keep hearing that in drought ridden California, hoping that El Niño is going to be delivering a lot of rain to help us out. Unfortunately, this article is not about a weather storm, it is in fact about a health epidemic sweeping California and the rest of the country.
According to a story published in the LA times on Thursday March 10 of this year UCLA researchers feel that 55% of all California adults have either diabetes or what is often called pre-diabetes. And Harold Goldstein, head of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy ( a nonprofit that supports public health initiatives and funded the study) is quoted as saying “This study is a barometer that’s telling us the storm is coming”.
Let me tell you a story from about 15-20 years ago. I used to play golf with a retired gentleman by the Name of Darrel. He was really a nice guy and he liked to give me investment advice. And he told me back then I should invest in companies that make drugs and other treatment supplies for diabetes. Why? Because people can live a long time with diabetes so the drugs and other components will always be need. But I don’t think Darrel had any idea of how quickly it would become the storm that it is.
At Southern California Dental Health Associates all of the doctors and hygienists are well aware of the links between infections in the mouth and other health risks. Dental infections are chronic inflammation and diabetes, heart disease and a host of other body ailments have been classified as inflammatory disease. And to date, there is probably more research out there show a direct relationship between gum disease and diabetes and “pre” diabetes. Face it bleeding gums are not good for you.
Now the entire of concept of pre diabetes is a new one but the article in the LA Times said they used factors such as race, height and weight as some of the measures of pre-diabetes. And believe it or not there are also dental studies showing that overweight patients have a higher incidence of gum disease and that they don’t respond to treatment as well.
Well I for one want to be someone who helps fight this storm. There are so many tools available today to help you fight gum disease (and other disease in your mouth as well). But you won’t know what is available if you aren’t dealing with someone who is current in all the treatment options. And there is still the most important caveat of all. It doesn’t matter how good your dentist or hygienist is, if you are not doing excellent home care of your mouth you will always be at a higher risk for getting dental disease, there are no short cuts here.
If you or any of your loved ones have any concerns about this you should be calling our office so you can be checked out if you have gum disease. It’s not just about your mouth any more.