Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology - research by Nathan Bryan, PhD & Associates

March 2019

AMANO has been making the case for tongue cleaning for 25 years, not just for sound oral care reasons, but also for our overall health.

This new research focuses on reducing blood pressure by increasing Nitric Oxide production.

It represents the icing on our benefits of tongue cleaning cake:

"Frequency of Tongue Cleaning Impacts the Human Tongue Microbiome Composition and Enterosalivary Circulation of Nitrate

The oral microbiome has the potential to provide an important symbiotic function in human blood pressure physiology by contributing to the generation of Nitric Oxide (NO), an essential cardiovascular signalling molecule.

Oral microbial communities are proposed to supplement host NO production by reducing dietary nitrate to nitrite via bacterial nitrate reductases. Unreduced dietary nitrate is delivered to the oral cavity in saliva, a physiological process termed the enterosalivary circulation of nitrate.

Tongue cleaning frequency was a predictor of changes in systolic blood pressure and tongue microbiome composition.

These data suggest that management of the tongue microbiome by regular cleaning together with adequate dietary intake of nitrate provide an opportunity for the improvement of resting systolic blood pressure.

Thus, regular tongue hygiene both selects for a favourable microbiome and “revs up” the activity of the community.

 (In Conclusion) From our analysis, regular tongue cleaning results in a tongue microbiome that has a greater ability to reduce nitrite to NO, and conversely, failure to clean the tongue daily results in a microbiome composition that is less favourable to NO production."