Jacob Schor
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A Diffent Look at Preventive Healthcare
"Preventive healthcare" is the buzzword these days for cutting healthcare costs, yet few things labeled preventive really fit the term. Most preventive strategies focus on earlier disease detection; blood pressure screening, PAP smears, TSH's, fasting blood sugars, and even routine dental exams focus on making you visit your doctor more frequently hoping to discover a problem early on, before it gets worse. Once discovered, the doctors get an earlier start on treating your illness. Earlier detection and intervention does not prevent disease.
I'm going to write about two simple things which are really preventive health care, ways in which a pregnant woman can positively effect the health of her future infant. You might not have heard about them before; they aren't promoted by the traditional medical establishment.
The first is so easy you're going to think I'm kidding. Chew gum. Not just any gum but gum sweetened with the natural sugar xylitol. This simple habit can decrease tooth decay in both mom and offspring for years to come. Although it tastes sweet, the bacteria that live in your mouth and which are responsible for tooth decay, can't digest it. When a person chews xylitol gum regularly these bacteria go hungry and die off, and as a result tooth decay, plaque build up, and gingivitis also decrease. Changes in dental health are so pronounced that the US Army now adds xylitol sweetened gum into its MREs. The earlier a child starts chewing xylitol gum, the better the effect. Xylitol also inhibits the bugs that cause earaches and we've been using it with kids prone to ear inflammation and infection for years.
A study conducted in Finland had a group of 195 pregnant women chew xylitol gum regularly. They then watched their offspring. At the end of a five-year follow-up, the xylitol kids had 70 percent fewer cavities than the control group of kids whose mothers did not chew the xylitol gum. That is preventive health care.
A second thing pregnant women can do to protect their offspring from disease is take cod liver oil. OK, so swallowing cod liver oil is not as much fun as chewing gum. Still it works. Mothers who dose with cod liver oil, decrease the incidence of Type I diabetes in their kids. A Norwegian study found that the children of women who had taken cod liver oil during pregnancy had a 70 percent lower risk of developing diabetes. An even bigger reason to take cod liver oil during pregnancy is that the specific fats found in these oils are essential for brain development and aren't made in the mother's body. These fats need to be obtained through the diet. In other words, moms -to-be who take fish oils produce smarter kids. Making smarter kids isn't disease prevention; just call it a beneficial side effect. Reducing diabetes certainly is preventive healthcare.
Chewing xylitol sweetened gum and taking cod liver oil during pregnancy are two examples of real preventive health. Think of this next time your doctor says a yearly checkup and lab work is preventive. Most things passing as preventive are simply early disease detection and, often as not, enrich the coffers of whoever is promoting them.
Jacob Schor, N.D. majored in Food Science and Product Development as an undergraduate at Cornell University, and received his doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine at National College in Portland, Oregon in 1991. He served as President of the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Physicians from 1992-1999 and maintains a private practice at the Denver Naturopathic Clinic.