Dental Care

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/23/1159143783/teeth-an-owners-manual How often should I really brush my teeth? You should brush your teeth twice a day for two minutes a day, according to the American Dental Association. But teeth maintenance is more than just brushing, flossing and tongue scraping, says Dr. Mark Burhenne, a dentist based in Sunnyvale, Calif., and the creator of askthedentist.com, a website that offers advice on professional and at-home dental practices. He says it's a complex equation juggling diet, saliva flow, avoiding dry mouth, maintaining the bacteria and pH in your oral microbiome, and managing your biofilm — an outer coating on your teeth containing bacteria. "In that biofilm are bacteria that pull calcium and phosphate ions from saliva," he says. Those minerals are then pulled "into the tooth and are able to actually fix and patch small cavities" before they get too large and need treatment. "That's [called] the remineralization effect," he adds. Brushing your teeth helps that process, says Burhenne. When we eat — sugary or acidic foods especially — the biofilm layer gets so thick and furry that it can't remineralize your teeth properly. The mechanical movement of the toothbrush is what breaks up the biofilm so that it reforms into its natural thin and slippery state to protect teeth. Brushing also helps remove plaque, which is the accumulation of biofilms containing large masses of microorganisms stuck to your teeth — kind of like algae on rocks. But if that build-up isn't removed frequently, then demineralization can occur, leading to cavities, gingivitis, and periodontitis. Burhenne suggests brushing your teeth first thing in the morning, before eating breakfast. It breaks up the biofilm and gets it ready to remineralize your teeth. If you do happen to eat first, make sure you wait at least 30 minutes before brushing. "If you're brushing after a meal, that produces an acid attack in the mouth," Burhenne says. The acid from the meal softens the enamel, so if you brush too soon you could damage that typically hard, shiny protective layer in its weakened state. "You're scraping away a lot of enamel. So for anyone who is eating junk or candy or having a soda or even coffee or a glass of wine, I would hesitate brushing [right away]." Burhenne says waiting for the outer layer to remineralize prevents you from brushing your softened enamel right after you eat. If you don't wait, it could thin out the top layer of your tooth. Immediately after meals, you can rinse or drink water to flush acids and sugars from the mouth, increase the saliva's pH and help with the remineralization process, according to research from the Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry. Do I really need to floss? You may not want to hear it, but the answer is yes, according to the ADA — you should be flossing at least once a day. "Flossing gets to all the areas where toothbrushes don't. You can't do one or the other," Burhenne says. Burhenne says there aren't many studies about flossing, but some research has shown that flossing, in addition to brushing, can improve cleaning and disease prevention. Burhenne recommends flossing before brushing to open up areas you may not be able to clean with just the toothbrush, like in between your teeth. Flossing helps remove food debris and plaque before it hardens into tartar — a hard mineral deposit that can only be removed by a professional. Flossing also reduces the likelihood of gum disease and decay, according to the ADA. Burhenne says flossing and brushing techniques can be all over the map, and it's hard to see if you're reaching all of your teeth. "That's why I recommend to my patients to buy a makeup mirror," Burhenne says. "You get these little makeup mirrors that are lit up. You mount them on the wall or you can suction cup them on your mirror and take a look at 5x and 10x with a light inside the mirror, inside your mouth." And if you see blood as you're flossing or brushing, Burhenne says that's usually not from brushing too hard. He says that's an early stage of gum disease — gingivitis. "Gingivitis is classified as a type one category for gum disease," he says. "As you get into the other categories, it gets worse. You get receding gums, you get more bleeding, you get [death] of the tissue, then you get [death] of the bone." How do I whiten my teeth? From specialty toothpaste to DIY hacks to at-home whitening strips, there are all kinds of products and methods to help whiten your teeth. But dental professionals say to be wary. Burhenne says the charcoal and whitening toothpaste you might find at the drugstore are so abrasive, they can make your teeth sensitive and potentially wear your teeth and gum line down. The ADA discourages using home remedies like brushing teeth with lemon juice or rubbing vinegar on your teeth. There are limited studies on the efficacy of these methods, according to the ADA. And when it comes to at-home whitening strips/other products, they can be OK, but do it slowly, says Burhenne. He recommends whitening products with carbamide peroxide concentrations of 10% or less. But the ideal way to whiten your teeth is to ask your dentist for professional advice, he says. "The best way to whiten is slowly with a-low strength gel, not a high-strength gel, and with a tray that ... covers just the teeth and not the gums," Burhenne says. Whitening tray and gel procedures can be done at home, but also by a professional. Remember: The priority should always be making sure your teeth are healthy first over aesthetics, he says. Do I really have to go to the dentist? While proactive care at home can help keep your teeth healthy, yes — you still have to see a dentist, says Murria. The ADA recommends that patients see a dentist at least once or twice a year. Burhenne says visiting twice a year isn't necessarily a hard-set rule, as there are limited studies on what the perfect minimum is. But visits are still important. Dentists and hygienists provide X-rays examining the enamel, dentin layer (the main supporting layer of the tooth, made of tiny tubes under the enamel), and pulp chambers (the soft centers of your teeth). Murria says professionals clean more effectively in areas you may struggle to reach and can help you with more complicated dental problems, like impacted wisdom teeth, receding gums, or cavities. If financial barriers are an issue, both Burhenne and Murria recommend looking for dental schools, federally qualified health centers, and mobile dental clinics in your area for low-cost/no insurance options. More information on affordable options can be found on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. And if it's been a while since you've been to the dentist or you're feeling intimidated, remember there's no shame in having dental issues, Burhenne says. "Everyone has experienced this when they come in, and their gums bleed a little bit, there's a little build-up of calculus and plaque, and the reason given is you haven't flossed and brushed enough," he says. "I think that's unfair because the equation of the reasons why that would occur ... are complex." There are a lot of factors to juggle in your dental health — but you don't have to do it alone. That's what your dental appointments are for. "It's never as bad as you think it is," Burhenne says. "But the sooner you come in, the better it will be."

How to make a high-deductible health plan and HSA work for you

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/09/nx-s1-5745203/high-deductible-health-plans-hsa-advice How to make a high-deductible health plan and HSA work for you April 9, 20265:00 AM ET Jackie Fortiér

“Woke” Professors - a law that gives more control over what’s taught at public universities

https://www.tpr.org/education/2026-04-08/political-oversight-reaches-texas-college-classrooms-with-texas-tech-and-a-m-at-the-forefront …Last year the Texas Legislature passed a law that gives more control over what’s taught at public universities to their boards of regents. In Texas, regents are appointed by the governor. And Republican Governor Greg Abbott has been pushing the idea that “woke” professors have been indoctrinating students for years. “College professors have increasingly pushed woke agendas. They have too much influence over who is hired to educate our kids. We need legislation that prohibits professors from having any say over employment decisions,” Abbott said in his 2025 state of the state address. “We must also expand the ban on DEI in our public universities. We must purge it from every corner of our schools and return the focus to merit. Texas public universities cite the new law as the reason for their course reviews and content restrictions. Former Republican State Senator Brandon Creighton wrote the law. A few months later, he was appointed chancellor of the Texas Tech system. Republican state leaders say the law was needed to stop what they perceive as indoctrination. But Peterson, the A&M philosophy professor, said public universities are instead using it to indoctrinate students with conservative ideas. “They should be free to make up their own mind, but in order to be free to do so, they must be exposed to different ideas,” Peterson said. “We can't just expose them to conservative ideology approved by the Board of Regents or the governor of Texas.” Marcela Hernández, a junior at UT San Antonio, looks towards the building on campus where they take Mexican American Studies courses. Hernández is majoring in Mexican American Studies. They're worried that consolidating the Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies department into another department will lead to its elimination. UT San Antonio student Marcela Salome Hernández also said there’s no need to tell professors to stop indoctrinating students, because that’s not been their experience. “That makes me laugh so much,” Hernández said. “I was a proud Mexican American before I even knew what (Mexican American Studies) was. I was a proud queer person, proud trans person, before I even knew what those words were. And no, I did not learn it in the university level. I did not learn it in school.” Professors and students told TPR they’re worried restricting what’s taught in their colleges will diminish the quality of students’ degrees and make it harder for universities to recruit and retain faculty. In addition to restricting course content, multiple professors in Texas have been fired over the past few months, sparking free speech concerns. Several universities, including Texas A&M and the University of North Texas, have announced cuts to women’s and gender studies programs. Both UT Austin and UT San Antonio are consolidating their ethnic and gender studies departments into other departments. Both UNT and UT officials say their cuts and mergers are about budget and enrollment concerns, but faculty and students believe they are actually part of the larger political effort to influence what students learn in the state’s public universities. Michelle Waida with KTTZ contributed to this report.

Artemis II April 2026

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/07/nx-s1-5776824/artemis-astronauts-moon-observation-nasa-human-eye https://www.npr.org/sections/the-picture-show/2026/04/03/nx-s1-5773282/artemis-ii-nasa-photos https://www.npr.org/2026/04/10/nx-s1-5781327/nasa-artemis-ii-return-earth-splashdown-moon https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/10/nasa-artemis-ii-astronauts-splashdown-orion-integrity.html Critical test of heat shield The return to Earth will put the Orion spacecraft through a critical test of its heat shield, which sustained an unexpected level of scorching and stress on re-entry during the 2022 test flight. As a result, NASA engineers altered the descent trajectory for Artemis II in order ⁠to reduce heat buildup and lower the risk of the capsule burning up. Still, with Orion plunging into the atmosphere at some 25,000 ⁠miles per hour (40,235 kph), temperatures outside the capsule are expected to soar to around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). The recalibrated final ⁠descent path also has narrowed the size of the potential splashdown zone, limiting target landing options in case of foul weather at sea. NASA officials said on Thursday that forecasts for the preferred splashdown zone looked favorable. Just as critical as the performance of the heat shield are several other factors, including achieving the spacecraft’s precise ‌descent path and re-entry angle through a series of course-correction blasts of its jet guidance thrusters. The last of three such jet propellant “burns” was scheduled for Friday afternoon, roughly five hours before splashdown. Once the capsule hits the top of the atmosphere, it takes less than 15 minutes, including a six-minute radio blackout, before two sets of parachutes are deployed and the capsule floats into the sea. NASA says it will take about another hour for recovery teams to secure Orion, hoist it onto a ship and assist the astronauts in exiting the capsule one by one. At the ‌flight’s peak, the crew reached a point 252,756 miles from Earth, exceeding the previous record of roughly 248,000 miles set in 1970 by the crew of Apollo 13. https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/108290131-1775867436383-gettyimages-2270217239-Artemis_II_Recovery.jpeg?v=1775867454&w=1260&h=709&ffmt=webp&vtcrop=y AT SEA - APRIL 10: (EDITOR’S NOTE: This Handout image was provided by a third-party organization and may not adhere to Getty Images’ editorial policy.) In this handout photo provided by NASA, NASA’s Orion spacecraft with Artemis II crewmembers NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist aboard is seen as it lands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, Friday, April 10, 2026. NASA’s Artemis II mission took Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth. Following a splashdown at NASA, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force teams are working to bring the crewmembers and Orion spacecraft aboard USS John P. Murtha. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images). https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/108288862-1775675944317-gettyimages-2269802308-art002e013361_orig.jpeg?v=1775676024&w=1260&h=709&ffmt=webp&vtcrop=y In this handout image provided by NASA, The Artemis II crew – (clockwise from left) Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover – pause for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home. Following a swing around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026, the crew exited the lunar sphere of influence on April 7, and are headed back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10. NASA | Getty Images https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/108290117-17758613882026-04-10t224621z_1519662275_rc2mmkawa39h_rtrmadp_0_space-moon-artemis.jpeg?v=1775861428&w=1260&h=709&ffmt=webp&vtcrop=y The Artemis II crew gets ready for the Orion spacecraft’s Integrity module separation in this screengrab from a livestream video as it prepares for re-entry to Earth following the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon, April 10, 2026. NASA | Via Reuters

A one-time treatment tweaked their genes — and lowered their cholesterol

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heart-health/lower-cholesterol-patients-got-one-time-tweak-genes-rcna263736 A one-time treatment tweaked their genes — and lowered their cholesterol Doctors have never had so many cholesterol-lowering drugs at their disposal, but getting patients to take them every day is difficult. Gene-editing could open a new frontier. April 6, 2026, 6:03 AM CDT By David Cox Christos Soteriou was 29 when he needed a quadruple bypass surgery. Four arteries in his heart had become so clogged with plaque that blood could no longer flow through them. It’s a surprisingly young age to need such a surgery, but extremely high levels of cholesterol run in Soteriou’s family — a genetic condition called familial hypercholesterolemia. His father died of heart disease at 46; his son was diagnosed with elevated cholesterol at 14; and Soteriou himself, now 51, has had two heart attacks since his operation. He’s tried statins and a newer drug, Repatha, to lower his cholesterol, but nothing worked. So, when the opportunity came to join an early-stage clinical trial investigating a cutting-edge way to lower dangerously high cholesterol with a one-time treatment, he jumped at the chance. “I wasn’t too worried, because I’ll try anything at this point,” said Soteriou, from South Australia. The experimental treatment would use CRISPR, a gene-editing tool likened to biological scissors, to make precise cuts in the DNA to turn off a liver gene that prevents lipids — fatty substances including LDL cholesterol and triglycerides — from being cleared from the blood. By turning off the gene, called ANGPTL3, blood lipid levels should fall. Gene editing has emerged as a game-changing therapy for rare genetic diseases including sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, but it remains relatively unproven in more common health conditions. When the trial’s results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine last November, they created a stir. Patients who received the highest dose saw their LDL cholesterol levels fall by 49% and their triglyceride levels fall by 55%. “It was quite remarkable, the influx of messages we received,” said Dr. Luke Laffin, the trial’s lead investigator and a preventative cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. “I still get a message once every couple weeks from physicians saying, ‘My patients saw this on TV and they want to do this.’” Soteriou was among the trial participants who benefited from a significant cholesterol reduction. “My doctors and cardiologist, they’ve been quite shocked,” he said. “They said, ‘Jeez, it’s better than it’s ever been.’” This study, funded by CRISPR Therapeutics, was carried out in just 15 people in 2024, but experts say it may represent a paradigm shift in the management of heart disease. Larger trials are already underway, including some exploring new ways of lowering lipid levels through inhibiting or switching off different genes. While there is still much to be learned about the long-term safety of this approach, and how well it works across different patient groups, some cardiologists believe it will ultimately be transformative. Read more about heart health • Cholesterol screening and treatment for younger adults, new guidelines suggest • Some older women may not need blood pressure meds just yet • New blood pressure drug helps people with uncontrolled hypertension in trial In the late 2000s, the cardiologist Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, began investigating a long-standing medical mystery: why some families reported having extraordinarily low levels of cholesterol. Using a new technology which enabled scientists to sequence all 20,000 genes in a person’s DNA at once, Musunuru and others began to uncover their secrets. Key liver genes — including ANGPTL3 and another called PCSK9 — were either dialed down or turned off entirely. When Musunuru later experimented with using CRISPR to switch off PCSK9 in mice and primates, their cholesterol levels fell and remained low. “These people won the genetic lottery,” Musunuru said. “They are protected against heart disease, and they have no adverse health consequences whatsoever.” Over the following decade, Musunuru co-founded a company, Verve Therapeutics, with the aim of using this discovery to permanently lower cholesterol in humans. The company has two trials in progress: one using gene-editing to inactivate PCSK9 in people with familial hypercholesterolemia or coronary artery disease, and another using the same approach to inactivate ANGPTL3 in people deemed at high risk of a heart attack or stroke. While the results are yet to be published, preliminary data from the PCSK9 trial indicates significant reductions in LDL cholesterol. Musurunu said he is optimistic that these treatments could become available by the early 2030s to a subset of patients, for example people recuperating from a heart attack. “Before they leave [the hospital], they get this one-time therapy that permanently reduces their cholesterol levels,” he said. “They’re protected from that next heart attack.” If safety could be guaranteed, he believes that the use cases could be expanded to high-risk groups for heart disease, such as people with Type 2 diabetes. Perhaps eventually, he said, it could be administered more broadly to certain people in early adulthood as a way of conferring lifelong protection against cardiovascular diseases. “If enough people in the population took this at like, 20 years of age, it would improve life expectancy,” he said. “People won’t be having heart attacks. That is the potential impact of this.” That vision is still a ways off, with larger and longer trials needed. But other cardiologists with no commercial stake in the technology are also captivated by the concept of using gene editing to deliver a one-time therapy to prevent people from accruing damaging levels of blood lipids. “I love the idea of one and done,” said Dr. Priscilla Hsue, chief of the cardiology division at UCLA Health. “Durably lowering cholesterol for the rest of your life, could be transformational for some patients.” The reason for this excitement is simple: Though current cholesterol-lowering medications are effective, they often require patients to take them for the rest of their lives. Many find that impossible. Marco Carabott, 54, knows he should have paid more attention to taking his medications. After 15 years managing various fast-food restaurants, and, by his own admission, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at them, he was diagnosed with high LDL cholesterol and prescribed a cocktail of statins. “But I’ve been notoriously poor at taking medication,” Carabott, of Adelaide, South Australia, said. “Forgetful, lazy. I kind of assumed I was going to die a bit younger than perhaps the average, and I just took that in my stride a little bit.” Eventually he had a heart attack, and, like Soteriou, needed a quadruple bypass to open his blocked arteries. It’s a story that reflects one of the ongoing challenges faced in heart disease prevention. On the one hand, cardiologists have never had so many cholesterol-lowering drugs at their disposal. They include statins and ezetimibe, newer drugs such as bempedoic acid, and a class of injectable medications called PCSK9 inhibitors that block the protein produced by the PCSK9 gene, allowing the liver to remove more cholesterol from the blood. But relatively few patients take them for a sustained period of time. Reasons range from patients forgetting to take multiple drugs, to costs, to symptoms of statin intolerance such as muscle and joint pains. Research has suggested that anywhere between 25-50% of statin users stop taking the drugs within one year, while another study found that more than 50% of heart attack survivors quit their statins within two years, despite being medically advised to take them for the rest of their life. “If you look at how many patients are taking these therapies at two years, at five years, the numbers are really staggeringly low, even in patients that have known cardiovascular disease,” Hsue said. Laffin, of the Cleveland Clinic, said one of the challenges is that high cholesterol is completely symptomless, and patients often feel perfectly well, up to the point where they have a heart attack. “People are walking around, they don’t feel any better taking a statin, for example,” he said. “So there’s less impetus to take these medicines.” Like Soteriou, Carabott also joined the CRISPR trial. Twelve months after he received the treatment, a blood test revealed that his triglyceride levels had fallen by more than half. He said he hopes that in the coming years, he’ll be able to take lower doses of his statins, or one day even quit them entirely. Many questions still remain about using gene editing to lower cholesterol. Chief among them: Are there any unusual or unexpected side effects that might emerge years down the line as a result? The Food and Drug Administration has recommended that researchers monitor the trial participants over the next 15 years. “We need a better understanding of, are there downsides, or is something going to turn up five years from now that we never expected?” said Dr. Steven Nissen, chief academic officer at the Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute and the CRISPR study’s senior investigator. In the short term, the side effects reported in the trial were minor back pain, nausea and elevated liver enzymes, all of which went away on their own. Musurunu said that some degree of temporary liver stress is expected, as the gene-editing machinery is being delivered to virtually all of the liver cells. “It’s typically not an issue,” he said. “You wait a few days or a few weeks, and then things come back to normal.” But there’s a more worrisome concern in the minds of scientists. Namely, what happens if something goes awry and a tool like CRISPR mistakenly edits a different spot, somewhere else in the genome? The potential consequences of these so-called off-target effects are unknown. While this has never been observed in either humans or animals, cardiologists say it is of vital importance to rule it out. “I think we’re still in the discovery phase,” Hsue said. “Could there be unintended damage to DNA that we just don’t know about? Will someone’s body react [to the treatment] in an unusual way that will lead to inflammation? We don’t really know.” According to Dr. Robert Rosenson, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, other trials are attempting to reduce the risk of off-target effects by using a different means of turning off key liver genes, known as base editing. Rosenson plans to be involved in one of those trials with Verve Therapeutics. Rosenson said that if CRISPR is a scissor that cuts both strands of DNA, base editing is an eraser that substitutes one chemical letter, or base, in a single strand of DNA. Other researchers have previously suggested that base editing may be safer, although more human studies are needed. “It’s a more specific approach, and I think this is critical as we offer this approach to larger numbers of individuals,” Rosenson said. “Safety becomes pre-eminent.” Soteriou, now 16 months out from the clinical trial, said he hopes that the treatment will manage to preserve their health for a little longer. His son Jade is set to receive the same full dose of the therapy as part of the next stage of the trial, and Soteriou is optimistic that it could prevent him from experiencing a similar fate. “For me, I know it’s not unclogging my arteries, but I just think it’s given me a little bit more hope for a few more years,” Soteriou said. “You’ve got to face reality sometimes, and before I was worried about not having long to live. I just hope my son won’t have to go through what I’ve had to go through.”

Cuộc Nam Tiến Của Người Việt -- Người Chăm, Người Khmer, Người Hoa kiều, Các Giáo Sĩ, Thực Dân Ở Đàng Trong Thế Kỷ 16-19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G15mvyq_Dg Nam tiến ở Đàng trong Sử Việt: NGUỒN GỐC Người Miền Nam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRkaMV7d5ic Campuchia Mất Tây Nam Bộ Như Thế Nào? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjtY2LcRu9g Sơ Lược Mạc Cửu Khai Phá Hà Tiên - Từ Vùng Đất Hoang Đến Thương Cảng Thịnh Vượng Alexandre de Rhodes https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-voices/16th-and-17th-century-ignatian-voices/alexandre-de-rhodes-sj/ Alexandre de Rhodes, SJ (1591-1660) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhMKs8AQ7o8#:~:text=B%C3%81%20%C4%90A%20L%E1%BB%98C%2C%20NG%C6%AF%E1%BB%9CI%20PH%C3%81P%20THAY%20%C4%90%E1%BB%94I,NAM%20%2D%20YouTube.%20This%20content%20isn't%20available. Pierre Pigneau de Béhaine BÁ ĐA LỘC, NGƯỜI PHÁP THAY ĐỔI MÃI MÃI LỊCH SỬ VIỆT NAM

How America Got Into This Mess and How We Recover: Reflections from a Columnist’s Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBHUVEUvNeU How America Got Into This Mess and How We Recover: Reflections from a Columnist’s Life