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A recent study provides more proof of a connection between oral and heart health. The study uncovered that high-dose statins can decrease gum inflammation in heart disease patients in as little as four weeks.

The study’s findings have gone on to be published in the latest online issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Statins are usually prescribed for lowering blood cholesterol. Albeit we need some cholesterol for good health, too much of the fatty substance clogs up arteries and causes atherosclerosis, an inflammatory condition that leads to heart attacks, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease.

"Periodontal disease is characterized by chronic gum inflammation and affects approximately 50% of the US adult population. Periodontitis and atherosclerosis are both primarily driven by inflammation. These inflammatory conditions tend to co-exist within individuals and their biologies may be intertwined,” said Co-author and co-director of the Cardiac Imaging Trials Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Ahmed Tawkol.

For this study, the researchers enrolled 83 patients with heart disease or who were at a high risk for heart disease attending several medical centers and randomly assigned them either to take a daily dose of 80 mg of atorvastatin or a 10 mg dose of the drug for 12 weeks.

The study was a double-blind one, meaning neither the patients nor the physicians providing the statins knew which dose they were handling.

The patients received PET/CT scans prior to starting the medication, after taking it for four weeks and also at the end of the 12-week trial.

The final analysis included 59 patients, and it revealed that the high-dose group experienced a noteworthy reduction in gum inflammation at the 4-week scan.

In addition, the researchers also noted that the reduction in gum inflammation was closely associated to reduction in atherosclerosis.

The researchers point out that these discoveries provide further proof of an existing link between oral and heart health, specifically that periodontal disease is closely connected to atherosclerosis, and treatments that improve one will also improve the other condition.

“And they propose there may be some truth in the idea that oral hygiene that reduces gum inflammation may also reduce inflammation in the arteries. Doctors should think about the possibility that statins do more than lower cholesterol when discussing treatment options with their patients,” said Tawkol.

Tawkol also urges patients with heart disease or who have had strokes to tell their doctor if they have gum disease and to carefully follow guidelines on how to treat it.

The authors also note that this was a small study, and they call for larger randomized studies to delve deeper, examining the underlying components that tether localized inflammation in the gum and other tissues to inflammation in the arteries.

Dr. Michael Blaha, of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease, notes in an accompanying editorial that in the past, statins were regarded as only cholesterol busters for treating patients with high blood levels of the fatty substance. However, he now sees the different possibilities they present:

"A more modern perspective paints statins as cardiovascular risk-reducing medications with multiple possible mechanisms of action," and this new study "has tremendous potential implications for our philosophy toward statin allocation in primary prevention and future testing of new anti-atherosclerotic drugs,” he said.

While in another relatively new study, UK researchers determined that some statin drugs may cause memory impairment, while a team in the US found that statin use may raise cataract risk.