Carol Elizabeth
(Quenelle) Williams
Our beloved mother, Carol Elizabeth
(Quenelle) Williams, 82, began her next
journey Aug. 23, 2021, in Albany, Ore.
Carol was the third of 10 children born to
Leonard and Lizzette (Warren) Quenelle.
She grew up on the Grand Ronde Reserva-
tion and became a respected elder member
of the Grand Ronde Tribe.
She met and married Siletz Tribal
member Eugene Williams Sr. in 1955 and
they shared seven beautiful children, four
boys and three girls. After her husband
passed away in 1977, she continued rais-
ing their children in Siletz, Ore. After
they were grown, she met and married
Steve Loveland and brief ly moved to
Nevada before returning to Siletz to be
with her family and homelands along the
Oregon Coast.
Carol mastered the skills of a home-
maker while also completing her educa-
tion and nearly 30 years of sobriety on
Most Often Requested
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Oct. 2, 2021. She annually worked with
numerous farming families to assist
with cultivating and harvesting a vari-
ety of fruits, vegetables and trees. She
also worked in cabinetry, bartending,
housekeeping, Publisher’s Mill and for
the Siletz Tribe.
Carol’s traditional and leisure activi-
ties included picking fern, peeling chit-
tum bark, beading, cross-stitch, watching
soap operas, putting her Native puzzles
together, caring for her plants and spend-
Conf.ederated Tribes of Siletz Indians –
800-922-1399
Salem Area Office – 503-390-9494
Portland Area Office – 503-238-1512
Eugene Area Office – 541-484-4234
ing time with her three Pomeranians –
Pepper, Jellybean and Chili Bean.
Carol is survived by one sister, Evelyn
“Toni” Quenelle, Willamina, Ore.; son,
Eugene “Poppa” Jr. and Debbie Williams,
Toledo, Ore.; daughter, Nora and Randy
Wood, Cottage Grove, Ore.; daughter,
Melody Williams and Darrel, Newport,
Ore.; daughter, Charmaine and Mark
Hammett, Siletz; son, Duane ‘Scotty’
Williams, Siletz; and daughter, Christina
Goodell and Martha Metcalf, Siletz.
Purchased Referred Care (PRC) –
800-628-5720
Tribal Veterans Rep – 541-444-8330
or 541-270-0569
Siletz Community Health Clinic –
800-648-0449
She enjoyed generations of cousins,
nieces, nephews, grand-, great-, and great-
great-grandchildren.
She now joins the family circle who
preceded her on the journey: husband,
Eugene Williams Sr.; son, Stacy ‘Babe’
Wade Williams; son, Gordon ‘Ab’ Lynn
Williams; brothers, Leonard (Chuck), Don-
ald (Donnie) and Larry Quenelle; sisters,
Charlotte, Delores and Eileen; both par-
ents; and her beloved Pomeranian, Bucky.
Her family will announce the future cel-
ebration of her life and her passing message.
Siletz Behavioral Health – 800-600-5599
Chinook Winds Casino Resort –
888-244-6665
Chemawa Health Clinic – 800-452-7823
Bureau of Indian Affairs – 800-323-8517
Website – www.ctsi.nsn.us
Your mouth is a gateway to your health; important to eat healthy, brush your teeth
By Nancy Ludwig, MS, RDN, LD, Head
Start Consulting Nutritionist
Our mouths and dental health are
more important than many have realized.
Our mouth starts the process of nutrition
and our nutrition in turn influences our
oral health. As part of my role as con-
sultant nutritionist to Siletz Tribal Head
Start, I offer information for families.
I come at this topic with personal
interest. Despite my keen attention to my
lifestyle and my nutrition, I’ve been living
with Lyme disease and mold illness. When
I learned that dental issues could interfere
with healing, I started looking into oral
health more deeply.
Recently, I realized I had a hidden
infection in my mouth and jaw that I had
been living with for many decades. It has
actually been a long road for me. I would
like to address some of the many ways
that what happens in the mouth impacts
other parts of the body. These factors can
have either positive or negative outcomes.
Most of us have been educated from a
young age about the importance of brush-
ing our teeth and that sugar is bad for our
teeth. Head Start focuses on brushing
teeth and having dental checkups. Oral
health is more than that. It includes a
healthy balance of microbes and appropri-
ate structure for function.
Plaque formation can be healthy or
unhealthy. I like the way Alvin Danenberg,
DDS, CFMP, explained this in a recent
talk I heard.
Dental plaque has some very impor-
tant functions. It is our protection. It is
basically there to defend the gum tissue
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against infection by potential pathogenic
bacteria in the mouth. Dental plaque
stops bacteria from sliding down the
tooth enamel to get under the gum into
the jawbone.
Dental plaque is not always healthy,
however. If it’s allowed to become
unhealthy, it can cause inflammation in the
gum tissue, deeper bone damage around
the roots of the tooth and eventually the
loss of teeth. Unhealthy gut and poor food
choices can cause healthy dental plaque to
become unhealthy dental plaque.
Gum disease or periodontitis follows
unhealthy plaque and is a very big problem
these days, especially when gums recede
around the root of your teeth. Blood in
your mouth when brushing or flossing is
a sign of gum inflammation that should be
discussed with your dentist or hygienist.
Periodontitis can also result from
specific bacteria called P. gingivalis in the
oral biome. Interestingly, it can also trigger
auto-immune reactions against joints and
other tissues (mentioned later).
A vicious cycle occurs once plaque
becomes unhealthy. It can start in the
mouth or the gut. For example, oral infec-
tions, when present, can travel to the gut
via saliva.
When the gut is unhealthy, it can
become leaky (more permeable) and
unhealthy toxic elements can spread into
the circulatory system. Once that happens,
our immune system is compromised. It
constantly tries to fight this inflammation,
but it’s a losing battle.
As that happens, the compromised
immune system allows the bacteria in
the mouth to change from healthy to
unhealthy. The plaque around the teeth
October 2021
starts to become unhealthy and the bacteria
become imbalanced. Poor food choices
can feed these pathogenic bacteria in the
unhealthy dental plaque, leading to new
problems. It is therefore important to focus
on healthy diet, teeth brushing and hygiene,
as well as addressing any infections.
Personally, my mouth was incredibly
aggressive in plaque formation despite my
diet and dental hygiene. When my hidden
infection was found and treated, my excess
plaque formation decreased dramatically.
This even surprised my dentist.
In the body there are many different
microbiomes and they contain more than
just bacteria. There are also fungi or yeast,
archaea, viruses and protozoa, which are
generally considered parasites.
Measuring the pH of saliva is one way
to evaluate the health of the mouth. Acidity
is a sign of poor health and is shown in
the low numbers on the 14-point scale. If
the pH is above 6.8, cavities will not form.
Acid favors decay. Sugar on the teeth
can result in acidic pH. This is why
brushing to remove food from the teeth is
important. Proper foods protect oral health
by nourishing and mineralizing the teeth
rather than feeding the unhealthy bacteria.
Limiting sugary foods and starches, eating
many vegetables and moderate healthy
proteins can protect against cavities and
support healthy pH in the mouth.
Also, when the mouth is acidic, yeast
can grow freely and can lead to systemic
candida. If your tongue becomes white,
this can be an overgrowth of yeast, often
called thrush. Sometimes thrush follows
antibiotic use. Our bodies are always
seeking a balance and sometimes this is
difficult to find.
Problems in our mouth, or our oral
microbiome, are associated with other
conditions, such as cardiovascular disease.
Think of it this way – plaque in the mouth
is the same plaque in the blood vessels!
There is increasing evidence that the
health of the mouth can be associated with
heart attacks, diabetes, obesity, visceral
fat, autoimmune diseases, cancer, stroke,
neurologic conditions and more.
Remember, your mouth is a gateway
to your health because it is the start of the
gastrointestinal tract and leads to the rest
of your body. With that in mind, condi-
tions in the mouth that allow imbalance
and overgrowth move through the diges-
tive tract.
When boundaries are leaky (not
healthy) other parts of our bodies can be
impacted, such as our brain, our digestion
and our circulation (blood and lymph).
Bitter foods such as dark leafy greens can
stimulate and prepare our bodies for effec-
tive digestion to keep our bodies working
well and to protect from excessive biofilm
development.
It is essential to realize how our state
of oral health can help or hurt overall body
health. What we eat matters, as well as the
ways we care for our mouth to support bal-
ance. This topic will be explored further
in the next article.
Siletz Tribal Head Start offers nutri-
tional support at no cost to Head Start
families. This usually occurs over the
telephone. If you have nutrition concerns
about your Head Start child or want to
discuss family nutrition concerns, please
contact your teacher or the director and
ask to speak to the nutritionist.