Your mouth, your gut, your bacteria—it’s all good, or at least, it CAN BE…
What’s functional medicine? Functional medicine is the developing discipline within healthcare that focuses on finding and correcting the root causes of disease and restoring you—the patient—to HEALTH—the health that is your birthright, rather than a preoccupation with treatment of symptoms (mostly with DRUGS…), which is currently the primary focus of mainstream medicine, dentistry and healthcare.
What’s a microbiome? A microbiome is the sum total of bacteria and other microorganism populations (ie, including fungi, viruses, and by extension, the chemical signaling messengers they use to interact with one another—AND other cells) that normally—or ABnormally—reside in any system in Nature. That system could be your skin, your child’s gut, your mother-in-law’s brain, your dog’s liver, your cat’s bladder…or any other system in any animal, any plant, or the soil—the very DIRT of Earth herself. And how we relate to all that—with all of our senses, is key to learning from our microbiomes, to help optimize total-body health.
If you’re not familiar with Functional Forums, please check out their YouTube channel here: Functional Forum YouTube
There you will find an impressive archive of webinars compiled by the authors, speakers and organizers of the largest health meetup on the Internet…Functional Forums, webcasting live every month from New York City. This amazing webinar series is just one change-focused resource from Evolution of Medicine (go here to check out the recently-held EOM summit: Evolution of Medicine Summit—Healthcare From Scratch—-register to get access to the webinar replays from functional medicine experts like Deepak Chopra, MD, Mark Hyman, MD, acupuncturist Chris Kresser, L. Ac.)
Of particular interest from the oral systemic perspective: In this past Monday’s (October 5, 2015) Functional Forum Microbiome Maximized Medicine these functional experts presented cutting-edge, actionable microbiome health pearls—with the common theme of oral, gut, and brain bacteria all working synergistically for your body’s benefit.
Emceed by Functional Forum’s CEO, EOM Summit Curator and passionate healthcare reform advocate James Maskell, this forum assembled experts from:
- Functional integrative pediatric neurology (Maya Shetreat-Klein, MD, author of The Dirt Cure)
- Functional gastroenterology (Gerard Mullin, MD of Johns Hopkins)
- Functional nutrition (Dana James, FoodCoach NYC), AND…
- Functional/holistic dentistry (Reid Winick, DDS, The Oral-Systemic Link: The Mouth as a Barometer of the Gut; ‘Sustainable Dentistry’) This deserves a major shout-out to EOM at putting cutting-edge DENTAL speakers on the same podium with functional physicians—where they belong! Thank you!
Part of EOM’s vision—and part of James’s passion—is the growing chronic disease burden…a burden that’s growing in parallel with a failing healthcare system here in the US. Similarly to what we do here at DSS, EOM is educating practitioners AND patients to find providers with functional, preventive vision—and even new types of health-care coverage to help pay the costs. Here, we’re focusing on you—the patient, giving you actionable ways to do your own research, and watching these webinars from FF/EOM is a powerful tool toward that goal!
One major take-away message that this Microbiome webinar delivered: The mainstream medical paradigm that views bacteria as some evil invasion force to be wiped out is fast becoming outdated. Sure, there are lots of bad bugs—with more appearing every day. My point: bacteria—good AND bad—are EVERYWHERE. If anyone wipes anyone else out, we humans won’t be the ones doing the wiping. Bacteria long predate—and far outnumber—us wonderful, big-brained humans…
In fact, there are about 10 times the number of bacterial cells residing in all of your body’s multiple microbiomes than there are 46-chromosome HUMAN cells in your body (read more here from NIH’s Human Microbiome Project). As that article emphasizes, MOST of them are GOOD bugs. So we’re wise to look at these multiple bacterial populations that live within us—habitats, if you will, that evolved with- and are, in fact, staunch allies of—our bodies and our health. We’re equally prudent to work with them, which means eating a functional (not DYSfunctional…) diet that supports their growth—including prebiotics and probiotics—and minimizes any overgrowth of bad bugs.
All you need to do is register for the live stream and watch the replay (FREE) here: Microbiome Maximized Medicine replay.
Functional medicine, healthy bacteria, Sustainable Dentistry, and you: meet your microbiomes —they really are pretty cool, once you get to know them.
And remember to put your mouth where your mouse is (sorry—where DO these things come from…)—this Microbiome webinar features Dr. Reid Winick, DDS, a New York functional and holistic dentist, who gives a good, practical talk to educate health practitioners AND patients about the importance of diet and oral health, how maintaining good oral health might not be what you thought, and your best options for optimally maintaining your ORAL MICROBIOME. Yes, most of the bacteria in your mouth are good ones, too…and Dr. Winick tips you off to the bad guys that are especially nasty—and smart—and what you can do about them.
Please leave comments below, with your thoughts and questions on what his talk says about concept of Sustainable Dentistry. Dr. Winick is also recently featured on Natural.News, where he shares ideas on how the mouth can heal itself and remain free of disease, under the right conditions and with a personalized treatment approach: Dr. Reid Winick DDS talks about Sustainable Dentistry on Natural.News
And bear in mind that your MOUTH is part of your GUT (a fact commonly overlooked by mainstream medicine…and the subject of more than a little humor…), a point on which Drs. Mullin and Winick concurred, amid an overriding theme quoted by Dr. Shetreat-Klein that the gut is the soil in which your brain grows. Fascinating stuff—definitely worth your time.
You can also sign up for the next EOM webinar, The Hormone Symphony, coming up on Monday, November 2 at 8:00 PM.
For more info on how you—the patient—can influence oral-systemic health, visit the American Academy for Oral Systemic Health (AAOSH—some FAQs you may find interesting) AAOSH is at the forefront of educating doctors, dentists, other health-care providers AND patients to work as a team for the benefit of YOU—the patient—and the quality of personalized care they provide—you can even look for an AAOSH dentist near you.
KEEP READING—as Bonnie and I continue to post our interview blog posts from the recent AAOSH meeting in Dallas—we hope they’ll answer—and keep raising—questions for YOU—the patient—on how you, your mouth and the rest of your body can orchestrate good health.
…As always, your Likes, Shares, Posts, and Messages on Facebook are appreciated, and a GREAT way to get the word out on these topics.