Scientists find unexpected connection between mouthwashes and benefits of exercise

An antibacterial mouthwash can adversely affect our physical fitness: using this fluid can reduce the benefits of exercise, as scientists from the British University of Plymouth and colleagues from the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona found out, Free Radical Biology and Medicine reported.

Exercise is good for heart health because it lowers blood pressure. However, this positive effect is greatly reduced when people use mouthwash instead of water, the source noted.

Scientists asked 23 healthy adults to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes, after which the participants in the experiment were monitored for two hours. They had to rinse their mouth with an antibacterial agent or a placebo (peppermint water). Experts also measured the pressure of the participants in the experiment and took saliva and blood samples from them before exercise and 120 minutes after them.

When the participants rinsed the mouth with a placebo, the systolic blood pressure as a result of exercises decreased by more than two times than when using an antibacterial rinse. If antibacterial mouthwash was used, the effect of lowering blood pressure from exercise was 60% lower in the first hour and completely lost within 2 hours.

The authors of the study argue that oral bacteria are very important for the health of the cardiovascular system, therefore, it is undesirable to use antibacterial rinses that disrupt this microflora.