Chapter 2: A True Story About A Poison and A Family, an Informal Study.

The purpose of this chapter is to provoke the reader’s imagination to look for answers, without ever giving up hope of finding them. My deep desire is that it will encourage people to talk about dental and other health issues with their family, friends, and other loved ones. By exchanging information, we may be able to find our own answers and even help those whom we love.

Case Study

Ashleigh came to see us at 34 years of age. Her life story and its details were so profound that I felt the need to devote all the time and space necessary to telling the entire history of, not only her own health, but that of her family, as well. I will begin with a bit of her family history.

Ashleigh’s mother had four mercury fillings and 13 root canals, along with many missing teeth. She suffered from manic depression and many suicide attempts. Later in life, her mother developed osteoporosis, arthritis, pseudo gout, and diabetes. She also suffered a stroke. Ashleigh told us that her mother would develop tumors and problems with cystic fibrosis with every child’s birth. Then, the tumors would have to be removed. 

Ashleigh’s father had all of his teeth removed at the age of 17, but he appeared to be a healthy man.

Ashleigh is one of eight children. Ashleigh is very close to her family, and their conversations frequently revolved around health problems. At this time, her younger sister was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Another sister had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Meanwhile, her older sister had breast tumors, literally increasing her size from an A to a D cup overnight. Yet another sister was diagnosed with Lyme disease. This sister went for vitamin IV’s, which helped her. Then her doctor passed away. This same sister was then diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, which is a thyroid-related autoimmune disease.  

Ashleigh’s youngest sister has colon problems, which have resulted in many hospital visits on account of impaction. Her oldest brother, meanwhile, also had serious health problems, which included a blood disorder and polyps in his colon. These were cancerous and had to be surgically removed. This condition, called polycythemia, also created too many red blood cells, requiring him to visit the hospital every two weeks to have his blood taken out.

Ashleigh told us that she had received dental treatments as a very young child. She had crowns and mercury fillings by the second grade. It was at that time, that her health began to deteriorate. Her teacher said that she was lazy and did not concentrate. Consequently, Ashleigh was put into a class with Down Syndrome children. She was the only non-Down Syndrome child in the class.

Although it was clear that Ashleigh could not comprehend things, her teacher did not know what was wrong with her, becoming verbally abusive of her, even yelling and screaming. But, no matter how hard she tried, Ashleigh simply could not concentrate. She learned much later in life, that she was dyslexic.

At age 17, Ashleigh got braces. For one year, she was incapacitated, with no energy and constant sinus infections. She asked her mother to have her braces removed, which later helped her feel a little better.  

Then, at 19, she met and married Steve, who was just one year older than she was. During this time, Ashleigh’s mercury fillings started falling out. Ashleigh had nine original mercury-amalgam fillings. Of the nine original fillings, three were changed to composites. The other six remained mercury ones, and she received one root canal.

After this first root canal, she and Steve wanted to conceive a child. Ashleigh discovered that she had endometriosis, an autoimmune disease that makes getting pregnant very difficult. Endometriosis is a condition that occurs when cells from the lining of the uterus develop in other parts of the body. This can cause complications in pregnancy and can cause abnormal bleeding.  She underwent laparoscopic surgery in order to conceive. Several months later, she gave birth to a son. Although she continued to suffer from health problems, she was very happy to have had a child.

Two years later, she became pregnant again, after having another laparoscopic surgery. This time there were serious complications and the birth of her daughter was stillborn. However, after several minutes, the doctors were able to resuscitate her. In fact, both pregnancies were very difficult. Ashleigh felt terrible during the entire time, and she did not recover well following the births.

At the age of 24, Ashleigh’s own health really started to decline. She never got a full night’s sleep, due to the constant pain she felt. Four months after the birth of her daughter, Ashleigh had a stroke. She called her husband Steve at work, telling him that she had fallen and could not move her arm or her leg. She told him that the right side of her face had just dropped and that she felt paralyzed.

Meanwhile, her son was standing over her crying, while her daughter was crying in her crib. Steve immediately called 911. The paramedics arrived and broke down the door. They instantly administered blood thinners, took her and the babies into the ambulance, and rushed her to the hospital. In the meantime, Steve was speeding so fast to get to the hospital that the engine in his truck blew up. He had to wait for his father to arrive, who took him to the hospital.

In the emergency room, the paramedics told the admitting staff that Ashleigh showed signs of having had a stroke and that they had treated her appropriately. Upon examination by the ER doctor, however, Ashleigh was diagnosed with having had a “new mother panic attack”! So, the doctor prescribed Zoloft! Ashleigh told him that this was her second child and that she was not having a panic attack. However, the doctor refused to listen and promptly put her on both Zoloft and Xanax. She took them for two days and then quit, because they were making her very sick.

Refusing to give up, Steve took Ashleigh to a larger hospital, where she had more tests done. This time, they were told that she had something strange in her blood and were referred to an internal medical doctor. This doctor said that Ashleigh’s blood work looked good but that her immune system was creating antibodies called “anti-cardiolipin antibodies.” Steve and Ashleigh looked at each other and asked the doctor, “What does that mean?” She answered, “In short, your red blood cells are sticking together all over your body, and I don’t know why your body is doing this… I’ll have to put you on blood thinners.” For the next two years, Ashleigh and Steve went to her doctors every six weeks in order to have her blood checked.

The young couple also moved their family to Georgia, hoping the better weather would help their son’s asthma condition. After speaking with her mother about seeing a holistic doctor, Ashleigh found one close to their home. They went to see her, searching for help. This time, the doctor told her that there was a chance that she could detoxify and get the immune system back in order so that it would stop producing these specific antibodies altogether.

The couple went back to see the internal medicine doctor, who began monitoring Ashleigh’s blood every few months to verify that all was okay. After three months of detoxing, her blood work showed a fifty percent reduction of antibodies in her blood, and after another three months she was completely free of them. At last, she could stop taking the blood thinners. The good news, however, did not last long.

The endometriosis took over for a third time. Upon visiting a gynecologist, Ashleigh was told that she would need a hysterectomy. After discussing this with her husband, Ashleigh underwent a partial hysterectomy. Two months after the surgery, however, her tremors – which had been intermittent – became constant, along with seizures.

Many times (mostly at night), Steve would have to rush Ashleigh to the emergency room. She was often prescribed a stack of medications, often with contraindications to each other. Ashleigh was told during this time that her condition was due to low potassium levels. 

Ashleigh needed an enormous amount of time to recover from her last surgery. Ashleigh made a mental decision to do all she could to be healthier. She bought a treadmill and began exercising. She also ate more healthy foods. However, she continued to fight fatigue and started to become very depressed. She kept thinking that she didn’t want to die, so she fought her non-stop agony, continued to look for answers, and kept trying different things to make her feel better.

During all of these years, Ashleigh has put together a timeline of the different illnesses that members of her family had suffered.  She was afraid that many of them would die before reaching the age of 40. She wanted to find the connection, because some of the symptoms experienced by her siblings overlapped.  However, she was never able to identify the common factor. Then, one of her sisters heard about the Gerson Therapy. Ashleigh went to this website and started to study the material. When she arrived at the section on dentistry, she immediately ran to a mirror to see what was going on inside her own mouth, and she knew that she was dying from her dental work.

Steve and Ashleigh immediately started to save their money in order to have her dental revision work done. She went to a biological dentist who was not far from them. The couple learned more information about holistic dentistry and were ready to begin, but the dentist said that he could no longer remove root canals; due to a stroke he had suffered.

He referred them to another dentist. During the interview, Ashleigh and Steve were shocked when this dentist would neither properly document her chart nor list all of her health problems, to avoid being considered a quack! They left the office, completely devastated. Ashleigh recalled crying for hours. After having found at last what could be the answer to all of her problems, they now had to walk away!

Steve has always been her rock. After Ashleigh calmed down, he sent an email to the Huggins office and was surprised when he received an immediate response! He was told to visit my website and see the type of dentistry that I practice. I had recently prepared a video series, which had been uploaded to my site. I wanted prospective patients to be as well informed as possible about who I am, what I do, and how my office works, well before they ever actually visit us. Steve and Ashleigh immediately contacted my office and scheduled an appointment. I was truly moved when they told me that they both had cried after watching my videos. They also told me that they felt that they already knew me and felt confident in my work.

The couple told me that Ashleigh was universally allergic. In other words, she was allergic to everything, particularly narcotics, antibiotics, and nearly all medication. Because of her tremors, we couldn’t sedate her, so we followed the protocol without sedation and very carefully first removed the mercury amalgam fillings. We had to stop working when the tremors began. After she calmed down, we went back to work. Then we treated her cavitations. Her tremors continued on and off throughout the surgery. When the blood started to flow out of the cavitations, the tremors stopped! I mean, they just stopped! Her blood pressure went up slightly and then normalized. 

When it was all completed, she had a huge emotional release. She returned the next day for a vitamin C IV and reported that she had not had another tremor or seizure. Now, this is someone that had this problem every day for the past three years. Sometimes, the seizures had been worse than at other times. The fact that she remained without tremors was astounding to Ashleigh and Steve. More importantly, they had hope now that their lives would change.

Steve lamented over Ashleigh’s sickness, but he couldn’t figure out a cure. This failure to identify the cause of her problems eventually put a strain on their marriage. Steve said, “We were always waiting for the answer and dreading the diagnosis. I couldn’t tell if she was crazy or if I was crazy; it was that kind of madness and doubt.”

Steve went on to say: “Even when she started the Gerson Therapy before her dental treatment, she would improve slightly, plateau, and then she would get sick again.” Steve explained to us that Ashleigh’s symptoms had always been a mystery to conventional doctors, but not to biological dentists.

He was so happy that they found us, because we understood her allergies to medication and were able to treat her with a holistic approach. Steve told us that he feels that they have finally turned the corner on her health. After witnessing her dental surgeries, he was so happy. Ashleigh had never been treated so specifically and with such personal attention to every aspect of her treatment. The seriousness of her dental problems really resonated with them. It was a huge relief to them, to have finally had her dental revision done.

They were so grateful over having left that first office, where they nearly had a conventional dentist do Ashleigh’s work. 

Steve finished by telling us that so many times he knew just how sick she was and how easy it would have been to say, “Give me the pills and be done with it. But, somehow, she kept looking for the answer, and now I think we finally found it!”

However, there is one more brother, named John. While he and all of his siblings had grown up in the same home, under the same conditions and in the same circumstances – eating the same diet and receiving the same education – there was one thing they did not have in common. Namely, all of the other children had mercury fillings, root canals, and braces.

John has never had any dental work done. He had no health problems. None! He dodged all of the bullets and is considered to be in excellent health. You could say that John is the “control” in the family. This means that while all of the other circumstances were entirely the same, there was only one variable: he has never had any dental work done. In my decades of listening to the proponents of dental mercury, a phenomenon such as John would be referred to as “anecdotal evidence.” However, I do not believe that his situation is merely coincidental. I just ask you to use your own judgment and make your own decision.

SUMMARY

• Ashleigh’s large family’s dental history is explored
• Her early dental treatment – causes early health problems
• Her tremors and seizures stop after dental revision
• Only one healthy sibling out of 8 – the one who never had dental work (Coincidence?)

ACTION ITEM

If you have a mysterious chronic illness and doctors cannot find what is wrong with you, you should find an experienced biological dental office, hopefully, that has been trained in the Huggins Grube Protocol and have a series of tests conducted.