My Personal Gripe

      Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS     April 29, 2016   [printfriendly]
 
 
     
 

Personal gripeI enjoy emails from friends who share what they are doing. I consider this part of my enjoyment time. I look forward to these.

 

I also enjoy emails from people I respect in the healthcare world. They give me facts about their expertise and teach me about things I do not know.

 

I give my email address freely to those whom I believe have quality information to share. However, my faith in some experts I follow has been tainted.

 

A few of the most respected healthcare writers whom I have admired and trusted in the past have taken advantage of me as well as their entire readership I suspect. Their recent emails turned out to be sales pitches for products or services that the writer was getting paid to promote.

 

I am not against entrepreneurship. I am not against selling quality products and services. I don’t fault anyone who is trying to make a buck honestly. But, I am against individuals who use my email address, which I have provided for educational material, to push dubious stuff on me.

 

Some of these emails are well disguised. Typically, the expert starts off by talking about a subject that is factual and pertinent to me. Once I get into the meat of the email, the writer then quickly moves into hawking specific products or services from which he or she will profit. And, the frequency of this type of email has been increasing.

 

My faith in those individuals has been shattered. Once a devout follower, I now believe I have been played as a gullible target. It’s too bad that these people in my eyes have degenerated from “reliable information sources” to “hucksters.”

 

For those who read my writings on my website, you know I provide free information to anyone interested. I write about the best peer-reviewed information on health and primal lifestyle that I can find. After 42 years of clinical experience treating real patients with real problems, my posts are my way of sharing and giving back.

 

If you don’t want to miss out on new posts, sign up for my email alert list here.

Will Modern Medicine Ever Understand?
4 Personal Stories

      Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS     April 20, 2016   [printfriendly]
 
 
     
 

Angry 2These personal stories gave me pause. Will modern medicine ever understand? My experiences will not be received well by my cohorts in the healthcare professions. However, at my age, I can afford to make waves – huge waves – maybe even a tsunami.

 

You might need to know this before you read on:

 

I had a stroke in 2009. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until April 2013 that I changed my diet and lifestyle after I learned the real science of health from my own investigations of published, peer-reviewed research. In the last 3+ years, I lost 30+ pounds; I decreased my meds from 7 (after my stroke) to 2 (which I only take occasionally); I improved my blood chemistries; and I am healthier today than I have ever been in my 69 years of life.

 

Current Personal Stories:

 

  1. I recently went to a medical doctor. She was interested in some numbers reported on my current blood tests. But, when this visibly unhealthy MD wanted to write some more prescriptions for me, I recoiled. Also, she told me that I was eating entirely too much liver and too many eggs. I simply said, “Thanks for the advice, and have a great day!”

    2.  

  2. A week ago I listened to a conversation between a dentist I know and his patient. He explained to his patient that he needed to brush and floss much better or he would lose all his teeth. I knew the patient, and he did brush and floss daily. What the patient wasn’t doing was eating a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory diet. He drank sweet tea several times a day, gobbled up sandwiches and flour-based products at every meal, consumed processed foods most of the time, and enjoyed cakes and cookies for snacks and dessert. This patient could brush and floss every hour on the hour and still have active gum disease and tooth decay. Why hasn’t the dentist addressed the real causes of oral disease?

    3.  

  3. I know an individual who went to a holistic practitioner last month. She left the office of this healthcare professional with 12 different bottles of nutritional supplements in a bag. These manmade capsules and tablets were supposed to bring her body back into a state of health. Many holistic doctors are no better than many medical doctors who just want to write prescription medications. This patient was not evaluated for the foods she ate or didn’t eat. She was not educated about the medicinal power of a healthy diet and lifestyle. As a matter of fact, the doctor specifically told her that “diet” would not take care of her problems, and if she didn’t take those supplements, then he could not be responsible for her care. She paid $1,700 on lab tests that “proved” she was deficient in the nutrients that were sold to her in those bottles.

    4.  

  4. A couple of weeks ago I met face-to-face with an oral surgeon regarding treatment for a patient we had in common. This oral surgeon’s bad breath from active gum disease could knock you over.

 

What’s going on here?

 

I’m angry that the far majority of healthcare professionals today are only treating manifestations of disease. The far majority of healthcare professionals are ignorant of the influence of food and lifestyle on the health of the body. The far majority of healthcare professionals are examples of what is so wrong with our healthcare system today.

 

So, I will continue to make waves. I’ve earned the right!!

 

If you don’t want to miss out on new posts, sign up for my email alert list here.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water, But …

        Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS       September 1, 2015    

 

evolution rA cliché, no doubt, but with important meaning. I cannot motivate anyone. You cannot motivate anyone. Only an individual can motivate himself or herself. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. I can present information that may be factual and convincing, but the individual must take the leap of faith and become self-motivated. Facts don’t move a person to action as much as emotions and social interactions do.

 

In my practice of treating mouth diseases, I help patients understand the importance of healthy food and lifestyle choices. Many get the message and jump in with both feet. But, even those that become self-motivated could lose their way if other factors were not in place.

 

A Paleo diet and lifestyle are perfect examples. My belief is that this way of eating and living has been effective for 2.5 million years of evolution, and I don’t doubt its teachings. Results are very clear to me. Science also is now proving many of the anecdotal stories from the past are indeed factual.

 

A few of my patients that had embraced a Paleo-type diet and lifestyle have quit. The reasons usually were not a loss of faith of the facts; the reasons were lack of support at home or an apparent lack of recipe variety.

 

The number one reason in my experience that several of my patients quit Paleo was no support at home. Even if a person had understood all the health benefits of at least avoiding grains and sugars and had become motivated to make it happen, one critical factor was lacking. His or her significant other was not on the same page. Success was doomed. The emotional and social aspects of eating with a person’s significant other were too strong. If one wanted to go to places that were not Paleo-friendly or if one insisted on eating pizza and cake at home, then the other who was trying to be Paleo unfortunately could lose interest.

 

The second reason I have encountered was boredom. Most people don’t realize there are abundant choices in Paleo meals. Some people need to have variety all of the time. These people need to know that there are hundreds of recipes that can be made in minimal time to create delicious and unusual Paleo menus at home. There is a wealth of Paleo recipes in books and on the Internet from which to choose to keep meals exciting. Without variety, one could get bored after eating leafy greens all day with a piece of bacon or an over-easy egg without changing it up.

 

These two reasons for quitting Paleo could be overcome, but they are compelling. In my experience, these were the major two reasons why some of my patients quit Paleo.


Born to Be Healthy (in one document)

      Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS     August 30, 2015   [printfriendly]
 
 

 

evolution rIn the previous 7 installments, I posted my thoughts on how we were born to be healthy. Included in these installments were links to other articles I wrote supporting my philosophy as well as links to various peer-reviewed research documenting the facts. I have had a huge response from readers to put all of them together into one PDF document so that it would be easier to read and download. So, here it is.

 

This link will bring you my 20-page paper, Born to Be Healthy. It outlines the prevalence of gum disease in the US population today and discusses the science that sheds light on the foods we eat, what we absorb, how our bodies react to substances, and the importance of gut bacteria. It also addresses how I treat gum disease in my progressive office, the natural supplements I suggest to enhance the immune system’s function in health, and a preventive medicine protocol based on my belief that we were born to be healthy.

 

Thanks for your interest in my previous series of blogs; I always appreciate your comments. If you have questions for me, send me an email from my contact page.

 

If you don’t want to miss out on new posts, sign up for my email alert list here.