Drain the Brain
This article first appeared in the June 2017 issue of Austin All Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
DRAIN THE BRAIN: Can your dentist help prevent brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis?
by Dr. Matthew Carpenter
In June 2011, Derek Sivers wrote an article entitled Fish Don’t Know They’re in Water, suggesting someone’s so submerged in something they’re no longer aware of it. I’m reminded of that as a way to introduce information to share with fellow Integratively Minded Austinites (IMA’s).
Like fish in water, we exchange with our environment. Water and air seem different, but both act as a medium for exchange, a way for organisms to expel wastes and get precious, life-sustaining oxygen.
Our exchange process hasn’t changed for thousands of years. What’s changed is the environment with which we’re exchanging. It’s become increasingly toxic – air we breathe, water we drink, soil we grow food in, ways we communicate, materials for making, clothes, cosmetics, houses. Even soap for bathing, containers for drinking, and pastes for brushing teeth contain poisonous substances.
What’s an informed person to do? A baby born today already contains over two hundred toxic, non-biodegradable substances, half of which are carcinogenic. This is horrifyingly astounding, but helps us understand the trend we’re seeing.
Children are being born with increased cognitive impairments (autism and other spectrum disorders), impaired healing and detox (methylation) systems, and heavy metal poisoning and adrenal fatigue. At birth, human liver, kidney, brain, and immune functions aren’t fully developed or strong enough to deal with the poisons newborns have to contend with today.
As the world becomes more toxic, your brain becomes more toxic.
We’re in an osmotic equilibrium with the environment, becoming increasingly affected. The toxic milieu we exchange with supports the growth of unhealthy, pathogenic micro-biome in the brain and gut – parasites and infections, strongly interacting with the epigenetic regulation of our genes.
We are, in other words, beginning to express less than our genetic best, as epigenetic damage is passed on to offspring, affecting people, animals, and plants, generation to generation.
I’ve noticed this in my practice – impaired healing with younger people, and the negative impact mercury and infections from procedures like root canals have on an already weakened and impaired healing and detox system. Several young patients, women eighteen to twenty-five, have had their lives completely derailed by a single root canal.
Like Derek Sivers suggested in his article, we’re so surrounded with local culture – in this case, toxins we eat, breathe, bathe, and make love in – we can’t see the universal truths and human rights violated in the name of industry.
My intention is to help raise consciousness regarding the truth about what’s happening, and what we can do to alter the course we’re on regarding neuro-inflammatory illnesses like Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson’s.
In the June 2015 issue of NeuroscienceNews.com an article titled Researchers find missing link between the brain and immune system… implications profound for neurological diseases from autism to Alzheimers to Multiple Sclerosis revealed a stunning discovery, overturning decades of false medical training and textbook teaching.
The melatonin connection.
Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine determined the brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist. Called the glymphatic (glial lymphatic) system, this system is designed to help drain toxins from the brain. Here’s how it works:
- Each night, when you sleep, your brain cells shrink to roughly sixty percent of their original size, to support drainage of toxins. Melatonin is the most important housekeeping molecule for cleaning the brain, the main antioxidant and detox agent for mercury, lead, and other harmful molecules. It’s the brain’s clearing agent, the hormone stimulating the glial lymphatic system to drain.
- Melatonin is produced naturally each night when you sleep, but is tied closely to light exposure and your ability to have complete darkness when you’re asleep. It’s only produced in total darkness – any light exposure during the night stops melatonin production, affecting your ability to drain harmful brain toxins.
- Orally consumed melatonin isn’t as effective as your own natural melatonin.
When you chew, muscles in your face pump lymphatics.
Although this isn’t research based, I believe this is why we’re seeing more people grind their teeth during the night – in an increasingly toxic world, the body’s compensating by increasing muscle activity at night through grinding and stress.
Research does demonstrate losing vertical height of your face from grinding affects your glial lymphatic system’s ability to drain – losing 3 mm of tooth structure from grinding could contribute to up to fifty percent less ability for your brain to clear toxins.
This has become an important reason in our integrative dental practice to evaluate grinding (bruxism) potential in patients, as it relates to supporting competent brain lymphatic drainage. It’s even been shown “rhythmic skull compressions” during rest and “anterior neck lymphatic drainage” can increase your ability to drain brain toxins.
By pumping cerebrospinal fluid through brain tissues, the glymphatic system flushes waste from your brain into your body’s circulatory system. From there, wastes eventually reach your liver, where they’re eliminated.
The glymphatic system ramps up at night during sleep, becoming ten times more active than during wakefulness and allowing the brain to clear out toxins – including harmful amyloid-beta, the buildup of which has been linked to Alzheimer’s.
Clean your head.
Employing traditional German neural therapy, a technique used at Transcend Dental Health assists drainage of harmful toxins built up in the brain from any number of reasons – unsafe environment (like a dental office using toxic materials, or removing them unsafely), poor sleep, no light control during sleep, history of leaky gut syndrome.
We use a safe anesthetic to stimulate ten to twelve different lymphatic areas, including the neck chain, tonsils, adenoids, resulting in the stimulation of the glial lymphatic system, helping to reduce brain inflammation and toxicity.
The entire procedure, taking less than fifteen minutes, is completely safe, with no harmful chemicals. It’s designed to trigger and stimulate your body’s natural channels for drainage, at your own pace. Binders like chlorella, charcoals, or clays are sometimes employed if there’s a potential to drop heavy-metal toxic loads. It’s also helpful to have vitamin C therapy in conjunction with the protocol – affectionately named Clean the Head.
We’ve seen tremendous results with this protocol, including immediate improved mental acuity and less brain fog – and, with repeated exposure, improved psychological attitude and emotional wellbeing from reducing toxic loads on the brain.
To help patients preventively with brain health, a history and initial exam are taken prior to any therapy, including:
Examination. A single digital X-ray and oral exam helps see if you’re exposing your brain to toxic dental materials like nickel, aluminum, and mercury. Sometimes, removing these materials through safe, well-controlled dental procedures is the first step of any detox program, to slow down or completely stop exposure to substances you wish to reduce.
A history of scars. Scars left after removal of tonsils, or scars in bone caused by improper healing after tooth removal or root canal therapy, can allow migration of anaerobic, flesh-eating bacteria, resulting in dead jawbone tissue up to 5 cm from the treated tooth. These scars act like blocked highways, preventing proper head lymphatic drainage.
Removing infection. Head and neck drainage of brain toxins are sometimes improved by removing infected root canal-treated teeth and cleaning out necrotic jawbone infections, called cavitational osteonecrosis. Neural therapy and ozone are sometimes used in conjunction with surgeries at Transcend Dental Health.
Family history. Other integrative providers are used to assess genetic inabilities to manufacture and regulate neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, through genetic testing specific for supporting brain detox pathways, muscle-tested for accuracy. Many people have genetic inabilities to drain toxins like metals because of impaired liver or kidney function.
Support the body. We frequently recommend homeopathic kidney, lymph, and liver systemic drainage formulas, to reduce your body’s toxic load naturally and safely through improved drainage and support of your body’s intrinsic drainage pathways. We work with integrative providers that can energetically assess many important factors supporting proper drainage – critical to any person wishing to stay well, given the toxic nature of our current world.
Legal cannabinoids. We also support brain nourishment, and reduce inflammation, through the use of CBD oils and other legal cannabinoids, shown repeatedly in research to reduce brain inflammation radically and naturally.
If you have a history of neurodegenerative disease in your family, are experiencing brain fog related to environmental or occupational exposure, or just want to be proactive about protecting your brain health, it’s possible to push the limits of natural healing, plasticity, and regeneration. Protecting the health of your brain is a God-given right everyone has.
Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health uses drill-free air abrasion, ozone therapy, natural alternatives to antibiotics, non-surgical treatment of gum disease, safe mercury and root canal removal, and natural heavy metal elimination. To schedule a consultation to discuss a plan to protect your brain, call (512) 255-3618.
www.tdhtx.com
- Published in 2017, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine, Uncategorized
Candida Catch-22
This article first appeared in the February 2017 issue of Austin All Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
CANDIDA CATCH-22 Can a fungus be good for you?
by Michael Abedin
Oh my Candida
We could make it together
– Tony Orlando and Dawn, Candida
In Joseph Heller’s 1961 World War II novel Catch-22, American bomber crews keep having the number of insanely dangerous missions they have to fly raised, right before being relieved. Only way out of flying the extra missions is to go to the flight surgeon and ask to be declared crazy and unfit for duty.
There’s a catch, though – Catch-22. Asking not to fly them is the act of a rational mind, which means you’re not crazy, so you get sent back to duty.
According to some researchers, there might be a Catch-22 going on in your body if you’ve been battling candida – particularly if you’ve been exposed to mercury poisoning.
There’s no question mercury is toxic.
Strangely, there’s controversy over getting rid of it – but that’s not the catch.
According to one school of thought, mercury damages a cell’s energy production and its ability to detoxify itself. The cell grows weak, can’t function properly, and may die unless it gets help.
Unfortunately, the help often comes in the form of bacteria or fungi that can bond large amounts of mercury within their cell walls. You then have to deal with a pesky, chronic fungal infestation, however, like Candida albicans, usually thought to be from consuming too much sugar or yeasty things, or taking antibiotics that kill off beneficial bacteria that keep it in check.
If you’ve rigorously avoided those foods and would only take an antibiotic if your life quite literally depended on it and you still have candida, after trying every cleanse and remedy there is – it may be doing you a favor by gobbling up its own weight in mercury.
Wait, you say – you never had amalgam fillings, or had them removed. If, however, your parents had them, if you (or they) received vaccinations with thimerosal as a preservative, or if you had amalgam fillings removed without strict precautions, you could still have toxic levels.
Here’s the catch.
Leaving candida alone to get rid of mercury is sort of like hiring Hell’s Angels to do security at a rock concert – you may have a whole new set of problems on your hands. Once a candida cell gets full, it may toss the mercury out the back door, but it also may release it, in more toxic forms.
Manage to get rid of candida, and you’re back to dealing with mercury, starting another round of candida, unless and until you get rid of the mercury, too. Get rid of either of them too quickly, and your system may go into overload. (That might even be a Catch-23.)
Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health uses state of the art technology to remove mercury and other heavy metals from a patient’s mouth without exposure to patients or staff, following it with intravenous Vitamin C therapy, acupressure, and dietary counseling to reduce further exposure.
He then offers a comprehensive program to eliminate mercury from a patient’s entire system by ramping up the immune system, naturally and safely supporting excretion with vitamin C, R-Lipoic acid, glutathione, natural binders for eliminating toxins from the bowel, and phytonutrient antioxidants.
Liposomes.
The elimination program uses what Carpenter calls “the highest efficiency delivery vehicle in medicine right now – liposomal delivery. Liposomes are made of phospholipids – the basic building block of cell membranes – with encapsulated nutritional compounds enclosed, making them more bio-available than other delivery vehicles like traditional pills and herbs. This means you actually get more of the product into your cells.”
Getting the mercury – and lead, aluminum, and other metals – out of your system can free up your immune system to deal with candida and other chronic conditions.
Carpenter, in fact, agrees with a statement by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD, a leading researcher of metal toxicity and its connection with chronic infections, illness, and pain. “As soon as anybody has any type of medical illness or symptom, whether physical or emotional, amalgam fillings should be removed and mercury residues should be eliminated from the body, especially the brain.”
And, yes, there really was a hit song called Candida in 1970, by Tony Orlando and Dawn – and once you’ve heard the lyrics, nothing will eliminate them from your brain.
Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health uses drill-free air abrasion, ozone therapy, natural alternatives to antibiotics, non-surgical treatment of gum disease, safe mercury removal, and natural heavy metal elimination using liposomal delivery.
(512) 255-3618, www.tdhtx.com
- Published in 2017, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine, Uncategorized
Autism and Mercury
This article first appeared in the January 2017 issue of Austin All Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
AUTISM AND MERCURY
The Egyptian Connection
by Michael Abedin
The cause of autism is one of the most heated healthcare debates in recent years. For every suggestion – diet, heredity, chemical toxicity – there’s a counter-argument. Some, like vaccines or gluten, have become social and political issues, saying a lot about our healthcare, social, and political systems.
Part of the problem, on both traditional and holistic sides of the fence, is the Silver Bullet Syndrome – find a single cause, find a single, miraculous solution.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
There’s no guaranteed, linear path for the progression of any disorder, disease, or discomfort – even, say, exposure to a virus. Some “catch” it, some don’t. Your body’s systems are way too complex to call every shot.
A lot of autism factors are identified anecdotally, but get shot down by “no direct causal relationship has been proven…” arguments. (Tell that to a parent who cut gluten from their kid’s diet and saw a complete turnaround in behavior, until the next bite of wheat. Be ready to duck, in case a dinner roll comes sailing your way.)
Want hard research? One recent study indicates Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy can contribute to autism. Another promises to be even more conclusive, and the lead-in to it doesn’t require any cautious wording.
Mercury isn’t good for your brain.
It’s the second most potent neurotoxin on the planet, right after plutonium. It’s showing up in a lot of unexpected places in the environment, and some that are expected, since we put it there.
Thimerosal, a preservative that’s 50% mercury by volume, has been used in multiple-dose vials of vaccines (including flu shots) for around eighty years, and mercury amalgam fillings have been used in dentistry since before the Civil War. (Fair warning – don’t dive into the vaccine autism debate without a wetsuit and tanks. It’s a deep, dark, sinkhole of craziness.)
Instead, dive into a series of recent studies, including one published in 2016, indicatinga direct correlation between mercury and autism, using research conducted by good scientific standards and published in reputable journals.
Get a flu shot that doesn’t come from a single-dose vial or syringe, chances are you might get an injection of mercury-based preservative. Have amalgam fillings? Chance isn’t involved – you have a neurotoxin in your mouth, inches from your brain.
Same for your kids, but even if they don’t have a single filling they can still theoretically be exposed to heavy metal toxicity if you or your spouse had them. One filling-free Austin holistic practitioner, confused by tests revealing high blood levels of heavy metal toxicity, realized both parents had mouthfuls of decades-old amalgam fillings, and one was having them removed and being treated for toxicity.
A caveat, however.
If you have amalgam removed, get it done properly. Dr. Matthew Carpenter, of Austin’s Transcend Dental Health, points out simply grinding them out, rinsing, and spitting exposes you – and dental professionals in the office, including receptionists – to mercury vapor, and flushes mercury into water systems.
Carpenter uses state of the art testing, removal, recovery, and disposal systems for heavy metals, combined with IV Vitamin C, safe, needle-free chelation, and other supportive therapies. He’s also researched (and offers) testing for hereditary susceptibility to heavy metal poisoning.
Oh, and those studies about Vitamin D and mercury? None of them were from this country. The mercury research was done in Egypt, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has something to say about that: Why can a chaotic society in a war-torn and relatively impoverished nation produce high quality science on… autism, while the science on environmental triggers of autism in the U.S. is stagnant, despite the NIH spending more than $1 billion on autism research since 2010?
Why, indeed?
The official CDC position is that mercury in medical products is “very safe. Data from many studies show no evidence of harm…” Right – and to quote Levon Helm’s crusty gunsmith in Shooter, WMD’s were in Iraq and Anna Nicole married for love.
In the case of neurodevelopmental conditions – autism, ADHD, Alzheimer’s – could mercury and other heavy metal exposure be a tipping point, after diet and heredity and such have set up the fall?
The mechanisms that should answer such questions and protect you and your family from balance-tipping toxins probably won’t be improving anytime soon. It’s up to you to learn, make decisions, and find practitioners.
Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health uses drill-free air abrasion, ozone therapy, natural alternatives to antibiotics, non-surgical treatment of gum disease, and consultations regarding the Detox Qube from Quicksilver Scientific to lower existing metal loads, including a panoramic x-ray for visualizing remaining metals in the oral cavity.
(512) 255-3618, www.tdhtx.com
- Published in 2016, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine
To Chelate, or Not to Chelate
This article first appeared in the November 2016 issue of Austin All Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
TO CHELATE, OR NOT TO CHELATE
If you’re going to do it, do it right
by Dr. Matthew Carpenter
It’s becoming widely known that metal, chemical, and environmental toxins are harmful to homeostasis, the ability to maintain a consistent level of good health.
It’s also known humans have increased ambient mercury levels in the air a hundred times through mining, that birth rates are down and it’s more difficult to conceive healthy babies, that people living near polluted rivers have higher rates of cancer and other chronic illnesses, and that people are now aware of aluminum in their pans and deodorants, of toxic cleaning products, and kids’ water bottles containing BPA.
As a biologic dentist, I help people reduce poisonous metals from dental work – mercury, nickel, aluminum, cadmium, chromium, titanium, and unhealthy resin fillings with aluminum, hormones, and fluoride.
Except for resins, these are heavy, base metals normally found deep in the Earth’s crust. In my office, we remove these metals while running IV-C (intravenous vitamin-C) therapy and providing acupressure, in the safest environment possible – negative ion generators, metal-specific air filters, and activated charcoal air-conditioning filters.
First instincts, and the bouncer.
I’m frequently asked how best to reduce metal in the body after mercury and other metals have been removed from the mouth. Although the first instinct is to begin flushing them out of the body with chelation therapy, it can only be effective in conjunction with reducing daily exposure to metals and toxins in food and water.
You will literally pull toxins through your body, never reducing levels of poisonous metals, if you chelate or use medications or supplements to remove metals stuck in fat and connective tissue without limiting continued exposure from other sources. (This is why people see health benefits when moving to organic foods after removing mercury fillings and aluminum crowns – they’re allowing the body to catch up on taking out the trash.)
The main “bouncer,” the antioxidant in the body that removes mercury attached to hemoglobin or thyroid cells, or stops a virus from replicating after contracting a cold, is glutathione (GSH). Because of our current cultural abundance of toxins, most people have very low, deficient glutathione levels, as their GSH has been used up, making them more like to get a cold or not heal from an infection.
The more you piggyback or support the body’s inherent processes, the better chance you have for results.
One of the more highly researched, comprehensive, and safe metal-detox delivery systems is from Quicksilver Scientific of Lafayette, Colorado. I resonate with its approach to ramp up the immune system naturally, safely, and efficiently to support excretion with vitamin C, R-Lipoic acid, glutathione, natural binders for supporting elimination of toxins from the bowel, and phytonutrient antioxidants to maximize metal detoxification pathways through cellular phases of activation, conjugation and elimination.
Dr. Chris Shade runs the one mercury-specific lab in the world, and is an expert on metal toxicity and elimination. Shade’s methods employ the highest efficiency delivery vehicle in medicine right now – liposomal delivery. Liposomes are made of phospholipids – the basic building block of cell membranes – with encapsulated nutritional compounds enclosed, making them more bio-available than other delivery vehicles like traditional pills and herbs. This means you actually get more of the product into your cells.
It’s not a program heavily relying on herbs that make you feel nauseous, or pills you struggle to intake consistently in a day. Lyposomal gel is absorbed through he mucosa of the mouth and begins having an effect immediately, not an hour after you take it when the contents of a pill finally hit the part of the small intestine where it’s absorbed into your blood stream. There are no needles, IV’s, or unsafe chelation drugs commonly employed in traditional urine challenge testing or IV chelation therapy.
I believe metal exposure is linked to decreased immune function, autoimmune illness, and increased potential for health problems. I think Dr. Shade’s system can be used successfully by most people desiring reduced toxic dental-related metal loads.
Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health uses drill-free air abrasion, ozone therapy, natural alternatives to antibiotics, non-surgical treatment of gum disease, and consultations regarding the Detox Qube from Quicksilver Scientific to lower existing metal loads, including a panoramic x-ray for visualizing remaining metals in the oral cavity. (512) 255-3618, www.tdhtx.com
- Published in 2016, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine
Mercury and Hcl
This article first appeared in the October 2016 issue of Austin All Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
MERCURY AND HCL
Are your fillings giving you indigestion?
by Dr. Matthew Carpenter
Mercury-free dentists know from the pioneering work of Hal Huggins, DDS that if mercury enters the stomach, it can weaken stomach acid. Here’s why.
Hydrochloric acid (HCL) is the main digestive acid in your stomach, and Mercury + HCL = Mercuric Chloride, which damages the lining of the stomach and its ability to make hydrochloric acid.
Strong stomach acid not only breaks down the food you eat into digestible particles, it also kills food-borne pathogens, such as parasites, amoebas, and bad bacteria, keeping them from entering the intestines.
Weak stomach acid, on the other hand, makes it easier for pathogenic bacteria, parasites, and amoebas to get inside you and challenge your immunity. You can imagine over time how someone with mercury amalgam fillings in their teeth might develop parasites and pathogenic microbes, as well as digestion issues and gut problems.
Weak stomach acid can also cause indigestion – literally meaning you can’t digest food – and indigestion causes heartburn. Millions of Americans have mercury amalgam fillings in their teeth, millions of Americans suffer from indigestion and heartburn, and millions of Americans buy over-the-counter antacids for relief.
However, if low HCL is causing the indigestion, antacids (which are alkalinizing) can worsen the situation – and many contain aluminum, another toxin. Mercury is also very toxic to the kidneys, placing even more strain on your elimination system.
It’s a vicious circle.
- Mercury poisoning lowers stomach acid, causing indigestion.
- Taking antacids for indigestion lowers stomach acid even more, causing the entire body to become more acidic in a desperate attempt to create more stomach acid.
- This eventually causes a chronic state of acidosis, in which the body pulls minerals from bones (and teeth) to balance blood pH.
- One result is your teeth can’t re-mineralize properly, and start to decay and crack.
The end result?
Because of mercury amalgam fillings, I wind up with a person with poor digestion, acidosis, and malnutrition walking into my office to get treated for cavities, gum inflammation, and a cracked tooth.
And the ADA is still saying that mercury amalgam fillings are fine, and dentists who tell patients mercury is unsafe may lose their licensing.
- Published in 2016, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine
Spit Shines
This article first appeared in the Sept. 2016 issue of Austin All Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
SPIT SHINES
What substance in your body contains calcium, hormones, antibacterial elements, powerful painkillers and antidepressants, breaks down carbohydrates, and fights bad breath? (Hint – it also takes the spin right off a fastball, and, combined with polish, makes a damn good shoeshine.)
Yep, saliva – good old spit.
by Matthew Carpenter, DDS
Saliva is basically filtered blood. The salivary glands run red blood cells, which are better off in your arteries, through a sieve, allowing calcium, hormones, and components of your immune system to enter. Everyone’s saliva is a little different, and can be used to test for certain hormones and immune diseases.
The main salivary glands, the parotid and sublingual glands, drain into the mouth though the parotidpapillae, a couple of tiny bumps on the inside of the cheeks around theupper molars, and the sublingual papillae,behind the lower front teeth. (You can feel the parotid gland, upward from your neck to your cheeks – two soft, slightly swollen areas, just below the ears.)
The parotid gland immediately secretes saliva on demand, whenever it’s needed, like when you eat. Glands in the floor of the mouth behind the lower front teeth, however, secrete saliva continuously – 1.5 to 2 pints per day, or .7 of a liter (almost a wine bottle’s worth). The sole function of these glands is to make teeth harder by secreting saliva high in calcium, which also alkalizes the oral cavity, making harmful bacteria less active.
Killing the pain.
Saliva has a painkiller stronger than morphine – opiorphin, discovered in 2006. Built in pain-reducing mechanisms in the mouth are important when you consider what it does. There are more nerve endings there than almost anywhere else in the body, making the mouth extremely sensitive – explaining why bad dental experiences generate traumatic memories and deep fear.
That also explains why you can feel a hair in your mouth, a food particle between your teeth, or a grain of dirt or sand from poorly washed veggies – and why a mouth ulcer is relatively small, but hurts more than almost any other lesion its size in the body. Opiorphin is secreted when you chew, reducing pain in the oral cavity from hot or sharp foods – that’s why a sore throat is temporarily better after a meal.
Studies suggest opiorphin has antidepressant properties, which may be why you feel comforted with some foods, or crave them during high stress. (When life’s beat me down, a great hamburger hits the spot like Chuck Norris, temporarily chasing away the blues.)
Besides strengthening teeth and providing pain reduction, saliva is the first step in the breakdown of carbohydrates, and also produces bactericidal substances to keep pathogenic bacteria you might ingest in check. Mucins, a component of mucus, act as sticky nets to trap bacteria until little antibacterial substances in your saliva move in and kill them off, before they have a chance to get in your bloodstream though your oral tissues and harm you.
Morning mouth and the Ring of Waldezyer.
As you control levels of bacteria in the mouth, you reduce bad breath. Morning breath is partly due to the fact you produce very little saliva while you sleep, so bacteria levels increase, making your breath smell worse. (Brushing and flossing before you go to bed is a good idea if you want to reduce stinky morning mouth.)
Another immunological component of your oral cavity is the lingual tonsils at the very back your tongue, where it attaches to your throat. They’re master samplers, taking samples of everything you swallow into a little nodule with many different immune cells that collect information, and begin educating your immune system about potential threats. They’re one component in a network of tonsils in the mouth and throat called Waldezyers Ring, which also includes tongue tonsils and palatine tonsils, which are what we think of as tonsils. (If you’ve had your tonsils removed, you’ve only had one component of the tonsillar network removed.)
Research indicates the gut is a significant part, maybe the epicenter, of your immune, nervous, and cognitive systems. It’s your oral cavity, though, that determines what happens in your gut and the rest of your digestive and eliminatory system, and is its first line of protection against invaders. Keep your mouth healthy and spit-shined, and everything else is a lot likelier to stay healthy.
- Published in 2016, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine
Fire in The Hole
This article first appeared in the August 2016 issue of AustinAll Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
FIRE IN THE HOLE
Cavitations, Wormholes, and the Bermuda Triangle
by Michael Abedin
“Look, Mom! No cavities!” It was 1958, and Crest toothpaste ads showed wholesome, smiling Norman Rockwell kids holding up a clean bill of health from their dentist.
No cavities, indeed, but what about – cavitations?
A cavity is a hole in the surface of the tooth – a cavitation is a lesion, a hole in the jawbone, one that’s not as readily detectable (or repairable) as a cavity in the tooth’s enamel. Cavitations weren’t a big topic of conversation in 1958. Half a century later, they still aren’t discussed as much as they should be.
Wormholes in your jaw.
There’s no single culprit causing cavitations, but it’s their effect that concerns holistic dentist Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health, who’s done extensive studies of cavitation research done by Mark McClure, a dentist and a Doctor of Integrative Medicine with the National Integrated Health Associates.
“Cavitations,” Carpenter explains, “are toxic waste sites for mercury and other metals found in amalgam fillings and crowns. They accumulate in these holes in the jawbone, and can cause serious long-term health problems.”
McClure refers to cavitations as NICO – Neurological Inducing Cavitational Osteotis – a fancy way to say “holes in bone that hurt, and can cause things to hurt in other places.” He points out some controversies surrounding them:
- Traditional dental training acknowledges NICO lesions but minimizes their importance, leaving it to integrative practitioners to spread the word – with the usual possibility of being criticized by mainstream practitioners and professional associations.
- The usual treatment is surgery. Non-surgical alternative treatment, like chelation therapy, is sometimes possible – but it also has the possibility of being criticized by mainstream practitioners and professional associations.
- Diagnosis is tricky. Standard imaging techniques often can’t detect the full extent of NICO sites, which can range from round to what Murphy calls “fingerlike projections extending outward, like worm-holes.” It sometimes requires working backwards from a wide range of symptoms, using non-traditional methods like biofeedback that have the possibility of – well, you know the rest.
Alien invaders and the Bermuda Triangle.
In sci-fi flicks, aliens can escape through wormholes, or hide in them so you can’t see them because the normal rules of three-dimensional time, space, and physics don’t apply. NICO lesions act the same way.
Blood supply shuts down to isolate toxins like mercury that the body’s dumped there, along with metals from old crowns, bridgework, and other procedures – tin, platinum, palladium, nickel, maybe even the occasional plane or ship that disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle.
The Triangle is actually a pretty apt analogy, since the effects of cavitations can seem to disappear from the screen entirely, then pop up in other, unlikely locales. The autonomic nervous system, unable to cope with the toxicity, either sets up an interference field of sorts to isolate it, meaning the immune and excretory systems can’t find it, or refers it to other areas – and some of those areas are potentially lethal.
A perfect opportunity for cavitations to form is when third molars – wisdom teeth – are removed, especially if more than one comes out at a time. Metabolic activity is high in the extraction sites, making them good candidates for toxic dumpsites. The Chinese determined that acupuncture meridians and their associated organs are connected to teeth, and those third molars, Carpenter points out, are connected to – yep, the Heart Meridian.
The toxins lurking in a NICO site can also hamper your energy-producing enzymes and ability to metabolize oxygen. Lack of energy and chronic fatigue symptoms are a good clue that energy is being diverted elsewhere – maybe your mouth and jaw, a hotbed of nerves and circulation connected directly to your cardiovascular system and inches from your brain.
Whatever to do?
Research indicates it’s a good idea to get mercury out of your mouth before any major dental surgery. Transcend Dental uses state-of-the-art retrieval systems, and recommends taking good care of wisdom teeth so they can stay put. If extractions are necessary, Carpenter uses a protocol involving ozone, intravenous vitamin C, and complete removal of all ligaments, since they can inhibit full healing and create cavitation sites.
There’s no single cause for the recent rise in autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue, allergies, cancer, Lyme, candida. There’s always a complex set of factors – and some of them may be hiding, deep down in the bones of your jaw.
Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health uses drill-free air abrasion, ozone therapy, natural alternatives to antibiotics, non-surgical treatment of gum disease, and genotype testing for susceptibility to mercury toxicity.
(512) 255-3618, www.tdhtx.com
- Published in 2016, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine
Cannabinoids and Dentistry
This article first appeared in the June 2016 issue of Austin All Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
CANNABINOIDS AND DENTISTRY
by Dr. Matthew Carpenter
I am blessed to work in a very positive, high-spirited environment. A biologic dentist tends to attract people who are educated truth seekers with regard to health, so most of my patients are self-starters who take great responsibility and personal accountability for being highly informed about food, medicine, toxins, and materials that enter their bodies.
Most people researching alternative approaches for managing health come across biologic dentistry, and learn about the well-researched, systemic impact of mercury fillings, root canal treated teeth, jawbone infections, and gum disease. While everyone wants better health and quality of life, new patients have usually tried most of the strategies they can control (food and water quality, supplementation, exercise, and meditation or prayer) before actually willingly choosing to have dental work.
Swimming with sharks.
For most people, the thought of electively pursuing dental work, especially with teeth not causing them any physical pain, sounds like electively choosing to swim with sharks, or electively choosing to spend the night alone in a cemetery. People typically have a deep, archetypal fear of dentistry because of physical or emotional trauma they experienced, usually as a child or young adult – a time when deep impressions are being made about belief systems.
The saving grace for many patients with dental procedures has been “laughing gas” or nitrous oxide – N2O. It allows patients a mental escape from the physical reality of the procedure, and many of them depend on the gas as a type of security blanket, to get through the procedures. It’s not really for controlling any physical pain, but gives emotional support during a stressful situation.
Today, it’s been estimated that nearly two-thirds of children under the age of thirteen have methylation challenges to their innate healing or immune systems. (Methylation is a process of removing substances – N2O, for instance – from the body.) It’s become more widely known that N2O can have a severely negative impact on children and adults that have genetically impaired methylation abilities, and some cases of death in children have occurred.
Environmentally speaking.
Over the past one hundred years, N2O use and release into the atmosphere has had between 265% and 310% more impact on global warming, per unit of mass, than carbon dioxide.
At TDH, several options other than N2O are offered for helping with fear and anxiety over dental procedures:
- Conscious in-office sedation for patients wanting the greatest assurance of being separated mentally from the procedure. (This, however, requires a driver.)
- Very strong, and very effective, German homeopathic remedies for anxiety and calming.
- CBD (cannabidiol) oil is also available, as a means of helping patients feel more calm and relaxed in the dental office. It meets the criteria for the type of medicines I advocate for patients – 100% natural, very few potential negative side effects, and inexpensive.
Some facts about CBD oil and the way it works in your body.
Endocannabinoids are cannabinoids manufactured in the human body, and the endocannabinoidsystem that naturally produces different cannabinoids is intricately linked to the brain, nervous system, immune system, and digestion. There are two major cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2, found throughout the body, and the effects of CBD on them have been well researched, showing CBD stimulates the production of your own internal cannabinoids by strengthening your endocannabinoid system.
Cell membranes are naturally equipped with cannabinoid receptors in all mammals, not just humans, but it seems the human body was built for cannabinoids – it’s well documented that human breast milk is an abundant source of endocannabinoids.
The only known source of cannabinoids outside your body?
Hemp.
If you have questions regarding CBD oil, ProjectCBD.org is one of the most respected websites, and a great place to start. PubMed has published over 1500 peer-reviewed studies on CBD. I’ve done my research on CBD, and feel happy to be providing it to patients as it relates to assisting them in feeling calm about dental work.
Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health uses drill-free air abrasion, ozone therapy, natural alternatives to antibiotics, and non-surgical treatment of gum disease, and genotype testing for susceptibility to mercury toxicity. Call (512) 255-3618 for an appointment.
www.tdhtx.com
- Published in 2016, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine
Is It in Your Genes?
This article first appeared in the May 2016 issue of Austin All Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
Mercury Susceptibility
by Dr. Matthew Carpenter
It’s hard to stop doing things you want to do, even if there’s a chance it could hurt you. Look at drinking alcohol, or skydiving, or smoking cigarettes.
I had a mentor who would ask patients who smoked cigarettes if they’d stop smoking if they found out they had lung or throat cancer. Most would say, “Yes, of course,” not understanding the paradox of their answer. It isn’t the best preventive logic to participate in an activity known to cause cancer, if your goal is not to have cancer.
But, we humans are adventurous, hedonistic animals with lots needs to satisfy – physical, emotional, and spiritual – and somehow, we keep feeling surprised when we get the product of our choices.
One reason we take our chances, to use the example of smoking, is there are people who smoke and don’t get cancer. Anyone who wants to smoke would prefer to do so knowing they wouldn’t have health problems.
We’d all like to know more about what our chances are of acquiring certain illnesses based on our lifestyle. Such tests might be an early motivator for people with habits or toxin exposures known to elicit illness, neurodegenerative disease, even death.
The old guy with mercury fillings.
One of the biggest examples is mercury amalgam fillings.
By this time, almost everyone knows mercury is a poison because of exposure scares from broken thermometers, or reported links between mercury exposure and Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, mitochondrial dysfunction, leukemia, leaky gut syndrome, autism, infertility, birth defects, anxiety, depression.
Still, we all know that old man or woman who’s had mercury fillings for fifty years without any health problems. Makes you wonder how bad mercury fillings really are, if they’ve had them and lived so long in good health.
These real-life scenarios created questions that challenged my belief that mercury fillings could cause or increase chances of illness.
Why was I the only one of my dental classmates having health problems related to mercury exposure?
If there’s a chance that mercury exposure is less harmful for you because of your body’s ability to excrete the poison, would you still be as concerned – or be as motivated to try to avoid mercury exposure in your life, like with seafood, or amalgam fillings?
Mystery solved.
A big part of this mysterious variation from person to person was solved by a genetic test, through DNA Connections in Colorado Springs, of my APO-E Genotype status.
In a nutshell, the APO-E Genotype test is a test for a biomarker related to the body’s elimination of heavy metals from your organ systems. It’s been suggested that neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s are related to heavy metal toxicity. People with harmful forms of the APO-E gene (genotype 3/4, 4/4) have up to twelve times greater risk of developing Alzheimers compared to those with other APO-E genotypes (2/2, 2/3, 3/3).
One role of APO-E is the removal of mercury from your biosystem – the most optimal genotype for mercury removal has more cysteine than arginine residues.
When I took the APO-E test, I learned why I had more health problems related to other dentists – I have a genetically more challenged ability to excrete mercury. Working in an industry saturated with poisonous heavy metals, coupled with a lack of proper education on mercury toxicity or safe protocols for its removal, contributed to my mercury toxicity.
The death sentence.
As Hal Huggins told me, getting informed of your genetic challenge is not the death sentence – ignoring the information is. Knowing my increased risk for Alzheimers or ALS has motivated me to alter my lifestyle in many ways I may not have considered without it.
If you or a loved one is in the dental field or considering a career in dentistry (or if you’re simply a dental patient) and want to know the possibility for neurological disease related to genetics, Transcend Dental Health can provide a simple swish test, with no needle stick or blood draw required.
There are many natural strategies you can take to limit chronic exposure and assist removing mercury from your system. Ask yourself if the best place to start is to consider removing it from your mouth.
Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health uses drill-free air abrasion, ozone therapy, natural alternatives to antibiotics, and non-surgical treatment of gum disease, and provides genotype testing for susceptibility to mercury toxicity. Call (512) 255-3618 for an appointment.
www.tdhtx.com
- Published in 2016, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine
Why We Really Get Cavities
This article first appeared in the January 2016 issue of Austin All Natural magazine.
© 2018, Austin All Natural
WHY WE REALLY GET CAVITIES
An excerpt from Patient Empowerment: How to Slay Dental Dragons, by Hal Huggins, DDS, MS
Submitted by Dr. Matthew Carpenter
As teeth decay, cavities appear – but why? Dentistry tells you sugar, food, and bacteria sitting on your teeth – so all you have to do is brush your teeth. But there’s more to it than that.
Sugar and foods sitting on the tooth don’t create dental decay.
It’s the fluid flow within the tooth that determines its health – and that’s determined by the types of foods you eat, not how long they remain in your mouth.
Dr. Ralph Steinman of the University of Loma Linda School of Dentistry answered the question of the origin of dental decay decades ago. He detailed life in teeth in over seventy scientific articles describing a “fluid flow” through teeth, and the direction of this flow created either susceptibility or resistance to dental decay.
Using radioactive isotopes, he identified a fluid that flows from its blood source in the pulp chamber, through dentin tubules, through enamel, clear into the mouth. This fluid is derived from the bloodstream and travels within arterioles that go up the pulp chamber of the tooth in people free from dental decay.
In people who are experiencing dental decay, this fluid flow process is reversed. Fluids flow from the mouth, through enamel, through dentin, into the pulp chamber, dragging along acids, bacteria, and debris from the breakdown of residual foods in the mouth.
Further investigations taught Steinman the direction of fluid flow was dependent upon the activity of a gland located on the side of the jaw – the parotid gland – and controlled by hormone production, in turn controlled by the type of food you eat.
Protein causes the fluid to flow healthily from the pulp chamber into the mouth. Sugars make it flow the opposite way, from the mouth into the tooth.
Big discovery – sugar sitting on the tooth does not create dental decay. It’s the control of the direction of the fluid flow by sugar that creates decay, not acids and foods sitting on the tooth, as most dental schools teach.
Hal Huggins was the first dentist to speak out about the dangers of mercury amalgam.
Dr. Matthew Carpenter of Transcend Dental Health uses drill-free air abrasion, ozone therapy, natural alternatives to antibiotics, and non-surgical treatment of gum disease. (512) 255-3618, www.tdhtx.com
- Published in 2016, Articles, Austin All Natural magazine