I spend lots of time trying to relieve patients from painful teeth. Of course, there are numerous causes of tooth pain, but today, I want to focus on a prevalent and typically easy-to-treat one that has to do with the forces we place on our teeth called hyperocclusion. Hyperocclusion is when we generate forces that exceed the ability of our teeth and supporting structures. As I always say, teeth should glide together, not collide together. This post will discuss how it happens and what your dentist can do about it.
Read MoreI enjoyed talking to Cavin Balaster on his Adventures In Brain Injury Podcast. Cavin is a survivor of a terrible traumatic brain injury who has a book called How to Feed a Brain: Nutrition for Optimal Brain Function and Repair and a podcast about all things health related, especially how to have a healthy brain. We met in Austin at a charity for the Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund and immediately hit it off. When He asked me to do it, I was skeptical that I could contribute much to the subject of brain injury, but after speaking with Cavin for a few minutes, I was convinced I had something to offer. Cavin and I understand that good health has more to do with things like breathing, nutrients, sunshine, and connecting with one another, not pharmaceuticals and surgeries. Although the latter two items have their place, they should be rare, whereas lifestyle practices should be constant. We had a blast and could have spent all day talking about health.
Read MoreA few years back, I wrote about the negative health consequences of visceral fat, which is the kind of fat that surrounds our organs. Too much of it is bad for our health. I spoke about several ways to measure it, but I want to concentrate on one very easy and free method called the waist-to-height ratio. It is a simple and free method you can do at home to determine your health risk. I will tell you why it is so important and tell you how to calculate yours. For the math-challenged, I have a link to an automatic calculator.
Read MoreIn my daily practice, I often find infected teeth that the patient is entirely unaware of. Most often, I find asymptomatic infections on radiographs (x-rays). Sometimes, I can see what appears to be a pimple on the gums adjacent to the tooth, usually at the level of the root tip. The pimple is usually on the cheek side (buccal). However, they are occasionally found on the tongue side (known as the palatal on the upper and lingual on the lower). Technically a pimple around a tooth is known as a dentoalveolar fistula. I will talk about what they are, how they form, what to do if you have one, and how to prevent them.
Read MoreWhy are so many Americans overweight or obese? Are we weak? Are we addicted to unhealthy foods? The answer is probably not. I took a look at how our food supply has changed over the years, and it may explain our ever-expanding waistlines. This post will cover the trends, investigate some of the science, and, finally, talk about what we can do to lose weight and become healthier.
Read MoreThis is the presentation I am giving today at PaleoFx in Austin Texas.
Read MoreTooth wear is considered a bad thing in the modern era. It can be painful and unsightly. Furthermore, a 2019 analysis of 706 studies involving tooth wear associated it with sleep disorders, oro-facial pain, oral dryness, GERD, and sleep bruxism (tooth grinding). However, several lines of research conclude that tooth wear, even in childhood, may be an evolutionary survival strategy. Especially as it pertains to proper jaw growth. The story is a little complicated, so I want to give you a little background and then explain how tooth wear may have been beneficial during our evolution.
Read MoreMost Americans are not healthy. The reasons are numerous, but I want to focus on seven of them today. First, data published in the February 2019 issue of Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders found that only 12.2% of the population is optimally metabolically healthy. The percent of adults aged 20 and over that are overweight or obese is 73.6%. The percent of adults aged 20 and over with obesity is 42.5%. In 2008, 107 million Americans—almost one out of every two adults aged 18 or older had at least 1 of 6 reported chronic illnesses: cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes, asthma, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Here are seven contributing factors.
Read MoreI have written articles about systemic fluoride before, but today I want to focus on one manifestation of excess fluoride called fluorosis. Fluorosis means fluoride toxicity and its manifestations. The symptoms range from mild to severe and typically show up in teeth and bones but include other aspects of the body. Today, dental fluorosis has been trivialized, yet 8 to 51% of children in fluoridated communities suffer from dental fluorosis, and 3 to 26% of children in non-fluoridated communities suffer from dental fluorosis due to its presence in much of our food supply. In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control reported 41 % of American adolescents now have dental fluorosis. In this post, I will show you how to identify it, and talk about what you can do to prevent and cope with it.
Read MoreI have written numerous posts on the plight of our small jaws over the years. So I thought it might be a good idea to share the story of mine, and what I have done about it. Maternal smoking, lack of breastfeeding, soft food, swollen tonsils, sinus problems, a deviated septum, and attractive orthodontics all played a role. The good news I was able to correct every problem. I will tell you how at the end of this post.
Read MoreI was on a digital detox this week and therefore did not look at any research or explore new topics in health. I was incidentally celebrating my sixtieth birthday at the same time. During the week, I saw some old college friends, one of whom I had not seen since 1985. I was feeling a bit nostalgic, so I went on social media after my detox was over to look at pictures from the past. I found this one of me in a striped shirt from 1985 that my dad took by our pool. My wife always tells me that she thinks I look just as good as the younger me, so I got the crazy idea to try and strike the same pose and see how I really stack up to a younger man. We had a good laugh trying. She claims to like the silver fox with the fancy watch better! Unfortunately, many of the years in between the photos were spent with avoidable health problems. This post will cover what happened and how I was able to get healthy and strong again.
Read MoreOne of my central warnings on this site is we must avoid eating processed carbohydrates to stave off disease and optimize our health. I have written about it so much that I believed everyone who reads my posts understands what they are. Recently, I have spoken to people who think processed carbs are donuts and cake, not bagels and sandwiches. This post is dedicated to them and all who need a reminder about what processed carbohydrates are, and why they should be avoided. If you don't want to read the whole thing, skip to the end, where I tell you how to identify them and list the most common sources of processed carbs.
Read MoreBefore the advent of farming, our jaws were larger; our faces were broader, our teeth were straight, we had adequate room for our wisdom teeth, larger brains, and more space in our throats to breathe. It is a virtual certainty that our changing diets contributed to crooked teeth and a lack of adequate space for wisdom teeth and constricted airways. SMALL JAWS CAUSE BIG PROBLEMS. Heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, ADHD, depression, and anxiety are a few. In this post, I am going to cover how our lifestyles have changed leading to our current problems, and what we can do about it.
Read MoreEvery workday, I review my patients' medical histories. It is usual for most of them to have health issues. Upon reviewing their medical problems with them, I find that their lifestyles are frequently partially and sometimes wholly responsible for their poor health. Today I thought it would be good to do some statistics, and I want to share my results with you. You will probably be surprised how unhealthy we are. Before we continue, let me ask you a few questions. What percentage of Americans have an illness? What percent are on prescription medication? What percentage of us have allergies? What percent are overweight? How many missing teeth does the average person have? Ready for the answers? Make sure you are sitting down. The figures are not pretty.
Read MoreAs many of you know, I started the carnivore diet on January 1, 2020, hoping to give it one year. The year sped by without me experiencing any significant issues being a carnivore. I cured two chronic orthopedic problems (thumb and elbow) and improved my body composition, sleep, mood, and more. I achieved near-perfect health and wellness. I decided to start adding plant-based items, including some alcohol back into my diet and see how I fared. My goal was to add variety to my diet, not to improve my health, as it was about as good as it gets. It went poorly. This post will cover what I learned about adding things back into my diet.
Read MoreYou have 8760 hours each year to work on your health. You don’t need to be a goody-two-shoes all of the time, just most of it. Spending 2 hours a year with the hygienist will not negate spending the other 8758 hours eating processed carbs. It is up to you to learn what you need to do to be healthy. Luckily, when you eat the foods good for your mouth, you are also eating the exact foods that are good for the rest of you. For a quick list of the other things you need to be doing, read on.
Read MoreAlmost half of the people in the U.S. do not meet the recommended amount of aerobic activity per week, so when I recently spent a week in South Beach, I was impressed at the number of people jogging outside in the balmy weather. Unfortunately, many joggers are hardly specimens of optimal health and remain so after many years of effort. Sadly, often running by itself proves to be little more than a waste of time, with zero results and increased injury rates. I want to muse a little on why that may be.
Read MoreIron is most often associated with anemia when it is low, but it is one of the most critical elements necessary for all life on the plane. Fully one-third of the world's population suffers from iron deficiency. The rate jumps to 2/3 in developing areas. Iron overload (too much iron in the body), which is also called hemochromatosis, is also quite common and is associated with a long list of pathologies and diseases, including early death. The problem with detecting undesirable iron levels lies in the fact that most doctors don't order the correct tests. The tests that they do order have lab value ranges that allow problematic levels to go undetected. The post will address the correct tests your doctor should order to correctly identify problems with your iron levels.
Read MoreMore commonly known as canker sores, recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) can be quite a nuisance. Because the sores are associated with systemic inflammation, I believe that they can be preventable, and I have seen this first-hand in patients. Today I want to cover three important ways you can help prevent them. I also want to tell you about a surprising at-home treatment that has proven to be more effective than prescriotion medication.
Read MoreWhen tested, masks actually look very effective. The website called Smartairfilters.com is a treasure trove of information about air filtration systems and masks. They clearly show the effectiveness of masks, even the cloth home-made ones. Some of the better masks filter out 99.7 percent of all particles. With such convincing results, why do masks seem to be failing us? The paper entitled Masks Don't Work: A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy may have the answer. They list numerous studies that all conclude that masks don't protect against contracting a whole host of illnesses. We will find out why in this post.
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