Yahoo News Red flag sign in mouth could lead to higher risk of dementia, health experts warn
A particular sign in your mouth could mean you have a higher risk of developing dementia, according to a dental expert.
Dr Alp Kantarci, speaking on the Zoe health podcast, said that research indicates those suffering from oral diseases are at a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative conditions. He explained that extensive scientific studies involving hundreds of thousands of individuals have established a strong correlation between conditions like gum disease and brain disorders, with the statistics being quite alarming.
Dr Kantarci added: "We know that the oral diseases or periodontal diseases specifically can increase the risk of Alzheimer's or neurodegenerative diseases by about like 1.5 to twofold. Dementia is about a twofold increase. And then Alzheimer's disease can be one point to one point five."
Read More: Three signs in your hands that could mean you have serious health issues including cancer
Zoe CEO Jonathan Wolf was taken aback by these figures, exclaiming: "So that's enormous. So just to make sure that I understand that you are saying that you double the chance of getting dementia if you have oral disease than if you if you don't".
Dr Kantarci, a dementia expert, has highlighted that the relationship between poor dental health and dementia is bidirectional, reports the Mirror. He explained: "The reverse is also true. Having an Alzheimer's disease can also increase your chance of getting gum disease for about like almost 1.5 to 2 fold. So it's a two directional or bidirectional link between those two, which begs your view is that the oral health."
Jonathan Wolf said: "It's not just that someone has dementia, so their oral health is worse. You think that the bad oral health can cause this? And I know you said you're doing intervention studies, but we all know that takes a long time."
Dr Kantarci emphasised the importance of intervention studies, which involve improving a person's oral health as a preventative measure against dementia. He stated: "Intervention studies are going to be extremely important because it will show that how much risk we can reduce and what populations are going to be resistant to this risk reduction. I mean, yes, these are all lovely studies that are showing that if you don't brush your teeth, you may be getting higher chance of neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
"But when we do the intervention studies, is this going to help everybody to reduce the risk? We don't know that yet. So that's going to identify how much of this one is really coming from the oral sources and how much of this one is really coming to from the systemic impact of the oral diseases so that it can actually affect it."
