Reversing Tooth Decay with Good Diet

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/03/reversing-tooth-decay.html

by kortina • 17 years ago

111 65 17 years ago

wholehealthsource.blogspot.com

Femur6• 17 years ago

Great article.

The fact that teeth could heal themselves was unknown to me for quite some time. I thought that if you had a cavity, you had to have it filled.

I used to have horrid teeth (and the diet to match). I stopped drinking soda and my dentist recommended a product called Recaldent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recaldent). This concentrated paste helped most of my teeth strengthen and recalcify.

tigerthink2• 17 years ago

You ate a paste that straightened your teeth?

Femur6• 17 years ago

I did not eat the paste. I applied the paste to my teeth with my finger and let it set for approximately 30 minutes. I did this once a day for several months right before I went to bed.

ryanwaggoner• 17 years ago

I don't see where he says anything about straightening.

Retric• 17 years ago

strengthen: To make strong or increase the strength of.

It looks like straighten but it's a different word.

seren6ipity• 17 years ago

My mom grew her tooth back after it was extracted due to excessive decay. We thought it was just an anomaly.

ph0rque3• 17 years ago

This sounds great... maybe we'll be able to avoid spending $12k to get my wife's teeth fixed (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=454040).

rms• 17 years ago

Replied to your thread with this link: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/12/20/121018/65

ph0rque3• 17 years ago

Thanks!

tokenadult3• 17 years ago

"These data were first published in 1924. Why has such a major medical finding, published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, faded into obscurity?"

Possibly because the reported research results were not replicated? I wish I had the citation at hand for a finding that 50 percent or more of all medical research findings published in top peer-reviewed journals end up not being replicated. But perhaps that finding can be found in one of the sources cited in Peter Norvig's excellent article about analyzing scientific research papers,

http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html

which I recommend readers of this thread check as they consider the claims made in the submitted blog post.

After edit: Another problem at the practical level is that it may very well be that a diet optimal for recalcification of teeth (there is no controversy at all that teeth can recalcify throughout life, that's the point of fluoride treatments, but the question is by how much) may not be optimal for cardiovascular health or some other aspect of your health that is important to you. The way human evolution works is that all of your body parts are fitted by haphazard adaptation from ancestral patterns using available materials in an environment of biochemical trade-offs, and it may be a better trade-off to have teeth that decay after reproductive age and a heart that keeps beating longer than to have teeth that never need to have cavities filled. That would have to be the subject of further research, to see which diet is optimal overall. (Yes, I am aware that some research tends to show that good dental hygiene contributes to good cardiovascular health, with the hypothesized mechanism being that infected gums allow bacteria to enter the bloodstream and cause inflammation of the heart's blood vessels.)

Femur6• 17 years ago

I would posit that the diet presented in the article not only contributes to good dental health but also would contribute to good cardiovascular health.

The diet is low on refined carbohydrates (which lead to heart disease http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-...) and rich in vitamins.

triplefox• 17 years ago

Interesting that you mention that given that dental health is already directly linked to cardiovascular health, via incidence of inflammation and gum disease.

electromagnetic4• 17 years ago

It also corresponds to what I've read before, that a high-meat (not pure protein, but diets inclusive of bone marrows or organs like liver and stuff generally found in pâtés) and high animal fat diet can almost completely prevent the development of diabetes, and can actually get diabetics off of insulin.

I believe the theory is, is that the body uses insulin to convert glucose to glycogen, AKA 'animal starch', and every other effect (that I'm aware of) it has on the body is not considered good. Example: It promotes triglyceride production from fatty acids (high triglycerides are usually a big factor in heart disease), and decreases the metabolism of fats (I think everyone wants this one high), proteins and reduces gluconeogenesis, which can exacerbate lactose intolerance in some people.

Everything more complex than raw glucose doesn't require insulin. That's why the body largely doesn't react to fructose (which is a result of our ancestry, primates largely live in a symbiosis with the trees they feed off because larger animals like Elephants frequently kill the trees in the process of foraging, but shrieking monkeys tend to stop them) so that we do consume more of it. I think it also helps that foods high in fructose (IE fruits) are generally also high in vitamins. I mean some of the recommended RDA's for vitamin C are actually around 6,000-12,000 mg a day (30,000 mg if you're sick). Basically from what I understand, if you look at our close relatives diets (which are very similar to our ancestors diets) they essentially eat 1:1 ratio of vitamin C (in mg) to kcals. So an adult male should eat 2,500 mg of vitamin C and 2,500 kcals. Incidentally vitamin C is used in the body to produce carnitine, which moves fatty acids into the mitochondria to produce ATP.

Your average goat produces around 13,000 mg of vitamin C in normal health through biosynthesis, which has to make you wonder about WHO's RDA of 45 mg a day if a goat produces 290 times that amount. We, unfortunately don't biosynthesise vitamin C.

dejb2• 17 years ago

Study after study has shown that read meat increases the chances of dying early, both from cardiovascular problems and cancer. Just one of the recent studies :-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03...

How much clearer do you need the evidence to be?

sci• 17 years ago

There's a reasonable amount of evidence that following (generally) a diet as outlined in the article would be beneficial to one's health across the spectrum. Google 'paleolithic diet' (alternative spelling, 'palaeolithic') for further information.

tokenadult3• 17 years ago

The best book about life in Paleolithic days is The Nature of Paleolithic Art by R. Dale Guthrie,

http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Paleolithic-Art-Dale-Guthrie/dp...

who is a professor of zoology specializing in Paleolithic fauna and an accomplished artist and bow hunter. He cites all the best primary research literature on Paleolithic life in the notes in his book. One fact Guthrie points out is that the lifespan for Paleolithic Homo sapiens was only forty years.

Ardit205• 17 years ago

Is that the diet about not eating bread or pasta or rice because the hunter gathers did not eat those foods?

See, if evolution is about the survival of the fittest, then would have not those hunter-gathers who got unhealthy because of eating pasta not pass on their genes?

What I mean is: have we stopped evolving since hunter- gathering times?

biohacker425• 17 years ago

Your comment is the only reason I'm not flagging that article. It's not spam, it's just so very wrong.

Femur6• 17 years ago

Why is the article wrong?

grandalf• 17 years ago

The article is FULL of logic problems... I can't believe anyone would take it remotely seriously.

pygy• 17 years ago

After some research, it apears that May and Edward Melanby were published several times in high profile, peer reviewed journals (BMJ, the Lancet) on the topic of the impact of nutrition on health.

Looking at the citations, it seems that the effect of diet on tooth healing have been forgotten more than disporoved. They are cited in papers focusing on tooth developement in children (but not regeneration later on), and on the role of Vitamin D and other food in Rickets. But tooth regrowth is a well documented process in animals, and, according to these papers, it also happens in humans.

BTW, the linked blog post has it wrong. White flour is the least Ca++ chelating cereal (once again, according to E. Mellanby). Oatmeal appears to be the worst (see 1).

1. THE RELATION OFDIET TO HEALTH AND DISEASE.Some new investigations. E Mellanby, BMJ apr 1930 http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=231287...

2. THE EFFECT OF DIET ON THE DEVELOPEMENT AND EXTENSION OF CARIES IN THETEETH OF CHILDREN. (Preliminary Note.) MAY MELLANBY, C. LEE PATTISON AND C. W. PROUD BMJ aug 1924 http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=230490...

Side note for fun: It looks like bad OCR software reinvented l33t sp34k. This is what you get when you copy/paste the title of the first paper referenced here:

THE RELATION OFDIET TO HEALTH AND DISEASE.

S4OMlJE 1E'E XET !NVESTIW.41T!ONS). BY

EDWARI) MA1iT,LANBY, M.A. M.D.C.kMn.l F.R.C.P., F.R.S.,

PROFESSOR OF PHARMACOILOC', XJNTVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD.

Ardit205• 17 years ago

* I wish I had the citation at hand for a finding that 50 percent or more of all medical research findings published in top peer-reviewed journals end up not being replicated. *

Was that finding replicated?

pavel_lishin• 17 years ago

I will be toothless before I give up bread.

ph0rque3• 17 years ago

I gave up on bread, so I now eat cake :~).

gamache• 17 years ago

Freshly ground whole grains and sourdough are OK too.

But I'm right there with you. I could never hack the Atkins diet. If I had no teeth, I'd just soak the bread in broth. :)

Ardit205• 17 years ago

To me it sounded like he said that if you have enough good food (fish, liver, veg, eggs, milk, etc) you can have some bad food (i.e bread).

geuis• 17 years ago

What I don't understand is that no one addresses the bacterial component of cavities. I just had some work done and my dentist clearly stated that cavities are caused by bacteria eating through the enamel. I get that poor diet contributes to calcium loss and so the body will re-strengthen teeth given improved nutrition, however this will not do anything to address the bacterial infection problem.

billswift3• 17 years ago

The bacteria don't eat the enamel. They feed on sugars (and other carbs, but especially sugars) in the mouth, then excrete an acid that attacks tooth enamel. They live on teeth, especially in the crevices where they won't get knocked off, so that's where the acid is concentrated. Diet can help reduce the incidence of decay in the first place by reducing sugars in the mouth.

ars2• 17 years ago

Bacteria don't actually hurt the teeth directly - they just sit there and they make an acid that can etch the teeth, but if the teeth are strong they resist the acid, plus repair any areas that are eroded.

Also saliva contains immune components that can stop the bacteria. Bacteria may be the final component, but the causes of decay lie elsewhere.

It's not really an infection either, anymore than the gazillions of bacteria living on skin are.

mhp• 17 years ago

Vitamin D = the most common vitamin that doctors themselves actually take: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/11/13/ep.vitamin...

parenthesis• 17 years ago

In my life, I have eaten very little refined/added sugar (i.e. very rarely do I eat such things). Aged 30 I have no fillings: the only dental work I have had done was having my teeth straightened and having eight of them removed (yes eight, though not all at once) that didn't fit in my mouth (I have big teeth). When I was a child, my dental hygiene wasn't always very good.

A single data point doesn't tell you anything. But there it is, anyway.

pierrefar• 17 years ago

There is a lot more to this story, but briefly, the pH of the mouth. The more acidic and the longer it is acidic, the more likely you are to get caries.

Also, just because Diet 3 is a lot better than Diet 1 (and 2 for that matter), that doesn't mean that Diet 3 is the ideal/best diet. We would need to research this more using Diet 3 as the starting point.

shibido• 17 years ago

I'm british, so especially grateful. I am in your debt for posting this link sir!

Pip pip!

rarrrrrr• 17 years ago

Much of the American population (including a majority of pregnant women) are deficient in vitamin D. Odds are good that you are too.

A big contributing factor is insufficient exposure to sunlight. Some have speculated that seasonal winter flu season is attributable to vitamin D levels.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-07-13-vitamin-d-tes...

Ardit205• 17 years ago

In the UK we get sun only during May or April. So accordingly we should hardly have vitamin D!

asdlfj2sd• 17 years ago

Article: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=23...

JulianMorrison2• 17 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol#Dental_care

asmosoinio• 17 years ago

I am from Finland and Xylitol has been hugely popular for as long as I can remember, mostly as chewing gum. How popular are Xylitol products in other countries?

JulianMorrison2• 17 years ago

Hard to get in the UK. Some chewing gums have xylitol but don't say how much and they still have other stuff like sorbitol and maltitol. I'm not sure why it's commercially unpopular - expensive, perhaps?

rgrieselhuber• 17 years ago

Big in Japan.

Reversing Tooth Decay with Good Diet

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