Today’s Health Byte Video: Michael Roizen on Building Rationality.
Today’s Health Byte Article: Diabetes and Periodontal Disease
According to the Journal of Periodontology, periodontal disease is much more than a localized oral infection. Abundant data indicate that periodontal infection may cause critical changes to your systemic health as well. The interrelationships between periodontitis and diabetes provide examples of a two-way model of sickness: a systemic disease that predisposes the body to oral infection, and an oral infection that exacerbates the systemic disease. The online literature is full or warnings that oral infection can predispose the body to serious and worsening disorders, among the most serious being Type 2 Diabetes. Research evidence suggests that treating gum disease in people with diabetes may assist in lowering blood sugar levels. Consequently, this benefits the patient by lessening the severity of symptoms resulting from the diabetic condition. The two-way model of damage to the body can be diminished, if not completely disrupted, through careful monitoring and treatment. Obviously, the prevention of this circular pattern, oral infection reinforcing bodily illness reinforcing oral disease, requires early dental-health intervention and a consistent complete-health approach to young patients, carried into adulthood. According to Dr. Heather Lucas, National Director for Partners in Complete Health: “With the onset of Type 2 Diabetes increasingly becoming a burden worldwide, effective communication between the patient and Healthcare Provider, taking a multidisciplinary team approach, may have a tremendous impact on the patient’s commitment to the regimes prescribed, helping them adopt a healthier, more active way of life.” “Moreover,” says Dr. Lucas, “the World Health Organization (WHO) projects that diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death in 2030. This is a problem of rapidly growing urgency.”See more at: WHO, Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Disease 2010, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland, 201: http://www.who.int/nmh/publications/ncd_report2010/en/ http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/treatment-and-care/oral-health-and-hygiene/diabetes-and-oral-health.html