Your total health depends on the state of your oral health. Thanks to media coverage, we know this, but how well do we really understand the significance of the recent discoveries of medical research? The connection between gum disease and cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, or Alzheimer's is now uncomfortably clear. A true Missouri native, Dr. Sindelar was born and raised in St. Louis, and has served the people of this area with excellent dental care since taking the reins of Sindelar Dental in 1981. In Refresh Life, Dr. Dan Sindelar opens a door to your health, showing you why it is so crucial to care for your teeth and gums, and how to go about refreshing your whole life by simply taking better care of your mouth. Add ten years to your life by reading this book. www.refreshrightnow.com

Refresh Life

oral health is the missing piece, adding years to your life, and improving your overall well-being!By Dan Sindelar

BALBOA PRESS

Copyright © 2011 Dr. Daniel Sindelar
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-3357-5

Contents

Introduction.......................................................viiChapter 1 Why Refresh.............................................1Chapter 2 It's Costing You $$$....................................9Chapter 3 It's Costing Your Health................................17Chapter 4 Refresh Your Sleep......................................29Chapter 5 Refresh Your Mouth......................................35Chapter 6 Refresh Your Habits.....................................45Chapter 7 Refresh Your Soul.......................................49Chapter 8 Biofilm Is The Enemy....................................55Chapter 9 Dentists/Physicians Unite...............................61Chapter 10 Refresh Your Mouth - Part 2............................65Chapter 11 The Future: Old Model vs New Model.....................71Chapter 12 Refresh Your Life......................................79Refresh Life Bibliography of References............................83

Chapter One

Why Refresh

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, yet many people with cardiovascular disease have none of the common risk factors such as smoking, obesity, and high cholesterol. So what is making people sick? You guessed it: gum disease.

Bleeding and inflammation anywhere will cause the liver to release C-Reactive Proteins. This is a natural reaction of the body that in the case of an injury makes good sense. However, a high level of C-Reactive proteins in your bloodstream is a strong predictor of cardiovascular issues ... even more so than your cholesterol level! In fact, doctors today know that if you are being treated for high cholesterol, you should also be checked for gum disease and be seeking proper treatment if you have it.

Gum disease is one of the most common infections of humans, and these chronic infections are now shown to be directly linked to the "furring" of the arteries. The scientific term for this is atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the main cause of heart attacks. Inside our arteries, the particular proteins produced from having chronic inflammation initiate atherosclerosis and help it progress.

These C-reactive proteins are also naturally produced after cells are exposed to other kinds of stress conditions that inflammation, such as exposure to toxins, starvation, and oxygen and water deprivation.

Because of this, the proteins are also referred to as stress proteins. They can work as chaperone molecules, stabilizing other proteins, helping to fold them and transport them across cell membranes. Some also bind to foreign antigens and present them to immune cells. Because these proteins are produced by humans as well as bacteria, the immune system may not be able to differentiate between those from the body and those from invading pathogens. This can lead the immune system to launch an attack on its own proteins. When this happens, the white blood cells can build up in the tissues of the arteries, which causes atherosclerosis.

Researchers have found white blood cells called T cells in the lesions of arteries in patients affected by atherosclerosis. These T cells can bind to host stress proteins as well as to those from the same bacteria that cause gum disease. So the similarity between these kinds of proteins causes our body to turn on itself, and reveals the link between oral infection and clogged arteries.

This molecular mimicry means that when the immune system reacts to oral infection, it also attacks host proteins, causing problems for our arteries. Don't you think that information like this should fundamentally change our health policy? I feel it's time we stress the importance of adult oral health because of its connection or our overall health and wellbeing. Now that we see a direct link, controlling gum disease should be essential in reducing the risk of heart disease.

Words From Researchers

Professor Robin Seymour of Newcastle University Dental School, UK, is a leading oral specialist who finished an analysis of the link between poor oral care and coronary heart disease in May of 2010. His findings showed that unhealthy gums led to a higher risk of heart disease, with the key reason being that inflamed gums resulted in higher levels of C-Reactive protein. He also showed that dental cleaning had a profound effect, reducing the levels of C-Reactive protein in the blood and improving the health of blood vessels.

He also believed that most people are unaware of the strong connection between heart disease and gum disease.

"This is a significant step towards a more complete understanding of heart disease and improving treatment and preventive therapies," said Professor Seymour in an article written by medical journalist Susan Aldridge, PhD. "An understanding of all the possible risk factors could help lower the risk of developing heart disease and lead to a significant change in disease burden."

50% of all Americans have moderate to severe gum disease, and if what Professor Seymour says is true, most don't realize what an impact it can have on their health. So why aren't we paying more attention? This is a disease, not just an inconvenience, and we need to build awareness of how important good oral health really is.

Our mouth is the gateway to our bodies. We nourish, breathe, drink, and communicate with our mouth, yet somehow we all got sidetracked into thinking our mouth is not really connected to the rest of our body. We believe it is separate somehow, but research is fast proving this to be a mistake. America's door to better overall health is through the mouth first, precisely because everything is directly connected.

We cannot live without nutrients passing through our mouth. The moment we take a bite, our mouth starts processing our food through chewing and digestive enzymes. It's also a major pathway for our breathing, and the bacteria in our mouth (both the friendly and unfriendly kind) travel in the oxygen we breathe, the saliva-borne food and drink we swallow, and in our bloodstream.

Our mouth has a huge influence on our total health, and our overall lives. Despite this now being pretty common knowledge, most people are not taking action on it. Perhaps the message is not clear? Or maybe it is not urgent enough, not real enough to help us commit to better oral health care? What needs to happen in order for us to take it seriously?

Charles learned to take it seriously, and it changed his life ... perhaps even saved it.

Charles had not been to a dentist in over ten years. He did not know he had any problems, and felt there was no reason to go if he was not in pain. However, he was struggling with his health. He was borderline diabetic, had blood pressure concerns, and high cholesterol.

He was found to have gum disease, bleeding gums, with pocketing. His oral DNA salivary diagnostics revealed he had numerous bacteria associated with gum disease, and several associated with heart disease.

Charles has a family history of heart disease, so he was very interested in reducing one of his major health risks in any way he could. He went through with treatment for his periodontitis, being treated by preconditioning with both a 1064 laser and ozone therapy, followed by scaling and root planing. Once these in-house treatments were done, he also used...