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Do Supplements Really Make a Difference in Dental
Health?
As a dentist, patients often solicit my advice regarding the
use of oral nutritional supplements. A common question is are
they effective? The answer: it depends. If you are deficient in
a particular mineral or vitamin, then most definitely.
Of course, this begs the next question: How do you know if you
are deficient? Any competent physician or nutritionist can be
of assistance here. Apart from symptoms produced by certain
deficiencies that are often observable clinically, a simple
urinalysis or blood test can be used to identify which specific
vitamins or minerals are lacking. It sometimes surprises people
to learn that vitamins are essential elements to good health.
In fact, by definition, their absence will produce a
disease.
For example:
• Lack of vitamin C produces: scurvy (fatigue, nausea, bleeding
gums and loose teeth)
• Lack of vitamin D produces: rickets (bowed legs and arms from
a failure to mineralize bone)
• Lack of vitamin A produces: night blindness
There are many forms of B vitamins. Here are a few of the
diseases produced by their deficiency:
• Lack of vitamin B1: beriberi (can have several forms causing
either cardiovascular or nervous system difficulties)
• Lack of vitamin B2: ariboflavinosis (symptoms include
cracking of the lips and corners of the mouth)
• Lack of vitamin B3: pellagra (symptoms include the “four Ds”:
diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia, and death).
And the list goes on. The same holds true for certain mineral
deficiencies. Most people know that a lack of iron will produce
anemia. While it is true that some deficiencies are more
difficult to acquire than others, the fact remains that if you
are excessively low in a given substance, the consequences
generally follow.
One reason that blood tests are not always a reliable indicator
of deficiency, however, has to do with the fact that the blood
attempts to maintain a balance of all those things it needs (a
corrective mechanism called “homeostasis”), regardless of
deficiency. Thus, unless seriously out of balance, vitamin and
mineral levels in blood can come back “normal” (because they
can be found in the blood), though they are low elsewhere. In
other words, the blood took them first so that it could
maintain normal levels.
So, how do you know what to take? One of the most reliable ways
is to be tested. Then, you can determine what you need and what
the most optimal levels are for you.
In the absence of reliable testing, it is generally best to
obtain your vitamins and minerals from natural sources. This
means getting it from your food or through the use of “whole
food” vitamins. Not all synthetic vitamins are well absorbed
and so will produce variable benefits. Sometimes, they can
actually create deficiencies, because your body has to convert
these “vitamins” to a more useable form. In the process, it
takes nutrients from other sources in order to facilitate the
process.
For that matter, improper or inefficient digestion can also
make it difficult to extract the needed nutrients from your
foods or vitamins. In this respect, some individuals also need
to take digestive enzymes to facilitate the breakdown of
proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
In my experience, several companies that produce
high-quality whole food vitamins, minerals and herbal extracts
are Simplexity Health™, Standard
Process® and NutriWest®. Dr. Royal
Lee, a dentist who founded Standard Process®
actually developed the process for creating whole food
concentrates. He stated many times that it was not possible
for a synthetic vitamin to create the same result as a whole
food concentrate complex of vitamins. In other words,
synthetic vitamins can alter function, but they cannot
support function. He stated that “the natural vitamin
complexes contain the various closely related principles
that are normally found together in foods. The more we study
those complexes, the more complex they appear. That is why
synthetic and chemically purified ‘vitamins’ are really not
vitamins at all. They are only fragments of vitamins.” Dr.
Lee then goes on to explain that “Vitamin deficiencies are
now becoming recognized as specialized forms of starvation.
Even overweight persons getting their full quota of
calories, carbohydrates, fats and proteins, are very often
starving to the danger point of disease from vitamin
deficiencies.”
Your body was designed to assimilate nutrients, known and
possibly as yet unknown, from whole foods. So this is the first
method of balancing body chemistry. After this has been
accomplished, any remaining imbalances can be addressed with
whole food supplements such as those listed above. Your body
has to have whole nutrients to maintain a healthy balance and
function. Lack of balance leads to disease. So, yes, taking
supplements (the right kind and in the proper amounts) can make
a difference in both dental, and overall,
health.
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For more information regarding
nutritional supplements that I recommend, contact our office at
215-634-7006.
by Dr. Richard J. Walicki - June 27, 2009
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Dr. Richard J. Walicki is a Philadelphia dentist providing
both general and cosmetic dentistry
services.
Pick up a copy of Dr.Walicki's short summary (*FREE*) A Few
Tips to Take Control of Your Dental Health by clicking
HERE.
Source: http://www.ToothWiz.com
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