Medicine: Spiked Candy

If candy and chewing gum were spiked with synthetic vitamin K, U.S. dentists might have to go out of business: tooth cavities, which afflict 95% of the U.S. population, might be prevented. So claimed Chemist Leonard Samuel Fosdick* & colleagues of Northwestern University in a preliminary report in Science last week. Vitamin K, found naturally in alfalfa, hog liver, cabbage, tomatoes and possibly in unrefined sugar, is valuable for its properties as a blood-clotter, especially in hemorrhages of newborn infants. When taken into the mouth, Dr. Fosdick discovered, vitamin K serves another function—it prevents sugars from turning into tooth-corroding acid.

Dr. Fosdick has tried the vitamin on “several hundred” patients, but is not ready to reveal details on his clinical results. “After a year of experiment,” he said, “things look very promising.”