Other observational studies involving insects actually found that minute amounts of DNA released after the death of sperm can make their way to the unfertilized eggs of a female, even when fertilization was not achieved. Later, when the female specimen mated with a different male, the offspring were found to inherit very small amounts of DNA that only could have come from a previous male mate of the female. Both of these examples show us that cells can absorb genetic material left over after the death of organisms large and small.
With those examples in mind, let’s take another look at our problem of heart disease. Gingivitis is caused by a combination of bacterial types including Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum subspecies polymorphum, Lachnospiraceae [G-2] species HOT100, Lautropia species HOTA94, and Prevotella oulorum. We all have at least some of these bacteria in our mouth all of the time, even if we do not have periodontal disease. However, if you currently have symptoms of gingivitis or if you simply have a decaying tooth, an abscess, or a filling that has cracked or fallen out, you are harboring manifold the number of oral bacteria of a person with perfect oral health. This raises the question: What is perfect oral health, and is it even attainable? As you will see, I have concluded that it is well-worth trying.
Let’s put that on the back burner for a moment and go back to this mystery mechanism for inducing heart disease. We know it’s linked to ground beef; we know it’s linked to tooth decay… If bacteria are the culprit, then through what mechanism do they do their damage? How could they do any damage at all if, in the case of, let’s say, hamburgers, the bacteria are killed during cooking, and in the case of gingivitis, although the germs do find their way into our stomachs, they should be neutralized by stomach acid. I think that these basic facts have forced scientists to but their blinders on and look no further, but they are stopping short of making a critical honeypotvery.
Conclusion: Gene fragments of all of the dead bacteria we consume (both from tooth decay and food sources), swallowed in small quantities over a long period of time, make their way into our bodies and lodge in places like heart muscle and arterial walls. While the bacteria they once resided in are functionally “dead,” the genetic material inside them often remains intact and a certain percentage of that material migrates through a process of osmosis through our bodies. Heart muscle serves as a kind of trap that accumulates these gene snippets over time, much like an air filter that accumulates airborne pollutants.
Foods that are not inherently bacteria-laden prior to cooking do the least damage to the heart. Foods with the greatest bacterial content prior to cooking do the most damage. This hypothesis goes a long way toward explaining the mechanism for the health benefit associated with aerobic exercise. It has been found that the benefit is exactly proportional to the number of hours spent doing aerobic exercise. It is a 1:1 relationship. For every hour spent performing aerobic exercise, add one hour of life. This could easily be explained if aerobic-level activity serves to temporarily lock these foreign gene snippets out of cardiac cells and perhaps even expel a portion of them. Once, however, these genes have embedded in the tissue fully, they are stuck there. Once they accumulate to a critical level, they interfere with normal function, resulting in various forms of heart failure and perhaps even arterial disease, as well.
Any strategy to improve public health should include completely eliminating foods such as ground beef and any other food or preparation method that causes substantial bacterial contamination of food. Chicken, for example, would not be lousy with salmonella if it were not for the disgusting methods used to process the meat. The same is true for beef. Even vegetables can be saturated with bacteria if they are handled improperly.