May The pHorce Be With You!

pH Miracle® Alka-pHorce™
Portable Alkalizing pHorce

When your life takes you on the road, away from your pH Miracle® Mark I Ionizer, you can now take the pHorce with you!

This high quality stainless steel cartridge contains a selection of alkalizing minerals that will raise the pH of your water and various other liquids. Simply insert the Alka-pHorce into a your water container and let it alkalize the liquid for you. And it's safe to leave the Alka-pHorce submerged indefinitely. Below are some of the popular uses and advantages.

The pH Miracle® Alka-pHorce:

Is narrow enough to fit in narrow-neck bottled water containers for when you're on the go and need to alkalize a bottle of filtered water.

Will maintain the O.R.P. of water dispensed from your ionizer for the entire day or even return the O.R.P. of your ionized water bottled earlier that day. This is the perfect solution for those forced to "brown bag" their ionized bottled water to work.

Raises the pH of most filtered water to 9.5. It only takes a few minutes to alkalize a 12-32oz container; 15 minutes for a one gallon container

Can be strategically placed in automatic water systems for animals to alkalize their drinking water.

Can be used in hot water to improve alkalinity of teas and even coffee.

Has been tested to continue alkalizing for a full year!

Is small in size. Approximately 4.5 inches long and less than 3/4 inches in diameter.

Weight: 1/10 of a pound

While this cartridge does have the ability to raise the pH of water, it cannot possibly raise the O.R.P., like the pH Miracle® Mark I. It is, therefore, not a replacement for ionizers and cannot be expected to produce similar results. It furthermore does not filter your water or kill microbial life forms. For best results place the Alka-pHorce™ in suitable filtered water when an ionizer is not available.

Price: $89.95

To order your Alka pHorce go to:

http://www.phmiracleliving.com/p-488-ph-miracle-alka-phorce-alkalizing-rod.aspx

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A Diet Loaded With Alkaline Buffers or Phytonutrients Will Keep Your Body Healthy and Strong

(NaturaqlNews) If you ever feel tempted to go for a cheeseburger, fries and a soft drink, consider this: along with the fast food, you are ordering up an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and obesity. But the opposite is true, too. According to a new University of Florida (UF) study, if you stay away from processed and fast foods and instead eat a lot of veggies, nuts and fruit, you will actively be helping to prevent or reverse harmful metabolic processes in your body. The result? Better health and a slimmer body.

An important advantage to having plant-based foods as an abundant part of your daily diet appears to result from the phytochemicals they contain. As noted in the UF findings recently published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, these natural substances prevent oxidative stress -- a process linked to being overweight and to the onset of diseases including heart disease and diabetes. Phytochemicals include lycopene from tomatoes, isoflavones from soy, beta carotene from carrots, anthocyanins from blueberries, allicin from garlic, and many more.

"Without enough phytochemicals and antioxidants or anti-acids to counteract oxidative or fermenting stress, damaging dietary and/or metabolic acids will cause inflammation and other toxic problems in the body, states Dr. Robert O. Young, research scientist at The pH Miracle Living Center.

"In overweight people, excess acidic waste is stored in the connective and fatty tissues, making you sick, tired and fat," states Dr. Young.

The research team, headed by Heather K. Vincent, Ph.D., studied a group of 54 young adults divided into a normal weight and an overweight or obese group, analyzing their dietary patterns over several days. Surprisingly, the people in both groups took in about the same amount of calories. However, the overweight and obese young people were found to be eating fewer plant-based foods. That means those who were carrying around excess pounds were consuming fewer protective trace minerals and phytochemicals or better said, alkaline buffers and consuming far more saturated fats. In addition, those eating less plant-based foods were found to have higher levels of oxidative stress or over-acid and inflammation in their bodies than their normal-weight counterparts. This is a crucial finding because oxidative stress or over-acidity and inflammation are processes clearly associated with the onset of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and joint disease. According to Dr. Young, "you cannot have inflammation that leads to ovesity, heart disease, diabetes and joint disease without dietary and/or metabolic acid."

"Diets low in plant-based foods affect health over the course of a long period of time," Dr. Vincent explained in a statement to the press. "This is related to annual weight gain, inflammation and oxidative stress. Those are the onset processes of disease that debilitate people later in life."

"People who are obese need more fruit, vegetables, legumes and wholesome unrefined grains," she said. "In comparison to a normal-weight person, an obese person is always going to be behind the eight ball because there are so many adverse metabolic processes going on.

"In order to get enough protective phytochemicals daily, the UF researchers concluded that people should try to consume plant-based foods such as leafy greens, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes at the start of each meal.

As a way to encourage people to get enough phytochemicals from meals and snacks, Dr. Vincent also called for use of a phytochemical index, which compares the number of calories consumed from plant-based, nutrient-rich foods with the overall number of calories taken in each day.

"Fill your plate with colorful, low-calorie, varied-texture foods derived from plants first. By slowly eating phytochemical-rich foods such as salads with olive oil or fresh-cut fruit before the actual meal, you will likely reduce the overall portion size, fat content and energy intake. In this way, you're ensuring that you get the variety of protective, disease-fighting phytochemicals you need and controlling caloric intake," said Vincent, an assistant professor in the UF Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute, in the media statement.

"The key to a healthy and strong body is eating liberal amounts of alkaline green fruit and vegetables. Green fruit and vegetables are not only loaded with alkaline buffers or phytonutrients but also loaded with chlorophyll that will help build healthy red blood cells and in turn healthy body cells," states Dr. Young.


For more information:
www.phmiracleliving.com
www.articlesofhealth.blogspot.com
http://news.ufl.edu/2009/10/21/phyt...

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Vital Nutrients

GABA (Gamma aminobutyric acid) is an amino acid supplement that is gaining popularity for its anti-anxiety effects. Gaba is produced in the body from glutamic acid and acts as an inhibitory neurotransmitter. That is, it slows down activity in the part of the brain called the lymbic system, which is our emotional alarm bell.

Gaba is able to reduce stressful feelings such as anxiety, fear and panic. As a natural tranquillizer, Gaba can partially replace valium by binding to the same brain receptors, providing tranquillization. Gaba is available from health food stores.

www.google.com › Health › Alternative
http://www.grannymed.com/

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Answers to Questions From Dr. Young

Here is your next pH question/response by Dr. Robert Young, as promised...
There are many more questions to follow. However, if you have a particular question about alkaline living that you would like answered now, go ahead and submit it on the next page.
Some folks have asked about how they can help others become informed about their health too, so we've added an area for affiliates.
Dr. Young's responds to a question about about how to store Ionized Water
See for yourself here (1:05 min)

http://www.vidmails.com/playback.php?t=MzA3MDAwOTMxMDE3NTE5ODQwMzEwMzM%3D

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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VIII

Three Case Studies in Occlusion

In this post, I'll review three cultures with different degrees of malocclusion over time, and try to explain how the factors I've discussed may have played a role.

The Xavante of Simoes Lopes

In 1966, Dr. Jerry D. Niswander published a paper titled "The Oral Status of the Xavantes of Simoes Lopes", describing the dental health and occlusion of 166 Brazilian hunter-gatherers from the Xavante tribe (free full text). This tribe was living predominantly according to tradition, although they had begun trading with the post at Simoes Lopes for some foods. They made little effort to clean their teeth. They were mostly but not entirely free of dental cavities:

Approximately 33% of the Xavantes at Simoes Lopes were caries free. Neel et al. (1964) noted almost complete absence of dental caries in the Xavante village at Sao Domingos. The difference in the two villages may at least in part be accounted for by the fact that, for some five years, the Simoes Lopes Xavante have had access to sugar cane, whereas none was grown at Sao Domingos. It would appear that, although these Xavantes still enjoy relative freedom from dental caries, this advantage is disappearing after only six years of permanent contact with a post of the Indian Protective Service.

The most striking thing about these data is the occlusion of the Xavante. 95 percent had ideal occlusion. The remaining 5 percent had nothing more than a mild crowding of the incisors (front teeth). Niswander didn't observe a single case of underbite or overbite. This would have been truly exceptional in an industrial population. Niswander continues:

Characteristically, the Xavante adults exhibited broad dental arches, almost perfectly aligned teeth, end-to-end bite, and extensive dental attrition. At 18-20 years of age, the teeth were so worn as to almost totally obliterate the cusp patterns, leaving flat chewing surfaces.

The Xavante were clearly hard on their teeth, and their predominantly hunter-gatherer lifestyle demanded it. They practiced a bit of "rudimentary agriculture" of corn, beans and squash, which would sustain them for a short period of the year devoted to ceremonies. Dr. James V. Neel describes their diet (free full text):

Despite a rudimentary agriculture, the Xavante depend very heavily on the wild products which they gather. They eat numerous varieties of roots in large quantities, which provide a nourishing, if starchy, diet. These roots are available all year but are particularly important in the Xavante diet from April to June in the first half of the dry season when there are no more fruits. The maize harvest does not last long and is usually saved for a period of ceremonies. Until the second harvest of beans and pumpkins, the Xavante subsist largely on roots and palmito (Chamacrops sp.), their year-round staples.

From late August until mid-February, there are also plenty of nuts and fruits available. The earliest and most important in their diet is the carob or ceretona (Ceretona sp.), sometimes known as St. John's bread. Later come the fruits of the buriti palm (Mauritia sp.) and the piqui (Caryocar sp.). These are the basis of the food supply throughout the rainy season. Other fruits, such as mangoes, genipapo (Genipa americana), and a number of still unidentified varieties are also available.

The casual observer could easily be misled into thinking that the Xavante "live on meat." Certainly they talk a great deal about meat, which is the most highly esteemed food among them, in some respects the only commodity which they really consider "food" at all... They do not eat meat every day and may go without meat for several days at a stretch, but the gathered products of the region are always available for consumption in the community.

Recently, the Xavante have begun to eat large quantities of fish.

The Xavante are an example of humans living an ancestral lifestyle, and their occlusion shows it. They have the best occlusion of any living population I've encountered so far. Here's why I think that's the case:

• A nutrient-rich, whole foods diet, presumably including organs.
  
• On-demand breast feeding for two or more years.
• No bottle-feeding or modern pacifiers.
• Tough foods on a regular basis.
  

I don't have any information on how the Xavante have changed over time, but Niswander did present data on another nearby (and genetically similar) tribe called the Bakairi that had been using a substantial amount of modern foods for some time. The Bakairi, living right next to the Xavante but eating modern foods from the trading post, had 9 times more malocclusion and nearly 10 times more cavities than the Xavante. Here's what Niswander had to say:

Severe abrasion was not apparent among the Bakairi, and the dental arches did not appear as broad and massive as in the Xavantes. Dental caries and malocclusion were strikingly more prevalent; and, although not recorded systematically, the Bakairi also showed considerably more periodontal disease. If it can be assumed that the Bakairi once enjoyed a freedom from dental disease and malocclusion equal to that now exhibited by the Xavantes, the available data suggest that the changes in occlusal patterns as well as caries and periodontal disease have been too rapid to be accounted for by an hypothesis involving relaxed [genetic] selection.

The Masai of Kenya

The Masai are traditionally a pastoral people who live almost exclusively from their cattle. In 1945, and again in 1952, Dr. J. Schwartz examined the teeth of 408 and 273 Masai, respectively (#1 free full text; #2 ref). In the first study, he found that 8 percent of Masai showed some form of malocclusion, while in the second study, only 0.4 percent of Masai were maloccluded. Although we don't know what his precise criteria were for diagnosing malocclusion, these are still very low numbers.

In both studies, 4 percent of Masai had cavities. Between the two studies, Schwartz found 67 cavities in 21,792 teeth, or 0.3 percent of teeth affected. This is almost exactly what Dr. Weston Price found when he visited them in 1935. From Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, page 138:

In the Masai tribe, a study of 2,516 teeth in eighty-eight individuals distributed through several widely separated manyatas showed only four individuals with caries. These had a total of ten carious teeth, or only 0.4 per cent of the teeth attacked by tooth decay.

Dr. Schwartz describes their diet:

The principal food of the Masai is milk, meat and blood, the latter obtained by bleeding their cattle... The Masai have ample means with which to get maize meal and fresh vegetables but these foodstuffs are known only to those who work in town. It is impossible to induce a Masai to plant their own maize or vegetables near their huts.

This is essentially the same description Price gave during his visit. The Masai were not hunter-gatherers, but their traditional lifestyle was close enough to allow good occlusion. Here's why I think the Masai had good occlusion:

• A nutrient-dense diet rich in protein and fat-soluble vitamins from pastured dairy.
• On-demand breast feeding for two or more years.
• No bottle feeding or modern pacifiers.
  

The one factor they lack is tough food. Their diet, composed mainly of milk and blood, is predominantly liquid. Although I think food toughness is a factor, this shows that good occlusion is not entirely dependent on tough food.

Sadly, the lifestyle and occlusion of the Masai has changed in the intervening decades. A paper from 1992 described their modern diet:

The main articles of diet were white maize, [presumably heavily sweetened] tea, milk, [white] rice, and beans. Traditional items were rarely eaten... Milk... was not mentioned by 30% of mothers.

A paper from 1993 described the occlusion of 235 young Masai attending rural and peri-urban schools. Nearly all showed some degree of malocclusion, with open bite alone affecting 18 percent.

Rural Caucasians in Kentucky

It's always difficult to find examples of Caucasian populations living traditional lifestyles, because most Caucasian populations adopted the industrial lifestyle long ago. That's why I was grateful to find a study by Dr. Robert S. Corruccini, published in 1981, titled "Occlusal Variation in a Rural Kentucky Community" (ref).

This study examined a group of isolated Caucasians living in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky, USA. Corruccini arrived during a time of transition between traditional and modern foodways. He describes the traditional lifestyle as follows:

Much of the traditional way of life of these people (all white) has been maintained, but two major changes have been the movement of industry and mechanized farming into the area in the last 25 years. Traditionally, tobacco (the only cash crop), gardens, and orchards were grown by each family. Apples, pears, cherries, plums, peaches, potatoes, corn, green beans, peas, squash, peppers, cucumbers, and onions were grown for consumption, and fruits and nuts, grapes, and teas were gathered by individuals. In the diet of these people, dried pork and fried [presumably in lard], thick-crust cornbread (which were important winter staples) provided consistently stressful chewing. Hunting is still very common in the area.

Although it isn't mentioned in the paper, this group, like nearly all traditionally-living populations, probably did not waste the organs or bones of the animals it ate. Altogether, it appears to be an excellent and varied diet, based on whole foods, and containing all the elements necessary for good occlusion and overall health.

The older generation of this population has the best occlusion of any Caucasian population I've ever seen, rivaling some hunter-gatherer groups. This shows that Caucasians are not genetically doomed to malocclusion. The younger generation, living on more modern foods, shows very poor occlusion, among the worst I've seen. They also show narrowed arches, a characteristic feature of deteriorating occlusion. One generation is all it takes. Corruccini found that a higher malocclusion score was associated with softer, more industrial foods.

Here are the reasons I believe this group of Caucasians in Kentucky had good occlusion:

• A nutrient-rich, whole foods diet, presumably including organs.
  
• Prolonged breast feeding.
• No bottle-feeding or modern pacifiers.
• Tough foods on a regular basis.
  

Common Ground

I hope you can see that populations with excellent teeth do certain things in common, and that straying from those principles puts the next generation at a high risk of malocclusion. Malocclusion is a serious problem that has major implications for health, well-being and finances. In the next post, I'll give a simplified summary of everything I've covered in this series. Then it's back to our regularly scheduled programming.

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My Hope and Prayer This Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday

This Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday we now find ourselves as a nation and as a planet, in quite a bit of political, economic, health and enviornmental disarray. We are all looking for ways to make ends meet and cut down on the stress in our lives. So I will address these issues.

My guess is that many of you feel some sort of concern about financial issues whether it is the daily budget, dwindling savings, credit card bills, money for college bills, mileage and gas prices for the aging family automobiles, and so on. Its the same at the Young homestead here at Rancho Del Sol. Every year I pray for more rain and try to figure out how to save money on the expensive California water we need for thousands of avocado and grapefruit trees. I am always trying to figure out where to save money so I can use that money to reach more people around the world with a pH Miracle message of health and well-being.

If you read my email letters on a regular basis, you will know that I am quite positive that following a healthy, organic, alkaline diet with many raw, green vegetables will save you money over time.

Whether you have 50 more years to live or 25, most medical expenses have traditionally occurred in the later years of life. And those expenses can be a thing of the past. Once your body is alkaline, and once you have rebuilt your blood with my C.O.W.S. program, and once the pH of your urine is around 7.4 on a consistent basis, you are well on your way to permanently increased health and vigor as well as great financial savings.

Remember, the #1 reason for bankruptcy in America for many years has been medical bills. That will not happen to you. I hear from people all the time that pretty much the only reason they visit the doctor anymore is to gloat a bit, to follow-up on some old ailment now in the rear-view mirror, to lecture the poor old besieged doc on the importance of nutrition in health, or to give him a copy of The pH Miracle book. By the way, if you write to me and tell me that you really did get your doctor to read The pH Miracle book that Shelley and I wrote, I'll send you a free copy to replace the one you gave to your physician. I will also be fascinated to hear your story. In fact, I may share it with everybody in one of these emails.

Many people who have been following a balanced pH 80/20 alkaline/acid diet for many years tell us about all the different ways they save money. Some people have replaced their health insurance with a combination of self-insurance, accident insurance, a hospital indemnity policy, and disability programs. Some people on Medicare have not purchased the supplemental insurance because they have not visited the former family physician for several years and are hoping not to for the rest of their lives. Besides, they tell me, they aren't likely to go the drug route anyway now that they know the cucumber and avocado route.

Many have told us that they have saved money because they no longer have doctor visits, co-pays, pharmaceutical drugs, deductibles, tests, clinic and lab fees, medical gadgets, lost time and sick days, and so on. Not to mention the increased energy, creativity, and productivity.

Now lets talk about stress. About two years ago, I emailed you an article about Mother Theresa whose level of consciousness allowed her to function in love, joy, peace and enlightenment. Many of you said that you enjoyed that article. Such states of mind--whether they are linked to experiences that are primarily sensory, emotional, psychological, intellectual or spiritual--can only be accompanied by an absence of stress at the physiological or body level.

If you read my emails with any consistency, then you know that there is a solid scientific link between the mind and the body, the psychosomatic or the "somatopsychic." It goes both ways. We started hearing the world psychosomatic at least 40 or 50 years ago. The mind can cause the body to suffer and the body can cause the mind to suffer. Therefore, it makes good sense to take care of both.

I have discussed from time to time the importance of minimizing stress in our lives. When our minds are filled with thoughts and feelings that include the negative perceptions and experiences of fear, anger and sadness, we are vulnerable to the creation of excessive bodily acid. Toxic acids are actually secreted from various parts of the body directly into the bloodstream when we are in a negative emotional state.

On the other hand, leading a life that includes more experiences in what we might call the love zone can be a challenge. I forget who coined the word love zone, but this state of being includes feelings of affection, joy, compassion, empathy, kindness, happiness and bliss. But living in this zone--you may have noticed--is easier said than done. The world seems so often to pull mightily at the most vulnerable areas of our lives. Our preoccupation with the outer world and things over which we have no control can keep us from entering into those precious moments or hours in the stress-free love zone.

There is one thing in particular that we can do to help us frequent this zone as much as possible. And I will back into this concept with a little story which I enjoy. I call this the 1,000 avocados for God story. It goes like this:

A plantation owner, somewhat foolishly accustomed to bartering with God, prayed for a good harvest. He pleaded thusly: "Dear God, if You would please bring me a great avocado harvest, as a service I will give You 1,000 avocados from the harvest."God granted him a great harvest.

Thus, the plantation owner loaded up a thousand avocados in his wagon and had his foreman deliver them to the temple. Along the way, the foreman was pestered by two little beggar boys who pleaded for an avocado to ward off their hunger. "Shoo, shoo, go away," said the foreman, knowing that the plantation owner had loaded exactly 1,000 avocados.

The hungry little boys ran alongside the wagon and continued to beg. Finally, the hired hand relented and gave each of them an avocado. He thought to himself, who would count all these avocados and know that two are missing from a thousand?

But the plantation owner had warned the chief overseer of the temple to count the avocados to make sure that the foreman had not sold some along the way. He found out that two were missing and had been given to beggars and the plantation owner fired the foreman. That night the plantation owner had a dream. In his dream, God came to him and said, I have granted your prayer for a great harvest, but you have not kept your agreement.

The plantation owner pleaded his case, But God, I took the avocados to you just as I said. God replied, Well, I am sorry that you are in error my friend, because so far, I have received only two. I think you can see why I enjoy this story. And it has many implications far beyond the simple notion that Divine Providence and charity are related. In fact, we might say that Divine Providence resonates to charity.

There is a great deal of emerging evidence and a wonderful new area of study which says that there is a human field of energy which is very subtle, yet powerful, pervasive and immortal.

There is a field of energy which connects every one of us to every one of us. Some refer to this energy as levels of consciousness--and the study of this energy focuses especially on various states of higher consciousness.Regardless of our personal level of consciousness, we are not only connected to this field of energy, but we are influencing it just as it influences us in return. There is emerging evidence, both experiential and research, that says that as our level of consciousness rises, our body has an increasing ability or tendency to heal itself. There are increasing numbers of prayer studies that show that healing is affected by prayer.

In Dr. David Hawkins book, Power Vs. Force, he designates and describes our levels of consciousness from low to high levels. In the pathological area, he lists (low to high) shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, and false pride. The ascending corresponding emotions at those lower levels are humiliation, blame, despair, regret, anxiety, craving, hate, and scorn. As we pass from pathological states into higher states of health and well-being, Hawkins designates and defines (low to high) courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, and enlightenment. The ascending corresponding emotions at these higher levels are affirmation, trust, optimism, forgiveness, understanding, reverence, serenity, bliss and ineffable.

By contemplating upon these two hierarchies of human levels of consciousness and corresponding emotions, you can easily see the beauty that unfolds as we achieve higher and higher levels of consciousness. Higher levels mean less stress, or course, which means less acid in your body. The simple question then becomes, what is it that I can do to help myself achieve an increasing degree of health, happiness and serenity in my own life? As I have written before, a healthy and peaceful lifestyle includes choosing an alkaline and nutritional diet, exercise, rest and relaxation, good company, doing work which we enjoy, body massage, meditation, sincere gratitude, a reverence for all life, and so on.

Some will argue that these conditions are difficult to achieve in a world of economic disarray.

Just viewing the problems of hunger and homelessness in the world is frightening. In America, we are told that more than a million people are now losing or have lost their homes due to mortgage default. And so, how can we ascend to levels of peace in such a world with so much apparent negativity? What else is it that we can do to ascend our own levels of consciousness and somehow feel a greater sense of love, the absence of fear, and more acceptance of so many people with whom we seem to have nothing in common, little understanding, a different set of values, and with whom we perceive ourselves to operate from a completely different belief system about the world?

How do we come to a sense of peace and diminish our reflexive stress--the same stress that causes acidic reactions in our body--to the many seemingly unacceptable political, economic, unhappy human elements that surround us?

I believe that science will soon confirm what some have known over the millennia. Virtually all Holy Scripture from all the major religions are in accordance with the idea that the highest devotion to God--man's greatest gift to the energy field of the world in which we are all encompassed--is SERVICE TO MANKIND. Research into higher consciousness tells us that the energy of loving service is recorded in the universe on into infinity.

Thus, this Thanksgiving Day and as Christmas approaches in the problematic year of 2009, one of the greatest stress-releasing gifts we can give to ourselves is to give the gift of service to others. And nothing fosters charitable feelings like charitable actions. Nothing fosters more the acceptance of other people than lending a helping hand. Nothing will bring forth the peace and wisdom that we need to create within ourselves more than providing service to the poor, the needy, the uneducated, the downtrodden, and the afflicted.

Look for service projects in your area and take your family into the world to help others. And over time, nothing will help you to diminish the stress inside your own body more than helping to diminish the stress in those around us. What goes round comes round, and to whatever degree your load of avocados means abundant energy, creativity, intelligence, leadership, money, or time for everyone in the world, I know that you can figure out how to deliver more than two.

In love and innerlight,


Dr. Robert O. Young

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I Ate Too Much

Holiday Season lifestyleand dietary conditions (called diseases by allopathicmedicine) for which I have given new names:

1) "Traveler's Acidic Consequence" is a result of thesum total consumption and behaviors of a travelerduring their more unusual or somewhat differentfrom normal lifestyle than when they were not traveling. A typical traveler's day will upset one's normalmetabolism and digestive habits. They eat anddrink different foods at different times and differentvolumes than usual, which creates an over-acidic stateand a need for more alkaline buffers (bicarbonates likepHour salts) leading to indigestion, nausea, acid reflux,heartburn, belching, flatulence, vomiting, constipation,dehydration and further problems of acidity,depending on the degree of irregularity.

"Traveler's Acidic Consequence" is commonly blamed byallopathic medical science on a particular site onthe traveler's path as if he/she caught something. This current medical ideology is based onPasteur's germ theory and is a scientific myth/illusion.
The true cause of this condition is the result of thetraveler's acidic dietary choices and the lack ofalkaline hydration, nutrition and hygiene that canresult in this over-acidic condition. All the abovesymptoms is the body in preservation mode trying itsbest to reestablish the alkaline pH of the internalenvironment at 7.365 to 7.4.

2) Holiday Season - "I Ate and Drank Too Much "S!!!"Dis-Ease" is a result of the sum total consumptionand behaviors of a person during the Holiday seasoneating and drinking everything in site from "swine towine." This over indulgence may cause belching andflatulence and eventual heart burn, acid reflux,nausea, constipation and even brain, breast, lung,liver and bowel parasites for which medical sciencewill often prescribe the purple pill. This HolidaySeason condition may then lead to the third HolidaySeason consequence -

3) "Holiday Season Food Drunk" is a result of over-eatingand over-drinking acidic foods and liquids and then fallinginto a drunken state on the sofa or bed for several hours oreven days to sleep off all the acidity. Falling asleepafter a heavy Holiday meal is a common occurrence foracid over-eaters and acid drinkers.

4) "Holiday Season Influenza" (The Flu) is a result of thesum total consumption and behaviors of a person duringa so-called Holiday acidic feasting. A person will consumeacidic foods and drinks that they may not know or knowthat are not healthy or alkalizing, i.e., more sugar orsugar substitutes than normal, alcohol, meats (especiallythe tape and flukd worm favorites such as pork, beef,turkey, chicken and fish (especially raw fish) and muchof this at greater volumes than normal. This person becomesdetrimentally influenced physically and emotionallyby Holiday acidic foods and drinks.

According to medical savants, "Holiday Season Influenza"is commonly blamed on a particular virus contracted fromanother person(s) and not from acidic lifestyle anddietary choices of that person. Like the acidic traveler,a person chooses to consume on their own as many acidicfoods and drinks during the Holiday Season and as a resultare suffering from the consequences of their poor dietaryacidic choices -- not from some phantom (does not exist)flu virus! The flu is nothing more than the bodyincreasing body temperature to improve circulation toremove excess acidity through perspiration, respiration, defecation and urination.

Also, please keep in mind it doesn't take eithertraveling or Holidays for someone to express thesymptoms of "Traveler's Acidic Consequence,"and/or "I Ate and Drank Too Much S!!! Disease,"and/or "Holiday Season Food Drunk," and/or "HolidaySeason Influenza." All you need to do is consumeexcessive amounts of acidic meats (especially pork,turkey and chicken), chocolate, ice cream, cake,alcohol or other acidic mind boggling thrillers. Any of these four non-contagious lifestyle anddietary conditions can happen anytime during theyear. But,the Holiday Season seems to be thetime when most people over-indulge in highly acidiclifestyles and diets!

This coming Holiday Season may you resolve not tosuccumb to the acidic choices that lead to "Traveler'sAcidic Consequence," or "I Ate and Drank Too MuchS!!! Dis-ease," "Holiday Season Food Drunk" and/or"Holiday Season Influenza."

In love and healing alkaline light,

Dr. Robert O. Young

PS This year before sitting down to a highlyacidic Holiday Season meal, watch the followingyoutube video. You cannot kill parasites withheat. All you can do is put them to sleep and riskthem waking up inside your body. Also, watchingthis video might change your mind about eating thatleft-over Thanksgiving ham or even urine laced turkey. It is by no coincidence that turkey and chicken arereferred to as "foul." Birds like turkey andchicken have no urinary tract system and aretherefore more likely to adsorb their own urine intotheir tissues. But, that's what makes them so juicy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYvxbhIOuEo

PSS I hope we can all learn to take responsibility forour own lifestyle and dietary choices and theconsequences we may experience rather then blaming it ortransferring personal responsibility to a phantom orharmless virus - like the Swine Flu virus, Ebola virus,HIV virus, HPV virus, West Nile virus, Bird flu virus,and the list goes on and on and on! So-called viruses DONOT cause sickness or disease - our acidic lifestyle and dietchoices do! You do health by making healthy choices oryou can do sickness and disease by making unhealthy lifestyleand dietary choices. Making acidic lifestyle and dietarychoices the last 3 months of the year can take 10 yearsoff your life at age 40 and 20 years off your life atthe age 80. You can live a healthy and fit life to 100 ifyou will make better alkaline lifestyle and dietarychoices NOW!

PSSS To learn how to prevent (without an acidic dis-easecausing vaccine) "Holiday Season Influenza,"may I suggest watching the following DVD's or listeningto the following CD's:
The pH Miracle - Full versionShopping with Shelley 1 & 2Back to the House of Health 2The pH Miracle for Healthy Weight LossThe pH Miracle for Men and WomenThe pH Miracle for CancerThe Harvard Lecture

http://www.phmiracleliving.com/c-25-books-dvds-audios.aspx

PSSSS Check out our healthy Holiday Gift Packs at: phmiracleliving.com

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Treating Flu Like Symptoms

Here is your next pH question/response by Dr. Robert Young, as promised...

There are many more questions to follow. However, if you have a particular question about alkaline living that you would like answered now, go ahead and submit it on the next page.

Some folks have asked about how they can help others become informed about their health too, so we've added an area for affiliates.

Dr. Young's responds to a question about about treating flu symptoms.

See for yourself here (2:13 mins)

http://www.vidmails.com/playback.php?t=MzIwMzAxOTMxMDE4MDE1NDg1NzM0Nzc%3D

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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VII

Jaw Development During Adolescence

Beginning at about age 11, the skull undergoes a growth spurt. This corresponds roughly with the growth spurt in the rest of the body, with the precise timing depending on gender and other factors. Growth continues until about age 17, when the last skull sutures cease growing and slowly fuse. One of these sutures runs along the center of the maxillary arch (the arch in the upper jaw), and contributes to the widening of the upper arch*:

This growth process involves MGP and osteocalcin, both vitamin K-dependent proteins. At the end of adolescence, the jaws have reached their final size and shape, and should be large enough to accommodate all teeth without crowding. This includes the third molars, or wisdom teeth, which will erupt shortly after this period.

Reduced Food Toughness Correlates with Malocclusion in Humans

When Dr. Robert Corruccini published his seminal paper in 1984 documenting rapid changes in occlusion in cultures around the world adopting modern foodways and lifestyles (see this post), he presented the theory that occlusion is influenced by chewing stress. In other words, the jaws require good exercise on a regular basis during growth to develop normal-sized bones and muscles. Although Dr. Corruccini wasn't the first to come up with the idea, he has probably done more than anyone else to advance it over the years.

Dr. Corruccini's paper is based on years of research in transitioning cultures, much of which he conducted personally. In 1981, he published a study of a rural Kentucky community in the process of adopting the modern diet and lifestyle. Their traditional diet was predominantly dried pork, cornbread fried in lard, game meat and home-grown fruit, vegetables and nuts. The older generation, raised on traditional foods, had much better occlusion than the younger generation, which had transitioned to softer and less nutritious modern foods. Dr. Corruccini found that food toughness correlated with proper occlusion in this population.

In another study published in 1985, Dr. Corruccini studied rural and urban Bengali youths. After collecting a variety of diet and socioeconomic information, he found that food toughness was the single best predictor of occlusion. Individuals who ate the toughest food had the best teeth. The second strongest association was a history of thumb sucking, which was associated with a higher prevalence of malocclusion**. Interestingly, twice as many urban youths had a history of thumb sucking as rural youths.

Not only do hunter-gatherers eat tough foods on a regular basis, they also often use their jaws as tools. For example, the anthropologist and arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson described how the Inuit chewed their leather boots and jackets nearly every day to soften them or prepare them for sewing. This is reflected in the extreme tooth wear of traditional Inuit and other hunter-gatherers.

Soft Food Causes Malocclusion in Animals

Now we have a bunch of associations that may or may not represent a cause-effect relationship. However, Dr. Corruccini and others have shown in a variety of animal models that soft food can produce malocclusion, independent of nutrition.

The first study was conducted in 1951. Investigators fed rats typical dry chow pellets, or the same pellets that had been crushed and softened in water. Rats fed the softened food during growth developed narrow arches and small mandibles (lower jaws) relative to rats fed dry pellets.

Other research groups have since repeated the findings in rodents, pigs and several species of primates (squirrel monkeys, baboons, and macaques). Animals typically developed narrow arches, a central aspect of malocclusion in modern humans. Some of the primates fed soft foods showed other malocclusions highly reminiscent of modern humans as well, such as crowded incisors and impacted third molars. These traits are exceptionally rare in wild primates.

One criticism of these studies is that they used extremely soft foods that are softer than the typical modern diet. This is how science works: you go for the extreme effects first. Then, if you see something, you refine your experiments. One of the most refined experiments I've seen so far was published by Dr. Daniel E. Leiberman of Harvard's anthropology department. They used the rock hyrax, an animal with a skull that bears some similarities to the human skull***.

Instead of feeding the animals hard food vs. mush, they fed them raw and dried food vs. cooked. This is closer to the situation in humans, where food is soft but still has some consistency. Hyrax fed cooked food showed a mild jaw underdevelopment reminiscent of modern humans. The underdeveloped areas were precisely those that received less strain during chewing.

Implications and Practical Considerations

Besides the direct implications for the developing jaws and face, I think this also suggests that physical stress may influence the development of other parts of the skeleton. Hunter-gatherers generally have thicker bones, larger joints, and more consistently well-developed shoulders and hips than modern humans. Physical stress is part of the human evolutionary template, and is probably critical for the normal development of the skeleton.

I think it's likely that food consistency influences occlusion in humans. In my opinion, it's a good idea to regularly include tough foods in a child's diet as soon as she is able to chew them properly and safely. This probably means waiting at least until the deciduous (baby) molars have erupted fully. Jerky, raw vegetables and fruit, tough cuts of meat, nuts, dry sausages, dried fruit, chicken bones and roasted corn are a few things that should stress the muscles and bones of the jaws and face enough to encourage normal development.


* These data represent many years of measurements collected by Dr. Arne Bjork, who used metallic implants in the maxilla to make precise measurements of arch growth over time in Danish youths. The graph is reproduced from the book A Synopsis of Craniofacial Growth, by Dr. Don M. Ranly. Data come from Dr. Bjork's findings published in the book Postnatal Growth and Development of the Maxillary Complex. You can see some of Dr. Bjork's data in the paper "Sutural Growth of the Upper Face Studied by the Implant Method" (free full text).

** I don't know if this was statistically significant at p less than 0.05. Dr. Corruccini uses a cutoff point of p less than 0.01 throughout the paper. He's a tough guy when it comes to statistics!

*** Retrognathic.

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The First Alkalizing Young pHorever pHace Make-Up Line Released Today - Check It Out!

I am happy to announce the release of the first alkalizing cosmetic/make-up line in the world. Check it out! There is nothing out there like these products. The best news is this make-up line is good for the skin.

http://www.phmiracleliving.com/c-32-phace-mineral-make-up.aspx

Do you know what acidic chemicals you may be putting on your skin or hair?

Chances are, you don't. If you wear make-up, moisturizing creams, or use store bought shampoo or conditions there is a high probability that you are putting things on your skin or hair that are not only acidic to your skin and/or hair, but may be harmful.

The following ingredients are commonly found in many cosmetics, moisturizers, shampoos, conditioners, and toners - even the ones
that claim to be natural, or mineral based:

Lanolin

This is often advertised as a good thing. It technically is natural, but highly undesirable. Lanolin is a yellow, greasy substance derived from the sebaceous glands, generally from sheep. Not something you want on my skin.

Formaldehyde

A common ingredient used as a preservative in cosmetics.

Whale Wax

Obtained from what digestive juices, or essentially vomit is often found in fragrances in cosmetics, shampoos, and conditioners.

Parabens

In a recent Canadian study, 19 out of 20 breast tumors examined had high amounts of parabens in them. If breast cancer doesn't turn you off parabens, what if you knew that parabens affect your hypothalamus, your ovaries, your thyroid, and virtually every single organ system in your body. Parabens also influence
development of malignant melanoma, and can also affect the male reproductive system when newborns are exposed to butylparaben. Remember those science labs where we were told to dissect animals? Think about the putrid formaldehyde used to preserve their bodies. Parabens are just as irritating as this acidic harmful chemical. Would you want to put something with an equivalence to formaldehyde on your face or hair, twice a day, 365 days in a year? Skin and hair absorbs everything, and
everything your skin and hair absorbs goes directly to your blood stream.

Urea

Urea is excreted from aquatic organisms, reptiles, mammals, and now often synthetically made in large chemical reactors. Urea is also used as a common anti-bacterial in cosmetics.

Mineral Oil and Paraffin

Not only are these petroleum by-products, they clog the pores of the skin.

Last year Americans spent 17 billion dollars on makeup, shampoos, conditioners, cleaners, and creams, and other cosmetic products. Unfortunately, parabens come into the picture with the gross majority of these products. Read the label on the back of all your products, and take every precaution you can.

For more information on YoungpHorever skin and hair products that are all natural and free of acidic harmful chemicals go to:

http://www.phmiracleliving.com/c-26-health-care.aspx?pagenum=1
http://www.phmiracleliving.com/c-32-phace-mineral-make-up.aspx

You may also be interested in our new acid free, chemical free, alkalizing cosmetic line. It is just in time for the Holidays. Check it out here:

http://www.phmiracleliving.com/c-32-phace-mineral-make-up.aspx

Remember, all of our skin and hair products are good for the body both inside and out.

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Shelley's pHavorite Pasta

Eating healthy doesn't mean bad taste, not when you're cooking with Chef Shelley. Try this flavor infused alkalizing alternative to traditional Italian dishes. Here Chef Shelley guides you through the creation of her own "pHavorite pasta." Great taste and good for you. . .what more could you ask? This video segment is only one of many other on the pH Miracle Cooking with Chef Shelley DVD available at www.phmiracleliving.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0rrqnErrJc

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Natural aphrodisiac

Saffron (Crocus Sativus) is a small perennial plant cultivated in many parts of the world. It is a medicinal herb with several benefits. Traditionally, its flower stigmas are a well known aphrodisiac. Saffron is also believed to strengthen the appetite, soothe the alimentary canal, increase bile flow, clear liver stagnancy, help menopausal difficulties and relieve phlegm.

Saffron contains a poison that can damage the kidneys and nerves, and therefore should only be used sparingly.

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The pH Miracle of Vitamin D3

A clinical observation published in April 2000 in the Archives of Internal Medicine caught my attention. Dr. Anu Prabhala and his colleagues reported on the treatment of five patients confined to wheelchairs with severe weakness and fatigue. Blood tests revealed that all suffered from severe vitamin D deficiency. The patients received 50,000 IU vitamin D per week and all became mobile within six weeks.1

Dr. Prabhala's research sparked my interest and led to a search for current information on vitamin D, how it works, how much we really need and how we get it. The following is a small part of the important information that I found.

Any discussion of vitamin D must begin with the discoveries of the Canadian-born dentist Weston A. Price. In his masterpiece Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr. Price noted that the diet of isolated, so-called "primitive" peoples contained "at least ten times" the amount of "fat-soluble vitamins" as the standard American diet of his day.2 Dr. Price determined that it was the presence of plentiful amounts of fat-soluble vitamins A and D in the diet, along with calcium, phosphorus and other minerals, that conferred such high immunity to tooth decay and resistance to disease in nonindustrialized population groups.

Today another Canadian researcher, Dr. Reinhold Vieth, argues convincingly that current vitamin D recommendations are woefully inadequate. The recommended dose of 200-400 international units (IU) will prevent rickets in children but does not come close to the optimum amount necessary for vibrant health.3 According to Dr. Vieth, the minimal daily requirement of vitamin D should be in the range of 4,000 IU from all sources, rather than the 200-400 currently suggested, or ten times the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA). Dr. Vieth's research perfectly matches Dr. Price's observations of sixty years ago!

Vitamin D From Sunlight

Pick up any popular book on vitamins and you will read that ten minutes of daily exposure of the arms and legs to sunlight will supply us with all the vitamin D that we need. Humans do indeed manufacture vitamin D from cholesterol by the action of sunlight on the skin but it is actually very difficult to obtain even a minimal amount of vitamin D with a brief foray into the sunlight.4,5

Ultraviolet (UV) light is divided into 3 bands or wavelength ranges, which are referred to as UV-C, UV-B and UV-A.6 UV-C is the most energetic and shortest of the UV bands. It will burn human skin rapidly in extremely small doses. Fortunately, it is completely absorbed by the ozone layer. However, UV-C is present in some lights. For this reason, fluorescent and halogen and other specialty lights may contribute to skin cancer.

UV-A, known as the "tanning ray," is primarily responsible for darkening the pigment in our skin. Most tanning bulbs have a high UV-A output, with a small percentage of UV-B. UV-A is less energetic than UV-B, so exposure to UV-A will not result in a burn, unless the skin is photosensitive or excessive doses are used. UV-A penetrates more deeply into the skin than UV-B, due to its longer wavelength. Until recently, UV-A was not blocked by sunscreens. It is now considered to be a major contributor to the high incidence of non-melanoma skin cancers.7 Seventy-eight percent of UV-A penetrates glass so windows do not offer protection.

The ultraviolet wavelength that stimulates our bodies to produce vitamin D is UV-B. It is sometimes called the "burning ray" because it is the primary cause of sunburn (erythema).

However, UV-B initiates beneficial responses, stimulating the production of vitamin D that the body uses in many important processes. Although UV-B causes sunburn, it also causes special skin cells called melanocytes to produce melanin, which is protective. UV-B also stimulates the production of Melanocyte

Stimulating Hormone (MSH), an important hormone in weight loss and energy production.8

The reason it is difficult to get adequate vitamin D from sunlight is that while UV-A is present throughout the day, the amount of UV-B present has to do with the angle of the sun's rays. Thus, UV-B is present only during midday hours at higher latitudes, and only with significant intensity in temperate or tropical latitudes. Only 5 percent of the UV-B light range goes through glass and it does not penetrate clouds, smog or fog.
Sun exposure at higher latitudes before 10 am or after 2 pm will cause burning from UV-A before it will supply adequate vitamin D from UV-B. This finding may surprise you, as it did the researchers. It means that sunning must occur between the hours we have been told to avoid. Only sunning between 10 am and 2 pm during summer months (or winter months in southern latitudes) for 20-120 minutes, depending on skin type and color, will form adequate vitamin D before burning occurs.9

It takes about 24 hours for UV-B-stimulated vitamin D to show up as maximum levels of vitamin D in the blood. Cholesterol-containing body oils are critical to this absorption process.10

Because the body needs 30-60 minutes to absorb these vitamin-D-containing oils, it is best to delay showering or bathing for one hour after exposure. The skin oils in which vitamin D is produced can also be removed by chlorine in swimming pools.
The current suggested exposure of hands, face and arms for 10-20 minutes, three times a week, provides only 200-400 IU of vitamin D each time or an average of 100-200 IU per day during the summer months. In order to achieve optimal levels of vitamin D, 85 percent of body surface needs exposure to prime midday sun. (About 100-200 IU of vitamin D is produced for each 5 percent of body surface exposed, we want 4,000 iu.) Light skinned people need 10-20 minutes of exposure while dark skinned people need 90-120 minutes.11

Latitude and altitude determine the intensity of UV light. UV-B is stronger at higher altitudes. Latitudes higher than 30° (both north and south) have insufficient UV-B sunlight two to six months of the year, even at midday.12 Latitudes higher than 40° have insufficient sunlight to achieve optimum levels of D during six to eight months of the year. In much of the US, which is between 30° and 45° latitude, six months or more during each year have insufficient UV-B sunlight to produce optimal D levels. In far northern or southern locations, latitudes 45° and higher, even summer sun is too weak to provide optimum levels of vitamin D.13-15 A simple meter is available to determine UV-B levels where you live.

Vitamin D From Food

What the research on vitamin D tells us is that unless you are a fisherman, farmer, or otherwise outdoors and exposed regularly to sunlight, living in your ancestral latitude (more on this later), you are unlikely to obtain adequate amounts of vitamin D from the sun. Historically the balance of one's daily need was provided by food. Primitive peoples instinctively chose vitamin-D-rich foods including the intestines, organ meats, skin and fat from certain land animals, as well as shellfish, oily fish and insects. Many of these foods are unacceptable to the modern palate and are highly acidic.

For food sources to provide us with D the source must be sunlight exposed. With exposure to UV-B sunlight, vitamin D is produced from fat in the fur, feathers, and skin of animals, birds and reptiles. Carnivores get additional D from the tissues and organs of their prey. Lichen contains vitamin D and may provide a source of vitamin D in the UV-B sunlight-poor northern latitudes.16 Vitamin D content will vary in the organs and tissues of animals, pigs, cows, and sheep, depending on the amount of time spent in UV-B containing sunlight and/or how much D is given as a supplement. Poultry and eggs contain varying amounts of vitamin D obtained from insects, fishmeal, and sunlight containing UV-B or supplements. Fish, unlike mammals, birds and reptiles, do not respond to sunlight and rely on vitamin D found in phytoplankton and other fish. Salmon must feed on phytoplankton and fish in order to obtain and store significant vitamin D in their fat, flesh, skin, and organs. Thus, modern farm-raised salmon, unless artificially supplemented, may be a poor source of this essential nutrient.
Modern diets usually do not provide adequate amounts of vitamin D;17 partly because of the trend to low fat foods and partly because we no longer eat vitamin-D-rich foods like naturally reared poultry and fatty fish such as kippers, and herring.

Often we are advised to consume the egg white while the D is in the yolk or we eat the flesh of the fish avoiding the D containing skin, organs and fat.

Sun avoidance combined with reduction in food sources contribute to escalating D deficiencies. Vegetarian and vegan diets are exceptionally poor or completely lacking in vitamin D predisposing to an absolute need for UV-B sunlight. Using food as one's primary source of D is difficult to impossible.

Vitamin D pH Miracles

Sunlight and vitamin D are critical to all life forms. Standard textbooks state that the principal function of vitamin D is to promote calcium absorption in the gut and calcium transfer across cell membranes, thus contributing to strong bones and a calm, contented nervous system. It is also well recognized that vitamin D aids in the absorption of magnesium, iron and zinc, as well as calcium.

Actually, vitamin D does not in itself promote healthy bone. Vitamin D controls the levels of calcium in the blood. If there is not enough calcium in the diet, then it will be drawn from the bone to help maintain the alkalinity of the blood.

Receptors for vitamin D are found in most of the cells in the body and research during the 1980s suggested that vitamin D contributed to a healthy immune system, promoted muscle strength, regulated the maturation process and contributed to hormone production.

During the last ten years, researchers have made a number of exciting discoveries about vitamin D. They have ascertained, for example, that vitamin D is an antioxidant that is a more effective antioxidant than vitamin E in reducing lipid peroxidation and increasing enzymes that protect against oxidation.19;20

Vitamin D deficiency decreases biosynthesis and release of insulin.21 Glucose intolerance has been inversely associated with the concentration of vitamin D in the blood. Thus, vitamin D may protect against both Type I and Type II diabetes.22

The risk of senile cataract is reduced in persons with optimal levels of D and carotenoids.23

PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) has been corrected by supplementation of D and calcium.24

Vitamin D plays a role in regulation of both the "infectious" immune system and the "inflammatory" immune system.25

Low vitamin D is associated with several autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, Sjogren's Syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis and Crohn's disease.26;27

Osteoporosis is strongly associated with low vitamin D. Postmenopausal women with osteoporosis respond favorably (and rapidly) to higher levels of D plus calcium and magnesium.28

D deficiency has been mistaken for fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue or peripheral neuropathy.1;28-30

Infertility is associated with low vitamin D.31 Vitamin D supports production of estrogen in men and women.32 PMS has been completely reversed by addition of calcium, magnesium and vitamin D.33 Menstrual migraine is associated with low levels of vitamin D and calcium.81

Breast, prostate, skin and colon cancer have a strong association with low levels of D and lack of sunlight.34-38

Activated vitamin D in the adrenal gland regulates tyrosine hydroxylase, the rate limiting enzyme necessary for the production of dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. Low D may contribute to chronic fatigue and depression.39

Seasonal Affective Disorder has been treated successfully with vitamin D. In a recent study covering 30 days of treatment comparing vitamin D supplementation with two-hour daily use of light boxes, depression completely resolved in the D group but not in the light box group.40

High stress may increase the need for vitamin D or UV-B sunlight and calcium.41

People with Parkinsons and Alzheimers have been found to have lower levels of vitamin D.42;43

Low levels of D, and perhaps calcium, in a pregnant mother and later in the child may be the contributing cause of "crooked teeth" and myopia. When these conditions are found in succeeding generations it means the genetics require higher levels of one or both nutrients to optimize health.44-47

Behavior and learning disorders respond well to D and/or calcium combined with an adequate diet and trace minerals.48;49

Vitamin D and Heart Disease

Research suggests that low levels of vitamin D may contribute to or be a cause of syndrome X with associated hypertension, obesity, diabetes and heart disease.50 Vitamin D regulates vitamin-D-binding proteins and some calcium-binding proteins, which are responsible for carrying calcium to the "right location" and protecting cells from damage by free calcium.51

Thus, high dietary levels of calcium, when D is insufficient, may contribute to calcification of the arteries, joints, kidney and perhaps even the brain.52-54

Many researchers have postulated that vitamin D deficiency leads to the deposition of calcium in the arteries and hence atherosclerosis, noting that northern countries have higher levels of cardiovascular disease and that more heart attacks occur in winter months.55-56

Scottish researchers found that calcium levels in the hair inversely correlated with arterial calcium-the more calcium or plaque in the arteries, the less calcium in the hair. Ninety percent of men experiencing myocardial infarction had low hair calcium. When vitamin D was administered, the amount of calcium in the beard went up and this rise continued as long as vitamin D was consumed. Almost immediately after stopping supplementation, however, beard calcium fell to pre-supplement levels.27

Administration of dietary vitamin D or UV-B treatment has been shown to lower blood pressure, restore insulin sensitivity and lower cholesterol.58-60

The Battle of the Bulge

Did you ever wonder why some people can eat all they want and not get fat, while others are constantly battling extra pounds? The answer may have to do with vitamin D and calcium status. Sunlight, UV-B, and vitamin D normalize food intake and normalize blood sugar. Weight normalization is associated with higher levels of vitamin D and adequate calcium.61 Obesity is associated with vitamin-D deficiency.62-64 In fact, obese persons have impaired production of UV-B-stimulated D and impaired absorption of food source and supplemental D.65

When the diet lacks calcium, whether from D or calcium deficiency, there is an increase in fatty acid synthase, an enzyme that converts calories into fat. Higher levels of calcium with adequate vitamin D inhibit fatty acid synthase while diets low in calcium increase fatty acid synthase by as much as five-fold.

In one study, genetically obese rats lost 60 percent of their body fat in six weeks on a diet that had moderate calorie reduction but was high in calcium. All rats supplemented with calcium showed increased body temperature indicating a shift from calorie storage to calorie burning (thermogenesis).61

The Right Fats

The assimilation and utilization of vitamin D is influenced by the kinds of fats we consume. Increasing levels of both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids in the diet decrease the binding of vitamin D to D-binding proteins.

Saturated fats, the kind found in butter, tallow and coconut oil, do not have this effect. Nor do the omega-3 fats.66

D-binding proteins are key to local and peripheral actions of vitamin D. This is an important consideration as Americans have dramatically increased their intake of polyunsaturated oils (from commercial vegetable oils) and monounsaturated oils (from olive oil and canola oil) and decreased their intake of saturated fats over the past 100 years.

In traditional diets, saturated fats supplied varying amounts of vitamin D. Thus, both reduction of saturated fats and increase of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats may contribute to the current widespread D deficiency.

Trans fatty acids, found in margarine and shortenings used in most commercial baked goods, should always be avoided. There is evidence that these fats can interfere with the alkaline buffering systems the body uses to convert vitamin D in the liver.80

Vitamin D Therapy

In my clinical practice, I test for vitamin-D status first. If D is needed, I try to combine sunlight exposure with vitamin D and Vitamin D3 supplementation.

Single, infrequent, intense, skin exposure to UV-B light not only causes sunburn but also suppresses the immune system. On the other hand, frequent low-level exposure normalizes immune function, enhancing NK-cell and T-cell production, reducing abnormal inflammatory responses typical of autoimmune disorders, and reducing occurrences of infectious disease.26;67;68-71

Thus it is important to sunbathe frequently for short periods of time, when UV-B is present, rather than spend long hours in the sun at infrequent intervals. Adequate UV-B exposure and vitamin-D production can be achieved in less time than it takes to cause any redness in the skin. It is never necessary to burn or tan to obtain sufficient vitamin D.

If sunlight is not available in your area because of latitude or season, sunlamps made by Sperti can be used to provide a natural balance of UV-B and UV-A. Used according to instructions, these lamps provide a safe equivalent of sunlight and will not cause burning or even heavy tanning. Tanning beds, on the other hand, are not acceptable as a means of getting your daily dose of vitamin D because they provide high levels of UV-A and very little UV-B.

If you have symptoms of vitamin-D insufficiency or are unable to spend time in the sun, due to season or lifestyle or prior skin cancer, consider adding a supplement of 50,000 IU daily.

Higher levels may be needed but should be recommended and monitored by your health care practitioner after testing serum 25(OH)D.

Supplementation of Vitamin D3 is safe as long as you diet is alkalizing and contains adequate alkalizing minerals such a sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium.

Adequate calcium and magnesium, as well as other minerals, are critical parts of vitamin D therapy. Without calcium and magnesium in sufficient quantities, vitamin-D supplementation will withdraw calcium from the bone and will allow the uptake of toxic minerals. Do not supplement vitamin D and do not sunbathe unless you are sure you have sufficient calcium and magnesium to meet your daily needs. I suggest a minimum of 1,200-2,400 mg of calcium daily. Research suggests that 1,200-1,500 mg is adequate as a supplement for most adults, both men and women. (Magnesium intake should be half that of calcium.)

Higher amounts of calcium are important for anyone diagnosed with bone loss. Total daily calcium as a supplement may range from 1,500 mg to 2,000 mg depending on current bone status and your body size. Make the effort to split up your daily dose. Do not take all your calcium and magnesium once a day. A higher percentage of the calcium dose is absorbed if delivered in smaller, more frequent amounts.82

Patients on vitamin-D therapy report a wide range of beneficial results including increased energy and strength, resolution of hormonal problems, weight loss, an end to sugar cravings, blood sugar normalization and improvement of nervous system disorders.

A paradoxical transient and non-complicating hypercalciuria (more calcium in the urine) may occur when the program is first initiated. This resolves quickly when adequate calcium and other minerals are consumed. Two other temporary side effects may occur during the first several months of treatment. One is daytime sleepiness after calcium is taken. This usually resolves itself after about one week. The other condition is the reappearance of pain and discomfort at the site of old injuries, a sign of injury remodeling or proper healing, which may take some time to clear up.

Toxicity Issues

Doses used in clinical studies range from as little as 400 IU daily to 10,000-500,000 IU, given either as a single onetime dose or daily, weekly or monthly. Such large doses are given either as a prophylactic or because compliance is considered a problem. There seems to be some evidence that vitamin D works better, without toxicity, when given in lower, more physiologic doses of 2,000-4,000 IU daily rather than as 100,000 IU once a month. However, a single monthly dose of 100,000 IU did replete low levels of vitamin D in adolescents during winter.77

The Many Forms of Vitamin D

There are two types of vitamin D found in nature. Vitamin D2 is formed by the action of UV-B on the plant precursor ergosterol. It is found in plants and in was formerly added to irradiated cows milk. Most milk today contains D3. Vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol is found in animal foods. Both forms of vitamin D have been used successfully to treat rickets and other diseases related to vitamin D insufficiency.

Many consider D3 the preferred vitamin, having more biologic activity. Vitamin D3 as found in food or in human skin always comes with various metabolites or isomers that may have biological benefit.

When humans take in vitamin D from food or sunlight, it is converted first in the liver to the form 25(OH)D and then in the kidney to 1,25(OH)D. These active forms of vitamin D are available by prescription and are given to patients with liver or kidney failure or those with an hereditary metabolic defect in vitamin-D conversion.

Assessing Vitamin D Status

Blood Testing: Currently there are two tests available for physicians to assess vitamin-D status. One is for the somewhat biologically active precursor 25(OH)D and another for 1,25(OH)D, the most active form, which is converted in the kidney and other organs. The latter is often normal in the blood even when the precursor 25(OH)D is low or deficient. The precursor is a better marker of vitamin-D status (or reserves) than the most active 1,25(OH)D form. It is the optimum level of 25(OH)D that is most strongly associated with general good health. (The test values given in this article are for 25(OH)D.) For many years the acceptable level of 25(OH)D has been at least 9 ng/ml (23 nmol/l). Some researchers believe that 20 ng/ml (50 nmol/l) should be the lower acceptable limit72 but Dr. Vieth presents a large amount of data to support his claim that this is far from optimal.3 Optimal levels are certainly at least 32 ng/ml (80 nmol/l) and preferably closer to 40 ng/ml (100 nmol/l).

Salivary pH Testing for calcium sufficiency: A method of assessing ionized calcium levels has been used by Weston Price, DDS and Carl Reich, MD and has confirmation in current research.73 After determining your serum-D status (testing) and undertaking a program of supplementation with vitamin D3, calcium and magnesium, morning salivary pH should read 6.8-7.2. Lower values may indicate insufficient vitamin D (retest), or low levels of calcium in the diet. Look for pH paper with a range of 5.5-8.0 and increments of 0.2 on our website at www.phmiracleliving.com. pH papers with 0.5-degree increments are not sensitive enough to monitor progress.

Sources

* UV-B Meter: Sunsor, Inc. (800) 492-9815 Sunsor
* pH Testing Papers: www.phmiracleliving.com
* Vitamin D3: (888) 880-3055 www.phmiracleliving.com
* Sperti Sunlamps: (800) 544-3757 www.sperti.com

References

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3. Vieth R. Vitamin D supplementation, 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and safety [see comments]. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 1999;69:842-56.
4. Glerup H, Mikkelsen K, Poulsen L et al. Commonly recommended daily intake of vitamin D is not sufficient if sunlight exposure is limited. J.Intern.Med. 2000;247:260-8.
5. Glerup H, Eriksen EF. [Vitamin D deficiency. Easy to diagnose, often overlooked (see comments)]. Ugeskr.Laeger 1999;161:2515-21. 6. Diffey BL. Solar ultraviolet radiation effects on biological systems. Phys.Med.Biol. 1991;36:299-328.
7. Moan J, Dahlback A, Setlow RB. Epidemiological support for an hypothesis for melanoma induction indicating a role for UVA radiation. Photochem.Photobiol. 1999;70:243-7.
8. Ranson M, Posen S, Mason RS. Human melanocytes as a target tissue for hormones: in vitro studies with 1 alpha-25, dihydroxyvitamin D3, alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone, and beta-estradiol. J.Invest Dermatol.1988;91:593-8.
9. Sayre, R. M., Dowdy, J. C., Shepherd, J., Sadig, I., Bager, A., and Kollias, N. Vitamin D Production by Natural and Artificial Sources. 1998. Orlando, Florida, Photo Medical Society Meeting. 3-1-1998. Ref Type: Conference Proceeding
10. Holick MF. The cutaneous photosynthesis of previtamin D3: a unique photoendocrine system. J.Invest Dermatol. 1981;77:51-8.
11. Matsuoka LY, Wortsman J, Haddad JG, Kolm P, Hollis BW. Racial pigmentation and the cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D [see comments]. Arch.Dermatol. 1991;127:536-8.
12. Matsuoka LY, Wortsman J, Haddad JG, Hollis BW. In vivo threshold for cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D3. J.Lab Clin.Med. 1989;114:301-5.
13. Season, latitude, and ability of sunlight to promote synthesis of vitamin D3 in skin. Nutr.Rev. 1989;47:252-3.
14. Pettifor JM, Moodley GP, Hough FS et al. The effect of season and latitude on in vitro vitamin D formation by sunlight in South Africa. S.Afr.Med.J. 1996;86:1270-2.
15. Webb AR, Kline L, Holick MF. Influence of season and latitude on the cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D3: exposure to winter sunlight in Boston and Edmonton will not promote vitamin D3 synthesis in human skin. J.Clin.Endocrinol.Metab 1988;67:373-8.
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18. Moon J. The role of vitamin D in toxic metal absorption: a review. J.Am.Coll.Nutr. 1994;13:559-64.
19. Sardar S, Chakraborty A, Chatterjee M. Comparative effectiveness of vitamin D3 and dietary vitamin E on peroxidation of lipids and enzymes of the hepatic antioxidant system in Sprague-Dawley rats. Int.J.Vitam.Nutr.Res. 1996;66:39-45.
20. Wiseman H. Vitamin D is a membrane antioxidant. Ability to inhibit iron-dependent lipid peroxidation in liposomes compared to cholesterol, ergosterol and tamoxifen and relevance to anticancer action. FEBS Lett. 1993;326:285-8.
21. Bourlon PM, Billaudel B, Faure-Dussert A. Influence of vitamin D3 deficiency and 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 on de novo insulin biosynthesis in the islets of the rat endocrine pancreas. J.Endocrinol. 1999;160:87-95.
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24. Thys-Jacobs S, Donovan D, Papadopoulos A, Sarrel P, Bilezikian JP. Vitamin D and calcium dysregulation in the polycystic ovarian syndrome. Steroids 1999;64:430-5.
25. Abu-Amer Y, Bar-Shavit Z. Regulation of TNF-alpha release from bone marrow-derived macrophages by vitamin D [published erratum appears in J Cell Biochem 1994 Nov;56(3):426]. J.Cell Biochem. 1994;55:435-44.
26. Cantorna MT. Vitamin D and autoimmunity: is vitamin D status an environmental factor affecting autoimmune disease prevalence? Proc.Soc.Exp.Biol.Med. 2000;223:230-3.
27. Vogelsang H, Ferenci P, Woloszczuk W et al. Bone disease in vitamin D-deficient patients with Crohn's disease. Dig.Dis.Sci. 1989;34:1094-9.
28. Bettica P, Bevilacqua M, Vago T, Norbiato G. High prevalence of hypovitaminosis D among free-living postmenopausal women referred to an osteoporosis outpatient clinic in northern Italy for initial screening. Osteoporos.Int. 1999;9:226-9.
29. Glerup H, Mikkelsen K, Poulsen L et al. Hypovitaminosis D myopathy without biochemical signs of osteomalacic bone involvement. Calcif.Tissue Int. 2000;66:419-24.
30. Kyriakidou-Himonas M, Aloia JF, Yeh JK. Vitamin D supplementation in postmenopausal black women. J.Clin.Endocrinol.Metab 1999;84:3988-90.
31. Uhland AM, Kwiecinski GG, DeLuca HF. Normalization of serum calcium restores fertility in vitamin D-deficient male rats. J.Nutr. 1992;122:1338-44.
32. Kinuta K, Tanaka H, Moriwake T, Aya K, Kato S, Seino Y. Vitamin D is an important factor in estrogen biosynthesis of both female and male gonads. Endocrinology 2000;141:1317-24.
33. Thys-Jacobs S. Micronutrients and the premenstrual syndrome: the case for calcium. J.Am.Coll.Nutr. 2000;19:220-7.
34. Garland CF, Garland FC, Gorham ED. Calcium and vitamin D. Their potential roles in colon and breast cancer prevention. Ann.N.Y.Acad.Sci. 1999;889:107-19.
35. John EM, Schwartz GG, Dreon DM, Koo J. Vitamin D and breast cancer risk: the NHANES I Epidemiologic follow-up study, 1971-1975 to 1992. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Cancer Epidemiol.Biomarkers Prev. 1999;8:399-406.
36. Miller GJ. Vitamin D and prostate cancer: biologic interactions and clinical potentials. Cancer Metastasis Rev. 1998;17:353-60.
37. Gorham ED, Garland CF, Garland FC. Acid haze air pollution and breast and colon cancer mortality in 20 Canadian cities. Can.J.Public Health 1989;80:96-100.
38. Kleibeuker JH, Van der MR, de Vries EG. Calcium and vitamin D: possible protective agents against colorectal cancer? Eur.J.Cancer 1995;31A:1081-4.
39. Puchacz E, Stumpf WE, Stachowiak EK, Stachowiak MK. Vitamin D increases expression of the tyrosine hydroxylase gene in adrenal medullary cells. Brain Res.Mol.Brain Res. 1996;36:193-6.
40. Gloth FM, III, Alam W, Hollis B. Vitamin D vs broad spectrum phototherapy in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder. J.Nutr.Health Aging 1999;3:5-7.
41. Fujita T, Ohgitani S, Nomura M. Fall of blood ionized calcium on watching a provocative TV program and its prevention by active absorbable algal calcium (AAA Ca). J.Bone Miner.Metab 1999;17:131-6.
42. Sato Y, Kikuyama M, Oizumi K. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and reduced bone mass in Parkinson's disease. Neurology 1997;49:1273-8.
43. Sato Y, Asoh T, Oizumi K. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and reduced bone mass in elderly women with Alzheimer's disease. Bone 1998;23:555-7.
44. Nikiforuk G, Fraser D. The etiology of enamel hypoplasia: a unifying concept. J.Pediatr. 1981;98:888-93.
45. Taylor AN. Tooth formation and the 28,000-dalton vitamin D-dependent calcium- binding protein: an immunocytochemical study. J.Histochem.Cytochem. 1984;32:159-64.
46. Price, Weston A. Primitive Control of Dental Caries. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. New Canaan, Connecticut: Keats Publishing, Inc 1989:326-52.
47. Price, Weston A. Prenatal Nutritional Deformities and Disease Types. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. New Canaan, Connecticut: Keats Publishing, Inc 1989:326-52.
48. Kozielec T, Starobrat-Hermelin B, Kotkowiak L. [Deficiency of certain trace elements in children with hyperactivity]. Psychiatr.Pol. 1994;28:345-53.
49. Starobrat-Hermelin B. [The effect of deficiency of selected bioelements on hyperactivity in children with certain specified mental disorders]. Ann.Acad.Med.Stetin. 1998;44:297-314.
50. Boucher BJ. Inadequate vitamin D status: does it contribute to the disorders comprising syndrome 'X'? [published erratum appears in Br J Nutr 1998 Dec;80(6):585]. Br.J.Nutr. 1998;79:315-27.
51. Schilli MB, Paus R, Czarnetzki BM, Reichrath J. [Vitamin D3 and its analogs as multifunctional steroid hormones. Molecular and clinical aspects from the dermatologic viewpoint]. Hautarzt 1994;45:445-52.
52. Fujita T, Okamoto Y, Sakagami Y, Ota K, Ohata M. Bone changes and aortic calcification in aging inhabitants of mountain versus seacoast communities in the Kii Peninsula. J.Am.Geriatr.Soc. 1984;32:124-8.
53. Watson KE, Abrolat ML, Malone LL et al. Active serum vitamin D levels are inversely correlated with coronary calcification. Circulation 1997;96:1755-60.
54. Sugihara N, Matsuzaki M, Kato Y. [Assessment of the relation between bone mineral metabolism and mitral annular calcification or aortic valve sclerosis-the relation between mitral annular calcification and post menopausal osteoporosis in elderly patients]. Nippon Ronen Igakkai Zasshi 1990;27:605-15.
55. Segall JJ. Latitude and ischaemic heart disease [letter]. Lancet 1989;1:1146.
56. Williams FL, Lloyd OL. Latitude and heart disease [letter]. Lancet 1989;1:1072-3.
57. MacPherson A, Balint J, Bacso J. Beard calcium concentration as a marker for coronary heart disease as affected by supplementation with micronutrients including selenium. Analyst 1995;120:871-5.
58. Krause R, Buhring M, Hopfenmuller W, Holick MF, Sharma AM. Ultraviolet B and blood pressure [letter]. Lancet 1998;352:709-10.
59. Jorde R, Bonaa KH. Calcium from dairy products, vitamin D intake, and blood pressure: the Tromso Study. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 2000;71:1530-5.
60. Rostand SG. Ultraviolet light may contribute to geographic and racial blood pressure differences [see comments]. Hypertension 1997;30:150-6.
61. Zemel MB, Shi H, Greer B, Dirienzo D, Zemel PC. Regulation of adiposity by dietary calcium. FASEB J. 2000;14:1132-8.
62. Bell NH, Epstein S, Greene A, Shary J, Oexmann MJ, Shaw S. Evidence for alteration of the vitamin D-endocrine system in obese subjects. J.Clin.Invest 1985;76:370-3.
63. Buffington C, Walker B, Cowan GS, Jr., Scruggs D. Vitamin D Deficiency in the Morbidly Obese. Obes.Surg. 1993;3:421-4.
64. Liel Y, Ulmer E, Shary J, Hollis BW, Bell NH. Low circulating vitamin D in obesity. Calcif.Tissue Int. 1988;43:199-201.
65. Wortsman J, Matsuoka LY, Chen TC, Lu Z, Holick MF. Decreased bioavailability of vitamin D in obesity. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 2000;72:690-3.
66. Bouillon R, Xiang DZ, Convents R, Van Baelen H. Polyunsaturated fatty acids decrease the apparent affinity of vitamin D metabolites for human vitamin D-binding protein. J.Steroid Biochem.Mol.Biol. 1992;42:855-61.
67. Garssen J, Norval M, el Ghorr A et al. Estimation of the effect of increasing UVB exposure on the human immune system and related resistance to infectious diseases and tumours. J.Photochem.Photobiol.B 1998;42:167-79.
68. Amento EP, Bhalla AK, Kurnick JT et al. 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 induces maturation of the human monocyte cell line U937, and, in association with a factor from human T lymphocytes, augments production of the monokine, mononuclear cell factor. J.Clin.Invest 1984;73:731-9.
69. Aslam SM, Garlich JD, Qureshi MA. Vitamin D deficiency alters the immune responses of broiler chicks. Poult.Sci. 1998;77:842-9.
70. Corman LC. Effects of specific nutrients on the immune response. Selected clinical applications. Med.Clin.North Am. 1985;69:759-91.
71. Muller K, Bendtzen K. 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 as a natural regulator of human immune functions. J.Investig.Dermatol.Symp.Proc. 1996;1:68-71.
72. Barger-Lux MJ, Heaney RP, Dowell S, Chen TC, Holick MF. Vitamin D and its major metabolites: serum levels after graded oral dosing in healthy men. Osteoporos.Int. 1998;8:222-30.
73. Rehak NN, Cecco SA, Csako G. Biochemical composition and electrolyte balance of "unstimulated" whole human saliva [In Process Citation]. Clin.Chem.Lab Med. 2000;38:335-43.
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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VI

Early Postnatal Face and Jaw Development

The face and jaws change more from birth to age four than at any other period of development after birth. At birth, infants have no teeth and their skull bones have not yet fused, allowing rapid growth. This period has a strong influence on the development of the jaws and face. The majority of malocclusions are established by the end this stage of development. Birth is the point at which the infant begins using its jaws and facial musculature in earnest.

The development of the jaws and face is very plastic, particularly during this period. Genes do not determine the absolute size or shape of any body structure. Genes carry the blueprint for all structures, and influence their size and shape, but structures develop relative to one another and in response to the forces applied to them during growth. This is how orthodontists can change tooth alignment and occlusion by applying force to the teeth and jaws.

Influences on Early Postnatal Face and Jaw Development

In 1987, Miriam H. Labbok and colleagues published a subset of the results of the National Health Interview survey (now called NHANES) in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Their article was provocatively titled "Does Breast-feeding Protect Against Malocclusion"? The study examined the occlusion of nearly 10,000 children, and interviewed the parents to determine the duration of breast feeding. Here's what they found:

The longer the infants were breastfed, the lower their likelihood of major malocclusion. The longest category was "greater than 12 months", in which the prevalence of malocclusion was less than half that of infants who were breastfed for three months or less. Hunter-gatherers and other non-industrial populations typically breastfeed for 2-4 years, but this is rare in affluent nations. Only two percent of the mothers in this study breastfed for longer than one year.

The prevalence and duration of breastfeeding have increased dramatically in the US since the 1970s, with the prevalence doubling between 1970 and 1980 (NHANES). The prevalence of malocclusion in the US has decreased somewhat in the last half-century, but is still very common (NHANES).

Several, but not all studies have found that infants who were breastfed have a smaller risk of malocclusion later in life (1, 2, 3). However, what has been more consistent is the association between non-nutritive sucking and malocclusion. Non-nutritive sucking (NNS) is when a child sucks on an object without getting calories out of it. This includes pacifier sucking, which is strongly associated with malocclusion*, and finger sucking, which is also associated to a lesser degree.

The longer a child engages in NNS, the higher his or her risk of malocclusion. The following graph is based on data from a study of nearly 700 children in Iowa (free full text). It charts the prevalence of three types of malocclusion (anterior open bite, posterior crossbite and excessive overjet) broken down by the duration of the NNS habit:

As you can see, there's a massive association. Children who sucked pacifiers or their fingers for more than four years had a 71 percent chance of having one of these three specific types of malocclusion, compared with 14 percent of children who sucked for less than a year. The association between NNS and malocclusion appeared after two years of NNS. Other studies have come to similar conclusions, including a 2006 literature review (1, 2, 3).

Bottle feeding, as opposed to direct breast feeding, is also associated with a higher risk of malocclusion (1, 2). One of the most important functions of breast feeding may be to displace NNS and bottle feeding. Hunter-gatherers and non-industrial cultures breast fed their children on demand, typically for 2-4 years, in addition to giving them solid food.

In my opinion, it's likely that NNS beyond two years of age, and bottle feeding to a lesser extent, cause a large proportion of the malocclusions in modern societies. Pacifier use seems to be particularly problematic, and finger sucking to a lesser degree.

How Do Breastfeeding, Bottle Feeding and NNS Affect Occlusion?

Since jaw development is influenced by the forces applied to them, it makes sense that the type of feeding during this period could have a major impact on occlusion. Children who have a prolonged pacifier habit are at high risk for open bite, a type of malocclusion in which the incisors don't come together when the jaws are closed. You can see a picture here. The teeth and jaws mold to the shape of the pacifier over time. This is because the growth patterns of bones respond to the forces that are applied to them. I suspect this is true for other parts of the skeleton as well.

Any force applied to the jaws that does not approximate the natural forces of breastfeeding or chewing and swallowing food, will put a child at risk of malocclusion during this period of his or her life. This includes NNS and bottle feeding. Pacifier sucking, finger sucking and bottle feeding promote patterns of muscular activity that result in weak jaw muscles and abnormal development of bony structures, whereas breastfeeding, chewing and swallowing strengthen jaw muscles and promote normal development (review article). This makes sense, because our species evolved in an environment where the breast and solid foods were the predominant objects that entered a child's mouth.

What Can We do About it?

In an ideal world (ideal for occlusion), mothers would breast feed on demand for 2-4 years, and introduce solid food about halfway through the first year, as our species has done since the beginning of time. For better or worse, we live in a different world than our ancestors, so this strategy will be difficult or impossible for many people. Are there any alternatives?

Parents like bottle feeding because it's convenient. Milk can be prepared in advance, the mother doesn't have to be present, feeding takes less time, and the parents can see exactly how much milk the child has consumed. One alternative to bottle feeding that's just as convenient is cup feeding. Cup feeding, as opposed to bottle feeding, promotes natural swallowing motions, which are important for correct development. The only study I found that examined the effect of cup feeding on occlusion found that cup-fed children developed fewer malocclusion and breathing problems than bottle-fed children.

Cup feeding has a long history of use. Several studies have found it to be safe and effective. It appears to be a good alternative to bottle feeding, that should not require any more time or effort.

What about pacifiers? Parents know that pacifiers make babies easier to manage, so they will be reluctant to give them up. Certain pacifier designs may be more detrimental than others. I came across the abstract of a study evaluating an "orthodontic pacifier" called the Dentistar, made by Novatex. The frequency of malocclusion was much lower in children who did not use a pacifier or used the Dentistar, than in those who used a more conventional pacifier. This study was funded by Novatex, but was conducted at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany**. The pacifier has a spoon-like shape that allows normal tongue movement and exerts minimal pressure on the incisors. There may be other brands with a similar design.

The ideal is to avoid bottle feeding and pacifiers entirely. However, cup feeding and orthodontic pacifiers appear to be acceptable alternatives that minimize the risk of malocclusion during this critical developmental window.


* Particularly anterior open bite and posterior crossbite.

** I have no connection whatsoever to this company. I think the results of the trial are probably valid, but should be replicated.

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