Included in this month’s issue…
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a serious illness. It can cripple with inflammation, pain, stiffness, swelling and loss of function. It typically affects (and can deform) the hands and feet, but sometimes it affects the skin, eyes, lungs and blood vessels. About 1.5 million people in the United States have rheumatoid arthritis (RA) including many children!
RA is considered an “autoimmune disease” because the body is believed to attack itself. But why would the body attack itself for no good reason? There must be a reason. A major hidden cause of RA appears to be infected root canals, gum disease and the infected sockets of extracted teeth. Gerald Smith, DDS, a dental researcher and clinician, reports that dental infections can harbor:
…300 to 400 different pathogens (bacteria, viruses and fungi or other toxins) [from dental infections] and can concentrate within a knee, hand, finger or other joint [to]l cause inflammation.
As an example Dr. Smith tells the story of MT, a patient who suffered from RA for 34 years: Her condition gradually worsened until she experienced severe painful joints throughout her body. Medical treatment included the use of the steroid, prednisone, a chemotherapy drug, methotrexate, and a deactivating drug, Enbrel.
One to two years before the onset of her RA, she had a root canal … this seemingly innocuous dental procedure resulted in a streptococcus inflection that remained present for 34 years. Unfortunately, a high percentage of root canal treated teeth (75% or more) become infected, exhibit none of the usual clinical signs and symptoms of pain, swelling or redness yet spew out their toxic waste products that affect distant sites.
MT’s rheumatoid arthritis resolved by 90% and she stopped taking the Enbrel…. The key factor was the removal of the underlying cause – infected root canal tooth. Note: An x-ray of the infected tooth showed no visible pathology.
Please click here to view the rest of our March 2016 newsletter.
For Your Health,
Dr. Scott Van Dam