Using antiseptic mouthwash can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, a new study has found.
Scientists branded the products, regularly used by half a million Britons, a health “disaster” claiming they raised blood pressure by killing off vital bacteria which helps blood vessels to dilate, the Mail on Sunday reported.
Using Corsodyl, which contains a powerful antiseptic and widely available in stores across the UK, can push up blood pressure within hours, the team discovered after testing it on a group of healthy volunteers.
Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, who led the study, 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.”
When 19 volunteers started using Corsodyl twice a day their blood pressure went up by between 2 and 3.5 units (mmgh).
The differences in blood pressure were apparent “within one day” of the mouthwash being used, the study published in the journal Free Radical Biology And Medicine revealed.
A two-point rise in blood pressure increased the risk of dying from heart disease by seven per cent and stroke by ten per cent, according to separate research.
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