The Sunday Mail reports: Using mouthwash is a ‘disaster’ for health, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes, scientists are warning.

Swilling kills off ‘good’ bacteria that help blood vessels relax – so increasing blood pressure.

When healthy volunteers used Corsodyl, a brand containing a powerful antiseptic, their blood pressure rose within hours.

Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, who led the study, last night condemned the widespread use of antiseptic mouthwash.

She said: ‘Killing off all these bugs each day is a disaster, when small rises in blood pressure have significant impact on morbidity and mortality from heart disease and stroke.’

More than half of British adults regularly use mouthwash, creating a market worth £180 million a year.

The study compared blood pressure levels in 19 healthy volunteers who started using Corsodyl twice daily. Their blood pressure rose by between 2 and 3.5 units (mmgh).

This effect ‘appeared within one day’ of using the mouthwash, researchers wrote in the journal Free Radical Biology And Medicine.

For each two-point rise in blood pressure, the risk of dying from heart disease rises by seven per cent, according to separate research. Such a rise also increases the risk of dying from stroke by ten per cent. [Continue reading…]