Fatty acids help to prevent gum disease

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: omega 3 fatty acids, gum disease, health news

(NaturalNews) A new study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association offers a new approach to treating and preventing gum disease. Rather than concentrate on treating the bacteria itself, which is the approach most conventional dentists take, scientists have found that targeting the inflammatory response with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) like fish oil is also effective.

It is already widely known that omega-3 fatty acids help to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease (https://www.naturalnews.com/028131_omega-3s_c...), combat obesity (https://www.naturalnews.com/029612_omega-3s_o...), and even reverse the aging process (https://www.naturalnews.com/028046_omega-3_fa...). And the new study adds to the growing body of literature about the health benefits of the essential compounds.

"We found that n-3 (omega-3) fatty acid intake, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), are inversely associated with periodontitis in the U.S. population," said Asghar S. Naqvi, MPH, MNS, from the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "To date, the treatment of periodontitis has primarily involved mechanical cleaning and local antibiotic application. Thus, a dietary therapy, if effective, might be a less expensive and safer method for the prevention and treatment of periodontitis. Given the evidence indicating a role for n-3 fatty acids in other chronic inflammatory conditions, it is possible that treating periodontitis with n-3 fatty acids could have the added benefit of preventing other chronic diseases associated with inflammation, including stroke as well."

For the study, the team evaluated 9,000 adults over the course of about five years, comparing dental examination results with DHA, EPA, and linolenic acid (LNA) intake. After taking into account factors that might skew the results, the team concluded that high consumption of DHA in particular led to a 20 percent reduction in periodontitis cases. For EPA, the the reduction was smaller but still significant.

Consuming too many PUFAs can cause other health problems (https://www.naturalnews.com/029194_cancer_ris...), so it is important to maintain a healthy balance of both polyunsaturated and saturated fats.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-...