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does brushing your teeth really help prevent heart attacks later in life?
I was at work the other day and someone came through my line at the store (yeah, I'm a cashier). Anyway, he was buying some toothbrushes and toothpaste and I asked him if the toothpaste tasted good because I am trying to find something new to switch to because the one I'm using right now really sucks, I think. So, he started telling me that brushing my teeth helps to prevent heart attacks when I am older and stuff. I don't know if this is true though and it sounds a little weird. I don't want to ask someone around me and sound really stupid though because I mean...your teeth? Brushing preventing HEART attacks? Uhmmm...
Does anyone know if there was any truth to that or was he just talking?
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I have heard this as well, but it doesn't mean that there is a causal relationship between the two. They could be correlated, meaning they occur together, but it doesn't mean that one thing causes another.
To give you an example, when ice cream rates go up in the summer, crime rates go up as well. This is a correlational relationship: ice cream sales go up in the summer when it is hot, and when it is hot people tend to leave their car windows open or the windows to their homes open, thus causing crime rates to go up.
So does that mean if we stop buying ice cream, crime rates go down? Or the weather cools? Most likely not.
Same thing with the heart attacks and brushing your teeth. People who have heart attacks tend to be overweight, so they probably don't eat the best of foods, for example lots of sugary foods. So maybe someone said having cavities causes heart attacks, and someone just assumed that well if cavities cause them, then we need to prevent cavities by brushing our teeth, but really at the end of the day its really the food (as well as other factors such as genetics and lifestyle, but I won't get into that for the sake of proving my point).
Hope that made sense lol.
~MAK, 19
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Never heard of that one before. I know brushing your teeth stops tooth decay and loss of teeth Now that would give me a heart attack. LOL I think he was having a lend of you or he is very naeive. I read in a mag once about silly males a boy was cleaning his car and was having trouble with a certain mark on the paint so his mother said "use some elbow grease". So he went looking to buy elbow grease and couldn't buy it anywhere. Men are so silly. If it dosen't seem logical it probably isn't.
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There seems to be truth in this. WebMd is a realiable source.
- [Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
It just seems like a no-brainer. Who wants gross teeth, bad breath, and gingivitis, anyway? Flossing is very important to. Try to do it every night. You'll be shocked/disgusted by what comes out of there ;]
After reading some of the article, I've concluded that it's more proof of how much the systems of your body are connected. Taking care of all of them now prevents a lot of problems down the road.
As a side note, I use Arm&Hammer Advance White. It has baking soda in it and makes your teeth feel SO clean. And whitens amazingly well. And the Colgate toothpastes with breath strips in them are awesome-tasting, in my opinion. But they seem to foam more than usual.
-LM
[17/f]
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