Do you ever wonder what compels a person to take and refute decades of “established” research all in the name of helping humanity?
We recently came across a new piece of information about one of our heroes, Dr. Weston A Price.
Many readers of this blog will already be familiar with who Dr. Price was and the gift to humanity his research continues to provide. Â After all, we couldn’t perform this research now as we don’t have the isolated cultures still intact!
While most of us are now familiar with the research Dr. Price performed with isolated cultures that he highlighted in his landmark book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, some of you may not be aware of the research Dr. Price did with embedding root canal teeth under the skin of rabbits. What could have provoked Dr. Price to conduct this study? What could have compelled a practicing dentist to shift his focus to research? Read on…
As a practicing dentist, Dr. Price once performed a root canal on a 16 year old young man. This young man died of a heart attack shortly thereafter. Dr. Price then removed the root canal tooth from the young man who had the fatal heart attack (after he died) and embedded just the tip of one of the roots of the tooth under the skin on the belly of a rabbit.
Two weeks later, that rabbit died of a heart attack. Dr. Price then removed the root tip from the dead rabbit and again embedded the root tip under the skin of a second rabbit. Two weeks later, the second rabbit died from a heart attack. Over the course of many months, Dr. Price took that same single root tip and embedded it under the skin of 100 rabbits. All 100 rabbits died within approximately 2 weeks, all from heart attack.
100 out of 100? All of the same cause of death???
Clearly, realizing that his dental work had caused the death of this young man provoked Dr. Price to shift the direction of his whole life’s work.
Over the course of next 35 years, Dr. Price relentlessly studied the impact that the mouth has on the health of the whole body. He experimented on over 60,000 rabbits (I know, I’m not a fan of animal testing either, but since it’s already been done, let us all learn from the work).
Dr. Price found a correlation between the dental work and whole body diseases. He found that heart attacks are one of the diseases that transferred 100% of the time. But he also found that many other diseases transferred from an embedded root canal tooth to a rabbit. Some of these diseases only transferred 88% of the time. Diseases like arthritis, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, the list is long…
How do we know that the death of this young man deeply impacted Dr. Price? Well, he dedicated one of his textbooks to this young man Donald. Donald Price.
Yes, Weston Price did a root canal on his own son who then died of a heart attack. It’s clear to me as a father that feeling the responsibility for the death of one’s own child would drive a person like Weston Price to make researching the impact the mouth has on the health of the whole body one’s life mission.
We encourage us all to learn from this so the death of a child and the relentless pursuit of the truth over the course of 35 years of research doesn’t go wasted. May we be inspired by this person who was able to take tragedy and redirect that energy into a work so that we could live healthier lives.
Knowledge is power.
Source: Â Patient Empowerment by Dr. Hal A Huggins
More Information on Nutrition and Oral Health
Toddler’s Severe Tooth Decay Halted in 5 Days
Whiten Your Teeth Naturally Without Dangerous Chemicals
Natural Alternative to Dangerous Baby Teething Gels
Resolving Periodontal Problems with Bone Broth
Coconut Oil Stops Strep Bacteria from Damaging Tooth Enamel
What is the True Cause of Crooked Teeth?
10 Signs Your Dentist is Truly Holistic
Hey Lily,
I didn’t read the article, but I do make my own Kombucha. I use a water filter for all drinking water that removes most/all of the fluoride (so they claim). The water tastes better so I keep drinking it.
Fluoride is a poison to the SCOBY (Kombucha mushroom). If the SCOBY is dying then the fluoride could be the cause. I personally wouldn’t be too concerned about the water you make Kombucha with until you see the effects of the SCOBY. My belief is that the SCOBY is more sensitve than my body and just like animals is an indicator. If the SCOBY dies then I am doing something wrong in the brewing process. If it doesn’t die then I think it is safe to drink. Again the SCOBY will die much faster than the fluoride (or any other problem with the brew) having any effect on my body. Just like an animal. They show signs and symptoms before us.
Kombucha is actually quite hardy and many different inputs (time/ingredients/etc.) can have an effect on the outcome. The good thing is the brewing process itself gets rid of a lot of harmfull substances and the SCOBY provides a great indicator of your health. If you have a healthy SCOBY then the liquid will (most likely) be healthy and nourishing.
Brewing Kombucha is really not as complicated as everyone makes it out and not everyone can use perfect ingredients from the top of virgin mountains and they derive a GREAT deal of benefit from it. I know I do and I don’t use organic tea, sugar, etc. I would like to but the cost is too much and I will put the health of my finished product up against anyone elses (the taste is better with organic ingredients, but not 5-10 times better, so cost/benift for organic is not there for me at the moment.)
Good Luck
Hello Sarah,
I too read the Orawellness article on the dangers of fluoride in Kombucha. I was planning to make my first batch this weekend. I would like your take on this.
Aloha Deborah,
Sarah has written a very well thought out response to our original article about the risks of fluoride in kombucha. I think you will find benefit from a follow up article we wrote which goes into this subject more thoroughly and more balanced too. 🙂
http://www.orawellness.com/blog/how-to-drink-kombucha-and-not-destroy-your-teeth/
We hope this helps you along your path.
Thank you and Aloha!
Hi Sarah
Orawellness recently published an article on the dangers of fluoride in Kombucha. Does all tea have fluoride? Is it possible to make kombucha out of homegrown tea making sure the water does not have fluoride?
I recently read about studies that while they backup the idea that flouride is in the tea LEAVES, very little actually ends up in brewed tea. So I think that Orawellness may have missed the boat on that one. I’m so sorry I did not keep the link but some researching may turn up similar studies for you.
Tea plants use fluoride to make their leaves less appealing to animals. Steeping the tea releases the fluoride into the water. Growing the tea in areas of low mineral content in the soil and not watering with fluoridated water does help, but really there is no way around it.
Not to quibble, but “heart attack” is a symptom, not a disease. It could be the result of a virus, or a bacterial infection, or bad diet, etc, etc, etc.
Great article….THANKS for posting and sharing.
Rgds, Peter
I have trouble with this article too. Many people get root canals and don’t die of heart attacks. I admire Dr. Price’s other research, but wonder what was going on here. Maybe it was the anesthesia being used.
Clever blog post title and great information. Thanks to you and Sarah!
Though I believe that root canals should be avoided, I can’t make the same connection this article is implying. Why is it that the same root that was placed in all the animals caused a heart attack 100% of the time and many people in the US receive root canals without the same result?
The implication is that if enough bacteria from our mouth that causes cavities enters our bloodstream in enough quantity and our body immune system is unable to combat it, it attacks the heart muscle and valves and can cause heart complications such as a heart attack. The rabbits were inoculated with the bacteria in way that is more severe than the root canal, thus they always got a large amount of bacteria in their blood stream to cause heart complications. We could speculate that people don’t always die after a root canal because (1) They may have a strain that is not as severe or that does not attacks heart tissue (2) Their immune system is able to combat the infection reducing the effects on the heart (3) The quantity of bacteria that gets in the blood stream varies depending on the complications during the root canal and is much much less than if they place a root canal tooth in your belly! The worse outcome is a Heart Attack, but what if other non-lethal heart complications are caused by dental procedures, what if the problem grows depending on how many root canals you get? Now a days they are starting to get people on antibiotics prior to dental procedures of such nature… But the evidence in PUBMED on dental procedures/flossing/peridontitis and heart/insulin resistance/etc. conditions is highly contradictory… and it is controversial.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19467847
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11104742
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12027256
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12875309
Probably had to do with the pathogens on that particular tooth.
Click on the link and read the article. It helped me understand it all better 🙂
Wow, so, so interesting! Thanks for sharing this article!
This article points out how dangerous a particular dental treatment can be. Many medical and dental treatments still in use today are very risky, yet they continue to be used, despite all the deaths and illnesses they cause. It is a testimony to the courage and goodness of Dr Price that he responded to the horrifying death of his son by discovering the health benefits of traditional diets, and benefiting the health of so many.
Many of us have been able to become healthy by following the nutritional principles discovered by Dr Price, and have found that we need little or no medical treatment. The human body knows how to keep itself healthy, if properly nourished.