DIGESTION AND DENTAL TOXICITY

A number of different dental treatments have a toxic effect on the body, but the toxins themselves are either heavy metals or the prod­ucts of anaerobic bacterial metabolism. Patients who underwent dental treatment at the clinic of Hal A. Huggins, D.D.S., M.S., com­monly reported gastrointestinal symptoms. These patients came to Dr. Huggins in the hope that the removal of their mercury-containing dental amalgams, root canals, and cavitations would im­prove their health. In fact, in the patients who completed their dental treatment with Dr. Huggins, the effect of the treatment on the

Food Combining Principles 39

gastrointestinal symptoms was often dramatic. Bloating, belching, heartburn, and constipation often responded rapidly and signifi­cantly. Diarrhea, a symptom reported far less frequently than con­stipation, responded as well.

The conclusion Dr. Huggins reached from these clinical observa­tions was that much of the mouth's toxicity actually dissolved in the saliva and was continuously swallowed around the clock. This was true both of the heavy-metal toxins and of the anaerobic bacterial toxins that were produced by root canal-treated teeth and other in­fected teeth. Both forms of toxins would be expected to aggravate the harmful effects that toxins locally produced in the intestine were already exerting.

Most of these patients had amalgam fillings in their mouths. These fillings appeared to be especially hard on the digestion. Amalgam fillings are generally a mixture of mercury, silver, copper, tin, and zinc. It is mercury especially that concerns us here. Al­though mercury is not the only toxic component of amalgam, it is the most toxic component. Indeed, mercury is the most toxic of the nonradioactive heavy metals. And mercury comprises roughly 50 percent of the amalgam mixture. Gay et al. and Svare et al. have demonstrated that amalgam fillings continuously release mercury inside the mouth as mercury vapor, the amount depending largely upon whether chewing is taking place and what type of food is being eaten.⁹'¹⁰ Not only is mercury continuously inhaled in its vapor form, but it is also readily converted in the chemical environ­ment of the mouth into inorganic salts and organic forms. Both of these, in addition to being absorbed into the body through the mu­cous membranes of the mouth, are also continuously swallowed in their dissolved forms in the saliva. This is a direct-delivery system of a very toxic heavy metal to the gut.

The mechanisms by which mercury impairs the digestion have not been clearly defined. However, mercury has been demonstrated to have some clearly definable effects on the bacteria in the gut.

40 Optimal Nutrition for Optimal Health

Summers et al. showed that mercury released from amalgam fill­ings in primates resulted in an increase in both gut and mouth bac­teria that were themselves resistant to the toxicity of mercury.¹¹ Remember that mercury is normally toxic to many bacteria, which is why mercury is used in so many topical antibacterial prepara­tions. Mercury was also shown to cause the development of multi­ple antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains in those primates tested.

The bottom line is that this continuous exposure to the mercury from amalgam fillings causes a consistent and persistent change in the bacterial populations of the gut from the populations normally seen in the absence of ingested mercury. And the consistent clinical observation has been that symptoms of poor digestion reliably im­prove and often disappear completely after the amalgam has been removed. The patients treated with Total Dental Revisions were given many good nutritional instructions, but food combining was not emphasized. Adding the practice of proper food combining to the lifestyles of patients who receive Total Dental Revisions presents exciting clinical possibilities.

Although many of the patients seen by Dr. Huggins improved significantly after their dental revisions, not all did. Perhaps the mi­nority who did not improve needed to adopt the other practices de­scribed in this book. It should be clear by now that very potent toxins can be formed on site in the gut in the course of poor diges­tion. The production of these toxins appears to be further promoted by the presence of mercury. However, some people can be chroni­cally diseased enough that the mere removal of the dental sources of mercury might not be adequate to reverse the damage and re­store clinically good digestion and good health.