(First of all, if you haven't read the chapter in the link in the post before this (pretty please with organic maple syrup on top :)...stop right now and go back and read it before reading any of this. It's (really) SO important that you read that chapter, because that fundamental information will make everything I'm suggesting SO much more clear & understandable). This is the chapter: Ascorbic Acid Is Not Vitamin C
Well, I don't know how anxious you've been to get this response (or if you have been at all), but I've gotta tell ya, I've been jumpin' & bouncin' around in my spirit like an excited lil' puppy dog since I first read your post! And here's why: ever since I started posting on CZ there's this "thing" that happens to me, and it goes something like this...every night before I sign off the 'puter I randomly click around the various forums to see what's happening in CZ land and take note of things I discern I need to research. Every now and then I see a post that my spirit seems to "recognize" (that's not exactly the right word, but it's close) - and I'll click on the person's posting history and continue to follow my inner voice. When I first stumbled across your posts (a few months ago), they clicked - and I immediately knew that you were someone that would/could completely grasp and understand what truly natural healing is all about...and that gave me a HUGE 'heart smile'.
I learned very quickly when I first opened this forum (contrary to what some have said or even lied about), to allow 'what will be, to be'...and to do no more than (maybe) offer some insight via PM - and only then, if someone is experiencing a major crisis. But even then, my caring & 'reaching out' has been misinterpreted on other forums, so I've done my best to not do anything that others might consider "stalking" or proselytizing. Still, I've been keeping up with your posts & progress before I go to bed (and done a lot of celebrating, empathizing and crying right along with you...as well as sending you tons of good healing energy & blessings). So, I know a bit more about your history than you'd expect, and even though I want to make this post a zillion pages long, I'm going to do my best to stick to the subject at hand...your question and your poor gums. Onward...
Selected excerpts from the 'mission statement' of the website - The Doctor Within (my addition in [brackets]).
Healers of the past have already solved most health problems of today. Unfortunately, most of their work died with them. Their voices have been muted by the din of a thousand self-proclaimed experts and Magic Bullet salesmen. - But the field of alternative medicine itself is like a wild jungle, full of unsubstantiated claims, junk science, and marketing hype. - To trek through that terrain alone, without a guide – just doing internet searches for natural health will soon plunge the reader into confusion.
There is a trail. From the past 150 years, we were given a legacy of holistic principles that focuses at the cellular level, which is where real health resides. - The healthiest people in human history were groups who were geographically isolated from “civilization.” - They had no specialists, no PPOs, no prescription drugs, no insurance, and no immense hospitals. [They had no ND's pushing toxic supplements that alter the harmony & balance of our body and prevent it from healing itself]. They were never subverted with the idea that the responsibility for their own health lay outside themselves. For most of their lives they looked to the body’s inner wisdom, and trusted only that.
And it worked – they had beautiful teeth, strong bones, and almost no degenerative disease.
Today it’s almost as though our ancestors are trying to speak to us. The searching, jumbled mess we find in today’s Alternative Medicine has a real and vital underlying power source: the impulse to give the body time to heal itself, to let it try and put the steps of the healing process together by itself – in short, to listen first to...the doctor within.
I shared that because it's SO important to know...the healers of the past did know how to truly heal the body and people did listen to their doctor within rather than their intellect (and what we've now been conditioned to believe as "proof" & "science"). Long before there was 'alternative medicine' there was natural healing. It was/is based on what is natural for the body, and focused on the truth that when the body is sick it's because it's out of harmony (homeostasis), and the only thing necessary for healing is to assist our body back to it's natural balance...once that's done, the unfathomably advanced healing schematics of the body will (always) restore itself. Our body is programmed & hard-wired to HEAL & LIVE...but those healing schematics cannot possibly work when we are ingesting chemicals that constantly throw our body out of harmony & homeostasis. No rebuilding can be done or started until the body has the two things required to sustain life in any organism (no matter how big or small the organism): 1) The ability to assimilate nutrition 2) The ability to expel it's own waste. When we're having less than 3-5 healthy bms daily and our livers & kidneys are compromised, we're not doing either (btw, everyone that's over 20 has some level of kidney compromise). THIS is the root of ALL the diseases in the body. Another great link for reading & learning: How "Cure" Happens - Dr. Kenneth R. Sutter
What do I think is wrong with your gums? Ascorbic acid (and other supplements that throw your body's healing schematics totally out of harmony), along with an inability to assimilate nutrition adequately, which is caused by the inability to expel waste...which is also what causes the candida).
Why do I think it's the ascorbic acid? Well, first of all, when I saw the picture, my doctor/healer wrote it in huge, flashing neon letters. Second of all, because I've taken the time to find the data that satisfies my 'human intellect' (that is in agreement with my discernment). Thirdly, I've seen it before (once in person and twice via people I 'know of' that actually lost teeth because they refused to believe it was the ascorbic acid they so cultishly took daily). And finally, because you're dealing with other symptoms & issues that directly correlate to ascorbic acid. Could I be mistaken? Of course. Am I? That's up for you to decide after examining all the information in the links below (please read them in the order I've listed them - they build on each other somewhat :)
And two last things I don't have links for (yet), but I learned while researching to get the ones above
--all ascorbic acid is made from corn (and typically sulphuric acid); this means (and everyone agrees) that ascorbic acid is GMO, which means it SUBSTANTIALLY alters and modifies intestinal microbiota :(
--ascorbic acid interferes with and diminishes mucin. What is mucin?
Mucins are a family of high molecular weight, heavily glycosylated proteins (glycoconjugates) produced by epithelial tissues in most metazoans. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucin
Mucinous - In vertebrates, mucus is a slippery secretion produced by, and covering, mucous membranes. It is a viscous colloid containing antiseptic enzymes (such as lysozyme), proteins such as lactoferrin, glycoproteins known as mucins that are produced by goblet cells in the mucous membranes and ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucinous
that are post-translationally modified by exceptionally abundant glycosylation.
mucins - are high molecular weight glycoproteins with wide biological functions, including physicochemical protection from acids, enzymes, toxins and mutagens, adhesion modulation, signal transduction, and regulation of cell growth (Moniaux et al., 2001; Porchet et al., 1999). www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Mucinous
Check this out (it's very 'convoluted information' because apparently they're confusing true Vitamin C with ascorbic acid - but the references to glucose & mucin are very informative - especially when considering what ascorbic acid does to blood glucose). http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?cat=105
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Beth, I realize you've had some level of some of these issues long before you started ingesting ascorbic acid (or I assume that); I'm certainly not trying to say you don't have adrenal issues, nor am I saying that all issues are based on the ascorbic acid alone. But when you've got a chemical that creates this massive level of "anti-homeostasis" in the body, and this is just ONE of many you take...well, I am saying that it's very unlikely your body can heal and restore itself when it can't possibly 'reach' it's own healing schematics because it's constantly exhausting itself just trying to achieve some level of harmony.
Sadly, frustratingly and very enraging (to me), this is VERY typical of alternative medicine. Using the same faulty logical and 'scientific paradigms' as allopathic medicine and bandaids that are only slightly less toxic than pharmaceuticals, they've got 95+% of CZ and people all over the world that have 'seen the light' and backed away from allopathic medicine, walking right into a trap...a trap that ensures you stay sick and dependent upon them - which ensures their bottom line.
--What is "bandaiding a symptom"? It's when our body is experiencing symptoms (symptom = the only way our body has of crying out for our help) and rather than addressing the cause of the symptom, we put a bandaid on it to cover it up so it doesn't bother us. This is common in both allopathic & alternative medicine, and makes about as much sense as putting a piece of duct-tape over the oil light on our dashboard (when it comes on) so we can't see it anymore :( Some people actually refer to this as "healing" :::eyeroll:::. This is what happened to you with the Accutane & Lexapro/Celexa...and not only did the 'bandaids' plow your body with poisons which created symptoms of their own, it's very likely that they have done some damage that needs to be reversed.
--Just so you know, this forum is dedicated to fundamental natural health & healing (based primarily upon the works/teachings of Drs. Gerson, Schulze & Christopher), which is 100% opposite allopathic medicine, and (getting close to being) nearly 100% opposite 'alternative medicine'. Allopathic medicine uses poisons & toxic chemicals, radiation and carving & slicing/splicing the body as their bandaids; alternative medicine uses many bandaid supplements & therapies...mostly based on the same demented "science" (cover up, hide, and squelch the symptoms - while never dealing with the true root causes). Frustratingly, the bandaids of alternative supplements/therapies are many times very toxic to our natural bodies...particularly the "isolated/fractionated substance supplements" (drugs in 'natural' packaging) can be very harmful. There is nothing natural about using a laboratory to isolate one chemical from a plant or animal (stripping it of dozens/hundreds of naturally occurring chemicals & cofactors), putting it in a bottle and using it to bandaid symptoms...and certainly nothing natural about synthetics.
Note: I commonly use Vitamin C/Ascorbic acid as the example here because it's the isolated chemical that most think is THE most innocent & harmless. So, please don't think I'm "picking on you" because you mentioned you use it (but it's even more important that you read these, since you do use it). Check these out:
(other symptoms/studies from just 250-500mg of ascorbic acid daily? hypo/hyperglycemia and lack of B12 :(
This chapter (which includes MANY other examples than just ascorbic acid, and very integral information) is extremely important if you want to know how to avoid many of the pitfalls of alternative medicine: Ascorbic Acid Is Not Vitamin C
Just imagine someone trying to overcome a serious illness with a substance that lowers plasma copper levels, increases plasma iron (lowering the stores); alters blood sugar, depletes B12, harms the arteries and lessens oxygen flow...while using handfuls of other similar isolates (with similar side-effects). It may 'bandaid away' symptoms (even cancer), but it always does it at the expense of harming something else. I call it 'supplement roulette', and I don't recommend playing (nor do I recommend "bandaiding").
What we do on this forum is get down to the cause of the body being compromised and allow the body to use it's own advanced healing schematics to repair itself, while we support the process using foods, juices, herbs & substances that are as natural to the human body as possible (the most unnatural things we use are juices, herbal teas & tinctures...and really, juices aren't truly unnatural because chimpanzees commonly 'juice their produce': Destroying another "juicing myth"! Did you know? (this is cool!))
And here's some 'truth in healing' from my heart to yours --
--the adrenal glands do NOT control every organ in the body. I've never met, assisted or heard of anyone with adrenal issues that didn't have all kinds of digestive, intestinal, liver or kidney, or toxicity issues before they developed adrenal issues
--natural, logical & safe detoxification and restoration of organs and the digestive tract does NOT "compromise the adrenal glands further"...what compromises the adrenal glands is the body & integral organs being compromised.
--Every part of the body (from the smallest of microorganisms to the largest organ) is symbiotically dependent on all the others. NOTHING compromises any particular organ or system more than the others being compromised
--It doesn't take YEARS to heal one set of adrenal glands (especially not if psych-drugs haven't been involved) - that lie is likely THE most evil & infuriating of most any I've heard.
And finally, if you'd like to see one example of just 'how good' natural healing REALLY is, here's a super-fantastic testimony by Miss H (who had suffered with severe adrenal issues all her known life) The First 30 Days on Incurables Protocol ReportBSAby Miss Helfinger
(There's tons of good information in the entire thread - the first link is only one tiny part of her full first 30 day testimony - so if you check it out, be sure not to miss her posts below the first one).
Beth,I hope this information will assist you on whatever healing pathways you choose to follow. My sincerest wish is that my words have inspired & restored hope and belief in you and your body's capability to overcome the disharmony and lack of freedom you've been experiencing (for far too long). I know your body can heal itself if given the chance - I know you deserve it, and I know you can be "100% you" again...likely faster than you can EVER imagine!
If you'd more information or have questions...you know where to find me :)