I don’t speak about this as usually as I in all probability ought to.
My mother had Alzheimer’s and my dad had ALS with dementia. Watching your dad and mom slowly lose the very factor that makes them them — adjustments how you consider each alternative you make, each single day.
The mouth-brain connection is, sadly, not summary for me as a result of I’ve lived it.
Once I take a look at the analysis on Alzheimer’s and dementia, one sample retains surfacing: the illness course of begins a long time earlier than the primary symptom. The plaques that present up on a scan at 75? The mobile injury that drives them begins at 40. Possibly earlier.
The window to stop it’s now.
And right here’s what most neurologists nonetheless gained’t let you know — two of essentially the most highly effective issues you are able to do to guard your mind contain your mouth.
One you do within the morning. One you do at evening.
Within the morning: inexperienced tea
I’ve been consuming inexperienced tea each morning for years, and the explanation I maintain coming again to it isn’t the caffeine. It’s a compound referred to as EGCG.
EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) is likely one of the most studied plant compounds in neuroprotection analysis. It crosses the blood-brain barrier.
A number of research now hyperlink common inexperienced tea consumption to meaningfully decrease charges of cognitive decline — the most important, a 2006 cohort research out of Japan following practically 30,000 adults, discovered that individuals who drank essentially the most inexperienced tea had a 26% decrease danger of cognitive impairment.
However right here’s the half nearly no one talks about: EGCG can be one of many solely plant compounds proven to selectively inhibit Streptococcus mutans — the first cavity-causing micro organism — with out disrupting the remainder of the oral microbiome.
Most issues we attain for to “kill micro organism” within the mouth (mouthwashes, peroxide rinses, even sure important oils) take a wrecking ball to the entire ecosystem. You’ll be able to consider EGCG as extra of a scalpel.
A wholesome oral microbiome isn’t just about avoiding cavities. The identical dysbiosis that lets pathogenic oral micro organism thrive is more and more linked to heart problems, metabolic dysfunction, and — sure — Alzheimer’s.
P. gingivalis, the micro organism most related to gum illness, has been discovered within the mind tissue of Alzheimer’s sufferers. The mouth-brain axis is actual, and inexperienced tea works on each ends of it.
I drink this powdered inexperienced tea due to how they supply and course of it — triple-screened for heavy metals and pesticides, cold-extracted into crystals that dissolve immediately.
At evening: magnesium
Most individuals take magnesium for sleep. However there may be so rather more to the story…
Your mind has a waste-clearance system referred to as the glymphatic system. It’s primarily the mind’s in a single day janitorial crew — and it primarily runs throughout slow-wave sleep. That is when your mind flushes metabolic waste merchandise, together with amyloid-beta, the protein related to Alzheimer’s plaques.
In the event you’re not moving into deep slow-wave sleep lengthy sufficient, that clearance doesn’t absolutely occur. Night time after evening, 12 months after 12 months…think about the cumulative results.
Magnesium is proven in scientific analysis to meaningfully enhance slow-wave sleep structure — not simply assist you go to sleep, however get you into the stage of sleep the place the cleansing really occurs.
I take 500mg each evening of this magnesium complement, 1-2 hours earlier than mattress. It’s vital that you just select a magnesium that is top of the range and rigorously examined. Most dietary supplements comprise one or two varieties at most. However magnesium is concerned in over 300 enzymatic processes within the physique, and completely different varieties have completely different mechanisms and goal tissues. Your mind, your muscle mass, your cardiovascular system — they every reply to completely different varieties.
These two issues — inexperienced tea within the morning, magnesium at evening — additionally occur to assist your oral microbiome in methods most individuals miss.
Magnesium is important for wholesome saliva manufacturing. Saliva is your mouth’s built-in protection system: it remineralizes enamel, neutralizes acid, and retains pathogenic micro organism in verify. Magnesium deficiency quietly undermines all of that. Most of us are poor and don’t realize it.
And we’ve already talked about what EGCG does for bacterial steadiness within the mouth.
So these aren’t simply mind dietary supplements. They’re a part of a whole-body technique that begins within the mouth.
The one different factor I’d add…
In the event you’re not sleeping nicely — actually not sleeping nicely, and particularly if you happen to snore, get up drained, or have been advised you cease respiration at evening — no complement goes to totally compensate for untreated sleep apnea. The glymphatic system can’t do its job in case your airway is collapsing in a single day.
Sleep apnea is dramatically underdiagnosed in ladies. The signs current in another way: fatigue, morning complications, issue concentrating, waking up exhausted. If that sounds acquainted, please search for a sleep specialist by way of AADSM.org — that’s the American Academy of Dental Sleep Drugs. They practice dentists particularly in airway and sleep, they usually can usually assist when conventional sleep medical doctors have missed issues.
And if you happen to haven’t labored with a useful dentist, somebody skilled to have a look at your mouth as a part of your complete well being image — airway, microbiome, sleep, all of it — you possibly can search the Purposeful Dentist Listing to search out one close to you.
My dad and mom didn’t have any of this. They didn’t know to search for these connections. I can by no means be solely positive it will have modified all the pieces — however I give it some thought.
I do what I can, each morning and each evening, as a result of that’s the window I’ve.
I hope you employ yours.
— Mark
Citations and Additional Studying
The landmark research: The one most vital piece of analysis on this house stays Dominy et al. (2019), printed in Science Advances: Porphyromonas gingivalis in Alzheimer’s illness brains: Proof for illness causation and therapy with small-molecule inhibitors. The researchers recognized P. gingivalis — the keystone pathogen in gum illness — within the mind tissue of Alzheimer’s sufferers. Critically, gingipain ranges (the poisonous enzymes P. gingivalis produces) correlated with tau tangles and ubiquitin pathology, two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. This was the primary research to suggest a causal, not simply correlational, hyperlink. → Learn it at Science Advances
The doubled dementia danger: A 2019 retrospective cohort research utilizing Nationwide Well being Insurance coverage knowledge discovered {that a} prognosis of continual periodontitis was related to a 95% larger danger of growing dementia — even amongst individuals who in any other case maintained wholesome life-style habits. → Referenced in: ScienceDirect narrative evaluate, January 2025
The MRI proof: In 2024, researchers at Columbia College’s School of Dental Drugs, led by Dr. Panos Papapanou, printed the primary epidemiological research linking scientific, microbial, and serological options of periodontitis to structural MRI findings related to Alzheimer’s illness and associated dementias. This issues as a result of it reveals measurable mind adjustments, not simply statistical danger. → Columbia College School of Dental Drugs
The systematic literature evaluate: Villar, Paladini & Cossatis (2024), printed in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Illness, analyzed 328 paperwork spanning 2000–2023 and recognized two main mechanisms connecting gum illness to mind pathology: systemic inflammatory cascades and direct microbial translocation into the central nervous system. → SpringerLink
The PRISMA-guided systematic evaluate. A 2025 systematic evaluate printed in Utilized Sciences (MDPI), following PRISMA tips and utilizing the ROBINS-I bias evaluation instrument, synthesized human research on salivary and blood biomarkers and periodontal therapies within the context of Alzheimer’s. It concluded that periodontal illness is each a danger issue and a possible therapeutic goal for Alzheimer’s. → MDPI Utilized Sciences
Additional studying on my web site, Ask the Dentist
Can gingivitis trigger Alzheimer’s illness? — My most complete breakdown of the P. gingivalis analysis, the gingipain mechanism, and what it means virtually on your gum care.
The Oral Microbiome & Its Affect on Each Different System within the Physique — How oral dysbiosis connects to the gut-brain axis, heart problems, metabolic perform, and extra.
Interview: Why We Shouldn’t Ignore the Oral Microbiome — A dialog with researcher Cass Nelson-Dooley on the 45% bacterial overlap between the mouth and colon, and why the oral microbiome is the start line for whole-body well being.