Courtesy of Mark A. HicksDo you floss once a day? You should. Flossing is very important for the health of your mouth and the health of your mouth is vitally important for the health of your body. Consider that the mouth is the most prominent inlets for substances coming into the body. Any bacteria in your mouth are mixed with your food and beverage and pushed down the hatch. Flossing brings with it numerous health benefits, from reducing the chances of getting gum disease to halitosis. All of that food that gets stuck between your teeth harbors stink-causing bacteria, which can also eat away at the tooth causing cavities.

Did you know that not flossing can increase your risk of heart disease? According to this article (and many others), gum disease is a source of systemic inflammation that can affect the heart.

Dr. James de Lemos, Assistant Professor of internal medicine, says that inflammation has been known to increase the risk of heart disease; he notes that periodontal disease might be a source of systemic inflammation and might possibly raise levels of C-reactive protein (CRP). It is thought that CRP and other markers of coronary artery inflammation tend to lead to an increased risk of heart disease. Flossing daily, he says, may be able to prevent periodontal disease and thus lower the risk of cardiac problems.

Eva Twardokens, Olympic skier and Dental Hygienist, wrote a nice article in Issue 18 of the Performance Menu about flossing. In it she describes how not flossing can compromise your immune system, by causing low-grade systemic inflammation, along with the aforementioned cardiovascular disease and diabetes. She says it’s even possible for the bacteria that enter the bloodstream through your infected bleeding gums (caused by not flossing!) to cause respiratory infections and pre-term births. So Eva T. says to floss and knowing just that she can probably whoop my rear end, the last thing I’d want to do is disobey.

Floss once per day. It only takes five minutes and helps immensely with your health. I do it in the morning as that’s when it fits into my routine. Some say that it’s better to do it at night so that you don’t sleep with all of that junk in your mouth, but I figure that doing it in the morning is better than not doing it at all. I used to say I’d do it at night, but by the time I went to bed, I didn’t feel like spending the five minutes to do it. I miss a day here and there, but I floss 6 times a week on average. Seriously, you take care of your health in every other way by eating right, exercising, de-stressing, and sleeping. Taking care of your mouth is the icing on the cake.

Photo courtesy of Mark A. Hicks


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