I'm lying in bed watching the news, and there's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for the health and medical unit at CNN, saying something about how regular brushing and flossing of your teeth can help prevent cancer. I didn't catch it all, so I decided to go online and check it out. Before I could do so, however, my wife says that she recently thought she heard something about how regular dental care, flossing, brushing and so on, could prevent heart disease.
Sounds a little weird, doesn't it? Brushing and flossing can help prevent cancer AND heart disease?
Well, I checked out a few sites, and it looks like it's the real deal. In fact, not only does regular dental care such as brushing and flossing stand out as a means of helping your body protect itself against cancer and heart disease, but taking care of your teeth can also provide some support in preventing stroke and diabetes as well!
Now, my first thoughts went to nutrition and general well being.
I figured that someone with poor nutritional habits as a result of bad teeth or other dental or oral problems would be more susceptible to those types of illnesses. It's well known that good nutrition can assist the body in defending itself against these conditions.
My next thought was that someone who didn't take care of their teeth might not be taking care of other aspects of their lives, so maybe there was simply some sort of statistical correlation between behavior and health.
Turns out the answers were a little more technical, yet, in a way, more simple, than even those two reasonably valid points.
The culprit was simply bacteria.
Here's the way it works.
If you do not perform daily tooth maintenance, i.e. brushing and flossing, plaque builds up on your teeth. Eventually, this plaque will form tartar, which can only be removed by a dentist or dental hygienist. The plaque and tartar provide a home to bacteria which can cause gums to become infected. Infected gums release pro-inflammatory agents into the bloodstream which can carry them to other organs of the body.
Inflammation can give rise to cancer. They're still working on the links there, but researchers are sure that the link exists. A fairly solid link to pancreatic cancer in men has already been established. As far as heart disease is concerned, the bacteria related to periodontal (gum) disease, being inflammatory in nature, can stimulate the immune system. A result is atherosclerosis, i.e. a formation of deposits within the body, which can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and similar damaging episodes in other organs.
Even those who brush and floss regularly may still be susceptible to Diabetes, which can weaken the mouth's ability to fight germs. Regular visits to the dentist can assist in defense against the disease. One research group estimates that over 20 million adults and children in the U. S. have diabetes with one-third of them being unaware of their illness. Augmenting proper daily dental care such as brushing and flossing with regular treatments and therapy provided by dental care professionals can help prevent many of the most disastrous effects of diabetes, including death.
So what can you do?