Recipe of the Week

Fun, Facts & Fitness from Mary Morris MSc.

At my recent dental appointment I realised that I spent about three minutes with the dentist telling me all was well, followed by a full 20 minutes or more with the hygienist - otherwise named the ‘dental police’!

I underwent a full-scale interrogation as to how I clean my teeth and how often. I then endured much discomfort as she gave my teeth a thorough descale and clean. This is all very worthwhile of course, and more so now that there is evidence that our oral health has serious implications for our general health.

I cannot remember when all this special attention to the cleaning of teeth began for me. As a child it was a quick brush before bedtime - with no sign of dental floss or the myriads of colours of interdental sticks that, at times, leave me very confused as to which tooth requires which colour! This of course makes me realise that for possibly around 50 years I was not cleaning my teeth properly. In fact, I feel lucky to have a full set, probably largely due to the introduction of fluoride toothpaste in 1955 and the adding of flouride to our water supply since 1966, undoubtedly saving generations of tooth decay.

Both my parents had a full set of false teeth, and they were not alone – a glass by the bed with a set of teeth soaking overnight was very common, sadly!

There is evidence that primitive man was pretty good at looking after his teeth, often evident by a prehistoric skull seemingly having all their teeth still intact despite having been dead for 2000 years or more! Much of this can be attributed to a better diet than we have today as, of course, they were not eating sugar in great quantities (the major culprit for tooth decay) or highly processed foods that often contain large amounts of sugar. The nearest they got was probably fruit sugar, from eating lots of berries as part of their diet. This meant there must have been very little tooth decay. Interestingly, teeth may decay whilst you are alive, but after death, they surprisingly become the most durable part of the body, hence the skull with teeth still intact.
 
I have recently heard an excellent podcast from a Professor Kantarci of Harvard University regarding our oral health and discovered the risks of not taking enough care of not just our teeth, but the entire mouth cavity. So, I have been inspired to tell you about it. You can then, like me, assess just how well you are taking care of your oral health.

I have now upped the number of times I clean my teeth from a regular once, and occasionally twice a day, to a regular twice and sometimes three times - particularly if I have consumed more sugar than normal. (My Sunday night chocolate treat or a rare sweet pudding leading me into dangerous territory!) Once you hear of the implications of poor oral health you too might want to up your game or at the very least be reassured you are doing all you can to keep it the best it can be!
 

Links with Dementia, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease

The connection between teeth and illness goes back to the 1990s and at that time it was a new concept in medicine. It will be no surprise to you to hear that it is connected to levels of good and bad bacteria. We have often explored, through this Newsletter, the implications of the types of bacteria in our gut, and the same is true for our mouths.

The mouth is a reservoir of bacteria with over 700 species living in the mouth alone and, as with the gut, some play an important role in keeping the mouth healthy whilst others will be harmful. If the bad bacteria take a hold, then the consequences can be harmful to our overall health. It appears to be mainly due to problems with the gums and if our gums bleed a lot then we may have a problem.

It is a sign that the immune system is not coping and the ‘bad bacteria’ are taking hold, potentially causing inflammation in the brain which may lead to Alzheimer’s. Simply, our defence system cannot cope. Frighteningly, our chances of getting dementia are doubled if we have gum disease, which is a rather unnerving fact.

The same is true of diabetes in that studies have shown if we control gum disease, then blood sugar control is improved. With cardiovascular disease, oral bugs have been found to be responsible for clogging up the arteries which can result in heart attacks and strokes. So, as you can see, if you suspect you may have a problem with your gums it is really important to seek advice and help.
 
How Bacteria Travels

• See a dentist regularly.
• Brush and floss 2 - 3 times every day and use interdental brushes particularly for crowns, bridges and implants.
• Always brush after meals high in carbohydrates (sugar).

On a final note - Professor Kantarci emphatically promoted the fact that if our general health is good, then our oral health will follow suit. He was very clear about taking regular exercise and eating a healthy diet very low in sugar. A man after my own heart!

1. Let's persevere with our general health with those daily 30+ minute walks and maybe up your game a bit this week. Seek out a new route, or one you have not done for a while, hopefully with a few inclines!
    
2. More muscle makes you lean and mean! Ring the changes with something new that overloads those major muscles. Our progressive whole-body exercise routines from The 28-Day Immunity Plan on the website will do the job nicely! Start with the workout you can just manage then work your way up the scale from there!
    
3. Being more flexible is a must and the older we are, the more important it is. Try to develop the habit of a short stretch routine every morning to wake up the body. It works! Try the Whole Body Stretch Programme.

Did you know... 

Buy a banana and it will almost certainly be descended from one plant grown at a stately home in Derbyshire. 

Cavendish bananas were named after William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire. In around 1834 the Duke received a shipment of bananas from Mauritius courtesy of the chaplain of Alton Towers, now best known as a theme park but then the seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury. The Duke's head gardener and friend, Sir Joseph Paxton, cultivated them in the greenhouses of Chatsworth House. The plants were botanically named by Paxton as Musa cavendishii after the Duke, and for his work in developing this splendid fruit Paxton won a medal at the 1835 Royal Horticultural Society Show.

A few years later the duke supplied two cases of plants to a missionary named John Williams to take to Samoa. Only one survived the journey but it launched the banana industry in Samoa and other South Sea islands (Williams himself was killed by natives). Missionaries also took the Cavendish banana to the Pacific and the Canary Islands.

So the Cavendish Bananas spread, entering mass commercial production in 1903, and if you buy a banana in a UK supermarket today it will almost certainly be a Cavendish variety!