The Link Between the Environment, Nutrition, and Oral Health
As our environment, behaviors, and food have changed over thousands of years, our bodies have had to adapt and reflect a notable decline in health.
How we live, what we eat, and our surrounding environment have led to significant structural changes in our bodies over thousands of years, contributing to the illnesses we have become more susceptible to.
Dr. Alex Bronson is a dentist at Bronson Family Dentistry—a family practice offering a whole-body approach to dentistry with two locations in Virginia. Dr. Bronson’s passion and focus are on diet, nutrition, anthropology, anti-aging, and integrative dental care. He recently gave a lecture at the Documenting Hope Conference in Orlando, Florida, titled “The Environment, Nutrition, Airway, and Dentistry.”
Dr. Bronson began by explaining what life was like for our ancient ancestors.For our ancestors, movement was an integral part of life, and people walked an average of 4–12 miles daily in search of food. Ancient peoples regularly exerted themselves by lifting and moving heavy objects, their foods were nutrient-dense foods that required harder and more chewing to break them down, they breathed through their noses, had almost no cavities, and did not suffer from modern-day diseases like sleep apnea, diabetes, and heart disease.
Their air was free of synthetic chemical pollutants, water was full of natural minerals and without additives, and the foods hunted and gathered were nutrient-dense and chemical-free. Our ancient ancestors slept when tired—often outdoors with good air ventilation and no artificial light.
Our current lifestyle—although typical—should not be considered normal.Instead of being active and outside every day—which hunting and gathering required—many of us sit in front of computers, under fluorescent lights, breathing recycled air for more than eight hours a day. Many commute to and from their jobs, then sit in front of television sets, computers, or tablets to relax. Research has shown that sitting too much is detrimental to health and that screen time has consequences—from disrupting sleep patterns to contributing to anxiety and depression.
Dr. Bronson explained that our foundations for optimum health can be taken from our ancestors—wisdom that kept them alive for millennia. He says that the three pillars of health are movement, nutrition, and sleep—all of which have changed dramatically since our ancient ancestors lived and thrived.
Movement and Structure
Sedentary lifestyles have replaced the intense physical activity our ancestors engaged in daily. According to Dr. Bronson, movement helps move the lymph through our bodies, keeps our hearts healthy, supports mental health, and preserves strong bones, muscles, and nerve integration. Because our underlying structure allows us to move freely, any structural issues can lead to problems with movement and ultimately to diminished lymphatic drainage, strain on the cardiovascular system, sleep apnea, back pain, flat feet, and more.
Today, the physical structure of our bodies has changed, which Dr. Bronson illustrated with images of prehistoric jaw bones, which were wide and full of straight teeth, compared to pictures of modern jaws, which are narrow, misshapen, and crowded with crooked teeth.
Dr. Bronson explains that our skulls are shrinking, and our jaws and airways are getting smaller, causing our faces to be narrower. He says we chew with only 3 to 5 percent of the strength that we used to.
Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist, tenured professor of neurobiology at Stanford School of Medicine, and creator and host of the Huberman Lab Podcast, which presently has 4.77 million subscribers, explains the importance of jaw and facial structure in an interview. He explains that our jaws have become smaller and our facial structure has changed, and as a result, many people breathe through their mouths which has health implications that can lead to poor sleep and anxiety. These changes also affect our appearance. He states, however, that our jaw structure can be changed by certain behaviors, exercises, and appliances. He recommends anyone interested in the subject read “Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic”—a book written by his colleagues at Stanford, Sandra Kahn, and Paul R. Ehrlich. The book discusses our shrinking jaws, crowded and crooked teeth, and the “biological, dietary, and cultural changes that have driven us toward this major health challenge.”
Nutrition—More Than Just Food
Nutrition encompasses all that we take into our bodies—air, water, and food—which have also drastically changed. Today, there are so many pollutants in our air that in 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated 600,000 children died from lower respiratory infections caused by dirty air.
Dr. Bronson shares another statistic saying that nearly 2 billion children breathe toxic air above levels recommended by the WHO.
Clean water, too, is vital to optimum health and essential for growing and developing children. Artificial chemicals like PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances)—the “forever chemicals” that do not break down in our bodies or the environment, such as plastics, fire retardants, and chemicals used in agriculture like glyphosate—are widespread in our soil and water supply.
Dr. Bronson listed a dizzying array of chemicals and the variety of ways we are exposed through our clothing, furniture, toys, dental work, and medicine—all contributing to our declining health. And then there is the declining quality of our food—the antibiotics and hormones that are added to our meat and dairy, the destructive nature of sugar and seed oils, the pesticides and insecticides sprayed on our foods, and how monoculture destroys diversity.
Sleep
Our sleep has also been dramatically affected by the structural changes in our skulls. Most people don’t get enough sleep or sleep deeply enough to feel rested upon waking. Dr. Bronson shared that 25 percent of adults have sleep apnea and that 15 percent of children have some form of sleep-breathing disorder.
Sleep apnea is when your breathing repeatedly starts and stops while you are asleep, and is a potentially serious sleep disorder according to The Mayo Clinic. You may have sleep apnea if you snore and wake up feeling tired even after a full night’s sleep.
Our modern lifestyles contribute to numerous sleep disruptions and include blue light, eating late, alcohol, and other stimulants, to name a few.
Dental Issues and Overall Health
Dr. Bronson stated that cavities are now one of the most significant unmet health treatment needs, affecting an estimated 2.4 billion people worldwide, as well as an estimated 60–90 percent of school-aged children around the globe. Among children aged 6–8 years, 52 percent have had a cavity in their first set of (baby) teeth, and 57 percent of adolescents 12–19, have had a cavity in their permanent teeth, according to CDC statistics.
The numbers aren’t any better for adults, as approximately 90 percent have had at least one cavity according to the same statistics. If left untreated, cavities can lead to abscesses, a severe infection under the gums that can spread to other parts of the body and sometimes be fatal. All these cavities are a relatively new phenomenon. Dr. Bronson stated that the fossil records of our ancient ancestors (20,000 years ago) show that the prevalence of cavities was less than 2 percent.
What We Can Do
Thankfully, there is much we can all do to improve our health with the awareness of where the problems lie. Dr. Bronson lists multiple recommendations to reduce our exposure and improve our health and well-being, which include:
- Get outside and move–get up, stretch, and move for 5 minutes every hour.
- Ground—take your shoes and socks off and put your feet directly on the earth.
- Breathe through your nose and breathe fresh air whenever possible.
- Have indoor plants as they can remove toxic chemicals in the air.
- Drink good quality water and shower with clean water, as the skin is the body’s largest organ.
- Chew your food well!
- Eat whole, local, non-genetically modified foods free of pesticides and antibiotics.
- Engage in intermittent fasting or regular calorie restriction.
- Sleep in a cool, dark, well-ventilated room free of electronics.
- Use a good quality mattress and pillow.
- Choose clothing/furniture/toys made of natural materials.
- Use natural cleaning products such as vinegar, baking soda, and lemon.
Final Thoughts
There are numerous ways that our changing bodies (morphology) impact our health—from the prevalence of cavities due to the narrowing of our jaws and the processed foods we eat—to the way our narrowing airways affect the quality of our sleep and how well our brains function. These are issues and connections many of us may not have thought about. They can be corrected, however, with proper habits, assessments, and the help of practitioners. Keeping our bodies moving, eating foods that nourish us, being outside regularly, and getting good sleep creates an excellent foundation we can build upon as we move through life.
Emma is an acupuncture physician and has written extensively about health for multiple publications over the past decade. She is now a health reporter for The Epoch Times, covering Eastern medicine, nutrition, trauma, and lifestyle medicine.
Is Dental Health Related to Mental Health?
We may finally know what causes Alzheimer’s – and how to stop it
If you bled when you brushed your teeth this morning, you might want to get that seen to. We may finally have found the long-elusive cause of Alzheimer’s disease: Porphyromonas gingivalis, the key bacteria in chronic gum disease.
That’s bad, as gum disease affects around a third of all people. But the good news is that a drug that blocks the main toxins of P. gingivalis is entering major clinical trials this year, and research published today shows it might stop and even reverse Alzheimer’s. There could even be a vaccine.
Alzheimer’s is one of the biggest mysteries in medicine. As populations have aged, dementia has skyrocketed to become the fifth biggest cause of death worldwide. Alzheimer’s constitutes some 70 per cent of these cases and yet, we don’t know what causes it.
Bacteria in the brain
The disease often involves the accumulation of proteins called amyloid and tau in the brain, and the leading hypothesis has been that the disease arises from defective control of these two proteins.
But research in recent years has revealed that people can have amyloid plaques without having dementia. So many efforts to treat Alzheimer’s by moderating these proteins have failed that the hypothesis has been seriously questioned.
However evidence has been growing that the function of amyloid proteins may be as a defence against bacteria, leading to a spate of recent studies looking at bacteria in Alzheimer’s, particularly those that cause gum disease, which is known to be a major risk factor for the condition.
Bacteria involved in gum disease and other illnesses have been found after death in the brains of people who had Alzheimer’s, but until now, it hasn’t been clear whether these bacteria caused the disease or simply got in via brain damage caused by the condition.
Gum disease link
Multiple research teams have been investigating P. gingivalis, and have so far found that it invades and inflames brain regions affected by Alzheimer’s; that gum infections can worsen symptoms in mice genetically engineered to have Alzheimer’s; and that it can cause Alzheimer’s-like brain inflammation, neural damage, and amyloid plaques in healthy mice.
“When science converges from multiple independent laboratories like this, it is very compelling,” says Casey Lynch of Cortexyme, a pharmaceutical firm in San Francisco, California.
In new study, Cortexyme have now reported finding the toxic enzymes – called gingipains – that P. gingivalis uses to feed on human tissue in 96 per cent of the 54 Alzheimer’s brain samples they looked at, and found the bacteria themselves in all three Alzheimer’s brains whose DNA they examined.
The bacteria and its enzymes were found at higher levels in those who had experienced worse cognitive decline, and had more amyloid and tau accumulations. The team also found the bacteria in the spinal fluid of living people with Alzheimer’s, suggesting that this technique may provide a long-sought after method of diagnosing the disease.
When the team gave P. gingivalis gum disease to mice, it led to brain infection, amyloid production, tangles of tau protein, and neural damage in the regions and nerves normally affected by Alzheimer’s.
Cortexyme had previously developed molecules that block gingipains. Giving some of these to mice reduced their infections, halted amyloid production, lowered brain inflammation and even rescued damaged neurons.
The team found that at antibiotic that killed P. gingivalis did this too, but less effectively, and the bacteria rapidly developed resistance. They did not resist the gingipain blockers.
New treatment hope
Some brain samples from people without Alzheimer’s also had P. gingivalis and protein accumulations, but at lower levels. We already know that amyloid and tau can accumulate in the brain for 10 to 20 years before Alzheimer’s symptoms begin. This, says Lynch, shows P. gingivalis is a cause of Alzheimer’s, not a result.
Gum disease is far more common than Alzheimer’s. But “Alzheimer’s strikes people who accumulate gingipains and damage in the brain fast enough to develop symptoms during their lifetimes,” she says. “We believe this is a universal hypothesis of pathogenesis.”
Cortexyme reported in October that the best of their gingipain blockers had passed initial safety tests in people, and entered the brain. It also seemed to improve participants with Alzheimer’s. Later this year the firm will launch a larger trial of the drug, looking for P. gingivalis in spinal fluid, and cognitive improvements, before and after.
They also plan to test it against gum disease itself. Efforts to fight that have led a team in Melbourne to develop a vaccine for P. gingivalis that started tests in 2018. A vaccine for gum disease would be welcome – but if it also stops Alzheimer’s the impact could be enormous.
Journal reference: Science Advances
Is There a Calming Effect In Flickering Lights?
Aug 12, 2018 Andy Corbley
Alzheimer’s Disease, along with anxiety disorders, Parkinson’s, clinical depression, and other neurological diseases are notoriously difficult conditions to find treatment for. Because the diseases are not well understood, and therefore hard to target directly, many pharmaceutical options fail.
But a relatively new field of neurological treatment is opening up in the form of things like tACS (transcranial alternating current stimulation) and other non-invasive, non-drug methods.
For example, on March 2015, Li-Huei Tsai, a neuroscientist at MIT set up a tiny disco of flashing lights for some of the mice in her laboratory that had been engineered to develop increased amounts of an Alzheimer’s related brain-plaque called amyloid-β. They were later found upon dissection to be carrying far less – sometimes even none – of the plaque than was present before the disco parties began.
The experiment baffled Tsai; and even after checking the results multiple times, she had a hard time believing them. The strobe light within the little rodent dance party, which was tuned to 40 hertz, was designed to help manipulate the rodents’ brain waves and produce a large number of biological benefits, including the elimination of the amyloid-β forming proteins – and it worked.
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“The result was so mind-boggling and so robust, it took a while for the idea to sink in, but we knew we needed to work out a way of trying out the same thing in humans,” Tsai told Nature. How can the simple repetitive flashing of lights help to suppress the development of things like Alzheimer’s disease? A brief look into brainwaves will help provide the clues.
When the neurons in your brain communicate with each other, electrical impulses, created by the flow of ions into and out of each cell can be observed on a computer as oscillating waves of electrical energy. Gamma-type brain waves flow at the highest frequency, and are less common in Alzheimer’s patients. These waves are observable when a person is in a period of deep sleep characterized by rapid eye movement (REM sleep).
Scientists believe the synchronized firing of neurons help sort out all the stimuli and sensory input into the correct centers of the brain for processing; taste, motor function, hearing, etc. Neurodegenerative diseases disrupt these brain wave oscillations and seem to deliver their pathologies through their own altering of brain waves; like Parkinson’s which impedes the natural suppression of the Beta-type brain wave leading to impeded motor function.
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Now, a growing body of evidence, including Tsai’s findings, offers the possibility of forestalling or even reversing the damage caused by such conditions without using a drug. More than two dozen clinical trials are aiming to modulate brainwaves in some way — some with flickering lights or rhythmic sounds, but most through applying electrical currents to the brain or scalp.
TACS, which involves the direct application of low-level electrical currents into certain parts of the brain, has been suggested to be even more effective than rodent (or human) disco parties of external stimulation. Emiliano Santarnecchi at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts have been using tACS in research for years, and after seeing Tsai’s results, thought it a no-brainer to test the method on Alzheimer’s patients.
MORE: These Scientists Have Managed to Stop the Progress of Alzheimer’s in Animals
His team has begun an early clinical trial in which ten people with Alzheimer’s disease receive tACS for one hour daily for two weeks. A second trial, in collaboration with Tsai, will look for signals of increased microglia – unique and important immune cells designed just for the brain and nervous-system. According to earlier studies by Dr. Tsai, microglia can be made more active by brain wave manipulation, causing them to accelerate the speed and effectiveness in which they clean the brain and nervous system of debris. Results are expected from both trials by the end of the 2018.
The popular Radiolab podcast released an episode in 2014 titled “Nine-volt Nirvana,” in which they catalogued instances of tDCS (trans-cranial DIRECT current stimulation) being used to accelerate the learning processes of complex skills such as languages immensely, but also aiding in the quitting of smoking habits, the overcoming of depression, and even boosting rifle marksmanship.
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For Dr. Tsai, understanding the relationship between neurological diseases and the regulation of different brain wave oscillations is personal. The grandmother who raised her was affected by dementia and that confused face made a deep impact. Tsai is now giving everything she has to try and solve the mystery.
It Can Be Problematic When Hiding Your Smile
A genuine smile can be a greeting, a door opener, and initiate a contagious response. When we are embarrassed or ashamed because of missing, discolored, or crooked teeth, we lose a genuine asset to our interpersonal relationship building. Dental veneers can be a valuable tool in restoring your smile.
This New Medical Procedure Could Make Mercury Leak Out Of Your Fillings
It’s relatively normal to be scared of going to the dentist. But what if we told you it could lead to a mouthful of mercury?
Researchers in Turkey published in the journal Radiology, showing that a new type of MRI scan has the slightly worrying effect of, er, making your fillings leak mercury into your mouth. Yes, it turns out a simple medical scan might give you a free helping of delicious heavy metals.
First, a quick recap: MRI – which stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging – is a technique for scanning the body that has been around for nearly 50 years already. It relies, as the name suggests, on using strong magnetic fields to generate images of internal organs.
So how strong is a “strong magnetic field”? A standard MRI uses a magnetic field of 1.5T (Teslas – the unit of measurement for magnetic field strength). For comparison, the magnetic field surrounding the entire planet is only about 0.00005T. So, pretty strong.
But since the early 2000s, a new type of MRI scanner has been in commercial production – and it can produce magnetic fields of 7T and higher. In 2003, the FDA declared strengths of up to 8T a “non-significant risk”, and the new machines quickly proved popular for research and clinical use – despite concerns that not enough research had been done into their safety. In particular, researchers questioned whether enough was known about how the ultra-high magnetic fields would affect surgical and dental implants in patients.
This is where the new study comes in. The researchers took 60 “human teeth that had been extracted for various reasons”, which sounds very fine and not suspicious, and gave them all amalgam fillings – that’s the silver type you probably think of as a “normal filling”. They then divided the teeth into three groups: one underwent a normal 1.5T MRI scan, one had a 7T scan, and a control group had no scan at all. After nine days brewing in vials of artificial saliva, the amount of mercury that had leaked out of the teeth was measured and recorded.
The results were … not great. Although the mean amount of mercury that leaked in a normal MRI was a little higher than the control group, the teeth that had the ultra-high MRI scan had lost nearly five times as much. The researchers also noted that problems have been found with other dental implants, with gold and platinum crowns becoming hotter under the higher magnetic fields.
Despite the worrying results of the study, it’s important to remember that mercury-based fillings have been in common use for hundreds of years, and are declared safe by the FDA, the American Dental Association, the UK’s NHS, Health Canada and many more – and although ultra-high field MRI scans might be on their way, you’re unlikely to undergo one for a very long time.
How to Get a Picture-Perfect Wedding Smile
The first thing Larry Dougherty noticed about his dental school classmate Ana Paula Ferraz was her long, jet black hair. As Ana got to know Larry, she fell in love with his kindness and sense of humor.
After dental school, it was “I do” for the couple. Ana and Larry married in a small, 60-person wedding at an old estate home in Miami. One of their most special guests – the couple’s rat terrier Chi Chi, in full top-hat regalia – even rode to the wedding with Larry in the limo. “It was perfect,” Ana says. “We couldn’t stop smiling.” And they haven’t stopped since. Today, dentists Ana and Larry run their own practice and have some “been there, done that” advice to share for anyone getting ready to celebrate a wedding.
Whitening for the Wedding
The dress isn’t the only thing that’s white at many weddings. Some couples, including Ana and Larry, whiten their teeth for sparkling smiles on the big day. “If I were to whiten my teeth for a wedding, which I did, I would have a dentist do the whitening in an office,” Dr. Ferraz said. “That way, you can see results right away and not have to worry about placing whitening trays in your mouth every day.”
Because whitening can make your teeth feel more sensitive, Ana and Larry whitened their teeth a month before the big day. “We scheduled the appointment early to give our smiles time to adjust, which I recommend,” she says. “That way, by your actual wedding day, your teeth aren’t too sensitive.”
There are also some at-home options you can use, such as trays you can get from your dentist. You can also use whitening toothpaste or strips with the ADA Seal of Acceptance. That way, you know they are safe and effective. Ask your dentist which method is best for you, but above all, stay away from home remedies, which can actually do more harm than good.
Schedule a Dental Appointment Early On
“Weddings mark such momentous days in our lives, and our smiles are a big part of them,” Ana says. “The last thing you want to worry about is a toothache on your wedding day or on your honeymoon.”
If you don’t see a dentist regularly, the time leading up to your wedding can be a great time to start. Schedule an appointment a few months out to avoid painful and possibly expensive problems around your wedding. “I once cared for a patient whose wisdom teeth were infected less than two weeks before her wedding,” he says. “Having regular dental visits can help reduce your chances of a dental emergency or needing a procedure that close to the wedding.” Need a dentist? Find one today!
Wedding Day Must-Haves
If your bridesmaids are putting together an emergency kit, there’s one item Ana recommends bringing along. “Have one of your bridesmaids carry floss and little compact mirror to make sure there’s nothing in your teeth and everything looks good,” she says. “That’s what I did.”
Regular brushing and cleaning between your teeth should help your breath stay fresh, but feel free to also pack some sugarless gum with the ADA Seal of Acceptance if you need a breath boost during the day. “Also, avoid food that can leave your breath not as fresh, like onions or garlic,” she says.
Commit to a Daily Dental Routine
Your wedding is just one small part of a long life with your partner. When it comes to your dental routine, don’t let it slide after tying the knot. Ana and Larry followed a healthy dental routine before the wedding.—and have kept up a sweet daily ritual together since then. “We have our own little routine in the morning where we brush and floss together,” Ana says of her bathroom moments with Larry.
Sometimes, they even chat over the noisy buzzing of their electronic toothbrushes. “It can be hard to hear her but that doesn’t keep me from talking,” Larry says. “I always have something nice to say.”
Would You Like to Extend Your Existence?
A new nationwide study of obituaries has found that people with religious affiliations lived nearly four years longer than those with no ties to religion.
That four-year boost – found in an analysis of more than 1,000 obits from around the country – was calculated after taking into account the sex and marital status of those who died, two factors that have strong effects on lifespan.
The boost was slightly larger (6.48 years) in a smaller study of obituaries published in a Des Moines, Iowa, newspaper.
“Religious affiliation had nearly as strong an effect on longevity as gender does, which is a matter of years of life,” said Laura Wallace, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at The Ohio State University.
The study was published online today in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
The researchers found that part of the reason for the boost in longevity came from the fact that many religiously affiliated people also volunteered and belonged to social organizations, which previous research has linked to living longer.
“The study provides persuasive evidence that there is a relationship between religious participation and how long a person lives,” said Baldwin Way, co-author of the study and associate professor of psychology at Ohio State.
In addition, the study showed how the effects of religion on longevity might depend in part on the personality and average religiosity of the cities where people live, Way said.
The first study involved 505 obituaries published in the Des Moines Register in January and February 2012. In addition to noting the age and any religious affiliation of those who died, the researchers also documented sex, marital status and the number of social and volunteer activities listed.
Results showed that those whose obit listed a religious affiliation lived 9.45 years longer than those who didn’t. The gap shrunk to 6.48 years after gender and marital status were taken into account.
The second study included 1,096 obituaries from 42 major cities in the United States published on newspaper websites between August 2010 and August 2011.
In this study, people whose obits mentioned a religious affiliation lived an average of 5.64 years longer than those whose obits did not, which shrunk to 3.82 years after gender and marital status were considered.
Many studies have shown that people who volunteer and participate in social groups tend to live longer than others. So the researchers combined data from both studies to see if the volunteer and social opportunities that religious groups offer might explain the longevity boost.
Results showed that this was only part of the reason why religious people lived longer.
“We found that volunteerism and involvement in social organizations only accounted for a little less than one year of the longevity boost that religious affiliation provided,” Wallace said. “There’s still a lot of the benefit of religious affiliation that this can’t explain.”
So what else explains how religion helps people live longer? It may be related to the rules and norms of many religions that restrict unhealthy practices such as alcohol and drug use and having sex with many partners, Way said.
In addition, “many religions promote stress-reducing practices that may improve health, such as gratitude, prayer or meditation,” he said.
The fact that the researchers had data from many cities also allowed them to investigate whether the level of religiosity in a city and a city’s “personality” could affect how religious affiliation influenced longevity.
The findings showed that a key personality element related to longevity in each city was the importance placed on conformity to community values and norms.
In highly religious cities where conformity was important, religious people tended to live longer than non-religious people.
But in some cities there is a spillover effect.
“The positive health effects of religion spill over to the non-religious in some specific situations,” Wallace said. “The spillover effect only occurs in highly religious cities that aren’t too concerned about everyone conforming to the same norms. In those areas, non-religious people tend to live as long as do religious people.”
Way said there are limitations to the study, including the fact that it could not control for important factors related to longevity such as race and health behaviors. But a potential strength was that, unlike other studies, religious affiliation was not self-reported, but was reported by the obituary writer.
Overall, the study provided additional support to the growing number of studies showing that religion does have a positive effect on health, Wallace said.
Explore further: Researcher studies the impact religion has on sleep quality
More information: Does Religion Stave Off the Grave? Religious Affiliation in One’s Obituary and Longevity. Social Psychological and Personality Science. doi.org/10.1177/1948550618779820
This Precious Viral Picture Is Only Part of the Story
(Courtesy of the Sooter family)
For hours, Matt Sooter had been watching his two young children talk and play.
Maybe the conversation was about Queen Elsa or plastic Easter eggs — two topics his 4-year-old, Adalynn “Addy” Sooter, knew well. He doesn’t recall what the two were discussing that Saturday night at a hospice facility in Arkansas, where Addy lay dying after a long battle with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare tumor that starts in the brainstem.
But the father does remember the heart-wrenching moment that followed — when Addy’s 6-year-old brother, Jackson, told his younger sister good night for the last time.
Sooter, 29, said that Addy was tiring and that it was time for Jackson to head to sleep not far from his sister’s bedside. Jackson let his sister hold his hand, then he patted her forehead and said, “I love you.”
Sooter snapped a picture and posted it on Facebook on June 2 — capturing a heart-wrenching moment that has been shared across social media.
“A little boy should not have to say goodbye to his partner in crime, his play mate, his best friend, his little sister,” Sooter wrote in the post. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. But this is the broken world we live in.”
Sooter explained that his daughter’s symptoms were progressing quickly and urged family members and close friends to say their goodbyes.
He then asked for prayers for their family — specifically for Jackson.
“He doesn’t want to leave her side and we won’t make him,” he wrote.
[A nurse’s gut-wrenching goodbye to a dying patient]
Jackson knew that his sister had a tumor and that, if it kept growing, she would die. His father said that it made Jackson sad that his “sissy” would no longer be there but that he was glad “she was going to be with Jesus.”
Sooter said Tuesday in an interview with The Washington Post that about 20 minutes after Jackson tucked his sister in, her breathing changed — it became slower, more labored and more erratic. She opened her eyes a couple of times, but she was not coherent, Sooter said.
For the next several hours, Sooter and his wife, Chandra, sat on either side of their daughter’s bed. Then, just after 1 a.m. on June 3, Addy died.
They woke up Jackson about 4 a.m., deciding there was no reason to continue to stay at the hospice facility. It was time to go home, grieve and rest.
“We told Jackson that she had passed — that she was with Jesus and she wasn’t hurting anymore,” Sooter said. “He said ‘Goodbye, Sissy,’ and they went out to the car.”
Sooter posted a photo later that morning, showing Addy wearing a bright white sun hat.
“Our sweet little girl received the miraculous healing that we’ve all been praying for so long and ran into the arms of Jesus,” he wrote. “She passed from this life to the next just as she had lived: stubbornly but also peacefully, and surrounded by family. She wasn’t in any pain at the end.
“For those who were wishing to say goodbye I’m so sorry,” he added. “This all happened so much faster than we expected, but that in itself is a blessing because she suffered so little at the end.”
In 2016, the Sooters, from Rogers, Ark., noticed their daughter’s gait was a bit strange — she was swinging one of her legs instead of picking it up and planting it on the ground. The couple didn’t think much about it until her symptoms started to progress. The then-toddler soon started to lose coordination and motor function, her father said.
“She was still walking but only if she could hold your hand,” he said. “Otherwise, she would crawl.”
In November of that year, Addy was diagnosed with DIPG — a rare and incurable tumor that starts in the brain stem, which controls “breathing, heart rate and the nerves and muscles that help us see, hear, walk, talk and eat,” according to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The hospital states that about 10 to 20 percent of pediatric brain tumors are DIPG.
For the next 19 months, Addy underwent 33 radiation treatments in Arkansas, then 10 experiential chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments in Mexico to try to buy her more time, Sooter said.
But they also tried to enjoy the moments they had left with Addy — a Make-A-Wish vacation to Walt Disney World to meet her favorite “Frozen” queen and her first trip to the beach. Then, her father said, there were the little things that were on the 4-year-old’s “bucket list”: playing hide-and-seek and watching YouTube videos of people opening plastic Easter eggs and showing what was inside.
Eventually, the cancer spread to her spine. Her last week, the tumor in her back started pressing on the nerves in her spine, causing her pain, so her parents placed her in hospice care, Sooter said.
Following Addy’s death, her father said he and Chandra donated their daughter’s tumors to scientific research “in hopes of saving future children from a similar fate,” he wrote on Facebook. At Addy’s service Saturday in Rogers, her parents asked family members and friends to wear bright colors “or one of Addy’s favorite colors, pink, purple, or blue,” to celebrate her life.
Second Nature Dental Arts 