Light Sleepers More Likely To Get Alzheimer’s

If you’re a light sleeper you may have a bigger risk of Alzheimer’s. The amount and quality of sleep you get at night seems to affect your memory later in life, according to research being presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.

“Disrupted sleep appears to be associated with the build-up of amyloid plaques, a hallmark marker of Alzheimer’s disease, in the brains of people without memory problems,” says study author Yo-El Ju, M.D. “Further research is needed to determine why this is happening and whether sleep changes may predict cognitive decline.”

Researchers tested the sleep patterns of 100 people between the ages of 45 and 80 who were free of dementia. Half of the group had a family history of Alzheimer’s disease. A device was placed on the participants for two weeks to measure sleep. They also filled out sleep diaries and questionnaires.

After the study, it was discovered that 25 percent of the participants had evidence of amyloid plaques, which can form years before the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease begin. The average time a person spent in bed during the study was about eight hours, but the average sleep time was 6.5 hours due to persistent awakenings.

The study found that people who woke up more than five times per hour were more likely to have amyloid plaque build-up compared to people who didn’t wake up as much.

Sleeping For Better Health

Not getting enough sleep at night can kill you. So can getting too much. Your body is calibrated to function at its best with just enough sleep. Otherwise, you risk health disaster.

Sleep Numbers

In today’s world we seem to be obsessed with numbers. We use numbers to analyze and regulate every aspect of our bodies and our lives. How tall are you? How much do you weigh? What are your cholesterol numbers? What is your blood pressure? How many ounces of carbs does your diet allow? What’s your income? The numbers go on and on. In this list, there’s one number most of us get wrong: How much sleep do you need?

Lucky Number Seven

While it is often assumed and promoted as firm rule that getting eight hours of sleep per night is optimal, research questions this assumption. In 2010, the journal Sleep published a study that identified seven hours as being the optimal amount of sleep for health. In fact, according to Najib Ayas, M.D., of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, the study showed that those who sleep more or less than seven hours per night are at greater risk for developing cardiovascular disease. That means everyone who is sleeping the standard eight hours of sleep per night is unwittingly increasing their risk for heart problems.

There’s No Catching Up

Another sleep fallacy is that you should sleep more on the weekends to catch up on missed sleep throughout the work week. To the contrary: Sleep experts tell us that sleeping more than eight hours is unhealthy. The body does not catch up on its sleep because sleep is not cumulative. You need seven hours of deep, sound sleep. When you break up sleep with naps or pile sleep on at the end of the week, you end up with headaches, stiff joints, muscle aches and often dizziness. And, by sleeping more than seven hours at a time (during the so-called catch up days), you also increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Too Little Sleep Makes Disease Risk Bigger

Cardiovascular disease is not the only ailment associated with poor sleep. Getting only six or fewer hours per night is linked with diabetes and obesity. The link to obesity was studied and published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) and in a recent Mayo Clinic study.

The JCEM article showed that hunger is increased by lack of sleep when the brain’s appetite-control center is activated. The Mayo Clinic findings showed that if you sleep about 80 minutes less than normal, you’re at risk for eating about 550 more calories the next day. Leptin and ghrelin hormones are thought to be responsible for this effect.

“We tested whether lack of sleep altered the levels of the hormones leptin and ghrelin, increased the amount of food people ate and affected energy burned through activity,” says Virend Somers, Mayo Clinic professor and lead author. According to study co-author Andrew Calvin, “Sleep deprivation is a growing problem, with 28 percent of adults now reporting that they get six or fewer hours of sleep per night.”

Simple Sleep Solutions

Whether you suffer from insomnia, sleep apnea or an overly busy schedule, it is imperative that you get ample sleep each and every night. Seven hours seems to be the magic number. But repetition of the same bedtime night after night is crucial. In other words: Keep a constant sleep routine.

Here are tips to help you hit the sleep sweet spot and establish a healthy habit that my enable you to live longer, healthier and happier without heart disease, diabetes or obesity:

• Better manage your time during the day so you don’t work late into the evening.
• Make a list at the end of the workday of what needs to be accomplished or started tomorrow. Don’t obsess over tomorrow’s tasks while lying awake in bed.
• Do not drink caffeinated beverages after 6 p.m., or they may keep you awake.
• Do not drink fluids of any kind after 8 p.m. if you have a weak or overactive bladder.
• Avoid alcohol at night; it disturbs crucial REM sleep.
• Waking up in the middle of the night for any reason is not healthy.
• Help yourself drift into deep sleep by making your sleeping environment as dark as possible. Block incoming light with heavy curtains. Dim the light from electronic devices and keep lit alarm clocks facing away from your bed.
• Set a schedule for sleeping and waking up and stick to it. Repetition makes your body clock stick to a schedule that promotes proper sleep.

Irregular Sleep Instigates Weight Gain And Diabetes

Your body burns calories 24/7. How fast these calories are vaporized is called your metabolic rate. Keep your metabolic rate high by exercising and you’ll have an easier time taking off pounds. Let it slow from hours watching TV and you may gain weight. Plus, if you sleep at irregular hours and don’t get enough consistent shut-eye, your metabolic rate may shut down.

When researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital disrupted people’s biological clocks by making them sleep at odd times, they found their metabolic rates slowed and their blood sugar increased. Both of these developments make you more vulnerable to weight gain and diabetes.

In this study, the scientists found that having people sleep as long as they needed at a consistent time every day boosted their metabolic health.

“We think these results support the findings from studies showing that, in people with a pre-diabetic condition, shift workers who stay awake at night are much more likely to progress to full-on diabetes than day workers,” says researcher Orfeu M. Buxton, Ph.D. “Since night workers often have a hard time sleeping during the day, they can face both circadian disruption working at night and insufficient sleep during the day. The evidence is clear that getting enough sleep is important for health, and that sleep should be at night for best effect.”

Exercise Shown To Ease Arthritis Pain

Excess weight has sometimes been blamed for arthritis pain, as it seems intuitive that extra weight on the joints may lead to stiffness and discomfort. But researchers at Duke University Medical Center have found that exercise can ease pain and improve movement, even when weight loss is not achieved.

In a mouse model, scientists fed one group of rodents a high-fat diet and another subset normal chow. Not surprisingly, the animals that ate unhealthy food gained weight and did not lose excess fat when put on a treadmill each day. However, these mice still experienced improvements in their levels of blood glucose and decreased inflammation, which is associated with arthritis.

"We're trying to understand the interaction of physical activity and obesity," said lead author Timothy Griffin, Ph.D. "Even though there was the same amount of body fat, the fat was different."

The researchers noted that physical activity appears to inhibit the production of inflammatory molecules. Additionally, their findings suggest that while it may be uncomfortable for overweight or obese people with arthritis to exercise, the activity is likely to ultimately alleviate their symptoms.

Is Dental Health At The Root Of Cancer?

Chances are your family doctor has never looked at your teeth. That’s an oversight. The condition of your teeth and gums reflects the health of the rest of your body and can offer insight into your vulnerability for cancer, heart disease and other devastating conditions. The cutting-edge field of holistic dentistry is designed to bridge this knowledge gap, because keeping your mouth and teeth healthy can keep the rest of you from getting sick.

They Don’t Ask, They Can’t Tell

Very few general medical practitioners ever ask about the health of their patients’ teeth. Hardly any oncologists ask whether their cancer patients have root canals or mercury amalgam fillings. As a result, most medical doctors steer clear of making recommendations about dental health. When you visit the doctor and are asked to stick out your tongue for a health exam, it is only to look at your throat.

In Western medicine, we have severed the perception of connections between dental health and overall physical well-being. As a result, we have lost a critical vantage point for evaluating the potential root causes of many life-threatening conditions such as cancer, heart disease, immune disorders and more. The good news is this lifesaving integrative perspective is proving its value through the cutting edge field of holistic, or biological, dentistry.

Regular Dentistry vs. Holistic (Biological) Dentistry

Most conventional dentists are only dimly aware of connections between gum disease, chronic dental infection and overall health. Dentists rarely refer you back to your doctor for further testing or give more than the fairly superficial, though important, advice about brushing, flossing and diet. On the other hand, holistic dentistry takes an in-depth look at dental and overall health, guided by leading research in the field. In particular, holistic dentistry looks hard at the relationship between conventional root canals, periodontal disease, mercury amalgam fillings and other all-too-common dental issues and the progression of any number of chronic diseases throughout the body.

In traditional medical systems, such as Chinese and Tibetan medicine, the examination of the mouth and tongue represents a primary diagnostic tool for gathering information about imbalances in the rest of the body. Today, more and more skilled holistic practitioners and dentists are working together within the field of integrative medicine to collaborate on optimal treatment programs for patients. The holistic dentistry movement is gaining a widening appreciation of the holistic perspectives implicit in traditional healing systems and is being driven by the growing body of published research linking dental health issues and chronic illness. Repeatedly, patients with serious, life-threatening illnesses have experienced dramatic health improvements after skilled holistic dentists have coordinated their evaluations and treatments with integrative health practitioners.

Dental Health Linked To Cancer

Of special importance is the link between cancer and dental health. This is an area on the cutting edge of cancer investigation, and scientists have not yet agreed whether there is a direct cause. From a clinical standpoint, however, I, along with many of my colleagues, have seen time and again that there is a strong correlation between chronic infection associated with root canals and the presence of cancer.

Even more interesting, from an integrative medical perspective, each tooth has associated acu-meridian tooth-organ relationships. (In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the body is home to lines of force — acu-meridians also known as acupuncture meridians — that connect various organs.) Different acupuncture meridians run through the teeth, and specific organs and tissues are associated with each tooth. A chart developed by Dr. Ralph Wilson which you can see here outlines the relationship between each tooth and its associated organs, glands and body areas.

Infected Root Canals Often Don’t Show Symptoms

The most concerning finding in holistic dentistry is that extensive infection can be present in a root canal as well as the bone of the jaw which holds the tooth, in the absence of any direct symptoms. All too often, we rely on our subjective experience of symptoms (like pain) to warn us of problems. In this case, these warnings come usually after significant damage is done, so it is crucial to get proper dental evaluation and testing with regard to root canals and periodontal disease.

At Amitabha Medical Clinic, we refer our patients with root canals for what is called a cone beam scan, which is essentially a CT (or computed tomography) scan of the mouth. A cone beam scan produces 3D digitalized imagery on the computer screen, revealing details which a classic full mouth X-ray does not detect. These scans can tell practitioners whether there is chronic infection in the root of a tooth which needs to be addressed using careful and thorough methods. I encourage my cancer patients to limit the number of CT scans they have because of issues with cumulative radiation; but if you have root canals, the cone beam scan may be the only way to evaluate them. I think it’s worth doing, and the radiation exposure is much lower than a traditional CT. The truth is, the dental profession is largely ignoring the long-term effects of the root canal procedure. For this reason, I encourage you to seek out holistic dentists who have the knowledge and the tools to help you deal with root canals and other common dental issues in a careful and competent way.

Patient Stories

The importance of addressing these types of health issues with an integrative approach are evident in these examples:

• A patient with Stage III colon cancer was found to have infection (with no symptoms) in the root canal associated with the colon. Upon further examination of old dental X-rays, it was found that the tooth had been cracked for many years prior to the root canal. Therefore, it most likely had been chronically infected for a long time prior to the root canal placement and before the colon cancer diagnosis.
• A patient with metastatic breast cancer (with no symptoms) and with several old root canals who was not responding well to her chemotherapy treatments was found to have occult infection in the tooth associated with the breast on the same side as the cancer. The bone above the tooth was almost completely destroyed; the tooth was barely connected. The infected teeth were removed and the area was sterilized with ozone, a specialized form of oxygen therapy. After clearing up the infection, the patient had a better response to the same chemotherapy regimen.
• A patient with endometrial (uterine) cancer who was not responding to treatment and whose surgical scar would not heal because of infection was found to have an extensive infection in the tooth associated with the uterus. She had no oral symptoms. When the tooth was removed, her surgical wound healed quickly, and she began to have a positive response to her chemotherapy regimen.

When The Cure Is In Your Mouth

 A problem with your teeth and gums can cause serious disease in other parts of the body. Arthritic pain, cancer, heart disease, vision trouble and even lack of growth in children often can be linked to what is going on in the mouth. As a result, what seems to be incurable chronic illness can sometimes be reversed by solving a dental difficulty.

Consider these case histories and see if they don’t convince you of the importance of dealing with dental pathology.

Arthritis Pain

Sam C. was a 10-year-old boy with a diagnosis of severe JRA (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis). He struggled to walk due to the pain and arthritis that afflicted his major and minor joints. His doctors offered him treatment with high doses of corticosteroids and gave him a poor prognosis, predicting stunted growth and early death. His mother took him to a chiropractor who recognized that his arthritis started when he had an upper right tooth root canal with a stainless steel crown.

His mother went back to the dentist who had performed the root canal. This dentist refused to extract the tooth because he could not find anything abnormal on his X-rays, and the boy denied any pain in the tooth, surrounding bone or gums. Two more dentists were consulted and both also refused to extract the tooth.

In February 2011, they consulted with Wendell Robertson, D.D.S. Robertson realized that the boy indeed did have dental pain but was in denial. He advised having the tooth extracted, and the socket thoroughly curetted and sterilized with ozone. In two days after this procedure, the tooth pain ended. The arthritic symptoms gradually eased and are now nearly completely gone except when he sprints or takes part in other strenuous exercises.

Seeing The Light

Dan M. was completely blind in August 2011 when he went to Dr. Robertson for dental work. Dan had two teeth extracted and two large mercury-alloy fillings properly removed. Two weeks later, he returned for a follow-up visit and reported he could see blurry outlines of windows and doorways and movement of large objects. A few weeks later, he successfully mowed his lawn with much less difficulty than before.

Although Dan is still seeking a complete cure of his blindness, he has had a near cure after his dental extractions. Further detoxification and cleansing may likely further improve his vision.

Cane Scrutiny

Samantha H. described her hip pain as feeling “like it is out of joint.” But her orthopedist could find nothing wrong on an MRI. Consequently, she was prescribed only pain medication. Samantha was using a cane when she went to Robertson for dental work. After two and a half hours of dental surgery to remove a benign lesion of chronic localized sclerosing osteomyelitis, Samantha could walk without her cane and hasn’t used it since. 

No Growth

Brandon, age 10, came to Robertson for dental work in hopes it could help alleviate his lack of growth. Robertson placed what is called an epigenetic orthodontic appliance in Brandon’s mouth. This device is intended to encourage undifferentiated bone stem cells to grow in parts of the bone plate of the upper mouth.

The appliance created space in the jaw bone. Brandon wore the appliance and began growing taller at the rate of one inch each month for four months. Robertson explains that the appliance relaxed the lower facial bones and allowed for normal pituitary function (inside the skull). The pituitary gland secretes growth hormone and other hormones important for the body’s development.

Late Expectations

These patients did not expect the wonderful results they got from being treated by a biological dentist. But when biological dentistry is combined with proper detoxification and cleansing, you may be able to combat a surprising number of chronic illnesses. Robertson’s clinic website is at www.robertsonbiologicaldentistry.com. You can visit http://www.holisticdental.org/find_holistic_dentist to locate a biological (holistic) dentist near you.