PMGroup spoke to Dr Graham Lloyd-Jones, consultant radiologist at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. He is researching the links between oral health and systemic disease, and is a campaigner for better oral health in the UK. Currently, he is writing a book on his work and findings, which he began working on during the COVID-19 pandemic.
PMGroup: What is the link between oral bacteria and systemic diseases?
Graham Lloyd-Jones (GL-J): My research into COVID-19 showed that there is a far stronger connection between oral health and systemic diseases than was previously thought. I became interested in the link between poor oral health – particularly gum disease – and increased risk factors for people to develop more severe COVID-19. The best explanation is that the virus travels from the mouth – leaking through damaged, inflamed gums that can no longer act as a defence barrier – straight into the lungs and blood vessels. With the risk factors for COVID-19 and gum disease being similar, I worked with specialist dentists – who have an interest in the immunity of the mouth and the highly complex structures of the gums – to publish a hypothesis that gum disease is a converging risk factor for severe COVID-19.
I then started to read literature that showed a potential causative link with diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease. The biological processes of gum disease involve harmful bacteria in the mouth and the astonishing mechanisms they use to survive, infecting our gum tissues and subverting immune cells in a chronic, long-lasting inflammatory process spanning decades. The key pathological driver is Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis).
My research focuses on four main areas: cardiovascular disease; Alzheimer’s disease; diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. Included in these are pregnancy complications. Most gut diseases are now implicated. The same bacteria can even be found in lung cancer and when I tell my colleagues this, they’re extremely surprised – they had no idea that lung cancer could be about bacteria.
Read the article in full here.
