I don’t discuss this as usually as I in all probability ought to.
My mother had Alzheimer’s and my dad had ALS with dementia. Watching your mother and father slowly lose the very factor that makes them them — adjustments how you concentrate on 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 have a look at the analysis on Alzheimer’s and dementia, one sample retains surfacing: the illness course of begins many years earlier than the primary symptom. The plaques that present up on a scan at 75? The mobile harm that drives them begins at 40. Perhaps earlier.
The window to stop it’s now.
And right here’s what most neurologists nonetheless received’t inform you — 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 ingesting inexperienced tea each morning for years, and the rationale I preserve coming again to it isn’t the caffeine. It’s a compound known 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 examine 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 way more to the story…
Your mind has a waste-clearance system known 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.
Should you’re not stepping into deep slow-wave sleep lengthy sufficient, that clearance doesn’t totally occur. Evening after evening, yr after yr…think about the cumulative results.
Magnesium is proven in scientific analysis to meaningfully enhance slow-wave sleep structure — not simply show you how to 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 necessary that you simply select a magnesium that is top of the range and rigorously examined. Most dietary supplements comprise one or two kinds at most. However magnesium is concerned in over 300 enzymatic processes within the physique, and totally different kinds have totally different mechanisms and goal tissues. Your mind, your muscle tissues, your cardiovascular system — they every reply to totally different kinds.
These two issues — inexperienced tea within the morning, magnesium at evening — additionally occur to help 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 test. Magnesium deficiency quietly undermines all of that. Most of us are poor and don’t understand it.
And we’ve already talked about what EGCG does for bacterial stability 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…
Should you’re not sleeping properly — actually not sleeping properly, and particularly for those who snore, get up drained, or have been instructed 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, problem concentrating, waking up exhausted. If that sounds acquainted, please lookup a sleep specialist by means of AADSM.org — that’s the American Academy of Dental Sleep Drugs. They prepare dentists particularly in airway and sleep, and so they can usually assist when conventional sleep medical doctors have missed issues.
And for those who haven’t labored with a practical dentist, somebody skilled to take a look at your mouth as a part of your complete well being image — airway, microbiome, sleep, all of it — you may search the Practical Dentist Listing to search out one close to you.
My mother and father didn’t have any of this. They didn’t know to search for these connections. I can by no means be totally certain it might have modified all the things — 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 utilize yours.
— Mark
Citations and Additional Studying
The landmark examine: The one most necessary piece of analysis on this area stays Dominy et al. (2019), revealed 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 examine to suggest a causal, not simply correlational, hyperlink. → Learn it at Science Advances
The doubled dementia danger: A 2019 retrospective cohort examine utilizing Nationwide Well being Insurance coverage knowledge discovered {that a} analysis of continual periodontitis was related to a 95% increased danger of growing dementia — even amongst individuals who in any other case maintained wholesome way of life habits. → Referenced in: ScienceDirect narrative evaluation, January 2025
The MRI proof: In 2024, researchers at Columbia College’s Faculty of Dental Drugs, led by Dr. Panos Papapanou, revealed the primary epidemiological examine 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 exhibits measurable mind adjustments, not simply statistical danger. → Columbia College Faculty of Dental Drugs
The systematic literature evaluation: Villar, Paladini & Cossatis (2024), revealed 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 evaluation. A 2025 systematic evaluation revealed in Utilized Sciences (MDPI), following PRISMA pointers 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 Impression on Each Different System within the Physique — How oral dysbiosis connects to the gut-brain axis, heart problems, metabolic operate, 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 place to begin for whole-body well being.
