Vegetable juice against bleeding gums

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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A juice made from rocket and spinach can help people with chronic gingivitis. The nitrate it contains has a positive effect.

Chronic inflammation of the gums (periodontitis) is not a trivial matter. Teeth loosen up in the long term. And the cardiovascular system also suffers from the constant sources of inflammation in the body. But some people find it difficult to get their gum problems under control even with thorough teeth cleaning.

Less inflammation

Researchers from the University of Hohenheim had a group of 44 participants who suffered from chronic periodontitis serve vegetable juice made from spinach and rocket every day. However, half of them received a “placebo juice” from which the nitrate contained had previously been removed. “We were amazed at the differences,” said the head of the study, Prof. Ulrich Schlagenhauf.

After just two weeks, the inflammation of the gums in the patients who had received juice containing nitrate had improved significantly. “In the placebo group, on the other hand, we could not find any improvement,” says the nutritionist.

Nitrate in saliva

The researchers explain the mechanism of action as follows: Nitrate ingested with food is quickly absorbed in the stomach and the upper small intestine and then transported to the salivary glands via the blood. A good quarter of the ingested nitrate ends up in the saliva from there. In this way, the nitrate concentration in the oral cavity is not only measurably increased while drinking juice, but also afterwards over a longer period of time.

Antibacterial effect

Certain bacteria, which are found in the entire throat area and especially in the spaces between the teeth, convert the nitrate into nitrite. This has an antimicrobial effect and thus directly helps to keep harmful oral germs at bay. In the further process, the nitrite is converted to nitrogen monoxide (NO). This lowers blood pressure, increases blood flow and promotes anti-inflammatory processes in the body.

However, nitrate has had a bad reputation so far. Under certain conditions it is metabolized in the body to nitrosamines - and these are considered to be highly carcinogenic. But this is not always the case: "If vitamin C is also taken in with the nitrate, the formation of nitrosamines does not occur," explains Dr. Ralf Schweiggert, who was also involved in the study.

Vitamin C prevents nitrosamine formation

Unlike when you ingest nitrate through cured meat and sausage products, the intake through vegetables is probably harmless. "Plant-based foods usually contain sufficient amounts of natural vitamin C. That is why we have to assess the nitrate intake from leafy vegetables very differently than we do with cured meat products to which nitrate or nitrite is added," says the scientist.

Studies in recent years have actually observed increasing health-promoting effects when consuming nitrate-rich leafy vegetables. For people with chronic gum problems, the vegetable juice would at least be an option that could be worth trying.

Source: Jockel-Schneider, Y. et al .: Stimulation of the nitrate-nitrite-NO-metabolism by repeated lettuce juice consumption decreases gingival inflammation in periodontal recall patients: a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial; The Journal of Clinical Periodontology, July 2016. doi: 10.1111 / jcpe.12542.

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