Is the World Turning Against Itself?  

Dr. Al Danenberg ● Nutritional Periodontist

April 4, 2021 [printfriendly]

 

 

I have about 74 years behind me that have been full of life experiences – some fantastic, some awful, and some unspeakable. That is what life is all about. As time marches on, we will experience all kinds of events – maybe not to such extremes. Now the world seems to be turning in a way I don’t understand. Is the world turning against itself?

 

 

My Goals

Giving back and paying it forward have been my goals. To be completely transparent, I charge for individual virtual consults and virtual coaching. But all my original content is there for the asking. It is complimentary. Anyone can download any or all of my writings with just the click of the “Print Key” on your computer. You can read, digest, and incorporate my research and recommendations into your daily lives with my blessings. You will see how I have tweaked and revised my thinking as time has progressed and new information and clinical studies are reported. No one is forcing you to accept my thoughts or to follow my ideas.

 

But now, people like me are getting attacked. And some very good people (with a much greater presence on social media platforms than I have) are being censored for just voicing their educated and professional opinions. I thought intellectual dissent was encouraged rather than discouraged.

 

Never in the past have I seen such a shutdown of knowledge and free speech.

 

 

Decision Making

Whenever I was going to make a personal decision on anything, I would seek opinions from various sources which expressed opposite views. Then I could make up my mind. The world worked that way. Intelligent people behaved that way. No one would censor honest and professional research and experience. Not in the United States of America!

 

But now, the world seems to be turned against itself.

 

As most of you know by now, I am dealing with an incurable bone marrow cancer. I am treating it my way. My approach has integrated unconventional concepts with conventional oncology. I researched my Protocols based on published medical studies and embraced what made sense to me and rejected what did not make sense to me. As a result, I developed my Unconventional Cancer Protocols, which I continuously tweak. As of today, I am thriving without ever accepting chemotherapy. This has been my decision, and it has worked out exceptionally well. My conventional oncologist, whom I still see today, is quite surprised.

 

But let me be clear. I do not have a cure for cancer. Other inquisitive and open-minded cancer patients have been successful using other protocols. Most importantly, all of us have made our decisions and have benefited from all published experiences. We just filter out what does not resonate, and we incorporate what does resonate. All of us can learn as we go along and make changes as new knowledge becomes available.

 

 

I’m Controversial

My eating style is controversial in the cancer community. But case reports of cancer patients prove it to be effective. However, other eating styles have other case reports that are equally impressive.

 

I primarily eat an animal-based diet along with very few selected fruits and vegetables. This way of eating keeps me in ketosis for 6 days. Then I increase my healthy carbs and cycle out of ketosis for one day. The next day I start another 6 days of ketosis. This is my method to keep my body metabolically flexible. Our species basically existed “in” and “out” of ketosis throughout human evolution.

 

My way of eating is just one of my 10 Protocols, which I incorporated to support a robust immune system to help my body become healthy and stay healthy moving forward. The human body is a marvelous and miraculous creation. Give it what it needs; avoid everything it doesn’t need.

 

 

Challenged, Criticized, and Ostracized

Many individuals like me are promoting wellness by improving the immune system. Yet now, some of them are being challenged, criticized, and ostracized by powerful people.

 

Well-respected healthcare professionals literally are being shut down by social media if they discuss specific medical issues today. If I were to suggest that my ideas to improve the immune system could help prevent diseases and viruses from taking over our body, I could be censored. Medical experts who conflict with a “recognized” expert may have their careers destroyed by “the powers to be”. This hasn’t happened to me yet, but it has happened to so many well-educated and well-intentioned medical professionals whom I know and respect.

 

The world we live in is turning upside down.

 

 

Incongruities

How can some big pharmaceutical companies sell drugs approved by the FDA to only have many of them produce metabolically damaging side effects, which worsen a person’s life years in the future? How can some big food processing companies be allowed to sell products which include unhealthy chemicals, innutritious carbohydrates, processed sugars, and fats and oils that cannot benefit a healthy body? Is it a surprise to anyone that many of our children are growing up obese with high blood pressure and diabetes? We are being sold foods and ideas that are based on lies about nutrition. However, when healthcare professionals voice concerns and make suggestions that the body can heal itself with a different diet and changes in lifestyle, they get scorned and demonized. Some even have had their professional licenses stripped away because they promoted biological facts contrary to “the standard of care”.

 

And to make the situation worse, it seems to me that medical decisions are being polarized into one or the other of our political parties. Politics should have nothing to do with medicines and medical treatment.

 

What is the world evolving into? Why is it happening?

 

 

Actions to Take

I am fortunate enough to make my own decisions about my life and my body. I do in-depth research to get the facts I am searching for. But what are individuals with no medical background supposed to do and think? How can he or she make personal decisions when one side of the controversy is not allowed to be discussed professionally and intellectually?

 

My suggestion is to continue to seek out information. I start my research at PubMed, which is a free archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine.

 

In addition, there are new social media sites that are popping up which are not censored. Unfortunately, these sites can promote false information, which will never get scrutinized or labeled as such. So, you can be misguided.

 

However, many respectable groups of medical people are voicing their controversial opinions on these sites without the fear of their voices being deleted. One platform is Telegram. You can find out if there is a group or channel on Telegram featuring a specific person or topic you want to follow by Googling, “‘Person’s Name or Topic’ on Telegram”. If what you want exists, click on it and join.

 

So, tell me if the world is turning against itself? Or am I just imagining it?

 

 

 

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I Write A Lot. I Read A Lot.
But, I Don’t Believe Everything I Read

      Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS   •   Nutritional Periodontist
      August 18, 2016   [printfriendly]
 
 
     

I Write A Lot; I Read A LotI write a lot; I read a lot, but I don’t believe everything I read. I am always reading papers of peer-reviewed research on PubMed.gov. PubMed is the go-to site for me to search what’s available in the worldwide archives of published science.

 

I was scanning through recent articles about periodontal disease on PubMed when I came across this paper. The title is, Primary prevention of periodontitis: managing gingivitis. It was published in the prestigious publication of the Journal of Clinical Periodontology in April 2015. Great article title, if you were a dental geek like me. Detailed review, if you wanted to delve into results of many published papers. But, way off the mark in its conclusions, in my opinion.

 

Just because you read peer-reviewed research that has been scrutinized by experts before it is published doesn’t mean it’s “correct”. The words “published” vs. “correct” may be as confusing as “normal” vs. “healthy”.

 

It may be “normal” to have occasional bleeding in the gums, but that condition certainly would not be “healthy”. “Normal” means the far majority of the population exhibits a particular condition. Occasional bleeding gums are “normal” because most people have that condition, but any bleeding gums certainly are not “healthy”.

 

This article presents information that was “published” many times before, but the conclusions are not “correct” because the human species over 2.5 million years of evolution proves otherwise.

 

Here is what the article concluded: “All people should brush their teeth twice a day for at least 2 minutes with fluoridated dentifrice”. Also, for patients with advanced gum disease, “2 minutes are likely to be insufficient.” In addition, patients with gum disease would need to clean between their teeth and use “chemical plaque control agents”.

 

I agree that brushing for at least 2 minutes and the use of interdental cleaning brushes are the best ways to clean around and between the teeth. I recommend that to all my patients. However, evolutionary dentistry clearly shows that tooth decay and gum disease are primarily a result of a lack of a nutrient-dense diet and the abundance of unhealthy gut bacteria. (HERE. HERE.) The human species is not deficient in chemical plaque control agents. We were not born with a genetic deficiency in fluoride. If anything, chemicals disturb the balance of healthy bacteria in the gut and mouth. (HERE.)

 

So, what should you do if you had gum disease or if you wanted to prevent gum disease? If you had gum disease, first the disease would need to be treated properly. Once it was treated, or if you only were trying to prevent this disease in the first place, you should be eating nutrient-dense foods and you should maintain a healthy and balanced level of good bacteria in your gut. (HERE.) Proper brushing and cleaning around your teeth are important, but proper diet and healthy bacteria are critical for health going forward.

 

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Be Cautious! There Are Sharks Out There

      Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS   •   Nutritional Periodontist
      August 5, 2016   [printfriendly]
 
 
     

Be cautious. There are sharks out there
The Internet has become the means to disseminate information and to gather information. Be cautious!

 

 

Some History

 

Let me take you way back in time. It was 1962 when I was in junior high school and needed to do research for a school project. My initial resource was to go to my local library and search the Encyclopedia Britannica. I then had to go to the Card Catalogue at the library for specific book references.

 

I remember going to the main branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland to do my extensive search. Once I found the references I needed in the Card Catalogue, I had to search the Library Stacks to find those specific books. Of course, the printed books were at least a couple of years old. However, the library had current scientific journals with more relevant and current information – still at least several months old.

 

All this effort took at least a couple of days out of my life. Unfortunately, if any of these books or journals were already checked out by other students, I had to wait for these references to be returned to the stacks. Then, there was the time to read everything and take notes. (The Xerox copy machine became commercially available in 1959 but was expensive to use.)

 

 

Today

 

Fast forward to today. Now, there is the Internet. A few clicks on the keyboard and you are up to date with everything that is published in the world – at least almost everything. Download what you need, and you’re good to go.

 

My go-to source for current, accurate, and peer-reviewed medical information on the Internet is PubMed.gov. All published medical research from all over the world is referenced on this website. Fortunately, there is no commercial advertising on this site, but it is highly technical.

 

 

My Problem

 

For example, if you searched for medical topics on Google, you could get millions of results. Some would be technical; some would not. Others would be science-based, and some would not. You could be misled and even exploited. I have done searches in this way and occasionally have been exploited. This is where some experts sometimes become predators.

 

I have found that many authors write articles and post blogs with apparently worthy and pertinent information. That’s great, especially if the facts are linked to peer-reviewed research. However, I’ve noticed a tendency for some authors to disguise their sales pitches.

 

There is nothing wrong with the entrepreneurial spirit. What is wrong in my opinion is when authors use selected and distorted facts to hype their products and services, which you did not see coming.

 

Now, I am becoming disillusioned. Some of my favorite medical and nutrition writers have turned the corner and are now promoting fee-based programs, nutritional supplements, and other people’s businesses. Once again, there is nothing wrong with sales if their intentions were up front and not hidden at the end of the article or, even worse, embedded in advertising links within the article itself.

 

 

My Solution

 

I always must question the facts I read. I must be cautious. But now, I need to determine if there is an ulterior motive? I know that there are sharks out there who would like to take advantage of you and me. Of course, that only means that I must be more discriminating between whom I read and whom I believe. I still fall back on my reliable Internet source, which is PubMed.gov. I know I will never go back to the days of doing research in my local library.

 

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