Bleeding gums and other question from a newbie

This topic contains 5 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by dykask 4 years, 6 months ago.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

Zedster

3:50 pm
15 Jul 17
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Hello folks,

I just finished my first fast day and it went fairly painless. But things were strange the next day. First off when I brushed my teeth in the morning I spit out quite a bit of blood. This is not normal. Do others experience this? Should I be worried?

Next question is, what is a fasting day? 24 hours or from your last meal of the day before fast day to first meal the day after, which really means 30-36 hours.

Thanks for any input.

Z

LJoyce

3:55 pm
15 Jul 17
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Hi

I can’t help on the bleeding gums, I’ve never heard of that being connected to 5:2

As to the time period, your second suggestion is right. It’s from your last meal of the day before fast day to first meal the day after, which is approx 36 hours.
If you have a loot at the FAQ link near the top of the screen it gives some more details about this.

Amazon

4:55 pm
15 Jul 17
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Bleeding gums are a sign of either brushing too hard, the need for a toothbrush with softer bristles, sensitive gums or gum disease. They are a coincidence rather than an effect of not eating much for one day.

Zedster

6:41 pm
15 Jul 17
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Amazon, no offense but you are mistaken. It’s the same SOFT bristled toothbrush for a month, I was not brushing differently and this problem has not happened before. Also visit to dentist last month showed no problems. But if you do a Google on this subject you will see that many results come from Muslims during Ramadan (their 30 day fast) and this is a quite common problem for fasting, at least in that community. Most of those questions they are more worried about breaking fast from swallowing too much blood while they slept, than gum problems.

The only other answer I could find is that it is actually the gums repairing themselves and should stop after a short period. But I could not corroborate that anywhere.

HappyNow

10:58 pm
15 Jul 17
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Zed,

I’m afraid Amazon is not mistaken! If you google the causes of bleeding gums it is not fasting, it is gum disease.

Concerns re: Ramadan and fasting appear to relate to whether swallowing blood (from bleeding gums) breaks the fast and not to whether fasting causes gum disease (and bleeding).

The only way you’ll know whether there is a correlation between fasting and bleeding gums (for you) is by continuing to fast and by recording bleeding/ not bleeding.

You don’t say whether you are male or female, or how old, but if you are female then you should be aware that hormonal changes can result in bleeding gums.

I suspect the gums are completely unrelated to fasting; you’re seeing cause and effect where there is none.

dykask

2:52 am
16 Jul 17
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@zedster you should brush your teeth as normal even when fasting. It also doesn’t hurt to brush your tongue to cut down on bad breath. You bleeding could be worse because you are skipping a day of brushing.

The other thing that is really good for bleeding gums is flossing. You should do that at least once a day. That will probably cause a lot of bleeding at first so be too surprised.

Zedster

6:35 am
16 Jul 17
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Okay I will say it one more time. There is nothing wrong with my gums or brushing habits. I was recently to the dentist and no problems. And I did not skip anything.

This morning for example, no fasting day before, no bleeding this morning. I will keep watching this but so far that is a correlation.

Oh and about flossing: https://www.livescience.com/55737-should-you-floss-what-experts-say.html

dykask

9:00 am
16 Jul 17
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@zedster the reason for flossing is that it helps reduce bleeding of the gums. I’ve seen it with my own gums. When I don’t floss, bleeding develops. You would do better to read the actual research papers rather than some article designed to get people reading it so that they get ad impressions.

Right now all you have is just a coincidence, a one time occurrence isn’t a correlation. If you don’t have any gum problems you might have just cut yourself without even knowing it.

If fasting is actually triggering your gums to bleed than it seems likely you have some health issue you don’t know about or a possible diet deficiency. Bleeding gums isn’t normal even when fasting.

dykask

10:41 am
16 Jul 17
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Actually some more thoughts since I did have and bleeding gums some years ago.

1) When gums are bleeding it normally is something that only shows up as pink on the toothbrush or some blood on floss. I even had one spot that required surgery to stop the regression and I never reached a point where I would see blood in the sink.

2) Gum bleeding isn’t something that changes in a day. It slowly develops and it is probably even slower to heal. In my case it took months and even years before my gums looked really healthy to a dentist. In my case I’ve been told by hygienist checking recessions that many of mine are gone or have improved which doesn’t happen too often.

3) I have had bleeding in my throat from a allergy issue multiple times. In that case I often do end up seeing blood in the sink and that often does heal quickly. If you look in the mouth it isn’t possible to tell where the blood is coming from and only know it was my throat because a doctor was able to see it. I’m not saying that is what occurred, it just it isn’t easy to always tell where blood in the mouth is coming from.

However if fasting is causing your gums to bleed, then I would have to say that isn’t normal and you probably have something more going on. The single 36 hour fasts aren’t even that hard of fasts once you can easily sleep though the second night. At least for me when I extend the fast to 60 hours, that second full day is much harder and that is when many of the real impacts from fasting get started. However going past 60 hours gets easy, at least for me. I’m talking about no calorie fasting, I don’t have experience with multiday partial fasts were some food is allowed.

There are such wide variations in people that it possible you have some side effect that very people run into. However you need more than one data point to be able to claim that.

Stephani1972

1:00 am
4 Oct 19
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I was googling this because the same thing happens whenever I water fast. I brush and mouthwash everyday already, but into my 3 or 4th day of fasting my gums bleed when I brush. I haven’t found much on this topic except on muslim sites too. Puzzling.

dykask

1:44 am
4 Oct 19
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3rd or 4th day into a fast … that isn’t 5:2 fasting then. I think that could be a different issue as a lot of physical changes happen by the 3rd day of a water fast. Probably you should check with a dentist but it seems likely there wouldn’t be much of a problem.