I sat down with Dr. James Harrison, a dentist and creator of an all-natural oral hygiene line he was showcasing that the Natural Products Expo. He has a fancy microscope that could magnify, in REAL TIME, the critters in your mouth with just a swab of spittle. What I saw in my mouth was shocking.

Taking care of your mouth is more than the prevention of looking like a West Virginia mountain person. Those white blood cells you saw in my mouth could probably be happier doing other, more important things than killing the living cesspool of my mouth, but since they’re already there…

Glowing and agitated white blood cells are in there because they’re doing battle, fighting INFECTION. By the looks of all that live petri dish action, you might think I’m a yuck mouth of the nth degree, but that’s not even close to the worst this doctor has seen. I’m pretty average. But average is never a good grade.

How a ‘Yuck Mouth’ Affects Your Whole Body

Bacteria in the mouth has free reign because the mouth is the first entry into the body. With each swallow, you let this bacteria into your system, and without the right tools to combat the damage, you can expect inflammation throughout the body, especially upon vital organs like the heart. Recent studies show a link between gum disease and heart disease.

There is increasing evidence that chronic infections are associated with cardiovascular diseases. A number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain these associations, including common susceptibility, systemic inflammation, direct infection of the blood vessels, and cross-reactivity or molecular mimicry between bacterial and self-antigens. In terms of common susceptibility, a person who is susceptible to progressive periodontal disease is also susceptible to atherosclerosis, but the periodontal disease does not cause the atherosclerosis. –INSIDE DENTISTRY VOL. 2 (SPECIAL ISSUE 1)—INTERNATIONAL CONSENSUS STATEMENT—GREGORY J. SEYMOUR

Reduce Bad Bacteria, Decrease Chance of Gum Disease.

Stop feeding these vermin with sugars! It’s a vicious cycle–you eat sweets, the bad bacteria thrives in your mouth and intestines, they get hungry, you get sugar cravings because now you’re the host for a kind of parasite. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, sugar is the debbil’s food! For alternatives to the sweet stuff, take a read of “The Science of Sweeteners.”

Second, take a probiotic. “Good” bacteria growth crowds out the bad ones, and they begin to starve and die.