Healing & Health
– 3 Documentaries –

Dr. Al Danenberg ● Nutritional Periodontist
February 18, 2019

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Who is leading whom? Is the medical profession taking the lead to educate people about healing and health? Or, are patients forcing their doctors to get educated or else? My answers are “No” to the former and “Yes” to the latter.

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Often, organized medicine has been reluctant to “look outside” the box. Most conventionally trained medical doctors are overwhelmed with the number of patients under their care. They are so busy treating the symptoms of sick people that they have little time or interest to explore the underlying causes of most diseases.

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I’ll come back to my original question, “Who is leading whom?” Who is taking the lead to bring the truth of healing and health to the public?

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My thought is that people are demanding answers from the medical profession. People who are sick; people who know people who are sick; people who don’t want to get sick – these are the folks who are pressuring medical professionals to educate themselves. These are the individuals who are getting the rest of the population to ask pertinent questions about their healing and their health.

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Demands from curious people are pushing open-minded investigators in the healthcare industry to do the research and report the findings. Other well-positioned people are taking these results and writing about disease prevention and exposing the fundamental causes of today’s chronic diseases. Still other entrepreneurs are producing webinars, summits, and documentaries to get the words of healing and health out to the masses.

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Let it be known that there are specific reasons why 60% of US adults have at least one diagnosed chronic disease[1]. Certainly, these people are not sick because they have a deficiency in a particular prescription medication! Chronically diseased individuals want answers to why they are the way they are and why they aren’t getting healthier from conventional medicine.

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Education

There are various means to educate the public – for example, the written word.

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I did a search on Amazon and found over 10,000 books published about “Disease Prevention” and over 1,000 books on “Healing Chronic Disease”.

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There also are medical papers to educate the medical community. When I searched PubMed.gov for “Causes of Chronic Disease”, I discovered over 400,000 published peer-reviewed articles from all over the world[2].

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Videos also are a great way to educate.

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Recently, I had a chance to watch three documentaries on healing and health on Netflix. I don’t agree with everything that is reported in these documentaries. Some “statements of fact” in these productions are blatantly wrong in my opinion. This “fake news” must be identified and discussed by healthcare professionals with their patients. But these videos can start a conversation, which is helpful and sorely needed.

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3 Documentaries

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HEAL

2017   1h:46 m   Director – Kelly Noonan

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HEAL follows three people on their high-stakes journey of healing.  This production describes their medical conditions and how their faith in God, faith in medicine, and faith in their bodies helped them to heal. Basically, connections are made between the human psyche and physical health.

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The video points out that we have more control over our health and life than we have been taught to believe. This film attempts to empower the viewer with a new understanding of the miraculous nature of the human body and the extraordinary healer within. The essential toxic element that is common to most chronic diseases is the stress one places on the body.

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THE MAGIC PILL

2017   1hr:29m  Director – Robert Tate

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THE MAGIC PILL looks at the potential health benefits of a ketogenic (Keto) diet. A keto diet consists of primarily healthy fats, some protein, and very few carbohydrates. Most processed foods are not a part of a keto diet. Intentionally, a keto diet forces the body to use “ketones” as a source for energy rather than “glucose”. This documentary follows several people’s lives and how a keto diet has helped their medical circumstances.

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ROOT CAUSE

2018   1hr:15m    Director – Frazer Bailey

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ROOT CAUSE documents a man’s 10-year search for the underlying cause of his chronic illnesses. The film details the personal experiences of the film director Frazer Bailey (played by actor Ben Purser). In the end, a failing root canal in his upper front tooth may have been the source of chronic inflammation. The x-ray of the tooth in the documentary appeared to me to have a “periapical radiolucency“, which most likely is active infection.  The solution was to extract the diseased tooth, clean out the infection in the bone socket, and place an appropriate implant into the space.

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[1] https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/infographic/chronic-diseases.htm

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=causes+of+chronic+disease

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5 Situations:
Raw Honey May Heal Swollen Gums

        Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS       November 21, 2015

 

Raw HoneySeveral weeks ago I wrote about the health benefits of raw honey. I want to share some more information about this nutrient-dense whole food as it specifically relates to swollen gums, gum inflammation, and healing.

 

While anecdotal reports are interesting, they are only stories that might be exaggerated. As a matter of fact, most anecdotal stories have not been proven to be true. That being said, I want to tell you about two of my patients who are eating raw honey to improve their severe gum inflammation. Both of these patients have an autoimmune disease that has caused painful and raw gum surfaces to develop on a regular basis. Prescription drugs have been used in the past to soothe these conditions. Recently, I suggested both of these patients to eat about 3-4 tablespoons of local, raw honey everyday. After two weeks, both patients told me that their gum irritation improved significantly. The caveat here is that these stories are not controlled studies. The results are interesting but inconclusive.

 

When stories like these have been researched with human trials and published in peer-reviewed journals, they start to take on a totally different meaning. The scientific community begins to heed. Unfortunately, the medical community may take many years before taking notice of this new information.

 

So, I want to share some of the published scientific research on oral conditions that have benefited from natural, raw honey. The major benefits have been credited to honey’s health properties of wound healing, antimicrobial effects, and antioxidant activity.

 

Some notes of caution:

  • There are many different types of honey from all over the world. They have different components and may have different effects.
  • Some of the research is only short-term covering a test period of a few weeks to several months. Long-term research is mostly lacking.
  • All studies relate averages. Obviously there are individual differences. So, although the average result could be very encouraging, a particular individual may not get the same result or may actually experience a negative result.

 

Here is a summary of 5 outcomes that may seem too good to be true. I suggest you read these studies and make your own decision:

  1. Raw honey has been shown to reduce the specific bacteria that cause gum disease. (Here, Here, Here)
  2. Sometimes when a tooth is extracted, a “dry socket” occurs. A “dry socket” is when the area in the jawbone after the tooth extraction does not heal normally and becomes very inflamed and painful. Raw honey when placed into the “dry socket” soothes the pain, promotes healing, and prevents further infection in the area. (Here)
  3. Yeast as well as the herpes virus can cause very sore and painful lesions in the mouth. Raw honey helps these lesions heal at least as well as prescription medication. (Here, Here)
  4. Raw honey has been shown to speed up the healing process after mouth surgery. (Here)
  5. As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, autoimmune diseases might manifest in the mouth. Raw honey has improved the healing for some of these painful sores. (Here)

 

I have been impressed with these papers. More research appears to be in the pipeline that might continue to support raw honey as a natural medicine. Recent science has allowed me to recommend local, raw honey to my patients as a natural treatment for various oral conditions.