Bugs, Cytokines & Stress

Blame the bugs. Bugs create biofilms. Biofilms are found in every household water lines and sewers, water treatment plants, energy plants, contact lenses, bottoms of river beds and bird baths. They are a slimy, sticky, glue-like, barnacle-like, water phobic matrix of organisms. They cause enormous amounts of money in damage. Biofilms are responsible for destroying the oil pipelines in Alaska. Each biofilm is unique to its own environment. They thrive with different nutrients, growing temperatures, light requirements, pH environments, surface types and atmospheric pressure.

The biofilm in the mouth is among the most complex because it inhabits a live organism. There is a hierarchy of bugs that create the biofilm which gets more and more complex. The complexity of what is happening in the mouth and its effect on the whole body can not be over exaggerated. The bacteria in the biofilms attach themselves to the hard and soft tissues like a grappling hook and imbed filaments that anchor the entire mass to the host. They then form layers upon layers of different species of organisms that form the foundation for an intricate network of communication and transportation systems. Highways are formed bringing nutrients in and excrement out; chemical communications in and chemical communications out. Bugs are communicating with each other and speak many different languages, even languages of different species of bugs. This is like dogs talking to fish, not like Americans talking to Chinese. They also share and swap genes with each other - an amazing feat, that proves reality is stranger than fiction.

The body is recognizing the biofilm in the mouth as infection. The infection is contagious and communicable. It’s the body’s defense mechanism to the infection that sets off the battle between the host and the bugs.

Cytokines are the byproduct of the battle. They are emitted from blood cells attacking the pathogenetic bacteria in the biofilm. They are used by the body as pseudo hormones or chemical mediators. They tell the body to manufacture more blood cells. These blood cells are called macrophages, neutrophils, eosinophils and others.

In the presence of infection, the blood cells (that are racing around looking for infections) release the cytokines and tell the body to manufacture more blood cells. So this is what is stressing out the body. Unfortunately, these cytokines inflame all the internal lumens of arteries and are responsible for a cascade effect for many systemic diseases, such as heart disease, cerebral vascular disease, diabetes, pancreatic cancer, respiratory diseases, oral and throat cancer, lung cancer, prostatitis, erectile dysfunction, children with low birth weight, breast cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome and most recently osteoporosis. These cytokines interact with the whole body’s system causing inflammatory immune response (STRESS).

Professional dental cleanings strip the biofilm in the mouth, similar to cutting down a forest. In literally hours, the biofilm is trying to reorganize. Left unchecked, the new biofilm (forest) is reorganized (re-grown) in seventy days. Microscopic destruction occurs within a week. Ten times the amount of damage to the body is done between the third to the sixth month after a cleaning versus the first to the third month after a cleaning. That is why three month professional dental cleanings are so important. The cleanings gets rid of the biofilm, gets rid of the inflammatory process and gets rid of the cytokines, which is taxing the entire system (STRESS).

Professional cleanings will not do it on its own. Three dimensional home cleaning (around each tooth) is essential to maintaining low levels of inflammatory response.