Keep your teeth

Teeth --
Keep Yours!

Health Boundaries Bite

I have lost a lot of teeth, and the dental implants I got to
replace some of them are causing me a lot of trouble.

If I had known in my thirties and forties what I know now, I
would still have all my own teeth, I'm sure of it!

Before I say more, however, keep in mind that nothing is the
same for everyone. For example, when new drugs are tested
only a percentage of the subjects benefit. Some have no
benefit and some experience negative outcomes. It is when
there are more good outcomes by a "significant" percentage
that a new drug is given the okay. Though clearly in the case
of some drugs that are approved by the FDA some people
who take them may have very serious health episodes, and
even die as a result, as for instance the over 27,000 who took
Vioxx and died or were seriously harmed.

Therefore, one of the most important things in dealing with
our health is to pay attention to our own individual health,
and keep notes so that it's possible to see clearly what
happened, specifically, as opposed to what we may
remember inaccurately. And, that's true when it comes to our
teeth, too.

In my case I had a lot of "tartar" ever since I was a child. In
the last few decades it has been referred to as plaque, but it is
the same thing. Dental plaque is composed of about 80%
water and 20% protein accumulated from the protein in our
saliva.

Dentists exclaimed at me over the large amount of
tartar/plaque I had and how quickly it built up. I used to need
to have my teeth cleaned every three months, sometimes
more often than that.

The extensive and quick building plaque is what eventually
led to my teeth loss, but in between there were times when I
was under extreme stress when my gums bled without even
having to brush my teeth to cause the bleeding.

There were two times in my life when the plaque fell off in
chunks all on its own: once was after a party in London
where everyone had been extremely nice and I felt that
people had genuinely liked me and I wasn't alone (I was
living in a rather isolated situation at the time); and the other
was the day after nearly a dozen people went to court with
me to support me. These two experiences led me to believe
that if we had a lot of support most of the time, and little
stress, that our teeth and gums would benefit.

The trouble is that a lot of us suffer abuse at home rather
than receiving love and support. So, the most important thing
that I have observed is very different from relying on those
around me, and, it's not immediately easy to observe. In fact,
it's related in a rather hidden, underlying way.

What I mean is, after I had B12 replacement therapy with
regular shots every month for several months I was surprised
to discover that plaque was no longer building up as it had
always done in the past, I no longer had to have my teeth
cleaned more than once or possibly twice a year.

So, I think there is a relationship between feeling supported
and loved and higher B12 levels. My feeling is that just as
stress lowers B12 levels, love and appreciation raise them.

I have huge amounts of stress in my life so I continue with
B12 replacement and now use methylcobalamin lozenges
which are much nicer than shots.

When I recently told a friend about methylcobalamin
benefiting teeth and gums, she was skeptical, "I just don't see
how there can be a connection."

While I can't say for sure, what I think may be involved is
the effect B12 has on our blood: when we are low on B12
our blood cells become larger and larger because they can't
divide the way that they are supposed to, which is why when
we have low B12 we tend to feel tired and our feet and hands
tend to fall asleep and feel numb.

I suspect that when our B12 levels are healthy and our blood
is healthy that it cleans our systems for us, getting rid of the
makings of plaque before they can materialize into a
damaging coating on our teeth or inside our veins and brains.

Plaque in the brain is a know factor in Alzheimer's Disease as
well as Parkinson's Disease.

Amyloid Plaques

A characteristic of Alzheimer's disease is the accumulation of
amyloid plaques between nerve cells (neurons) in the brain.
Amyloid is a general term for protein fragments that the body
produces normally. In a healthy brain, these protein
fragments are broken down and eliminated. In Alzheimer's
the fragments accumulate to form hard, insoluble plaques.

It is also known, as a result of studies, that people with
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's have a tendency to low levels of
vitamin B12. (See the research excerpts below.)

So, if your fingernails have lines/ridges or you are losing your
moons on your fingernails or have other symptoms of low
vitamin B12, then you may be like me with excessive plaque
that can lead to tooth loss.

But, I think you have a choice. I think you don't have to let it
happen. I think that if you begin to use methylcobalamin
lozenges you will begin to enhance the health of your blood
and nerves and you will see a difference in the health of your
gums and teeth.

Try it! But be sure to keep notes. See if it makes a difference
for you.

Note: If you are sick and have trouble standing long enough
to regularly brush your teeth, try taking a mouthful of
hydrogen peroxide, you can dilute it a bit if you like, and
swish it around your mouth for a minute or so, then spit it
out. I discovered that it helps clean at the gum line. I just
wish I'd discovered it earlier than I did while I had tetanus.

1/6/09 - Several of my teeth that were loose are now tight in
my jaw bones. I had no idea that loose teeth could become
strong and tight again. But, they can and they did for me.

I attribute the change to no longer taking Ibuprofen except
when I'm having extreme pain (Ibuprofen weakens the jaw
bones, as in fact does Fosamax) and to taking a lot more
magnesium. I try to take a magnesium table or capsule every
time I have vitamin C, partially because the vitamin C helps
my body make use of the magnesium and partially because I
take a lot of C and I want to be sure to take a lot of
magnesium.

Just to clarify, my teeth were just this side of wobbly in my
jaw in the same way the ones were which the dentists insisted
had to come out. And, my teeth did not regain their firm
anchoring in a day or week or month, it took about two
years.

Research

The following research deals with Alzheimer's Disease and

low vitamin B12 levels. I am showing this research because

in my experience plaque around my teeth

was

significantly

reduced by vitamin B12 replacement.

BBC News report September 9, 2008

Vitamin 'may prevent memory loss'

A vitamin found in meat, fish and milk may help stave off

memory loss in old age, a study has suggested.

Older people with lower than average vitamin B12 levels were
more than six times more likely to experience brain shrinkage,
researchers concluded.

The University of Oxford study, published in the journal
Neurology, tested the 107 apparently healthy volunteers over a
five-year period looking at a group of people between 61 and 87,
and splitting the group into thirds depending on the participants'
vitamin B12 levels.

Even the third with the lowest levels were still above a threshold
used by some scientists to define vitamin B12 deficiency.
However, they were still much more likely to show signs of brain
shrinkage over the five-year period.

Professor David Smith, who directs the Oxford Project to
Investigate Memory and Ageing, said: "This study adds another
dimension to our understanding of the effects of B vitamins on
the brain - the rate of shrinkage of the brain as we age may be
partly influenced by what we eat."

Shrinkage has been strongly linked with a higher risk of
developing dementia at a later stage and Rebecca Wood, the chief
executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "This study
suggests that consuming more vitamin B12 through eating meat,
fish, fortified cereals or milk as part of a balanced diet might help
protect the brain. Liver and shellfish are particularly rich sources
of B12."

"Vitamin B12 deficiency is a common problem among elderly
people in the UK and has been linked to declining
memory and dementia," Dr Susanne Sorensen, from the
Alzheimer's Society said, "Shrinkage is usually associated with
the development of dementia."

Homocysteine, vitamin B12 relationship linked to
Alzheimer's; 23-Jul-2002

A combination of high levels of homocysteine and low levels of
vitamin B12 is a significant risk factor for Alzheimer's disease
among African Americans, according to a paper presented today
at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and
Related Disorders in Stockholm, Sweden.

Floyd Willis and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Florida
conducted a study to evaluate the association between
homocysteine, B12 and folic acid levels in African Americans
with Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers collected blood samples from 256 African
Americans who showed no signs of cognitive impairment and 58
African Americans who had a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's
disease. All study participants were over the age of 50.

When comparing the two groups, the researchers found
homocysteine levels were significantly higher in the individuals
with Alzheimer's disease and levels of B12 were significantly
lower.

High-dose vitamin B12 for at-home prevention and reversal
of Alzheimer's disease and other diseases
Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients -- May, 2006
by Joseph G. Hattersley

It is interesting to consider what proportion of Alzheimer's
dementia (AD) may result from under-nutrition, (1) especially
when it seems that there may be an easy, low-cost, perfectly safe,
nutritional way that may allow people to avoid a miserable illness
that many people consider worse than death. Some people might
say, "That's too good to be true!" In fact, an at-home nutritional
program, using a lot of vitamin B12 may indeed prevent and
virtually eliminate AD. An early launch of the treatment soon
after first warning symptoms start could even turn off the process.

Confusion, difficulty concentrating, loss of memory, marked
changes in personality that can lead to outbursts of violence,
hallucinations, wandering away, and early death all characterize
Alzheimer's dementia. An estimated 2.3 million Americans now
have AD. Prevalence doubles every five years after the age of 60,
increasing from one percent among those 60 to 64 up to 40%
among those aged 85 years and older.

Let's start with a little background. Mammals, including humans,
are born with serum levels of vitamin B12 at about 2,000 pg/ml.
The level declines throughout human life owing to practices
common in Western societies. Below 550 to 600 pg/ml,
deficiencies start to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid. US clinical
laboratories regard 200 pg/ml as the lower range of normal.

"Most cases of Alzheimer's dementia are actually missed B12
deficiency cases, because of the too-low normal range for B12,"
wrote John V. Dommisse, MD in 1991 in Medical Hypotheses.
Dommisse, who practices medicine in Tucson, Arizona, has
confirmed that Alzheimer's disease appears to result from too-low
serum vitamin B12, and repletion of the vitamin succeeds despite
other risk factors. Repleting B12, according to Dommisse, can
reverse 75% of B12 deficiency dementias when the condition is
discovered early enough.

Other aspects of the therapy should be noted: The neurological
and cerebral manifestations of B12 deficiency require dosages
larger, and extending over a longer time, than to those needed to
reverse hematologic effects. B12 therapy appears to be perfectly
safe; in other words, the risk of overdose is virtually nil. Patients
of Dr. H.L. Newbold in New York City injected themselves three
times daily with triple-strength doses of B12 (9,000
ug/micrograms/per day) indefinitely. Their serum B12 levels
reached 200,000 pg/ml (100 times the normal level found in
newborn babies and higher), but none had any significant side
effects.

Functional vitamin B12 deficiency and Alzheimer disease A.
McCaddon, MRCGP, B. Regland, MD PhD, P. Hudson, MSc
and G. Davies, MSc -- From the University of Wales College of
Medicine

Moderately elevated total serum homocysteine is associated with
an increased risk of atherothrombotic vascular events.
Accordingly, serum homocysteine is increased in patients with
vascular dementia but is also increased in clinically diagnosed and
histologically confirmed AD.

It is generally considered that homocysteine potentiates
endothelial and neuronal oxidative injury in these diseases.

A complementary model of oxidative stress induced
hyperhomocystinemia is proposed by the authors. The hypothesis
accounts for several unusual features relating to single-carbon
metabolism and AD, including the absence of macrocytic anemia
in these patients. It is suggested that cerebral oxidative stress
augments the oxidation of an intermediate form of vitamin B12
generated in the methionine synthase reaction, thereby impairing
the metabolism of homocysteine. Oxidative stress also
compromises the intraneuronal reduction of the vitamin to its
metabolically active state.

Neurology, 2002

Low Vitamin B12 Is Associated With Poorer Memory In
Older People With High Risk For Alzheimer's
David Bunce, PhD, a psychologist at Goldsmith's College,
University of London, Miia Kivipelto, PhD, MD, of the Aging
Research Center at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the
Stockholm Gerontology Research Center, and Wahlin, PhD, a
psychologist at University of Stockholm

Among healthy people over the age of 75 who have the genotype
associated with higher risk for Alzheimer's, low levels of vitamin
B12 are associated with significantly worse performance on
memory tests.

Scientists already knew of a genetic predisposition for
Alzheimer's disease, and that low levels of two B vitamins --
B12 and folate -- were also linked to problems.

The apolipoprotein E gene, which moves cholesterol in the body,
has a version called the 4 allele. Carried by perhaps 15 percent of
the population, it is a risk factor for dementia. Current data
collected over a six-year period suggests that nearly one out of
four carriers with one copy of this allele and nearly half carrying
two copies will develop Alzheimer's disease. Non-carriers also
can get Alzheimer's.

Carriers of the 4 allele have smaller hippocampi, brain areas
associated with memory, so the researchers wanted to measure
how an additional physiological shortfall such as low Vitamin B,
affected this particular group -- given that reduced B12 and folate
have been linked generally with diminished memory and
increased risk for Alzheimer's.

Bunce, Kivipelto and Wahlin studied 167 healthy older people,
averaging nearly 83 years old. Among carriers of the 4 ApoE
allele, people with normal B12 levels recalled a greater number of
words.

A significant difference showed up in the experiment's most
demanding condition, when participants had just two seconds to
encode words. In that situation, the high-risk genotype plus low
B12 levels was significantly associated with poorer memory.

The findings endorse a complex model of vulnerability in which
genetic and non-genetic factors interact. According to the authors,
"4 ApoE carriers may derive relatively greater cognitive benefits
from B12 and folate supplements. Supplement treatment is
relatively inexpensive and may be required as part of preventive
health regimes for older persons."

American Psychological Association, 5 April 2004

Alzheimer disease: protective factors.
Nourhashemi F, Gillette-Guyonnet S, Andrieu S, et al.

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease often have low blood levels
of vitamin B12. Lower vitamin B12 levels are found in the
cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer's disease than in
patients with other types of dementia, though blood levels of
vitamin B12 did not differ.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2000

Low vitamin B-12 status in confirmed Alzheimer's disease as
revealed by serum holotranscobalamin
H Refsum, A D Smith -- Department of Pharmacology,
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

51 patients with pathologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease and
65 cognitively screened elderly controls were studied. Serum
holotranscobalamin was measured by a new solid phase
radioimmunoassay.

Geometric mean levels showed no significant differences for
serum total cobalamin, but lower levels of holotranscobalamin in
Alzheimer's disease (41.1 pmol/l) than in controls (57.1 pmol/l) (p
< 0.001). The odds ratio of Alzheimr's disease was significant
for low holotranscobalamin but not for low total cobalamin.

Conclusion: Disturbed cobalamin status is common in
Alzheimer's disease and accordingly measurement of
holotranscobalamin should be considered in the assessment of
cognitively impaired patients.

Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry; 2003

Alzheimer's linked to vitamins

People with low levels of the vitamins B12 or folate may have a
higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease; scientists found
that 46 out of 78 Alzheimer's patients they examined had low
levels of both vitamins and they believe a lack of the two
vitamins may influence levels of chemicals that play a vital role
in transmitting signals around the brain.

Researcher Dr Hui-Xin Wang said, "In our study, we found that
low levels of either of these two vitamins were related to an
increased Alzheimer's disease risk."

Monitoring B12 and folate levels is important in order to avoid
unfavourable conditions, even for those elderly people who are
quite healthy in terms of cognition.

Dr Wang said that researchers had recorded low vitamin levels in
elderly people for more than 30 years.

Previous research has linked low leverls of B12 and folate to
neurological or psychiatric disorders - but never to Alzheimer's
disease.

Professor David Smith, of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said
the research confirmed previous studies which suggested a similar
link. He also said that the deficiencies may increase levels of a
chemical called homocysteine that is known to poison nerve cells.

Vitamin B12 is naturally found in animal foods including fish,
milk and milk products, eggs, meat, and poultry.

Leafy greens such as spinach and turnip greens, dry beans and
peas, fortified cereals and grain products, and some fruits and
vegetables are rich food sources of folate - a form of water-
soluble vitamin B.

Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of
Neurology. 2001

Ageing and aberrant assimilation of vitamin B12 in
Alzheimer's disease.
McCaddon, A; Hudson, P.; Abrahamsson, L.; Olofsson, H.;
Regland, B.

Vitamin B12 assimilation might be disrupted in patients with
Alzheimer's disease. Twenty-three patients, aged 60 or over, with
features compatible with degenerative dementia of the Alzheimer
type were recruited together with 18 cognitively intact age-
matched control subjects. Total vitamin B12 was measured in
serum. Alzheimer patients had significantly lower active corrinoid
and the analogue/corrinoid ratio was significantly higher in the
Alzheimer group. Two disparate mechanisms might exist for the
development of cerebral B12 deficiency in Alzheimer's disease,
although both imply a disruption of selective B12 assimilation and
analogue elimination in such patients.

Dement-Geriatr-Cogn-Disord. 2001