Did you know that looking after your gums could also help your heart? This isn’t some sort of riddle, but rather the finding from some very smart scientists from the University of Michigan.
In a way you might not expect, taking good care of your teeth could lead to a shorter hospital stay if you have a heart attack.
Studying Teeth and Heart Health Together
The Michigan researchers had a look at people who had a heart attack in 2017.
They wanted to see if the dental care these people got in the years leading up to their heart attack made a difference. So, they divided the patients into three groups.
One group had no dental care, one had regular dental cleaning, and the third had special treatment for gum disease.
What did they find? Those with gum disease treatment spent the least amount of time in the hospital after their heart attack. The group that stayed in the hospital the longest? The ones who had no dental care at all.
Gum Health and Overall Health: More Than Meets the Eye
This study, published in a big dental journal, didn’t say that gum disease causes heart disease. But it did show an interesting connection between the two.
Keeping your mouth healthy seems to link with keeping your whole body healthy. Every year, 800,000 people in the US have heart attacks. Those with gum disease have a higher chance of staying in the hospital longer after their heart attack.
Many people think of the dentist and the doctor as two separate things. But studies like this one are showing us that it might be a mistake.
Dental health and overall health are tied together more closely than we thought.
Better communication between doctors and dentists could help catch gum disease earlier. This could be especially helpful for people at risk of heart disease.
In fact, dental care should be part of regular medical care. This is why it’s crucial that health insurance plans should cover dental care too, and not treat it as something extra.
Final Thoughts: A Healthy Mouth for a Healthy Heart
The researchers found that only about half of the people in their study had regular dental care before their heart attack. That’s a lot of missed chances to catch and treat gum disease.
It’s time we start thinking of dental health as a regular part of taking care of our whole body. Because taking good care of your teeth might just help your heart too.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how to remove plaques that cause heart attacks, and results showing a new way to prevent heart attacks, strokes.
The study was published in The Journal of the American Dental Association.
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