Red Meat Kills... Again... or Does it?

Just to put the NY Times article on Red Meat, TMAO and Atherosclerosis into perspective... I'd suggest avoiding seafood, not red meat, if you're overly concerned with TMAO at all (the actual clinical "danger" of TMAO is debatable). For instance, Halibut produces 107 times as much TMAO in urine samples as beef after ingestion, and in general seafood as a group is significantly higher than red meat, Figure 1 and 2.

HealThy Mouth Seminar... Thoughts on Fluoride?

This post is based on the HealThy Mouth Seminar series (http://healthymouthsummit.com/), which is unfortunately only available for free for 24 hrs but I believe can still be purchased if you're interested. I'm not affiliated with the seminar, but many of the presentations brought up good points, particularly one by Dr. David Kennedy regarding fluoride and fluoridation of public water. Putting fluoride in our water doesn't really seem like the best idea for cognitive or overall health in general (less than 6% of the world's population drinks fluoridated water), but I'll let you be the judge of that... I personally had mild perioral dermatitis from using fluoridated toothpaste, and it can even cause discoloration of your teeth (among other things). However, it's the less noticeable and cumulative (a lifetime of exposure) internal effects that I think are the most cause for concern.

I haven't made any drastic changes, mainly just removed the biggest sources of artificial fluoride. I think that's a reasonable change, you can read more about fluoridation on Wikipedia. I don't think anyone would argue that fluoride can reduce the occurrence of cavities, the question is really whether it's worth putting a toxic reactive chemical in your body to accomplish the minimal 15% reduction... or if maybe a better diet (Primal?) and cleaning are the real solution? Check out Weston A. Price's research on diet and cavities, look at the pictures in "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" and tell me that what we eat has nothing to do with the health of out teeth...?

I looked into various water filtration systems and found out that the standard pitcher/faucet filters DON'T remove fluoride; so the Brita, PUR and ZeroWater filters are great at removing particulates, heavy metals and chlorine, but don't significantly reduce the fluoride content of your water. Distillation only removes about 60% (and leaves behind many Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's)). Activated alumina filters can remove up to 80%, but they pose unknown health risks from aluminum exposure (not widely available) and leave high Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). The only way I found to efficiently remove most of the fluoride and also remove particulates, heavy metals and VOCs was a reverse osmosis (RO) system... At first I thought they'd be too expensive, but Amazon has a good system (5-stage, 75 gallon/day, NSF Certified) for $170 that I've been using for a while now and works great. It's a big investment, but the filters last 6 months to a year (depending on use), and over the long run you're saving money over buying RO bottled water elsewhere. Plus, no more Brita filters (which are pretty expensive already!). Problem solved... [link to City of Cocoa's Water Quality Report, 2011; Fluoride is added to our local water along with Chlorine!]

RO System: iSpring 75GPD 5-Stage Reverse Osmosis Water Filter System - Comparing to Watts Premier, Crystal Clear, GE, APEC

There are a lot of fluoride free toothpastes out there, so I'd try a few and see what you like. Personally, I'd recommend one with Neem in it. Neem has been used medicinally in India for over 2 millennia  and is known for it's antibacterial properties and used in oral cleaning (among other things). I use a combination of tooth paste and then add a little of the tooth powder to it... the tooth powder is also really nice for traveling (no liquids).

Toothpaste: Himalaya Herbal Healthcare Neem & Pomegranate Toothpaste
Powder: Peppermint Toothpowder - 2.5 oz - Powder

All-in-One Tooth Powder: Eco-Dent Extra Brite Tooth Whitener, Without Fluoride, Dazzling Mint

After I eat I like to chew gum to remove food from between teeth, and this gum has Neem and peppermint for fresh breath (both have antibacterial properties) and to help polish teeth as well. The only downside is that the mint flavor doesn't last very long, but at least the gum doesn't dissolve in your mouth like many other's do after chewing for an hour. It's also sugar free (xylitol; cavity protection) and soy free, which is hard to find with gum!

Gum: Peelu Co. Chewing Gum, Peppermint


That's it... these small changes have reduced my exposure to fluoride significantly and have kept me cavity free for 27+ years, and hopefully for many more to come!

What's in the American Gut?

I just wanted to help get the word out about the American Gut project on Indiegogo. This project is the first crowd sourced effort to map the microbiome of the gut, and this could shed light on a very little understood but very important aspect of human physiology. Sign up and provide a sample, you'll not only find out what's in your own gut (good or bad?), but you'll also be part of an international study that could possibly be the start to a significant change in our views about the Gut and it's role in our health!

Direct link:   http://igg.me/p/190072/x/1800286