Mouthwash Might Block Excercise's Blood Pressure Benefit

Saanvi Araav - Sep 06, 2019

The effect of exercise could be reduced if you use antibacterial mouthwash, which is quite common these days

Exercise contributes to the great effect of lowering the blood-pressure in the period after the physical activity. However, that effect could be reduced if you use antibacterial mouthwash which is quite common these days.

This discovery comes from the study of a university in the U.S. The researchers has conducted this study on two groups of people who, after exercising, one group used antibacterial mouthwash while the other was given normal mint-favor water.

mouthwash-excercise — Exercising is of great health benefit to lower your high blood pressure

Exercising is of great health benefit to lower your high blood pressure. In fact, it is a key measure to protect against heart disease and other conditions. The Heart Association in America recommends various lifestyle changes to address the issue of high blood pressure. One of them is to increase physical activity and reduce salt intake.

Post-Exercise Hypotension

This new study also explained how doing exercise will trigger post-exercise hypotension. Basically, nitric oxide will cause our blood vessels to dilate, thus improving the flow of blood to our muscles while we are doing physical activities. Nitric oxide then turns into nitrate, which plays a very important role in delivering the post-exercise hypotension effect.

The salivary in our mouth then absorb that precious nitrate. In our saliva, the nitrate interacts with a type of beneficial bacterias. These bacterias will then convert the nitrate into nitrite, which we will later swallow. Then as nitric oxide, the molecules find their way into our blood circulation and help to increase the dilation of our blood vessel, thus lowering our blood pressure.

The Study's Method

This study's researchers have worked to find out if antibacterial mouthwash harms the bacteria which transform nitrate into nitrite, which is the key to the post-exercise hypotension benefit. To conduct the research, they asked 23 adults to run on the treadmill on two occasions.

mouthwash-bacteria — This study's researchers have worked to find out if antibacterial mouthwash harms the bacteria which transform nitrate into nitrite

After the exercise session, the team observed the adults for 2 hours; during that time, they ask the adults to used either antibacterial mouthwash or normal mint flavor water.

The team took saliva and blood sample of the participants before the exercise and two hours after. They also gather the participants' blood pressure data. The team found out that the group who used mouthwash showed an average decrease of -2.0 mmHg in blood pressure one hour after the exercise. But, the participants with normal mint-favor water showed an even greater average reduction of -5.2 mmHg.