You cannot be serious! This is how many of my patients react when I tell them that tooth decay is a stress disease.
It seems so far away from stress as a concept that it sounds absurd!How can you possibly connect the rotting of teeth with this 'stress' idea.
Stress is probably the most talked about subject in popular health literature as well as increasingly in the more academic health literature.
This is for very good reason.
People have rightly begun to associate levels of stress in modern times with ill-health.
People have noticed that stress not only affects the quality of our lives but have also contributes to the deterioration of the quality of our health in general.
'Stress-related' illness has become a password for modern times, - the bane of modern living.
What is Stress? As is common with subjects that get a lot of airing, all sorts of notions can get mixed in with the discussion and misunderstandings become very commonplace.
In one sense it is extremely difficult to define exactly what is stress.
Many definitions of stress have been put forward and some have become fashionable.
Unfortunately the fashionable ones, usually the most accepted, are often the least accurate.
The most obvious example of this misunderstanding is equating stress with "busyness " or being too busy.
This allows us to blame our circumstances (job, family, etc.
) and we may feel we can do nothing about it.
Yet we all know that it is perfectly possible to be extremely busy but perfectly at ease with our situation.
Indeed we have all been in situations where although we have had a lot to do, we nonetheless feel happy and content with our lot.
Stress relates to feelings.
If you are very busy, you might feel very happy that your business is flourishing.
But if you are very busy and you feel that this is being caused unfairly by another who is not carrying his duties as he should, you might feel resentment at the amount of work that you are being asked to do.
In both situations you are very busy but in one case you are feeling happy and in the other you are feelingdeep resentment.
You could say that stress is really an expression of our emotional well being.
Stress then could be said to be any form of negative emotion or feeling such as fear, worry, doubt, anxiety, bitterness, regret, frustration, resentment, anger, rage etc.
And what has all that that to do with my rotten tooth, pray tell? Science tells us that the major factor in tooth decay is what they call 'sugar frequency'.
This is the number of times per day that we put sugar(sweet things) into the mouth.
Each time we use sweet, the carbohydrate (sugar) is broken down into acid by the bacteria in the mouth.
The acid environment thus produced tends to demineralize the enamel (or dentine) of the tooth.
By repeatedly and or constantly producing the acid environment for the teeth, defects are created in the tooth surface.
These defects are populated by bacteria which thrive in the acid conditions and the cavity (decaying defect) is produced.
The process continues and the cavity gets bigger.
But what has that to do with stress? Ask yourself, why do you think a person would tend to have a high frequency of carbohydrate in their daily diet?What does the scientific term 'high frequency' translate to, in human terms?Simply put the high frequency is a dependence, a kind of addictive behaviour or habit.
The person uses sugar (sweet) as a means of comfort or reward.
Naturally then, when we are feeling upset, hurt or under pressure in some way (stressed) we are much more likely to feel the need to comfort ourselves.
And obviously if sweet things are what we use to comfort ourselves then our 'sugar frequency' will be high.
It is that simple! Such is the simple direct relationship between stress and tooth decay.
Stress (feelings of discomfort or upset) leads to increased desire for sweet things which leads to an increase in 'frequency of carbohydrate' in the diet and the 'high frequency' of carbohydrate (sugar) in the diet provides the acid conditions that allow the formation of the defects in the tooth and the initiation of the decay process.
As I said "Tooth Decay is a Stress Disease!"
It seems so far away from stress as a concept that it sounds absurd!How can you possibly connect the rotting of teeth with this 'stress' idea.
Stress is probably the most talked about subject in popular health literature as well as increasingly in the more academic health literature.
This is for very good reason.
People have rightly begun to associate levels of stress in modern times with ill-health.
People have noticed that stress not only affects the quality of our lives but have also contributes to the deterioration of the quality of our health in general.
'Stress-related' illness has become a password for modern times, - the bane of modern living.
What is Stress? As is common with subjects that get a lot of airing, all sorts of notions can get mixed in with the discussion and misunderstandings become very commonplace.
In one sense it is extremely difficult to define exactly what is stress.
Many definitions of stress have been put forward and some have become fashionable.
Unfortunately the fashionable ones, usually the most accepted, are often the least accurate.
The most obvious example of this misunderstanding is equating stress with "busyness " or being too busy.
This allows us to blame our circumstances (job, family, etc.
) and we may feel we can do nothing about it.
Yet we all know that it is perfectly possible to be extremely busy but perfectly at ease with our situation.
Indeed we have all been in situations where although we have had a lot to do, we nonetheless feel happy and content with our lot.
Stress relates to feelings.
If you are very busy, you might feel very happy that your business is flourishing.
But if you are very busy and you feel that this is being caused unfairly by another who is not carrying his duties as he should, you might feel resentment at the amount of work that you are being asked to do.
In both situations you are very busy but in one case you are feeling happy and in the other you are feelingdeep resentment.
You could say that stress is really an expression of our emotional well being.
Stress then could be said to be any form of negative emotion or feeling such as fear, worry, doubt, anxiety, bitterness, regret, frustration, resentment, anger, rage etc.
And what has all that that to do with my rotten tooth, pray tell? Science tells us that the major factor in tooth decay is what they call 'sugar frequency'.
This is the number of times per day that we put sugar(sweet things) into the mouth.
Each time we use sweet, the carbohydrate (sugar) is broken down into acid by the bacteria in the mouth.
The acid environment thus produced tends to demineralize the enamel (or dentine) of the tooth.
By repeatedly and or constantly producing the acid environment for the teeth, defects are created in the tooth surface.
These defects are populated by bacteria which thrive in the acid conditions and the cavity (decaying defect) is produced.
The process continues and the cavity gets bigger.
But what has that to do with stress? Ask yourself, why do you think a person would tend to have a high frequency of carbohydrate in their daily diet?What does the scientific term 'high frequency' translate to, in human terms?Simply put the high frequency is a dependence, a kind of addictive behaviour or habit.
The person uses sugar (sweet) as a means of comfort or reward.
Naturally then, when we are feeling upset, hurt or under pressure in some way (stressed) we are much more likely to feel the need to comfort ourselves.
And obviously if sweet things are what we use to comfort ourselves then our 'sugar frequency' will be high.
It is that simple! Such is the simple direct relationship between stress and tooth decay.
Stress (feelings of discomfort or upset) leads to increased desire for sweet things which leads to an increase in 'frequency of carbohydrate' in the diet and the 'high frequency' of carbohydrate (sugar) in the diet provides the acid conditions that allow the formation of the defects in the tooth and the initiation of the decay process.
As I said "Tooth Decay is a Stress Disease!"