How to avoid heart disease: brush your teeth, say scientists

Bad teeth, bleeding gums and poor dental hygiene can end up causing heart disease, scientists heard today at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn meeting being held this week at Trinity College, Dublin.

People with poor dental hygiene and those who don't brush their teeth regularly end up with bleeding gums, which provide an entry to the bloodstream for up to 700 different types of bacteria found in our mouths. This increases the risk of having a heart attack, according to microbiologists from the University of Bristol and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

"The mouth is probably the dirtiest place in the human body," said Dr Steve Kerrigan from the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. "If you have an open blood vessel from bleeding gums, bacteria will gain entry to your bloodstream. When bacteria get into the bloodstream they encounter tiny fragments called platelets that clot blood when you get a cut. By sticking to the platelets bacteria cause them to clot inside the blood vessel, partially blocking it. This prevents the blood flow back to the heart and we run the risk of suffering a heart attack."

The only treatment for this type of disease is aggressive antibiotic therapy, but with the increasing problem of multiple drug resistant bacteria, this option is becoming short lived.

"Cardiovascular disease is currently the biggest killer in the western world. Oral bacteria such as Streptococcus gordonii and Streptococcus sanguinis are common infecting agents, and we now recognise that bacterial infections are an independent risk factor for heart diseases," said Professor Howard Jenkinson from the University of Bristol. "In other words it doesn't matter how fit, slim or healthy you are, you're adding to your chances of getting heart disease by having bad teeth."

Researchers at Bristol have been investigating the ways in which the bacteria interact with platelets in order to develop new and improved therapies.

"Most of the studies that have looked at how bacteria interact with platelets were carried out under conditions that do not resemble those in the human circulatory system. We mimicked the pressure inside the blood vessels and in the heart", said Professor Jenkinson. "Using this technique we demonstrated that bacteria use different mechanisms to cause platelets to clump together, allowing them to completely encase the bacteria. This shields the bacteria from the cells of our immune systems, which would normally kill bacteria, and most importantly also protects them from antibiotics."

These findings suggest why antibiotics do not always work in the treatment of infectious heart disease and also highlight the need to develop new drugs to treat this disease. "We are currently in the process of identifying the exact site at which the bacteria stick to the platelets," said Professor Jenkinson. "Once this is identified we will design a new drug to prevent this interaction."

"We also identified several proteins on the bacteria that lead to platelet clumping," said Dr Kerrigan. "Genetic deletion of these proteins from the bacteria prevented the platelets from clumping which shows that these proteins play an essential role and may be candidate proteins for new drug development or producing vaccines."

Source: Society for General Microbiology

   

• Velanarris - Sep 10, 2008
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  I'd say the two are probably unrelated with the exception of the fact that people who don't brush their teeth probably don't take good care of the rest of themselves.
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• deatopmg - Sep 10, 2008
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  I'd say the two are probably unrelated with the exception of the fact that people who don't brush their teeth probably don't take good care of the rest of themselves.

  
  
  Read the literature!! this article just rehashes what is known.
  Once the bacteria enter the blood stream the actual lesion is triggered by ozone being released by monocytes in response to the presence of the infectious agent. The ozone besides killing the bugs it also oxidizes ubiquitous cholesterol to cholestenals. These attract more monocytes and other immune cells which ultimately die to become foam cells etc, etc,
  
  So..... brush and floss at least twice a day.
  
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• Velanarris - Sep 11, 2008
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  I'd say the two are probably unrelated with the exception of the fact that people who don't brush their teeth probably don't take good care of the rest of themselves.

  
  
  Read the literature!! this article just rehashes what is known.
  Once the bacteria enter the blood stream the actual lesion is triggered by ozone being released by monocytes in response to the presence of the infectious agent. The ozone besides killing the bugs it also oxidizes ubiquitous cholesterol to cholestenals. These attract more monocytes and other immune cells which ultimately die to become foam cells etc, etc,
  
  So..... brush and floss at least twice a day.
  

  
  
  No I read that, but the perceived laziness in the immune system could be attributed to diet, lack of exercise, and multiple other factors that people who don't brush their teeth most likely engage in.
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• superhuman - Sep 11, 2008
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  How the hell did we survive millions of years with no toothbrush? How the hell other mammals survive?
  Where are the studies that show homeless are x times more susceptible to heart attack?
  
  If there is any link it has to be very slim.
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• Soylent - Sep 11, 2008
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  How the hell did we survive millions of years with no toothbrush?

  
  
  By having babies as soon as reaching sexual maturity and not living past 35.
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• superhuman - Sep 11, 2008
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  By having babies as soon as reaching sexual maturity and not living past 35.

  
  
  So that protects one from bad teeth?
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• googleplex - Sep 11, 2008
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  Any statistician knows that a correlation does not prove a causal link. It might be that brushing infected gums causes bleeding and the contamination! I propose that once the mouth becomes infested with toxic bacteria and gingivitis occurs then it should be disinfect before brushing. Perhaps bleeding is caused by gingivitis plus "brushing".
  
  Dentist always says my teeth are immaculately clean and no gum damage. The brushing technique should be optimized to avoid gum abrasions. I think most people abrade away their gums when brushing due to erroneous training. I always brush away from the gum and towards the tooth. Never "saw" brush the gums sideways. Never brush crap from the tooth towards the gums. I read about this technique at a research hospital. The gum is very soft and easily damaged. Avoid brushing things into the periodontal space and abrading the gums.
  
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