This easy practice might be the best way to avoid pneumonia!

If you’ve ever had a brush with pneumonia, you know how scary it can be.

It’s actually one of the top reasons people land in the hospital. Plus that, as we age a bout of pneumonia becomes even more dangerous.

So if there was something we could do to tip the odds in our favor of not coming down with this potentially fatal lung infection, we would do it, right?

Well, it turns out there is.

And it won’t take much of your time – actually, you only need to do it twice a year!

The mouth-lung connection

If you think I’m going to recommend you run out and get one – or both – of those pneumonia vaccines, well, I’m positively not! In fact, I have a few things to say about those shots that I’ll tell you in a minute.

But first, the big news about preventing pneumonia comes from a recent study of over 26,000 people, conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers.

What they discovered is a startling connection between the frequency of dental checkups and the occurrence of bacterial pneumonia. That’s right, a good old-fashioned visit to your dentist where he checks your mouth and a hygienist cleans your teeth can keep pneumonia at bay.

And not by a small amount, either.

Those who shun the dentist were almost 90 percent more likely to come down with bacterial pneumonia compared to people who make it a habit to see their dentist twice a year.

And those findings reinforce what experts have suspected to be true for some time.

That’s because there’s a definite connection between the bacteria in our mouth and what ends up in our lungs. And if you have any kind of lung or breathing condition, keeping your mouth in good shape is even more important.

But lung infections aren’t the only health problems that might result from neglecting your teeth and gums.

Back in August, I told you about a study out of Finland that focused on hidden infections in the root tip of a tooth, something that can only be found by your dentist or hygienist. And those infections can almost triple your risk of coronary artery disease!

That study also found they can produce high levels of antibodies in the blood that are associated with common bacteria. And this type of infection could well affect other parts of your body.

Now, if you’re wondering about those pneumonia shots, two years ago the CDC decided that seniors shouldn’t just get one, but two!

Apparently it didn’t think the first one was actually working, so it added another called Prevnar 13 to the list for those over 65.

Prevnar 13 started out as a vaccine for infants and children, and at the time the CDC started pushing it for seniors, it had no idea if they even needed it. The agency said it will get back to us in 2018 and let us know!

Since then, Pfizer has been scrambling to get its studies in. But what we do know about the shot is that in kids, it’s linked to seizures, lung infections, stomach inflammation and pneumonia – yes pneumonia.

For adults it’s been linked to “vaccine-type pneumonia,” hundreds of “serious adverse events,” and deaths — over 3,000.

But no matter how they try to spin these shots, they’re dicey propositions. Routine dental checkups, however, are easy ways to keep your lungs healthy and your sleeves rolled down!

“Dental cleanings may help keep lungs clean too” Robert Preidt, October 27, 2016, WebMd, webmd.com