Physical Intelligence - Day 86

This is just one thing that people have been told to do for decades which actually works totally against dental health.   Just as health care is really disease management in the West, dental care advice may not lead to dental health.  If there is one thing I discovered yesterday, it was that we must (or at least I must) continually question what we think is "trusted advice" .

If what we are thinking is wholesale agreeable we remain at the level of "trust" and not "thinking", but if we push on and ask how physically intelligent we are about our teeth, we may find that there is still much to learn and some of it not things our dentist will mention to us.  One of those areas is how our body can NATURALLY heal cavities.  If I don't know this information then my dental care may be missing out on some interesting dental health information. 

We begin to see that life viewed at the shallower and superficial level of personal brand does not often get us to healthier ways of living, only ways that support what most people do to protect their brand and so we focus excessively on hygiene and not on health.  Just because I look good does not mean that I am good, so why would I master image when I can master reality first?  When we start getting our teeth into issues including dental health, we can learn so much more - or at least I can.  If people want to employ a branded persona rather than someone who can think that is there business, but physical intelligence requires us to think.

In Sweden and Finland health authorities have purchased a sweetener for kids - in Finland it is currently a brand called Xyiltol.   This sweetener is what is called a sugar alcohol - but it is neither sugar and nor is it alcholol but dental research has suggested that it can help prevent cavities, so young children in Finnish schools are given this as a "candy".   That itself warrants more study because firstly it does not sound right that a sweet can be helpful for dental care.  When I did begin to study sugar alcohols, the introductory information actually suggested another brand for dental and glycemic purposes :

Once we start questioning the overtly branded world we live in, it can begin to move us towards a healthier and more physically fit world because we are questioning marketing practices, not health practices. 

There are many natural remedies in the world that ancient cultures have used, which because we live in a patent led, marketed and for-profit world are not approved for our use.  In many cases we may think that this is our health system protecting us from remedies from a different culture of medicine, but if that is the case, then we should become a bit more aware of how patents are now being used to secure ancient remedies and this practice, it turns out is called biopiracy.  In India there are people who are questioning patents being filed around neem leaves, something that contributes to teeth health in Indian villages. This all falls under the realm of biopiracy and for me when I personally explore, I want a whole system outlook, not what is going to get me a job because of societal judgements :

It is interesting the kind of questions that media groups like VICE ask because they are the same kind of questions that I am interested in and this questioning of our world and how it applies to us individually is what I see we are slowly shifting towards.  This is a world where young people are asking deeper questions and these are questions that mainstream news organizations don't consider rating worthy - what is rating worthy is millions of people who are being advertised to or sold whatever it is likely they will pay attention to. What is important to me is that I am not paying attention to it and more and more people are following suit,  but these are early stages. So it is I question the premise of seeing things through a brand view.

The trouble is that unless we find more outlets like VICE to get this news, we may end up listening to well branded but empty information - so this is a time when we need to keep our wits and understand that while brand may help us sell ourselves to others, it is also used to sell others and their views upon us.  That is one branded message (A BRANDED ME) going out in this world and thousands coming back (A BRANDED YOU).  Instead the choice I have taken is grit my own teeth and figure physical intelligence as it pertains to ME. 

I don't reject what Juan Imaz has said about dental care because there is a mass of people who don't look after their teeth but they are also the reason why we have ended up with a heavily branded society,  because these are the very people who make judgements about people's teeth and how they perceive people.  If I narrow my personal and professional orbit, I can reduce the effects of these judgemental people and focus on simpler things like HAVING HEALTHIER TEETH. 

I do want to go beyond this and engage my own learning journey, but to support what Juan Imaz has said about dental hygiene in his buzz, the BBC documentary "The Truth About Teeth" is well worth watching.  yes it is sad but it is actually what people do in terms of judgements :

Truth about Teeth Part 1 via You-Tube : My Better Dentists

The Truth about Teeth Part 2 via You-Tube : My Better Dentists