The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated guidelines for dental amalgams:

Dental amalgam fillings may release small amounts of mercury in the form of a vapor (gas), depending on the number and age of existing fillings, and actions such as tooth grinding and gum chewing. When a new amalgam filling is placed or an old filling is removed, patients and healthcare providers may experience a temporary increase in exposure to mercury vapor. While there are no known health risks associated with ingestion (swallowing) of small particles of dental amalgam, inhaling (breathing in) mercury vapors may be harmful in certain patients.

In general, people with multiple dental amalgam fillings may have slightly higher mercury levels in their blood or urine, however, they usually remain at a level considered safe. Studies on people with dental amalgam do not show conclusive evidence that dental amalgam causes harmful health effects in the general population.

FDA

The FDA goes on to state that certain people, “including women who are pregnant or who are planning to become pregnant, nursing mothers, children (especially those under the age of six), people with a known allergy to mercury, and people with a neurological impairment or kidney dysfunction,” could be more susceptible to damage caused by dental amalgam. They recommend that anyone who is of the “high-risk populations identified” should avoid dental amalgam “if possible and appropriate.”

Related: Heal Cavities, Gum Disease, Naturally with Organic Oral Care – Toothpaste recipes included

The FDA says that groups with greater risk for potential harmful health effects of mercury vapor include:

• People with known heightened sensitivity (allergies) to mercury or other components of dental amalgams
• People with pre-existing neurological conditions
• Pregnant women and developing fetuses
• Nursing women and their babies
• Children, especially younger than six years
• People with poor kidney health

Sources:

1. Information for Patients About Dental Amalgam Fillings – FDA
2. Breaking: FDA Acknowledges Amalgam Fillings Potential Harm for Pregnant Women & Children – Health Nut News

The secretary of California Health and Human Services, Dr. Mark Ghaly, announced on Friday that the state of California will be forming an independent review board to evaluate COVID-19 vaccine data.

We think it is an appropriate approach to take, especially because things are moving so quickly. We want to make sure — despite the urge and interest in having a useful vaccine — that we do it with the utmost safety of Californians in mind.”

Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of CA Health and Human Services

Related: Natural Coronavirus Prevention

California is not the only state or jurisdiction saying they will independently analyze coronavirus vaccines. Others include Colorado, the District of Columbia, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and West Virginia. Montana and Wyoming have said they would only administer vaccines if they had completed clinical trials and had been reviewed by an outside committee.

Confidence in the coronavirus vaccine has been steadily waning as government timelines continue to waver. President Trump has consistently promised that the vaccine will be ready before the election and all Americans will be vaccinated by April, while the director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, maintains that widespread vaccination will not be achieved until the third quarter of 2021. According to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, only 51% of Americans would probably get the vaccine as opposed to the 72% that would give the same answer in May.

The drama surrounding COVID-19 vaccines continues as President Trump suggested that the executive branch would not support stricter guidelines for evaluating a COVID-19 vaccine. If approved, the new guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would include additional specifications for clinical trial data and a committee of independent experts to review that data before any vaccine is approved. President Trump continues to promise a vaccine before the end of the year, despite experts saying that is unlikely. Trump asserted that the plan to introduce more guidelines was political in nature.

Related: Natural Coronavirus Prevention

That has to be approved by the White House. We may or may not approve it. That sounds like a political move. I think that was a political move more than anything else…”

President Trump

This announcement will add fuel to the growing anti-Trump-vaxxer movement taking place in the Democratic party. Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris cast doubt on the efficacy and safety of a COVID-19 vaccine implemented during a Trump presidency earlier in September.

I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump, and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about….I will not take his word for it.”

Senator Kamala Harris

Related: How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children

The pandemic has been stressful for Americans, especially those who are working class, and a new study finds that stress reflected in our mental health. Available on JAMA Network Open, the study finds that rates of depression have tripled in the United States, rising from 8.5% before the pandemic to 27.8%. The data was collected from a survey with 1,441 participants conducted in April of 2020.

Spikes in depression are common during and after large scale trauma events. Researchers also evaluated the impact of stressors on the survey takers’ mental health. Lower-income individuals with less than $5,000 in savings who were exposed to a greater amount of stressors were most at risk for depression. This group was the most vulnerable before the pandemic and experienced a 50% increase in depression risk.

Related: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

While further data will be needed to assess the trajectory of depression in the US population and potential treatment for affected populations, it seems important to recognize the potential for the mental health consequences of COVID-19 to be large in scale, to recognize that these effects can be long-lasting, and to consider preventative action to help mitigate its effects.²⁸ In particular, this burden is being borne by economically and socially marginalized groups, suggesting that individuals with low income and with fewer resources may benefit from particular policy attention in coming months

Prevalence of Depression Symptoms in US Adults Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Parkinson’s disease is a nervous system disorder that affects movement. As early as 2000, research has shown that Parkinson’s disease originates in the gut. Many studies have proposed that pathogens from the gut travel to the brain via the nervous system.

One animal study last year, for example, produced the best evidence to date of this gut-brain connection, demonstrating how misfolded proteins can travel to the brain through the vagus nerve. Another from earlier this year showed how some species of gut bacteria could inhibit the accumulation of these proteins, while another highlighted how altered neurons that regulate the digestive system may play a role in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s linked to overabundance of opportunistic gut pathogens

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A new study done in 2017 by neurologists from the University of Alabama has shown that opportunistic pathogens take advantage of the body’s weakened defenses, driving infection, in Parkinson’s disease. Researchers used advanced DNA sequencing and computational tools to analyze data from previous studies as well as new independent data. Researchers looked at 520 cases of Parkinson’s and 300 controls within the study.

Related: How To Heal Your Gut 

The best treatment and prevention for Parkinson’s Disease is having a healthy gut. To learn more about gut health and how to heal the gut, check out this article.

An increased number of google searches for gastrointestinal issues corresponded with an increase in COVID-19 cases, according to a new study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Researchers were inspired to look into this phenomena by the tendency of patients with COVID-19 to report symptoms like abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Our data underscore the importance of GI symptoms as a potential harbinger of Covid-19 infection and suggests that Google Trends may be a valuable tool for prediction of pandemics with GI manifestations…”

Kyle Staller, director of Mass General’s gastrointestinal motility laboratory

Related: Natural Coronavirus Prevention

Researchers used Alphabet Inc.’s Google Trends online tool to compare searches for diarrhea and loss of taste and appetite with reported COVID-19 cases. They found a positive correlation. Areas that experienced a high volume of gastrointestinal symptom searches, like New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts and Illinois, became states with high-disease burdens three to four weeks after the searches.

Related: How To Heal Your Gut

This study comes on the heels of another study that COVID-19 patients often have prolonged viral intestinal infections. Patients with gut infections continued to have positive stool tests, even after respiratory tests came back negative.

Cases of colon cancer are on the rise in young people, and a study found that people with gum disease are at a significantly higher risk of developing colorectal cancers. Those with gum disease had a 52% higher chance of developing colon cancer and a 43% higher chance of developing throat cancer. The study also found that people who had lost two or more teeth were also at a higher risk for stomach (33%) and throat (42%) cancer.

Participants with periodontal disease and a higher number of teeth lost had a higher risk of developing the two gastrointestinal cancers, even after adjusting for other major risk factors…” 

Mingyang Song, Harvard assistant professor of clinical epidemiology and nutrition

The world was shocked when Chadwick Boseman, the 43-year-old actor who portrayed Black Panther, died of colon cancer recently, but he was part of the growing group of young adults who have been diagnosed with colon cancer. From 2011 to 2016, the rate of colon cancer diagnoses in the United States rose by 1% every year in people aged 50 to 64 and 2.2% in people under age 50. After excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most diagnosed cancer in the U.S.

Your gums are indicative of your body’s overall health.

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• Heal Cavities, Gum Disease, Naturally with Organic Oral Care – Toothpaste recipes included