All Things Considered

The problems of deficiencies starts with the nutrient balance in our soils.

Our nutrition is only as good as the nutrients that are actually in our soil.

There are two classes of minerals, MAJOR and TRACE. Even though trace minerals are required in very small amounts, they are indeed essential to good health.

What about bone density for optimal periodontal health and the entire integrity of the skeletal system?
Let’s begin with the following scientific equation: Lysine + Proline + Vitamin C = Collagen

This equation simplifies a process needed to help insure bone density. It is a huge mistake to take calcium supplementation to help prevent osteoporosis; however, this recommendation is made quite commonly by physicians once women reach the age of 40. Not only is there insufficient scientific evidence to support this practice, this practice can be harmful as it will create mineral imbalances throughout the entire body. Bone is comprised of about 12 different minerals plus a connective tissue matrix (collagen) into which the minerals deposit.

In other words, collagen provides the infrastructure for mineral deposition leading to adequate bone density. To make matters worse, big pharma has come up with drugs to allegedly provide a remedy for osteoporosis or osteopenia. This is a big problem as these drugs can interfere with bone remodeling and cause brittleness of the bones leading to death (necrosis) of the bone itself. Healthy bone has a degree of flexibility and should be allowed to respond to forces. Here we circle back to form and function.

Other problems are associated with excess calcium. In general, excessive amounts of any one mineral can suppress other minerals. We want mineral synergism not antagonism. Dr. Thompson in his book, Calcium Lie II, illustrates the sequence of events caused by excessive calcium. He calls this the Calcium Cascade and explains how this can contribute to hypothyroidism.

So why are we concerned about all of this? When helping patients eliminate headaches, I suggest that they discontinue the use of calcium supplementation or calcium rich foods. You see, calcium is a muscle contractor leading to muscle spasm, which is most often associated with referred pain. Don’t get me wrong. I am not even remotely suggesting that calcium is not important. I am suggesting that there is a good possibility that a mineral imbalance has been created over time leading to abnormal muscle physiology and questionable bone density. Rather than prescribe a muscle relaxant, I suggest magnesium supplementation as most everyone on the planet does not have enough of it.

Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant, vasodilator, and equally or most importantly helps control blood viscosity. You see, we want our blood flowing like wine not like ketchup, which is somewhat of a mantra that we tell most of our patients dealing with systemic imbalances. Magnesium is also associated with over 800 different enzyme pathways throughout the body.

Are there side effects with magnesium? When first starting to use magnesium, it may have somewhat of a laxative effect depending on the type of magnesium that is used. I usually recommend magnesium glycinate as patients seem to do well with it. However, there are other forms which are best purchased from a health food store. The big box stores have magnesium that is not well-absorbed or tolerated. Magnesium is the only mineral that I will recommend before specifically testing for mineral imbalances. Why? Most of us are deficient in magnesium as most of our farmland no longer has adequate levels of this mineral. Rather, mineral imbalances are currently the norm today.

How do we test for this to make sure that we are not creating other imbalances just through supplementation? Most of us might just suggest we obtain a blood test; however, 99% of our minerals are in our cells, not the blood stream. Perhaps a tissue biopsy would provide more information. If you guessed that approach, you would be correct. That is why untreated hair is used as biopsy material. As crazy as it sounds, this is a method that has been used by medical laboratories for over 30 years. In fact, Dr. Thompson suggests that any doctor who is not doing a hair mineral analysis might just be bordering on malpractice. I am sure a strong comment like that just might endear him to the American Medical Association.

Here is the point: establishing mineral balance is foundational. We would not think of building a dream home without establishing a strong foundation. Then why do we treat our bodies with considerably less consideration?

Not too long ago, I was in Nevada completing my advanced certification in the use of medical ozone. I was demonstrating to a physician the intra-oral approach to using ozone for sinus infections and congestion. Upon finding out that he lives in Alaska, I asked him if he knew Dr. Thompson upon which he replied. “Yes I do. The guy
is brilliant!” You see, advances in medicine are only achieved when an individual has the compassion and courage “to step outside of the sacred box” called the Standard of Care. Most of us think that the term means excellence. Well not necessarily. The Standard of Care just means what everyone else is doing. We have come to understand that treating symptoms is just that: “Make my pain go away as fast as you can doctor.”

You see, failure to address the underlying problems will ultimately result in failure. Years ago I questioned the lack of stability and the facial profile of many orthodontic patients; the standard of care was to remove teeth and/or use headgears. The specialty perhaps was not aware that the process would create problems years later.

In orthodontics, narrow jaw structure is the most common deficiency causing crowding and protrusion of the front teeth. The upper jaw is most often in a normal position from front to back, yet the use of headgear or extractions of teeth will violate the existing normal position leading to structural compensation and ultimately abnormal function: called the form / function relationship. In fact, this is a violation of oral volume predisposing one ultimately to sleep disordered breathing.
Airway is always a concern whether in a growing child or fully developed adult. A compromised airway will lead to abnormal facial development, narrow jaw structure, forward head posture, ADD and ADHD, cardiovascular compromise, diabetes, dementia and potentially Alzheimer’s disease. Quite often patients will report having allergies, which in turn compromises airway leading again to compensation. Perhaps a better question should be this: “Why is your body responding in this manner?”

During my residency at the University of Michigan, we were required to do independent research suitable for publication to complete our master’s degree. My interest was in determining how we can improve long-term stability in the orthodontic outcome by establishing better bone density. I wanted to look at the relationship of vitamin C, magnesium and zinc to this end. I was told by my thesis chairman and the head of the Center for Human Growth and Development that I had too many variables, so just pick one. I chose vitamin C. This choice then mandated an animal study, one of which was never done previously. As humans, we somehow lost the gene that tells our body to make its own vitamin C. The animal of choice was the guinea pig as it could not make its own vitamin C either. Well, how would this test the orthodontic question? Yes, I did put braces on several guinea pigs, but not all of them. You see, we needed controls meaning untreated animals that received vitamin C supplementation as well. Some tooth movement would be required to test the boney remodeling and quality of bone turnover rates with various quantities of vitamin C administered on a daily basis. My hypothesis was this: could better bone density and/or quality of bone provide improved orthodontic outcomes in the area of long-term stability? So we set sails to evaluate bone density.

Bear with me here as this can get a little complicated. We had two groups: treated and untreated. Within each of these groups we had three subgroups with the only differentiation being the amount of vitamin C administered on a daily basis. We supplemented vitamin C using the following guidelines: dosing the recommended daily allowance, 10x more than the recommended allowance, and 10x less (deficient) then the recommended allowance. In the recommended allowance and deficient groups we observed very poor connective tissue or collagenous matrix resulting in poor bone quality. In fact, there were actual voids in the bone. In the 10x groups we observed what I have often referred to has an artist’s rendering of collagen and bone quality with absolutely no voids.

My thesis chairmen, a well-published anthropologist, Dr. Melvin Baer, was astonished and called Dr. Enlow, the world’s expert on growth and development and asked him if rodents have Haversian systems as humans do. He stated that he had never seen them in rodents and that such a structural advancement does not exist in rodents. Dr. Baer to Enlow, “well we are looking at them under the microscope.” The point of all of this is the difference an adjustment in just one variable can make. Fast forward a few years, a German physician, Dr. Mathias Rath developed a nutritional supplement comprised of lysine, proline, and vitamin C while stating that one cannot get metastatic cancer if one has dense connective tissue. My point is this: nutrition is critical and guided supplementation is often needed unless you are growing your own food on mineral rich soils if you desire to enjoy optimal health.

Unfortunately, Western medicine as we know it can best be described as the following: “a drug for a bug (symptom); call me the next time you are sick.” Rather easy when compared to taking the time and effort to determine why one’s body is responding to an event, imbalance, or negative thought the way it does. I call this “peeling the onion one layer at a time.”

Vitamin D:

Deficiency of vitamin D is epidemic.  It affects our entire immune system.  A lack of vitamin D may play a role in chronic pain caused by a variety of conditions, though the exact link is not clearly defined. Research has indicated vitamin D deficiency may be implicated in musculoskeletal conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, neuropathy, migraine, inflammation as well as vertigo.

Vitamin D3 has been called a fat soluble vitamin for years.  Interestingly enough, it is not a vitamin at all but a pro-hormone.  It helps calcium absorption.  However, one should not supplement with vitamin D3 without taking vitamin K2 with it.  It is my understanding that K2 directs the absorbed calcium to be stored in the bone rather than letting it accumulate in our arteries, muscle and ligaments.

Researchers reported in the journal Neurology that low blood levels of vitamin D are also associated with a greater likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease.  The subjects did not have dementia at the beginning of the study. Volunteers with vitamin D levels of less than 25 nmol/L were twice as likely to have Alzheimer's disease or another dementia at a follow-up five years later.

Studies show that vitamin D regulates many functions in the body, including hormone balance, metabolism, blood pressure, bone density, fighting cancer, and immune function (ever notice that people tend to get colds and flu in the winter when the sun is low?).  Vitamin D is critical for our health. We know that vitamin D is essential for healing and protecting against many contagious diseases and chronic diseases. Low levels of vitamin D are associated with upper and lower respiratory infections, heart disease, asthma, cancers, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, HIV, hypertension, inflammatory bowel disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other autoimmune diseases. Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide public health problem in both developed and developing countries.

Vitamin D actually influences the expression of over 200 health-supporting genes in our bodies.   There’s a lot of buzz about vitamin D boosting immune function to fight off colds, seasonal influenza, and other viruses. Research suggests that vitamin-D deficiency may one of the primary reasons people get more colds and flu in the winter when sunshine is less available.

Vitamin D works to strengthen this innate immune system response.  Many different studies have associated vitamin D with its power to fight infection. One report looked at almost 19,000 people and found that the individuals with the lower levels of vitamin D were more likely to report upper respiratory tract infections, than those with sufficient levels of vitamin.  It works by boosting the strength of the immune system while lowering inflammatory reactions. This makes vitamin D a powerful immune modulator. It helps boost immune power, but prevents the immune system from overreacting, as in the case of autoimmune disease.

So why are we messing with all of this anyway?  I will list a few thoughts for consideration below: 

• If poor nutrition often leads to poor dental and facial skeletal development according to Dr. Westin Price in the 1930’s, we would like to reverse this trend.
• The abnormal dento-skeletal development leads to a bad bite or malocclusion
• The poor bite leads to a forward head posture ultimately violating the alignment of the spine beginning with subluxation of C1 and C2 as well as leading to dislocation of the jaw joints.
• In a book entitled The Dental Physician published in 1977, it was stated that one cannot correct the spinal alignment with any stability in the presence of a malocclusion of a bad bite.
• The poor posture then contributes to breathing difficulties, sleep problems, and further compensation in spinal alignment
• Basically, vitamin D3 is critical to prevent pain, prevent or manage autoimmune disease, maintain normal respiratory function, and strengthen our immune system.

Is this diagnostic discipline widespread and a standard of care?  Sadly, no it is not.  Actually, orthodontics is considered the most demanding and difficult of all dental specialties that requires non-stop thinking and assessment initially and throughout the entire process.   It takes time to properly assess the problem, care in developing an appropriate plan of care, and careful communication to enhance a functional understanding.  It has often been said that dentistry is the largest medical specialty.  In my opinion, orthodontics should be a medical specialty demanding more assessment and care than currently exists in the marketplace. 

We are now seeing the implementation of the corporate structure in medicine and dentistry.  As corporations go, the business model is one of production.  Several years ago I got caught up in that management style so I could spend more time seeing patients and let others manage the business of healthcare; meaning corporate management.  Several of my colleagues had made the decision to move in that direction, so I followed suit.  It did not take me very long to realize that the doctor – patient relationship suffered along with the quality of care throughout the industry.  The time the doctor had with each patient could be measured in seconds.  A non-orthodontic specialist was achieving better results than the university trained specialist.  Ah, the temptations in the market place are driven by the pressure to produce according to insurance mandates that says to the provider:  “accept a lesser fee and make it up in volume.”  This is impossible to do when one considers the need for a thorough diagnostic assessment and plan of care.  We have learned that what an orthodontist does or does not do can affect a patient for the rest of their lives either positively or negatively.

So why are we messing with all of this anyway?  I will list a few thoughts for consideration below: 

• “Mouthbreathing” is often related to poor nutrition because of swollen lymphoid tissue causing obstruction to normal nasal breathing leading to abnormalities in dento-skeletal development, postural compromise, as well as attention deficit in children and adults.
• The abnormal dento-skeletal development leads to a bad bite or malocclusion.
• The poor bite leads to a forward head posture ultimately violating the alignment of the spine beginning with subluxation of C1 and C2 as well as leading to dislocation of the jaw joints.
• In a book entitled The Dental Physician published in 1977, it was stated that one cannot correct the spinal alignment with any stability in the presence of a malocclusion of a bad bite.
• The poor posture then contributes to breathing difficulties, sleep problems, and further compensation in spinal alignment