Brain Inflammation May Impair Memory

It's already believed that periodontal disease - also known as gum disease - is linked to a number of health issues, including strokes, diabetes, and heart disease, but a new study is showing that good dental hygiene can even keep the memory intact as we age. Columbia University Medical Center researchers analyzed data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination survey that covered a study regarding the link between brain health and gum disease. The research study involved looking at 2,355 individuals, both men and women age 60 and up who had undergone cognitive evaluations as well as had been established to suffer from gum disease.The researchers discovered that the study participants who were found to have higher amounts of bacteria - the underlying cause of most forms of gum disease - were more prone to having an inadequate delayed verbal memory (which is the capability of retaining three words for a certain amount of time.) In addition, most did poorly on the study's serial subtraction test than the participants that were found to have minimal levels of the bacteria. As a matter of fact, the study found that the greater the bacteria levels, the worse the research participants did and the lower the level of bacteria, the better they did. The study's authors reported that it appeared that dental health is an integral factor when it comes to mental health. These findings actually make sense because "Periodontal disease is actually a form of chronic inflammatory disease that, like the results of the University of California, Irvine studies, has also been connected to the brain and memory health, at the very least in subtle ways.


Another study, published by The Journal of Neuroscience disclosed how brain inflammation has an effect on memory. Neuroscientists John Guzowski and Jennifer Czerniawski of the University of California, Irvine carried out that study involving rats.During the first phase, rats were placed in two equivalent environments and in one environment the rat's feet were shocked. When the rats realized which of the environments had this effect, they learned to avoid it. At this point the rats were given a bacterium that triggered brain inflammation and due to the inflammation the bacteria-produced-cytokine (the same cytokine that periodontal disease initiates), a protein that was released in the rats' brains, resulting in their not being able to recall which of the environments provided by the study would shock them.The type of memory impacted by cytokine is referred to as "complex discrimination memory," a type of memory that helps people make a distinction between daily activities. The hippocampus region of the brain was the main area affected in the study, which is also the initial memory area impacted in the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The neuroscientists maintain that their study showed that memory was affected by the cytokines which disrupted the neuron connections that aid recall and memory creation.The inflammation produced by periodontal disease increases the cytokine levels in humans. The links between periodontal disease inflammation, cytokines and memory impairment showed in the two studies points to the necessity of good oral hygiene to maintain overall body health and a strong memory.