Why Gum Disease Causes Heart Disease
eases like heart disease may convince you to never skip oral hygiene again Medical science has firmly estab- lished a link between periodontal (gum) disease and inflammatory conditions such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. But the mechanism linking these conditions has remained a medical mystery -- until now.
T Researchers at the University of To-
ronto's Faculty of Dentistry have identified what they believe is the correlation be- tween these conditions -- blood cells called neutrophils -- and their findings present the first evidence pointing to the body's own immune system response. The controlled clinical experiment, conducted in collaboration with top den- tists from Sinai Health Systems and Prin- cess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, indicates that neutrophil immune cell activity is the "missing link" connecting periodontal disease with other inflamma- tory diseases. Their findings were pub- lished in the October 2020 Journal of Dental Research.
When the Immune System Uses Excessive Force
Neutrophils are a type of white blood Daniel Lackey, FNP-C
www.RobinhoodIntegrativeHealth.com Daniel Lackey, FNP-C
Daniel Lackey, FNP-C is a board certified Nurse Practitioner. His background is in Emergency Medi- cine, with 5 years of experience as an ER nurse. His nurse practitioner degree includes specialties in fami- ly practice and adult gerontological acute care. Following his true pas- sion, however, he also obtained a certification in functional medi- cine. He finds it is truly rewarding and efficacious to address the root cause of illness instead of viewing the body as separate systems.
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hink skipping your nightly dental care routine is no big deal? The results of a recent study linking gum health to inflammatory dis-
cell that is activated to respond to areas of acute inflammation.When neutrophils, which play a critical role in immune sys- tem response, were activated to fight infec- tions from active cases of gum disease, researchers observed a hyperactive, sys- temic response that they believe makes the body susceptible to damage from second- ary inflammatory conditions. The study's senior author, Professor
Michael Glogauer, put it this way: "It's almost as if these white blood cells are in second gear when they should be in first."
Produced initially in in vivo models,
the findings were confirmed through a controlled clinical experiment involving mice with induced periodontal disease (PD). A human gingivitis study was con- ducted in tandem, with volunteers being instructed to cease all oral hygiene prac- tices for three weeks to induce gingivitis, followed by a two-week recovery period. Blood and tissue samples were taken from the mice; blood and saliva samples were also collected from human gingivitis study volunteers. Multiplex cytokine
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