How a General Mouthwash Can Detect Early Warning Signs of Risk of Heart Disease?

Oral health is also linked with cardiovascular issues. In a recent study, it was found that simple saliva test or mouth wash can help identify risk of heart diseases at an early stage.

Heart health is becoming a major cause of concern in the growing population. Heart diseases are no longer an ailment of age, in the sedentary, hustle culture that we are living in today, people as young as teens and as healthy as fitness geeks, are also succumbing to cardiovascular problems. Recently, a study published in the journal Frontiers in Oral Health found how a simple saliva test or mouth rinse can detect early signs of potential heart diseases. Scientists have identified a link between high white blood cells in the saliva of healthy young adults and an early cardiovascular disease warning sign.

“Even in young healthy adults, low levels of oral inflammatory load may have an impact on cardiovascular health — one of the leading causes of death in North America,” said the corresponding author of the study, Trevor King from the Mount Royal University in Canada.

How Saliva Test Can Detect Heart Disease Risk?

The study found that high levels of white blood cells correlated with compromised flow-mediated dilation, an early indicator of poor arterial health. They used a simple oral rinse to see if levels of white blood cells — an indicator of gum inflammation — in the saliva of healthy adults could be linked to warning signs for cardiovascular disease.

Periodontitis is a common infection of the gums which has previously been linked to the development of cardiovascular disease. Scientists suspect that inflammatory factors may enter the bloodstream through the gums and damage the vascular system.

The researchers studied currently healthy young people without diagnosed periodontal issues to determine whether lower levels of oral inflammation can be clinically relevant to cardiovascular health.

The team chose pulse-wave velocity, which can measure the stiffness of arteries, and flow-mediated dilation, a measure of how well arteries can dilate to allow for higher blood flow, as key indicators of cardiovascular risk. These measure arterial health directly: stiff and poorly functioning arteries raise patients’ risk of cardiovascular disease.

What the Study Found?

The scientists recruited 28 non-smokers between 18 and 30, with no comorbidities or medications that could affect cardiovascular risk and no reported history of periodontal disease. They were asked to fast for six hours, except for drinking water, prior to visiting the lab. At the lab, participants rinsed their mouths with water before rinsing their mouths with saline which was collected for analysis.

Participants then laid down for 10 minutes for an electrocardiogram, and stayed lying down for another 10 minutes so that the scientists could take their blood pressure, flow-mediated dilation, and pulse-wave velocity.

The scientists found that high white blood cells in saliva had a significant relationship to poor flow-mediated dilation, suggesting these people may be at elevated risk of cardiovascular disease.

The scientists hypothesised that inflammation from the mouth, leaking into the vascular system, impacts the ability of arteries to produce the nitric oxide that allows them to respond to changes in blood flow. Higher levels of white blood cells could have a greater impact on vascular dysfunction; the levels found in the participants are usually not considered clinically significant.

“The mouth rinse test could be used at your annual checkup at the family doctors or the dentist,” said co-author of the study, Michael Glogauer of the University of Toronto, Canada.

“It is easy to implement as an oral inflammation measuring tool in any clinic,” Glogauer said.

(With PTI Inputs)