Smoking, Sleeplessness Tough on Oral Health
(HealthDay News, 6/1/07)

Japanese researcher, Dr. Muneo Tanaka, and team evaluated 219 subjects on “exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking, hours of sleep, nutrition, stress, hours worked, and eating breakfast”; then tracked them from 1999 to 2003. The scientists identified smoking and lack of sleep as the top two independent factors linked to the progression of gum disease. These findings suggest that smoking, sleep deprivation and other lifestyle stressors may compromise the body’s immune system and thereby promote disorders like gum disease.

(Journal of Periodontology. , May 2007)