Maintaining healthy teeth and gums is especially important for mothers-to-be. It could leave them better off for the rest of their lives, not just during their pregnancies.

Researchers at New York University’s College of Dentistry followed about 250 women through the first six months of pregnancy. Those who developed gestational diabetes generally had much higher levels of bacteria and inflammation in their gums than other women.

Gestational diabetes usually goes away after the baby is born but it can leave the mom at an increased risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.
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A new study suggests, if one or both of your parents have high blood pressure, chances are good that you will also. That's the result of a long-term study from Johns Hopkins University.

The study began 60 years ago when about 1,000 men were asked about blood pressure history for themselves and their families. The men filled out similar questionnaires every year since then.

Those who had one or two parents diagnosed with hypertension before age 55 were at a much higher risk of developing high blood pressure. Early-onset hypertension in both parents was associated with a 20-fold risk of developing high blood pressure by age 35.
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When a doctor examines a patient, sight and touch are used to figure out what's wrong. Now a new technology refines the sense of touch down to the cellular level, which could mean a new era in cancer treatment.

Dr. Jianyu Rao is an expert at finding cancerous cells amid healthy ones but some are hard to distinguish.

"By looking through the normal, just regular microscope, you can't tell a lot of times. It's very hard to tell," said Rao.

Cancerous cells are different because their structure, or their cytoskeleton, has collapsed.

"That makes the cells very flexible, very soft. You know the tumor cells are unique in that they are very easy to get through the spaces," said Rao.

Nanoscientists at University of California-Lost Angeles now have a way for Rao to feel those cells, using a probe the size of 30 atoms.

"If I was a sphere, it would be like using a finger to probe mass softness," said nanoscientist James Gimzewski.

Gimzewski and his team use an atomic force microscope to make these delicate readings. A tiny cantilever is placed over the cells.

"And then we just lower it down and push on the cell gently. That, that is what we do, and we pick up how the diving board bends and that's the measure of softness,” said Gimzewski.

Healthy cells are stiffer and can withstand more pressure, while cancerous cells "give" easily.

"The more the diving board bends, the stiffer the surface. The less it bends, the softer the surface," said Gimzewski.

"Punch it a little bit and retract it, and by that, you feel how soft the tumor cell is," said Rao.

It’s all thanks to a tool that lets doctors examine cells by touch, as well as by sight. This research may also lead to compounds that restore the structure that gives cells shape.

By "shaping up" cancer cells, the cells wouldn't be able to slip through membranes and spread throughout the body.