Health & Medicine - Posted by Christopher James-NYU on Friday, August 6, 2010 12:54 - 4 Comments 
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Gum disease may increase Alzheimer’s risk
New research finds that periodontal disease may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, brain inflammation, and neurodegeneration. (Credit: iStockphoto)
NYU (US)—Periodontal (gum) disease may increase the risk of cognitive dysfunction associated with Alzheimer’s disease in healthy individuals as well as in those who already are cognitively impaired.
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Researchers examined 20 years of data and found fresh evidence that links gum disease to brain inflammation, neurodegeneration, and Alzheimer’s disease.
“The research suggests that cognitively normal subjects with periodontal inflammation are at an increased risk of lower cognitive function compared to cognitively normal subjects with little or no periodontal inflammation,” says Angela. Kamer, assistant professor of periodontology and implant dentistry at New York University.
The study builds on earlier research that found that subjects with Alzheimer’s disease had a significantly higher level of antibodies and inflammatory molecules associated with periodontal disease in their plasma compared to healthy people.
The latest findings are based on an analysis of data on periodontal inflammation and cognitive function in 152 subjects in the Glostrop Aging Study, which has been gathering medical, psychological, oral health, and social data on Danish men and women.
Kamer’s team compared cognitive function at ages 50 and 70, using the Digit Symbol Test, or DST, a part of the standard measurement of adult IQ. The DST assesses how quickly subjects can link a series of digits.
Periodontal inflammation at age 70 was found to be strongly associated with lower DST scores at age 70. Subjects with periodontal inflammation were nine times more likely to test in the lower range of the DST compared to subjects with little or no periodontal inflammation.
This strong association held true—even in those subjects who had other risk factors linked to lower DST scores, including obesity, cigarette smoking, and tooth loss unrelated to gum inflammation—and also for those who had a low DST score at age 50.
Kamer plans to conduct a follow-up study involving a larger, more ethnically diverse group of subjects, to further examine the connection between periodontal disease and low cognition.
Researchers from Copenhagen University contributed to the study.
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4 Comments
Tom
Hello,
my name is Daniel Larocque. I’m a Dentist in France, specialized in treating bad breath and related problems – like gum disease – since many years.
I am new to the internet, so please forgive my possible ignorance about the technical part of this forum.
I am leaving my comment here, because I’m really interested in everything about my passion of course. And, I want to come back again.
Kind regards,
Daniel Larocque
OralMax Gum Disease Treatment can help you with bleeding gums, inflammation, sensitivity and dental mobility. Can help stop bone loss and reduce the dental mobility from grade 2 to grade 0 (Miller’s Classification).
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While, like Tom said, this study does not show definitive cause and effect between periodontal disease and Alzheimer’s disease it does indicate a potential factor in the disease. I am interested in seeing results from the follow-up study. The findings in the past 5 years linking periodontal disease to heart disease, vascular disease, low-weight preterm pregnancies, pancreatitis, etc. should suggest to the public and dental professionals that periodontal disease is serious. Besides the obvious risk of tooth loss with periodontal disease it is evident that the disease far-reaches the oral cavity. With approximately 75% of Americans with some form of periodontal disease, and only around 3% of American’s being treated for it concerns me.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that while there may indeed be a link between inflammation of the gums and inflammation of brain tissue, that doesn’t necessarily show cause and effect.