So this should have been shouted from the rooftops, 'Brush your teeth', 'Bush your teeth', 'Brush your teeth'. Only 3 years old so I'm sure your doctor already informed you of this.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/nyu-nef080310.php
NYU dental researchers have found the first long-term evidence that
periodontal (gum) disease may increase the risk of cognitive dysfunction
associated with Alzheimer's disease in healthy individuals as well as
in those who already are cognitively impaired.
The NYU study offers fresh evidence that gum inflammation may
contribute to brain inflammation, neurodegeneration, and Alzheimer's
disease.
The research team, led by Dr. Angela Kamer, Assistant Professor of
Periodontology & Implant Dentistry, examined 20 years of data that
support the hypothesis of a possible causal link between periodontal
disease and Alzheimer's disease.
"The research suggests that cognitively normal subjects with
periodontal inflammation are at an increased risk of lower cognitive
function compared to cognitively normal subjects with little or no
periodontal inflammation," Dr. Kamer said.
Dr. Kamer's study, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Douglas E.
Morse, Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Health Promotion at NYU
College of Dentistry, and a team of researchers in Denmark, builds upon
a 2008 study by Dr. Kamer which found that subjects with Alzheimer's
disease had a significantly higher level of antibodies and inflammatory
molecules associated with periodontal disease in their plasma compared
to healthy people.
Dr. Kamer's latest findings are based on an analysis of data on
periodontal inflammation and cognitive function in 152 subjects in the
Glostrop Aging Study, which has been gathering medical, psychological,
oral health, and social data on Danish men and women. Dr. Kamer examined
data spanning a 20-year period ending in 1984, when the subjects were
all 70 years of age. The findings were presented by Dr. Kamer at the
2010 annual meeting of the International Association for Dental Research
July 16, in Barcelona, Spain.
Dr. Kamer's team compared cognitive function at ages 50 and 70,
using the Digit Symbol Test, or DST, a part of the standard measurement
of adult IQ. The DST assesses how quickly subjects can link a series of
digits, such as 2, 3, 4, to a corresponding list of digit-symbol pairs,
such as 1/-,2/┴ ... 7/Λ,8/X,9/=.
Dr. Kamer found that periodontal inflammation at age 70 was strongly
associated with lower DST scores at age 70. Subjects with periodontal
inflammation were nine times more likely to test in the lower range of
the DST compared to subjects with little or no periodontal inflammation.
This strong association held true even in those subjects who had
other risk factors linked to lower DST scores, including obesity,
cigarette smoking, and tooth loss unrelated to gum inflammation. The
strong association also held true in those subjects who already had a
low DST score at age 50.
Dr. Kamer plans to conduct a follow-up study involving a larger,
more ethnically diverse group of subjects, to further examine the
connection between periodontal disease and low cognition.
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