Dental Hygiene Adds Years to Your Life

Posted on December 8, 2006
Filed Under Fitness | Leave a Comment

The idea that good dental hygiene can lead to a substantially longer life may sound bizarre at first, but According to Dr. Michael Roizen, flossing your teeth every day can add as much as 6.4 years to your life. In his book RealAge, Roizen states that flossing is one of the most important daily activities, right up there with exercise.

Maybe the connection between oral health and longevity isn’t all that far-fetched. After all, teeth and gums are integral body parts with a blood supply like everything else. Researchers suspect the bacteria that produce dental plaque enter the bloodstream and that these bacteria are somehow associated with the inflammation that occurs with plaque that blocks blood vessels and causes heart disease.

Other researchers have found links between oral bacteria and stroke, diabetes, and the birth of preterm babies as well as those with low birth weights. As good as all the aforementioned reasons are for practicing good dental hygiene, the fact that doing so will actually help you keep your teeth during those extended years, makes an even more compelling reason for brushing and flossing.

Dr Roisen offers many recommendations to follow for prolonging your lifespan and for enjoying a better quality of life as well. His other suggestions include eating an ounce of nuts a day to make you 3 years younger; and that having better monogamous sex will add 2 to 8 years to your life. All things considered, this latter idea has real appeal in terms of quality of life during those extra years.

Michael Roizen, MD, the is author of RealAge in which he introduced the concept of calculating one’s biological, as opposed to chronological, age. He’s written several other books including You, the Owner’s Manual which he co-authored with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the well-known cardiologist and alternative-medicine maverick.

Buzz Up Digg Mixx Twitter

Email Print