Good oral health leads to general overall better health: How strokes may be preventable with oral care

1.º§     COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Neurologists at Prisma Health published results of a 17- year-long study of the potential link between oral health and stroke risk. A group of 9,666 patients was followed to study the relationship between gum disease severity and atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat condition that doctors say is a huge risk factor for strokes. “We found that those who went to the dentist regularly – their risk of developing atrial fibrillation was almost 20% lower,” said Dr. Souvik Sen, researcher and Chair of Neurology at Prisma Health.

2.º§     Strokes are the third leading cause of death in South Carolina. The state is considered part of the Stroke Belt, a band of 11 southeastern states that exhibit higher rates of stroke mortalities. South Carolina is the buckle of the stroke belt, along with North Carolina and Georgia, and the buckle displays higher stroke mortality than other states in the country.

3.º§     Scruggs says the best way to maintain oral hygiene is to have a good routine at home of brushing twice a day and flossing once per day. Dentists say coming for dental checkups every six months is crucial for diagnosing gum disease and other issues. “Good oral health leads to general overall better health,” Sen said. “I think the 2 are very strongly tied to each other. Obviously, stroke is just one of them. There are other factors linked with oral health that would probably benefit as well.”

4.º§     “Gum disease is a painless problem that doesn’t have symptoms usually. The maintenance is the most important part because you really don’t know you have it until you have it – until you come in and it’s actually diagnosed,” said Dr. Caroline Hartley, a dentist at Southern Shores Dental.

5.º§      Sen says the study is in clinical trials and should wrap up by the end of this year. He says he expects to have the results of the study ready by early 2022.

Adapted from WISTV. Available at: https://www.wistv.com. Accessed 17 September 2021.

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    New Zealand will ban the sale of tobacco to its next generation, in a bid to eventually phase out smoking. Anyone born after 2008 will not be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in their lifetime, under a law expected to be enacted in 2022. “We want to make sure young people never start smoking,” Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verall said. The move is part of a sweeping crackdown on smoking announced by New Zealand’s Health Ministry.

    Doctors and other health experts in the country have welcomed the “world-leading” reforms, which will reduce access to tobacco and restrict nicotine levels in cigarettes. “It will help people quit smoking or switch to less harmful products, and make it much less likely that young people get addicted to nicotine,” said Prof Janet Hook from the University of Otago.

    The crackdown has been met with mixed reactions. “I reckon it’s a good move, really,” one man told Reuters news agency. “Because right now there’s a lot of young kids walking around with smokes in their mouth. Public are asking how they’re getting these smokes. And it’s also good for myself too because I can save more money.”

    However, others have warned that the move may create a black market for tobacco — something the Health Ministry’s official impact statement does acknowledge, noting “customs will need more resource to enforce border control”. “This is all 100% theory and 0% substance,” Sunny Kaushal, chairman of the Dairy and Business Owners Group, a lobby group for local convenience stores, told New Zealand’s Stuff news site. “There’s going to be a crime wave. Gangs and criminals will fill the gap.”

(www.bbc.com, 09.12.2021. Adaptado.)

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    Regular exercise changes the structure of our bodies’ tissues in obvious ways, such as reducing the size of fat stores and increasing muscle mass. Less visible, but perhaps even more important, is the profound influence exercise has on the structure of our brains – an influence that can protect and preserve brain health and function throughout life. In fact, some experts believe that the human brain may depend on regular physical activity to function optimally throughout our lifetime.

    Many studies suggest that exercise can help protect our memory as we age. This is because exercise has been shown to prevent the loss of total brain volume (which can lead to lower cognitive function), as well as preventing shrinkage in specific brain regions associated with memory. For example, one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan study revealed that in older adults, six months of exercise training increases brain volume.

    Another study showed that shrinkage of the hippocampus (a brain region essential for learning and memory) in older people can be reversed by regular walking. This change was accompanied by improved memory function and an increase of the protein brain-derived neutropic factor (BDNF) in the bloodstream.

(Áine Kelly. https://theconversation.com, 17.11.2020. Adaptado.)

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Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial.

Abstract

In a prospective, randomised, controlled trial to determine whether comprehensive lifestyle changes affect coronary atherosclerosis after 1 year, 28 patients were assigned to an experimental group (low-fat vegetarian diet, stopping smoking, stress management training, and moderate exercise) and 20 to a usual-care control group. 195 coronary artery lesions were analysed by quantitative coronary angiography. The average percentage diameter stenosis regressed from 40.0 (SD 16.9)% to 37.8 (16.5)% in the experimental group yet progressed from 42.7 (15.5)% to 46.1 (18.5)% in the control group. When only lesions greater than 50% stenosed were analysed, the average percentage diameter stenosis regressed from 61.1 (8.8)% to 55.8 (11.0)% in the experimental group and progressed from 61.7 (9.5)% to 64.4 (16.3)% in the control group. Overall, 82% of experimental-group patients had an average change towards regression. Comprehensive lifestyle changes may be able to bring about regression of even severe coronary atherosclerosis after only 1 year, without use of lipidlowering drugs.

Adaptado de: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1973470 Acessado em 27 de outubro de 2017.

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