Dental News - New evidence supports link between gum inflammation and Alzheimer’s disease

NYU College of Dentistry

Thu. 9 September 2010

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NEW YORK, NY, USA: NYU dental researchers have found the first long-term evidence that periodontal (gum) disease may increase the risk of cognitive dysfunction associated with Alzheimer’s disease in healthy individuals as well as in those who already are cognitively impaired. The NYU study offers fresh evidence that gum inflammation may contribute to brain inflammation, neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease.

The research team, led by Dr Angela Kamer, Assistant Professor of Periodontology & Implant Dentistry, examined 20 years of data that support the hypothesis of a possible causal link between periodontal disease and Alzheimer’s disease. “The research suggests that cognitively normal subjects with periodontal inflammation are at an increased risk of lower cognitive function compared to cognitively normal subjects with little or no periodontal inflammation,” Dr Kamer said.

Dr Kamer’s study, conducted in collaboration with Dr Douglas E. Morse, Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Health Promotion at NYU College of Dentistry, and a team of researchers in Denmark, builds upon a 2008 study by Dr Kamer which found that subjects with Alzheimer’s disease had a significantly higher level of antibodies and inflammatory molecules associated with periodontal disease in their plasma compared to healthy people.

Dr Kamer’s latest findings are based on an analysis of data on periodontal inflammation and cognitive function in 152 subjects in the Glostrop Aging Study, which has been gathering medical, psychological, oral health and social data on Danish men and women. Dr Kamer examined data spanning a 20-year period ending in 1984, when the subjects were all 70 years of age. The findings were presented by Dr Kamer at the 2010 annual meeting of the International Association for Dental Research in Barcelona, Spain.

Dr Kamer plans to conduct a follow-up study involving a larger, more ethnically diverse group of subjects, to further examine the connection between periodontal disease and low cognition.

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