You probably aren’t thinking about your dentist if you are a diabetic or a pre-diabetic with high blood sugars. But maybe you should. Recent studies reported in medical journals have shown that the conditions in your mouth can be related to diabetes.
People with diabetes have a much greater chance of having periodontal disease, almost twice as much. So what’s all the fuss over a little gum disease? Well if are diabetic and have an advanced case of periodontal or gum disease there is almost eight times the chance that you will likely die prematurely. That’s right almost eight times.
Having periodontal disease may be an indicator that you will develop type 2 diabetes according to a study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The study goes on to say that if you have periodontal disease there is a greater chance of developing diabetes later in life.
It turns out that people with periodontal diseases have a much greater incidence of having high blood glucose levels. Gum disease which is thought to increase inflammation throughout the body is also linked to cardiovascular (heart) disease.
Twenty four million people in the United States now have diabetes which is about 7.8% of the population. If you are over the age of sixty more than 23% of the population have diabetes. Pre-diabetics total over 57 million, and many of them don’t even know it.
