Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Living a Healthy Lifestyle

We all basically know what is required to live a healthy life, right? . . . proper diet, rest and exercise; but its what we don't know that can harm us and our families. Who would have ever thought our mouths would play such an extremely important part in overall health? . . . Periodontal disease . . aka . . gum disease, gingivitis, inflammation, and bleeding gums. When I first heard this my mind swirled with questions, primarily "How is this possible?". My curiosity fueled the search for some answers. Out of all the information I came across, it had to be the Surgeon General Report entitled "Oral Health in America", published in May 2000, that startled me most. It stated that periodontal (gum) disease effects a person's overall health, and also contributes to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, lung disease, kidney disease, anemia, hemophilia, premature births and underweight births.

. . .Whew, that was a mouth full . . . wait a minute, a mouth full of what? . . . Bugs ! . . . yep that's right, better know as "bacteria". So what's it doing in our mouths ? I kinda knew this, but then again I didn't . . the reason that there is bacteria in the mouth . . is to aid in the digestion of our food. I always heard that our saliva did that . . I didn't know that bacteria helped. Then I found out that there are over 6 billion bacteria in the intestinal tract . . once again, to aid in the digestion of our food. So if they are suppose to be there, what's the problem ?

Bacteria is a living organism, it eats and digest their food as we do . . . its the toxins in their waste . . Yep, you heard right . . that is causing the problem.


But I still was asking "How?" . . . then in conversation, a friend conveyed the best explanation. My friend asked me if I knew anyone that had heart problems and had to take nitroglycerine when they experienced chest pains, I said "yes" . . . they went on to explain that this person has been instructed to place a tablet under their tongue . . that the medication may dissolve and enter the bloodstream more rapidly, thus providing the relief they seek. The same thing is happening with the bacterial toxins . . they are entering into the bloodstream and "transported" to different organs in the body. I could see it, it made legitimate sense to me. So there you have it, a kinda lengthy condensed verison, but hey, this is a blog, tell me what you think.

Link to Surgeon General Report: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/oralhealth/

Best to you, Steve