Nelson-Dooley - Heal Your Oral Microbiome: Balance and Repair your Mouth Microbes to Improve Gut Health, Reduce Inflammation and Fight Disease

HEAL YOUR
ORAL
MICROBIOME

Balance and Repair Your Mouth Microbes to Improve Gut Health, Reduce Inflammation and Fight Disease

CASS NELSON-DOOLEY, M.S.

Text copyright 2019 Cass Nelson-Dooley. Design and concept copyright 2019 Ulysses Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Published in the United States by:

Ulysses Press

P.O. Box 3440

Berkeley, CA 94703

www.ulyssespress.com

ISBN: 978-1-61243-914-3

Acquisitions editor: Bridget Thoreson

Managing editor: Claire Chun

Project editor: Renee Rutledge

Copyeditor: Shayna Keyles

Proofreader: Lauren Harrison

Indexer: Sayre Van Young

Front cover design: Malea Clark-Nicholson

Interior design: what!design @ whatweb.com

Interior art: alphabe (mouth), Alila Medical Media (head)

Production: Jake Flaherty

Distributed by Publishers Group West

IMPORTANT NOTE TO READERS: This book has been written and published for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to serve as medical advice or to be any form of medical treatment. You should always consult with your physician before altering or changing any aspect of your medical treatment. Do not stop or change any prescription medications without the guidance and advice of your physician. Any use of the information in this book is made on the readers good judgment and is the readers sole responsibility. This book is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition and is not a substitute for a physician. This book is independently authored and published and no sponsorship or endorsement of this book by, and no affiliation with, any trademarked brands or other products mentioned within is claimed or suggested. All trademarks that appear in ingredient lists and elsewhere in this book belong to their respective owners and are used here for informational purposes only. The author and publisher encourage readers to patronize the quality brands mentioned in this book.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

The Convergence of the Microbiome, Nature, and Health

I trace the origins of this book all the way back to my grandparents farm in northern Louisiana. My grandmother baked pie from blueberries we picked by hand in the yard. My grandfather prided himself on his vegetable gardens. He and I discussed organic gardening and how you could work with nature, not against it, to get healthier food. The dark, rich soil full of microbes, the insects, the plants, the sun, and the rain all seemed to work together in perfect harmony.

Not long into my premedical tract at the University of Georgia, I found myself drawn to natural treatments for disease. I was fascinated to learn that over 75 percent of our modern-day pharmaceuticals originally came from plants, animals, or microorganisms. Nature offers treatments to our most terrifying ailments, including cancer.

Intrigued, I set about studying medicinal plants with the hopes of preserving cultural knowledge, conserving ecosystems, and finding new treatments for disease. I earned my master of science in ethnopharmacology researching ancient rainforest remedies in the jungles of Panama with medicine men and women. I worked in laboratories trying to find the next new pharmaceutical drug from nature.

My background in plant medicine and pharmacy (and a friendship with the owners daughter) led me to Metametrix Clinical Laboratory, where I consulted with physicians about their patients laboratory tests. These cutting-edge assessments could tell if a person had healthy levels of vitamins, minerals, and hormones; whether they had food sensitivities; or if their gut microbiome was out of balance. With these tests we could identify root causes of disease that, once corrected, could change lives forever.

We were no longer bound to prescription pad medicine, as world-renown integrative and functional medicine leader

Dr. Sidney Baker calls it. This seeks primarily to label a disease with a diagnosis and treat the symptoms with a prescription. Instead, we were looking for and fixing the underlying causes of disease. I met physicians who were curing the incurable. They looked for systems in the body that were broken, removed the bad stuff, replaced the good stuff, and turned around serious health conditions.

I wasnt the only one interested in a better kind of medicine. There was a movement happening in our country that is still happening to this day. People want better health and they want it without side effects. They dont want to take a handful of prescription medications every day. Evidence of this movement is in the nutritional supplement industry. Driven solely by consumer demand, this industry was worth at least $6 billion in 1996 and has grown to over $18 billion. Power to the people.

The fuel for this movement is knowledge.

I like to think that the information in this book contributes in a small way to the growing demand for better health alternatives across the globe. This book will help you understand and address the microbiome, which can be a major underlying cause of illness. As you read this book you will get answers, understanding, action steps, a lot of scientific evidence, and, hopefully, a little entertainment. I want to ignite your wonder about the magnificent microbiome and give you treatment ideas to restore your microbial health without unwanted side effects.

Its an exciting time for knowledge, technology, and a new standard for optimum wellness. Thank you for picking up this book and taking a deeper look.

CHAPTER 1

The Magnificent Microbiome

If you dont like bacteria, youre on the wrong planet.

Stewart Brand, American photographer and writer

Inside your mouth are millions and millions of tiny bugs. Most of them are harmless, many of them are very beneficial, and a few of them cause diseases. Imagine your mouth, teeming with these invisible bugs. If this gives you the willies, you arent the only one. We have a long history of hating bacteria and seeing them as the bad guys that cause infections, fever, pain, and suffering. But we have learned in recent decades that many of these bacteria are good for us.

The truth is, we are not just human beings. We are superorganisms. According to The Oral MicrobiomeAn Update for Oral Healthcare Professionals, for millions of years, our resident microbes have coevolved and coexisted with us in a mostly harmonious symbiotic relationship. We are not distinct entities from our microbiome, but together we form a superorganismwith the microbiome playing a significant role in our physiology and health. We carry around trillions of microscopic bugs all day, every day, for our whole lives. These microbes help us fight disease, boost our nutrition, protect us from infections, and tune the metabolism.

It turns out that there are about as many bacterial cells in the body as there are human cells, though many scientists believe the number of bacterial cells may be even higher. There are millions of bacteria in every crack and crevice of the body. They inhabit most organs of the body, especially the ones that are open to the outside world, like the gastrointestinal tract, skin, eyes, genitals, and more.

Microbiome, Microbiota, or Bugs?