As medicine shifts its focus from cure to prevention, we realise more how interconnected our body is. For example, one of the simplest longevity fixes is getting sufficient sleep every night - this alone positively impacts almost everything in our body and most certainly extends our lives.
It certainly explains why sleep tracking is all the rage.
Another fix should be dental and gum health, as poor oral care has been linked to a broad set of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, strokes, diabetes, and osteoporosis, according to a journal in The Lancet. Contrary to common belief, dental plaque (residue) on teeth and gums harbours chronic inflammation, an immune response that prompts a set of problems in the body and has been identified as a contributor to ageing.
Unlike sleep, the link between oral health and longevity is less well known - but why? The Washington Post highlights that in the U.S., around 20 per cent of people over 65 have untreated tooth decay and over two-thirds have gum disease, according to research from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. It was also raised recently, in The Japan Times, via two pivotal studies on the topic, yet we are nowhere near the level of awareness this topic warrants. So why has this been a background topic? Dental health is often seen as elective, rather than an essential part of one’s healthcare. Many insurance plans (including Medicare in the U.S.) exclude comprehensive dental coverage.
With my fund, GMPVC, we recently invested in a company called Koite Health, an agetech and longevity startup that promotes light-activated antibacterial solutions for treating and preventing oral disease. Koite’s founder, Sakari Nikinmaa, believes one of the reasons people have thus far been largely unaware of the link between oral health and longevity is because of the ‘working in silos’ type approach, which often results in dental care being understood as an entirely separate practice to general medicine.
Nikinmaa says that dental plaque contains one of the densest bacterial compositions in the body. These bacteria can cause chronic inflammation, as aforementioned, with many different and possibly adverse outcomes. The OHSAKA Study, mentioned in The Japan Times, establishes that people without teeth have an 1.7 times higher likelihood of death compared to those with 21 or more teeth. Nikinmaa comments this is remarkable, since people with high cholesterol stand at an 1.4 times higher death rate than the average.
The problem is widespread amongst elders. As mentioned, two thirds of all people above the age of 65 have gum disease. Most don’t know this. Regular brushing and flossing is a great way to improve the situation, Nikinmaa says, but he and his co-founder wanted to take this further with an innovation that would elevate beyond brushing and flossing and move the needle on longevity.
In 2016, Nikinmaa, an engineer by background, was part of Biodesign Finland, a 10-month full-time medtech entrepreneurship training program for talented professionals with engineering, IT, design and business backgrounds. Biodesign Finland applies the “need-driven” medtech innovation process, created at Stanford University, and emphasises the requirement for multidisciplinary teams and evidence-based work.
At the program, Nikinmaa met a cardiac surgeon, Tommi Pätilä, who was interested in the correlation between oral health and coronary artery disease. Together, they developed an innovative mouth rinse activated by light which kills bacteria. In 2018, they founded Koite Health and launched the home-use medical product “Lumoral” - a product that is only accessible in Europe at the moment.
This is exactly what the program Biodesign Finland was created for. Talented founders with different backgrounds who get together to develop innovative solutions to health challenges and bridge medical disconnects, like dental and general medicine.
Our body is complex but interconnected, and interdisciplinary work will undoubtedly lead to many more unexpected insights and innovations, allowing us to not only increase the length of our lives but, most importantly, live the good life.