LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Xylitol

Encourage patients to regularly chew natural xylitol gum – (02-04-02)

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Xylitol Only During URT Infections Failed to Prevent Acute Otitis Media

It funny how the medical research seems to momentarily swirl around a topic from time to time. This is probably the third article I’ve seen on xylitol in the past few weeks. Xylitol is a naturally occurring substance that is believed to affect the binding of bacterial cells to our cells, most notably in the oral cavity and upper respiratory tract.

Studies have used gum in children to show a drastically lowered incidence of dental caries (which do you think is harder–getting a 4 year old to brush or chew gum??). Other studies have shown that xylitol nasal washes dramatically lower asthmatic symptoms and , All these with very little cost and no side effects. I strongly encourage many patients to regularly chew natural xylitol gum.

Pediatrics — Abstracts: Tapiainen et al. 109 (2): e19

Read entire article here

Flossing teeth to foil heart disease – (07-18-02)

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Can flossing teeth foil heart disease?

This short review supports further the notion that healthy gums means healthy heart. This may refer back to a few articles ago–the gums can be a route of infection into the human body; thus increasing the exposure to bacteria. Flossing is of course a very good idea, but I would also add to that the use of xylitol gum. Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar that seems to have an effect on the normal flora of the oral cavity–changing it to a less invasive phenotype.

Read entire article here

Childhood Obesity Statistics: Blame Artificial Sweeteners

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I know I’ve written frequently on childhood obesity statistics lately, but are you really paying attention to everything your child is putting in their mouth?

You’ve banned artificial sweeteners. No more diet soda. You read one of my blog posts on just how unhealthy artificial sweeteners are, and you instantly tossed what you had in the house into the garbage. You’ve scrapped the plastic water bottles and cheap soup cans to ban BPA as well.

You’ve even searched out the labels where artificial sweeteners like sucralose (Splenda) lurks; some juices, “energy” drinks, even drink “enhancers” like Mio. You’ve vowed to not use any of the Nuun Active Hydration during your Susan Komen 3-day hike because of the acesulfame potassium. You’ve told your primary care doctor that Medifast is not going to help you lose weight in the long run.

Your family is all set and your children are happily chewing their gum in the back seat, artificial sweetener free.

Wait…chewing gum?

You slam on the brakes as you pull the car to the side of the road and demand to see the pack of Trident that your son is chewing from.

You guessed it. Almost every major brand of gum available now has artificial sweeteners in it. Actually, most seem to have multiple types (Yes-that Trident sugarless gum has acesulfame potassium AND aspartame in addition to the naturally occurring sugar alcohol sorbitol–apparently Trident couldn’t decide just which sweetener it was going to use so it through them all in…).

But it’s just a little amount.

That’s what I hear. It’s just a little. Or it’s just one can of diet soda per day. Or just a few pieces of gum per day. I remember hearing one distributor for a direct marketing “health” company stating that the sucralose in their drink was “just a little.”

Make no mistake–“just a little” is enough for us to taste or it wouldn’t be in there.

Which brings us to this particular article.

Researchers looked at a group of obese children aged 6-18 and compared them to a similar group of normal weight children. They were specifically looking to see if there was a difference in the taste sensations between the two groups. There findings give us some insight into the problems our children are facing:

  1. Obese children were less able to identify salty, bitter and umami (savory) tastes.
  2. Obese kids rated 3 of 4 test strips (with increasing sweet concentrations) as being less sweet.
  3. The greatest difference was in the lowest concentration of “sweet.”
  4. Only at the sweetest concentration did the two groups of children agree on the degree of sweetness.
  5. Overall, girls and older kids were better at picking out the right tastes.

Basically, the obese children seemed less sensitive to “sweet” until the concentration became strong. To me, this would seem to identify a type of tolerance for sweet sensations, much like a drug.

Giving our children sweet this and sweet that, including artificial sweeteners with sensations 1,000 times stronger than table sugar will do nothing but cause problems. I remain very strong of the opinion that giving artificial sweeteners to our children AT ALL, at any age, begins to disassociate taste from our body and brain’s response to sweet. This process can only lead contribute to the worsening childhood obesity statistics as time goes on.

If your child is already stuck in this loop, the first step is to cut out any and ALL artificial sweeteners.   Today. If your family chews gum, switch to a xylitol based gum.

From there, begin to cut back on the “sweet” that they are exposed to. That could mean smaller serving sizes. We have frozen yogurt stores here in Arizona that sell by the ounce–you basically fill up as much as you’d like and then top it off with the selections such as bad stuff, fruit and nuts. I can tell you that, for 4 of us, we frequently pay just a little more than most of the cups that get filled and dropped on the scale. Do you really need to fill the whole thing?

You can also begin to substitute unsweetened items for the sugary stuff. If they can’t drink tea without a 50:50 sugar:tea mix, begin to gradually cut back on the amount of sugar being added until it’s gone. And do you really need the largest size Starbucks with whipped cream?

What have you done to cut back on your child’s “sweet” intake?

CHRONIC INFLAMMATION EFFECTS CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE – (07-17-06)

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Periodontal infections cause changes in traditional and novel cardiovascular risk factors

Again, we see how much any source of chronic inflammation can play a large role in cardiovascular disease. I would also assume that those with poor dental health probably aren’t too concerned with their overall health, either. One thing to consider in addition to treatment for periodontal disease would be using xylitol containing gum. This sugar is believed to change to physiology of the bacteria in the oral cavity, leaving them less likely to cause dental caries and subsequent infections.

Read entire article here

 

XYLITOL HAS BENEFICIAL EFFECT ON BONE MASS – (04-25-05)

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Simultaneous dietary administration of xylitol and ethanol on bone resorption

Not quite sure what the practical aspects are of this one, but I thought it was interesting.  Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar that is found in foods like fruits that is known to have a positive effect on dental health.  Bacteria in the mouth cannot use xylitol to produce acids that destroy dental enamel, so xylitol containing items like gum have been shown to lower the incidence of dental caries.  But I was unaware that xylitol also had a beneficial effect on bone mass by slowing down bone breakdown.

This study combined xylitol with ethanol (ethanol lowers bone mass by speeding up breakdown) and found a much greater decrease in bone breakdown because the ethanol keeps more xylitol in the bloodstream.  No quite sure where to go with this one–maybe xylitol in your wine to boost bone health???

Read entire article here

EAR INFECTIONS IN YOUR CHILD? THEY NEED THIS…

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Ear infections are far too common in our children. The standard, although inappropriate, approach in medicine today is to use antibiotics. While this trend may have slowed somewhat, it is still far too prevalent. What else can be done to help prevent ear infections in our children?

It is not uncommon for a distraught mother to present to my office with her little toddler in tow, scared because their pediatrician has told them that having tubes put into the ears (myringotomy) is the only option left. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In most situations, pulling the child off of common allergens like dairy and putting them on a course of probiotics completely eliminates the ear infections that had “no options left except surgery.” Overall, it’s really not rocket science.

So what else can be done? How about chewing gum? Who would’ve thought that chewing gum could prevent ear infections? Before you run out to the gas station and pick up a pack for your 4 year old there are a few things you need to know.

In April of last year, we were taking Keegan (5 years old) to Disneyland. We stopped to gas up and he wanted some gum. No problem, right? Went into the gas station and spent the next 10 minutes trying to find gum that wasn’t toxic. Just how many artificial sweeteners can you shove into a small stick of gum? Some has aspartame, sucralose AND acesulfame K!! What happened to good ‘old fashioned sugar?

Good thing that we had, for years, already been using xylitol based gums that he could have as much as he wanted of. Xylitol is believed to work similiar to the d-mannose in cranberry juice (which keeps bacteria from sticking to the lining of our urinary tract) but in the nasopharynx in the back of the throat. It would seem reasonable to believe that chewing xylitol based gum would reduce the amount of ear infections in our children because you will have less bacteria in the back of the throat to create the infection.

Sure enough, in this Cochrane (the brilliant thinktank worldwide research consortium) review, researchers found that 2 pieces of xylitol based gum used 5 times per day were able to cut down ear infection (acute otitis media) rates by 25% in children attending daycare. Couple this with dairy avoidance and probiotics and it’s pretty much a lock.

Our office actually has this gum available for patients to try as well as packs for them to keep with them. At first this may seem like an odd choice for a chiropractic office, but if it can help cut down on the rates of ear infections in our kids, it fits with our mission.