Periodontal Maintenance: More Than “Just a Cleaning”

When it comes to dental procedures, we know it can get confusing. It’s not you, it’s the terminology. Sure, “dental cleaning” sounds a whole lot friendlier than “prophylactic hygiene visit,” but it can also muddle things a bit.

For not all cleanings are equal.

If your appointment is for a “routine cleaning,” generally speaking, you have a healthy mouth. Twice-a-year visits are adequate to make sure things don’t get out of control by removing the plaque, calculus, and stains that build up between cleanings. They also give us a chance to make sure you’re not missing any areas in your cleaning and motivate you to keep taking good care of your oral health.

But when gum disease is an issue, “just a cleaning” isn’t enough. In fact, it would be a disservice to you. Quite simply, periodontal disease is an infection. As such, it calls for therapeutic treatment.

Where a routine cleaning focuses on the top surfaces, perio treatment requires root planning and scaling to clean above and especially below the gum level, where deposits of plaque and calculus have lodged.

Normally, gum tissue forms a tight turtleneck around the tooth. Infection makes it sag like a sloppy sock, forming pockets. These become perfect little harbors for even more harmful microbes. Regular toothbrushing and flossing are fairly ineffective at this point.

Root planning and scaling can remove rough areas of cementum, dentin, and even soft tissue that is contaminated with microbes and their toxic byproducts. It can help the tissue reattach and heal.

The importance of getting your gum disease properly treated can’t be overstated. Recent scientific research indicates that periodontal disease is a contributing factor other diseases of chronic inflammation, from heart disease to stroke to dementia, diabetes, and some cancers.

And while it’s not curable, it is controllable – through better hygiene, a healthier diet, and, above all, more frequent dental visits for deep cleanings. It’s how you control the level of disease and catch episodic relapses before they get out of hand.

Image by Guillermo Alejandro Gómez Puentes, via Flickr

Periodontal Maintenance: More Than “Just a Cleaning” first appeared on www.drerwin.com

A Holistic View of National Dental Hygiene Month

It’s October, which means it’s also National Dental Hygiene Month – an appropriate time to give a shout-out to our awesome hygienists, Gloria and Lina, as well as for you to take a critical look at your home care.

After all, your oral health plays a very big role in your overall health – such as in the connection between gum disease and other chronic, inflammatory conditions. (Much more on that link here.)

And like any aspect of your health, maintaining good oral health requires your active involvement. In most cases, that means a minimum of two dental visits each year for cleanings, an annual exam, and, of course, effective home care.

You’re probably accustomed to hearing generic advice like floss and brush twice a day with fluoride toothpaste. But as a holistic dental practice, we see things a little differently.

Toothbrushing

While it’s important to brush your teeth – twice a day, according to conventional wisdom – it’s not much help if you’re not brushing effectively.

Since plaque – a dental biofilm – forms on your teeth every 24 hours, you need to break it up completely at least once during that same 24 hour period. Breaking up and removing that biofilm requires attention, technique, and the proper tools to get the job done.

You’ll find a good overview of proper brushing technique here.

Toothpaste

Read almost any article that talks about oral health, and you’ll be pitched fluoride. Yet it’s a toxin. And because it’s routinely dumped into both our water supply and mainstream dental products, no one really knows how much fluoride they’re exposed to each day.

Other ingredients to avoid include sodium lauryl sulfate and triclosan. And there are plenty of options available. You could even make your own!

Truth is, though, your technique, not your toothpaste, makes the most difference to your oral health. Toothpaste just makes it a little easier to break up the plaque.

Floss

Despite the recent controversy over flossing, you really do need to keep up the habit – or some other manner of interdental cleaning. Brushing alone cleans only about 60% of your tooth surfaces. You need floss – or an interproximal brush or oral irrigator – to clean the rest.

The Bigger Picture

When a holistic or biological dentist sees a patient, they will likely address far more than just your teeth and gums. Just as with your overall health, many lifestyle factors beyond oral hygiene affect the health of your mouth: diet, sleep quality and quantity, physical activity, tobacco and other drug use (including pharmaceuticals), chronic stress, relaxation, supplementation, emotional health…

Everything we do has some effect – good or ill – on our overall wellness. By taking a comprehensive view of your total health situation, oral and systemic, we can help you connect the dots and understand what you need to do to get your health to where you want it to be.

Image by mihhailov, via Flickr

A Holistic View of National Dental Hygiene Month first was seen on www.drerwin.com

Weston A. Price & Traditional Foods in the Nourished Kitchen

Dentist Weston A. Price traveled the world to discover the cause of dental decay and physical degradation. Ahead of his time, Dr. Price believed that the modern diet was the root cause of dental issues. He believed the return to a traditional diet could restore dental and general health.

In this interview, blogger and author Jennifer McGruther offers a brief history of Dr. Price and the importance of his work. Not only does she, too, believe that a traditional diet is foundational to health, she has made it her life’s work.

  

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or wellness, McGruther’s website and Facebook page provide the opportunity to tap into the benefits of traditionally prepared grains, bone broth, fermented foods and more. We encourage you to check them out!

Weston A. Price & Traditional Foods in the Nourished Kitchen originally appeared on www.drerwin.com

Rest After Mental Work? You Might Want to Try a Little Exercise Instead

Focused mental activity, like sitting at a computer all day or studying, can mean hunger will soon follow. Feeling fatigued, the brain senses it needs more energy if it’s to keep functioning. It’s a built-in survival mechanism.

But it may also play a role in weight gain, as suggested by a new study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

According to a press release on Science Daily,

"The modern work environment is highly sedentary and cognitively demanding," said William Neumeier, Ph.D., lead author of the study. "Previous studies have shown that mentally demanding tasks, such as a big test, grant deadlines or other mentally strenuous tasks we perform every day, affect the brain's energy demands, and increases in food intake were observed following such tasks. In this study, we explore whether glucose and lactate produced through exercise could serve as a way to provide additional energy for brain function, instead of food consumption."

It was a small study, to be sure – 38 college students, divided into two groups. One was assigned mental work – completing a graduate level entrance exam – followed by 15 minutes of rest. The other was assigned the same mental work followed by 15 minutes of high intensity interval training on a treadmill. All participants also had a 35 minute session of relaxation one week before the testing to serve as a baseline.

Each session ended with an unlimited pizza lunch.

Those who took the exam and then rested for 15 minutes ate an average of 100 calories more than when they simply relaxed without performing mental work, which reinforces previous studies that suggest working our brains does expend energy and causes feelings of hunger. Participants who exercised after the exam ate 25 calories less than when they simply relaxed for 35 minutes and then ate.

The caloric difference could mean another 23 pounds a year for the non-exercise group.

While this is a small study and more research is needed, the results indicate that breaking a sweat may weaken hunger’s messaging and prevent weight gain. It appears to add yet another reason, in a growing list of many, to incorporate exercise into your day.

Image by Jessica Cross, via Flickr

Rest After Mental Work? You Might Want to Try a Little Exercise Instead first was published on www.drerwin.com

No More Triclosan in Soap, but It’s Okay in Toothpaste?!

If you're afraid of bad bugs – all those germs you can't see but just know are EVERYWHERE – you're definitely not alone.

And industry is there for you, ready to wipe away your anxiety with products promising you a germ-free existence.

Fear sells, after all, and marketers know it.

But the thing is, the FDA has just called them out on their inability to prove these products' safety. They've just banned the powerful antimicrobial triclosan in soap.

And that's a good thing. It comes as a result of mounting evidence that daily exposure to antimicrobial products could lead to virulent strains of bacteria that develop antibiotic resistance. And studies in animals show triclosan – and a related antibacterial chemical, triclocarban – can disrupt the normal development of the reproductive system and metabolism.

In fact, triclosan has been on the hit list since 1978. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the ban came to slow fruition over the last six years.

In response to a 2010 NRDC lawsuit, the FDA agreed in November 2013 to issue that long-awaited rule on triclosan. The following month, the agency followed through with a proposal stating that not enough is understood about the health impacts of triclosan to deem it safe, and that evidence shows washing hands with regular soap is just as effective as using the antibacterial stuff. The FDA called on manufacturers of products using triclosan to prove otherwise and set September 2016 as the deadline. After that date, products containing triclosan may, at long last, be taken off the market.

While we applaud the long awaited ban, unfortunately, it’s not exactly the end of the story. Oddly, triclosan is still allowed in toothpaste.

Colgate Total, the only toothpaste in the United States that contains the toxic stuff, convinced the FDA that the benefit outweighs any risks. In fact, according to the NRDC,

Triclosan will still be permitted in products like Colgate Total toothpaste, due to the company's successful—and expensive—1997 effort to work around the regular process to get FDA approval. (NRDC filed a lawsuit in 2014 to obtain information from the FDA about that process.) While the toothpaste might be effective, and even recommended, for very extreme cases of gingivitis, it's arguably more dangerous than hand soap because of the mouth's greater ability to absorb toxins. In fact, a study showed that people who brushed their teeth with Colgate Total had more than five times as much triclosan in their urine than people who didn't.

The problem with allowing triclosan in toothpaste is best explained by Rolf Halden, a director for environmental security at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. Halden, who has tracked triclosan for years, shared in an NYT interview why Colgate Total users might have five times as much triclosan in their systems:

We put soap on our hands, and a small amount gets into our body. But through the gums, chemicals get rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream.

From there, notes the NDRC, the problems compound:

For starters, it's an endocrine disruptor, meaning it interferes with important hormone functions, which can directly affect the brain in addition to our immune and reproductive systems. Specifically, the chemical disturbs thyroid, testosterone, and estrogen regulation, which can create a host of issues including early puberty, poor sperm quality, infertility, obesity, and cancer. Studies have also shown it can lead to impaired learning and memory, exacerbate allergies, and weaken muscle function. The impacts of prolonged exposure during fetal development, infancy, and childhood can be particularly severe, resulting in permanent damage.

Overwhelmed yet? There's more. Studies have shown that the overuse of antimicrobial chemicals like triclosan might also be contributing to antibiotic resistance in bacteria, a major public health concern. At least two million people in the United States fall sick—and about 23,000 die—from antibiotic-resistant infections every year.

And, like any toxin, allowing small amounts puts all of us at risk. When toothpaste is used for brushing teeth, some may be swallowed and some spit into a sink. From the sink, it enters wastewater systems, seafood, soil, and landfills, all of which could prove harmful to all of us.

Of course, we've been asked many times to suspend reality and just accept: to accept pathogenic denial – as when mercury, a neurotoxin, is placed inches from the brain or when postwar surplus fluoride is used to medicate our municipal water supply.

The ban on triclosan in soaps, while good, certainly does not embody the precautionary principle. Triclosan just isn’t necessary. Gingivitis can be treated by dentists, hygienists, and patients themselves, without using toxic fluoride or toxic triclosan or toxic anything.

But until our government is willing and able to embrace the precautionary principle on its citizens' behalf, we will have to advocate for our own self interests.

Image by Finishing School, via Flickr

No More Triclosan in Soap, but It’s Okay in Toothpaste?! first was seen on www.drerwin.com

Gauging Inflammation: Friend or Foe?

When it comes to gum disease and its relationship with your overall health, inflammation gets its fair share of attention – especially the damage it causes our bodies.

But negative effects are just part of the story. The truth is that inflammation is part of the body’s immune system. As such, it’s a key part of the body’s natural healing mechanisms.

When your body signals your immune system that something is breaking down, the immune system rushes in to help. It releases chemicals and hormones to fight infection or repair tissue. These trigger the telltale redness and swelling notoriously associated with inflammation.

Inflammation happens naturally when tissues are injured by bacteria, viruses, toxins, or other trauma – even exercise. And if your immune system is successful in healing the injury, the inflammation goes away.

But what if it’s not resolved? Your immune system keeps trying. This is what we call chronic inflammation. Doing its darnedest to heal what ails, the immune system spews out more and more chemicals and hormones. The body remains constantly on red alert, reacting as if under perpetual attack.

This is the kind of inflammation that can be systemically damaging, even downright fatal.

Here are some common chronic inflammation inducers and recommendations for anti-inflammatory resolutions:

Stress

Mental or physical stress can trigger inflammation. When the brain perceives anxiety or danger, the immune response goes into overdrive. While a little bit of stress can enable your immune system to release chemicals and hormones that will provide the energy, alertness, and strength you need to get through a crisis, chronic stress simply perpetuates chronic inflammation.

There are many strategies for keeping stress in check – even something as simple as getting outside for a while. According to one recent study, taking a break from stressful thoughts and exposing yourself to nature by going for a walk in a natural setting appears to reduces stress and improve a sense of well-being.

Nutritionally, probiotics may be helpful for boosting mood. Likewise, B vitamins and magnesium. Cutting out caffeine, sugars, and refined carbs can help you keep an even keel through the day.

Here are some more tips to help you get your stress levels under control.

Diet

Not only can diet drive or limit stress; it can trigger inflammation all on its own. Because we eat every day, our daily dietary patterns and selections play an important role in our body’s inflammatory response. Gluten, alcohol, casein, processed foods and sugars are common contributors to inflammation. One better choice is a traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern, rich in monounsaturated fats, seeds, nuts, fatty fish, vegetables, fruit, legumes, and whole grains, which has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects.

Though if you were to make just a single dietary change, cutting the sugar would be the one to make. This presentation will give you all the whys you need.

Exercise

Research shows that short-term exercise – a/k/a acute exercise – can increase inflammation. But generally, studies shows a profound link between regular exercise and lower markers of systemic inflammation. For instance, long-term high intensity resistance and aerobic exercise has been shown to reduce inflammation markers in those with type 2 diabetes. Other research has shown lower levels of C-reactive protein – a common marker of inflammation – in young women, elderly women, and adults who exercise regularly.

Lifestyle

When looking at reducing chronic inflammation, it’s important to look at daily habits. Your day-to-day choices can either support health or disease. While incorporating exercise, diet, and stress reduction are instrumental to reducing chronic inflammation, so too are other daily activities.

Smoking, for instance, triggers an immunologic response to vascular injury. This is associated with higher levels of inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein and white blood cell count.

The importance of a good night’s sleep cannot be overstated. Studies show the loss of sleep, even for a single night, can contribute to inflammation.

And, of course, effective oral hygiene is critical. Our mouths are full of bacteria, some good, some harmful. Some of the latter especially love to colonize on your teeth and in periodontal pockets. If you don’t regularly break up those colonies, the result is often gum disease – a disease of inflammation that has been linked to a wide variety of other inflammatory conditions.

Inflammation was beautifully designed to respond to instances of acute illness, stress, or trauma. And while our lifestyle appears to have hijacked a healthy functioning immune/inflammation response, luckily there is so much we can do to wrangle it’s healing power once again.

Image by Darron Birgenheler, via Flickr

Gauging Inflammation: Friend or Foe? originally was posted on www.drerwin.com

When it Comes to Mercury, Just Say NO!

This past week marked the 6th annual Mercury Awareness Week, a joint campaign by Dr. Mercola and Consumers for Dental Choice to further the cause of mercury-free dentistry.

One fundamental concept in biological dentistry is the commitment to biocompatible materials. Mercury isn’t one of them. Yet it’s the main component of so-called “silver” amalgam fillings.

And despite mercury amalgam being a real relic of old school dentistry and a potent neurotoxin, it still accounts for the majority of all fillings placed today. No matter how long they’ve been in the mouth, they release mercury’s most toxic vapor every time you chew, drink, and swallow.

No matter where you go for dental care, we believe you should have the right to choose mercury-free dentistry. To make that choice a reality, there is no greater tool than informed consent. You have a right to know the risks and benefits of not just treatment, but materials. Advocating for choice requires vigilance on your part.

For instance, while many dentists will place mercury-free restorations, if their office is still placing amalgam in the mouths of those who don’t ask for or can’t afford an alternative, they probably don’t take the mercury issue seriously. Even if an office advertises itself as mercury-free, they may not necessarily be mercury-safe. (How to ensure they are? Membership in an organization such as the IABDM or IAOMT is one good sign. Still, you should ask lots of questions! A mercury-safe office will welcome them.)

Clearly, it takes a village to maintain vigilance when it comes to mercury. From the EPA’s proposed amalgam separator rule to reduce the amount of dental mercury pollution in our national water system (currently 12 tons every year!) to activist groups like Consumers for Dental Choice; from websites such as TALK International to individual consumers getting involved, it takes all of us working together to make a difference.

While healthier restorations are available today, many dentists still prefer to place the less technical, faster, cheaper, “gut-and-fill” mercury amalgam fillings. This is especially disappointing when you consider all the ways in which mercury amalgam affects us, whether you have it in your mouth or not:

1. Mercury amalgam pollutes our environment.
2. Mercury amalgam endangers our health.
3. Mercury amalgam endangers dental workers.
4. Mercury amalgam continues to be frequently implanted without informed consent.
5. Mercury amalgam perpetuates social injustice.
6. Mercury amalgam damages teeth.
7. Mercury amalgam costs taxpayers.
8. Mercury amalgam is diverted to illegal mining.
9. Mercury amalgam drives up the price of mercury-free alternatives.
10. Mercury amalgam is interchangeable with mercury-free filling materials.

Getting to the root of the issue requires that we look deeper, research more, and provide legal support to phase down the use of this dangerous neurotoxin.

Once upon a time, holistic and biological dentists had to fight to educate their patients and provide mercury-free alternatives. They had to stand up to the American Dental Association and state dental boards, even if it meant losing their license to practice. Sadly, some did. But those pioneers paved the way toward lifting the gag order on discussing mercury with our patients.

Today, we are asking you to stand with us. When it comes to phasing out mercury, that heavy-metal relic, we just can’t do it without you.

Get Involved in the Fight for a Mercury-Free Future!

Consumers for Dental Choice
DAMS
TALK International

When it Comes to Mercury, Just Say NO! first was seen on www.drerwin.com

Aging Like a Centenarian

It seems the older we get, the more time we spend thinking about our aging bodies. And, the more time we spend thinking about our aging bodies, the more we realize that aging well requires a fair amount of body maintenance. And while, to date, there’s been no Fountain of Youth gene discovery, thanks to some good research and alternative methods, we continue to learn about how we can make all of our years as happy and healthy as possible.

But are we applying what we know? According to the latest CDC statistics, the answer is a dismal “no.”

• More than 52% of adults don’t meet minimum requirements for aerobic exercise, and 76% don’t meet the minimum requirements for muscle-strengthening exercise.

• Almost half of all adults have at least one risk factor for health disease or stroke.

• 38% of adults eat fruit less than once per day, and 23% eat vegetables less than once per day.

• 42 million adults currently smoke cigarettes.

• 38 million adults report binge drinking an average of 4 times per month, with an average 8 drinks per binge.

These lifestyle habits not only accelerate the aging process. They are disabling and killing us. About half of all adults have at least one chronic health condition. One quarter of American adults have two or more. These chronic diseases account for 7 out of every 10 deaths.

But, to be sure, personal choice and lifestyle is just one part of the picture. According to a recent report from the World Health Organization, in 2012, an estimated 12.6 million people died, globally, as a result of living or working in an unhealthy environment. That’s nearly 1 in 4 people.

Environmental risk factors contribute to more than 100 diseases and injuries. These include air, soil, and water pollution; chemical exposures; climate change; and ultraviolet radiation.

“There’s an urgent need for investment in strategies to reduce environmental risks in our cities, homes and workplaces”, said Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health. “Such investments can significantly reduce the rising worldwide burden of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, injuries, and cancers, and lead to immediate savings in healthcare costs.”

As WHO’s Director-General put it, “A healthy environment underpins a healthy population. If countries do not take actions to make environments where people live and work healthy, millions will continue to become ill and die too young.”

Clearly, a healthy environment is as critical for healthier people as lifestyle choice is.

Aging well isn’t likely to happen as the result of taking this supplement or that, gorging on this “superfood” or that, running marathons or any other single, particular thing. Though these things may be helpful, aging well is the consequence of our lives’ composite, the sum of all we do. Some of it is within our control; some of it, not.

But no matter what your age, if you begin with the intention to live your strongest, longest life, you can make progress. While no one can guarantee that lifestyle changes mean you’ll go on to become a centenarian, it can be your goal.

And, rather than drudgery, incorporating simple changes can be a joyful way to living gracefully into our oldest age.

Image by Nacho Rascón, via Flickr

Aging Like a Centenarian first was seen on www.drerwin.com

Biting into Olympic Rudeness

If you’re like us, the summer Olympics have had you glued to the TV. Not only is there a sport for every interest; watching the best athletes in the world perform at their peak is inspiring, exhilarating, and – let’s face it – a bit humbling to us mortals sitting on the couch watching.

These athletes have sacrificed many of the things we take for granted to train and compete in this one particular moment – this historical moment.

Certainly of the competitors, we all have our favorites. But never has it been more clear that we see the rest of world as we are, through our own lens, with our own biases. And never has that lens seemed so disrespectful and, frankly, cruel than in the curious incident of Olympian Chinese swimmer Sun Yang.

The moment Yang knew he had won the 200m men’s freestyle, he reacted like any of us would – with a fist bump, a shout of triumph, and a very big smile.

Unfortunately for Yang, that instant smile generated a firestorm of negative, insulting, and sophomoric comments about the appearance of his teeth, tarnishing the gold medalist’s moment of sheer joy.

The Daily Dot offered a key insight to all this shaming (and it is shaming):

In most developed countries, having straight, white teeth is a signifier of class. And while dental hygiene is an ongoing issue in China, according to a study from the International Dental Journal from 2005 among adults in China, “56 percent held the attitude that tooth loss is natural and inevitable,” and many had never heard of dental plaque or the effect of sugar on teeth.

However, crooked teeth can function as well as straight teeth, and having crooked teeth is not a sign of poor hygiene; it just means not everyone lives up to a Western, mainly American, standard of aesthetics.

And as one Twitter user put it,

Making fun of Sun Yang's teeth is not funny at all. There isn't a prevalent dental awareness in China and in many developing countries.

— Heidi Han (@heidi_han) August 9, 2016

Amen.

If you have the money and the luck to live in a country with an emphasis on dental health, you are at least a person of good fortune when it comes to your teeth and their impact on your overall health. But if you decide to open your fortunate mouth to judge, insult, and hurt another, it won’t be your teeth but your words that become your biggest embarrassment.

The thing is, teeth can always be fixed.

Biting into Olympic Rudeness first was seen on www.drerwin.com

To Floss or Not to Floss? The Decision That Has You in Knots

We know: You never liked to floss in the first place – well, unless you were trying to remove a chunk of something wedged between your teeth. And you’re a bit tired of going to the hygienist every six months and getting schooled all over again in proper technique.

So you were probably thrilled to hear about the recent AP story that got spun to say, “Guess what! You don’t need to floss!” No proven medical benefit from flossing? Sounds like the perfect reason to skip off into the sunshine of happy, floss-free Neverland.

But that’s outweighed by reasons to actually keep right on flossing.

1. Flossing, as an oral hygiene technique, was invented nearly 200 years ago as a common sense approach to cleaning as thoroughly as possible. The AP investigation really didn’t say flossing didn’t work, just that the research to date doesn’t clearly prove it. (In fact, other research has shown that the evidence for most medical and dental practices is surprisingly lacking.)

2. Just as you wash between your toes when you shower so your feet don’t stink, flossing reduces odor-generating bacteria. Don’t believe us? Just run that floss between your teeth and smell it. Just as people back away when someone takes off their shoes, if you notice them backing away from you when you talk, you probably could benefit from a daily flossing habit.

3. Technique and habit are everything. Flossing incorrectly can actually damage gum tissue, cutting it. Proper flossing – wrapping it around the tooth in the shape of a C while shimming against each side of the tooth – will remove plaque easily missing by brushing alone.

4. When it comes to cleaning between your teeth, if you don’t like floss, find something you do like. There are many other types of interdental cleaners and techniques – oral irrigators (e.g., Waterpik), Rotadent interproximal cleaners, proxy brushes and more. All are effective at removing plaque and disrupting the formation of bacterial colonies.

5. Gum disease is a slow, progressive disease. Most studies are fairly short term. But we do have clinical observation and evidence. And what that tells us is that flossing does indeed work – and that not flossing is a real factor in the development of oral disease.

So keep flossing – or start flossing. Regularly. Your teeth – and gums and body and brain – will thank you over the long haul.

For more on why you should probably keep flossing, despite what the AP says, check out this excellent overview at Wired.

Image by Nicole Hanusek, via Flickr

To Floss or Not to Floss? The Decision That Has You in Knots originally was posted on www.drerwin.com

6 Ways to Get More Nutrients Now

Summer tomatoes are great! Not only are they delicious, they’re full of flavonoid antioxidants such as lycopene – credited with lowering the risk of heart disease and cancer – and zeaxanthin, which may protect eyes from age-related macular disease, not to mention vitamin A and carotenes, vitamin C, potassium, folate and vitamin K.

In an ideal world, we would get our nutrients from real food. But as Michael Pollan pointed out in the documentary Food, Inc., that may prove difficult. For

there are no seasons in the American supermarket. Now there are tomatoes all year round, grown halfway around the world, picked when it was green, and ripened with ethylene gas. Although it looks like a tomato it’s kind of a notional tomato. I mean it’s the idea of a tomato.

In fact, conventionally grown, off-season tomatoes have lower vitamin levels than they did just 40 years ago. Rather than being grown for taste and nutrients, they’re grown for their looks and ability to travel.

And tomatoes are hardly alone in declining nutrition.

If you’re looking to get more nutrients for your food dollar year round, this is how you do it:

1. Notice what season you’re in and shop it.
   
   Everyone says we should shop in season. There’s good reason for that. When we shop in season, we get food at the peak of its flavor. It’s food that has naturally ripened. Full ripeness also ensures it’s at the peak of its nutrient count. The more time foods spend in transit, the more nutrients and moisture it loses.

   But to get the benefits of seasonal food, you sort of have to know what’s growing in your region and when it grows. Here in SoCal, we’re lucky in that so much is available through so much of the year. Just use this seasonality chart as a guide. (Outside of Southern California? Here’s a general guide. To find one specific to your region, just Google “seasonality chart” – without the quotes, natch – plus the name of the geographic region you live in.)

2. Know your farmer.

   Shopping at farmer’s markets or subscribing to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) option not only gives you the opportunity to communicate with the person who grows your food, it gives you the opportunity to support their work. Plus, if you have questions about growing methods, varieties, what’s fresh now, or even how to cook that alien looking kohlrabi you got in your box, they can help you.

3. Avoid irradiation and preservative treatments.

   Produce that ends up in grocery stores often gets that little extra zap of radiation to kill germs, irradiation, and a preservative treatment, such as wax. Wax protects fragile produce shipped under refrigerated conditions. Do these treatments decrease nutrient content? No one really knows because no comprehensive study has even been done yet. But hey, why take the chance?

4. Indulge in nutrients that won’t break the bank.

   When foods are grown in season locally, they tend to be abundant. That abundance usually makes it less expensive, meaning you get more nutrients for your dollar – at least until the crop wanes.

5. Put it up!

   To maximize the nutrients available in foods grown in season, put it up any way you can. Freezing, dehydrating, and canning are all great options for preserving local and organic food and the nutrients they hold. Preserved food decreases exposure to BPA, decreases packaging, and sugar. By the time winter comes, your larder will be full.

6. Don’t get stuck.

   If you don’t want to make things sticky, remember tip #2 above. But if you shop the grocery store, pay attention to the PLU sticker each piece of produce sports – a tracking device, if you will, that tells you not only where a particular piece of produce comes from but the growing method used to produce it. On conventionally grown produce, the PLU number is a 4-digit code starting with 4. Organic produce has a 5-digit code starting with a 9, and GMOs have a 5-digit code starting with an 8.

Image by Alicia, via Flickr

6 Ways to Get More Nutrients Now first appeared on www.drerwin.com

Artificial Light May Increase Aging & Fragility

As you age, body maintenance can feel like it’s taking over your life. In the quest to stay strong and healthy as we get older, we try to eat right, exercise enough, maintain oral health, think positively, and get enough sleep.

And just when you think you have it all figured out, a new study reminds you to turn out the lights. And if you think it’s just about sleep quality, think again.

Published in Current Biology, the study notes how artificial lighting disrupts our circadian rhythms. That disruption appears to activate pro-inflammatory conditions in the immune system.

Researchers found this by exposing mice to round-the-clock light for 24 weeks while measuring several health markers. As noted in the press release on the work,

Studies of the animals’ brain activity showed that the constant light exposure reduced the normal rhythmic patterns in the brain’s central circadian pacemaker of the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) by 70 percent.

The SCN is a small group of brain cells in the hypothalamus that controls the circadian cycles. These cells influence many physiological and behavioral rhythms each day, including the sleep/wake cycle. They also regulate production of melatonin - a hormone that influences circadian rhythms.

Previous studies have also shown a relationship between exposure to artificial light, especially blue light, and disease. For one, it suppresses melatonin secretion. Researchers believe lower melatonin levels may be a factor in the development of disease.

This should especially concern the approximately one-quarter of Americans who work night shifts. Compared to their day shift counterparts, night shift workers have a higher risk of breast and prostate cancer, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, depression, heart disease, osteoporosis, bone fractures, and more.

But work isn’t the only reason people are staying up late. Sleep apnea gets many to turn on the lights, too. And sleep apnea compounds the issue. This is because periodic interruption in sleep combined with light exposure can affect the brain. Together, they contribute to anxiety, depression, and a decrease in memory and learning performance.

While dental appliance therapy is one option to address apnea-related insomnia, what the current research clearly shows is the importance of limiting exposure to artificial light.

In addition to reevaluating personal habits, you may benefit from consulting a medical professional, as well. There are lots of non-narcotic options available to help.

The pay-off for making changes? As one of the study’s authors put it,

The good news is that we subsequently showed that these negative effects on health are reversible when the environmental light-dark cycle is restored.

Top image by nicolee_camacho, via Flickr;
brain image via harvard.edu

Artificial Light May Increase Aging & Fragility originally appeared on www.drerwin.com