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razonAmerican Heart Association: Gum disease not linked to heart attack
Written by Robert Smith
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Despite what doctors have been telling patients for the past few years,having gum disease does not make us more likely to have a heart attack or stroke, according to the American Heart Association. Treating gum disease does not appear to reduce the risk of cardiovasculardisease either.
Cardiologists, dentists, and infectious disease specialists reviewed more than 500 studies addressing the connection between the two diseases. The results were published Wednesday in astatement by the AHA.
The connection was made years ago when experts noticed that people with gum disease tended to have more heart attacks or strokes than people in better dental health. Thethinking was that the bacteria causing the infection in the gums got into the blood stream and traveled to the fatty plaques in blood vessels where they attached and helped form blood clots which can leadto a hear attack or stroke.
But the experts who reviewed the numerous studies say that though people with heart disease can certainly have periodontal disease, that gum disease does not necessarilycause heart disease.
People with both conditions share many of the same risk factors or engage in the same behaviors and this may be why it was thought that there was a connection. Both conditions aretied to cigarette smoking, being overweight or obese, being diabetic and having high blood pressure.
There’s a lot of confusion out there,” said Peter Lockhart, D.D.S., co-chair of the statementwriting group and professor and chair of oral medicine at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. “The message sent out by some in healthcare professions that heart attack and strokeare directly linked to gum disease, can distort the facts, alarm patients and perhaps shift the focus on prevention away from well known risk factors for these diseases.”
The American Dental...