Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine

Poorer people are more likely than the better off to have periodontal disease—inflamed and bleeding gums, cavities and teeth that are so infected they must be pulled.

White adults who have reached a higher socioeconomic class across their life course tend to enjoy a drop in their inflammation levels—and so lower risk for disease—but that’s not true for blacks, a novel new study suggests.

The death of a spouse can take a sobering toll on the health of the surviving partner: Within six months of their wife’s death, widowers are nearly twice as likely as similar married men to die themselves while widows have a 10% to 20% higher death rate than comparable married women.