The Toxic Tooth: CHAPTER EIGHT: EXPERIENCE WITH ROOT CANAL TREATMENT Before My Own Eyes

 

CHAPTER EIGHT: EXPERIENCE WITH ROOT CANAL TREATMENT

Before My Own Eyes

Personal & Professional Experience of Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD

Storybook Perfect—Almost

Thirty years ago I was just a “regular” cardiologist and a non- discriminating consumer of whatever the dental profession deemed most appropriate for treating whatever dental problem I might have had.

I had an adult cardiology practice in New Iberia, Louisiana after finishing up my training at the then-thriving Charity Hospital of New Orleans (never to re-open after Hurricane Katrina in 2005), Tulane University “division.” Charity Hospital had always been split 50-50 between the medical students, interns, residents, and fellows of Tulane Medical School on its eastern side, and the LSU Medical School on its western side. It actually made for a very vibrant and lively learning and living experience.

When I finally departed New Orleans for New Iberia, I was ready to start saving patients and continuing the enjoyment of my life to its fullest. I can’t say that I had any regrets over just about anything in my life between entering medical school in 1972 and practicing cardiology in New Iberia until 1991. I truly felt sorry for so many of my colleagues who seem so stressed out during their medical school and post-graduate training, and then during their high-volume private practices. I had nothing but fun. I felt blessed.

A Tiny Piece of Bone and a Root Canal

About 5 years into my practice in New Iberia, I bit into a piece of bone in a hamburger that I was eating. As fate would have it, the tiny piece of bone landed directly in the middle of a lower molar on the left side of my mouth. With one quick chewing motion, the upper opposing molar pushed that

bone further into the lower molar and split it open, just like a perfectly split diamond that received just the right tap in just the right spot. The pain was immediate, as was the realization that an immediate dental appointment was mandatory.

When I finally saw the dentist, a friend of mine who whom I occasionally played racquetball, he quickly examined the tooth and declared that I needed a “root canal” on the tooth, and that it was best done by a specialist to whom he referred me about 30 minutes north in Lafayette, Louisiana. The only thought I had at the time was that root canals were always comically associated with excruciating pain and an overall ordeal (“That’s about as much fun as a root canal”). So, I looked for reassurance from my friend that it wouldn’t be the worst experience of my life, and he patiently explained that this dentist was extremely attentive in the anesthesia department, and that I would have no problems. And he was right. It was a snap. All that worrying for nothing...

The pain was immediate, as was the realization that an immediate dental appointment was mandatory.

Then it was back to life as usual. My tooth always felt fine, and I had absolutely no problems chewing on it. Modern dentistry, it appeared to me, had done its job just fine. I had experienced a problem, and now it was definitively resolved. If only that had been true—but maybe it was good that it wasn’t true, since it lead to incredible and profound changes in my life down the road. At least in my own life, some of the most important positive changes and new directions that I have experienced have resulted directly from enormously negative events pushing me in directions that I would never have otherwise chosen. But it would take a while longer, about 5 years longer, for me to be “pushed” into the next major change in my life. For those readers who believe we all have a destiny to fulfill, this probably makes a lot of sense. In retrospect, everything now makes enormous sense, although I did not have a hint of that perspective at the time.

Dream Move Interrupted by a Hard Shove Onto a New Path

For a number of personal reasons, I felt my time as a cardiologist in New Iberia had run its course by 1991, and I decided to move to Colorado Springs, Colorado to continue my professional career. I had always loved Colorado in my many skiing trips there, I was still single and I would not be disrupting anyone’s life but my own with a major move, and I decided it was the next significant step and direction for my life, from both an emotional and a logical point of view.

Colorado Springs did not turn out to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for me. I never really enjoyed my life there anywhere close to the level of enjoyment that I had in New Iberia. As it turned out, another major negative event was ultimately awaiting me to push me into a whole new life direction.

After a few years, I had built up a significant solo practice in cardiology, particularly at one of the two hospitals I worked at in the city. It soon became apparent to me that my success was making a number of other cardiologists less than pleased. I had absolutely no “power” at this hospital. However, the hospital was very interested in making the 5-member cardiology group happy, as the income generated by them, including all the cardiac procedures and the many heart surgeries that resulted, was enormous. Had they ever taken most or all of their business to the other hospital in town, this hospital would have had enormous financial difficulty. Paranoid-sounding or not, they were looking to drive me out. Ultimately, they succeeded, although it ended up being on my terms.

I received a notice to appear before a hospital committee to review the “quality” of my work and to determine whether I should be allowed to keep my privileges.

I received a notice to appear before a hospital committee to review the “quality” of my work and to determine whether I should be allowed to keep my privileges. Several, perhaps all, of the cardiologists in the group of 5

made formal assertions that my complication rate was too high in my angiograms and angioplasties. Fortunately, I was able to determine the specifics of these charges before the committee finally met.

I hired a lawyer, but she never made it from Denver to Colorado Springs in time for the meeting, and she was of little to no help in the presentation I assembled. Perhaps the legal education I was to later receive began emerging before I ever went to law school, I don’t know.

Armed with the knowledge of the charges, along with knowledge that there was no factual basis for those charges, I put together a 25-page explanation of the nature of the coronary artery angioplasty procedure, along with the pathological and anatomic damage it is known to cause in the selective tearing it inflicts on the arterial wall. I supported all of this information with multiple citations in the current medical literature. Additionally, I clearly demonstrated that my “complication” rate was not only not increased, it was substantially lower than the typical complication rate reported in the medical literature of the day. I still had no assurance that these facts would win the day, as one of the group of 5 cardiologists, I had heard, had gone so far as to call me a “butcher” in the cardiac cath lab to members of the committee. Not surprisingly and more than ironically, he was the true butcher, as I had never seen a cardiologist perform procedures in a cath lab with such reckless abandon and lack of attention to multiple important details. But the committee was addressing me, not him, and an energetic exchange of “He said, she said” was going to do me no good at all.

I clearly demonstrated that my “complication” rate was not only not increased, it was substantially lower.

The committee was large, as I seem to remember roughly 20 to 30 doctors and other hospital staff in attendance. I handed copies of my explanation and analysis to all of them, and I then proceeded to read the entire document out loud as they each followed with their individual copy.

Following a very few questions after the reading of the document, I was asked to wait outside. Shortly thereafter, I was informed that there would be

no curtailment of my privileges, but that I would need a “monitor”—one of the group of 5—for my cardiac procedures for a while going forward. I must say, I was stunned that my privileges were not taken away; it had seemed like a kangaroo court all the way. However, it appeared my written explanation saved the day. My only friend on the committee later told me, “You really blew them away with your analysis and references to the literature. I guess you just can’t push around a Johns Hopkins/Tulane doc without the science on your side.” I didn’t know if all that was completely true, but it was good to hear.

Following a very few questions after the reading of the document, I was asked to wait outside.

I immediately decided that I would wait a month, resign my privileges at the hospital, and do all my work at the other hospital. I knew that with future hospital privilege and malpractice insurance applications, the sudden quitting after a hospital inquiry would always raise a red flag. However, I had to go, as the literal wave of nausea that hit me every time I passed through the hospital entrance was too much to deal with on a regular basis.

However, there was still one big problem, or at least it seemed so at the time. The moment I terminated my privileges at this hospital, my income, and my workload, would be pretty much cut in half. There were many patients in Colorado Springs who would only go to one hospital and never the other. However, this did not deter me in following through with the decision to leave.

A few months later, while staring at the walls of my office in my now very low-volume practice, I began to wonder where I was going and the significance of what I was doing.

A few months later, while staring at the walls of my office in my now very low-volume practice, I began to wonder where I was going and the significance of what I was doing. I still enjoyed my cardiology practice, and

I felt that I was really helping my patients, but it just didn’t seem like it was enough. I had no idea what I should be doing as well or instead, but I just had an overwhelming feeling that practicing regular “mainstream” cardiology was not what I wanted to be doing the rest of my life, or that it was part of my true life’s path. Instead, it felt like a bridge to something else. But where did the bridge lead?

Medicine that Truly Makes Patients Well—Taught by a Dentist!

Then, a few months later still, I met Dr. Hal Huggins at an alternative energy conference in town. We chatted, had lunch, and he was very insistent that I visit him and check out his dental clinic in town. I certainly had the time and it seemed interesting, so I took him up on his offer shortly thereafter.

Dr. Huggins’ clinic was nothing short of amazing. I saw patients clinically improving and abnormal laboratory tests normalizing with a program of dental revision, diet, supplementation, and lifestyle changes to a degree that I had never seen and that I did not believe was possible regardless of the treatment given. My second, and certainly my most significant, medical education was about to begin. And a dentist was going to turn out to be my most significant medical teacher.

I saw patients clinically improving and abnormal laboratory tests normalizing... to a degree that I had never seen and that I did not believe was possible.

Dr. Huggins asked me to start doing consultative work on the many patients that came through the clinic, especially in their follow-up evaluations in the weeks and months after their typically two-week visit to his clinic. He offered a generous compensation for this work, and I was more than happy to take him up on his offer.

Things started going so well that I began to question the relevancy of my small, ongoing cardiology practice. I was learning an enormous amount of

information on toxins, nutrition, and antioxidants like vitamin C. It was all information that had never been addressed at any level of my medical education in the past. Also, Dr. Huggins gave frequent conferences for dentists and physicians from around the world, and I began lecturing regularly with him.

I was learning an enormous amount of information on toxins, nutrition, and antioxidants like vitamin C. It was all information that has never been addressed at any level of my medical education in the past.

I finally terminated my cardiology practice about a year after I met Dr. Huggins, and I have never looked back. I have also not regretted it to even the slightest degree. I just thank God that I was given the opportunity to take that new direction in my professional life. And I had the group of 5 to thank! It certainly never would have happened without them. They gave me the time to think and the ability to take advantage of my first meeting with Dr. Huggins. I am absolutely certain that I would not have abandoned a full- time cardiology practice to explore a new direction with Dr. Huggins, but the group of 5 gave me a possibility that would never have been realized otherwise. From bad came good, once again.

“Only If You Want to Get Well”

Shortly after I signed on “full-time” with my consulting and lecturing with Dr. Huggins, I began to have severe headaches for the first time in my life. I was distressed, to say the least. I finally checked my blood pressure and found that it was very elevated. As a cardiologist, treating high blood pressure in many patients on a regular basis had been my “bread-and- butter,” but I never thought I would be dealing with it myself.

I started treating myself with little good clinical response, and I decided to talk to Dr. Huggins, as I still had a small number of mercury fillings in my mouth. Maybe they were the problem. Couldn’t hurt to ask.

Huggins cut to the chase: “Do you have any root canals?”

“Well, yes, one. Why?” I replied.

Huggins continued, “You won’t get rid of the high blood pressure until you get rid of the root canal.”

I was stunned, “That tooth feels fine. You mean I have to get that tooth taken out?”

Huggins didn’t miss a beat, “Only if you want to get well.” Dr. Huggins’ sarcasm was never very endearing, but it was predictable, as I got to know him better.

I already had the highest respect for Dr. Huggins at that point, and I was already enormously frustrated in my attempts to control my blood pressure. I just wanted to trust him (a natural patient sentiment that unfortunately is all too often misplaced), and proceed. The next day the tooth was extracted, and the socket was properly cleaned out. Shortly thereafter, my blood pressure began to normalize, and the headaches completely disappeared. I was stunned, but enormously appreciative at having substantially lowered my chances for eventually getting the stroke or the heart attack that often results from poorly-controlled high blood pressure. I also realized that I needed to learn a lot more (like everything) about root canal-treated teeth and their effects throughout the body.

My health actually improved so much that, in retrospect, I had no realization how significantly my health had already deteriorated by the ripe old age of 44. My energy, which I had never considered to be depleted, literally skyrocketed. And my mind also felt “born again” to me, as my concentration and memory improved to a degree I not experienced since beginning medical school roughly 20 years earlier. I pored through books and articles like I never had before.

The improvement of my medical and physical health, along with an excellent income without tremendous demands on my time, led me to my next step: law school.

To this day, I am still not sure why I went, except to say that it felt like the next step in my life. Witnessing the all-too-often travails that Dr. Huggins endured legally played a role in my decision as well, I am quite sure.

Dr. Huggins was never shy or timid in promoting the scientific models that he developed in treating dental conditions and improving medical diseases. And while many dentists and physicians worshiped the ground he walked on for the differences he was making in the lives of so many

patients, many more dentists and physicians reviled him just as intensely, and they went out of their way to legally disrupt him in any manner that they could. Dr. Huggins actually had a lawyer on retainer to deal with the literal stream of negative events that eventuated from his dental and educational activities.

Although I have never practiced a single day of law in my life since receiving my law degree and then passing the bar in 1999, I feel the effort was worth it. Medicine, along with everything else we experience in our daily lives, has an enormous amount of legally-based issues that regulate and affect how it is practiced, along with what is allowed to be practiced.

There is no area of our lives in the United States where we have less freedom today than in the type of medical therapies we get to choose for ourselves. While our medical freedoms have slowly expanded since the Internet, the smartphone, and the dawn of an exciting new Information Age from which nobody can completely insulate themselves, we are still very far from being free of the overreach in healthcare extended by the government and the medical and dental organizations to which they largely give free reign in their treatment of the public. And this is compounded by a legal system that typically goes with the “majority rules” mindset in ruling on critical medical issues, even though significant progress often comes from those in the avant-garde minority. In science and medicine, when the majority rules in the place of scientific data and clear-cut results, everyone loses, except Big Pharma and their dedicated foot soldiers.

In science and medicine, when the majority rules in the place of scientific data and clear-cut results, everyone loses, except Big Pharma and their dedicated foot soldiers.

Shortly after I received my law degree, I published my first book, Uninformed Consent: The Hidden Dangers in Dental Care as a coauthor with Dr. Huggins. Since then, 8 more books and booklets have followed. What has amazed me a bit in retrospect is how all of the books have meshed together in the messages they deliver. It was certainly not completely intentional at the outset, yet they all very much lay down the scientific foundations for the concept of all diseases being caused and promoted by toxins and increased oxidative stress, along with the only truly effective therapies being those that can result in a build-up of antioxidant stores at the cellular level.

Friend’s Ailing Heart Demonstrates the Danger of Root Canal-Treated Teeth

About 10 years ago now, I witnessed what was, at the time, another life- altering event for me, at least in terms of how it shaped my thinking, especially with regard to the internal medicine subspeciality that I had chosen, studied, and practiced for so many years: cardiology.

I had just become a consultant to LivOn Laboratories, the producers of liposome-encapsulated nutrients, particularly vitamin C, when the owner of the company began to relate his own personal experience to me about the struggles he was experiencing with coronary artery disease. First diagnosed with heart disease only four years earlier, he described to me a clinical story that revealed what I could only describe as an incredibly aggressive, rapidly evolving type of atherosclerosis in his coronary arteries. In this fairly short period of time he had already experienced seven angioplasties and stent placements, always with a good technical result, yet his coronary artery disease continue to rage in the rest of his arteries.

I already knew about the effects of root canal-treated teeth on heart

disease and heart attacks, although I had not yet done much of the research I was yet to do on this subject before publishing my book, Stop America’s #1 Killer! Reversible Vitamin Deficiency Found to be Origin of ALL Coronary Heart Disease . Nevertheless, I was already convinced that having root canal-treated teeth was a significant risk factor in the development of coronary atherosclerosis and eventual heart attack.

My friend called me one day, more than a bit depressed, and began relating how much new angina pain he was experiencing. His depression was more than understandable, since his numerous angioplasties did not seem to give him any long-term clinical stability whatsoever. Furthermore, without any exaggeration, the supplement regimen he was following was truly amazing. I had never, before or since, encountered anyone who was taking such a highly-dosed and wide array of quality nutrient supplements. I was amazed that he had any room left in his stomach to eat. He was even taking about nine grams of liposome-encapsulated vitamin C at that time, an amount that I have since found to resolve almost every clinical circumstance in which it was used.

He was in Las Vegas. I was in Denver, having relocated from Colorado Springs after finishing law school. I immediately advised him to fly over to me, and that I would take him the following morning to my personal dentist who I knew would do correctly and thoroughly whatever needed to be done. My friend had no idea whether he had one or more root canal-treated teeth in his mouth, but I felt certain there had to be at least one.

He had already experienced seven angioplasties and stent placements, always with a good technical result, yet his coronary artery disease continued to rage in the rest of his arteries.

He arrived, we had a bite to eat, and he went to his hotel room for the evening. When I arrived to pick him up the next morning, he was sitting in the lobby, appearing very depressed and even a bit teary-eyed as he related to me how much chest pain he had experienced throughout the night. He

indicated that he saw no point any longer in going to see the dentist. I told him that was not an option, and I managed to get him into my car.

My dentist found only ONE root canal-treated tooth, and he promptly extracted it and cleaned out the infected bone remaining in the socket.

As amazing as this might sound to many people, my friend never had a single angina pain again. Furthermore, he had the opportunity to have a cardiac CT scan with venous contrast several years later (he was having no symptoms), and much of his arterial narrowing documented on earlier angiograms had resolved. In other words, after the one root canal-treated tooth came out, he stopped having chest pain, he stopped evolving further coronary artery narrowings, and he largely reversed the critical narrowings that had been seen earlier. For me, it was a combined scientific and emotional experience that remains hard to define.

A cardiac CT scan with venous contrast several years later... [showed that] much of his arterial narrowing documented on earlier angiograms had resolved.

This experience with my friend’s heart disease and its positive response to the extraction of his only root canal-treated tooth directly led me to plunge into the substantial research cited in my next book at that time, Stop America’s #1 Killer! The research involved in writing this book taught me an enormous amount about cardiology, a disease that I already felt held no significant secrets from me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. My training had taught me what to do after unstable angina or a heart attack had presented. I humbly realized as I combed through the literature that I had known, like most of my fellow cardiologists, very little as to why heart disease developed in the first place, and why some people can do everything right and still develop a problem with coronary atherosclerosis.

It was the research for this book, along with the writing and researching of the next book, Primal Panacea , that finally caused me to realize that all diseases are secondary to increased oxidative stress in the affected cells and tissues. It also became apparent to me that focal infections, such as seen in

root canal-treated teeth, infected gums, and other infected teeth, reliably promoted increased oxidative stress via the dissemination of pathogens and pathogen-generated toxins throughout the body. Wherever the pathogens and toxins ended up and/or concentrated most would determine the degree of increased oxidative stress and ultimately the disease process that an individual would demonstrate. This all coalesced into the realization as to why the presence of root canal-treated teeth was a major risk factor for heart disease. This was because the steady stream of pathogens and toxins released from such teeth first encountered the high-pressure arterial system in the coronary arteries. Upon getting seeded there, the pathogens rapidly consume all the vitamin C present, and the focal scurvy that is initiated causes a chronic inflammatory response, which never resolves until the focal infection source is removed.

I humbly realized as I combed through the literature that I had known, like most of my fellow cardiologists, very little as to why heart disease developed in the first place.

The Negative Health Impact of an Oral Focal Infection Hits Home Again

Focal infection again hit home for me personally about two and a half years ago. I had basically good baseline health, but the laboratory testing that I had been following for years continued to show significant elevations in the CRP (C-reactive protein) levels, which is a strong indicator of chronic inflammation somewhere in the body, and it is also a significant risk factor for coronary heart disease and heart attack. I had been disturbed by its elevation, but I could not figure out how to get it down and resolve whatever the inflammatory/infective focus was in my body that might be causing it. However, I was convinced that I would eventually become another heart attack patient if I could not resolve it. I had even taken 100 grams of vitamin C intravenously daily for a week at one point, rechecked

the test, and found that I only knocked it down a little bit, and only for a fairly brief time.

Then, on May 30, 2012, I chased a hostile neighborhood dog away from attacking my toy poodle. I was almost immediately stopped in my tracks with a sudden shortness of breath and tightness in my chest. I slowly and carefully walked back into my house and sat down. Within about 5 minutes, the symptoms had all resolved. I then recalled that I probably had similar symptoms a few months earlier when walking uphill, but I had pretty much gone into denial and decided to pay it no attention. However, I was a cardiologist. I had seen similar scenarios untold number of times in my own patients. There was no denying or dismissing this episode.

To me, the conclusion was inescapable. I now had a critical or sub-critical narrowing in one or more coronary arteries, and the encounter with the hostile dog had almost pushed me to a heart attack. I took very large amounts of IV vitamin C (100 or more grams daily) and many grams of liposome-encapsulated vitamin C orally for the next week. I also arranged to have a tonsillectomy at the end of that week.

I was almost immediately stopped in my tracks with a sudden shortness of breath and tightness in my chest.

A tonsillectomy? Dr. Josef Issels wrote on his experiences with treating advanced cancer patients back in the 1940s and 1950s. He noted that 97% of them had root canal-treated or otherwise infected teeth, and his treatment protocol, which was highly effective in resolving cancer and increasing longevity, began in the dental chair with the extraction of those teeth. He also routinely had these patients undergo tonsillectomy, even when the tonsils appeared grossly normal, and there had been no known occurrences of tonsillar infection by history. And perhaps most interestingly, nearly all the extracted tonsils showed evidence of significant ongoing infections and abscesses, even those that had appeared normal by routine examination.

Because of the experiences reported by Dr. Issels, I had always reasoned that the presence of root canal-treated teeth suffused the tonsils, especially the one on the side of the root canal-treated teeth, with an overwhelmingly

large pathogen and toxin exposure. Many tonsils in younger people needed extraction because they were unable to completely return to normal after one or more bouts of tonsillitis. It appeared that the capacity of the tonsil to deal with an orally-based infection was significantly limited, and the “24/7” exposure to a root canal-treated tooth quite rapidly overwhelmed this capacity. In fact, largely based on Dr. Issels’ findings, it appeared to me that the root canal-treated tooth could be relied upon to convert an otherwise normal tonsil from protector to infector in fairly short order. How long did the root canal-treated tooth need to trash the tonsil? Hard to say. A month, a year? Probably no more than that.

I had always reasoned that the presence of root canal-treated teeth suffused the tonsils... with an overwhelmingly large pathogen and toxin exposure.

Since I was at the end of my clinical rope, I called an ENT doctor. I absolutely lied through my teeth and told him that I was sick and tired of having tonsillitis so many times in the last few years, and that since the tonsils were “settled down now” and in between infections, now would be a great time to take them out. He agreed, as I had earlier looked up the “indications” for tonsillectomy in an adult, and I made sure my “history” filled all the clinical requirements needed by the surgeon to proceed with the procedure.

Before the surgery, the ENT doc commented that my tonsils looked completely normal, but were perhaps a little enlarged. After the surgery was completed and I was fully recovered from the anesthesia, he came by to do a quick post-op look. He commented that everything looked fine. I asked him if he had noticed anything else of interest when he did the surgery. He replied:

“Well, now that you mention it, when I grabbed the left tonsil to begin taking it out, I caused a bunch of pus to starting coming out. It was pretty impressive.”

Two things should be noted here. The left side was the side where my root

canal-treated tooth had been, even though it had been extracted about 18 years earlier. The second thing to note is that I had never had any form of tonsillitis in my life. It appeared very clear to me that root canals can trash tonsils, and that once-trashed, the affected tonsil(s) stayed trashed. My left tonsil had 18 years to recover and resume normal function, supported by a very good diet and great supplementation, and it could not do it.

However, let me also hasten to add that I would never advise an adult to get a tonsillectomy unless the indications were clear that it was needed to improve health after all other reasonable interventions had failed in reaching that goal. While I could not have been happier to have my tonsils out, especially after learning they were filled with pus, I have never had a worse experience in my life. Being a bit too macho for my own good, I went directly into my post-operative period without any help from anyone. In fact, I was continuing to care for my 90-year-old mother at the same time I was trying to recover my own health.

While I knew that tonsillectomies were a much bigger deal for adults than kids, I had no idea how much different the experience would be. At least for me, the post-operative phase was pure torture, and remained so for at least a full month. It took that long to reasonably start swallowing small portions of a regular diet. For the first week just swallowing water was inconceivably difficult. Because of this, my overall state of dehydration was exaggerated to the point that I would wake up in the middle of the night with the mucous membranes in my mouth and throat literally stuck to each other, in need of significant effort to get them separated again. It was the most peculiar and perhaps the most unpleasant sensation I have ever endured.

On the fifth post-operative night I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that I had been having bizarre dreams and even some hallucinations upon awakening, and that I was losing my general orientation. Somehow, in the middle of this altered mental state, I still was able to appreciate that I had not urinated for almost an entire day. For someone who typically drinks at least 2 to 3 quarts of water daily and urinates at least 8 times daily, I knew things were not going well for my body. I wanted badly to just go back to sleep, but I was quite afraid that in my advanced state of fluid depletion that I might not wake up again. Instead, I forced myself to prepare an IV of vitamin C and sterile water and administer it to myself. A couple

hours later I urinated a bit, and I followed that with two more infusions over the next 4 to 5 hours. I was still miserable, but the urine was flowing once again, and at least I now felt I would survive.

I would wake up in the middle of the night with the mucous membranes in my mouth and throat literally stuck to each other.

In spite of this experience, I knew the tonsillectomy was necessary for my survival, or perhaps more accurately, to avoid the progression of my chest pain to the point of a heart attack. My general health improved rapidly after the surgery (and the prolonged, problematic post-operative period), and my laboratory tests improved as well. But they did not normalize. The CRP remained elevated, but substantially less so.

Roughly 6 months later, I had an opportunity to get a rapid cardiac CAT scan with injection of venous contrast. This allowed me for the first time in my life to visualize my coronary arteries. Sure enough, in the middle of the left anterior descending coronary artery, which is the most important heart artery in most people, there was a 40 to 50% narrowed area. I suspected that this area of narrowing had been critical, probably 70% or more, six months earlier. I knew, however, that when the bulk of infectious toxicity is removed from the body and high enough doses of antioxidants are taken on a regular basis, atherosclerosis will typically regress and sometimes revert to even an angiographically normal status. My coronary artery calcium score was zero at the time of the cardiac CAT scan, which further indicated to me that my overall diet, lifestyle, and supplementation regimen was pretty good, as long as I could avoid focal infections such as my root canal- treated tooth and the secondary chronically infected tonsil(s).

In spite of this experience, I knew the tonsillectomy was necessary for my survival, or perhaps more accurately, to avoid the progression of my chest pain to the point of a heart attack.

Around the beginning of 2013, I discovered that I was low in thyroid function and very low in my testosterone levels. Once again, my own medical problems led me to research and eventually write about the importance of sex hormones and thyroid function, which I had never really addressed before. These two issues ended up being discussed extensively in my latest book, Death by Calcium: Proof of the toxic effects of dairy and calcium supplementation .

I began taking dessicated thyroid hormone on a daily basis. Also, twice weekly I began intramuscular testosterone injections. Once again, after a few months of this new therapy, my health “jumped” another level in terms of energy and the need for only 7 to 8 hours of sleep nightly rather than 10. It once again brought home to me how good health can slowly but surely decline over the years, along with how very difficult it is to realize at any given point in time how significant this loss has been.

I was reasonably satisfied that I had done everything of importance in eliminating focal infection(s) from my body. However, my CRP still had not dropped into the normal range yet, and I kept on wondering what I was missing.

Another Dental Event Confirms the Danger of Infected Teeth

In January of 2014, I had another dental “event.” I was giving several lectures on vitamin C in Algeria, and my upper left second molar began to hurt. This had been a tooth that had been heavily decayed in the past and had undergone numerous filling procedures before finally being crowned about six months earlier. I took antibiotics and ibuprofen and hoped for the best. I was dreading having a crescendo of pain in the plane trip back across the Atlantic.

Very fortunately, the tooth settled down, and the pain disappeared completely after about a week. I saw a dentist locally in Biloxi, where I had lived for the last five years caring for my mother, and X-rays showed no obvious sign of infection. I chewed normally on the tooth for another five months.

The tooth then began to just not feel “right.” It was not painful, and I could usually chew anything I wanted on it. However, I knew something

was amiss. At times it did hurt just a little when I chewed, and I knew that was never normal and certainly not a good sign for long-term tooth health. My CRP was still not normal, and my body/health intuition told me once again that there was still another focal infection to be addressed.

After ruminating on all of this for another month, and after reliving in my mind all that I had already gone through to reclaim my health and avoid having a heart attack, I decided that the tooth had to be extracted. I can’t say that I would ever be completely comfortable advising a patient to have such a tooth extracted with such little clear evidence of infection or pathology being present. However, this was my body, my tooth, and my health. I wanted it out, and if it turned out to be a completely normal tooth, then it was still completely on me and nobody else. I flew to my dentist in Denver to have the procedure done.

I had the X-ray taken again, and this time there was the suggestion of possible infection. Mind you, I was still going to have the tooth extracted even if the X-ray had been completely normal. I wasn’t sure if this was a better quality X-ray than I had six months earlier or whether the X-ray finding was truly new.

When the tooth came out, there were abscesses on each root tip, and there was further abscess and infection in the socket. All of this was meticulously debrided and cleaned out, along with complete removal of the periodontal ligament in order to optimize healing and the filling-in of new bone. I suspect that the extensive decay in this tooth many years earlier had progressed to a long-standing low grade chronic pulpal infection that recently became more acute.

At times it did hurt just a little when I chewed, and I knew that was never normal and certainly not a good sign for long-term tooth health.

Roughly two months later (late July 2014) I had my CRP retested. To my great satisfaction, the result was 2.02. The normal range for LabCorp on this test is 0.00 to 3.00. This test had been checked seven different times during the past one and one-half years. The average of those seven tests was 4.94, a very high and very abnormal CRP, almost certainly reflecting

significant chronic inflammation in my body. But the infected tooth was now gone, and the CRP was well within the range of normal. For me, the concept of focal infection and its effects throughout the body is now a simple fact, as the removal of the infected tooth clearly normalized my CRP level. Chronic inflammation always accompanies coronary heart disease, and for the moment I am now comfortable that my risk for a heart attack has been significantly reduced.

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