| Return to Home Page | Researchers target links between gum disease, systemic health problems The search for links between periodontal disease and systemic health ailments gained momentum in recent weeks with the release of two new studies. In October, researchers from the State University of New York at Buffalo reported findings from a study showing that people with severe gum disease ran twice the risk of suffering a stroke as those with good oral health. Their study appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The research team said bacteria from periodontal disease appear to enter the blood, possibly spurring the body to produce more clotting factors and causing blocked arteries, the most common cause of stroke. They said the link between periodontal disease and stroke appeared even stronger than the reported link between severe gum disease and heart attack. In November, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said heart attack survivors with periodontitis may have an increased risk of suffering a second heart attack. They said heart patients with advanced gum disease have higher levels of a substance called C-reactive protein, or CRP, in their blood than heart patients without gum disease. Efthymios N. Deliargyris, M.D., a lead researcher on the study, said heart patients with periodontal disease not only had higher levels of CRP than those without gum disease, "but the CRP levels were directly related to the severity of the gum disease." He added, "The more severe the gum disease, the more the CRP levels." The North Carolina researchers presented their findings at a Nov. 12 news conference in New Orleans during the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. This article was printed in the November 20, 2000 edition of the ADA News - Volume 31, Number 21. |