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Choose Health!
Traditionally dentists have concerned themselves with performing procedures to enhance the mechanical aspects of patient teeth, such as fillings, crowns and cosmetic improvements. However, the recent discovery of the connection between general health and periodontal disease, plus the realization that we are dependant upon the patient’s own healing system for the success of our treatment, have enlarged our focus to total health.
Additionally, as a member of our practice, we are concerned for your total well-being and feel it important that we offer you the same information and recommendations regarding health that we would provide for our families and loved ones. In our present too-busy to exercise, junk food and pollution society , without proper guidance, statistics now tell us that 33% of our patients will be stricken with cancer during their lifetime and 50% will have some form of cardiovascular disease by age 50! Yet 70% of this disease is preventable by following the good choices outlined in this letter! We believe it is far better to stay well than to get well.
At your next appointment we would be happy to discuss the steps that you can beneficially take to improve and maintain your health.
A new Look at Disease and Health
Traditionally, western medicine has viewed a patient as a relatively helpless host who has been attacked by a powerful enemy- either a germ, the forming of a cancer cell, or the blockage of an artery. The solution was to provide drugs or surgery to eradicate the enemy from the host. This theory does not explain why even in the worst plague, not everyone died, and some seemed to live right on in spite of the presence of the germs everywhere.
We now understand that rather than being subject to some specific, unusual attack, our bodies are a constant battleground between our “Healing System” and the constant forces of disease.
Our bodies are teeming with bacteria, (many of which are in fact helpful) and in fact the average person has more bacteria on his/here body at any one time than there are people on earth. We are constantly subject to “oxidative stress” which can cause damage to our arteries, eyes and neurological system and cause cancerous growth. We constantly take in toxins (poisons) from contaminants in our environment, food, water and air which our system must eliminate from our body.
Illness is the result of our body’s inability to deal with the enemies. We may look at the body’s defense system as comprising three branches of the armed services, much like the Army, Navy and Air Force defend our country:
The Immune System
Composed of specific cells and a communication system which can find and destroy alien cells such as harmful bacteria and cancerous cells.
The Antioxidant Cascade
Nutrients which we get from our food that repair damaged oxidized cells.
The detox System
Provided mainly by the liver and kidneys to remove foreign substances from the body.
Only when these defense systems become overwhelmed by the attackers is it necessary to resort to drugs and surgery to repair the damage. But in fact our medical procedures do not heal, they just restore balance to the defenders so that the body can heal itself.
According to this “balance model” your health will depend upon what you do to minimize the attackers and support the defenders by the choices that you make every day.
It has been substantiated by a remarkable number of research studies that
Over 70% of all disease, including cancer and heart disease, is preventable and is a matter of the daily choices that you make as an individual.
While modern medicine has created miracle drugs and surgical procedures to attempt to cope with the ever increasing rate of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, why subject yourself to these expensive and painful miracles with their attendant side effects if you don’t have to? Is it better to get well or to stay well?
Choices that will minimize the Attackers
1. Don’t smoke. There is no single factor more deleterious to your health than smoking. It not only subjects you to 43 cancer causing substances and increases oxidative stress, but reduces the effectiveness of your immune system to cope.
2. Do not use alcohol excessively. A glass of wine or beer at dinner is OK. Any more becomes harmful.
3. Keep your weight within normal ranges. Death rates from cancer and heart disease go up directly proportionate to the percentage that you are overweight.
4. Keep your teeth and gums healthy. Periodontal disease greatly increases the chance of heart attack, stroke and others systemic diseases. Seventy % of lost teeth do not have cavities. Good nutrition has a lot to do with how your teeth function.
5. Work to reduce the mental stress in your life. If you can’t, adopt stress reducing practices such as meditation.
6. Avoid refined sugars. When you eat sugar the balance of your body is upset, your immune system is immobilized, food does not digest as well, and your insulin level increases dramatically causing a strain on your pancreas (leading to diabetes) and depositing fat on your body.
Avoiding sugar is harder than it might seem since food processing companies put it in everything to improve taste. One can of soda pop has 10 tsp of sugar and the average American consumes 150 tsp of sugar a day! Read the labels!
7. Avoid refined grain products. Refined white flour and rice are chemically just sugar waiting to happen. These include bread, cake cookies and pasta. It also carries no food value and highly refined grain products actually leach minerals out of the body. Substitute whole grain products wherever possible.
8. Avoid artificial sweeteners. These are just man made poisons taken in small doses that your body must process and eliminate. You are better off with sugar. No one has ever lost weight by consuming diet drinks. 90 different illnesses have been reported to the FDA related to aspartame.
9. Avoid hydrogenated oil products. These include vegetable oils, peanut butter and margarine. The hydrogenation process again changes the composition from food to a chemical non food. It is great for color and shelf life. So is plastic. Substitute Virgin Olive oil for cooking
10. Avoid fried foods. Frying actually changes the chemical composition of the oil and fat to a non- edible making fried fat by far the most dangerous to the body.
11. Avoid carbonated beverages. Carbonic acid actually impairs digestion and absorption of nutrients and even leaches calcium out of the bones of women. Yes even Perrier water.
12. Avoid chlorinated/Tap Water. Drink only purified water. Tap water contains allowable contaminants and chlorinated water kills the beneficial bacteria that help you digest food.
13. Minimized Saturated (animal fats). While a certain amount of fat is essential to heath, animal fats have been associated with higher levels of cancer an heart disease. Substitute non- hydrogenated vegetable sources of fat whenever possible.
14. Minimize Red Meat- is higher in calories and can contain cancer linked N-Nitroso compounds. Especially limit preserved meat such as ham, bacon, corned beef and salami. Substitute chicken or fish often.
15. Avoid processed, manufactured foods and the microwave. These wonderful TV dinners contain lists of chemicals and sodium. Microwaving them can also change the chemical structure of the food. Canned fruits and vegetables contain gobs of sugars and preservatives.
Now let’s go out and enjoy our last pepperoni pizza and slice of cake.
Support the Defenders
Exercise- improves your heart function, supports your immune system, reduces the risk of cancer, improves your mental outlook and is vital if you are to maintain a healthy weight.
Virtually any program that you will stick with is acceptable, it does not have to be strenuous or unpleasant. Walking 20-40 minutes a day will be adequate for most people. Those who wish to lose weight will want to add some weight training to increase muscle mass. Very strenuous activity can actually be destructive and increase oxidation.
Oral Hygiene- Follow our recommendations for brushing, flossing and use of special toothpaste and oral rinse to keep your gums healthy. If you have signs of periodontal disease we will address that immediately in your treatment plan.
Water- drinking 6-8 glasses of purified water per day will help the body eliminate toxins, shed fat, and substitutes for other things you might snack on which add calories. There is very little else you can drink that is good for you and doesn’t contain too much sugar, caffeine or carbonation.
Good Fats- fat is essential for good health and should make up about 30% of calories consumed. Cold weather fish such as salmon contain Omega3 Fatty acids that are beneficial to both the immune and circulatory systems. Monounsaturated fats from Virgin Olive oil, avocados, nuts, beans and flax seed oil, improve heart function as well as supplying the fat needed for brain, connective tissue and body health.
Fruits and vegetables
Would ideally make up 80 % of a person’s diet, preferably fresh and uncooked. These contain the enzymes, vitamins and minerals needed to support the immune system and antioxidant cascade as well as the enzymes for good digestion. It is clear that eating 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, as proposed by the American Cancer Society, will cut cancer risk..
Some caveats: what nature maketh man will despoil. Cooking and canning destroys the natural enzymes and canned fruits often contain extra sugar. Unless you buy organically grown vegetables, peel off the skin to avoid pesticides.
Soy substitutes
You can purchase soy products as a substitute for animal protein. These include soy milk, cheese, ice cream, and snacks. Asian women with a diet high in soy have fewer problems with menopause, heart disease and breast cancer.
Supplements.
To attain levels of optimum nutrition, food supplements will be required in today’s environment for three reasons:
1. Very few in our hustle bustle fast food world are getting the recommended daily allowance of most vitamins an minerals let alone 5-7 servings of fruits and veggies per day.
2. Our farming methods have depleted the soil of nutrients and the vegetables of today do not contain the nutrients of yesterday.
3. Studies which demonstrate the effectiveness of vitamins and anti-oxidants in reducing heart disease and cancer show the value of levels many times the recommended daily allowances.
About Supplements
While 180 million Americans are regularly using vitamin supplements their usage is for the most part unscientific, wasteful and may even be dangerous.
While thousands of studies show the dangers of vitamin deficiencies and the benefits of adequate intake, the studies are often based upon dietary intake from food. Industry attempts to provide these nutrients at a minimum cost in the laboratory, which causes potential problems with actual absorption of the vitamins and minerals into the system.
It is most often impossible to produce compounds in the laboratory which are identical to those in nature, and even more important, while we may recognize certain chemicals such as ascorbic acid or d-alpha tocopheryl as the main ingredient in a vitamin, most require a complex combination of supporting vitamins and minerals in specific balanced proportions to be effective.
Minerals cannot be absorbed in raw form and are best chelated or attached to a protein to be absorbed fully into the system.
Just ingesting high doses of a vitamin may actually be harmful. Since the vitamin requires supporting nutrients to be absorbed, a high dose of the single vitamin may actually deplete the system of the supporting nutrients needed for its’ own absorption.
The Ideal Health Systems the scientific based approach to supplementation that we now suggest for our families
and Practice Members.
The Ideal Health system begins with the Privatest to determine the current balance in your system of attackers and defenders as we have discussed above.
Test One- Lipid Peroxides- determines how you are doing in the battle between oxidative stress and your anti-oxidant defenders.
Test two- sulfates- determines how your detox system is functioning
Test three-nitrates- evaluates your immune, nervous and cardiovascular system.
The good news is that you do not need to make a trip to a laboratory, the tests are prepared using a home kit and then sent Federal Express to the laboratory for processing. Additionally, for those with special needs we may recommend the OsteoTest to understand how your bone is replenishing itself, which can head off Osteoporosis well before it would be indicated by a bone scan, the StressTest to understand how your body is handling stress and the AllerTest to define problems connected with food allergies.
The results of your tests along with your age and sex are combined to create an optimum formulation of up to sixty nutrients- vitamins, minerals, herbs and amino acids specifically for you. These are then delivered monthly to your door in daily use packs of six capsules each.
It would normally take several bottles of supplements to equal the list of nutrients from which your custom essentials are selected according to need:
Alpha-Ketoglutarate, Beta Carotene (with mixed carotenoids), Bioflavinoids,
Boitin, Boron, Calcium, Choline Binitrate, Chromium GTF, CoEnzymeQ-10, Copper Folic Acid, Ginkgo Biloba, Grape Seed and skin extract, Inositol Betaine HCL, Iron (ferronyl), L- Glutathione, L-Argenine , L-Aspartate of Magnesium, L-Glycine, L-Lysine.L-Ornithine, Lipolic Acid,L-Succinate of Magnesium, L-Taurine, Magnesium, Manganese, Milk Thistle (Silymarin), Molybdenum, N-acetyl-L-Cysteine, Potassium ,Saw Palmetto, Selenium, Vanadium, Vitamin A (Palmitate),Vitamin B-1 (Thiamine Mononitrate),Vitamin B-12 (Cyanocobalumin), Vitamin B-2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B-3 as Niacinamide, Vitamin B-5 (d-calcium Pantothenate), iodine (kelp), Vitamin B-6 (Pyridoxine HCL), Vitamin C,Vitamin D-3, Vitamin E with mixed tocopherols (d-alpha, d-beta, d-delta, d-gamma), Zinc.
We feel comfortable recommending this program for all of our patients because of the cost effective pricing: The lab tests, which would normally be priced at over $300 for the three tests are only $79.50 and the supplements which might be typically $150+ for a custom formulation is only $55.95 per month. You will no doubt find many supplements you are now taking included in the list above, as well as many you did not know the value of.
Therefore by adding an additional $2 per day to your food bill you are assuring your self that you are getting the complete nutrition that you need each day.
The PrivaTests are repeated every nine months, which allows you to see your progress toward ideal health, and allows the lab to adjust your formula to the new results.
Situations where we would strongly recommend this program of testing and supplements:
While it would be a rare person in today’s world who would not benefit from optimum nutrition, the following groups have special needs:
Patients undergoing Long term treatment including Periodontics, Orthodontics and implants: In these cases there is a great demand placed upon the system for constant healing. Repeated testing to assess the strength of the immune as well as immune system support would be important for treatment success..
Patients Prone to cavities- may be in part due to vitamin deficiency
Patients who have exposure to metals- including those with extensive silver fillings and braces. This places demands on the detox system, which should be evaluated and supported..
Denture Wearers- may be avoiding the healthiest foods and not digesting their food completely.
The Aging- As we age we actually do not absorb nutrients from our food as well. Additionally there is greater concern regarding cancer and heart disease and illness. A strong immune system is vital.
Teen Agers- While many just joke about our teen-agers Big Mac Fries and a Malt diet, and would agree with the statistic that 94% of teens have a poor diet it, is not a laughing matter. Teens actually have a greater need for good nutrition than most of us. They are in their greatest period of growth and development, participate in competitive sports, and have great social stress being essentially tested every day. They need all the help they can get. Repeated testing for oxidative stress would be highly important at this time.
Smokers- While we strongly encourage smokers to stop, smoking debilitates the immune system. Testing for oxidative stress and detox ability, as well as support of those systems would be vital.
Patients who are overweight. While most Americans consider themselves at least a little overweight, the rate of obesity is increasing at alarming rates. The death rates from cancer, heart disease and diabetes go up directly with deviations from normal weight. Claims and counter claims of high carb vs low carb diets are confusing and getting the weight of permanently is a major challenge
The same company that offers the Privatest and Custom Essentials also offers the FitTest to determine the optimum carbohydrate balance for you as a function of your insulin sensitivity. They then prepare a personalized eating plan for you as well as supplements (FitCaps) targeted to your specific carb level.
We feel that this is the most scientifically valid program available today. If you are overweight and have a diet/exercise program that is working please stick with it. If you have tried other programs and failed, or have not tried at all we strongly suggest the FitTest/FitCaps system.
Juice Plus+ When You Can’t Get your 5-7 servings
of Fruits and Vegetables Every Day.
Antioxidants fight cancer, heart disease, aging, Macular Degeneration and nearly all degenerative diseases. Fresh Fruits & Vegetables are the best sources of the antioxidants that we know of and in fact have been shown to contain over 14,000 beneficial nutrients.
A remarkable product, Juice Plus+, has been shown to be the equivalent of 17 fruits & vegetables daily. Their process actually grinds up fresh fruits and vegetables (over six pounds) with a process that reduces them to powdered form without losing any of the fresh goodness and enzymes, but eliminating the negatives such as sugar an pesticides. The cost is less than $1.50 per day.
Juice Plus has been available for years through special outlets including medical providers and has very impressive research behind it showing it’s equivalence to fresh fruits and vegetables as well as the positive effect on the immune system and reducing the oxidation leading to degenerative diseases.
We believe everyone should take it, but we specially recommend it for :
Patients at Risk for Cancer or Heart Disease, those where the Privatest shows a
high lipid peroxide level, Children with poor diet (which is 90% of them) and the aging, especially denture wearers who avoid the difficult to chew foods such as Apples.
We would be happy to discuss these alternatives with you at your next appointment in our office.