Regularly brushing your teeth can help prevent a heart disease? Think we’re nuts? Well, join the club! We thought we’d lost it when we read this for the first time. But guess what, it’s true!
Read on to know more about how your oral health and heart health are linked.
According to scientists, people who fail to keep their teeth and their gums clean, are more likely to have a suffering heart. Well, it had been established in the past that if a person has gum disease, he/she is more likely to have a heart disease as well. This is, however, the first time that they have attempted establishing a link between a healthy heart and healthy brushing habits.
The study states that people with poor brushing habits are 70 percent more likely to have a heart disease in comparison to their counterparts who brush twice in a day.
It was found that bleeding gums, that are generally facilitated by poor dental hygiene, could lead to the passage of up to 700 different kinds of bacteria in the bloodstream. This would, in the long run, affect the susceptibility of a person to heart attacks. This, regardless of how healthy the person is.
When bacteria enters our bloodstream, it may activate what is called the immune system. A direct impact of this could make the artery walls inflammed and cause for their narrowing.
During the latest study, researchers from University College, London took into consideration the data of around 11,000 people with an average age of 50 and analyzed it. All of these people were already volunteering with the Scottish Health Survey.
The volunteers had been asked questions about their oral health routines – How often did they brush their teeth? What kind of medical dental history did they have? This activity was done around a decade back.
It was startling to see how only 6 in 10 people visited their dentist once in every 6 months. The number of people who brushed their teeth daily, however, was seen to be significantly higher. Their medical health records were maintained over the next decade. Now when their records were checked, it was seen that around 55% of them had cases of serious heart problems, out of which around 17% were fatal. Those who rarely brushed their teeth had 70% more chances of suffering from heart diseases. This fact was further strengthened when other factors like obesity and smoking were taken into consideration.
The researchers say that whatever the true position is on this story, it is a clear fact that if people continue to brush their teeth with fluoride toothpaste, maintain their regular visits to the dentists and keep a tab on the number of sugary snacks that they’re eating; they should do fine. Since this kind of behavior will go the whole nine yards in keeping their gums and their teeth in a healthy state for life.
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