almost half of adults over 30 in the United States have periodontal disease.Research suggests that it contributes to a wide range of other conditions in which chronic inflammation plays a role.
The long list includes arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, respiratory disease, and dementia.However, the mechanism linking these conditions to periodontal disease has been unclear until now.Experiments by researchers in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Toronto, Canada, have revealed that gum disease primes blood cells called neutrophils, which then overreact to infection elsewhere in the body.The neutrophils, which are part of the body’s innate immune defenses, release signaling molecules called cytokines that exacerbate.