Daily Tip #6 - Oral Health
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VARSHA: [00:00:00] Welcome to Functional Medicine with Dr. Var. This podcast is to help you explore the underlying root causes of your chronic symptoms and health challenges. Reset your health and reclaim your life.
Did you know that your oral health can be a clue to what's going on deeper in your body? Your mouth has an oral microbiome just like the rest of your GI tract has a microbiome and it houses about 700 million species of bacteria and other organisms that may help with digestion and even help your immune system.
If your oral microbiome or your oral health is out of balance, then it could be a clue that you are having imbalance in your gut. Now, symptoms that your oral microbiome might be off is that you have bad breath, you may have bleeding gums. You might have an odd coating on your tongue. [00:01:00] I've seen white, yellow, or you may have
fissures in your tongue and scalloping in your tongue. So all of these can be clues that there's something going on with your oral health and even your gut.
And you know, it makes sense because if your oral health is off and you have more bad bacteria in your mouth, then anytime you eat, you're just swallowing that and you're basically contaminating and seeding the rest of your GI tract with those
bad bacteria affecting your gut health and the rest of your health.
Even in conventional medicine, they have recognized that poor oral health can lead to chronic disease. There's a lot of research as far as how poor oral health can lead to heart disease.
Poor oral health has also been linked to irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis.
It's linked to brain inflammation, and then of course, it's linked to other gut issues like [00:02:00] dysbiosis where you have an imbalance, gut microbiome, and so forth.
If you're struggling with any sort of inflammation, chronic fatigue, or gut health issues or anything really, you definitely wanna make sure that your oral health is in top shape.
So my daily habit challenge to you today are to do things that help improve your oral health. So number one is flossing and brushing your teeth. I think all of us know that
there is some thought that tongue scraping may help. They make these little flexible devices. It shouldn't be like scraping where you're like scraping for blood but just lightly scraping off and you can even do it with a toothbrush and just make sure you brush your tongue.
And then pay attention to your toothpaste. I switched to a toothpaste that has something called hydroxyapatite in it.
Because that helps strengthen your teeth enamel, so you wanna have [00:03:00] good teeth so that they're not prone to getting decayed or getting bacteria.
There are also some thought that oil pulling with a little bit of coconut oil, you can just swish it around your mouth for about five minutes a couple times a week, and that might help your oral microbiome.
And then also note, if you do have any of the symptoms with your oral health, go see your dentist. And they do have holistic dentists out there. They're usually called biological dentist, but even a standard dentist, I have a wonderful dentist and you know, they can definitely help you and give you some guidance to make sure
that your oral health is optimal, and so then your gut health will be optimal and the rest of your health will be good. Alright, if you found this helpful, then please subscribe and share. Thanks for listening or watching if you're watching the video version, and have a fantastic day.
