In addition to their well-known benefits in heart disease, high-dose statins appear to reduce gum inflammation caused by periodontal disease, a new report published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows. The findings offer more evidence that heart disease and gum disease may be linked, and also help support the view that statins achieve at least some of their effect not through their cholesterol-lowering effect but through separate inflammation-fighting mechanisms.
Researchers reported findings from 59 patients with cardiovascular disease or at high risk for cardiovascular disease who had evidence of arterial inflammation on a PET scan. The patients were randomized to a low (10 mg per day) or high (80 mg per day) dose of atorvastatin. After 12 weeks there was a significant reduction in periodontal inflammation as measured by PET in patients taking high dose atorvastatin. The effect was greatest in those patients who had active periodontal disease. There was evidence of a significant effect as early as 4 weeks. Furthermore, there was a strong correlation between reductions in periodontal inflammation and atherosclerosis, though the authors acknowledged that the precise nature of the association remains undefined.
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Periodontal bone loss shown in X-Ray image. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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