There sure are a lot of things we don’t understand when it comes to the human body. One of the things coming to the forefront is our increased understanding about the link between the health of your mouth and the health of the rest of your body.
Cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes are the the four diseases that are the biggest killers of human beings. We have been fighting these killers for a long time and it seems that new information about these diseases comes out every day.
We know for instance that high cholesterol increases your risk for heart disease. But why is it that half of the people who have heart attacks do NOT have high cholesterol? Why is it that some people are able to control their diabetes, yet others are not. There are always more questions than answers, and there seemed to be a missing link with many of these diseases that we just couldn’t see. Perhaps now we can.
Research is showing that there is hidden factor, a missing link in many diseases that we never knew about. That missing link is… CHRONIC INFLAMMATION! Chronic, low grade inflammation that persists anywhere in the body causes damaging problems throughout the entire body, and increases the risk for a wide variety of diseases.
Unfortunately there is one place in your body where chronic inflammation is very common. That place is your mouth! In fact various studies are suggesting the following health risks from oral inflammation:
- Double the risk of coronary artery disease…
- Three times the risk for heart attack…
- Seven times the risk of premature birth…
- Double the risk of kidney disease…
- 63% higher risk for pancreatic cancer according to a study by the
Harvard School Of Public Health…
Recent studies tell us that around three out of every four adults has bleeding gums, and that bleeding gums and gum disease indicate the presence of inflammation. Even worse is that most people do not know when they have oral inflammation! The simple truth is that bleeding gums are very common, very dangerous, and most people don’t know it when their gums are bleeding.
The amazing thing is that we’ve been trying to stop bleeding gums and gum disease for more than 30 years. We’ve got toothbrushes of every size and shape. We’ve got waxed floss, unwaxed floss, dental tape, and too many different mouthwashes to count. Major corporations spend millions of dollars trying to get you to buy their products, all on the premise of stopping bleeding gums. And after 30 years of trying, guess what we have?
We have 75% of the population with bleeding gums, we have gum disease as one of the most common diseases in the entire world, we have gum disease as the leading cause of tooth loss in adults, and worst of all, we have gum disease increasing the risk for all of the diseases that kill us.
Clearly, a new approach is needed to deal with this serious health risk. Too many people get their teeth cleaned every six months, but yet still spend virtually their entire lives with bleeding gums and the associated risks. It’s time we all recognize gum disease as the serious health risk that it is.