How can bad dental health cause heart disease?
In: 97
In a word: inflammation.
Our bodies are in a perpetual arms race with organisms that would love to consume our nutrients. Our mouths are full of such organisms. Kept in the mouth and with no breaks in teeth or gums and they do fine, just subsisting on whatever doesn’t get swallowed from our meals.
When gums and teeth get breaks in them, either from mechanical or chemical stressors, these bacteria gain access to that wondrous nutrient rich solution we call blood (or plasma). To combat this our immune system goes to work, ramping up blood flow to the area to bring in more white blood cells and antibodies to fight the infection. This causes swelling (and pain). Some of these chemical messengers leak away from the site to rest of bloodstream, recruiting backup.
Through mechanisms that aren’t entirely clear (at least to me), these chemical messengers that lead to inflammation cause blood vessel walls to become more reactive, eventually leading to increased risk of heart attacks and strokes (to the tune of 2-3x greater risk as compared to someone without dental disease).
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