Mouthwash could damage your health
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- Published: Monday, 27 November 2017 07:29
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Frequent regular use of over-the-counter mouthwash was associated with increased risk of developing pre-diabetes/diabetes in this population, according to new research. Overweight people who use mouthwash twice a day are 50% more likely to develop diabetes. The anti-bacterial fluid could be killing off helpful microbes in the mouth.
Researchers from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health tested 1,206 overweight people, aged 40 to 65, who were free of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Of the participants, 43% used mouthwash at least once a day, and 22% at least twice daily. Those who used it twice were much more likely to develop diabetes or prediabetes, meaning that they were at high risk of developing the condition, compared with those who used it less often, even when gender, weight and diet were taken into account.
Kaumudi Joshipura, author of the study, published in the journal Nitric Oxide, said that the powerful solutions attacked all, rather than specific, bacteria. Some of those bacteria appear to be beneficial to metabolic health by helping the body to produce nitric oxide, which regulates insulin levels.
From Abstract
The San Juan Overweight Adults Longitudinal Study (SOALS) recruited 1206 overweight/obese individuals, aged 40-65, and free of diabetes and major cardiovascular diseases; 945 with complete follow-up data were included in the analyses.
Many participants (43%) used mouthwash at least once daily and 22% at least twice daily. Participants using mouthwash ≥ twice daily at baseline, had a significantly elevated risk of pre-diabetes/diabetes compared to less frequent users (multivariate IRR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.21-1.99), or non-users of mouthwash (multivariate IRR = 1.49; 95% CI: 1.13-1.95). The effect estimates were similar after adding income, education, oral hygiene, oral conditions, sleep breathing disorders, diet (processed meat, fruit, and vegetable intake), medications, HOMA-IR, fasting glucose, 2hr post load glucose or CRP to the multivariate models. Both associations were also significant among never-smokers and obese individuals. Mouthwash use lower than twice daily showed no association, suggesting a threshold effect at twice or more daily.
Reference: Joshipura KJ et al, Over-the-counter mouthwash use and risk of pre-diabetes/diabetes Nitric Oxide. 2017 Dec 1;71:14-20. doi:10.1016/j.niox.2017.09.004. Epub 2017 Sep 20.
Re "The anti-bacterial fluid could be killing off
I would be more inclined to believe that small volumes which were swallowed go on to have adverse impact on the gut biome diversity and that this in turn increases the diabetes risk*?* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5004229/
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