CDC NHANES Study · 9,660 Americans

Your oral bacteria show up
in your blood.

The bacteria in your mouth track with markers in your bloodstream. A single diversity score does not. This library walks through what each organism does, what it has been associated with, and what’s actually known about shifting it.

9,848
People in the dataset
Specific bacteria showed signals across the dataset. Diversity score alone did not.

Why your mouth shows up in your bloodwork.

Vegetables are associated with lower blood pressure partly because the bacteria on your tongue convert their nitrate into nitric oxide — a molecule your blood vessels use to stay flexible. Without the right bacteria, the conversion runs less efficiently.

Bacteria from your gums enter your bloodstream briefly every time you eat or brush. Population research has linked persistent gum inflammation with higher inflammation markers in blood, and oral bacteria have been recovered from arterial plaque, brain tissue, and other distant sites in published studies.

Your mouth is the upstream signal. Your blood and sleep are downstream. This library is the connection between what’s in your mouth and what shows up in your numbers.

This information is for wellness purposes only and is not a medical assessment. Always consult a medical professional about any health concerns.

How to read this library

Each bacterium has its own page. On it you’ll find what the bacterium is, what population research has associated it with, what the literature suggests about shifting it, and what’s still uncertain.

The categories below describe what the research says about each group. They are not statements about your individual results.

Disease-associatedResearch links higher levels with gum disease and systemic inflammation
Health-associatedResearch links higher levels with healthier markers
Nitrate-reducingConvert dietary nitrate into nitric oxide, a molecule your blood vessels use
Cavity-associatedResearch links these to tooth decay
Context-dependentThe role shifts with the surrounding community

A bacterium being in the “disease-associated” group does not mean any amount of it is bad. Most of these organisms are part of a healthy mouth at low levels. What the research focuses on is balance, and how persistent any imbalance is over time. Your oral panel and a medical professional can help you make sense of what you see in your own results.

The bacteria library

Good bacteriaContext dependentCaries

Actinomyces

An early biofilm colonizer that builds the foundation for the rest of the oral community

Good bacteriaContext dependent

Cardiobacterium

A common oral commensal that's rarely a concern

Good bacteriaContext dependent

Cardiobacterium hominis

The common oral Cardiobacterium

ProtectiveGood bacteriaNitrate reducer

Corynebacterium

The structural pillar of healthy dental plaque

Good bacteriahealth_associated

Corynebacterium matruchotii

The biofilm scaffold bacterium

ProtectiveGood bacteria

Granulicatella

A core oral commensal found at essentially every site in the mouth

Nitrate reducerProtectiveGood bacteria

Haemophilus

A health-associated genus and one of the bacteria that makes your mouth distinctively yours

Good bacteriaNitrate reducerContext dependent

Haemophilus parainfluenzae

The dominant oral Haemophilus, a major nitrate reducer

Nitrate reducerProtectiveGood bacteria

Lautropia

A low-abundance health-associated commensal that travels with the broader aerobic community

Nitrate reducerProtectiveContext dependent

Neisseria

A nitrate-reducing health-associated genus with the strongest dietary-nitrate response

Context dependentPeriodontal pathogenGood bacteria

Porphyromonas

A genus that contains both gum-disease pathogens and health-associated commensals

Periodontal pathogenInflammatory

Porphyromonas gingivalis

The classic gum-disease bacterium

Good bacteriahealth_associated

Porphyromonas pasteri

The healthy Porphyromonas

Nitrate reducerProtective

Rothia

A nitrate-reducing health-associated genus

ProtectiveGood bacteriaNitrate reducer

Rothia mucilaginosa

The dominant Rothia species, a major nitrate reducer

Context dependentGood bacteria

Streptococcus

A diverse genus spanning protective and cavity-causing species

CariesInflammatory

Streptococcus mutans

The classic cavity-causing bacterium

ProtectiveGood bacteria

Streptococcus salivarius

A dominant healthy oral commensal and the basis of the K12 probiotic

ProtectiveGood bacteria

Streptococcus sanguinis

A health-associated early colonizer that antagonizes Streptococcus mutans

Context dependentCariesMetabolic

Veillonella

A complicated genus that does not fit cleanly into "good" or "bad"

Good bacteriaContext dependent

Veillonella atypica

A common Veillonella species, hydrogen sulfide producer

Good bacteriaContext dependentNitrate reducer

Veillonella parvula

A lactate-using anaerobe and partial nitrate reducer

Showing 22 of 22bacteria · More publishing weekly

Where will you sit?

Order a kit, send it in, and you’ll see where each of your bacteria sits in the CDC dataset of nearly 10,000 Americans — alongside what’s known about that range.

Order a kit →

How this library was built

01
The dataset

The CDC’s NHANES survey sequenced the mouth bacteria of 9,660 Americans between 2009 and 2012, using the same 16S rRNA technology your kit uses. It remains the largest nationally representative oral microbiome study in the U.S.

02
The analysis

Oral microbiome data was linked to blood marker files for 9,848 participants, and correlations were tested between specific bacteria and markers across inflammation, lipids, blood sugar, and blood pressure.

03
The library

For each bacterium with a meaningful signal in the data or a substantial body of research behind it, we synthesized the published literature into a page. Every claim is cited. The library is updated as new evidence appears.

Honest framing

What you’ll see in this library are associations from population research. They are not predictions about your individual future. Effect sizes in this kind of research are small (correlations in the 0.03–0.09 range are typical for population-level microbiome studies), and a high or low number for any single bacterium is one signal among many. A medical professional can help you understand what your results mean for you.

See where your bacteria sit.

Order a kit →

Analysis: Oravi · Dataset: NHANES 2009–2012 · Spearman rank correlations on log-transformed genus relative abundances