Is Preventing Alzheimers as Easy as Brushing Your Teeth?
The Alzheimer’s Hub of Hope has four sections: Heroes, Highlights, Headlines and Helpers/Caregivers. This post is aligned to the headlines section.
Is poor dental hygiene the cause or at least a contributor in developing Alzheimers disease? Can you prevent or reduce your risk of contracting the disease be as simple as brushing and flossing your teeth and visiting your dentist periodically?
There has been much research and discussion on this topic and there is definitely a link or association between the disease and dental health. This Newsweek article discusses a study where the researchers conclude that the P.gingivalis bacteria is the “main cause” of the disease.
An enzyme called gingipains, which the Porphyromonas gingivitis (P. gingivalis) bacteria gives off, is the "main cause of Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Steve Dominy, study author and associate professor at University of California.
Not all studies have such grandiose conclusions but this one claims:
People with poor dental hygiene are 21 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease later in life.
A 21% reduction in risk may not be the main cause but it still is a significant factor. Look at Other Reference Materials & Interesting Links at the bottom of this article for additional support for the connection between oral health and Alzheimers.
The short video below references research published in WebMD that explains how bacteria from your mouth can travel to the brain and be seen as an uninvited guest (eg. a threat) that your immune system fights. A result of this fighting is that some brain cells die causing loss of memory and cognitive decline.
This five minute video goes into more depth than the previous one and brings periodontitis into the discussion. Periodontitis is an oral infection that gives bacteria a breading ground. The bacteria crosses the blood brain barrier and the brain develops amyloid plaques which acts like a scab to protect the brain by keeping the bacteria out.
This final video is by Dr. Dale Bredesen who is one of this blog’s heroes of Alzheimers. Check out my previous article Dr. Dale Bredesen and the Functional Approach - Episode 1 for more details of his approach.
In the video below he discusses how oral health is emerging as an important risk area in cognitive decline and other diseases and how there are now dentists trained in oral systemic health. Poor oral health can cause infections and inflammation that start in the mouth but can spread throughout the body including into the brain through a person’s blood. Any blood encountered while flossing or tooth brushing could be a pathway for oral bacteria to spread though out the body.
Obviously a person should start with basic brushing and flossing, however he also suggest using OralDNA to assess the types of bacteria in a mouth and Dentalciden to promote the proper oral microbiome balance.
The Takeaway
There is a lot of evidence that poor dental health is associated with the development of Alzheimers and other diseases. I was surprised by this. Much of my review of Alzheimers experts indicate that there may be many causes of the disease, so I doubt that the lack of proper oral hygiene is the main cause but it could be a contributing factor.
Since brushing, flossing and periodic visits to the dentist is easy enough to do and may reduce the risk of the disease, it makes sense to me to make oral hygiene a priority. It provides a lot of “bang for a buck” in my opinion.