September 19, 2025 • 16 mins
Bleeding gums might be more than a dental issue. they could signal hidden risks for Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and even cancer. In this episode, we unpack how the oral microbiome drives inflammation, plaque buildup, and systemic disease. Could flossing actually add years to your life?
Dr. Katie Lee
Listen to the full episode here.
Watch the full episode on YouTube here.
***
This episode is sponsored by Spatone – the No.1 iron-rich water supplement.
This is a product I genuinely believe in — one I’ve used personally and recommended in the clinic for years. Spatone is a natural iron-rich water that’s incredibly gentle on the stomach. No harsh tablets, no digestive upset — just one naturally sourced ingredient that works.
If you’re looking for iron support that actually feels good to take, this is the one I trust. You can pick up Spatone at Boots: Spatone Apple Daily Iron Shots + Vitamin C 28 Sachets - Boots
**
This episode is also sponsored by London Nootropics, the best-in-class adaptogenic coffee I trust. Made with Hifas da Terra mushroom extracts, it supports focus, calm, and energy, and helps you stay sharp throughout the day.
Enjoy 20% off with code LIVEWELLBEWELL at londonnootropics.com
***
If you enjoyed this episode you might also like:
The No.1 Oral Microbiome Expert: How Your Mouth Could Be Causing Infertility! | Dr. Katie Leehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3BCy4e5co4
***
Sign up to Sarah’s Compassionate Cure newsletter:
Science Simplified, Health Humanised. Join thousands in exploring actionable insights that prioritise compassion, clarity, and real-life impact. https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/
***
Let’s be friends!
📷 Instagram: / sarahannmacklin
📹 Subscribe: / @livewellbewellsarah
🐦 Twitter: / sarahannmacklin
📱 TikTok: / sarahannnutrition
💌 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3rUbHyS
#BrainHealth #OralMicrobiome #Longevity
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Live Well Be Well, a show to help high performers
improve their health and well-being.
I was really surprised that there was a whole chapter on
Alzheimer's and brain health andthe connection even looking at
like the herpes virus and cold sores and which is known as like
the kissing disease and that there's a connection between
(00:23):
neurodegenerative diseases. Like all of this really blew my
mind. So can we just kind of like
start unwrapping how the Aura microbiome has this kind of link
to to the overarching conversation of dementia?
Yeah. And what I can do is, is maybe
start by explaining how these bacteria get into the body.
So as I mentioned, we have our oral microbiome.
(00:44):
Our mouth is lined by tissue, and that's tissue's job is the
same as our skin, which is to keep the environment on the
outside and keep things from getting into our bloodstream.
But what happens is when we havea dysbiosis in our microbiome,
our body senses that there's an infection that shouldn't be
there. So it's going to release our
white blood cells and our immunemodulators to go try and kill
(01:06):
whatever is invading. And ahead of those cells, the
body will release AMP 8, which is that enzyme I talked about
that's responsible for breaking down the gut tissue.
That enzyme acts as a scissor, so it goes and it starts cutting
through any collagen that's in the body to allow those cells
direct access to the invasion. And so that enzyme will start to
(01:28):
cut through our gum tissue and make our gums permeable.
So instead of our gums being a physical barrier, now they
microscopically become permeable, kind of like a
sponge. And so now it's it's letting the
cells get to the source of infection.
But at the same time, that gum tissue can no longer act as a
barrier. Now that bacteria get into the
gum tissue. And our gum tissue is what
(01:50):
houses the blood supply of our body.
That's why some people's gums are bleeding when they brush or
floss. And so when we see our gums are
bleeding, that should be an aha warning sign that our gums are
leaky. We have leaky gums.
And so once those pathogens get into the gum tissue, they can
circulate anywhere and everywhere throughout the body.
And one of the places that they go, and that's very close to the
(02:13):
mouth is the brain. And so we have the blood brain
barrier, which is a semi permeable membrane that's
supposed to let certain things into the brain that we need, but
also keep out things that's going to harm our bodies.
So it should be keeping out pathogens, bad bacteria.
You know, sometimes people will talk about parasites in the
brain, you know, toxins, things like.
(02:35):
That. Microplastics, but when the the
blood brain barrier can be broken down as well.
So things like stress, chronic inflammation, glucose disruption
in our in our bodies, those things will breakdown the blood
brain barrier. And now that can no longer
protect our brain. So it opens the doors for oral
bacteria to get into the brain, and the brain knows these
(02:57):
bacteria are not supposed to be here.
And So what happens in the case of Alzheimer's is, is the the
brain starts laying down beta amyloid plaques around the
neurons to protect them from that bacteria, but in doing so
starves the brain off from critical nutrients that it
needs. And then the brain, those
neurons start to shrink and die off.
So the brain is trying to save itself, right?
(03:18):
But in in essence, it's killing itself at the same time.
So that's one way the bacteria will directly cause those beta
amyloid or contribute to those beta amyloid plaques laying
down. It also disrupts Tau protein
formation, which we know is getting even more important in
in Alzheimer's. But the other way that the oral
microbiome effects brain health is when it causes inflammation.
(03:41):
Again, the body knows that something is going on.
It's out of whack. So we elicit this chronic
inflammatory response and the bacteria will actually cause the
inside of our blood vessels to become sticky, to become
weakened, to lose their elasticity in terms of dilating
and contracting. And over time that will reduce
(04:02):
blood flow. So we'll actually get reduction
of blood flow to the brain, which we need blood flow in the
brains. That's how our brain gets oxygen
and the nutrients it needs. So it'll contribute to
Alzheimer's by those beta amyloid plaques and Tau protein
disruption, but it also contributes to dementia because
it restricts blood flow to the brain and thus oxygen.
(04:22):
So two ways that it affects brain health.
If people don't start flossing their teeth after this episode,
I don't know what's going to make them floss.
I feel like this is the information that dentists should
be relaying to us when we're in the chair.
Well, and you bring up such a critical thing, which is
flossing. So flossing is so important.
We have a saying in dentistry that's not widely known, but
(04:45):
it's you only floss the teeth you want to keep.
So if you look at your teeth, inbetween your teeth is where you
have your gum tissue, You have the pointy triangle of tissue
called the papilla. The papilla is where the blood
vessels are. So the two most important areas
of your teeth to clean are in between your teeth because
that's where the blood supply is.
That's the connection to the body.
(05:07):
So when you're brushing your teeth, you're only cleaning the
three out of five surfaces of your teeth and you're missing
the two most critical that are attached to the rest of the
body. So if you're going to do
anything at night, let's say you, you only have time or
energy for for one of the two, in my opinion, floss because
that's what that's what's cleaning and keeping the barrier
(05:27):
intact between your mouth and the rest of the body. 1 billion
people worldwide are deficient in this nutrient that so many of
you guys might not be aware of. And women, if you're listening,
you are more at risk of being deficient in this nutrient.
So I'm going to first of all explain what the physical
symptoms are. If you have cold hands and feet,
pale skin, extreme lack of energy or fatigue, then you
(05:50):
might be suffering with iron deficiency or anemia.
Now First off, please go to yourGP to get your iron levels
checked. Secondly, please explore a good
iron supplement. Many people that come to me are
worried about taking iron supplementation because it can
cause Constipation or GI distress.
(06:10):
That's why I'm so incredibly proud to be partnering for this
episode with Spartan, the numberone iron rich water supplement.
Now, I've personally been using these for years.
The reason why is because they are naturally sourced, highly
absorbable iron. That means it's much more gentle
on your stomach. There's no harsh tablets, it's
(06:32):
just one naturally sourced ingredient that works very well.
You can pick it up in Boots or buy online at Amazon.
But please do not ignore this. It is really critical to make
sure your iron levels are in check.
Well, do you know what? I always cite this one study
which shows, you know, it shows association, not causation.
(06:55):
But now I'm like, maybe it does.There's a study that shows that
people that floss their teeth onaverage live 8 years longer.
And I always give that, well, I always give this kind of analogy
because I'm like, you know, is it that they're flossing or is
it the fact that they're just much more health conscious?
Health conscious, yeah. And obviously they kind of make
(07:16):
these different kind of implementations in their life to
make sure that they're looking after their health, but there's
definitely something to do with them flossing their teeth that
is also helping. Either way, it's longer, right?
Either way, it's good. Now this is all falling into
place, yeah. And bringing it back to brain
(07:36):
health too there, there's a lot of research out there showing
that if the number of teeth thatyou have and not just number,
but number of pairs of teeth. So having a tooth on top and a
tooth on bottom that meet up, ifyou can maintain at least 10
pairs of teeth, that adds, I want to say, I want to say it's
like 7 or 8 years to your life as well.
(07:58):
But the, and I have it, the statin the book, but the number of
of pairs of teeth are criticallyimportant.
So it's always important as dentists that we help maintain
teeth. But if someone loses teeth to
replace that tooth. And that comes down to being
able to chew nutritious foods, right?
Because the more teeth you're losing, the less likely or less
(08:18):
able you are to eat very fibrous, nutrient dense foods.
And you're more likely to go to those Uber processed soft foods
that we know spike our blood sugar and then cause us to have
diabetes of the brain. So very important.
Lovely type 3 diabetes that we we hear about a lot.
Well, this basically leads me onto 1 of like my favorite quotes
in your book. Which is the quickest way to a
(08:39):
man's health? The quickest way to a man's
heart is through his mouth. Literally the link between heart
disease and oral microbiome. People might be shocked by this.
I mean, I was quite shocked reading this.
What's the, what is the kind of connection here between, you
know, cardiovascular disease and, and, and heart disease with
your oral microbiome? Yeah.
(09:01):
So this is what I think it's themost attention in terms of oral
microbiome and systemic health is the link between heart
disease and an oral microbiome dysbiosis.
So same thing or very similar toto the brain.
So we have a bacterial componentwhere we have specific bacteria
in the mouth that directly impact heart health.
(09:21):
And then we also have the systemic vascular inflammation
that reduces blood vessels. So what are blood flow?
So what we know is that 50% of all heart attacks and strokes
are are caused, and I did say caused by oral bacteria.
What we also know is that of thepeople who died from the heart
attack or stroke, they took thatblood clot and they analyzed the
(09:42):
blood clots to see what made made them up. 70% of the clot
makeup was oral bacteria. So they have the clot. 70% of
the clot makeup was oral bacteria.
So not only do bacteria, pathogens from the mouth cause
heart attacks and strokes, but they also make them more deadly.
And So what happens is we get the bacteria into our
bloodstream, which I've already explained how that happens, but
(10:03):
the bacteria basically elicit aninflammatory response in our
blood vessels and they will accelerate plaque formation.
So it causes these plaque or notcauses, but contributes to and
accelerates the plaque buildup that's inside of our vessels.
Those plaques will then attach to the vessel wall, which the
(10:23):
oral bacteria make the inside ofour blood vessels become
stickier. Instead of them being nice
smooth tubes, if you will, that blood can freely flow through.
When we have that oral bacteria in our blood vessels, it makes
the vessels a lot stickier. So those plaques are more prone
to stick. And when those plaques stick to
the vessel wall, it actually weakens that vessel wall.
(10:45):
And I always make this joke. It's kind of like when you're
driving your car and you hit a curb, how you'll get like a
little bubble on the wall of your tire that makes it very
hard to repair. You can't repair that, but it
makes the tire more prone to blow.
So the same thing, once that plaque attaches to the vessel
wall, it weakens that wall. And then if you have a very
acute bout of inflammation that often times is coming from the
(11:08):
mouth, that will cause that plaque to dislodge.
When it dislodge, it rips that vessel and then the body will
send clotting factors to repair that RIP.
And those clotting factors will then include the blood vessel
and that's what causes the heartattack and stroke.
So it's not necessarily the plaque itself that's the an
inclusion of the blood vessel. It's the acute bout of
(11:29):
inflammation that's causing the tear and the repair that causes
the heart attacks and strokes. That's made me like, really
stuff in my tracks. 50%, yeah, 50% caused by the there's by or
or remarkable. There's a great book out there
called Beat the Heart Attack Gene by Bradley Bale and Amy
Jonine, and I read their book maybe circa 20/12/2013.
(11:54):
They have a whole chapter in there devoted to oral health,
and that was really the first time I saw the medical community
really acknowledging the fact that oral health plays such a
crucial role in cardiovascular health or systemic health.
But they have a whole chapter inthere saying if you have heart,
heart attack in your family, heart disease and heart attacks
(12:14):
in your family, part of your care plan should be your
dentist. Because they should be also
keeping the inflammation in yourmouth down and also making sure
that there's certain pathogens not present in the mouth.
Because we know that certain pathogens, they increase LDL
circulation, they decrease HDL, they increase inflammatory
(12:36):
processes in the body, they decrease the the vessel's
ability to expand and contract. There's all sorts of things that
the oral microbiome does. I mean, this should definitely
be on the American guidelines because this is your biggest
killer is cardiovascular disease.
I mean, in the UK with dementia and in the US, you guys are
cardiovascular disease. I mean, that's both a big
(12:57):
connection. But if there's a 50%, like if
there's a 50% reason of why thisis happening is due to the aura
microbiome, that is should be a public health message.
It should be and it's not. I will tell you that.
And actually the correlation between bugs in the mouth and
heart disease and heart attacks is even stronger when someone
has a root canal Abscess. So root canal abscesses are
(13:22):
actually much harder on the heart and much deadlier than
just having periopathogens or gum pathogens.
And so a lot of times people will say, oh, I've had a root
canal and you know, on my X-ray,I have a little Abscess or cyst,
but it's not changing in size. I don't feel any pain.
Therefore I'm not going to treatit.
And even doctors will say, we don't recommend treating this.
(13:42):
It's not growing, you're not having symptoms.
We'll just watch it over time, but we what we know is that
those bacteria inside that endodontic Abscess are actually
way more deadly and dangerous for the heart than periodontal
pathogens are. OK, if anyone has an Abscess
please go and get it. Yes, sorted.
Just because you don't have paindoesn't mean it's deadly, right?
(14:04):
Same with with heart disease. Most often people don't know
that they have heart disease or high blood pressure issue
because there's no symptoms. Oftentimes their first symptom
is like boom, a heart attack, right?
Or a fib and it's too late. So the other thing that I have
to mention here, I mean, there'sso many things in your book
which is connected to health, but it's also cancer.
(14:25):
And you know, everyone listeningto this will have had someone
that they love affected with cancer.
And it's becoming more and more prominent in our society.
There's a lot of different cancers that we can talk about,
whether it's mouth cancer or colon cancer.
But what is the kind of the links here?
What's the most like prominent to be aware of?
How can we how can we look at physical signs and symptoms to
(14:47):
be aware that we we might be having cancer growth inside of
us? I think the biggest thing to
note is that cancer, by and large, is not a genetic disease.
Sure, there are some cancers that are directly linked to
genetic mutations. We know this.
There are certain types of breast cancer and, and what have
you that are linked to genetic mutations.
(15:07):
But by and large, we know that cancers are caused by
epigenetics, by our environment,by toxins, and the big thing is
by inflammation. And so it's everyone's job or
duty to make sure that they are lessening their systemic chronic
inflammatory burden as much as possible.
The more inflammation you can reduce in your body, the
(15:28):
healthier you'll be. You'll have less arthritis,
you'll have less gut issues, less oral issues, less brain
fog, and so really the oral microbiome.
Sure. There there are some direct
bacterial links to cancer like you mentioned, FN and colon
cancer. That's a really big one that has
come out recently after 2020. We know that FN is directly
linked to colon cancer. It Burrows inside colon cancer
(15:52):
polyps, gets to the center of those polyps and makes them more
difficult to treat, more resistant to treatment, and
patients that have F and associated colon cancers have
worse outcomes and greater chances of metastasis.
So there are certain situations like that where we know specific
oral bacteria can lead to or contribute to cancers.
(16:12):
Another big one is pancreatic cancer.
We know that certain bacteria inthe mouth puts you out of 60.
I think it's 62% increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
And pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease because it's
often times caught in the late stages.
And so the five year survival rate, I believe is only 8%.
Just a nasty, nasty 1. So yeah, you know, it's all
(16:35):
about, you know, keep your oral microbiome in check, lessen your
systemic inflammatory burden, and then also keep certain
pathogens as low as possible or eliminated completely to reduce
your risk of cancer. Thanks so much for listening to
hear the full episode. There's a link in the
description.
Welcome to Live Well Be Well, a show to help high performers
improve their health and well-being.
I was really surprised that there was a whole chapter on
Alzheimer's and brain health andthe connection even looking at
like the herpes virus and cold sores and which is known as like
the kissing disease and that there's a connection between
(00:23):
neurodegenerative diseases. Like all of this really blew my
mind. So can we just kind of like
start unwrapping how the Aura microbiome has this kind of link
to to the overarching conversation of dementia?
Yeah. And what I can do is, is maybe
start by explaining how these bacteria get into the body.
So as I mentioned, we have our oral microbiome.
(00:44):
Our mouth is lined by tissue, and that's tissue's job is the
same as our skin, which is to keep the environment on the
outside and keep things from getting into our bloodstream.
But what happens is when we havea dysbiosis in our microbiome,
our body senses that there's an infection that shouldn't be
there. So it's going to release our
white blood cells and our immunemodulators to go try and kill
(01:06):
whatever is invading. And ahead of those cells, the
body will release AMP 8, which is that enzyme I talked about
that's responsible for breaking down the gut tissue.
That enzyme acts as a scissor, so it goes and it starts cutting
through any collagen that's in the body to allow those cells
direct access to the invasion. And so that enzyme will start to
(01:28):
cut through our gum tissue and make our gums permeable.
So instead of our gums being a physical barrier, now they
microscopically become permeable, kind of like a
sponge. And so now it's it's letting the
cells get to the source of infection.
But at the same time, that gum tissue can no longer act as a
barrier. Now that bacteria get into the
gum tissue. And our gum tissue is what
(01:50):
houses the blood supply of our body.
That's why some people's gums are bleeding when they brush or
floss. And so when we see our gums are
bleeding, that should be an aha warning sign that our gums are
leaky. We have leaky gums.
And so once those pathogens get into the gum tissue, they can
circulate anywhere and everywhere throughout the body.
And one of the places that they go, and that's very close to the
(02:13):
mouth is the brain. And so we have the blood brain
barrier, which is a semi permeable membrane that's
supposed to let certain things into the brain that we need, but
also keep out things that's going to harm our bodies.
So it should be keeping out pathogens, bad bacteria.
You know, sometimes people will talk about parasites in the
brain, you know, toxins, things like.
(02:35):
That. Microplastics, but when the the
blood brain barrier can be broken down as well.
So things like stress, chronic inflammation, glucose disruption
in our in our bodies, those things will breakdown the blood
brain barrier. And now that can no longer
protect our brain. So it opens the doors for oral
bacteria to get into the brain, and the brain knows these
(02:57):
bacteria are not supposed to be here.
And So what happens in the case of Alzheimer's is, is the the
brain starts laying down beta amyloid plaques around the
neurons to protect them from that bacteria, but in doing so
starves the brain off from critical nutrients that it
needs. And then the brain, those
neurons start to shrink and die off.
So the brain is trying to save itself, right?
(03:18):
But in in essence, it's killing itself at the same time.
So that's one way the bacteria will directly cause those beta
amyloid or contribute to those beta amyloid plaques laying
down. It also disrupts Tau protein
formation, which we know is getting even more important in
in Alzheimer's. But the other way that the oral
microbiome effects brain health is when it causes inflammation.
(03:41):
Again, the body knows that something is going on.
It's out of whack. So we elicit this chronic
inflammatory response and the bacteria will actually cause the
inside of our blood vessels to become sticky, to become
weakened, to lose their elasticity in terms of dilating
and contracting. And over time that will reduce
(04:02):
blood flow. So we'll actually get reduction
of blood flow to the brain, which we need blood flow in the
brains. That's how our brain gets oxygen
and the nutrients it needs. So it'll contribute to
Alzheimer's by those beta amyloid plaques and Tau protein
disruption, but it also contributes to dementia because
it restricts blood flow to the brain and thus oxygen.
(04:22):
So two ways that it affects brain health.
If people don't start flossing their teeth after this episode,
I don't know what's going to make them floss.
I feel like this is the information that dentists should
be relaying to us when we're in the chair.
Well, and you bring up such a critical thing, which is
flossing. So flossing is so important.
We have a saying in dentistry that's not widely known, but
(04:45):
it's you only floss the teeth you want to keep.
So if you look at your teeth, inbetween your teeth is where you
have your gum tissue, You have the pointy triangle of tissue
called the papilla. The papilla is where the blood
vessels are. So the two most important areas
of your teeth to clean are in between your teeth because
that's where the blood supply is.
That's the connection to the body.
(05:07):
So when you're brushing your teeth, you're only cleaning the
three out of five surfaces of your teeth and you're missing
the two most critical that are attached to the rest of the
body. So if you're going to do
anything at night, let's say you, you only have time or
energy for for one of the two, in my opinion, floss because
that's what that's what's cleaning and keeping the barrier
(05:27):
intact between your mouth and the rest of the body. 1 billion
people worldwide are deficient in this nutrient that so many of
you guys might not be aware of. And women, if you're listening,
you are more at risk of being deficient in this nutrient.
So I'm going to first of all explain what the physical
symptoms are. If you have cold hands and feet,
pale skin, extreme lack of energy or fatigue, then you
(05:50):
might be suffering with iron deficiency or anemia.
Now First off, please go to yourGP to get your iron levels
checked. Secondly, please explore a good
iron supplement. Many people that come to me are
worried about taking iron supplementation because it can
cause Constipation or GI distress.
(06:10):
That's why I'm so incredibly proud to be partnering for this
episode with Spartan, the numberone iron rich water supplement.
Now, I've personally been using these for years.
The reason why is because they are naturally sourced, highly
absorbable iron. That means it's much more gentle
on your stomach. There's no harsh tablets, it's
(06:32):
just one naturally sourced ingredient that works very well.
You can pick it up in Boots or buy online at Amazon.
But please do not ignore this. It is really critical to make
sure your iron levels are in check.
Well, do you know what? I always cite this one study
which shows, you know, it shows association, not causation.
(06:55):
But now I'm like, maybe it does.There's a study that shows that
people that floss their teeth onaverage live 8 years longer.
And I always give that, well, I always give this kind of analogy
because I'm like, you know, is it that they're flossing or is
it the fact that they're just much more health conscious?
Health conscious, yeah. And obviously they kind of make
(07:16):
these different kind of implementations in their life to
make sure that they're looking after their health, but there's
definitely something to do with them flossing their teeth that
is also helping. Either way, it's longer, right?
Either way, it's good. Now this is all falling into
place, yeah. And bringing it back to brain
(07:36):
health too there, there's a lot of research out there showing
that if the number of teeth thatyou have and not just number,
but number of pairs of teeth. So having a tooth on top and a
tooth on bottom that meet up, ifyou can maintain at least 10
pairs of teeth, that adds, I want to say, I want to say it's
like 7 or 8 years to your life as well.
(07:58):
But the, and I have it, the statin the book, but the number of
of pairs of teeth are criticallyimportant.
So it's always important as dentists that we help maintain
teeth. But if someone loses teeth to
replace that tooth. And that comes down to being
able to chew nutritious foods, right?
Because the more teeth you're losing, the less likely or less
(08:18):
able you are to eat very fibrous, nutrient dense foods.
And you're more likely to go to those Uber processed soft foods
that we know spike our blood sugar and then cause us to have
diabetes of the brain. So very important.
Lovely type 3 diabetes that we we hear about a lot.
Well, this basically leads me onto 1 of like my favorite quotes
in your book. Which is the quickest way to a
(08:39):
man's health? The quickest way to a man's
heart is through his mouth. Literally the link between heart
disease and oral microbiome. People might be shocked by this.
I mean, I was quite shocked reading this.
What's the, what is the kind of connection here between, you
know, cardiovascular disease and, and, and heart disease with
your oral microbiome? Yeah.
(09:01):
So this is what I think it's themost attention in terms of oral
microbiome and systemic health is the link between heart
disease and an oral microbiome dysbiosis.
So same thing or very similar toto the brain.
So we have a bacterial componentwhere we have specific bacteria
in the mouth that directly impact heart health.
(09:21):
And then we also have the systemic vascular inflammation
that reduces blood vessels. So what are blood flow?
So what we know is that 50% of all heart attacks and strokes
are are caused, and I did say caused by oral bacteria.
What we also know is that of thepeople who died from the heart
attack or stroke, they took thatblood clot and they analyzed the
(09:42):
blood clots to see what made made them up. 70% of the clot
makeup was oral bacteria. So they have the clot. 70% of
the clot makeup was oral bacteria.
So not only do bacteria, pathogens from the mouth cause
heart attacks and strokes, but they also make them more deadly.
And So what happens is we get the bacteria into our
bloodstream, which I've already explained how that happens, but
(10:03):
the bacteria basically elicit aninflammatory response in our
blood vessels and they will accelerate plaque formation.
So it causes these plaque or notcauses, but contributes to and
accelerates the plaque buildup that's inside of our vessels.
Those plaques will then attach to the vessel wall, which the
(10:23):
oral bacteria make the inside ofour blood vessels become
stickier. Instead of them being nice
smooth tubes, if you will, that blood can freely flow through.
When we have that oral bacteria in our blood vessels, it makes
the vessels a lot stickier. So those plaques are more prone
to stick. And when those plaques stick to
the vessel wall, it actually weakens that vessel wall.
(10:45):
And I always make this joke. It's kind of like when you're
driving your car and you hit a curb, how you'll get like a
little bubble on the wall of your tire that makes it very
hard to repair. You can't repair that, but it
makes the tire more prone to blow.
So the same thing, once that plaque attaches to the vessel
wall, it weakens that wall. And then if you have a very
acute bout of inflammation that often times is coming from the
(11:08):
mouth, that will cause that plaque to dislodge.
When it dislodge, it rips that vessel and then the body will
send clotting factors to repair that RIP.
And those clotting factors will then include the blood vessel
and that's what causes the heartattack and stroke.
So it's not necessarily the plaque itself that's the an
inclusion of the blood vessel. It's the acute bout of
(11:29):
inflammation that's causing the tear and the repair that causes
the heart attacks and strokes. That's made me like, really
stuff in my tracks. 50%, yeah, 50% caused by the there's by or
or remarkable. There's a great book out there
called Beat the Heart Attack Gene by Bradley Bale and Amy
Jonine, and I read their book maybe circa 20/12/2013.
(11:54):
They have a whole chapter in there devoted to oral health,
and that was really the first time I saw the medical community
really acknowledging the fact that oral health plays such a
crucial role in cardiovascular health or systemic health.
But they have a whole chapter inthere saying if you have heart,
heart attack in your family, heart disease and heart attacks
(12:14):
in your family, part of your care plan should be your
dentist. Because they should be also
keeping the inflammation in yourmouth down and also making sure
that there's certain pathogens not present in the mouth.
Because we know that certain pathogens, they increase LDL
circulation, they decrease HDL, they increase inflammatory
(12:36):
processes in the body, they decrease the the vessel's
ability to expand and contract. There's all sorts of things that
the oral microbiome does. I mean, this should definitely
be on the American guidelines because this is your biggest
killer is cardiovascular disease.
I mean, in the UK with dementia and in the US, you guys are
cardiovascular disease. I mean, that's both a big
(12:57):
connection. But if there's a 50%, like if
there's a 50% reason of why thisis happening is due to the aura
microbiome, that is should be a public health message.
It should be and it's not. I will tell you that.
And actually the correlation between bugs in the mouth and
heart disease and heart attacks is even stronger when someone
has a root canal Abscess. So root canal abscesses are
(13:22):
actually much harder on the heart and much deadlier than
just having periopathogens or gum pathogens.
And so a lot of times people will say, oh, I've had a root
canal and you know, on my X-ray,I have a little Abscess or cyst,
but it's not changing in size. I don't feel any pain.
Therefore I'm not going to treatit.
And even doctors will say, we don't recommend treating this.
(13:42):
It's not growing, you're not having symptoms.
We'll just watch it over time, but we what we know is that
those bacteria inside that endodontic Abscess are actually
way more deadly and dangerous for the heart than periodontal
pathogens are. OK, if anyone has an Abscess
please go and get it. Yes, sorted.
Just because you don't have paindoesn't mean it's deadly, right?
(14:04):
Same with with heart disease. Most often people don't know
that they have heart disease or high blood pressure issue
because there's no symptoms. Oftentimes their first symptom
is like boom, a heart attack, right?
Or a fib and it's too late. So the other thing that I have
to mention here, I mean, there'sso many things in your book
which is connected to health, but it's also cancer.
(14:25):
And you know, everyone listeningto this will have had someone
that they love affected with cancer.
And it's becoming more and more prominent in our society.
There's a lot of different cancers that we can talk about,
whether it's mouth cancer or colon cancer.
But what is the kind of the links here?
What's the most like prominent to be aware of?
How can we how can we look at physical signs and symptoms to
(14:47):
be aware that we we might be having cancer growth inside of
us? I think the biggest thing to
note is that cancer, by and large, is not a genetic disease.
Sure, there are some cancers that are directly linked to
genetic mutations. We know this.
There are certain types of breast cancer and, and what have
you that are linked to genetic mutations.
(15:07):
But by and large, we know that cancers are caused by
epigenetics, by our environment,by toxins, and the big thing is
by inflammation. And so it's everyone's job or
duty to make sure that they are lessening their systemic chronic
inflammatory burden as much as possible.
The more inflammation you can reduce in your body, the
(15:28):
healthier you'll be. You'll have less arthritis,
you'll have less gut issues, less oral issues, less brain
fog, and so really the oral microbiome.
Sure. There there are some direct
bacterial links to cancer like you mentioned, FN and colon
cancer. That's a really big one that has
come out recently after 2020. We know that FN is directly
linked to colon cancer. It Burrows inside colon cancer
(15:52):
polyps, gets to the center of those polyps and makes them more
difficult to treat, more resistant to treatment, and
patients that have F and associated colon cancers have
worse outcomes and greater chances of metastasis.
So there are certain situations like that where we know specific
oral bacteria can lead to or contribute to cancers.
(16:12):
Another big one is pancreatic cancer.
We know that certain bacteria inthe mouth puts you out of 60.
I think it's 62% increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
And pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease because it's
often times caught in the late stages.
And so the five year survival rate, I believe is only 8%.
Just a nasty, nasty 1. So yeah, you know, it's all
(16:35):
about, you know, keep your oral microbiome in check, lessen your
systemic inflammatory burden, and then also keep certain
pathogens as low as possible or eliminated completely to reduce
your risk of cancer. Thanks so much for listening to
hear the full episode. There's a link in the
description.
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com