Poor oral health, and gum disease in particular, appears to drastically reduce the health benefits of sport.
This was discussed at EuroPerio 9, the congress of the European Federation of Periodontology held in Amsterdam from 20 to 23 June.
On this occasion a study was presented by Joerg Eberhard of the School of Dentistry & Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, involving several samples of people.
Eberhard’s study showed that periodontitis drastically reduces the beneficial effects of sport on telomeres. The telomere is the end region of a chromosome (our genetic material), and its job is to protect our cells from ageing and cancer: it wears down over time, but also as a result of unhealthy lifestyles. Its length is therefore linked to life expectancy. Sport is one of the healthy habits that protect telomeres and actually help them regenerate.
Periodontitis appears to damage telomeres even in people who exercise regularly. The experts also found that periodontitis reduces the positive effects of sport on blood sugar control in people with diabetes.
The study, explains Mario Aimetti of the University of Turin, president of the Italian Society of Periodontology and Implantology (SIdP), confirms that localised inflammation, as in periodontitis, can influence the inflammatory state of the whole body and therefore potentially cancel out the effects of sport on systemic health.
Clinical studies on larger samples of people are needed, Eberhard concludes, to understand the mechanisms by which periodontitis cancels out the benefits of sport. The hypothesis, however, is that the link between poor oral hygiene, physical activity and health lies in the body’s ability to rid itself of free radicals and keep pro-inflammatory factors under control: factors that gum disease encourages on the one hand and that exercise reduces on the other.
Source: Ansa
