Rereading an old post, I found this:
Today I had my teeth cleaned and was told my gums were in excellent shape, better than ever before [due to flaxseed oil]. They were less inflamed than usual. “What causes inflammation?” I asked. “Tartar,” I was told.
I believe that reddish gums are a great sign (so easy to see) that overall your body has too much inflammation, putting you at higher risk for many common diseases. (Perhaps due to too little omega-3, which the body uses to make an anti-inflammation hormone.) Every day my dentist measured, or at least saw, a great correlate of health (the redness of his patients’ gums) and failed to notice. It’s like failing to notice an oil field under your property. If dentists became experts in measuring gum redness and helped their patients lower overall inflammation, the public health contribution would be great. (Writing this makes me wonder why I haven’t become skilled at measuring the redness of my gums.)
Experimental psychologists are in a similar position. I believe brain health is closely correlated with health of the rest of the body. In other words, the foods that make the brain work better make the rest of the body work better. I discovered the anti-inflammatory effects of flaxseed oil because it improved my balance. The brain is much easier to study (via behavior) than the rest of the body — it’s a model system for the rest of the body. Experimental psychologists are as unaware of their good fortune as dentists. By using their skills to figure out how to have the healthiest possible brain, they could make a great contribution to human welfare.
I see a Meta-Rule: “Don’t consume anything that increases the redness of your gums.” Here is a simple rule that some may deduce from that: “Don’t eat red popsicles.” Just kidding. My brother is applying to dental school soon, and maybe he will be able to tap into this good fortune sometime in the near future. Weston Price did a nice job using snapshots of people’s faces and of their smiles (teeth) to provide a “window” into overall systemic health. I agree that oral health is a great proxy for the state of the machine overall. Personally, increasing my animal lipid intake has improved my oral health (epithelial health, generally) and gave me a practical feedback loop to tap into for my own self-experimenting. However, I can’t think of a good way to measure redness of gums, aside from high-quality photographs. I’ll keep thinking, though.
There seem to be mixed reactions to flaxseed oil, as much as I’ve read about it online. And one needs also consider that flax basically only has ALA and no EPA or DHA, which should be the two types most identified for their anti-inflammatory effect. Have you tried any fish based omega-3 oils to see what kind of effect they have compared to flax?
The healthy baseline redness is bound to vary from person to person. Anemic persons may give a false impression of health.
Is bleeding directly related to inflammation-levels? Can I just feel more or less alright so long as there’s no blood on my toothbrush?
I am mindful to eat omega-3 and the dentist never has the least reservation about my clean bill of dental health.
G, I don’t know the answer to your question about bleeding. About individual differences: It’s not obvious that they’re large enough to matter.