Health Chat

Kiran Bhagat | Monday December 6, 2010 00:00

Question 1:  Is it true that you are more at risk of heart problems with bad teeth?

This is an area that has been studied for many years.  We definitely know that bugs from the mouth can get into the blood during dental procedures where often there may be an element of bleeding.  This can cause serious heart infections in people already with known heart problems or who have had operations for artificial valves.  Indeed more recently, more studies have shown the same association.

Those with problems with gums, teeth missing and other problems in the mouth are at higher risk of heart disease, narrowing of the arteries that supply circulation to the brain amongst many other conditions.

We know that the more teeth that are missing the more likely there is to be a high rate of heart disease and indeed equally treatment of gum disease (periodontitis) may reverse some of the narrowing of the arteries. It may simply be that people with bad teeth look after themselves less well and so its not the bad teeth causing heart disease but a poor lifestyle.

What is important is that there are many risk factors that cause heart disease that are beyond your control (such as your genetic makeup).  Maintaining oral hygiene is up to you, keeping your teeth and gums healthy may also help your heart. 

Question 2:  Is it true that sleep before 12pm is much more beneficial than sleeping late at night?

When you fall asleep at any time you go through a 90:00mins cycle of non-REM sleep followed by REM sleep, and the ratio of non-REM to REM sleep changes across the night. 

The earlier in the night, the greater the likelihood for deep non-REM sleep and the later in the morning, the greater the likelihood of REM sleep.  This means that an early-to-bed person will have a sleep pattern that is biased towards more non-REM sleep and dream less.  Whether this is important or not or results in a healthier individual it is still up for research.

Question 3:  If I hold my bladder for as long as possible will this give me better control of my bladder?

There is a particular type of bladder incontinence called urge incontinence, which occurs with a sudden need to empty your bladder.  This often occurs before you can get to the toilet and can be embarrassing with a leak of urine occurring. 

It is more common in the elderly population and indeed one of the treatments is to learn to lengthen the time between your urge to urinate and to go the toilet.  You start by urinating at regular intervals (for example every 25 - 30mins) and stretching this up to 2hrs.

This is then gradually increased until you are emptying your bladder every 3 - 4hrs.  I think this is essentially what you are asking, although a healthy person with no bladder control problems does not need to do this.  Other forms of bladder training involve stopping or slowing the urine flow in the middle of your urine stream.

The muscles that control this can then be identified by you and exercised in their own right.  These are often taught to women and men who have bladder issues.