Six Mouth Infections You Need to Get Rid of if You Have Heart Disease (Condensed Version)

Address Oral Health to Prevent Heart Attacks, Strokes, and High Blood Pressure

When you ask most people, “What can you do to treat heart disease?” they will say diet and exercise. But how many people mention mouth bacteria at the top of the list for turning around heart disease? Even medical doctors rarely mention this as a top contributor to heart disease. While diet and exercise are critical, don’t overlook the sinister bacteria lurking in the mouth that cause gum infections and send the heart into a downward spiral. Even after a heart attack, it isn’t too late to turn the ship around. Everyone should be talking about this, including medical practitioners, dentists, and consumers. Addressing oral health should be a fundamental component of a heart health program. Work with your oral health team to tackle the sinister six pathogens, run oral pathogen testing, get the right kind of doctors and dentists on your team, and take steps with your home care to turn around gum disease and heart disease with a one-two punch.

It’s Never Too Late to Reduce Your Heart Disease Risk with These Oral Health Steps

When your mouth bacteria are contributing to heart disease, the main action items are to test the oral microbiome, get rid of bad bacteria, and build up good bacteria. Follow these tips to grow friendly bacteria, chase off the bad bacteria, and cool off the inflammation in the cardiovascular system. These recommendations are in addition to exercise and lifestyle recommendations for reversing heart disease. Improvements to your heart health happen lightning fast when you address your oral health.

Get Rid of Bad Mouth Infections

Choose an anti-inflammatory, whole-foods diet with plenty of colorful vegetables and fruits, greens, lean protein, nuts and seeds, and fiber. What you eat all day and everyday has a tremendous effect on the microbes in your mouth. Avoid sugar, refined carbohydrates, and packaged foods which promote unhealthy oral bacteria. The fiber and prebiotics from this diet will feed good bacteria.

Test the oral microbiome with OralDNA Labs®’ MyPerioPath®. It measures 11 periodontal pathogens with a simple saliva test and can help your dentist or periodontist pinpoint which bad mouth bacteria might be contributing to heart disease.

Test hs-CRP to find out your systemic inflammation. A high level indicates risk of inflammation, heart disease, and gum infections.

Find a dentist who understands and treats the oral-systemic link using this directory of oral-systemic dental practitioners by the American Academy of Oral-Systemic Health (AAOSH).

Antimicrobials or antibiotics may be needed at the direction of a dentist to reduce bacterial infections in the mouth. These should be used with caution as they can further imbalance the good bacteria.

Dental hygiene is critical for keeping the oral microbiome balanced. Brushing twice daily, flossing, and visiting your dentist for regular cleanings help to keep mouth bacteria healthy and catch bad bacteria and gum infections early.

Periodontal treatments such as scaling and root planning may be needed to remove bacteria above and below the gum line and in periodontal pockets. It clears out bacterial overgrowth so that the gums can heal, and it reduces the number of bad bacteria flowing to the heart through the bloodstream.

After you get heart-disease-causing bacteria out of the mouth, check out my recommendations to heal leaky gums by reducing inflammation and repairing the gum tissues.

This is a condensed version of Cass Nelson Dooley’s full blog. Cass puts out a high-quality, referenced e-newsletter about the oral microbiome, gut health, food allergies, and hidden toxins each month. Consumers and practitioners who subscribe will receive the popular “Buyer’s Guide to High-Quality, Safe, Nutritional Supplements for You and Your Family” at no charge, as well as discount offers on natural oral health products.

You can find more about Cass on the Health First Consulting page of our Protocol Directory. We welcome her expertise, writing skills and finesse interpreting patients’ results.

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Cass Nelson-Dooley MS

Cass Nelson-Dooley, MS, studied medicinal plants in the rain forests of Panama in 2003 as a Fulbright Scholar, and then launched a career in science and natural medicine. She researched the pharmacology of medicinal plants at the University of Georgia and AptoTec, Inc, and then joined the innovators at Metametrix Clinical Laboratory and Genova Diagnostics. She enjoys teaching, presenting, writing, and researching how to address the underlying causes of disease, not just the symptoms. She has over a decade of experience teaching doctors about integrative and functional laboratory results. In 2013, she started Health First Consulting, LLC, a medical communications company with the mission to improve human health using the written word. Ms. Nelson-Dooley is the author of Heal Your Oral Microbiome and has published case studies, book chapters, and journal articles about natural medicine, nutrition, and laboratory testing.

Latest posts by Cass Nelson-Dooley MS (see all)

• Six Mouth Infections You Need to Get Rid of if You Have Heart Disease (Condensed Version) - March 15, 2024
• The Oral Mycobiome: How Fungi in Our Mouths Help or Hurt Us (Condensed Version) - July 28, 2023
• Leaky Gum Syndrome & The Oral-Systemic Link - February 10, 2023