Study links oral microbiome to cognitive function in older adults

Study links oral microbiome to cognitive function in older adults

 

I have never been that good at flossing but I can still do the Times crossword.

 

People with better cognitive function probably have better oral hygiene practices, maybe more varied diet, and other such factors. People with cognitive decline might have their mouths open more, or swallow more or less often, which would affect the oral environment.

Claiming that gum disease causes cognitive decline makes for more dramatic headlines than claiming that cognitive decline leads to gum disease.

 

I didn’t have you down as a Times reader.

 

“Dental flossing may lower the risk for incident ischemic stroke, cardioembolic stroke subtype and AF”: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/str.56.suppl_1.19

 

Oh I don't read the Times, I just tear off the crossword.

Or it may be a marker of obsessive health monitoring and vegetarianism.

 

Sure is. Unless I am Rip van Winkel and I missed some of those decades.

 

Red-flag symptom increases stroke and dementia risk - half of us have it

Red-flag symptom increases stroke and dementia risk - half of us have it

 

So..the association is definately, don't brush teeth, leads to cognitive issues/dementia and not at all that people with cognitive issues or dementia may 'forget' to brush their teeth?

Coz they don't appear to have considered the later at all.

Not at all, in any way.....but then I suppose when your business is dentistry........

 

However the oral microbiome affects the rest of the body, it's important to have health gums and teeth if for no other reason than an unhealthy mouth can cause pain and lots of money spent at the dentist.

I've found I really need to floss as well as use an electric toothbrush and a Waterpik to remove the food remaining in my gums after flossing. I read somewhere that the gums are the gutters of the mouth, which, while gross, is also apt.

 

Oral Dysbiosis and Autoimmunity: From Local Periodontal Responses to an Imbalanced Systemic Immunity. A Review

Oral Dysbiosis and Autoimmunity: From Local Periodontal Responses to an Imbalanced Systemic Immunity. A Review - PMC

(I'm not pretending to understand this paper but it raises a lot of issues about autoimmunity not necessarily in relation to periodontitis but the effect of dysbiosis in the microbiome which may be of interest.)

 

Also it’s completely ignoring the idea that a disease state can absolutely change the oral microbiome to begin with. Slight changes in salivary pH, or amylase enzymes brewing down sugars in saliva, or any number of other things can have profound affects on the microbiome makeup.

Someone can have obsessive oral hygiene but still have some underlying health issue that makes it way more likely for certain pathogenic bacterial species to take root unless they’re literally brushing and rinsing every half hour.

The paper itself doesn’t make any assertions that oral microbiome is solely dependent on hygiene behaviors, but of course any media coverage is going to take that spin to blame people for their own dementia.