Posted on 04/08/2024 7:16:42 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford Univeristy Press, uncovers well-preserved microbiomes from two 4,000 year old teeth in a limestone cave in Ireland. These contained bacteria that cause gum disease, as well as the first high quality ancient genome from S. mutans, an oral bacterium that is one of the major causes of tooth decay.
These discoveries allowed the researchers to assess the impact of past dietary changes on the oral microbiome across millennia, including major changes coinciding with the popularization of sugar and industrialization. The teeth, both derived from the same Bronze Age man, also provided a snapshot of oral health in the past, with one tooth showing evidence of microbiome dysbiosis...
The sampled teeth were among a large assemblage of skeletal remains excavated from a limestone cave at Killuragh, County Limerick, by the late Peter Woodman of University College Cork. While other teeth in the cave showed advanced dental decay there was no evidence of caries on the sampled teeth. Nevertheless, one tooth root yielded an unprecedented quantity of mutans sequences...
The cool, dry, and alkaline conditions of the cave may have contributed to the exceptional preservation of S. mutans DNA, but its high abundance also points to dysbiosis. The researchers found that while S. mutans DNA was plentiful, other streptococcal species were virtually absent from the tooth sample. This implies that the natural balance of the oral biofilm had been upset – mutans had outcompeted the other species leading to a pre-disease state.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Floss some and jet some.
We can blame the Egyptians for tooth decay for raising all that wheat......................
Teeth were capped in bronze. Not quite as hard as the original enamel and needed replacing especially if they were drinking the more acidic colas available at that time. Bronze Age dentists were in high demand at that time.
We know that during the Little Ice Age that Europeans switched from a mainly cereal diet to potatoes because the cereals couldn't handle the harsh droughts followed by gully washer rains as well as potatoes could. No telling how much real climate change (not the Dim version of climate change) impacted diets from before man started writing history.
I’m obsessive about my dental hygiene - but reading THIS makes me want to brush all over again this morning, LOL!
And, where’s my Water Pick? ;)
The patient has tooth decay? Fetch the leaches!
bfl
*GROAN*
shame on you!
With today’s diet, you might lose your teeth but you’ll live twice as long.
The Little Ice Age started to warm up around 1715, well before industrial processes made any significant CO2 contributions. So how much of current warming is natural and how much man made? They simply do not know because both the periodicity and amplitude of the natural changes are not understood.
In contrast, the economic costs of "decarbonisation" (i.e., de-industrialization) are, however, quite well known. So in all likelihood we'll incur enormous costs for zero benefit. What the elite likes is that among those costs are the complete capture of the economy by the ruling elite via hyper-regulation and restriction on freedom of expression and political choice because of the climate "emergency."
And the fact that the enormous emissions of China and India will be ignored seems to indicate with some certainty that theft and political tyranny are the real goals and not suppression of "climate change."
It’s great to be recognized in my own time. ;^)
I made denture that I opened this topic with a pun.
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