Root canals, amalgam fillings, detox, uncertainty and belief
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On Monday 11th I had the dental work to remove a root canal with infection at the root and two wisdom teeth, also infected at the root. Cavitation is where there is infection in the jaw. This can be the result of past extractions which have left infection in the jaw which has slowly festered over years. I had cavitation under one wisdom tooth and in the top back of my jaw, on both sides, where I had and teeth removed when I was a teenager. The dentist, a specialist biological (non mercury non fluoride etc dentist), cleaned out the jaw and infections. I also had two amalgams (with mercury) removed. I had very high mercury readings coming from them and have clearly been ingesting this for years.
Over this period I have read as much as I possibly can about dental toxicity. The dentist works with a detox programme to support you before and then after the removals - to help prevent infection but also to deal with the detox process that comes after removal of amalgams. For some reason once the mercury is moved from the mouth it can mobilise existing mercury and you need to be taking supplements to support / bind with the mercury to exit the body. As part of this process the dentist administers high dose IV vitamin C and glutatione. I returned the following two mornings for additional IV treatment as part of the detox and to aid healing. A week on, the inflammation had for the most part settled down. I am still having trouble eating and cannot chew properly yet, so eat like a rabbit, using the front teeth and where possible I eat soft food.
I have had some detox reactions. My skin all over has come alive. My skin was my early warning of trouble in my liver - it must by my canary. I have, of course, considered whether this is a symptom of trouble in my liver but I think there is a good enough case for it to be a response to the extraction and detox. If you read about the process the detox process is expected. It does cross my mind but I feel so empowered having had the teeth removed, I feel it unlocks another pathway for healing. The infection was at the very least draining my immune system and at worst dribbling bacteria into my system and the mercury was poisoning me daily. With them all removed it has given me a psychological boost. There are some people (Bill Henderson who wrote Heal Cancer Gently) who put dental toxicity as very high up on the contributory factors to cancer. He is not alone. I feel positive that at least now my body is not wasting its time on managing these toxins and infections. Detox has other symptoms, foggy brain among them. Dr Martin was clear that I should deal with the mercury and the infections. I reckon immunotherapy approaches are likely to work better if the immune system is not compromised like this. At the very least it has not done me any harm and at most it could be the key that helps strengthen the impact of all the other strategies I am using.
I was in the chair for about 4.5 hours - and as well as a sore mouth I had a sore jaw. Keeping your mouth open that long is pretty hard. I tried to use all sorts of visualisation to distract my focus from the scraping and drilling and the discomfort. I did pretty well, I think I did anyway. I was not so good at the visualisation but the time did not go too slowly and I felt pretty OK after it. That night and the following morning were the most difficult. Ella came to help me and found all sorts of soft foods I could eat. I have taken the past two weeks slowly, being careful to keep my mouth clean. The last thing I need is an infection - not only would it need treating (and antibiotics are really to be avoided if at all possible to keep building my gut) but it would also give an excuse for those who doubt these treatments are worth it and think they are too invasive. Some of my loved ones did doubt the necessity of doing this. I don't blame them thinking that it is quite aggressive treatment and it self could put temporary strain on my immune system - but I know that anyone who finds themselves in my position would take any approach on its merit and balance the pros and cons and make a judgement. This is what I did and the decision was easy. Let’s hope the detox symptoms do not last long and that my immune system is already benefiting.
I am having 2 weekly blood tests. The ones before the dental work were OK. The cancer markers were not taken (they should have been) but maybe that is a good thing. If they had been high it would simply have made me unsettled. One of my liver bloods was very slightly raised. I know my bloods and do not like that it was up - but the other liver blood test was normal so for the time being my liver is coping OK. As it was the bloods were good enough for me to feel safe to go ahead with the dental work.
My next visit to Germany was already booked for the week 14th February and we seem so close to it now that I think probably that is when I will go. By then I will have had one more blood test and they will do one also. These, and how I am will determine what I donext. Another round of dendritic cell or start another immunotherapy. I would like to think I am keeping the cancer in its place with my efforts and that we just do another dendritic cell, but if my bloods are not looking so positive Dr Martin may suggest we move to another immunotherapy approach they offer. The longer I can stay away from new treatments the better as each are another rung on a ladder of options open to me. Apart from my skin I feel well. I am sleeping well and feeling good. I need to build up my fitness which is not good. I haven't been able to exercise for a while and really need to bring that back into my daily routine.
The kids are all back at school/college/university and life feels normal. This is good. One of the benefits of my situation is that I am at home more often as my ability to travel with my job is curtailed. Temporarily I would like to think. For now I have cut my workingweek to 70% time and work from home a lot while I recover from the teeth and as I try and avoid the travel to London on what must be the worst trainline ever. Ever since I can remember the line from Brighton to London is subject to work during the weekends, which means bus replacement services. My last two train journeys involved line closure to Three Bridges, train to East Grinstead, Train to East Croydon then train to London. The latest journey stopped at Hassocks as the tunnel through the Downs was flooded. Surely this is not a new phenomenon? Why would we not have a solution to this now? I always have a feeling that one day the work will end and the route to London will be fast and efficient and we will celebrate its ease and our luck to live somewhere so relatively close to London. But it seems easier to get from Birmingham to London. For those who commute the constant staff absences, power lines down, signal failure, points failure etc etc travel to London at the moment is torture. For this reason I try and avoid itas it can take 4-5 hours door to door.
My latest self help cancer book is the one I mentioned above by Bill Henderson. I am going to copy out some of the content in the introduction - which I revisit when I have a wobble. I will pick out some of the content which has been most influential in convincing me that I need to tread a different path.
I will actually first start with a quote from a book by HaroldW Harper, MD “How you can beat the killer diseases”
‘What if cancer is systemic, chronic, metabolic disease of which lumps and bumps constitute only symptoms? Will this not mean that billions… have been misspent and that the basic premises on which cancer treatment and research are grounded are wrong? Of course it will, and in decades to come a perplexed future generation will look back in amazement on how current medicine approached cancer with the cobaltmachine, the surgical knife, and the introduction of poisons into the system and wonder if such brutality actually occurred.’
From Bill Henderson’s book…
‘As a bare minimum, to avoid being damaged by this system, you must educate yourself. You must be prepared to get more then one opinion. Then, when you’ve found the doctor (or homeopath or naturopath) that you trust, you must be prepared to be co-doctor with him or her throughout your treatment. Better yet, get the knowledge you need and heal yourself.’
‘In summary, CANCER IS NOT A “DISEASE”, it is a symptom of an imbalance in your body! It is simply your own body’s cells. The number of unusual fermenting cells (cancer cells) produced by your daily cell metabolism (division process) has exceeded the ability of your immune system to handle them. Your stem cells multiply much more rapidly thank cancer cells…so cancer cells are not even the most rapidly dividing cells in your body. They’re just abnormal cells that need to be killed or nurtured back into health.
Our body produces cancer cells every day, by the millions. Our normal cell policing mechanism takes care of them - until it can’t any more. Then we are eventually diagnosed with cancer.
The cancer probably took years to develop to the point where it was detected. If you need a cause, blame it on your lifestyle. With that understanding, you also know that treating cancer is a lifelong process. Once the cancer is under control, or in “remission” you must continue to keep it there with good lifestyle choices and by supporting you immune system for the rest of your life.
You can look on cancer as a chronic condition, something like hypertension, heart trouble or diabetes. You must keep your body in top-notch cancer fighting shape.
Conventional cancer treatment destroys your immune system. Oncologists pay little attention to rebuilding it or changing your lifestyle. This is why patients with cancer treated with conventional treatment seem to get better, only to have the cancer recur in a few months or years in a more aggressive form. Additionally, the cancer that returns is usually resistant to the previous chemotherapeutic agents used. The weak cancer cells have been killed off by the treatment and the stronger ones survive, only to reproduce themselves. Eventually, all are strong and treatment resistant.’
The book goes on to share non toxic approaches to healing and strengthening your immune system. It is clearly harder once the cancer has spread but in their view and extensive experience of working with thousands of patients, even stage IV patients can heal. For those who have had chemotherapy etc (like me) the road is longer as there is so much to repair along the way. They review some of the evidence of the effectiveness of chemotherapy (high death rates from the treatment itself not the cancer and almost non existent extension to life) and suggest that for those of us with advanced cancer, it is not surprising oncologists give us such a poor prognosis - they know that what they can offer will not cure it. But if you are prepared to believe that if only you could address the underlying causes (emotional, nutritional, toxins etc) and boost that immune system so it can take back control making your body as inhospitable to cancer then there is a path which could lead to healing. In the authors view ‘the cause of cancer is that in most cases it occurs as a result of 1) an emotional trauma, extended stress etc 2) root canal teeth and/or cavitations (CHECK!). Both of these suppress the immune system and allow cancer (and opportunistic condition) to grow; and 3) what we put in our mouth and body.
In Chapter one the authors list what they call the Four Essentials which they have taken from their experience of working with thousands of people with cancer over a 20 year period. Those who have been successful share four essentials. I will write now only about the first of these.
Essential 1: Attitude
‘Cancer’ they say ‘ is survivable’. It doesn’t matter what ‘stage’ or type of cancer. All patients with cancer can overcome it and live out their normal lifespan. People who believe this, with all their heart and soul, get well. Those who doubt it don’t. It’s that simple’ (GULP - I BELIEVE I BELIEVE)
Two things seem to characterise the patients with cancer that we’ve seen get well: First, they have decided to take charge of their own health care; and second, they have committed 100% to some regimen involving eating habits and supplements, and (super important) identifying and reversing the cause(s) of their cancer.
How do you get and keep this commitment and positive attitude? Gain knowledge about the wide variety of cancer survivors and how they survived. What caused their cancer and how they got over it. Seek them out and talk to them. This is not a search for the ‘magic bullet’ that heals all cancers. There is not such thing.
There are, however, literally hundreds of substances that are non-toxic and natural. Each one alone, or combined with others, has helped thousands of patients with cancer become cancer-free. There are simple lifestyle changes (diet, supplements, exercise, sunshine and emotional peace) that restore health to patients with cancer.
Of course I like to read books written by people who believe that cancer is survivable no matter what the stage.
I have felt quite lonely ever since the scan. Not alone, but lonely. I spend so much time religiously completing my daily treatments (including some rebounding - bouncing on a small trampoline - good for the lymph system). I am juicing twice a day now. I have added a few things to my regime (including the detox therapy from the Dentist) which includes CBD oil (more about that another time). I am happy to talk about what the latest health news is but it is as if I have become my illness. It dominates my everyday simply because of all the various approaches I am using, but more profoundly it dominates as I live with what I can only call a mental electric fence. The future. You can get close but if you try and cross the line and look to far ahead you get shocked. I believe I can survive but I don’t know it yet, I have not yet reached a point where I can honestly say I have turned a corner. I am not sure what I might have been like had I not taken this path, so perhaps I have already made a great dent in my fight - given I also had immunotherapy together with the lifestyle changes. But while I can talk with others about their future plans (conversations inevitably err toward the future), over the last month or so, I have been so acutely aware of that electric fence. With blood tests every 2-3 weeks and some uncertainty overhanging the recent past my electric fence is really only weeks away. This is the uncertainty I have to learn to live with until I am more sure that my efforts are taking effect.
I have delayed a blood test by another couple of days. I am being rather ostrich like as really I don't want to know what my bloods say at all. But as I have my next trip to Germany booked, and only a couple of weeks away, I do need to have a status update so Dr Martin and team can decide with me what the next move is.