LOVE BOOSTS YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM AND LIFESPAN
It doesn’t take a scientist to tell us that a healthy, loving relationship can lessen our stress — but did you know it also boosts our immune system’s response and could help us live longer? Multiple studies have shown that couples in happy, loving marriages tend to have lower blood pressure. Marriage itself isn’t the key to a healthier life — the love is, researchers find. How do researchers define a loving relationship? To put it simply, it depends on each couple’s opinion. Married couples with a high quality (aka loving) relationship showed significantly lower ambulatory systolic blood pressure than singles. However, happily married couples and singles had lower blood pressure than people in low quality marriages. Which means, at least in terms of your health, it’s much better to be single than unhappily married.
How does it help your blood pressure exactly? Well, when positive events occur, the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin interact with your dopamine reward system. Vasopressin in particular helps control blood pressure. Of course, getting into a new relationship can be a little stressful! Cortisol, the stress hormone, initially rises when you fall in love. However, it quickly drops in a long- term, stable relationship. Those low cortisol levels sustained for a long period of time contribute to many health benefits. But how does it improve your immune system? That’s a bit of a mystery to researchers. So far, women in love have shown changes in their gene regulation of immune cells compared to women not in love. Some theorize that this is in order to prepare for pregnancy. Unfortunately, we still don’t have conclusive research on
whether men in love better fight flu and other viruses, too.
High blood pressure is known as the “silent killer” since it has no symptoms, but it will steadily degrade your health over time, significantly increasing your risk of chronic conditions like heart disease. And while love is certainly not the only way to lower blood pressure, it’s comforting to know our loved ones can boost our health for a longer, happier life.
SILVER AND GOLD AND GLASS AND PLASTIC AND ...
The Many Choices in Dental Fillings
Dental fillings have been around for thousands of years, and in that time, many materials have been used to do the job. Today, there are a variety of choices with different strengths and weaknesses. So how do you choose? We’re going to give you some information on the most common ones, and if you want to discuss further or ask more questions, you can give us a call! Silver and gold — who doesn’t love those? Well, perhaps people who want a subtle dental filling. Gold stands out in the mouth, it’s true. It’s also pretty spendy and can require more visits than other types of fillings. Silver, while less expensive, is almost as noticeable. Silver fillings, known as amalgam, are silver in color and contain mercury — which is why we do not offer them in our practice. That said, both precious metals have great durability — they tend not to stain, they cannot corrode, and it’s not uncommon to see them last over 15 years.
More modern materials include composite fillings, which are pretty easy to match to the rest of your teeth. They take a while to put in, however, and unfortunately, they don’t usually last as long as gold or silver fillings do. Composite fillings can also rival the price of silver, although they’re cheaper than other options, like ceramic — which many consider to be the top-line choice. Ceramic fillings are expensive, no doubt. But they match your teeth color, they’re resistant to staining, and they tend to last a long, long time. Rounding out the choices, we have glass-acrylic fillings, which may be better for children or parts of the mouth that are not visible because of their low durability and short lifespan. To chat about what fillings we offer at Texas Sedation Dental & Implant Center or learn more about any of these materials, give us a call at 903-704-0154!
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