This reaction causes oxidation of the metals which leach into the tissues, the galvanic reaction creates an electrical stress in the region, the metals are toxic and the patient may also be allergic to some or all of the metals used.

Dr Thomas Rau measures the galvanic reactivity of the metals in the mouth which permanently disturb the meridian(s) causing autoimmune diseases. All metals have a redox (reduction-oxidation) potential and titanium (frequently used in implants) has a very large negative potential. For this reason, it should not be combined with any other restorative metals and then only used if the patient has been screened for titanium allergy first. The metals are cleared from the region via the lymphatic and venous systems. 3 mins

Relevant products:

For more information about the issues posed by the use of metals in dentistry and a protocol for recovery read Chronic Fatigue, M.E., and Fibromyalgia: The Natural Recovery Plan by Dr Alison Adams.

Relevant links:

The causes of cancer

Mercury poisoning from dental amalgam: Special request

Metal toxicity

Testing for toxic metals

Click for this PDF about Porphyrinuria.

Relevant products:

For more information about mercury toxicity read The Natural Recovery Plan by Dr Alison Adams DDS MS. For more information go to the book page or to buy click the appropriate link for UK or US Amazon below.

Relevant links:

Interview with Dr Boyd Haley

Is dental amalgam safe for humans?

Video: Dr Chris Shade on mercury toxicity

Useful contacts: Laboratories and tests

Click the link to listen to the first hour of this Red Ice Radio interview.

The second hour of this interview is available to Red Ice members in which we discuss root canals, cavitations, meridians, biological dentistry and detoxing. Click to go to Red Ice Creations to find out more.

Relevant links:

Audio: Dr Adams on illness and dental amalgam

Video: An introduction to biological dentistry

Finding a biological dentist

Useful contacts: Dentists who avoid and remove amalgam fillings

Click to listen to Dr Nunnally (approx 1 hr).

Relevant links:

Welcome to the MouthBody Doctor website!

Finding a biological dentist

Book review: Whole body dentistry

Audio: Dr Hal Huggins on patient empowerment

Biocompatibility

All of which brings us to the question of what materials to replace the toxic metals with or to use when doing prosthetic or restorative dentistry. There are thousands of dental materials in use worldwide and everything either implanted or left in the mouth represents a systemic exposure and the potential for an immunological reaction. The goals are to choose materials that will impact the environment of the mouth and body at large as little as possible and that will also reduce the amount of pathogens.

Although fairly strict regulations are now in place for the introduction of new dental materials, the majority of materials still in use were ‘grandfathered’ in in the mid-1970s – meaning that they have never been subjected to any kind of safety testing. Some materials are harmful to all such as mercury or nickel, but individual responsiveness varies enormously and ideally you should be tested for biocompatibility of dental materials before use. The more compromised a patient’s health, the more important this becomes.

“The hallmark of biological dentistry to always seek the safest, least toxic way to accomplish the mission of treatment, and to do it while treading as lightly as possible on the patient’s biological terrain.”

International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology

Laboratories testing for biocompatibility of dental materials such as Biocomp and Melisa are listed under Laboratories and Tests in the Useful contacts section.

Root canal fillings

While nearly all biological dentists recognise that root canal filled teeth pose a systemic health problem, they take different lines on the best approach to treatment. Some do root canal fillings using more biocompatible materials and may attempt to sterilise the root canal system and dentine using various lasers and irrigants.

However, some think that ALL root filled teeth or dead or dying teeth that need a root filling should be extracted as they pose an inherent, unpredictable and serious risk to health. Whereas others may assess the situation on a case-by-case basis using electroacupuncture (EAV) or muscle testing and taking the patient’s medical history and family health history into consideration. Some may treat pre-existing root filled teeth using various techniques including injecting homeopathics.

For more on this topic refer to Problems with Root Canal Fillings, Book Review: The Roots of Disease, the introductory video and other materials in the Root Fillings section.

Extractions and surgery

If teeth do require extraction then many biological dentists will follow special procedures including removing the remaining periodontal ligament and copiously irrigating the socket. This is to avoid the improper healing that often occurs when the ligament is left behind (‘normal’ extraction technique) and the formation of a jaw cavitation (a cavity containing necrotic tissue within the bone).

Some biological dentists will actively search for pre-existing cavitations which may be adversely affecting the patient’s health and which often form in the lower molar area and particularly after wisdom tooth extraction.

Previous surgery relating to the mouth and jaws (including the placement of implants) can also create interference fields which can cause remote pain or other problems until identified and treated.

For more on this topic refer to Dental Cavitations and Interference Fields.

Facial development and orthodontics

The work of Dr Weston Price DDS a century ago with native peoples showed that the malformations of our jaws and dental development are not genetic, but epigenetic and caused by gross nutritional deficiencies. Some biological dentists and their staff address the prevention of these anomalies and promotion of proper facial and skeletal growth in the developing child.

For those that require some intervention, some biological dentists and orthodontists will use functional appliances or orthotropic techniques that seek to restore proper jaw development enabling all the teeth to straighten rather than requiring the extraction of between 4 and 8 teeth and a shrinking of the dental arch(es) as required by standard orthodontics.

For more see Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

Dental implants

Biological dentists differ as to whether they consider any dental implant to be a good idea. Some, such as Dr Hal Huggins DDS MS consider any implanted foreign material promotes the growth of potentially pathogenic biofilms and also may cause an autoimmune response as the immune system attempts to expel the foreign material. Some biological dentists place titanium implants whilst others consider that the use of any metals in dentistry is unacceptable placing zirconium (ceramic) implants instead.

See the articles Dental Implants: Pros and Cons and Zirconium Dental Implants for more information.

Miscellaneous issues

Other ways in which biological dentists may differ from the accepted ‘standard of care’ include:

• The use of digitised x-ray equipment which reduces radiation exposure considerably
• The avoidance of the use of antibiotics and pharmaceuticals wherever possible preferring to use digestive enzymes, homeopathics and other remedies
• Almost all will consider fluoride to be highly toxic and will certainly not use any in their offices
• Opinions differ on the harm that tooth whitening may cause

For more refer to the introductory video and articles in the Miscellaneous section.

How to find a biological dentist near you

For the reasons stated above, you may need to do a little research to find a biological dentist in your area who meets your specific needs. Depending upon what service(s) you require you may need to look at the dentists’ websites, literature and question the receptionist as to what precautions/procedures are on offer and what training the dentist has had.  Find below a list of just some of the organisations which maintain lists of biological dentists.

• The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) This organisation trains and educates dentists in the biological dentistry and particularly concerns itself with the biocompatibility of dental materials including amalgam. Click the link to search the IAOMT register.
• The Huggins Alliance maintains a list of dentists who have been trained by Dr Hal Huggins. This list is not made public, but if you fill in a Request form they will contact you with the names and addresses of suitably trained dental professionals near you.
• The International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine (IABDM) This is an umbrella organisation for a variety of health professionals who are interested in a more holistic approach to medicine and dentistry. Refer to Biological Dentistry Directory.
• The Holistic Dental Association This offers a search feature, but it is still important to do your homework as described above. Click to find a holistic dentist.
• The British Society for Mercury Free Dentistry Click the link for their search feature.

And there are many other such organisations. For a full listing please refer to the Holistic Dentistry listing in the Useful Contacts section.

Relevant links:

Book review: Whole body dentistry

Video: An introduction to biological dentistry

Audio: Dr Stuart Nunnally on dental revision

Video: Energetic interrelations between the teeth and body

This notion is based upon the rather simplistic version of cardiovascular disease causation that goes something like this: The fat we eat will clog, block and dislodge from within our arteries causing strokes and heart disease.

It sounds plausible. So plausible in fact that not only most lay people, but most doctors believe it to be true. But what if we have it all backwards? What if the big guns of pharmacology are pointing in the wrong direction whilst the real perpetrator of the massive slaughter from cardiovascular disease remains unidentified in the shadows?

For this is exactly what I propose.

To say that cholesterol causes heart disease is a little like saying that paramedics cause accidents. If you investigate cardiovascular disease you may well find elevated cholesterol levels in much the same way as you might find paramedics at the scene of an accident. But just like the paramedics, the cholesterol was not the cause of the event, but an attempt to rectify the situation. Trying to prevent and suppress the body’s cholesterol response (because the vast majority of cholesterol is produced by the liver and is not dietary in origin) is like cordoning off accidents to prevent the appearance of paramedics when actually your efforts should be directed towards preventing the accidents themselves.

Have we not only fingered the wrong culprit but are we effectively trying to kill the paramedic?

Have we, in essence, got it all wrong about cardiovascular disease?

Well, that dietary fat-cholesterol-heart disease theory of causation is the children’s version in my opinion. The grown-up version is a little more complex and takes more than one sentence to explain. The rest of this article, in fact. However, I happen to believe it is the truth so the extra effort involved in understanding the causation of this disease that has a one in three chance of killing you prematurely may be well rewarded.

What I am suggesting is that the real cause of cardiovascular disease is the chronic mercury poisoning that we mostly acquire from our dental amalgam fillings. As it happens, many of the processes that lead to cardiovascular disease were initially intended to protect us from attacks from without. However, like the Trojan horse – the problem is now within the gates and comes from the burden of toxic and heavy metals – and particularly mercury – that many of us carry.

Whilst the medical profession openly admits that it does not understand what causes disease, it also currently refuses to accept the logical argument that ageing and disease are mostly caused by toxicity – and that with the passage of time we are all collectively becoming more toxic. This explanation accounts for the alarming rise in incidence of many conditions and the advent of so many ‘new’ and ‘mysterious’ disorders.

It also explains why, for most people, health complaints become chronic and modern medicine has no real cures other than to suppress symptoms using pharmaceuticals – often for a lifetime. It also means that the medical profession are not even looking for the smoking gun in the right place. Tissue samples, for example, are almost never sent for toxicological analysis but this might prove a lot more illuminating than sending samples for microscopic examination. And, of course, you will never find the evidence to support the disease-is-toxicity theory if you don’t actually look for it (or refuse to accept it when you do find it!).

In order to understand the role mercury plays in cardiovascular disease causation, you first need to understand the sequence of events (as we currently understand them) that lead to the many different heart and blood vessel disorders and the terms used. Then I will briefly explore some of the evidence against the currently held cholesterol and dietary fat theory and expand upon why mercury is a more likely culprit.

Allow me to explain.

The current theory of cardiovascular disease causation

Cardiovascular disease refers to a broad church of interrelated disorders affecting the heart and blood vessels and includes atherosclerosis, angina, arteriosclerosis, thromboses, embolisms, strokes, transient ischaemic attacks, coronary artery disease and the insufficient blood supply to the lower limbs known as claudication.

All these various manifestations of cardiovascular disease are collectively a very big problem. Together, they are the leading cause of death in most developed countries and cause a great deal of suffering and infirmity whilst treating and ‘preventing’ them consumes an unimaginable amount of money.

The body cannot employ the same mode of healing that applies to a skin wound – where a scab forms and later drops off – for healing damage caused to the lining of the arteries. This is because the scab would obviously present problems within the circulation and so the body has devised a more suitable method or healing internal wounds in the blood vessel walls. The series of events goes something like this.

1. A small tear occurs in an arterial wall. This actually happens all the time and most of the tears are probably repaired efficiently, but sometimes – possibly because of the presence of toxins, a lack of essential nutrients or stress – the damage caused outstrips the body’s ability to repair the tears.

2. As an interim measure to prevent the immediate and possibly life-threatening problem of having the affected artery rupture, the body places a sticky fatty cholesterol-containing substance (called apoliprotein A) over the wound and white blood cells also race to the scene and become stuck in the sticky plug. It is the build-up of these deposits – arterial plaques – that are referred to as the disease atherosclerosis.

3. However, this emergency plug also creates problems of its own. Its rough surface can create turbulence within the blood vessels and this can cause the red blood cells to break down and form blood clots. If some of the fat or a blood clot become dislodged from this plug they are referred to collectively as emboli. These emboli then travel within the circulation until they encounter a smaller blood vessel where they can become stuck, dramatically reducing or completely blocking the circulation to the region supplied. If the embolus is a blood clot this is referred to as a thrombus and the blockage is referred to as a thrombosis or a thromboembolism.

If this embolism either reduces or completely severs the blood flow to a non-critical part of the brain this incident may be referred to as a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) that may go largely unnoticed and if it lodges in a larger blood vessel it may be referred to as a stroke. If the embolus lodges in the lungs, it may cause the death of a region of the lungs referred to as a pulmonary embolism and if it lodges in the vessels supplying the heart it will be referred to as a coronary thrombosis or myocardial infarcation if it causes a heart attack.

4. As red blood cells arrive at the site of the tear they release their cargo of iron and this causes free radical damage which oxidises the fatty cholesterol plug to form cholesterol oxidation products (COPs) which tear more holes in the artery lining. So like cars on the motorway piling into the back of one another the initial damage is magnified by the responses of the body to the initial trauma.

5. The arterial plug also has the effect of reducing the space available for blood to circulate within the vessel and this is compounded by the fact that particular chemical cascades normally intended to staunch blood flow to a wound cause the artery to constrict. The combined effect of the plug and the arterial constriction is to reduce blood flow to a region and if this occurs in the coronary arteries of the heart it is referred to as coronary artery disease and the intermittent pain that accompanies the deficit is called angina.

6. The larger arteries which receive blood directly from the heart every time it pumps are designed to rebound but can become less elastic and stiffer with age and this hardening and loss of elasticity is referred to as arteriosclerosis. Both arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis may cause an increase in blood pressure over time known referred to as hypertension.

7. Sometimes too, the automatic regulation of the pumping of the heart can go awry and this may result in a racing heart beat and is referred to as tachycardia if permanent and palpitations if intermittent.

The evidence against cholesterol as the cause of cardiovascular disease

The following anomalies represent just the tip of the iceberg of evidence that suggest that we may collectively be barking up the wrong tree when it comes suspecting cholesterol and dietary fat of being implicated in causing cardiovascular disease.

Common sense: Nothing that we have been doing for millions of years can be the answer to a ‘new’ problem.

The archaelogical evidence: The advice to reduce dietary fat and protein is not supported by the archaeological evidence which shows that our ancestors ate a diet of 90% proteins and fats up until the relatively recent advent of agriculture 10,000 years ago.

Epidemiological evidence: A great many epidemiological studies show that there is no relationship between the amount or type of fat consumed and the incidence of cardiovascular disease.

The results of rationing: Heart disease rates tripled during the 12 years of rationing imposed on the UK during World War II when the amounts of fat and protein in the diet were severely restricted – much in line with current dietary advice.

The French Paradox: Not only do the French eat more saturated fat, drink more alcohol, smoke more and exercise less than people almost anywhere else – they also have a quarter of the cardiovascular disease rates found in the rest of Europe.

The categorisation of disease: Debate rages about whether the cardiovascular disease epidemic is new or just being documented and recognised. There were, for example, no deaths attributable to coronary artery disease prior to 1948 when the World Health Organisation declared that the disease existed.

Diseases of modern life: Cardiovascular disease is just one of a package of chronic illnesses including gall bladder disease, tooth decay and gum disease that almost exclusively accompany the western way of living and are rarely found in indigenous peoples – irrespective of diet. This certainly suggests that our diet may have a role in a lot of our current general health and dental woes, but does not particularly implicate fats when the problems appear more general.

The pills aren’t working: It is obvious that the dietary advice we are being given isn’t working as rates of cardiovascular disease and obesity continue to soar. The authorities’ response to this is usually to blame individuals for their greed and sloth and many accept this admonition without question. After all, we could eat less and go to the gym more. But the populations of countries with low rates of cardiovascular disease show no evidence of consuming less food or being more active. Quite the reverse in fact (see the French paradox above).

It makes no sense: No matter how much various authorities would like to convince you otherwise the case against cholesterol does not make sense. The vast majority of cholesterol is manufactured internally by the liver and is not consumed in the diet.

The biochemistry of mercury

Mercury has a unique and complex chemistry and to fully understand the ramifications of the effects of the many hundreds of different compounds mercury can form would require you to have a special understanding of biochemistry. Suffice it to say that mercury is rated as one of the most potent and deadly toxins known and there is no safe lower limit for exposure.

In fact it is the complexity of its chemistry that is its strength as a poison because it can morph into any one of three basic chemical forms. The first of these is in its elemental form as a vapour or liquid, the second as an ion carrying a single positive charge (Hg+) and the third as an ion carrying two positive charges (Hg2+).

Carrying one positive charge mercury can form inorganic complexes such as mercurous chloride (HgCl) and carrying two positive charges it can form both inorganic molecules such as mercuric chloride (HgCl2) and organic compounds such as ethyl or methyl mercury. All the forms are highly toxic and all have different properties, which is why mercury has such a devastating effect on the body. However, when converted into its organic forms, it becomes at least 100X more toxic.

Unless, occupationally exposed to mercury, the largest source for most people has been determined to be acquired from their dental amalgam fillings. Other secondary sources include eating mercury contaminated fish and the mercury preservative, thimerasol, used in vaccinations.

Mercury vapour is known to be emitted constantly from dental amalgam fillings because the different metals of the filling become electrically active once inserted into the moisture of the mouth and begin acting as a battery. The mercury vapour emitted is converted by the bacteria of the mouth into its organic form and also is inhaled into the lungs from where it passes rapidly into the blood stream.

Many studies have conclusively shown that both blood and saliva levels of mercury are directly related to the number of dental amalgam filling surfaces. People with amalgam fillings have been shown to have between 4 and 10 times as much mercury in their blood as those without amalgam fillings or who have had their fillings replaced.

Continued in Mercury and Cardiovascular Disease: Cause and Effect? Part 2

This second video captures participant responses to Dr Adams’ The Mouth-Body Connection course. 5 mins

Relevant links:

Video: The Mercury Issue presentation

Welcome to the MouthBody Doctor website!

Services page

Audio: Dr Adams’ RedIce Radio interview

Click to listen to One Radio Interview 3

Relevant links:

Dental implants

Book review: The roots of disease

The Natural Recovery Plan book

Video: Dr Alison Adams – My story of mercury poisoning

Click to listen to hour 1 and hour 2 (approx 2 hrs).

Relevant links:

Video: Acupuncture meridians – the proof

Video: Dr Bill Wolfe’s energy medicine

Meridians reference

Audio: Dr Dawn Ewing on the teeth and general health

In this video he addresses the concerns about mercury toxicity. 5 mins

Dr Shade discusses the synergistic nature of toxins and individual variability in susceptibility in this next video. 4 mins

In this video he outlines flaws in the traditional methods of testing for mercury toxicity and detoxifying mercury. 4 mins

In this last video in this series he explains mercury speciation testing and the glutathione detoxification pathway. 7 mins

Relevant links:

Video: Dr Christopher Shade interview about mercury

Video: Dr Chris Shade on mercury toxicity

Mercury toxicity

Mercury poisoning from dental amalgam: Special request