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# Could periodontitis be a sign or cause for Alzheimer's disease?
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/periodontitis_alzheimer_s_disease_0320160523/
- Published: 2016-03-20T18:19:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:28:02.000Z
- Description: A six-month study of 60 elderly people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's found periodontitis at baseline correlated with cognitive decline, and both conditions tracked with the severity of systemic inflammation. The study found no evidence that gum disease causes Alzheimer's.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Disease, Health News, #vivvo-import

Sunday March 20, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- Both periodontitis and Alzheimer's disease are related to an increased systemic pro-inflammatory state. It has been found that elevated levels of antibodies to periodontal bacteria are linked to an increased systemic pro-inflammatory state and increased levels of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines are on the other hand found associated with increased cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer's disease.

It is possible that periodontitis is due to the fact that patients with Alzheimer's disease are less likely to take good care of oral hygiene and increase risk for periodontitis. It could be also possible that periodontitis by itself increases risk for Alzheimer’s disease, which means that the oral infection leads to increased pro-inflammatory status, which is in turn related to increased risk for cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. Or both periodontitis and Alzheimer's disease result from a common cause such as compromised immunity against infections and increased systemic pro-inflammation.

A new study shows that periodontitis was related to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease and both periodontitis and Alzheimer's disease were associated with the severity of systemic pro-inflammatory status. But no evidence is found to indicate that periodontitis was a cause for Alzheimer's disease in the study.

Researchers of the six-month observational study involving 60 community dwelling elderly people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease assessed the cognitive state of each participant and analyzed inflammatory biomarkers in blood samples from them at baseline and the end of the study. Dental health was also assessed by a dental hygienist before and after the study.

The study finds that periodontitis at baseline was correlated with an increase in inflammatory biomarkers AND a six-fold increase in the rate of cognitive decline over the 6-month follow-up period. However, the presence of periodontitis at baseline was unrelated to baseline cognitive status. 

The evidence suggests that an individual who had periodontitis was more likely to suffer more severe cognitive decline but the association between periodontitis and cognitive status varied from one individual to another. (David Liu)

*Ide M, Harris M, Stevens A, Sussams R, Hopkins V, Culliford D, et al. (2016) Periodontitis and Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease. PLoS ONE 11(3): e0151081\. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0151081*