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Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

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Re: Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

#71

Post by klyrs »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #50
SkyMarshal wrote: post #17

A simpler alternative is xylitol. Not a drug, no FDA approval required. It's a plant-based sweetener that cavity-causing mouth bacteria love to ingest, but which provides no sustenance to them. It essentially fills them up and then causes them to starve them to death, helping maintain minimum mouth bacteria. No bacteria, no cavities. Get it in mints or gum like Zellies or PUR (the only two I've found that don't inclu…

Ehh, I tried it, like 15 years ago, but had to stop taking it for the reasons mentioned here: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-qa-xylitol-teeth-swee... What is the recommended daily dosage of xylitol for oral health? "The recommended amount for cavity protection is 6 to 10 grams. And it's best to spread doses out throughout the day. So, if you want dental benefit from chewing xylitol-added gum, you should chew…

Wow, I've never been so inspired to continue brushing my teeth daily.

Re: Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

#72

Post by neilv »

> I think this is a terrible idea, as well as probably illegal. Unlike most people in the Bay Area, I think formalized safety and efficacy trials are a must for health products. In fact, I told Aaron Silverbook this when he asked me for my advice about his product last fall.

No one is going to want to consult you, if you might blog about it, attacking them by name, so... if it was serious enough to burn professional bridges, why not go to the FDA, an Attorney General, a public health authority, an academic-professional society or journal, a Congressperson, or some other channel more official and credible than Substack?

Re: Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

#73

Post by nikolay »

culi wrote: post #48
nikolay wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, recently there was a study that DIM also kills only the harmful bacteria in the mouth.

3,3′-Diindolylmethane (DIM). Found in cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, mustard, cress, nasturtium, arugala, radish, etc) Also sold as bisindole which is a class of natural products derived from oxidative dimerization of tryptophan.

Yup, here's the study [0]!

[0]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10295630/

Re: Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

#74

Post by nikolay »

zeteo wrote: post #60
nikolay wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just xylitol but also mastic gum, which, in addition to cavities prevention, kills H. pylori and strengthens your jaw muscles as it's a bit harder than regular chewing gum.

+1 for mastic, completely nontoxic and it's been used for thousands of years. My cavity problems have pretty much disappeared since discovering it several years ago.

Yup! Here's one study [0]!

[0]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12747455/

Re: Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

#76

Post by astura »

jeffbee wrote: post #51

Easiest way to determine whether some health fad is dangerous snake oil: search for it on Twitter and determine the overrepresentation of blue checks. Every character at the end of a screen name that comes from a Unicode "symbol" block counts as ten blue checks. The presence of "/dd" counts as 100 blue checks. Simple, effective metric.

>The presence of "/dd" counts as 100 blue checks.

Sorry, I don't understand Twitter lingo and Google doesn't return anything - What does /dd mean?

Re: Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

#77

Post by jeffbee »

astura wrote: post #76
jeffbee wrote: post #51

Easiest way to determine whether some health fad is dangerous snake oil: search for it on Twitter and determine the overrepresentation of blue checks. Every character at the end of a screen name that comes from a Unicode "symbol" block counts as ten blue checks. The presence of "/dd" counts as 100 blue checks. Simple, effective metric.

>The presence of "/dd" counts as 100 blue checks. Sorry, I don't understand Twitter lingo and Google doesn't return anything - What does /dd mean?

It is associated with Bryan Johnson's book "Don't Die". The author advocates daily electrocution of your penis, among other moronic ideas. He has a bazillion followers among the petty VC crowd.

Re: Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

#78

Post by onemoresoop »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #17

A simpler alternative is xylitol. Not a drug, no FDA approval required. It's a plant-based sweetener that cavity-causing mouth bacteria love to ingest, but which provides no sustenance to them. It essentially fills them up and then causes them to starve them to death, helping maintain minimum mouth bacteria. No bacteria, no cavities. Get it in mints or gum like Zellies or PUR (the only two I've found that don't inclu…

Xylitol upsets my digestive system. I try to avoid it as much as I can.

Re: Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

#79

Post by addaon »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #17

A simpler alternative is xylitol. Not a drug, no FDA approval required. It's a plant-based sweetener that cavity-causing mouth bacteria love to ingest, but which provides no sustenance to them. It essentially fills them up and then causes them to starve them to death, helping maintain minimum mouth bacteria. No bacteria, no cavities. Get it in mints or gum like Zellies or PUR (the only two I've found that don't inclu…

There are also Xylitol-containing toothpastes (e.g. Epic; be aware that they also make a flouride-free version that you likely want to avoid!), although I suspect the dosage of Xylitol is below the effective level.

Re: Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic

#80

Post by ivansavz »

buildsjets wrote: post #68

Relating to fluoride's effect on bacterial biofilm - There are several different kinds of fluoride available in toothpaste, and they do not all have the same efficacy against bacterial plaque. Stannous fluoride is considerably more effective than sodium fluoride or sodium monofluorophosphate, but you may need to pay a small amount more for it and actually read the packaging to find it. It's hard to find a website dis…

Very interesting.

From that paper, the brand they used as example of stannous fluoride was "oral-B pro expert all-around protection" Do you know of any other brands?

I wonder if we can conclude it was the stannous fluoride that made the difference and one of the other ingredients.

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