Book excerpt: Acclaimed oral health expert and wellness pioneer, Dr. Gerry Curatola, explores the bi-directional relationship between the health of your mouth and your body, and provides a groundbreaking program for creating a healthy mouth that will help maintain a healthy body. The mouth acts as mirror and a gateway and reflects what is happening in the rest of your body and the health of your mouth appears to have a profound impact on the rest of your body. Chronic, low-grade oral disease is a major source of inflammation throughout your body, which can sometimes result in serious systemic problems, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and premature birth. The Mouth-Body Connection educates the reader on the natural ecology of the mouth. The oral microbiome consists of communities of 20 billion microorganisms of more than six hundred types-keeping these communities balanced is the key to well-being. Dr. Curatola's program, thirty years in the making, helps to restore microbiome balance and reduce health-destroying inflammation. The Curatola Care Program fosters a healthy oral microbiome by means of diet, supplements, exercise, and stress reduction. Four weeks of meal plans and fifty delicious recipes will convince you that eating for balance can be a treat. There are supplement schedules for each stage, two high-intensity band workouts that take only 15 minutes twice a week, relaxation techniques, and yoga postures to fight inflammation. In just four weeks, you will reboot your body and begin to take control of your health. Best of all, your brilliant smile will prove that you have never felt better.