Secret Speech Aid (11.19.04) - Soldiers and stroke victims might one day have something in common: a device that allows them to talk without speaking.
Coronary Predictor (09.30.03) - What's your coronary calcium score? The answer could predict your risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke.
Voices Found (07.03.03) - Victims of strokes often lose the ability to speak or write. So researchers are looking at other ways to help them find their voices.
Brushing your pearly whites could save you more than time, money and pain at the dentist. New research shows that preventing gum disease might help reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack. This ScienCentral News video explains.
Brushing Off Stroke Risk
Fascination with oral hygiene is nothing new. Babylonians chewed twigs until the ends frayed enough to provide a good brushing. Chinese ancients crafted the first bristle toothbrush from wild boar. And Greeks of old introduced rough linen cloth to Alexander the Great who, egged on by Aristotle, used it to buff his bicuspids. Today's dental care smorgasbord offers flavored floss, bubble gum toothpaste, whitening mouthwashes and space-age looking toothbrushes angled to get at oral gunk. Now, fresh evidence shows that our long fixation with clean mouths may be doing more than keeping cavities away; it might actually reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack.
Infectious disease researcher Moïse Desvarieux, of the Mailman School of Public Health , neurologist Ralph Sacco of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Panos Papapanou, of Columbia University's School of Dental & Oral Surgery, reported in the journal Circulation that thickening of the carotid artery, at work in stroke and heart attack, is associated with high levels of harmful oral bacteria found in gum disease. "The relationship that we have between gum disease, the bacteria, and the thicker carotid was only present in the bad bacteria and not in the others," says Desvarieux, the study's principal investigator. The team spent five years tracking 657 people over age 55 of mixed race and income, all with no stroke history. In a three part process, they screened patients for diabetes, hypertension, and smoking, stroke and heart disease risks factors, sampled eleven types of oral bacteria, four thought to cause gum disease and seven that are believed to have no role in gum disease, and took ultrasounds to examine carotid artery thickening.
Ultrasound image of carotid artery
"If the artery is significantly blocked, and usually we define more than 70 percent blockage as a lot of blockage, that can lead to stroke," explains Sacco. But, more importantly, he says a closer look at that artery can tell researchers about a person's overall vascular health.
It's important to note that this is a correlative study— that is, two things happen at the same time— and it does not prove that one causes the other. However, when asked how high levels of harmful oral bacteria might lead to hardening of the arteries, or artherosclerosis, the researchers offer three theories. "One is that it travels through the body and because it travels through the body it keeps irritating the vessels," explains Desvarieux. "The second theory is that it actually leads to a bigger response from the body. In other words, the body sees the bacteria and then overreacts…the third possible explanation [is] something that's called molecular mimicry. It's a big word that means mistaken identity. In other words, the bacteria may have a certain part of it that's common to what people have in their vessel or in their heart and trying to go against that bacteria actually activates some kind of auto-immune [response] against the person."
Bacteria that cause gum disease
Pinpointing how oral bacteria may contribute to atherosclerosis has broad implications given that more than 75 percent of Americans over 35 have some form of gum disease, according to estimates released by the Food and Drug Administration. Also called periodontal disease, gum disease is caused by that thick bacterial film, or plaque, that coats your morning mouth. Plaque is constantly forming and can be toxic to gums, the American Dental Association website warns. In its early stage, it's diagnosed as gingivitis, and causes red, irritated gums that bleed easily. Daily brushing and flossing can reverse gingivitis but periodontitis, more advanced gum disease, is trickier to get rid of and often destroys gums and bone that support the teeth. If high levels of harmful oral bacteria turn out to cause atherosclerosis, dentists might be able to screen for risk of stroke— ranked by the Center for Disease Control as the third leading killer in the U.S. — and suggest ways to reduce harmful bacteria. "The good thing about findings like this where something as simple as periodontal disease or dental disease may be related to vascular disease means it is preventable," Sacco says. "It is modifiable…by good hygiene, brushing your teeth more often, seeing the dentist more often."
Desvarieux cautions that he's not yet fully convinced that high levels of harmful oral bacteria cause hardening of the arteries. Because the study measured everything at once, Desvarieux still doesn't know whether the high levels of bacteria or thickened arteries came first. "That we need to know and the only way we can know that is by following [patients] up and trying to see whether the carotid artery continues to thicken," he says. But the research did confirm something Desvarieux's long suspected: "Perhaps there's a lesson, that the body is whole and even what we don't think are connected may actually be."
delicious
digg
magnolia
reddit
newsvine
netscape
netvibes
