New research says oral bacteria help lower blood pressure

exercise can have a lower blood pressure effect, but a new study has found that when people rinse their mouths with antibacterial mouthwashes, the effect of exercise on blood pressure is greatly reduced. This suggests that oral bacteria play a unique role in maintaining blood pressure in the body.
In the study, conducted in collaboration with the University of Plymouth in the UK and the Spanish Centre for Genetic Management, the researchers asked 23 healthy adults to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes after exercise and to rinse their mouths with antibacterial mouthwash or placebo and observe changes in their blood pressure.
results showed that when participants rinsed with a placebo, systolic blood pressure decreased by an average of 5.2 mmHg after one hour of exercise, while when mouthwashed with antibacterial mouthwash, participants' systolic blood pressure decreased by an average of only 2.0 mmHg after one hour of exercise. The experimental results showed that after using antibacterial mouthwash, the anti-depressant effect was lost by 60% after 1 hour of exercise, and the effect was completely lost after 2 hours.
nitric oxide produced by the body during exercise can cause blood vessels to dilation. The study's lead author, Dr Raul Bescos of the University of Plymouth, explained that nitric oxide is degraded into nitrate compounds in the body, which can be absorbed by the salivary glands and excreted through saliva in the mouth. Some bacteria in the mouth will convert nitrates into nitrites, nitrites into the circulatory system, and then will be reduced to nitric oxide, can maintain the expansion of blood vessels, so after exercise can continue to reduce blood pressure.
new research suggests that oral bacteria are crucial to the synthesis of nitrites, like the "keys" to dilated blood vessels, which cannot be produced if removed, the researchers said. This was directly reflected in the fact that when using antibacterial mouthwash, the participants did not have elevated levels of nitrite in their blood after exercise, and when using a placebo mouthwash, the levels of nitrite in the participants' blood increased.
recommend that health care providers consider the oral environment when providing exercise and treatment advice to people with high blood pressure. Next, they will further analyze the oral bacterial composition of people at high risk of cardiovascular disease to find out what directly affects cardiovascular health. The findings have been published in the American Journal of Free Fundamental Biology and Medicine. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
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