Had to work a double shift yesterday, so to stay awake I was driving home at 11pm, with the windows rolled down(28 degrees) and listing to Coast-to-Coast AM. Early in the broadcast, they were touting some study that tries to prove good dental hygiene reduces your risk of heart disease.
Really? For some reason, this just stuck in my craw. Isn't it more likely that rather than good dental hygiene reducing your risk of heart disease, people with good dental hygiene eat better foods and exercise more? That instead of good dental hygiene being a cause, it's yet another personality trait displayed by people who's life style minimizes the risk of heart disease?
Now, since then, my wife pulled out some nursing terminology trying to prove that poor dental hygiene leads to plague build-up and inflammation...and inflammation of ANY part of the body can lead to inflammation of heart tissue.
Whatever...in my superstitious world, this is just a case of shaping the numbers to make dentists more money.
Your wife saved me the trouble. Thank her for me, will ya?
ReplyDeleteJust because she said it, doesn't mean I beleive it. I would still have to make sure the study wasn't sponsored by the American Dental Association before I totally bought off on it.
ReplyDeleteSkepticism. Good.
ReplyDeleteI do not know how true it is, but I have read that dental infections can increase a pregnant woman's risk of giving birth prematurely. (Maternal infection is the leading cause of premature birth.) And inflammation is a risk factor for heart disease, and of course your body is a closed system (or should be, anyway).
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