Smile, couch potatoes… too much exercise rots your teeth
IF you avoid the gym, here’s something to smile about: Exercise rots the teeth.
A study has found that amateur athletes had worse teeth than those who didn’t exercise regularly. The more exercise the sporty types took part in, the more decayed, missing or filled teeth they had.
And it wasn’t even sugary sports drinks causing the damage. Instead, exercise itself appeared to be at the root of the problem.
It is thought that intensive exercise erodes teeth by changing the chemistry of saliva.
The warning comes from German researchers who compared the oral health, exercise habits and diet of 35 amateur tri-athletes and 35 people who didn’t exercise.
The couch potatoes had better teeth, the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports reports. Fifteen athletes were put through their paces on a running track and their saliva analysed. Before they began, it was the same as the couch potatoes’ saliva, but afterwards it was more alkaline.
University Hospital Heidelberg researcher Cornelia Frese said saliva helps protect teeth – and having too little of it or more alkaline saliva could leave teeth less protected, which leads to long-term damage.
But she added that she can’t be sure small amounts of exercise damage teeth. The athletes in the study took part in endurance running, swimming and cycling for an average of nine hours a week.