
Reversing Tooth Decay with Good Diet - kortina
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/03/reversing-tooth-decay.html
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tokenadult
"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.)

~~~
Femur
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-...](http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-
eat/carbohydrates/)) and rich in vitamins.

~~~
electromagnetic
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.

~~~
billswift
All carbs require insulin. Fructose and complex carbs need other "processing"
first though, which spreads out their absorption, reducing spikes in insulin
levels.

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electromagnetic
Actually they don't, carbs are broken down into glucose, fructose and
galactose. Glucose, generally, requires insulin to be absorbed by the muscles,
liver and fat cells. However Fructose doesn't, the cells then convert it into
whatever form necessary, the liver usually converts it into glucose for
storage. Yet muscles are capable of using fructose directly.

Glucose can directly be turned into ADP or ATP, or it is converted into
Glucose-1-phosphate, which then can either be turned back into glucose or
follow the path to be turned into Fructose-6-Phosphate (fructose incidentally
directly turns into this). F6P is then converted into triose phosphate, a
change that cannot be reversed, and can be directly converted into fat. Fats,
when needed, are turned back into triose phosphate and can basically be
directly converted into ATP.

Essentially fructose needs _less_ processing than glucose to be readily
stored. The aim of the human body is to increase its fat reserves for winter
when food becomes scarce. Glucose is readily available and readily usable by
the body, but all this depends directly on insulin to get it into cells to be
useful. The notable cell that _doesn't_ require insulin are brain cells,
however these readily process fructose too.

So it's actually possible to completely remove glucose from the body, in the
event it was ever needed then fructose can be back-stepped into
glucose-1-phosphate. However, the body can more than adequately produce energy
directly from fats, so it would seem extremely rare that the body would need
glucose.

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Femur
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.

~~~
tigerthink
You ate a paste that straightened your teeth?

~~~
Retric
strengthen: To make strong or increase the strength of.

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

~~~
tigerthink
Oh, sorry!

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mhp
Vitamin D = the most common vitamin that doctors themselves actually take:
[http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/11/13/ep.vitamin...](http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/11/13/ep.vitamin.primer/index.html)

------
rarrrrrr
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...](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-07-13-vitamin-d-tests_N.htm)

~~~
Ardit20
In the UK we get sun only during May or April. So accordingly we should hardly
have vitamin D!

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pavel_lishin
I will be toothless before I give up bread.

~~~
ph0rque
I gave up on bread, so I now eat cake :~).

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geuis
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.

~~~
ars
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.

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JulianMorrison
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol#Dental_care>

~~~
asmosoinio
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?

~~~
JulianMorrison
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?

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pierrefar
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.

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parenthesis
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.

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

Pip pip!

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ph0rque
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
Replied to your thread with this link:
<http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/12/20/121018/65>

~~~
ph0rque
Thanks!

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asdlfj2sd
Article:
[http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=23...](http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2304908)

