Toxicities All Around Us

Dr. Al Danenberg ● Nutritional Periodontist

January 13, 2020

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The days of accepting the status quo are over. At least, they should be.

If you continue to believe what you read and hear without the science to back it up, you may be causing severe harm to yourself and your family. When you listen to companies-for-profit tell you their products are designed to make you feel better, live longer, and become happier, you better also demand answers to the questions, “How? Can you prove it? What’s in it for you?”

I’m not going to cite the numerous medical papers that support my rant and rave in this post. I don’t want to bog you down with the detailed science that supports the facts you will read here. For sure, these are available and easily researched if you simply went to PubMed.gov (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) and searched for the topics I reveal below. So, let me sound off for a moment and get this stuff off my chest. The bottom line I want to emphasize is don’t be gullible. Be discerning. Get your facts straight and then make your decisions.

 

Toothpastes

Toothpaste companies tell you their toothpastes whiten teeth, heal gum disease, and remineralize teeth. But these toothpastes have harsh chemicals that will do more harm than good. The companies making their chemically ridden toothpastes should first tell you that if you brushed with filtered water and didn’t eat added sugars or drink acidic sodas, you would rarely have tooth decay or gum disease. And if they hinted that you could brush with common baking soda on your toothbrush, you would be able to whiten your teeth effectively by removing surface stains. Also, by the way, the minerals that naturally help remineralize your teeth are included in the constant flow of your saliva, which is replete in necessary minerals that are biologically available if you eat nutrient-rich foods.

 

Glyphosate (Roundup®)

Food companies that regularly spray their crops with glyphosate to improve their crop survival and size of their crops aren’t telling you the real truth. While improving the salability of their crops, this chemical (formerly manufactured by Monsanto and now owned by Bayer) is destroying the healthy bacteria in the soils responsible for healthy growth of plants. And the residue of glyphosate remains on the plants and gets into foods prepared from these plants. The result is serious damage to the healthy bacteria in your gut. Once in the gut, glyphosate also causes leakage of toxic substances into your bloodstream affecting all tissues. And did these companies tell you that glyphosate residue passes through the placental barrier and is present in babies at birth? There are class action lawsuits currently being pursued against Monsanto and Bayer because cancer was caused by individuals’ continued use of Roundup.

 

Skin Products

How about the beauty and cosmetic industry that charges high fees for creams and lotions to apply to your skin and hair? Are these companies warning you that their products contain toxic substances, which will seep through your skin and enter your bloodstream causing a myriad of problems that might not show up for years – especially if you apply their products daily?

The Environment Working Group has identified the 9 most toxic substances present in many beauty and cosmetic products:

  • Formaldehyde, a known carcinogen
  • Chemicals that release formaldehyde
  • Mercury, which can damage the kidney and nervous system
  • Lead, a potent neurotoxin
  • Asbestos, a known carcinogen
  • Isobutylparaben, isopropylparaben, butylparaben and propylparaben
  • Toluene, which is toxic to the brain and nervous system
  • Triclosan, which affects the thyroid
  • Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which have been linked to cancer

 

Titanium Dental Implants

Titanium and titanium-alloy dental implants have been excellent choices to replace missing teeth. Over 5 million dental implants are being placed annually. These implants have been made to visually look and function like natural teeth. And these have been extremely successful over decades for individuals who have lost important teeth in their mouth. Yet, are the worldwide manufacturing companies producing these implants or the dental professionals placing these implants completely informing you of the facts? Titanium implants will cause a local inflammatory response in the immune system which potentially could lead to chronic systemic inflammation years down the road. And continuous chronic systemic inflammation could lead ultimately to many types of chronic disease. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 60% of Americans live with at least one chronic disease, and chronic diseases are responsible for 70% of deaths each year in the United States. Also, corrosion occurs on the surface of titanium dental implants. Chemical products released from these surfaces can be swallowed and absorbed by the body to accumulate in other organs. In addition, nanoparticles of titanium can pass through the blood-brain barrier and may be toxic to the central nervous system.

 

Food and Hair Dyes

Another area of toxicity is the dyes used in food and hair coloring products. Consumers seem thrilled when their food looks pretty and appetizing. Certainly, a youthful look when hair takes on a color other than gray is desired and pursued by millions of people. The industries that place dyes in food and hair products are not warning consumers that most of these chemicals are not tested for toxicity in humans. They aren’t alerting us that there are scientific studies proving that these dyes could cause various medical complications. In a 2019 article in the International Journal of Cancer, the authors acknowledged that many hair products contain carcinogenic compounds related to breast cancer. And the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement in 2018 in which they said, “Artificial food colors may be associated with exacerbation of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms.” So, shouldn’t the consumer at least know the risks of eating food dyes and applying dyes to their hair and scalp?

 

In Closing

We don’t live in a bubble. Nowadays, toxic substances abound. And as I have suggested, they are in products which many of us have taken for granted for so long. Sadly, it appears that many companies are selling chemical products while keeping us in the dark to what they really know. Marketing companies are not under any legal obligation to inform us about the science that is out there. Our responsibility is to be proactive and take care of ourselves and our family. Do some research before you believe what you read and hear.

 

 

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Dental Implants & Inflammation

Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS • Nutritional Periodontist
January 23, 2017

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Can titanium dental implants cause inflammation? I used to believe the answer was, “No”. Now, published medical research suggests the answer may be, “Yes”.

 

Dental Implants

There are an estimated 3 million people in the US who have dental implants, and that number is increasing by 500,000 each year. In addition, over 95% of these implants seemingly have been successful and symptom free. Complex healing stages must occur before a dental implant becomes attached to surrounding bone tissue. But, all this may need to be reinterpreted and further investigated.

 

Problems with Dental Implants

I see patients all the time with existing dental implants that are functioning well with no obvious infection and no obvious inflammation. However, I see a few patients with infection around implants that is causing rapid destruction of the supporting bone. Some reasons for this destruction are obvious to me as a periodontist:

  • Poor oral hygiene and unhealthy food choices allowed bacterial infection to take hold around dental implants as it would around natural teeth.
  • Sometimes there was excess cement under the crown that attached to the implant, which caused inflammation and infection.
  • There might have been excessive biting forces on the implant putting unhealthy pressures on the bone.
  • Occasionally, the dentist may have created damaging heat when placing the implant in the jaw, leading to bone destruction.

While I could understand and identify most of these causes, I saw patients with failing implants that stumped me. I could not determine a cause, and science wasn’t able to give me an answer.

  

Perplexing Problem

One question I needed answered was this: Was there something about the metal of titanium that was causing an inflammatory problem in the surrounding tissues?

After I reviewed the recently published medical research, I became concerned. I found documentation that medical implants using titanium sometimes created problems in the bone. Some of these implants in various areas of the body created chronic inflammation and severe bone destruction. This breakdown was without infection and was apparently related to titanium particles that were released into the tissues.

Up until now, I could not find peer-reviewed studies that addressed the potentially damaging effects of titanium particles from dental implants. Was there a cause and effect relationship of titanium particles creating inflammation in the jawbone?

  • This study in 2015 evaluated 22 dental implants from various international implant companies. Surprisingly, 7 out of 22 “sterile” implants had endotoxin contamination on their surfaces, which would generate an inflammatory response in the body.

 

  • In 2016, researchers reported that bacteria around dental implants could trigger inflammation. In addition, these bacteria also caused corrosion on the titanium implant surfaces. Corrosion dissolved the titanium surface and released titanium particles into the surrounding periodontal tissues. These particles aggravated the inflammatory response. These researchers also noted that fluoride ions from mouthwash, toothpaste, drinking water, and food could potentially cause corrosion on titanium implant surfaces.

 

  • In January of 2017, a published research paper showed that titanium particles actually were released from an implant surface after it was cleaned with ultrasonic scaling instruments. These titanium particles reacted with immune cells in test cultures, which led to bone destruction. In addition, researchers studied the results of placing these titanium particles into bones of mice. The result was severe inflammation, which quickly caused the bone to melt away. This same study showed that these titanium particles were more damaging than specific types of bacteria, which were the cause of severe periodontal disease.

  

Beyond the Mouth

My concern goes beyond damage to the jawbone, which is serious enough. My concern is that these titanium particles could leak into the blood system. Once in the blood system, they could cause other serious chronic inflammatory reactions affecting other organ systems. And, all of this might take many years to manifest.

Research has shown that harmful bacterial particles from the gut can enter the blood system and cause chronic inflammation, resulting in various chronic and autoimmune diseases. As I mentioned, these diseases could take decades to develop clinically. Since titanium particles have been shown to cause more inflammation than bacterial fragments, what potential damage could free titanium particles produce in our body?

  

Moving Forward

I am concerned. Dental titanium implants are an excellent way to replace missing teeth. Yet, titanium particles can be released from the surface of these implants. These particles have been shown to cause inflammation, which may translate into implant loss and potentially serious chronic diseases over time. Well-designed studies must be devised and published to give my profession more information about what is happening with titanium implants and what needs to be done.

 

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