The Functional Dentist: New Research Linking Bleeding Gums & Cancer! If You Can't Get It Up, Brush Your Teeth!

Steven Bartlett (0:00)

Is there a link between our oral health and our fertility?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (0:02)

Yes. This is some of the newest research that's coming out. They found that over 90% of men who wasn't able to conceive with their partners had a goral disease. But those who got treated, there was a 70% improvement in pregnancy. Now, researchers also found that if a woman has gum disease, it takes them two months longer to conceive, and I'm the only one who's talking about it.

Steven Bartlett (0:21)

And who are you?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (0:22)

I am the saliva queen.

SPEAKER_3 (0:23)

Dr. Victoria Sampson is the trailblazing dentist whose data-driven research has uncovered the shocking link between our mouths and some of the world's most destructive conditions.

Dr. Victoria Sampson (0:32)

More than 90% of diseases can be traced back to our microbiomes, and we now understand that having an imbalanced oral microbiome increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, Alzheimer's, rheumatoid arthritis, and even men who have gum disease are 2.85 times more likely to have erectile dysfunction.

Steven Bartlett (0:48)

Really?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (0:49)

Yeah. And then another study also showed there's oral bacteria that can make cancer more aggressive and harder to treat as well.

Steven Bartlett (0:55)

But what is it that causes all of this?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (0:57)

Oral hygiene, sugar, stress, but also some of us genetically will have mutations which can cause disease. But there's ways to fix it. For example, I had a patient who had terrible arthritis and terrible gum disease. When I treated the gum disease, her rheumatoid arthritis got better to the point where she was actually able to walk again.

Steven Bartlett (1:14)

Wow.

Dr. Victoria Sampson (1:15)

Yeah.

Steven Bartlett (1:15)

So let's talk about what we can do about it. Is there any time where I shouldn't brush my teeth? Do I spit or rinse after I brush my teeth? What about regular toothpaste, chewing gum, coffee, mouthwash, good or bad for me?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (1:27)

Let's go through all of that. So weirdly-

Steven Bartlett (1:35)

Dr. Victoria Sampson, what is the mission that you're on?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (1:41)

My mission is to show people that the mouth is the gateway to the rest of the body. And if they really want to achieve full body health, it starts with the mouth first.

Steven Bartlett (1:50)

I've never heard of the term oral microbiome, really until I met you and went through all of your work and your research. And I think many people listening to this now also probably aren't familiar with that term, and also the importance of that term. So if you had to make a case to someone like me, who's really unfamiliar with this subject as to why it's so important, from a very top line perspective, what would you say?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (2:14)

I think everyone knows that their gut has a microbiome. And for the past 10 years, we've always talked about how you can change your diet, probiotics, prebiotics for the gut microbiome. But what a lot of people don't understand is that the oral microbiome is the second largest and most diverse microbiome after the gut. It's also a lot easier to change, and actually, it's been shown to have a massive impact on general health. So having an imbalanced oral microbiome increases your risk of oral diseases, like gum disease and decay, but also can increase your risk of other systemic diseases, like high blood pressure, heart disease, infertility, Alzheimer's. And it's something that is so easy to manage and balance.

Steven Bartlett (2:54)

How many people does this impact? And how many people is it relevant to? So an understanding of my oral microbiome is going to help me in a number of ways as it relates to my overall health. But how many people does it really, really have an impact on?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (3:07)

I think it depends on what you're trying to get out of the oral microbiome testing. I would argue that it benefits everyone. We all have teeth. We all have mouths. And everything that we do, every time we breathe, we eat, we drink, we kiss, we are impacting our oral microbiome every single time. And then every time we swallow or we breathe, that bacteria that is putting into our mouth will travel elsewhere to the rest of the body and cause problems elsewhere.

Steven Bartlett (3:33)

You said it's the second biggest microbiome in the body?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (3:36)

Yeah.

Steven Bartlett (3:36)

How many bacteria are in my oral microbiome?

Dr. Victoria Sampson (3:39)

So you have approximately 700 different bacteria which make up 2 billion bacteria overall. And what's also very weird about the oral microbiome compared to any of the other microbiomes is that you've got lots of different environments or niches within the same mouth. So if you think about the bacteria that would like to live under the gums or at the back of your throat or on your teeth, they're all very different environments. Some are hot, cold, wet. And so you've got lots and lots of different parties of bacteria within the same microbiome in the mouth.