Heal Your Oral Microbiome

“A must read if you truly want to understand oral health and how it affects the health of your overall systemic well-being . . . a healthcare gem.” —Dr. Mark Burhenne, DDS of Ask the Dentist It’s a popular theory that good health starts in your gut. But think about it: your mouth is the gateway to your gut. The good and bad bacteria in your mouth are directly linked to the bacteria in your digestive system. The oral microbiome can also affect illnesses and diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, certain cancers, and more. That’s why maintaining a balanced oral microbiome is one of the most important things you can do to set a solid foundation for your overall health. Heal Your Oral Microbiome is the first book out there to focus exclusively on the oral microbiome. In these pages, you’ll learn how your mouth paves the way for full-body health, as well as how to identify common habits and practices that could be negatively impacting your unique microbiome. You’ll also discover important steps you can take to heal and balance your mouth’s microbes to boost your immune system, fight a variety of illnesses and create a solid foundation for your overall well-being. “Wow. It’s high time a solid, clinician and consumer-friendly book is delivered on the oral microbiome, is it not? Cass Nelson-Dooley began researching the topic years ago, and is now arguably one of the foremost leading experts on integrative interventions for oral health.” —Dr. Kara Fitzgerald, author of Younger You

Our mouths are filled with information about our systemic health. They always have been, but now medicine and science are putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Research has intimately linked oral health problems to diseases in other parts of the body. In a modern era of advanced knowledge and sophisticated technology, why is the amount of dental work done each year still in the range of billions of dollars? Why do people still suffer from rotting teeth and oral disease? What is missing in our public knowledge about oral health and why do we silo oral health into such a narrow focus?This book will cover a wide range of topics, from the microscopic bacteria in our body to anthropological trends that have affected the shapes of our mouths. In this book, we will go on a tour of a healthy mouth, learn what oral disease is, what causes it, and why we should care about it. Our journey will take us through the history of dentistry and the evolution of our oral health over time. This book will explore diet, nutrition, and exactly how it links to oral health. Lastly, we will learn about the role the mouth plays in breathing and how it all connects to the mouth body connection. Learning the history of our mouths, what really goes on inside, and how it all connects to the bigger picture will help you and your family not only avoid dental work, but also live healthier, better lives. If you have been suffering from oral disease without a solution or if you simply want to go on a journey of our teeth through time, this book is for you. It is time to put the mouth back into the body.

USA TODAY AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER You’ve heard the advice: If you want to live longer, eat healthy foods and exercise daily. But there’s a third piece of the puzzle, and it can add 10 to 15 years to your life. It’s been right under your nose this whole time—literally. Your mouth is the gateway to your body and is the most critical organ for improving your health, from childhood onward. Everything in the human life cycle is related to the mouth: fertility, childbirth, sleeping soundly, success in school, finding a mate, getting a job, psychological well-being, avoiding chronic or systemic disease, and aging well. Your mouth is a window into the health of your body as a whole; from its microbiome to its structure, it impacts your physical and mental wellness in countless ways. Unfortunately, the mouth-body connection has been largely neglected by American medicine . . . until now. If Your Mouth Could Talk is the result of over 20 years of firsthand experience and research by renowned orthodontist and dentofacial orthopedist, Dr. Kami Hoss. In this groundbreaking work, Dr. Hoss connects the dots between oral health and whole-body health, offering a roadmap to a longer, more successful future for you and your family. This isn’t a book about brushing and flossing—or any of the other standard advice you get from your dentist. Instead, you’ll hear about how to protect your mouth’s microbiome, the effect of diet, the relationship between oral structure and sleep problems, how to breathe better, and more. This is an in-depth guide for people who want to take control of their health to the fullest extent possible—who want to understand how their mouth contributes to their overall health and quality of life, and what they can do to better care for it. If your mouth could talk, it would tell you about the condition of your entire life. Time to start listening.

A unique exploration of how dental health connects to holistic health, with a 40-day meal plan and long-lasting dietary guidelines that are easily integrable into everyday life Throughout the years, dental health has often been characterized as a reflection of our overall health, where bad oral health results from issues with other parts of our body. But what if we flipped the paradigm? What if we thought about dental health as the foundation for our physical health as a whole? Dr. Steven Lin, an experienced dentist and the world’s first dental nutritionist, has analyzed our ancestral traditions, epigenetics, gut health, and the microbiome in order to develop food-based principles for a literal top-down holistic health approach. Merging dental and nutritional science, Dr. Lin lays out the dietary program that can help ensure you won’t need dental fillings or cholesterol medications —and give you the resources to raise kids who develop naturally straight teeth. With our mouth as the gatekeeper of our gut, keeping our oral microbiome balanced will create a healthy body through a healthy mouth. Dr. Lin arms you with a 40-day meal plan, complete with the Dental Diet food pyramid, exercises for the mouth, recipes, and cooking techniques to help you easily and successfully implement his techniques into your everyday life. The tools to improve overall wellness levels and reverse disease are closer than we think—in our markets, in our pantries, and, most frequently, in our mouths.

The future of medicine—and the key to a healthier life—starts in your mouth American dentists are beginning to discover what some of their European counterparts have long understood: Many common chronic conditions—obesity, inflammation, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and cancer, among others—often have their origins in the mouth. In a groundbreaking new work, German dentist Dr. Dominik Nischwitz presents the principles of biological dentistry along with emerging scientific research on the mouth’s vital role in the body’s microbiome—a key to whole body wellness. Challenging conventional dental wisdom that views the teeth as separate from the rest of the body, and conventional dental practices that often cause more harm than good, It’s All in Your Mouth delivers: The latest research on the microbiome and the mouth Critical information on the dangers of root canals and amalgam fillings The important role of nutrition in oral health and hygiene A clarion call for a new approach to dentistry Sensible, holistic, and humane, It’s All in Your Mouth offers a necessary new approach to natural immunity to chronic disease and integrating dental hygiene into whole body health.

This volume discusses the oral microbiome, and oral and systemic health. The chapters in this book cover topics such as analytical techniques for identifying and measuring oral bacteria; strategies for controlling common sources of variability in oral microbiome methods for viral bacterial and fungal analysis; ways to study oral DNA and RNA samples to identify molecular pathways to disease; approaches to functional assays for oral bacteriophage, antibiotic purging of systemic bacteria; and metaproteomic analysis of various oral samples. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and practical, The Oral Microbiome: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for any scientist or researcher looking to further study this exciting and developing field.

Science has made huge leaps in prolonging life through disease prevention and treatment, but microbiologist Brett Finlay and gerontologist Jessica Finlay offer a different—and truly revolutionary—approach to the quest for the fountain of youth. Microbes are the oldest and smallest forms of life on earth, and encompass bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi and other microscopic organisms. While some bacteria and viruses can make us sick, normally we coexist peacefully with microbes. In fact, they are essential to our everyday health. Microbes help break down food in the digestive tract, support immune function and protect us from the pathogens we come into contact with on a daily basis. Our well-being is intimately tied to the microbes that surround us—on our cellphones, kitchen sponges, houseplants, pets and desks. In this groundbreaking volume, the authors present current and emerging research on microbial interventions for the full gamut of age-related conditions, from sun spots and wrinkles to Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, osteoporosis, menopause, chronic inflammation and more. The good news is that simple changes to nutrition and lifestyle can promote the right kind of microbial exposure, to improve health whether we’re eighteen or eighty. Incorporating interviews with leading microbiologists, scientific researchers and medical professionals, and with a compelling and proactive approach to cutting-edge science, The Whole-Body Microbiome will appeal to anyone looking to grow old as healthfully and gracefully as possible.