Flossing decreases your chance of having a stroke.
If you want to live longer (and make the people you interact with happier), research shows that flossing your teeth can make a huge difference! Dr. Kaumudi Joshipura, a Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard and the Director of the Division of Dental Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico, conducted a famous twelve year study with 41,380 men aged 40 to 75. Male subjects who did not floss regularly had 57% more strokes. In a separate study, Michael F. Roizen, MD calculated that daily flossing adds an average of 6.3 years to a person’s lifespan. In his book, Real Age, Dr. Roizen writes “Flossing your teeth daily can make your arteries younger. The probable reason: Flossing helps keep your immune system young. The same bacteria that cause periodontal disease also trigger an immune response, inflammation, that causes the arteries to swell. The swelling of the arterial walls results in a constriction of blood flow that can lead to a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease.” Flossing only takes a minute and can make a big difference to your health!