White teeth are not more than just aesthetics, they are a sign of good oral health. Our teeth get yellow as the enamel (the outermost cover of teeth) erodes with age or gets strained due to exposure to acids from food and drink. While this is inevitable, many people desire to have sparkling white teeth. If you want whiter teeth but also want to avoid the chemicals, this article lists many options that are both natural and safe.

Natural Ways to Whiten Your Teeth: What Works and What Doesn’t

Teeth whitening has become a popular goal for many, with a range of natural remedies often touted as safe alternatives to commercial products. But how effective are these methods? Here’s a closer look at popular natural approaches to teeth whitening and what science says about them.

1. Oil Pulling: An Ancient Practice with Modern Appeal

Originating in India, oil pulling involves swishing oil—typically coconut oil—in your mouth to reduce bacteria and improve oral hygiene. Coconut oil, rich in lauric acid, is known for its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Studies suggest that oil pulling can reduce harmful bacteria like *Streptococcus mutans*, which cause plaque and gingivitis. While there’s no direct evidence that it whitens teeth, many users report brighter smiles with regular use.

To try oil pulling:

- Swish 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of coconut oil in your mouth for 15–20 minutes.

- Spit the oil into a trash can to avoid clogging your pipes.

- Follow with regular brushing.

Unlike acidic or abrasive methods, oil pulling doesn’t damage enamel, making it safe for daily use.

2. Baking Soda: A Gentle Abrasive for Stains

Baking soda, a common ingredient in toothpaste, has mild abrasive properties that can help scrub away surface stains. It also creates an alkaline environment in the mouth, inhibiting bacterial growth. While plain baking soda may not show immediate whitening effects, studies have found that toothpaste containing baking soda is effective in reducing plaque and stains.

How to use baking soda:

- Mix 1 teaspoon of baking soda with 2 teaspoons of water to form a paste.

- Brush your teeth with this mixture a few times per week.

3. Hydrogen Peroxide: A Proven Bleaching Agent**

Hydrogen peroxide is widely used in commercial whitening products for its bleaching and antibacterial properties. While high concentrations may cause sensitivity, diluted forms are generally safe. Studies show that toothpaste with hydrogen peroxide effectively reduce discoloration, especially from coffee.

To use hydrogen peroxide:

- Rinse with a 1.5% solution made by diluting 3% hydrogen peroxide with equal parts water.

- Alternatively, mix 2 teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide with 1 teaspoon of baking soda to create a whitening paste. Use sparingly to avoid enamel erosion.

4. Fruits and Vegetables: Natural Exfoliants

Crunchy fruits and vegetables can help remove plaque as you chew. Specific fruits like strawberries and pineapples are often praised for their whitening effects.

Strawberries: The malic acid in strawberries may help remove surface discoloration. Mixing mashed strawberries with baking soda creates a paste that can be brushed onto teeth. However, its effect is minimal, and overuse can harm enamel.

Pineapples: Bromelain, an enzyme in pineapples, has shown promise in removing stains in gel formulations, though eating pineapple doesn’t offer the same benefit.

5. Preventative Measures: Keeping Stains at Bay

To maintain a bright smile:

- Limit staining foods and drinks like coffee, red wine, and soda.

- Use a straw for beverages that stain and brush teeth 60 minutes after consumption.

- Avoid smoking and chewing tobacco.

- Reduce sugar intake to minimize bacterial growth.

- Consume calcium-rich foods to strengthen enamel and prevent yellowing from dentin exposure.

6. Brushing and Flossing: A Foundation for White Teeth

Good oral hygiene remains key to preventing discolouration. Regular brushing removes stains, while flossing eliminates plaque between teeth. Professional cleanings also help maintain a bright smile.

A recent scientific study found an exciting new way to check if someone is likely to get Alzheimer's disease due to their genetics. Instead of current medical tests, which are often costly, complex, and invasive, this new method uses simple eye-tracking technology. This means diagnosing the risk could become much easier for patients and more affordable for healthcare systems.

As you may know, there is currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease. This is a neurodegenerative disease that can affect a person’s memory, skills, as well as behavior. The best way to deal with this disease is by diagnosing it early, so that doctors can provide medicine and treatment options to delay the onset and manage the symptoms. However, it is not easy to spot the symptoms, so how can one know for certain whether they have Alzheimer's disease or not?

How Can Eye Trackers Detect Alzheimer’s Disease

This research, which involved scientists from the University of Strathclyde, looked closely at how well this new technique works. The technology is a specific system called ViewMind Atlas. It works by monitoring a person's tiny, subtle eye movements. Then, Artificial Intelligence (AI) software analyzes these movements.

Since the eyes are closely linked to the brain, the way they move can tell doctors about the brain's health and function. The most important part is that this system can successfully identify the genetic risk in people years before they start showing any actual memory loss or other Alzheimer’s symptoms.

How Accurate Is This Eye Tracking Test?

To test the system, the researchers studied a group of people from extended families in Colombia who have a known genetic mutation that causes Alzheimer’s. The results were incredibly promising:

For the family members who were already showing symptoms of the disease, the ViewMind Atlas test was 100% accurate in identifying them.

More remarkably, for those who carried the gene but didn't have any symptoms yet (asymptomatic), the test was 96% accurate at correctly identifying their risk. The AI model essentially learned to look at the patterns of eye movement and use them to tell apart the people who had or were likely to get Alzheimer's from those who weren't.

Can This Help Improve Early Diagnosis Rate?

The research team found this eye-tracking test detects the disease earlier than standard cognitive tests, which often fail to flag a problem until it is well underway. The lead scientist, Professor Mario Parra Rodriguez, explained why this is such a big deal. He pointed out that today's common tests are "expensive and invasive," often requiring hospital procedures.

The ViewMind Atlas system, however, helps doctors predict Alzheimer’s risk years in advance. This is key for doctors, who often struggle to figure out if a patient’s mild forgetfulness is just a normal part of getting older or a serious risk of dementia. This new tool could help them act quickly to treat or manage the risk instead of having to wait for the disease to fully develop.

A new study suggests that GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, used mainly for weight loss and diabetes, might also lessen the effects of alcohol. While this could be disappointing for social drinkers, experts at Virginia Tech see it as a hopeful new way to help people who struggle with serious alcohol problems.

Alcohol addiction is one of the world’s biggest problems. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019 alone, approximately 2.6 million deaths worldwide were linked to drinking. While 1.6 million deaths were due to non-communicable diseases, the other 700,000 deaths were caused by injuries.

A massive number of people struggle with alcohol problems. An estimated 400 million people globally, about 7% of the world's population aged 15 and older, were living with alcohol use disorders (AUDs). A large portion of this group, 209 million people, or 3.7% of the adult population, had the more severe condition of alcohol dependence (or addiction).

The WHO explains that we have effective ways to control and reduce the harm caused by alcohol, and countries need to use these strategies more often. At the same time, it’s crucial for every person to know the dangers of drinking and take personal steps to protect themselves from their harmful effects. Could these weight loss drugs become one such viable ways to help bring alcohol addiction down?

How Does Weight Loss Medication Help Alcohol Cravings?

GLP-1 medicines work by copying a natural body hormone that manages your appetite and how you digest food. This makes people feel full longer and helps them eat less. For this small study, researchers tested 20 people who were overweight.

Half of them were already taking a regular dose of a GLP-1 drug. On the test day, everyone had an alcoholic drink after a snack. The researchers then watched them for an hour, checking their health and asking how they felt.

The key result was that the group on GLP-1 drugs felt less drunk, even though everyone had the same amount. Crucially, their blood alcohol level rose more slowly. Scientists think that because the drug slows down the body's processes, it slows down how fast the alcohol reaches the brain, which dulls the effects, or the "buzz."

This is important because slow-acting drugs are less likely to be abused. These promising results mean researchers want to run much bigger studies to confirm that GLP-1s can be a real treatment to help people drink less.

Benefits Of GLP-1 Medication

The ability of GLP-1 drugs to help with cravings doesn't stop at alcohol. People taking drugs like Ozempic have also reported having fewer cravings for nicotine, opioid drugs, and even less desire for impulse shopping. Other research has already shown this potential: Opioid users on GLP-1s had a 40% lower rate of overdoses in one study.

In a separate trial done by researchers from Loyola University Chicago, these medications were better than standard drugs for alcoholism at keeping patients out of the hospital for alcohol problems. Scientists believe this happens because GLP-1 drugs affect the brain's reward system (called the mesolimbic system), which controls addiction. They change the levels of a chemical called dopamine, which is central to how we feel pleasure and form habits.

When most people think of COVID today, they imagine a mild illness, like a cold, a few days of fever, a sore throat, or a cough, before recovery. But for many, the story does not end there. Long COVID, which the World Health Organization defines as symptoms lasting at least three months after infection, has become a lasting reality of the pandemic.

Most studies have focused on describing symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, and shortness of breath. However, a recent study has shown that long COVID, especially in women, can trigger a chronic condition known as Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

What Is Long Covid?

Long COVID affects roughly 6% of people who had COVID, with over 200 symptoms recorded. For some, it lasts just a few months, while for “long haulers,” it can continue for years. Measuring the scale of the problem is difficult because symptoms differ widely from person to person. This has sparked debates over what long COVID truly is, what causes it, and even whether it is real.

However, as per Johns Hopkins Medicine, common symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, headaches, and changes in smell or taste, and multiple organ systems can be affected.

New Study Says Long Covid Can Trigger This One Chronic Illness

A study from Sweden found that young women with symptomatic long COVID were at a higher risk of developing POTS, adding an extra burden, according to research from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Among a cohort of predominantly younger women with highly symptomatic post-COVID-19 sequelae (PCS), also called long COVID, there was a notable incidence of POTS. The research noted significantly lower physical activity and capacity in long COVID patients with POTS compared to those without it.

The study examined 467 non-hospitalized, highly symptomatic long COVID patients, 91% of whom were healthy, physically active women before their COVID infection. About 12 months after their initial COVID illness, patients underwent cardiologist evaluations including a 48-hour electrocardiogram, head-up tilt test, and Active Stand Test for those suspected of having POTS.

What Is Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)?

POTS is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system in which the heart rate rises excessively when standing. This can lead to symptoms like lightheadedness, fatigue, and fainting. In POTS, blood vessels don’t constrict as they should, causing blood to pool in the lower body and reducing blood flow to the brain. The nervous system compensates by releasing hormones that sharply increase heart rate, producing various symptoms, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

COVID-19 and POTS: Is There A Link?

POTS can be triggered by various factors, including viral or bacterial infections. Researchers believe the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may act as a trigger, as more people recovering from COVID are showing POTS-like symptoms such as brain fog, rapid heartbeat (tachycardia), and severe chronic fatigue. The overlap in symptoms has prompted doctors to start testing patients for POTS.

Johns Hopkins explains that the autonomic nervous system controls functions we don’t consciously think about, like heart rate, blood pressure, sweating, and body temperature. Problems in these areas can cause symptoms that overlap with other conditions. Patients may have their POTS symptoms dismissed as lingering COVID effects or even psychological issues. Accurate diagnosis is critical, as POTS can be debilitating and requires targeted treatment.

How Can Volume Expansion Therapy Help With POTS?

The main goal of initial POTS treatment is to improve blood flow back to the heart, a strategy known as volume expansion therapy. This can include medication-based and non-medication approaches. Physical therapy also plays a key role in increasing blood volume over time. However, it often takes months before patients are able to respond enough to participate fully in physical therapy.

If you are experiencing COVID-like POTS symptoms, consult your healthcare professional for evaluation and guidance.