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Spit Happens: The Surprising Importance of Saliva

Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis Via The Tongue

Do you have a favorite food that makes your mouth water? The liquid that fills your mouth is called saliva. This remarkable fluid helps you digest food and stay healthy. Saliva, or spit, has many important roles. It helps to moisten food, which affects its flavor and makes it easier to swallow. It contains proteins …

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Reducing Diagnostic Time Of Coronavirus

Is Oral Sex To Blame For The Record High Mouth Cancer Rates?

The coronavirus is showing no signs of slowing down, making it important to improve the current method of diagnosing it which can take an hour or longer. Now, a new technology based on a combination of optics and magnetic particles can test 100 samples and reduce the diagnostic time down to about 15 minutes.  Currently …

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Home Stress Test

Home Stress Test

Stress is sometimes referred to as a silent killer due to stealthy and mysterious effects on everything from heart disease to mental health. Scientists are working on developing an at home stress testing kit to measure and monitor stress hormones, as published in the journal American Chemical Society Sensors. University of Cincinnati scientists have developed …

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Food Ingredients Affect Taste Perception

Taste Dulled By Obesity

Food ingredients affect taste perception such as pungent compound 6-gingerol stimulates enzymes contained in saliva that break down foul smelling substances in the mouth ensuring fresh breath and better aftertastes, and citric acid increases sodium ion content of saliva making salty foods seem to taste less salty. Many components in the food we eat can …

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Gila Monster Drug Curbs Food Cravings

Gila Monster Drug Curbs Food Cravings

A drug made from the saliva of the Gila monster lizard has be shown to be effective at curbing cravings for food. The drug Exenatide, which is used by people with type 2 diabetes to help them control their blood glucose levels is a synthetic version of a natural substance called exendin-4, which is obtained …

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Saliva Reveals Biological Age

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UCLA scientists develop a test that uses saliva to reveal how old you are. Eric Vilain, from University of California/Los Angeles (UCLA; California, USA), and colleagues have develop a test that uses saliva to reveal a person’s biological age.  The team assessed the process of methylation, a chemical modification of one of the four building …

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