INPUT ARTICLE: Article: To avoid having to undergo expensive bone grafting procedures, prevent dental bone loss from occurring. Preventing it is fairly easy, provided you take the necessary steps. All you have to do to maintain excellent oral hygiene is follow a few simple steps: Brush your teeth thoroughly every after meal - Brushing your teeth at least twice a day can prevent gum diseases. Brushing removes the plaque that is responsible for gum diseases and dental bone loss. Floss after brushing. Flossing gets rid of plaque that isn't removed by brushing. It is imperative that you floss after brushing because there might be plaque that remained in your teeth that were not reached by the bristles of your brush. Tooth decay is one of the leading causes of dental bone loss. Tooth decay can be prevented by regular visits to your dentist to receive a thorough cleaning and comprehensive dental care. To preserve your dental bone, you must also keep all your teeth healthy. Visit your dentist every six months for routine cleaning, a must in order to maintain excellent oral hygiene. Regular consultation with your dentist enables him/her to monitor your oral health and prevent developing gum problems. X-rays can be taken to clearly reveal areas of dental bone loss. If you miss your routine dental check-ups, you may only find out about bone loss at a stage when it might not be reversible. Fluoride toothpaste can protect your teeth and gums from bone loss by, providing necessary minerals to your bones and tooth enamel. Excessive use of fluoride other than toothpaste is not recommended, as it may lead to other health problems. Use fluoride-based toothpaste once a day to brush your teeth, otherwise use normal toothpastes. Do not use fluoridated toothpaste in kids below the age of 10 years. Calcium is a critical nutrient to the health of all your bones, including your teeth. Calcium-rich foods and calcium supplements make sure your system receives the adequate amount of calcium needed to build up and strengthen your bones and teeth, increasing your bone density and reducing your risk of dental bone loss and bone fracture. Foods like low-fat milk, yogurt, cheese, spinach and soy milk are rich in calcium and are important for the maintenance of strong teeth and bones. Calcium is also available in supplement tablets. Take 1 tablet (Caltrate 600+) after breakfast and 1 tablet after dinner. Should you miss one dose, take it as soon as you remember it. Take a vitamin D supplement or get some sun to ensure that you have the proper levels of vitamin D in your body. Vitamin D helps increase your bone density by helping your body absorb and retain calcium in your system. To determine if you are suffering from insufficient vitamin D, ask your doctor if you could have a blood test to measure the amount of vitamin D in your blood. A result of less than 40ng/mL indicates insufficient vitamin D in your blood. The recommended amount of vitamin D in your blood is 50 ng/mL. Take 5,000 IU of a vitamin D supplement daily.

SUMMARY: Prevent dental bone loss by maintaining excellent oral hygiene. Visit your dentist regularly to have thorough teeth cleaning done. Use fluoride toothpaste when brushing. Increase your intake of calcium to support bone health. Make sure you get enough vitamin D to absorb your calcium properly.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: If you find your mind racing before a bed or while you're trying to work on something else, take a moment to organize your thoughts. Write down the things you need to get down on a to-do list. Put any ideas down in a notebook or computer file for that purpose. Jot any questions or thoughts down on a notepad. Once you've taken a few minutes to organize your thoughts on paper or a screen, your mind will be freer to work on other tasks. Another helpful writing technique is to make writing in a journal a part of your nightly routine. Taking time to write about your thoughts and feelings can have a similar effect to telling someone about them; that is, it helps draw out some of the tension and anxiety. Don't think you have to write about anything specific--just start writing, and see what comes out. It's tempting in today's busy world to try to do more than one thing at a time. However, your brain isn't built to work like that; rather, it's built to focus on one task at a time. If you try to focus on more than one task, your work becomes sloppier and you'll feel mentally disheveled. When you have too much information coming in, it can feel overwhelming. Try to develop a system to sort through information as it comes in, only keeping the important stuff. The extraneous details just bog down your mind. One way to know what's important is to listen to what's being repeated, as usually only the important stuff gets that treatment.

SUMMARY: Write pressing thoughts down. Use a journal. Focus on one task at a time. Learn to sort information.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Alcohol damages the liver by blocking its ability to process carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. When these things build up in damaging levels in the liver, the body may react with reactive inflammation that leads to hepatitis, fibrosis, and cirrhosis. However, excessive alcohol use is not sufficient to promote alcoholic liver disease. Only 1 in 5 heavy drinkers develop alcoholic hepatitis, and 1 in 4 develops cirrhosis. Men are considered "heavy drinkers" if they have 15 or more drinks in a given week. Women are considered "heavy" drinkers with 8 or more drinks per week. You can still develop cirrhosis after you've stopped drinking. However, alcohol abstinence is still recommended for all people with cirrhosis. It will help treatment and healing, no matter what stage of the disease you're in. While cirrhosis is more common in men, cirrhosis in women is more likely to result from alcoholism. The chronic liver inflammation and injury from either virus can, over several decades, develop into cirrhosis. Risk factors for hepatitis B include unprotected sex, blood transfusions, and injection drug use with contaminated needles. This is a lot less prevalent in the US and other developed countries due to vaccinations. Risk factors for hepatitis C include infections from injection drug use, blood transfusions, and body piercing and tattoos. Cirrhosis from hepatitis C is the most common reason for liver transplants. In 15-30% of people with cirrhosis, diabetes is a risk factor for developing "non-alcoholic steatohepatitis" (NASH). Diabetes is also common in chronic hepatitis C infections a common cause of cirrhosis likely because of decreased pancreas function. Another cirrhosis cause that's often correlated with diabetes is hemochromatosis. This condition is characterized by iron deposits in the skin, heart, joints, and pancreas. The pancreatic buildup leads to diabetes. Obesity presents a wide variety of health concerns, from type 2 diabetes and heart disease to arthritis and stroke. But, the excess fat in the liver causes inflammation and damage that could develop into non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. To determine whether you are within a healthy weight range, take advantage of an online BMI (body mass index) calculator. A BMI calculation takes into consideration your age, height, gender, and weight. If you have an autoimmune disease like inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or thyroid disease, be cautious. While they don't directly contribute to cirrhosis, they increase the risk of complications in other disorders that do lead to it. Heart disease is a risk factor for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis leading to cirrhosis. Furthermore, heart disease related to right-sided heart failure can cause liver congestion (nutmeg liver) and cardiac cirrhosis. Certain types of liver disease that cause cirrhosis have a pattern of genetic inheritance. Look at your family's medical history for diseases that put you at an increased risk for cirrhosis: Hereditary hemosiderosis Wilson's disease Alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency

SUMMARY:
Think about how much alcohol you drink. Get tested for hepatitis B and C. Be aware of a correlation between cirrhosis and diabetes. Take your current weight into account. Know the risks from autoimmune and heart diseases. Examine your family history.