There's a growing body of evidence that vaping (e-cigarettes) is associated with poorer health, including contributing to asthma, lung scarring and exposure to carcinogenic chemicals.

But vaping, like tobacco use, is also linked to oral health. Vaping has been tied to bleeding after brushing and possibly worse. Researchers say it's hard to differentiate because many vapers are former cigarette smokers who had already upped their risk for precancerous oral lesions, bone loss around teeth and gum disease.

Device Delay

Many parents these days will quickly resort to giving their young child a smartphone or tablet to defuse a tantrum or produce a moment of quiet. But a new study suggests that might not be such a good idea in the longer term.

Study authors found that children who were given the devices, often early in life to calm them down, often had trouble later learning how to regulate their emotions on their own.

Get Me That, Stat!

A recent survey by the University of Michigan Health found that 1 in 3 parents would give their children fever-reducing medication for spiked temperatures below 100.4 F, even though doctors typically recommend such medications only at higher temperatures or to ease obvious discomfort.

Body of Knowledge

By age 60, 60% of men and 40% of women will snore. Normal snoring averages around 60 decibels, about the noise level of normal speech. Intense snoring can exceed 80 decibels, the approximate level caused by a jackhammer breaking up concrete.

Counts

1 in 4: Number of U.S. adults who have high blood pressure.

2 in 4: Number after reading this.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (first stat, not the second)

Doc Talk

Intermittent claudication: Pain and cramping in the legs during exercise that is caused by narrowed or blocked arteries. Also known as peripheral artery disease of the legs.

Mania of the Week

Aboulomania: an obsession with not making decisions (chronic indecisiveness)

Best Medicine

A woman is about to give birth.

Doctor: "I'm going to deliver the baby."

Woman: "Actually, we'd like the baby to keep his liver."

Observation

"If you want to know the correct way to perform an exercise, the answer is: whatever hurts most." — Jason Love

Medical History

This week in 1866, the first civilian ambulance services debuted in Cincinnati and New York City. The U.S. Army had begun such service one year earlier.

Sum Body

Eight facts about insomnia:

No. 1: There's more than one type.

No. 2: Symptoms can go beyond just having trouble falling asleep, such as irritability, anxiety and forgetfulness.

No. 3: Some insomnia causes are habit-related, such as drinking caffeinated beverages too late in the day or staring at your cellphone in bed.

No. 4: Fatal familial insomnia is a rare degenerative brain disorder that causes increasingly extended bouts of sleeplessness. Patients usually die between six months and three years after onset.

No. 5: Prescription sleeping aids like Lunesta and Ambien or over-the-counter supplements like melatonin are not the only treatments. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia involves training the mind and body to engage in good sleep habits.

No. 6: Ancient Romans believed rubbing dormouse fat on your feet could help you sleep. Later, Renaissance mathematician Gerolamo Cardano advised rubbing one's teeth with dog earwax.

No. 7: Occasionally, people claim to be able to get by with little or no sleep with no ill effects. Perhaps, but the CDC recommends 14-17 hours per day for newborns up to three months; 10-13 hours for infants, toddlers and young children; 8-10 for teens; 7-9 for adults, and 7-8 for older adults.

No. 8: Famous insomniacs: Franz Kafka, Arianna Huffington, Vincent Van Gogh, Bill Clinton, Marilyn Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, Madonna, Judy Garland, Groucho Marx, Margaret Thatcher and Tallulah Bankhead.

Curtain Calls

Thirty-year-old Joseph Austin Smith of Wichita, Kansas, was killed in his pickup truck during a hunting trip when his dog discharged a rifle from the back seat. Smith was sitting in the front passenger seat of his vehicle when the dog "stepped on the rifle," according to a Sumner County Sheriff's Office report, which pulled the trigger and shot Smith. Authorities deemed the shooting an accident; the dog was not charged.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: sarahjohnson1 at Pixabay