The Root of the Matter

Oral Pathogens as Causative Agents in Cardiovascular Desease

• Dr. Rachaele Carver, D.M.D. Board-Certified, Biologic, Naturopathic Dentist • Season 3 • Episode 5

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Dr. Rachaele Carver turns conventional wisdom about heart disease on its head with groundbreaking insights into how your mouth bacteria might be silently damaging your cardiovascular system. Drawing from her presentation on "Oral Pathogens as Causative Agents in Cardiovascular Disease," she reveals the missing link between oral health and the world's leading killer.

While most cardiologists focus on managing high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, Dr. Carver explains these are merely consequences—not causes—of the real problem: endothelial dysfunction. This damage to the delicate lining of blood vessels often begins with bacteria from periodontal disease entering the bloodstream, where they employ sophisticated mechanisms to evade your immune system and directly colonize arterial walls.

The research is stunning: oral bacteria are found in 48-100% of atherosclerotic plaque specimens. These bacteria release toxins that degrade collagen, increase inflammation, and even hijack your platelets to form protective shields around themselves. Most remarkably, some bacteria can force your platelets to clump together, creating the small blood clots that can eventually block blood supply to your heart or brain.

Dr. Carver challenges the traditional approach of simply "killing bad bugs" with antibiotics or scaling procedures. Instead, she advocates for addressing the environmental factors that allowed pathogenic bacteria to flourish in the first place—increasing oxygen in the oral environment, supporting mitochondrial function with red light therapy, and addressing critical nutrient deficiencies in minerals and fat-soluble vitamins.

Ready to transform your understanding of oral-systemic health? Listen now to discover simple, effective strategies to protect your heart by optimizing your oral microbiome—and learn why rising cholesterol might actually be your body's desperate attempt to repair damage caused by hidden infections, not the villain it's made out to be.

To learn more about holistic dentistry, check out Dr. Carver's website:

http://carverfamilydentistry.com

To contact Dr. Carver directly, email her at drcarver@carverfamilydentistry.com

Want to talk with someone at Dr. Carver's office?  Call her practice: 413-663-7372

Reverse Gum Disease In 6 Weeks! With Dr. Rachaele Carver Online Course!

Learn more about here: https://reversegumdiseaseinsixweeks.info/optinpage



Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.

Dr. Carver:

Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Root of the Matter podcast. I am your host, dr Rachel Carver, a board-certified biologic and naturopathic dentist, as well as a certified health coach. I was asked by Cellcor to give a live talk about how oral health is related to cardiovascular health, which kind of tied in perfectly on my new idea of doing a solo podcast at least once a month. Ryan, my fabulous marketing director, editor for this podcast, his topic was heart health for Fit Me, right. So it worked out perfectly and I was able to really dive into some of the new research, which was really exciting. So today we're going to talk a little bit about that. I'm going to go through my presentation that I gave the other day.

Dr. Carver:

The title of that was Oral Pathogens as Causative Agents in Cardiovascular Disease, and if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know how I believe bacteria or any kind of microbial infection and or toxins are really at the root of most chronic diseases, right? So it's not a surprise that any oral bacteria could be a causative factor in many systemic diseases, right? So if the bacteria gets into the bloodstream which we know, even just by regular chewing and just regular brushing of your food. Bacteria gets into the gum tissue where there's lots of blood vessels, right, or you're swallowing that bacteria. But if you don't have robust stomach acid to kill some of those microbes, then those microbes can get into the gut and go wherever they might go. So let's talk a little bit more.

Dr. Carver:

How specifically it's related to heart disease, because heart disease is still the number one killer globally. So endocarditis back when I was going through school in the early 2000s, we were basically told there were two ways that oral health affected the rest of the body. One was through this infection of heart valves called endocarditis, and it was faintly related to diabetes, right, blood sugar control. Now we know, of course, 20 some odd years later, the links between oral bacteria, dementia and other brain issues is really the research is really prolific these days. We know it's related to birth consequences, right, prenatal issues in the mom. We know there's related to kidney disease, certain kinds of cancers, etc. Etc, etc. So interestingly, this endocarditis, which is an infection of heart valves, was first described in 1806. That was even before we even knew what bacteria was. Then, about a century later, a scientist first isolated strep viridans and so that was the bacteria that's most commonly known to infect the heart valve, and then by about mid-1940s, we understood that bacteria could be found in the blood after tooth extractions. And then it was 1951 where we proposed giving antibiotics to patients with damaged valves undergoing dental surgery. So if you had an artificial valve or a damaged heart valve, it's always recommended. Typically, we give amoxicillin unless the patient is allergic to penicillin, and that was pretty well understood ones. And that was pretty well understood.

Dr. Carver:

Well, what about gum disease? Periodontitis, or gum disease, is another prominent factor that can lead to heart disease. We know that, as I mentioned, heart disease, number one cause of death worldwide, accounts for 33% of all deaths. We also know that infection and inflammation of the gums, or periodontitis, is consistently one of the top 10 most prevalent conditions globally. I found a couple of different articles, and one stated that periodontitis is the sixth most common disease in the world, affecting over 11% of the population. Another article stated the global prevalence was 45%, and so it depends how somebody is going to categorize what periodontitis is. It can be anywhere from inflamed gums like gingivitis, all the way to severe periodontitis where we're losing teeth and have a lot of loss of bone structure there. There are many studies that are showing. Patients with severe periodontitis have increased levels of systemic inflammatory markers like interleukin-6, c-reactive protein, and they show signs of the cholesterol levels being off and endothelial dysfunction. What is endothelial dysfunction? The endothelium is the tissue that lines inside of our blood vessels, so when it gets damaged and there's a lot of inflammation, we have this endothelial dysfunction. There was also a recent study showing that people who have lost their teeth have a 66% higher chance of dying from heart-related issues.

Dr. Carver:

As I just mentioned, there are a couple different stages of gum disease. We have normal, healthy teeth. That means when we brush and we floss there's no bleeding, there's very little amounts of breath, right, we do not have decay, we don't have any bone loss. Then we get into gingivitis and again that's usually when the gums are a little bit puffy. They may bleed easily with brushing and flossing. Sometimes people who are mouth breathers right their gums tend to be especially right in the front teeth, their gums tend to be a little more sore and they may bleed easily. So then we have to make that distinction. Is it the mouth breathing or is there infection and inflammation happening? Has there been a shift in the oral microbiome that is causing the gums to be inflamed and then we can have mild, moderate or severe periodontitis and we basically categorize that based on what are your popconing depths, how much tartar calculus is there and how much bone loss that you have.

Dr. Carver:

Obviously, with the more severity of the disease, the more severity of systemic consequences as well. So, as many of you, if you've listened to this podcast, my big belief that disease comes from within, right. I'm a big proponent of the Tureen theory, right. I do not believe that pathogens, we swallow bad bugs all of a sudden and get dumb disease. Nor do I think that just because your mother, father, brother, uncle, whatever, had dumb disease, that you are destined to have it as well. And there's a hypothesis called the ecological plaque hypothesis, and even a recent article I was just reading recently was stating that it is well-established that disease is not caused by exogenous pathogens but rather changes in the microbial community structure. So the environment within the mouth changes for some reason.

Dr. Carver:

Is it some kind of toxin? And usually it's some kind of toxin, toxin in the body. I personally made something happening in the gut that is then causing deficiency, in my opinion, which I learned from Cellcor, right, that toxicity creates deficiency. Think of it this way, right. If we have a toxin, whether it's a bug or a heavy metal, this is affecting our body and our body is very smart, right. The immune system can recognize this foreign substance and wants to get rid of it. So we have to upregulate the immune system right. So we have to use, get our mitochondria. We have to upregulate everything. We need more nutrients, we have to have more cells, and so if we are not taking in more of those nutrients, then we become very deficient and then that deficiency leads to a whole other problem. So that's what we want to really think about.

Dr. Carver:

There is, how do we get that environment back to health? Interestingly, in dental, in the oral microbiome, we actually want to have less diversity In the gut, the lower down gut, right. We're always talking about the more diverse species of bacteria and fungus we have, the healthier we are, and in the met it's actually the opposite. So when we start having gum disease let's say you're doing a saliva test, right, we might show increase in the number of species, and in the oral microbiome that's actually a negative thing. So again, we have to think about this is multifactorial. There's not necessarily one thing. There may be that toxin that tips the scale. But then it has to have that perfect storm, right?

Dr. Carver:

Just eating sugar isn't going to cause cavity, right? We have to have a whole set of environmental things for it to manifest. So we have to understand what are the host defenses? How strong and robust is your immune system? What is your nutritional status?

Dr. Carver:

As I just said, toxicity leads to deficiency. Are we getting enough of the fat soluble vitamins? Do we have enough B vitamins? Do we have enough fat soluble vitamins? The minerals very important. How many toxins are we exposed to on a daily basis? How many products are we putting in our mouths, on our skin, in our hair, right? Not to mention cleaning products. We're just exposed to so many environmental toxins at all times.

Dr. Carver:

And what's the pH? Right? We can't really have disease in our mouths if we haven't neutral pH for the majority of the time. Our mouth is always going to as soon as we eat. If you were to take a pH strip, you would notice that it dips down and becomes acidic. That's normal In a healthy mouth. When you have a healthy amount of bacteria, within an hour or two you should go back to a neutral pH. But if you're consistently staying acidic again, that's one type of environment that's going to cause some of those bad bugs to overgrow.

Dr. Carver:

Interesting as the gum tissue starts breaking down, we get these collagen peptides and amino acids which actually feed the what we call pathobionts. And this is an interesting distinction between the word pathogen, because things like Porphylonis gingivalis, this is present in health and that's the other thing. To really understand, these fad bugs are present, they're all around. It's when the balance we get out of balance and there's too many of those, that these pathobionts become pathogens. Right. And the way that they're able to overgrow is as we're breaking down our own gum tissue, right. That's feeding those now pathogens, which increases their numbers even more. And this is why, on my SILHA test, one of the markers on that screening tool is protein. If you see increased protein in your saliva, that's a sign of body's breaking things down. It's a sign of you're in sympathetic system. Your body is in fight or flight, trying to get ahead of some disease or pathogen or toxin.

Dr. Carver:

And interestingly also is that the severity of periodontitis will increase with different species. So P gingivalis is one of the most common bugs, that's most commonly studied bugs, and we know that it's implicated in every chronic disease that we know of. But it gets even more pathogenic when also the presence of TF or ethnonucleotides. So that's when we're doing these saliva tests and we're seeing these together, we know that it's going to be more problematic. We know that we have periodontitis which is right at the gum line, but we also have apical periodontitis, which is what most people think of as an abscess.

Dr. Carver:

So this is a lesion, inflammation, infection, tip way, way down in the bone. Sometimes it's hard to see on a regular 2D image. This is why cone beam or 3D x-rays are becoming more and more common and more standard of care, because what we can see in a three-dimensional is so much more clear. And many times these kinds of infections are silent. We have absolutely no symptoms.

Dr. Carver:

So your immune system could be completely jacked up and you have no idea why you have this chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia or long COVID and you can't figure out why you can't get better. There may be an underlying infection that is causing that immune system to go out of whack and not be able to heal yourself and create energy. We've talked about that before. Right, the mitochondria can be in defense mode or they can be in energy production mode, but they can't be in both. So, people with chronic fatigue, you've got something that is bringing your mitochondria down right. So is it the heavy? Is it an infection? What kind of chemical could it be? We've got to dig a little deeper and try to get at the root of it, versus just trying to pep you up with caffeine or apply you with other supplements. We've got to get rid of that root cause.

Dr. Carver:

So what are the typical risk factors for cardiovascular disease? If you go to the cardiologist, they're going to freak out right. If you have high blood pressure, if your cholesterol levels are out of whack, boom, we got to put you on stout, got to put you on blood pressure medication. The definition of cardiovascular disease is it's an inflammatory disease that presents as thickening of the intima within the vessel. So that basically means narrowing of all of the vasculature, and that happens. We get plaques that are laid down right, and so now everything becomes more narrow. The more narrow your circulatory system is, the harder right we have to pressure is going to be in order to get that blood to all the areas of the body right. So is it the blood pressure that caused the cardiovascular disease, or did something cause that blood pressure to go up? So what I believe in all the research that I've done, is that the initiating factor is actually what I mentioned earlier endothelial dysfunction. So it's not an increase in blood pressure, it's not an increase in LDL causing the cardiovascular disease. I see it, those are consequences of this endothelial dysfunction, and so we've talked about it a little bit before.

Dr. Carver:

What is the role in the body of LDL? Most of us think of it as the bad cholesterol. We can't let that get too high. We've got to suppress that. But LDL, actually its function is to be a band-aid, right? So it accumulates in areas of damage, right? These blood vessels are just like the gut, are like one cell line and cell layer, so they can be very easily damaged, right? So when this LDL they're accumulating these areas of damage, then they become oxidized and it's the oxidized fats that are really problematic. That's why just looking at an LDL is really not sufficient to tell you what your risk is of cardioid, but we have to look at the oxidized particles, the very low density proteins there, right? So when they become oxidized, we get an increase in adhesion molecules and then macrophages, which are cells of the immune system. They are activated and they are supposed to scavenge and take care of these LDL cells and we create what we call folin cells and that's defined as first stage of atherosclerosis right, or the plaque building up and the hardening of our arteries. These macromodules also produce these pro-inflammatory cytokines. And then the T cells, another immune cell, is going to stimulate proliferation of the smooth muscle within the vessels right. So the smooth muscle cells are going to proliferate, they're going to get thicker, there's going to be more of them and again that's going to cause a narrowing.

Dr. Carver:

So if cholesterol, increased cholesterol and increased blood pressure are a consequence, what is causing the dysfunction of the endothelium in the first place? So we know that strep, mutans sanguinus, aa, p gingival, t, denticle all of these are bacteria strains that have been found in aortic aneurysm specimens and in diseased heart valves. They are frequently detected in atherosclerotic plaques and studies have found different oral species in anywhere from 48% to 100% of specimens. Other infections herpes simplex, chlamydia, pneumonia that was going around a lot in our area in its fall P gingivalis, hep C, h pylori very common right Causes a decrease in stomach acid, influenza, a, cytomegalovirus, hiv those are all implicated as risk factors because all of those infections can cause endothelial dysfunction.

Dr. Carver:

In periodontitis we talk about the red complex bacteria, the worst of the worst. So that includes the P gingivalis, trypanema, denticola, tannerella, forsythia, fusobacterium nucleatum, which has recently been identified in colon cancers, prevotella intermedia. But again I want to stress that these that are only looking at these red complex and maybe the orange complex, we're not really getting a whole view of the oral cavity. Although they are measuring levels, it's important to understand that they are going to be present, so we cannot be concerned if we have them. We want to know how much of the good commensal bacteria do we have? So all of these bacteria share in common that they are grand negative anaerobic, which means they thrive in a less oxygenated environment. So this is why, if you've ever heard me talk or do my webinars, I'm a big proponent of oxygen drops. Getting more oxygen, a little bit of hydrogen peroxide can go a long way, because oxygen it's how the good commensal bacteria they thrive on. So the more oxygen we have, the fewer of these red complex bacteria are going to be able to survive.

Dr. Carver:

As I mentioned before too, when we find them together, they create pathogenic synergism, and the scary thing about these is why. Well, just previously, all we ever want to do with these we're going along. Pasteur's theory right is just kill everything, so let's just throw antibiotics at it. But if you're more holistic with oh I don't want to do antibiotics, let me just throw essential oils at it, which are also killing. And again, we have to be careful because just if we kill these bacteria but we don't fix the environment that allowed them to overgrow in the first place, we're just on that hamster wheel, spinning and spinning and we're never actually correcting the problem. So we're managing the disease without reversing it.

Dr. Carver:

The interesting thing for me I know everything is so interesting to me but the bacteria actually suppress our innate immune system. So not only are they creating all sorts of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction, they are preventing our immune system from being able to eradicate them, they also cause blood clotting right. So we know the thicker our blood is, the more easily that it clumps, the more easily it can adhere right to those plaques that are forming the artery or they're more narrow, the vessels are, harder it is for that thick, clotty blood to get through. So that becomes a real problem. They also produce enzymes called proteases, which is what helps some of the blood clots and other things adhere and cause invasion of other healthy cells. So let's talk a little bit about these different bacteria.

Dr. Carver:

P gingivalis it will upregulate fatty acid binding, so more and more LDL will be attracted to those sites which can then be potentially oxidized, which leads to more of the proliferation of cells and the formation of these plaques. P gingivalis can prevent the HDL right, that's the good cholesterol from binding and transporting right. Normally HDL comes along and it chews up those LDL and goes on its way. But if the LDL now can't do that anymore, right, that's when we get that increase that the LDL isn't being taken away. We just keep making more and more because there's more and more damage occurring. P gingivals can oxidize HDL and then now, instead of being that protective transporter, it's becoming pro-aphrogenic. P genovas also can ship the ballot of our immune cells, th17 and T-regulatory cells to encourage more plaque formation and it causes the aggregation and the clotting of the platelets.

Dr. Carver:

F nucleonum has been found in many about 34% according to this one study, 34% in carotid specimen. It increases cardiovascular risk by increasing systemic inflammation by direct colonization of these arterial walls. Okay, so it's directly attaching to the arterial walls, causing endothelial dysfunction and, as I said too, it acts as a bridge. So when F-nucleotide is there with P gingivalis, they work together to create more adhesion molecules and form more complex microbial communities Often. There was one study just done in 2022 in mice and they said the oral administration of F-nucleotide caused increases in triglyceride and cholesterol, the T-fersyphia, t-dentacoloc, both showing an atherosclerotic reasons average of 53%. They cause an increase in C-reactive protein.

Dr. Carver:

That is a marker often run by hopefully run by most internists to look at any type of inflammation. It's a non-specific marker for chronic inflammation. It also causes increase in LDL. Right, again, the more damage to the endothelium, the more LDL we're going to produce. So when I see somebody whose LDL is creeping up or getting higher, I'm thinking what's causing the damage? Why is the liver being recruited to create more Band-Aid? Why do we need all these Band-Aids? Also, these two species also will lower nitric oxide. There's one study done in mice.

Dr. Carver:

Nitric oxide is one of the molecules responsible for dilating our blood vessels. Right we're talking about. All these things are causing narrowing of our blood vessels and so it makes it harder to get the blood and get oxygen where it needs to go. So nitric oxide important, right? It's also correlated. These two are correlated with hemorrhage plaques in the vessels.

Dr. Carver:

There was a study done by Jenkinson and his colleagues and they found that one streptococcus bacteria was able to get into the bloodstream. And again, this can simply be from chewing food, right, brushing our teeth. They found a protein they called PAD-A. It sits on the outer surface of this bacteria and they say that it hijacked blood platelets and forced them to clump together, making these blood clots. And when these clump together like this, they surround the bacteria and create almost a shell. So when the bacteria is like inside this clump of platelets, they avoid detection by the host immune system. This also allows them to hide from antibiotics.

Dr. Carver:

So we know there's a huge dilemma with antibiotic resistance happening and we're getting all these superbots happening. Bacteria are very smart and they can evolve and find ways to evade detection and destruction. So, very hard you have these infections of just throwing. Again, when we talk about let's just kill everything with all these antibiotics If the antibiotic can't get to the bacteria, we're not really doing good work right, where instead we could be potentially causing more problems by killing off good commensal bacteria that are so important for absorbing our nutrients and helping our immune system.

Dr. Carver:

So, again, as well as helping out the bacteria, this platelet clumping, called small blood clot, and they can grow in the heart valves, causing this endocarditis and further inflammation of the blood vessels, which can actually block blood supply right to the heart and brain. So they're working on something to try to counteract this PADD-A where, yes, that's great, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we just cleaned up the mouth right and the mouth is so accessible? That's what I love about my job. It's a lot easier to try to create balance in the oral cavity than trying to heal leaky gut or, you know, ibs, right? So we have the opportunity to have direct impact on the mouth and it's going to have direct impact on heart health, brain health, liver health, you name it.

Dr. Carver:

How exactly is this dysfunction happening? We've mentioned a few things, right? So these infections get into the bloodstream, they cause clotting, they cause lytic systems to activate all of this fibrous, these specific cells, these foam cells. They activate all of the innate immune systems or start producing more cytokines that lead to more inflammation and that causes just acceleration of these plaques throughout the body. Many of these plaques also show signs of releasing endotoxins. So it's not just the bacteria, but it's the byproducts of this bacteria that can further cause more damage, and there are several different kinds of byproducts we'll talk about quickly. So gingipines is one of these toxins given off by these bacteria and these are cysteine proteases. They attach to the host tissue, so they're going to attach to that cell wall in the blood vessel and they cause fibrous maturation. It gets a little thicker in there. Hemoglobin also causes hemoglobin binding and so that hemoglobin binding causes the bacteria to be able to collect amino acid and that's what they feed on. These ginger peels are what directly cause the degradation of the collagen and the extracellular matrix proteins. Right, so that's when we start to see the bone loss happen. Right, and this is why I think of periodontitis as in the same category as autoimmunity. Right, body is eating away at yourself.

Dr. Carver:

But I listened to this great podcast the other day. It was Dave Asprey and Gary Brekka. Gary was talking about what is autoimmunity and most of us think of the body's gone haywire. Right, it's doing something it shouldn't do. But what he's saying? No, the body is doing exactly what it's supposed to do because by attacking the toxin.

Dr. Carver:

I totally share this opinion that, again, everything is toxins and infections. Why do we have he's talking about thyroid issue why is the body attacking the thyroid tissue. That thyroid tissue has been infected by a toxin, so the body is producing antibodies right to go after the toxin. The toxin is in that thyroid tissue. So what happens is the thyroid tissue ends up being attacked as the body is trying to attack the toxin. So same exact thing in gum disease. Right, all of the endotoxins like gingipanes and LPS are being released. The body wants to get rid of those toxins. Part of if that toxin is in the bone that's surrounding the teeth, then the bone is going to get eaten away in the body's attempt to get rid of the toxin. So, again, if we get rid of the toxin, we get rid of the infection, then the body is going to stop having this autoimmune reaction and stop destructing our own tissue.

Dr. Carver:

What else do these genoplasties do? They will inactivate immunoglobulins and cytokines that compromise the immune system. We said that it suppresses the innate immune system, causes dysregulation of the coagulation cascade. So this is why in gingivitis and periodontal disease we see increased bleeding, so we can have blood clotting, but we also can see increased bleeding. It also increases the vascular permeability right, we all know about leaky gut. Anywhere you have a barrier, right In your mouth, in your blood-brain barrier vessels in general right Leaky vessels, right. So we're going to increase that vascular permeability, which will attract more white blood cells to the infection. It also activates MMPs that degrade more of that alveolar bone, as well as prostaglandins, which cause pain.

Dr. Carver:

Lps this is a really well-known toxin that bacteria give off. It is, according to some research, one of the major factors leading to fatty liver disease. So again, really important to understand the consequence of having these low-grade chronic infections. Lps is actually a component of the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria. Normally it's recognized by the innate immune system at these CD14 receptors and that will initiate the cytokine cascade and platelet aggregation again trying to encapsulate these bacteria and move them out of the way. Lps will increase calcification. So for you women out, there you go, you have your mammogram and they're like oh yes, you have dense breasts, lots of calcification. This is just normal, it's very common, but it doesn't mean that's normal. So if we have a lot of calcification, we're producing a lot of tartar on our teeth all the time, right? Why do we have this increased calcification? Could it be caused from some again low-grade infection going?

Dr. Carver:

Lps causes a progression of the plaque lipid deposition, so it increases more LDL by damaging that endothelial barrier, increases oxidative stress. Most diseases have increased oxidative like. The whole idea of aging is all about oxidative stress, right? It also LPS directly increases the C reactive protein. There are also bioprones called leukotoxins. So from the bacteria AA it actually causes pores in the lipid bilayer, right? So every cell has this lipid bilayer, every cell has this lipid bilayer that protects, actually, the brain of the cell. It's this lipid bilayer, and so AA can directly cause holes and can kill white blood cells. By creating these holes it causes apoptosis, which is programmed cell death, increased breakdown of the macrophages right? Those are supposed to be the cleanup crew and get rid of all the bad stuff. It can, those are supposed to be the cleanup crew, get rid of all the bad stuff. It can break down natural killer cells and the T cells, which are protective, right? So again, suppressing that innate immune system by directly killing our immune cells. It can also the glucotoxins bind to the white blood cells and therefore wherever that white blood cell goes in the bloodstream, so does the infection, can go somewhere else in the body and cause problems in that part of the body.

Dr. Carver:

There are also heat shock proteins, so during an infection we have bacterial heat shock proteins and they're very highly immunogenic. So they're very highly stimulatory to our immune system. And the problem is we have human heat shock proteins and the body may get confused and not be able to differentiate between them. So those heat shock proteins can further cause endothelial function. They also enhance adhesion molecules, which causes more thinning of the blood vessels, more patient.

Dr. Carver:

The cytokines everybody heard a lot about cytokines during the pandemic and how that cytokine storm really caused death. Right when the inflammation got way too ramped up there was just such an increase in infection that the body couldn't keep up. So having cytokines is important, but having too many is not really a good thing. We get increased swelling, more granulation tissue when we have too many cytokines. So what is the traditional therapy?

Dr. Carver:

Traditionally for a gone disease, periodontitis, we do scaling and root cleaning, right. We numb you up and we scrape the crap out of your teeth trying to get all that off and then send you on your way and most studies say that's great, but actually we can regrow plaque and tartar within 10 days. So that doesn't reduce the amount of bacteria in the mouth. Reduce the amount of bacteria in the mouth, but did we do anything to address the environment. Again, all the idea of just killing, just get rid of the bacteria and then everything will be wonderful. So then down the line we started.

Dr. Carver:

What if we add antibiotics with the scaling root planing? So we can give systemic antibiotics, which we now know is probably not a great idea, or we can give targeted antibiotics. Let's just put that in that 10 millimeter pocket, right, so we have certain kinds of antibiotics that we can localize and put it right in. But again, is anything really localized? Because, right, it can get into your mean bloodstream, but it is in a smaller dose and there are a lot of studies that really show no inhibition. Again, maybe initially for a few weeks, but then really we go right back to square one. So in my mind, like, okay. Again I think about the environment. Yes, we have to reduce the amount of bacteria. So, yes, let's get the tartar out of there, let's get these roots nice and cleaning right so we can have the gum tissue reattached in these areas.

Dr. Carver:

What else can we do? What if we use laser, right? Laser light energy, as you've heard me talk about in previous podcasts, is amazingly stimulatory for mitochondria. We need that increased energy in order to produce more oxygen, make more ATP to help our immune cells fight whatever the inflammation is going on. So laser totally non-invasive and wonderful, I find that we really do need to use it in combination with other things. So we have scalar and platelet plus ozone. Again, we need to take down that and we need to put more oxygen in that environment directly. And then enzymes I really like proteolytic enzymes because, again, remember we talked about how amino acids are used by the pathogens in order to grow and increase their numbers. So if we degrade down all of those amino acids, we're going to take away the food source, right. So again, think about the environment. I love oxygen drops. I want my patients all to be on oxygen drop and then we can use combinations from all these toxicity.

Dr. Carver:

We need to increase our minerals. We need to increase the fat soluble vitamins, right D, b, a and K. They all have to work together. The fat soluble vitamins and minerals work together to produce healthy teeth and gums. You can't just take vitamin D, you can't just take magnesium. The combination together is what creates health. And again, with prebiotics, probiotics we're providing the food for the good stuff to overgrow. And I've done my own little pilot studies and I've seen incredible results with this type of therapy Without changing diet, which we know.

Dr. Carver:

Diet is so crucial. Right, a lot of the toxins we is from our diet. We eat so much processed food. It's just hard to eat healthy whole foods these days, just the way society is. But again, with even just targeting these things in the mouth, it's going to make a huge systemic impact. So the goal is always to increase the good bacteria and reduce the diversity in the oral microbe. So we need to reduce the toxin and we need to improve our nutrition. Now there are some people with certain polymorphisms in their genetics, right. There's polymorphisms or SNPs, we call them right in certain cytokines and that can lead to some people have greater inflammation. There's some about MTHFR. Many of you have heard of that. It's probably one of the best studies out there. If we don't methylate properly, we can't detox properly.

Dr. Carver:

Chronic anemia that is also can be a sign of chronic disease. So a lot of people freak out oh my gosh, we need to supplement you with iron because you're becoming so anemic. But again, why are they anemic? Could it be a chronic infection stealing all of that iron? Again, let's dig a little deeper on these things and figure out the real reason. So let's sum everything up here. We need to think about nutrients versus toxins, right? Toxicity leads to deficiency, so our best goal to fight any chronic disease is making sure we're getting those nutrients and minimizing the toxins to the best of our ability.

Dr. Carver:

And in today's society, I believe that supplements are necessary. And again, basics Everybody's different, right? Our lifestyles are a little different, Our genetics are a little different, our genetics are a little different, but it's very basic. Having those fat soluble vitamins, having the minerals that is key cornerstone of good health. So you just got to have the basic building blocks for everything to work well. Then we have to also think about our nervous system, right? Those of us who tend to have more chronic issues are those of us who spend way too much time in that sympathetic nervous system. We're overthinking stuff all the time. There's just so much bombarding us and we don't realize it. Led lights, too much of that. We're inside all the time, the nutrient-poor food, so that we have a lot working against us. But that's okay, because we're aware now and so we know we can take these little steps to bring us that much healthier. All right.

Dr. Carver:

So the biggest takeaways for me is that, remember, the cause of heart disease is not increased blood pressure and increased cholesterol, right, the cause is the endothelial dysfunction. The cause is from. It could be these bacteria, these viruses, these toxins like the LPS and the gingipanes, right, and it is the shift in the environment that leads to an increase in these pathobionts that become pathogens, right, so it's the lack of nutrients, the lack of oxygen, the lack of the minerals, the lack of vitamins and excess sugars right, we didn't even talk about sugar at all. We know sugar can lead to decay, right, but sugar's also directly caused an increase in the reactive oxidative species. Anytime we have those increased ROS, we're going to have chronic disease and inflammation.

Dr. Carver:

So, an interesting thing is, blood glucose will also stimulate HMG-CoA reductase. So this is the enzyme that's targeted for statin drugs. If you have high cholesterol, often your doctor throws you on a statin, and that is what's going to stop the cholesterol biosynthesis, right, stop the production of that LDL. But what did we just mention today? Right, ldl is the band being produced. We want to understand why there's an increase of Band-Aids being produced, and blood glucose is a big one, right? So if your cholesterol is going up, the first thing I want you to do is look for the hidden infection. Test your HbA1c, right. Because glucose this is going to affect your liver. Liver is where cholesterol is made. Liver also is protective of the pancreas. So diabetes, and that really starts with a liver problem and a metabolism problem. So we've got to think about how all these things work together.

Dr. Carver:

And blood glucose in and of itself causes direct damage to the endothelium. Think about diabetics losing limbs, losing their eyesight. This is because that excess blood is directly causing endothelial dysfunction. I had a patient the other day was talked about having swelling in his legs. He had recently been put on cholesterol medication. A blood pressure medication said his cholesterol was 500. And so then the doctor thought oh, you have a heart problem, no, you have a kidney problem. He was diagnosed with a kidney disease. My first question was have they? Even I can't seem to lose weight and I said have they checked your blood sugar? Because what he's experienced is this leaky vessel syndrome. Remember, we talked about all of the bacteria and these toxins cause vascular permeability, the leaking out of fluids, right. So when we get edema or swelling, that is a leaky vessel right, that is endothelial dysfunction.

Dr. Carver:

So let's take it all the way back and think what is the infection, what is the toxin that could be causing, instead of simply taking a certain prescription to minimize the symptom? Because we may minimize the symptom, but if we don't correct the damage, we're just pushing the buck down the line a little bit without really resolving the issue. So a really important key factor too, with increased blood pressure and increased cholesterol. Please take a look at it. Is your C-reactive protein elevated and what is your blood flow? Look at the insulin. Look at your blood glucose. Look at your. Is your C-reactive protein elevated and what is your blood flow? Look at the insulin. Look at your blood glucose. Look at your HbA1c, which is a measure of your blood sugar over the last three months. So it's a good thing to see.

Dr. Carver:

Okay, and we know that type 2 diabetes is reversible. It may not be simple, but with certain lifestyle changes and tweaking our nutrition, we absolutely can reverse all of these things. It's just a matter of thinking a little differently and taking the time to dig a little bit deeper, right? So we want to talk about the action steps here, right? So we might want to test for oral microblom. I like Br Health Check for 700 different species so we can see the balance.

Dr. Carver:

Right, as I just mentioned, check the C-reactive protein, all of the blood levels and what about your mineral levels and fat soluble vitamins. Let's check those levels. Let's talk about diet and stress. How about sleeping? Briefly mentioning, mouth breathing causes a huge shift in the oral microbiome, so should we have a sleep study? No, we can do them at home. They're super easy and portable, right? So let's talk about how we're breathing during the day. Right? Are we mouth breathing during the day? Let's talk about some additive functions at the dentist, right? Between ozone you can buy affordable ozone machines now to have in your home. Even lasers we sell a little red light hand-held, looks like a flashlight about $225, right, that's not bad if it's something you're using every single day and you're really enhancing your mitochondria. And at home, let's think about toothpaste that don't have a lot of chemicals in them. Let's think about something like Rewitin prebiotic minerals don't have a lot of chemicals. Let's think about something like rewiten prebiotic minerals, vitamins it's enhancing that environment.

Dr. Carver:

Liquid minerals A lot of us have digestive issues. If we take a liquid mineral, we're going to absorb that through the mucosa faster. It doesn't have to go through the digestive process. Let's think about enzymes, right? I've used a lot of enzymes to help people with arthritis, right, which is basically inflammation in the joint. You need to break down all those excess proteins that are causing the body to cause more inflammation and breakdown of the joints. Oxygen and binders expand of the binders. We talk about cell 4 binders all the time. The fulvic and humic acids not only bind up all of these toxins, but they also supply electrolytes and amino acids at the same time. So sometimes binders can take too much of our fluids and leave us at more deficiency, whereas the cell core binders are very different or created much differently than, say, like activated charcoal. So these are things that I always think about when I'm looking at my patients and I want to really reverse all of these kind of inflammation changes that are going on.

Dr. Carver:

So we've talked about a lot of stuff today and I hope that all of you can take a nugget or two out of this and really start thinking about. My goal in doing this podcast is to make us all our own best doctors, to make us think a little bit more critically about the cause of certain things and simple things that we can do after to give us a better, healthiest life possible. I hope you enjoyed this solo podcast. Please feel free to reach out with questions and I love comments. I love ideas for new podcasts or people you want to hear from, so keep the comments coming If you are getting some value out of the podcast. Again, I thank you. Please share this with others. You can give us a review that really helps more people see, so that we can create as much awareness and help as many people as possible. So thanks again, everybody. I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you on the next episode.

Dr. Carver:

Hello, I'm Dr Rachel Carver, a board-certified naturopathic, biologic dentist and a certified health coach. Did you know that over 80% of the US population has some form of gum disease? Many of us don't even know that we have this source of chronic infection and inflammation in our mouth that's been linked to serious consequences like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia, colon cancer, kidney disease, even pregnancy complications. Would you like to learn how to reverse and prevent these chronic debilitating conditions without spending a lot of time and money at the dentist? Join me for my six-week course where I will teach you the root cause of disease. You'll learn how to be your own best doctor. Are you ready to get started? Let's go.