The Oral Microbiome Is More Than Spit
The oral microbiome plays a huge role in your vascular system.
In a healthy mouth, dietary nitrates get converted into nitrites by good bacteria. R
You absorb some of those nitrites in your mouth, and swallow the rest which are absorbed and used by the endothelial system to create the vasodilator nitric oxide, via endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS).
You could read my post on nitric oxide synthases here.
What Damages The Oral Microbiome?
Some basic things that damage the oral microbiome are:
They also make it hospitable for pathogenic bacteria to thrive.
If you're not creating nitrites on your own, this can lead to heart disease. R
This is why they give people nitroglycerin to improve their heart function. R
The Nitric Oxide Synthase System
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352385919300209?via%3Dihub
Nitric oxide, as seen in its name, is an oxidative molecule and using it via the NOS system, requires antioxidants to quench it, so it doesn't get out of hand.
ENOS would not function without a cofactor called tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4). R
You can read more about BH4 from my post here.
BH4 is co-factor for many other enzymatic processes, such as neurotransmitter creation. R
But in the NOS systems, BH4 is used as an electron donor to quench the free radicals of nitric oxide.
So when Enos is activated by shear stress on the glycocalyx, NO is released. R
BH4 then quenches it and BH4 becomes oxidized (BH2). R
BH4 needs to be reloaded with electrons to become BH4 again. R
If there is a depletion of BH4, either to a genetic impairment in creating it, or from the poor recycling from BH2 to BH4, then NO can can combine with two other oxygen molecules, Superoxide, and thus turns into Peroxynitrate (ONOO), which is highly oxidative and damaging to the glycocalyx, endothelial cells, and everything it touches, even pathogen. R
Superoxide
Superoxide (O2-) is normally enzymatically dissolved with Superoxide Dismutase (SOD). R
In fact, most of the clients I see that have problems with proxy nitrate have an issue with the genetic snip rs4880, which encodes SOD2 expression.
This is obviously worse if you have an issue with recycling BH2 back into BH4 with the genetic snip a1298c.
I luckily have both of these mutations LOL!
So that makes me really good at fighting infections right away, but I also fall prey to oxidative stress overload very quickly and so I have to supplement with lots of antioxidants and electron donors.
My favorite ways to increase BH4 are:
Sauna (not for the vascular dysfunctional) R
Ascorbyl Palmitate (fat soluble version of vitamin c, not ascorbic acid) R
My favorite ways to improve SOD2 is:
Aronia and melon (also you can read my post about aronia chokeberries here)
Huang Bai (you can read my post about huang bai here) R
SOD also requires copper and manganese to work, so make sure you have enough. R
Why You Shouldn’t Blindly Take NO Boosters
Without knowing these processes, it can be very dangerous to supplement with nitric oxide (like the popular amino acids L-Arginine and L-Citruline boosters as it can cause a lot of free radical damage.
Speaking of nitric oxide boosters, L-Arginine is a commonly used one, but a double-edged sword as it is able to reactivate latent viruses.
More on latent viruses later.
L-Citruline is a safer way to boost nitric oxide without activating latent viruses, but it still carries its consequence with oxidative stress.
Testing Oxidative Stress
This test (above), tests for SNPs related to oxidative stress.
How To Improve The Oral Microbiome
A great replacement for conventional mouthwash is ozonated oils.
I personally use ozonated coconut oil with peppermint, but there is also other oils and flavors as well.
Not all of them contain ozonites, which help oxidize and reduce most pathogenic oral bacterias.
A great oral probiotic that I use contains streptococcus salivarius and bifido lactis.
Now for oral microbiome prebiotics.
Dietary nitrates can be found in things like beets, celery, and leafy greens in general.
I don’t eat a lot of vegetables when I’m on a carnivore diet (I’ll go back and forth).
Instead I supplement with:
Celery Juice (I like the one from Suja, but you can also use a Juicer)