#8 I AM DETERMINED TO LEARN WHAT TRUE HUMAN HEALTH MEANS

THE MOUTH IS THE WINDOW TO YOUR HEALTH!

            Wow, what a crazy month.  Launching this BLOG has turned out to be one of the most fun and interesting things I have ever done.  It took a lot more time and effort than I had anticipated but I feel that I am doing something really good for the health of my patients and mankind.  I am a firm believer that we doctors (The word means teacher) of all kinds need to do more teaching and less treating and I’m hoping this blog will help us all to be more responsible and learn what works for you, your body and your lifestyle.  Once I got on the PALEO DIET and my chest pains went away, lost weight, sleep apnea gone, arthritis better, nasal allergies better etc. and all in just a few weeks, I knew I was on to something.  I’m sure that the PALEO DIET is not for everyone (Nothing ever is) but I’m convinced that probably 80% of the population who tried it would find a lot of improvements as I have.

For those of you who know me well you know that I have always been searching for something better when it comes to my health.  I have always exercised and my wife has always cooked really well but once I started having chest pain it became a totally different ball game.  My Dentist/doctor side kicked in and I was determined to learn what was wrong with me and then the more I studied I was determined that I wanted to learn what true human health means and how long can we go.

I rapidly learned that caveman did a lot better than most Americans as he basically had NO decay, gum disease, heart attacks, stroke and cancer!  I already knew that the mouth is the Window to your Health but I was missing how Caveman could do so well when he had no toothbrush, floss dentist or physician!  The more I studied caveman and found out that he had a different kind of tartar than we do then I started to focus on why.  Come to find out, it’s all because he was feeding the good bugs in his mouth better than I was.  So in my mind, I could floss better and eat PALEO and then my mouth should be better than his.  That is exactly what happened and now I have less tartar and my cleanings seem so much easier than before.  You see, the PALEO DIET feeds the good bugs and not the bad bugs.

When researchers go back and study the mouth of the caveman they are have been able to determine several things.  First of all they can still remove tartar from his teeth and analyze it.  He had very little and very different tartar than we do.  They can even tell what kind of germs lived in his mouth.  And guess what?  Basically caveman had no decay and no gum disease.  That has always intrigued me.  How can he live for 90 years and have no decay or gum disease.  As we are all finding out these days THE MOUTH IS THE WINDOW TO YOUR HEALTH and many conditions or diseases are linked in some way to the mouth and the bacteria that live there.  What is the difference between the bacteria of caveman and the bacteria of modern man?  I believe this is where MANY of our problems began and continue today.

Caveman had a lot of the same bacteria we have MINUS most of the bad bacteria that we have.  In other words, he had a lot of the good harmless bacteria and very little of bad disease causing bacteria.  So there has been lots of research as to why this is and it’s that 4 letter word again-DIET.  Caveman had no sugar, no dairy and no grains.  His everyday routine was HUNT, FISH, GATHER OR PLUCK and most of his liquid was water.  There is some research that he allowed some fruits and vegetables to ferment and that he drank that liquid (basically wine) when available.  Somewhere along the way he started to learn to farm.  There are estimates that this was about 10,000 years ago depending upon climate and location.  As soon as this started to happen we began to see decay, gum disease, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.  In my research there are multiple tribal groups around the world today that live and eat like caveman and their health mimics Caveman.  If they leave their tribe and join modern society, in a very short period of time they start have modern diseases.  AMAZING.

So if we wanted to mimic the Caveman diet what would that be?  In today’s world we call it the CAVEMEN DIET or the PALEO DIET.  Tom Brady, the Patriots quarterback is promoting this but calls it the TB12 diet. The Paleo diet is a nutritional lifestyle that focuses on eating only foods that are unprocessed, high in nutrients and that would have been available to humans in the Paleolithic times.  This is before farming, agriculture, domestication of animals and food processing.  Essentially, humans cannot digest and use for energy many modern foods-for example grains (bread and crackers), dairy (milk and cheese), sugar (caveman had some honey but unprocessed or raw honey) and beans (very few beans grew in abundance).  So basically the diet consists of a protein like grass-fed/finished (not fattened up in a feed lot with hormones and antibiotics) beef, wild caught fish or seafood (not farm raised), free range (not raised in a cage), chicken, eggs, hogs, lamb etc., minimally processed fats (such as avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, macadamia oil), nuts, seeds, organic (no pesticides, preservatives, additives etc.) non starchy fruits and vegetables (avocado, greens, celery, cucumber, squash and asparagus).  And of course everything he ate was organic.

SUMMARY-As you can see, THE MOUTH IS THE WINDOW TO YOUR HEALTH!  In my opinion, over the next few years we will see many more connections between the bad germs that cause gum disease and many other systemic diseases or conditions.  The paleo diet does not feed these bacteria and therefore your chance of getting gum disease is greatly diminished.  Also by not feeding the bad bacteria then many other parts of your body will improve and be healthier.  DON’T FEED THE BAD BUGS, FLOSS & BRUSH!