Last week, I was chatting with some fellow doctors about diseases
(that’s what doctors do) and we were discussing some that you have
to worry about and others that you don’t (in spite of what the media
may be spitting out, in its neverending quest to keep us misinformed
about nearly everything).
In the last couple of years, we have been warned about the near
apocalyptic bird flu and then came H1N1, neither of which amounted
to a molehill. (Just in case you were wondering about what happened
to the gazillions of units of H1N1 vaccine, at a cost to the
taxpayers of $6 billion dollars, plus…it was destroyed last month
…because it only had a shelf life of 12 months.)
Those big pharmaceutical companies really know how to work the
government over. And of course, they were helped by their dimwitted
friends in the media, who write their press releases as news copy,
apparently without any investigation at all.
One disease that people should worry about, and often don’t, is gum
disease, also called periodontitis. Gum disease has been found to be
a factor in a number of much more serious health conditions.
For instance, if you have gum disease, you have a ten times greater
chance of having a heart attack and of developing diabetes. Gum
disease has been linked to everything from Alzheimer’s to pancreatic
cancer.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that the best way to combat gum disease is by
taking omega-3 fatty acids, most readily found in fish oil:
https://www.?awt_l=GnZNU&awt_m=1goowykILIz2rW
Gum disease is an inflammatory condition, in which the gums become
badly inflamed after bacterial colonies invade plaque deposits which
have built up beneath the gum line. It ultimately causes receding
gums and bad breath, as well as tooth and bone loss in the jaws. It
is also the source of chronic low grade inflammation, which may lead
to inflammation in other areas.
A Harvard study of 9,000 adults, over 5 years, showed that a third
of the participants in the study, who had consumed the most DHA (one
of the omega-3′s in fish oil), had a significantly lower chance of
developing gum disease than those who consumed the least.
Dr. Kenneth Murkamal, of Harvard Medical School, says “Omega 3′s
have a wide number of potentially beneficial effects on many organs.
The gums may be a new one that has not been appreciated before.”
I’ll be back tomorrow with more.
With my best wishes for your optimum health,
Dr. Bill