In today’s information-driven world of social media, the importance of physical fitness is one of the most discussed topics on all levels. As new diseases and cures keep emerging throughout the world, people have become conscious of dietary habits, exercise routines, and other avenues to ensure physical fitness. However, a crucial gateway to physical fitness is oral health. But, what’s the link between oral health and physical fitness?
The complex anatomy of the human body means that every organ, tissue, or function is interlinked with another. Let’s learn how your oral health impacts your physical fitness and what you can do to maintain a perfect balance.
The Connection Between Oral Health and Physical Fitness
· Poor Nutrition
The nutrition in your diet can directly affect your physical health. However, poor oral health can make chewing and digestion inefficient.
Chewing food can be uncomfortable and painful when your mouth has cavities, untreated gum disease, or other oral health problems. This can result in a lack of nutrition intake, leading to physical weakness during workouts or when performing everyday tasks.
Moreover, poor nutrition due to depleted oral health also impacts muscle growth, recovery, and overall strength. Nutrition, such as vitamin D and calcium, are crucial for the development of stronger bones.
Therefore, nutrition is one of the direct ways your oral health can affect your physical agility and energy levels. So it’s always a great idea to visit a dentist before it’s too late. For reliable results, try my general dentist and get your dental health to a new level.
· Increased Risk of Inflammation
Poor oral health is said to be directly related to inflammation occurrences in other parts of your body. As isolated as your oral health may look, it can develop bacteria that travel through your bloodstream to all parts of your body, causing infections and inflammation.
As a result, inflammation can also lead to serious health conditions. It damages blood vessels, restricts blood flow, and prevents proper oxygen supply to muscles. This leads to a low nutrient supply to muscles, resulting in poor physical health.
· Cardiovascular Diseases
Poor oral health has been linked to an increased risk of catching cardiovascular disease, which can directly impact your physical well-being. Research shows that people with oral disease are prone to developing heart diseases over longer periods.
A weak or medically ill heart muscle can impair your ability to perform physically demanding tasks such as sports or working out.
· Respiratory Infections
People with bad oral health or gum disease are more vulnerable to catching respiratory tract infections. This is due to the fact that bacteria can easily travel to your lungs through your trachea.
Some serious respiratory system conditions include pneumonia and bronchitis. This can cause coughing, inefficient oxygen delivery to muscles, and shortness of breath, leading to poor physical health.
· Impact on the Immune System
The immune system is one of the most important components ensuring physical health. Its core job is to target the harmful cells or bacteria entering your bloodstream. This takes lots of your resources, including different proteins and millions of white blood cells.
With that context in mind, when your body is constantly fighting oral infections, it may experience immune fatigue.
This stretching out of your body’s immune system can have detrimental effects on your physical health as you become prone to catching infections that otherwise your body would have defended against.
Mental Health and Oral Health
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Your oral health has a direct connection with your mental health. It might come as a surprise to you that the connection is bidirectional. That means not only oral health affects your mental health, but poor mental health can also lead to poor oral health.
One of the major ways poor oral health affects your mental health is the lack of self-esteem and confidence. Have you ever avoided laughing because you have poor teeth? Or didn’t smile brightly due to an oral health condition?
This is due to the fact that oral infections can lead to poor dental appearance or crooked teeth. Hence making you conscious of your appearance. Many people avoid social gatherings altogether in order to avoid the oral walk of shame.
Moreover, persistent dental pain that stays around for a long time can result in extreme stress and restlessness—giving you anxiety-related issues. It must be noted that poor mental health itself is a great threat to physical fitness.
Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes
Oral health plays a crucial role in pregnancy and birth outcomes, with poor oral health potentially leading to complications for you if you are expecting.
Periodontal disease makes you vulnerable to preterm birth and low birth weight, as the inflammation and infection can trigger the production of inflammatory cytokines and prostaglandins. This can cause you to go into early labor and affect your baby’s growth.
Moreover, there is evidence suggesting that periodontal disease might contribute to the development of preeclampsia through systemic inflammation and bacterial dissemination. This makes you prone to other physical diseases while posing serious health risks to your baby.
Poor oral health is also linked to gestational diabetes, as inflammation and bacterial infections from gum disease can affect your body’s insulin resistance. Pregnancy hormones can make gums more susceptible to plaque, leading to gingivitis and periodontal disease.
The most dangerous of all is that your poor oral health can transmit bacteria to your newborn through saliva-sharing behaviors, increasing your child’s risk of developing dental caries.
· Cancers
Poor oral health has been linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancer, including oral, throat, and pancreatic cancer.
Chronic inflammation caused by periodontal disease and other oral infections can lead to the release of harmful inflammatory mediators and toxins from your body, which may contribute to the development and progression of your cancer.
Additionally, the presence of certain bacteria in your mouth, such as Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum, puts you at a higher risk of cancer. These bacteria can influence the environment in ways that promote cancerous cell changes.
Furthermore, your lifestyle has a lot to do with your oral health. Cancerous activities, such as tobacco use and excessive alcohol consumption, are well-known risk factors for various cancers.
Maintaining good oral hygiene, regular dental check-ups, and promptly addressing any oral health issues are essential preventive measures to reduce cancer risk and protect your overall health.
· Obesity
Wondering how oral health can make you obese? Poor oral health can disturb your BMI through several interconnected mechanisms. Dental problems like cavities, gum disease, and tooth loss can make chewing difficult. This makes you prefer soft, high-calorie, and often sugary or processed foods that are easier to eat but less nutritious.
This dietary pattern increases your caloric intake and makes you susceptible to unhealthy weight gain. Moreover, the chronic inflammation associated with periodontal disease can disrupt your metabolic processes and insulin regulation.
Poor oral health can also affect your overall well-being and physical comfort, reducing the motivation to engage in physical activities as you become lousy. This physical activity is crucial for maintaining a healthy weight.
Furthermore, there is a psychological component, as with poor dental health, you may experience lower self-esteem and higher stress levels, potentially leading to emotional eating and poor dietary choices.
We suggest you to address oral health issues through proper hygiene practices, regular dental care, and healthy lifestyle choices.
How to Maintain a Good Oral Health?
In light of all the risks poor oral health poses to physical well-being, it’s important to learn the dos and don’ts of maintaining a healthy oral condition.
You should avoid eating sugary items too much to maintain a healthy oral condition. Sugar is a poison for your teeth and gums, inviting loads of bacteria to feed on it.
Moreover, the best way to keep your teeth clean and gums healthy is through proper hygiene treatment. Regular brushing, use of mouthwash, and flossing can keep your oral health in great condition.
Besides that, you can also visit your dentist every six months to get scaling done, which is a process of cleaning inaccessible spaces between your teeth and gums.
Last but not least, in case you detect any cavities or feel pain in any area of your mouth, never delay the treatment. Oral infections can spread quickly and become serious. Moreover, teeth damaged by cavities can turn unusable if you delay filling those cavities up.
Oral Health and Physical Fitness – The Bottom Line
With ever-increasing disease and medical conditions affecting our physical health, oral health often gets ignored. However, your oral health says a lot about what your physical health would look like both in the short and long term.
Poor oral health has many strings attached. From serious cardiovascular diseases to subtle effects on our mental health, poor oral health can be disastrous.
Therefore, it’s important to find the correct ways to maintain proper oral health and avoid becoming prey to serious medical conditions that compromise your life span and quality. Got something to share about the connection between oral health and physical fitness? Please drop a comment in the comment box below.
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