Toothpaste prevents heart attacks, apparently.

I have this app on my laptop which gives me a news feed that I've set to send feeds only from the UK and NHS choices. For some reason, I never get any news that isn't related to healthcare, but alright. The other thing I've noticed is that all of medical articles have been reported by the Daily Mail which has a reputation of being slightly, er... hyperchondriac. The articles are usually based on a study of about 100 people over an average of around six months which, suffice to say, is hardly enough to draw an adequate conclusion.

Even by their normal cancer-ridden headlines, I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened up my laptop a few days ago and saw an article which claimed that "clean teeth reduce heart risk". And surprise surprise, "reported by the Daily Mail". I sighed. But I nonetheless clicked on the "read more" button which linked me to the NHS choices page where I had expected to see a blatant disregard of the importance of having a large sample size. I thought that the study would have failed to take into account the fact that if you're less likely to brush your teeth, chances are you're less inclined to eat healthily and do physical exercise. Alas, I was wrong. The study was based on 11,689 people over a period of 8 years which is pretty impressive. The researchers also had taken into account other factors:

•When all other possible influences had been taken into account, people who reported poor oral hygiene (who never or rarely brushed their teeth) had a 70% greater risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with those who brushed their teeth twice a day. (Hazard ratio (HR) 1.7 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3 to 2.3)

•By modelling the link between toothbrushing and inflammatory markers, the researchers say that the fully adjusted model shows a reduced rate of brushing is linked to higher levels of the two markers for inflammation - C reactive protein (ß 0.04, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.08) and fibrinogen (ß 0.08,95% CI –0.01 to 0.18). This suggests a significant association.

The reasoning behind it, in brief, is that oral bacteria, if released into the bloodstream, can attatch to fatty plaques and cause clots. The other possibility is that the inflammation caused by periodontal disease increases plaque build up, which may contribute to swelling of the arteries. I'm still bemused that there can be a connection between the mouth and heart but I guess the beauty of the human body is that everything is connected.

Moral of the story? Brush your teeth, kids!