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 Over the past two decades, an increasing number of studies have been
looking for relationships between oral health and cognitive problems
in older adults.
A study earlier this year, for example, linked gum disease with
faster cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer's disease (see
Reuters Health story of March 15, 2016 here: http://reut.rs/1UIy5TT).
The authors of a more recent review of the evidence say any such
link would be important, because many older adults keep their
natural teeth and over one third of people over age are cognitively
impaired.
"We thought it would be interesting to look at the current state of
the findings," lead author Bei Wu, of Duke University's School of
Nursing in Durham, North Carolina, told Reuters Health.
As reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Wu's
team analyzed 16 studies that had tracked participants over time,
plus another 40 studies that only looked at people at one point in
time.
Some studies found that markers of oral health, like number of teeth
and presence of gum disease, were tied to rate of cognitive decline
or dementia risk. But the links weren't stable in every study.
Other studies found no link between oral and brain health.
Also, the idea that both conditions are linked by underlying
inflammation was only examined by one study that the researchers
found "to be only marginally relevant."
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"This field is promising, but we really need to have a more rigorous
studies to look into the relationship," said Wu.
Wu said the idea that oral health could affect cognition is
appealing, because it's something that people can modify on their
own.
"Having this kind of systematic review is extremely helpful for us
to know what are the strengths and weaknesses of this area of
research and what direction we should go in," she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1UIC9U0 Journal of the American Geriatrics
Society, online April 1, 2016.
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