Does the body give us clues about our general health long before we would normally sense those conditions?  What if there was a way to tell if you have a vitamin or mineral deficiency? If you have a compromised immune system?  Does the body give us clues about our general health long before we would normally sense those conditions?  

The answer is YES!

 

It’s been said that the eyes are the windows to the soul; however, in many ways the mouth is the indicator of the health of your body. Why the mouth? Well, the mouth is the beginning of the digestive system and is a very sensitive part of the body. The tongue has been used in tongue diagnosis in Chinese medicine for over 5,000 years, yet is rarely done in this country.  Ever get a cold, have the flu, or just go on a detox diet? What happens to your tongue?? It turns white because toxins are being released throughout your system.

Your tongue is the most visible internal organ of the body, having a high metabolic rate. This high rate allows malnutrition and pathological states to show up before they affect the rest of the body. For example, lack of nutrients such as vitamin B, C, Iron or Zinc all cause oxidation or a change in the taste cells usually resulting in a metallic taste, meaning something is wrong. The tongue is highly vascularized so changes in the body will show up as a color change in the tongue. For example, if your tongue has a yellowish or yellowish-green coating, you could have liver or gall bladder problems. If your tongue is gray or grayish brown, you could have stomach or intestinal problems. If the tip of your tongue is red you could have either heart or thyroid problems. As mentioned earlier, a white-coated tongue usually represents a toxic condition. The thickness of the coating is also important - the thicker the coating, the more chronic the condition.

 

 

Acupuncture meridians can also affect the teeth. The Acupuncture scheme is divided into body channels called meridians. Each meridian contains a primary organ and several secondary organs and glands. These organs all share a finite amount of energy. Half of the meridians pass through the mouth in the very teeth themselves. When a restoration is placed in a tooth, it may exert a toxic or allergenic reaction. In response to resisting this energy, the energy of the tooth drops. This drop in energy will cause the other organs in this system to send energy to the tooth to try to “heal” it but that cannot happen. All we can do is fix teeth rather them heal them so the body’s energy is always diverted on some level. If you have had some sort of restoration placed on your canine tooth it would not be uncommon to see your tongue having a yellowish-green coating since the canines are related to the liver gall bladder system.

 

Most of what we consider diseases of the oral cavity may not be diseases but just symptoms of the body being out of balance. How many of you have gone to the dentist and gotten a cleaning??? Most people when getting their teeth cleaned are told that they need to brush better since they are developing plaque. Well you can brush forever but the plaque will not go away because the plaque is just a symptom of the body being “out of balance”.  Everybody brushes but plaque still develops. It’s not the brushing that’s the problem but the acidity of the body that’s at fault. When the body is too acidic, the mouth gets too acidic. The bacterial population changes so that the bad bacteria are able to grow and prosper while the good guys breed less. The acid causes minerals to precipitate from your saliva, attach to your teeth where the bacteria hide and you have plaque. This is not going to change until you get your body to become alkaline. In treating periodontal disease aside from using laser and ozone therapy nutrition plays a key role in restoring our patients back to health.

 

Here an easy way to alkalize…

Lemons tend to remove toxins from your system and are very alkaline in your body even though they are acidic in the mouth. They should be mixed with a liter of warm water (size: average seltzer bottle). On the first day use 1 lemon. Gradually increase this until you reach 5 lemons a day. Do this for a week. You can double the amount of lemons but 5 is sufficient. You do not have to drink the lemon juice all at once. You can make it and keep some in the refrigerator and drink some throughout the day After consuming the lemon drink make sure you rinse your mouth with water every time you drink this since lemons can affect your tooth enamel over time. Once you have achieved your high goal start decreasing the lemons by ½ a day till you get to zero.

 

Dr Zeines is a continuing contributor to Natural Awakenings Magazine. For more questions or concerns, please call Dr. Zeines at his office at 212-813-9461 and mention you saw his Natural Awakenings article!

 

Victor Zeines DDS., MS, FAGD

57 West 57th Street, New York City, NY 10019 & Shokan NY

212-813-9461

www.natdent.com