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Kali thurber

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February 18, 2004

Funding Farce in the Dentist’s Chair

yay WRIGLEY'S

CHEWING GUM Keep foil wrapper to put gum in after use.

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Kali Thurber Opinions Editor

Walk down the dental hygiene aisle in your local supermarket, watch a chewing gum commercial, or read an article written by a new dentist. All of these levels of media will tell you one thing— chewing gum prevents tooth decay. But when taken in context, the marriage of good dental hygiene and gum chewing comes across as a farce.

Recently, a professor and researcher at New York University’s College of Dentistry, Dr. Kenneth Allen, made a new discovery regarding the popular act of gum chewing. His findings (though not entirely conclusive) were that gum chewing increases concentration, and therefore gum is helpful in education. Though Allen didn’t explicitly state that gum should be promoted in schools, the message is all the same.

The idea that a professor of dentistry would not only condone something that clearly leads to tooth decay, but actually encourage it, and that the world of media supports this idea seems to me a strange, and twisted scenario. But the situation becomes clear when the funding is considered. So who funded Allen's, and countless other dentist’s similar studies, you may ask? The funding came directly from Wrigley Canada Inc.—one of the largest gum manufacturers in the world.

In fact, Wrigley makes quite a habit of paying off the up-and-coming dentists to promote gum chewing. Between 1991 and 2000, Wrigley Canada Inc. granted over $70,000 to the Dentistry Canada Fund—money that was used exclusively for studies that found the chewing of gum to be of the greatest good for the health of one’s teeth. Wrigley even has a Dentistry Canada Fund/Wrigley Student Research Award, and the funny thing about it is that it seems only gum promoters can win the award. Is it just me, or do you smell a conspiracy?

Now I don’t mean to put all the blame on poor Wrigley Inc., the problem is an ethical one, and not exclusively Wrigley’s. Dentists who need clients (being the newest ones, and the ones that this award is relevant to) seem more than happy to do research that will eventually make the industry more business. Since both sugarless and regular gum is detrimental to tooth enamel, and can lead to tooth decay, the promotion of gum chewing is an industry booster. And it is an industry, which is something that becomes over- whelmingly clear, in a situation where dentists accept money from gum companies. But I won't put all the blame on the dentists either, since funding is obviously needed.

Dr. Kenneth Allen, the professor who directed the gum chewing/education study, was actually looking for funding for his original study idea, whether CD-ROMs can deliver lessons in dental anatomy as effectively as real life teachers. This seems to be quite a different study than the one he ended up performing, but while inquiring about funding, he was informed by a colleague that Wrigley was hoping to test the impact of gum chewing on education. I suppose innocent Dr. Allen thought that study was close enough, or at least that the money sounded good.

The truth is that there is no way to be sure that any study is credible when funding is coming directly from the opposition. But I suppose when money is accepted by a health professional from a candy company the truth is nor all that is lost.

InT

Life Is E

Ancient Buddhists, and Buddhists in the present day, have commonly believed that everything has life in it. Even the stones and water were believed to be alive. Although modern scientists commonly regarded this as superstition, more and more they are discov- ering that there might actually be some truth in this ancient belief.

In June 1988, the French sci- entist Jacques Benveniste, M.D., published an astonishing research paper in Nature, which indicated that water has memo- ry. The paper caused distur- bance in the scientific commu- nity and there was a great deal of opposition to his findings. Biochemical experiments have confirmed that a certain anti- body can stimulate basophiles to degranulate. In Benveniste’s experiment, however, after the antibody solution was diluted to 10-!20, active degranulation of basophiles still — occurred. Theoretically, (based upon Avogadro's number of the possi- ble number of molecules in a solution of a substance) such a dilution would have no mole- cules of the antibody.

To repeat this in layman's terms, a certain substance was added to water. Then the water was diluted so thoroughly that there should have been no notable presence of that sub- stance. However, in Beneveniste’s experiment, there was still a reaction in the water that could only be caused by that substance. The conclusion he drew was that somehow the water itself was altered and mimicking the presence of the substance. Benveniste’s findings were so controversial that he lost his laboratory, funding, job, and even his credibility as a scientist. Fortunately for Benveniste, a

Angela Blattmann OP Photographer

progressive private research company hired him to continue his work.

In 1999, four laboratories in different European countries conducted independent experi- ments. Their findings demon- strated that extremely diluted solutions still preserved the effect of the original solutions that degranulated basophiles. Due to these findings, people began to think that Benveniste had been right.

The idea that water has some quality beyond our present understanding has been fur- thered into even more mysteri- ous realms by Japanese researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto. Dr. Emoto has carried out numerous experiments with water crystals and his findings are startling. Dr. Emoto exposed identical vials of water to differ- ent stimuli, such as music or written words. The water was then dropped into identical Petri dishes and frozen to create crystals. Each water sample cre- ated hundreds of water crystals.

Dr. Emoto discovered again and again that the water seemed to form crystals in response to the nature of the stimuli it was exposed to. For example, water exposed to heavy-metal music was unable to form crystals, while water exposed to tradi- tional or classical music could.

The pictures below are taken directly from Dr. research.

Emoto’s

: a Bach's “Air for the G String”

Name: Robert

Best winter sport to watch? Hockey!

Basketball Do you have a student loan? Yes, I do.

http://www.otherpress.ca e

Age: High 40’s

Program at Douglas College: Community Social Services Worker, and General Studies. Last CD in your stereo?

The last thing I listened to was Hockey on the radio.

Best winter sport to participate in?

Beethoven's “Pastorale”

Heavy-metal Music

Not as surprising, Dr. Emoto also found that water that came from a highly polluted source was less able to crystallize than water that came from a more pristine environment.

Page 7

Yodo River, Japan

Dr. Emoto’s findings, if true, suggest that there is some quali- ty of water that responds to its

_ environment. The implications

are profound and challenge sci- ence to come up with explana- tions far beyond the current understanding. Science has dis- covered that this material realm we live in is composed of mole- cules, and below that atoms, quarks, and neutrinos. From that perspective, everything we see, touch, and feel is over 90 percent empty space, with tiny particles whirling around inside it.

These experiments with water suggest there is a whole realm of existence beyond the surface manifestation. Science is pro- gressing towards those realms and high-energy physics is dis- covering smaller and smaller particles. Some of these particles do things that we are hard pressed to explain using conven- tional theories, and we are forced to develop a new under- standing. Next time we'll begin to explore some of the findings and the cutting edge theories of high-energy physics and what the implications of those theo- ries may be.

Name: Yrxu

Age: 25

Program at Douglas College: Accounting

Last CD in your stereo?

I don’t really listen to CD’s. I listen to the radio, sometimes watch TV.

Best winter sport to watch? Hockey

Best winter sport to participate in?

I was going to try snowboard- ing, but my friend couldn't make it.

Do you have a student loan? Yes.