The Diabetes-Gum Disease Connection

Good oral hygiene helps prevent tooth decay and gum disease, but the health of your mouth may have a big impact on the rest of your body too—especially if you have diabetes.

Ira Lamster of Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, George W. Taylor of the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, and endocrinologist Pamela Allweiss of the Centers for Disease Control discuss why diabetes increases the risk for gum disease and how gum disease makes it difficult to control diabetes in this special edition podcast, presented by The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science at the New York Academy of Sciences.

This podcast is produced in conjunction with Diabetes and Oral Disease: Implications for Health Professionals, a conference being held on May 4, 2011 at the New York Academy of Sciences.

This podcast is also part of the Academy's Translational Medicine Initiative, sponsored by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation and the Mushett Family Foundation.