- Gum Disease, and Heart Disease.

"We have pretty convincing epidemilogical data showing an association between gum diesase and heart disease" said Robert Genco, chairman of oral biology at the State University of New York at Buffalo's School of Dental Medicine. Over the past decade, he said, six studies in large groups ranging from Harvard physicians to military veterans to Pima Indians have suggested that gum disease and heart disease go together. Yet correlation is not causation, as the scientists warn. Most people who fly the Concorde, for example, are wealthy. But that doesn't mean flying the Concorde will make you rich. Evidence of a causal link between gum disease and heart disease remains inconclusive. 'Each of these studies have strengths and each has weakenesses' Genco said, 'None shows causation.' Still, the findings are intriguing because of their consistency, he said."

Don Colburn, Can You Floss Away Heart Disease? in Washington Post, April, 4, 2000