Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 6. Source pages: 15, 16.
Cass Nelson-Dooley, M.S. Ulysses Press, June 2019 In Heal Your Oral Microbiome, author Cass Nelson-Dooley, frequent columnist for the Times, outlines the key reasons, facts and approaches for healing the microscopic, ecological system that lives in our mouths.
The very idea, that we are full of, covered with, and live in harmony or disharmony with other life forms, is at the center of the explosion of research and a Zeitgeist of thinking. It is at the core of Heal Your Oral Microbiome and while a little shocking to our sanitized view of our bodies and our health, the work offers a convincing argument to embrace a whole new idea of where health originates.
Once you get over the idea that we coexist with all these "bugs," readers can enjoy a conversational and evidence based review of the scientific status of the oral microbiome, of the critical importance of our mouth's relationship to our gut, of the quality nutrition needed to nurture health in modern life, and of how dysfunction in the any of a variety of these areas can be an underlying cause of serious and even life-threatening diseases.
There is a paradigm shift occurring in health and healthcare, and in Heal Your Oral Microbiome the author makes it clear that the starting place for this is right under our noses.
Cass Nelson-Dooley studied medicinal plants in the rain forests of Panama as a Fulbright Scholar, then researched the pharmacology of medicinal plants at the University of Georgia and diagnostic laboratories. She has co-authored, “Nutrient and Toxic Elements” in Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and Functional Medicine and authored case studies in Case Studies in Integrative and Functional Medicine, and published in journals such as The Journal of Nutrition, Obesity Research, and Current Medicinal Chemistry.
In Heal Your Oral Microbiome Nelson-Dooley takes readers through a tour of the rainforest in our mouths. She applies straightforward, understandable science writing with strong emphasis on the practical steps to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
In the first chapters she helps readers understand how the microbiome works and why it is important, backing the descriptions with research evidence. To keep the gut microbiome healthy, she explains, we have to think about it more as an ecological system with communities of bacteria and an environment these communities depend on.
She points out that the mouth has a unique role as the first meeting place between the immune system, the gut, and the outside environment. Bacteria in the mouth seed the GI tract to the tune of 1 trillion bacteria every day.
These bacteria can have complex, multiple and interwoven roles, that scientists are just beginning to understand with the advent of DNA testing, she says. The bacteria in the mouth can make vitamins, communicate to the immune system to tell it how to respond, soothe inflamed tissue, form a barrier between your gut and bloodstream, help capture nutrients from your food, and fine-tune your metabolism. One of the most important roles is to protect from the bacteria that cause disease. "Amazingly, the oral microbiome influences health or disease in many other systems of the body, not just the GI track." She describes the link between the oral microbiome and heart disease, diabetes, joint disease, obesity, nutritional deficiencies, autoimmune disease, nervous system disease, asthma, eczema, or cancer. Included is inflammatory bowel disease and other intestinal illnesses such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, and many more.
Another example is the microbial ecology of cavities. "Until recently, a single bacterium was thought to cause cavities: the infamous Streptococcus mutans (or S. mutans, for short). However, scientific discoveries have taught us that it is not one single bug causing the problem, but instead an overall shift in the oral microecology that sets the stage for cavities."
"One of the most astounding discoveries is that oral pathogenic bacteria have been found in atherosclerotic plaques in the cardiovascular system." The evidence for relationship to rheumatoid arthritis also exists, as does the bidrectional association between diabetes and periodontal disease.
Another theme in Heal Your Oral Microbiome is that modern life is hard on our bugs.
While antibiotics have saved countless lives they are one of the biggest dangers to the microbiome. "They wipe out all of our bacteria, not just infection-causing bacteria. And while our microbiomes grow back rapidly after we finish antibiotics, they never return to their original stable state."
The modern diet, low in vegetables, fruits, fiber and raw foods, and high in sugars and refined carbohydrates, starves the microbiome, she notes. Babies born by C-section have much less similarity to the mother's microbiome, and less diversity, than babies born vaginally because they miss out on the first major inoculation from the birth canal. Bottle fed babies also miss out in probiotic bacteria and the prebiotics in breast-milk.
Readers who enjoy understanding why to do something will appreciate the first chapters, while those who want to grab the excellent practical advice will be delighted with the chapters on solutions. Nelson-Dooley covers diet and nutrition, recommendations that anyone can begin immediately. One of the most powerful ways to shift your microbiome is to eat more plant-based foods and fiber. Prebiotics, found in these foods, are literally bacteria food. The more prebiotics you eat, the more you feed your good bugs, and the happier you and your bugs are."
She outlines dental hygiene, why you must free yourself from sugars and of course, no smoking, and ways to boost the immune system.
She gives specific recommendations. Here is one example for probiotics. "I like Custom Probiotics (available online) and Masters Supplements (available through a practitioner). Take 50 to 300 billion colony forming units per day (CFU/day) to provide your body with a good dose of healthy microbiota. A dose of 50 billion CFU/day is appropriate for maintaining health. A dose of 300 billion CFU/ day is appropriate for someone with serious illness related to bacterial imbalance, such as ulcerative colitis. At high doses like 300 billion CFU/day, you should be under the care of a health- care professional knowledgeable about probiotic therapies."
Nelson-Dooley also offers a powerful chapter about the newest and most important diagnostic tests available to find out what is the state of the environment of your mouth, assessments that may well be unknown to the readers' physicians or dentists. "Testing is a powerful tool for you and your healthcare practitioners," she writes, "to get to the underlying causes of illness or simply to optimize wellness. Laboratory tests can detect inflammation, dysbiosis, food sensitivities, infections, hormonal imbalances, or leaky gut using a blood, urine, saliva, or stool sample."
What to test? She includes these: "1. Microbes. There are tests that measure your oral, fecal, and small intestinal microbes. You can also work with your health- care provider to order urinary organic acids, which can detect bacterial and fungal metabolism. 2. Immune system. Food sensitivity, celiac disease, and leaky gut testing can help you pinpoint why the immune system is malfunctioning. 3. Inflammation. Use hs- CRP to check your overall state of inflammation." A real treat is helping the reader in finding the rare healthcare professionals–needles in haystacks– who hold to this new view and root-cause assessment and natural treatments.
"Once you have dysbiosis," Nelson-Dooley writes, "it may or may not be easy to fix. In a healthy person who is eating a healthy diet, taking probiotics alone might be enough to tip the scales back to a healthy micro- biome. Someone with chronic symptoms may need to consult with a healthcare practitioner to treat their microbial dysbiosis. Even in a healthy person, a single infection could cause dysbiosis and their microbiome may never fully get back to normal. In this situation, a health professional can really help. Clinicians often try to boost beneficial bacteria, wipe out the problem-causing microbes, and then continue rebuilding the good bacteria and strengthening the immune system."
"Because the gut is so critical to overall health, evaluating and restoring gut function is a foundational clinical strategy in integrative and functional medicine." She recommends finding a healthcare practitioner in your area "who can help you determine what is holding you back from achieving optimum wellness." Readers can begin with The Institute for Functional Medicine and the online directory of clinicians. Also the Kresser Institute has a directory of clinicians that have completed advanced training in functional medicine and ancestral diet and lifestyle.
Cass Nelson-Dooley, MS, has over a decade of experience teaching doctors about integrative and functional laboratory results. In 2013, she started Health First Consulting, LLC, a medical communications company with the mission to improve human health using the written word.
Cass Nelson- Dooley, MS, researcher and science writer. She is the daughter of the Times publisher and a regular contributor to the newspaper. (Courtesy photo)
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.