[moondaughter]

The nervous system in the gut may hold important clues..

Could early tooth decay be a biomarker for pd especially early onset as it could indicate malabsorption of nutrients .....a calcium / phosphorous imbalance and also anemia is mentioned in these articles --this alsoo would explain why magnesium supplementation is so very beneficial to us.

heres a couple of excerpts:

What actually causes tooth decay
Tooth decay, as researched by Dr. Weston Price and other dental pioneers, boiled down to three factors:
• Not enough minerals in the diet.
• Not enough fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) in the diet.
• Nutrients not being readily bioavailable, and your intestinal system not properly absorbing them. The presence of phytic acid largely influences this factor.
Over a period of time, if your diet lacks vitamins and minerals from a poor diet and/or contains high levels of phytates (from grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes), the blood chemistry and the ratio of calcium and phosphorous become out of balance, which results in minerals being pulled from bones, causing tooth and bone loss.
So, the long-standing belief that sugar causes tooth decay is true, but as a result of it depleting nutrients from the body, not because bacteria eat it and produce acid that ruins your teeth.

and... Dr. Page’s discovery is that tooth decay is the result of a biochemical disturbance of the calcium- phosphorous ratio. This imbalance reverses the flow of nutrients through the three miles per tooth of microscopic dental tubules. When minerals are taken from the tooth, “it is quite possible that the body is sacrificing the minerals in the teeth for use by the vital organs.” “Lack of adequate nutrition causes physical degeneration and tooth decay is the result of physical degeneration.” With this understanding, different dietary choices can be made

http://www.westonaprice.org/book-rev...-ramiel-nagel/
- See more at: http://livefreelivenatural.com/heal-...y/#prettyPhoto

[johnt]

Interesting idea.

Compare two maps of the US:
D: low-income adults who have lost six or more teeth because of tooth decay, infection, or gum disease, ages 18-64, 2010 [1]
P: county level prevalence of PD among Medicare beneficiaries, 2003 [2]

It seems to me that, although not perfect, there is some association between D and P. However, whether there is any causality is another matter.

On a personal level, I've had gum disease for much of my life.

Given the vast improvements in dental care over the last 70 years, if gum disease did play a major part in PD, we should be beginning to see a rapid decline in the incidence of PD.

References:

[1] http://www.commonwealthfund.org/inte...or-gum-disease

[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2865395/

John

[moondaughter]

yes, thanks John - perhaps if one could find a statistic for the very early onsetters - like before 40..digestive issues have multiple causality and I assume become more common and complex with aging. Wouldn't gum issues more directly relate to the vitality of the heart??hows your heart??

I'm drinking lots of smoothies made with the nutribullet blender but i should be healthy as superwoman by now if nutrient supply equated to nutrient absorption and use.

Just an interesting tidbit ...in Egypt a long time ago there was a hierarchy of physicians and it was neither the cardiologists nor the neurologists who stood at the apex of the pyramid rather it was the gastroenterologists!!

kind regards