If you have a car or a scooter or even just a bike, say, and you don’t use it very frequently or even take care of it, eventually, your ride isn’t going to work so well.
The same goes for the human body. It’s one reason why staying physically active is so important. In fact, research has consistently shown that living a sedentary lifestyle raises your risk of dying early.
One 2023 study, for instance, found that those who were inactive for 12 hours a day had a 38% higher risk of death compared to those who sat for 8 hours. However, adding enough moderate to vigorous physical activity each day – 22 minutes or more – helped counteract that. Even light activity was found to have a positive effect for those who were the most sedentary of all.
Well, great, you may be thinking, but what does this have to do with dentistry? A lot, actually. Your mouth is connected to the rest of your body, after all, and all the things you do to support your overall health tend to benefit the mouth, too. That includes eating right, sleeping well, managing stress, and, yes, exercising.
In fact, exercise has been shown to be particularly good for your gums, largely through its power to reduce inflammation – and gum disease is nothing if not a supremely inflammatory condition.
Not only that. Gum disease has been linked to more than a dozen other inflammatory conditions. These include heart disease, diabetes, stroke, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive decline, and even some cancers.
The link between physical activity and oral health was documented most recently in a review of the science that dropped just last month. Its authors analyzed 17 studies published between 2013 and 2023 – 11 observational studies and 6 experimental studies.
With respect to gum health in particular, they found that people with active lifestyles had healthier gums than sedentary folks. They also had lower levels of inflammatory biomarkers.
Other studies have reached similar conclusions, such as this meta-analysis which found that those who exercised regularly lowered their risk of periodontitis by 23%. Another review found that across all of the cross-sectional studies they included, “lower levels of physical activity were associated with greater prevalence of periodontal disease.”
Three studies also investigated the role of dietary practices and found that the combination of a healthy diet and regular exercise habit reduced the odds of severe periodontitis by 10 times.
There’s no denying it: That is a lot.
With the weather now beautiful again, there’s no better time to get out and about and more active – for the sake of your mouth, body, mind, and spirit alike. Your body was designed to move. No, not all of us are great athletes or want to be – but even just adding a good daily walk to your routine can make a big difference. Or a yoga or tai chi class. Or kayaking or hiking or biking or team sports…or dancing or just actively gardening.
The goal is just to find the activities you like and to do them. Now is the time.
