My Legacy

Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS • Nutritional Periodontist
November 7, 2016

When I wrote about approaching my 70th birthday, my thoughts turned to leaving an important contribution in this world – my legacy. I am not close to retirement and not close to slowing down my passion to educate. Actually, I am more active than I have ever been.

However, I want to speak and write about my desire to do whatever I can do to make my message live on. My legacy will not be money or property. These material possessions mean little in the overall scheme of things. I want my legacy to improve the lives of as many as possible.

Change

My hope is to make a change in the world – but I accept that the change may be done one life at a time.

I want each person I touch to know he or she is solely in control of his or her body. I want everyone to understand that what controls us does not come from our gene pool, does not come from the healthcare profession, and does not come from the food industry. Control comes from the desire and the ability to change our environment – to improve everything that touches us.

I want the oldest who hears me to know that it is never too late. I want the youngest to know that the train is coming, and the best time to change is now. Everyone who reads or hears my message should take the time to understand the awesome potential that comes with making a positive change in life. My desire is for everyone who reads or hears my message to become self-motivated to take personal control.

At almost 70 years old, I have changed my life and destiny by changing my diet and lifestyle. I am the senior-citizen-poster-boy for change.

As a periodontist, my message is based on making the mouth healthy. But, a healthy mouth comes from making the overall body healthy. A healthy body is essentially how the human body was designed to function.

Perspective

A person’s perspective or point of view defines what he or she sees.

For example, if you looked out the window of an airplane after boarding, you would see the tarmac and some baggage being loaded into a few planes on the ground – even a few people wandering around.

As the plane takes off and begins its ascent, you’d see the tops of some buildings and trees. After it climbs higher, you would get a sense of the roads and possible waterways that surround the airport. Reaching cloud level, you may see areas of concentrated neighborhoods and forests and geography many miles around.

What you would see from 30,000 feet would be so much more encompassing than what you saw while still on the tarmac. As your visual perspective grew, you learned more of what surrounded that tiny tarmac. What you didn’t know existed, you could eventually see.

But, how much higher would you need to go to get a bigger and better picture still? A more comprehensive and broader view helps the real story come to life.

My passion is to excite people to take action to improve their health and the quality of their life. I want this excitement to live on. I want people to become self-motivated by seeing things through a much wider lens.

This broader perspective includes much more than what happened last year, ten years ago, or even 100 years ago. An all-encompassing view needs to include how and why our species developed into a perfect human machine over 2.5 million years of evolution. This comprehensive view clearly shows how a nutrient-dense diet and active lifestyle are critical for our body to survive and thrive. Our cellular structure knows what it requires.

I became motivated after learning what really mattered for our body. Almost everything else was unnecessary chatter. To help a person get to this point of view is what I want for my legacy. I want to touch one life at a time.