisements that could encourage children and non-smokers to use the devices.

And they say fruit, candy or alcoholic-drink style flavours should be prohibited too, while the sales of electronic cigarettes from vending machines should be heavily restricted.

1. On some e-cigarettes, inhalation activates the battery-powered atomiser. Other types are manually switched on

2. A heating coil inside the atomiser heats liquid nicotine contained in a cartridge

3. Liquid nicotine becomes vapour and is inhaled. The ‘smoke’ produced is largely water vapour. Many e-cigarettes have an LED light as a cosmetic feature to simulate traditional cigarette glow.

‘Health threats’
The WHO warns exhaled e-cigarette vapour could increase the background air levels of some toxicants and nicotine. According to the team while e-cigarettes are likely to be less harmful than traditional cigarettes, they may pose threats to adolescents and the foetuses of pregnant women who use these devices.

But some researchers suggest tough regulations may prevent smokers having access to products that are potentially less harmful than conventional cigarettes. A spokesman for the British American Tobacco company said: “We have always said that given nicotine is addictive, minimum age laws of 18 for the sale of e-cigarettes should be introduced.

“However, if overly restrictive regulations are introduced hampering innovation or adult usage, then this could simply stifle the growth of new products and prevent smokers from being aware of and having access to them – this can only be bad thing for public health.”

‘Proportionate regulation’
Hazel Cheeseman, at the charity Action on Smoking and Health, said there was no evidence of any harm to bystanders and warned regulation needed to be proportionate.

She added: “Smoking kills 100,000 people in the UK alone. “Smokers who switch to using electronic cigarettes in whole or in part are likely to substantially reduce their health risks.

“Although we cannot be sure that electronic cigarettes are completely safe, as the WHO acknowledges, they are considerably less harmful than smoking tobacco and research suggests that they are already helping smokers to quit.”

Global guidelines
A UK Department of Health spokeswoman said: “More and more people are using e-cigarettes and we want to make sure they are properly regulated so we can be sure of their safety.

“We have already set out our intention to change the law to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to children under 18. “The UK has an existing licensing system for higher strength products and those that claim to help people quit.

“We are also bringing in new European rules to cover lower strength products which will ban most advertising, limit nicotine levels and set standards for ingredients, labelling and packaging.” The WHO’s recommendations were published ahead of a meeting involving all countries that have signed up to an international convention on tobacco control.

New global guidelines could be agreed during the October meeting.

Source: bbc news

Addicted to your phone? You could be suffering from Nomophobia!

The urge to log onto to social networking sites or constantly check email can be a stronger compulsion than the desire to take drugs or drink alcohol.

The combination of Facebook and internet-connected smartphones can be highly addictive, outstripping even addictive drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, according to IT industry research.

Addicted to your phone You could be suffering from Nomophobia

In addition to smartphones’ alleged addictive qualities, too much screen time can also cause mental and physical health problems. Aside from well-documented everyday conditions such as “text neck and “iPad shoulder”, there are more serious consequences of the IT industry’s having fulfilled its 20-year old promise of delivering anything, anywhere, anytime.

Shin Dong-won, professor of psychiatry at South Korea’s Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, says the stimulation from smartphones doesn’t go through the frontal brain lobe, which processes information, but induces direct mental and physical reactions. He therefore believes that smartphones can interfere with children’s normal development during a time when they should be learning patience.

Despite consistent denials from mobile phone makers, there is also a growing list of other health risks associated with increased smartphone usage, including a potential increase in cancer caused by low but rising levels of radiation generated by smartphones and the wireless networks fuelling them.

In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, classified mobile phone radiation as possibly carcinogenic and recommend additional research into the long-term, heavy use of mobile phones. According to The Ecologist magazine, studies also suggest that our increasing addiction to smartphones may also be causing long-term ecological damage. For example, a Colorado researcher Katie Haggerty planted test plots of aspen seeds and shielded some from the RF radiation from a nearby town’s mobile phone masts. The difference, recorded by the International Journal of Forestry Research, was that those seeds protected from the RF radiation grew into healthy saplings while the exposed plants were small, lacked pigments, and had sickly leaves.

The Ecologist also reports that in Switzerland, the University of Zurich’s Michael Hässig recorded multiple cataracts in calves near mobile phone masts, while a Belgian researcher Joris Everaert of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) mapped striking declines in house sparrows in mobile phone masts’ main fields.

But while the IT industry jury may still be out on the long-term health and environmental consequences of such a new technology, there is little doubt we may be spending too much of our time hooked up to it. Last year, a team headed by Wilhelm Hofmann, a behavioural psychologist at Chicago University’s Booth Business School, published the results of an experiment, using BlackBerry smartphones, once named “CrackBerry” phones because of their alleged addictive properties, to gauge the willpower of 205 people aged between 18 and 85 in and around the German city of Wurtzburg.

The study found that, aside from sleep and sex, the urge to log into social networking sites is stronger than any other, including drugs and alcohol. The study found that while a compulsion for logging onto Facebook appears to be less physically harmful than, say cigarettes or alcohol, it still becomes an addiction that “steals” many people’s time.

Mobile phone addiction now has a name “nomophobia”. The first treatment and a facility for dealing with the condition in southern California, the Morningside Recovery Center in Newport Beach, has opened its doors to self-confessed mobile phone addicts. Doctors believe that needing “anything” to feel at ease or normal is technically a disability. The symptoms of nomophobia are generally recognised to include an inability to ever turn the phone off, obsessive checking for missed calls, emails and constantly topping up the power-hungry smartphone battery.

According to research from the United Kingdom-based mobile phone security company SecurEnvoy, 77 per cent of 18-24-year-olds suffer from nomophobia. The study showed that people on average check their phone 34 times a day, and 75 per cent take the phone to the bathroom. SecurEnvoy’s first study, conducted four years ago, revealed that 53 per cent of people suffered from nomophobia. Earlier research in the United States among smartphone users in their late teens and twenties revealed that smartphones and iPads produce roughly the same withdrawal symptoms as addictive drugs such as heroin.

“Addiction has a compulsive aspect that drives it, if you can break the compulsion (I have to respond ‘Right now!’) you can generally control addiction … Voluntarily walking away from the technology regularly reinforces that nothing bad will happen if you do,” says the Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle.

But he adds that there is little prospect of mobile internet usage declining in the foreseeable future.

“We are creatures of habit and these habits are being deeply set through repetition. If these services improve their reward structures … we will be even more tightly tied to them,” says Mr Enderle.

Source: beperkde starling

 

10 Tips for Packing Healthy School Lunches

During the school year, perhaps the most important meal after a good breakfast for our kids is the mid-day lunch. While a healthy breakfast can help propel them through the morning, lunch helps them maintain focus and energy during the most challenging time of the day – the afternoon. This is when fatigue starts setting in and packing a high carbohydrate meal with processed foods will cause blood sugar levels to drop leading to sleepiness and inattention.

10 Tips for Packing Healthy School Lunches

When packing lunches for school, we all face challenges in making sure that what we give our kids is delicious, nutritious and will help get them through the hardest part of their day.

The nightly task of planning the next day’s school lunches can be an added stress at the end of an already long day filled with after school activities, homework, and dinner. It’s a tall order to prepare a meal that’s healthy, tastes great hours after you make it, and appeals to your children.

10 Tips for Packing Healthy School Lunches

Skip processed meats like sliced lunch meats, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs. Processed meats are a leading cause of cancer, especially colon cancer and the intake of processed meats is significantly higher in children as compared to adults. Read this editorial from Dr. Neal Barnard, published in Good Medicine:

  • Avoid meats treated with hormones or antibiotics and pack low fat options like turkey and chicken. Try other forms of protein like hummus, nut butters, and whole nuts.
  • Pack more fruits and vegetables. Avoid the Dirty Dozen – fruits and vegies with high pesticide residue and go for the Clean 15. Learn what to avoid and what to eat in the Environmental Working Group’s Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce. Rotate items through the week to provide an interesting variety and prevent boredom.
  • Avoid foods with artificial food dyes and sweeteners. Many artificial food dyes are petroleum based products (think gasoline and tar L) and are linked to behavioral problems such as ADD/ADHD and mood swings as well as health problems like obesity, asthma and diabetes. Some kids can also have allergic reactions to these artificial food additives.
  • Instead of sodas, bottled water or juices, serve water and almond milk in reusable stainless steel bottles to avoid exposure to Bisphenol A, a harmful chemical substance that leaches into food and liquids it comes in contact with.
  • Even juices labeled 100% fruit juice area significant source of sugar, so substitute with water to keep them hydrated. Hydration is of vital importance for proper brain functioning as the human brain is approximately 80% water.
  • Remember when lunch boxes used to contain a thermos? They are a great way to pack healthy meals such as soup, chili and spaghetti with meat sauce.
  • Plan the week’s lunches the weekend before to have all the necessary ingredients on hand. This reduces the chance of your kids walking out the door with a less than optimal lunch.
  • Get recipes for healthy school lunches. A great reference book such as Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children by Ann Cooper and Lisa M. Holmes can help get the creative juices flowing.
  • Get your kids involved in the process of planning and packing lunches. By understanding their preferences, you increase the chance that they will consume their lunch rather than having it end up as waste in the cafeteria trash can.

SOurce: Javani

The Same 10 Weight Loss Mistakes All Women Make

The biggest weight loss mistakes
by Alyssa ShafferDropping pounds boils down to a simple-sounding formula: burn more calories than you take in; eat less and move more. But anybody who has ever cut calories and ramped up an exercise plan in an effort to slim down knows it’s a lot harder than it sounds. All dieters inevitably make mistakes along the way—and most of the time they don’t even realize it. Here are the 10 flubs that everyone makes when they’re trying to shed fat.

The Same 10 Weight Loss Mistakes All Women Make

OD’ing on protein
“Protein is important, but if you have too much, the excess gets stored as fat,” says Felicia Stoler, RD. “And high-protein shakes and bars tend to be sugary and fatty.” Women need about 46 grams a day, per the CDC.

Skimping on veggies
Many of us fall short of the recommended 2.5 cups daily, Stoler says. A no-brainer: Work some into every meal, whether it’s sliced tomato on your morning toast or spinach on your turkey sandwich.

Having just a big glass of juice for breakfast
“Most juice raises blood sugar, so your body produces more insulin. You’ll get hungry and overeat later,” says Louis Aronne, MD. Get in protein and fiber, such as eggs and whole-grain toast.

Overestimating weight-loss rate
Most people shed a lot of pounds in the first couple of weeks of a program, a combo of carbs and water. It’s an artificially high drop, so don’t get discouraged when progress peters out.

Slacking on shut-eye
“Appetite and hunger hormones are greatly influenced by how much sleep you get,” says Pamela Peeke, MD. “Skimp and you’re more likely to eat everything that’s not tacked down.”

Considering workouts license to binge
One recent study in Marketing Letters found that people who were told a one-mile walk was for exercise ate about twice as much afterward as those informed the outing was for fun.

Underestimating how much time you have
Some weeks, finding that extra half hour to slip in a workout isn’t easy—why it’s good to have a backup plan. “Even a 10-minute cardio video on YouTube can keep you on track,” Stoler says

Always doing the same routine
“You can’t perform the same exercises over and over and expect the same benefits,” Stoler says. To get better results, follow the FIT principle: Vary the frequency, intensity or time.

Ignoring weights
Women who are getting started on an exercise program often think they should stick with just cardio, Stoler notes—but you need strength training to keep your metabolism revved up.

Giving in to your energy drain
A top excuse for not exercising: “I’m too tired.” Fake yourself out, urges Holly Wyatt, MD: “Say you’ll walk for only 10 minutes and you’ll likely go longer. Exercise energizes you!”

Source: Health

Medical marijuana laws may reduce painkiller overdoses

States that have legalized marijuana for managing chronic pain have significantly fewer deaths from prescription painkiller overdoses each year, according to a new study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Medical marijuana laws may reduce painkiller overdoses

Researchers looked at medical marijuana laws and death certificate data in all 50 states between 1999 and 2010. During that time, just 13 states had medical marijuana laws in place.

“We found there was about a 25% lower rate of prescription painkiller overdose deaths on average after implementation of a medical marijuana law,” lead study author Dr. Marcus Bachhuber said.

In 2010 alone, he said, states with medical marijuana laws had approximately 1,700 fewer overdose deaths than would have been expected based on the numbers before such laws were passed.

Bachhuber, a primary care doctor at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, has treated many chronic pain patients.

“It can be challenging for people to control chronic pain, so I think the more options we have the better,” he said. “But I think it’s important, of course, to weigh the risks and benefits of medical marijuana.”

Opioid analgesics are a class of drug that includes painkillers like morphine, oxycodone and methadone. According to the study, the number of patients in the United States with chronic pain who get prescriptions for one of these drugs has nearly doubled over the last 10 years, and overdose rates have risen dramatically.

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tell the story of a problem they say is now an epidemic: Deaths from drug overdose have been rising steadily over the past two decades and have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States. In 2011, 55% of drug overdose deaths were related to prescription medications; 75% of those involved opioid analgesics.

“Prescription drug abuse and deaths due to overdose have emerged as national public health crises,” said Colleen Barry, a senior author on the study and associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “As our awareness of the addiction and overdose risks … grows, individuals with chronic pain and their medical providers may be opting to treat pain entirely or in part with medical marijuana.”

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia currently have medical marijuana laws on the books. They address a gamut of conditions — from cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis to glaucoma — where cannabis provides relief. In most states, chronic or severe pain is the primary reason.

According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, more than 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic pain, including 100 million Americans.

The academy’s website describes chronic pain this way: “Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years. There may have been an initial mishap — sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain — arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage.”

Dr. Lynn Webster, a past president of the academy, said he’s not surprised by the study results or that marijuana might be a safer alternative to opioids for some people.

“AAPM believes that we need to do research on cannabinoids to determine its safety and efficacy,” he said. “The problem with medical marijuana is that we never know using marijuana what chemicals are being ingested. That makes it really unpredictable, but the use of cannabinoids may well have a place in the treatment of pain and other diseases. The AAPM believes that the DEA should reschedule cannabinoids from Schedule I to Schedule II so that it will make it easier for research to be conducted.”

The researchers of this latest study said the link between medical marijuana laws and overdose deaths is not completely clear. There were some limitations to the study. For example, death certificates may not classify overdose deaths correctly and opioid analgesics reporting on these certificates may differ state-to-state.

Bachhuber said more research is needed before any recommendations can be made. “We can’t know directly the underlying mechanism of our findings, but based on what we know, we think it could be due to safer treatment of chronic pain,” Bachhuber said. “We found that medical marijuana laws might provide unexpected benefits to public health. As more states pass these laws, it will be important to continue collecting information to see if what we found may be happening in other states as well.”

Source: cnn

Spatial attention skills don’t seem to decline over time

At least one part of an older person’s brain can still process information as well as younger people, according to new research.

Researchers compared the spatial attention skills of 60 older adults and younger people. Spatial attention is important for many areas of life, from walking and driving to picking up and using items.

Spatial attention skills don't seem to decline over time

“Our studies have found that older and younger adults perform in a similar way on a range of visual and non-visual tasks that measure spatial attention,” Dr. Joanna Brooks, who conducted the experiments as a visiting research fellow at the University of Adelaide in Australia, said in a university news release.

“Both younger (aged 18 to 38 years) and older (55 to 95 years) adults had the same responses for spatial attention tasks involving touch, sight or sound,” noted Brooks, who is now a research fellow in healthy aging at the Australian National University.

The findings were presented at a recent conference in Australia organized by the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society.

“When we think of aging, we think not just of the physical aspects but also the cognitive [mental] side of it, especially when it comes to issues such as reaction time, which is typically slower among older adults. However, our research suggests that certain types of cognitive systems in the right cerebral hemisphere — like spatial attention — are ‘encapsulated’ and may be protected from aging,” Brooks said.

The results challenge current thinking, she said. “We now need to better understand how and why some areas of the brain seem to be more affected by aging than others,” she added.

This type of research could also improve understanding of how diseases such as Alzheimer’s affect the brain, the researchers said.

Data and conclusions presented at meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Source: web md

Improper nutrition linked to oral health problems

Today, taking care of teeth is about more than going to the dentist every six months. In fact, what a person eats outside of those two visits is essential for oral and overall health.

Improper nutrition linked to oral health problems

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, “. . . nutrition is an integral component of oral health” and “collaboration between dietetics practitioners and oral health care professionals is recommended for oral health promotion and disease prevention and intervention.”

Oral health problems that can occur with improper nutrition

While the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics stresses that the most common chronic oral health condition is the development of cavities, they also note that tooth loss caused by periodontal disease is a serious concern.

Both tooth decay and periodontal disease can be caused by a variety of factors including poor at-home oral hygiene habits, infrequent dental visits, certain medications and smoking. Regarding diet, it’s no secret that consumption of sugary foods plays a role since they leave a sticky residue that can erode teeth.

Even stress, which can be kept at bay with the help of a balanced diet, can contribute to oral health problems. When stressed, a person often grinds and clenches teeth, which can produce wear over time.

Finally, jaw development can change based on diet. One study by the University of Kent showed a correlation between types of foods consumed and the chewing habits required to ingest those foods. The findings showed that the lower jaw specifically grew too short with a “soft” diet, demonstrating an association between societal shifts regarding reliance on wild plants and foods compared to today’s reliance on domesticated choices. Today’s modern foods typically consist of more traditional, softer junk food diets: think of ground up burgers and soft donuts and the finding makes sense.

Best foods and vitamins to keep oral and overall health in shape

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends “Eating a healthy balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, lean protein and low-fat dairy products and whole grains that provide essential nutrients for optimum oral health and overall health.”

Some fruits and vegetables include oranges and strawberries since their vitamin C helps fight gum inflammation. Raisins and cranberries have polyphenols that have been shown to keep plaque from sticking to teeth.

Non-soft foods such as celery and carrots are also important. Christine D. Wu, pediatric dental researcher from the University of Illinois, says that “Things like carrots and apples aren’t only loaded with antioxidants, they can help mechanically clean your teeth” by breaking up plaque.

Also, when pregnant, know that a baby’s teeth start to develop as soon as the fifth week of pregnancy. Its suggested that a pregnant mother consume vitamins A, C, D, protein, calcium and phosphorous.

Source: natural news