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Your Mouthwash Can Give You High Blood Pressure

February 25, 2014

Your Mouthwash Can Give You High Blood Pressure!

In the past the presence and metabolic activities of oral bacteria has been traditionally associated with negative health effects ranging from bad breath and cavities to more serious gum diseases like gingivitis and periodontitis as well as contributing to cardiovascular disease and stroke. However, new studies are beginning to show that certain amounts of bacteria present in our mouths are actually beneficial to our health.  In fact, these bacteria may be a prime source in the process of converting nitrogen containing compounds back into nitric oxide in our blood which causes our blood smooth muscle to relax and lower our blood pressure. Recently, groups of researchers from the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, and the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet of Stockhom, Sweden studied the effects of using a popular mouthwash prescribed  by oral clinicians to drastically reduce and control the population of natural oral bacteria in their subjects mouths. Since the presence of oral bacteria is crucial in the initial step of converting nitrogen compounds into nitric oxide in our bodies, this greatly reduced the amount of nitric oxide.  All these test subjects were healthy, non-smoking, disease free individuals who were placed on controlled healthy diets with low nitric acid

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