Speaker 1Welcome to Super Life with me, Darren O'Lean, a podcast where we explore, discover, and share solutions that promote a healthier life and a better world. Together, we'll ignite possibilities, inspire change, and build sovereignty, creating a roadmap towards a super life for you and for all. Get ready to start living your super life. By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Over 500 toothpaste tubes have been thrown away since I've started this ad. You don't think of these small little things, but they add up a lot over time, and we can do something about it. That ends up to be over a billion plastic toothpaste tubes a year alone. That ultimately ends up in our environment and in our waterways, and ultimately ends up in the ocean. Do you want to add to this, or do you want to do something different? Plus, maybe that exposure to that plastic, getting the plasticizers and the endocrine disruptors and then putting that toothpaste in your mouth also is not a good idea. There's some great solutions. You can DIY stuff. I've got many of these in my Fatal Conveniences. But the easy ones that I use every day, and I'm about to travel a lot more, and the traveling makes them really easy, I go to bite. I bite down on a little tablet, which is not interacting with any plastics because it's in a glass bottle, and it's refillable and reusable and sustainable, and there's no unwanted toxic fluorides, flow agents, and solvents in my mouth. So. One of my favorite is this Bite Toothpaste, 100% home, compostable pouches, subscription models. You don't even have to think about it again. You're helping you by putting clean products in your mouth, and you're helping the environment because Bite Toothpaste is one of the best companies I've seen looking at all aspects of their supply chain and their refillable, reusable, sustainable, regenerative practices. So. I'm offering you, all my listeners, 20% off your first order. Go to trybite.com, T-R-Y-B-I-T-E, /darren20, or just use the promo code darren20, D-A-R-R-I-N, and you can get 20% off your first order with a great new toothpaste without using the tube. Right now, without changing anything, notice where your tongue is. That's right. Is it up on the roof of your mouth? No. No. You're lying low, behind the bottom of your teeth, jaw clenched, lips apart. What's going on there? Most people have never once thought about where their tongue sits. Yet, that one muscle shapes our face. You heard me. It shapes our face. It guards our airway while you sleep. It also feeds bacteria. That helps control your blood pressure and connects through fascia all the way down to your feet. We brush, whiten, and straighten our teeth. The tongue we ignore. Today, the most ignored muscle in your body, and at the end, a two-minute routine you can do with me right now, unless you're driving. Welcome to Super Life. So. Your tongue didn't break on its own. Four modern conveniences took its job away. What are you saying, Darren? Yeah. Number one, soft food. For the most of human history, we chewed roots. Mostly fibrous plants. Yeah, on occasion, gnawed on some bone. Now, our calories come soft and processed. In JAWS, the book. Sandra Kahn and Paul Enrich argued this is a big reason modern JAWS are smaller and teeth are more crowded. We didn't evolve to drink our meals. On occasion, of course, I still eat all my veggies, but I also drink a smoothie. It's okay. Every once in a while. Your face is built to chew. Number two. Why is everybody mouth breathing? When the mouth hangs open, the tongue drops to the floor. In classic primate experiments, blocking the nose changed the shape of the growing face and jaw. Now, I hope. I hate. You know what? I hate it. Side note. When I'm reading experiments that there's no way I would have supported, makes me sick. Even though this one's not a bad one. I'm doing it all the time. Number three. You're not going to think of this one. Antiseptic mouthwash. That's right. The back of your tongue hosts bacteria. It helps regulate your blood pressure, sterilize them, and that pathway gets shut down. Now, keep in mind, I have the show notes to all of this incredible research. Number four. You guessed it, screen posture. Head forward over a phone, pulls the tongue and hyoid bone down and back and loads the jaw and neck all day. All of these fatal conveniences. Okay, so here's a little deep, deep dive on the science. A couple myths. You know how they used to say, maybe you heard it, I did, "The tongue map from school is a mistake that lasted for 70 years." And it's not your strongest muscle. It's not your strongest muscle. It's a mistake that you learned in school that lasted for 70 years. And it's not your strongest muscle. oil. This is dietary odd chain saturated fatty acids, OCFAs. There are present trace levels in dietary fat, some fish and plants. Higher circulating concentrations of this OCFS, we realize through the research that higher circulating concentrations of this is extremely good for us. It is called pentadonic kaonic acid or C15. Omega-3 fish oils and algae oils often go bad before they're even in the bottle. That's right, they're susceptible to oxygen and sunlight and the supplements can't even help to improve our health usually. But fatty 15 or C15 naturally protects against damaging oxidation both in the bottle and in your body. If you want to get a little more sciency about it, studies show that C15 works by strengthening our cells, improving our mitochondria function and protecting us against damage from free radicals on a very deep level. The result, better long-term metabolic liver and heart health functioning. It ends up many of us are massively deficient in C15, which results in weaker and weaker cells, that makes us have less energy and we quit working earlier. We're seeking to find that energy. Where is it? All of this makes us age faster and faster and the science around this is so fascinating. We sleep poorly, we feel sluggish and we're all looking to feel better and have more energy. Does it sound familiar? Fatty 15 is science-backed, award-winning, vegan-friendly, and pure C15 supplement. That's it. By replenishing our cells with this newly discovered C15, the nutrient of fatty 15 effectively repairs our cells and restores our long-term health. That's when you have to celebrate science. When science discovers something sitting there all along, after 90 years of discovering essential fatty acids, like omega-3, 6, and 9, we now have discovered this incredible odd-chain saturated fat C15. Fatty 15 is on a mission to replenish your C15 levels and restore your long-term health, and I'm with them in that. You can get an additional 15% off your 90-day subscription starter kit by going to fatty15, F-A-T-T-Y 1-5 dot com slash darin, D-A-R-I-N, or use the code darin, D-A-R-I-N, at checkout. You will not want to miss this incredible deal and this incredible uptick to your healthy cells. Here's something wild. In one study, a single week of antiseptic mouthwash. Raised healthy people's blood pressure by two to three and a half points. Over three years, people who use mouthwash twice a day had about 85 higher risk of developing high blood pressure. That's a link. I get it. It's not proof, but it matches this mechanism. Beets plus a healthy tongue equals nitric oxide. Better oxygen absorption. Relaxing of blood vessels. Beets plus mouthwash equals nothing. It shuts it down. In sleep apnea, a weak or heavy tongue falls back and blocks the airway. A 2020 Penn study found that losing fat from the tongue itself was the main reason sleep apnea improved with weight loss. Weight loss, your tongue loses fat too. And you can train it. You can train your tongue because it's a muscle. Tongue and throat exercises cut apnea severity by about half in adults. Have people been doing this? No. They just give them drugs and they give them machines. In a BMJ trial, people who learned the didgeridoo, that's just me, had fewer breathing pauses and less daytime sleepiness after four months. One of the best studied ways to train your airway is a musical instrument. And also, you have one. You can hum, you can chant, you can sing, no matter who you are. Resting on the roof of your mouth, the tongue acts like a natural retainer, widening the upper jaw, making it easier for the airway to circulate through your mouth. In growing kids, a low tongue and mouth breathing are linked to narrow palates and crowded teeth. In adults, mewing helps breathing and jaw comfort. And there's no solid proof it reshapes your jawline. But hey, you might as well do it. So mew. Mewing. Your taste is retrainable. Taste cells renew every week or two. Cut sugar for three months, and food itself tastes sweeter. Cut salt and you have less cravings for it. Ultra-processed food trains your tongue to need more of that. Real food trains it back to its set point. You don't need a gadget to do any of this. You need awareness. You have it now. You have awareness. Hello, you have the awareness. And then a few minutes. And then real food. Chew it. Diversity. Love it. Okay, so here's how you can fix your resting posture. Rest the whole tongue on the roof of the mouth, including the back third. Lips closed, not tight, but closed. Teeth slightly apart, not clenched. Breathe through the nose. Check in a few times during the day. Hell, when you're on a phone call and you're listening to someone, you're at a red light, you're in traffic, whatever, you can do this. Before meetings, it helps your parasympathetic too. Number two, breathe through your nose all day, all night. If your nose is always blocked, find a place to breathe through your nose all day. If your nose is always blocked, find a place to breathe through your nose all night. blocked find out a way through it allergies deviated septum enlarged tissue whatever it is some people use gentle mouth taping at night you can vertically tape your mouth so you don't have to tape your entire mouth so on the sides if for some reason you need to breathe your body will still be able to breathe you can do this quite easily chew real food raw carrots apples nuts seeds crunchy greens fibrous vegetables chew slowly and fully on both sides balance it out your jaw tongue and face are built to take that load feed your tongue bacteria eat nitrate rich foods beets arugula spinach celery chard skip daily antiseptic skip all of that stuff you don't need it it wipes out your microbiome if you want to rinse look for one that doesn't sterilize your mouth of course oil pulling is freaking great a tablespoon or so of coconut oil organic swish it for 10 to 20 minutes spit it out and that is a great way to clean the mouth scrape your tongue gently tongue scraping comes from the very very ancient ayurveda in 2004 a trial. A scraper reduced the sulfur compounds behind bad breath by up to 75% compared about 45% for just a toothbrush. Use a metal scraper two or three light passes in the morning. First thing you do, scrape your tongue, drink your water. Gentle, not aggressive. You're clearing the coating. You're not stripping the garden bacteria. Scrape your tongue. Don't sterilize it. You want a garden, not a desert in your mouth. Train it. Do the two-minute routine at the end of this episode. Most days, humming, singing, chanting, wind instruments are all incredible. If you snore or suspect sleep apnea, get tested. Then look into a myofascial. I'm going to give you a few tips on how to get rid of your phagocytosis. First, you need to get a functional therapist to open up some of that fascia and create that space and that program. Release the tension. Massage the jaw muscles. Of course, my good friend Jules Horn has a lot of stuff around the face that you can do and jaw and everything else. So go ahead and check him out. Gently work the soft areas under your jawline and the floor of your mouth. A gua sha is great, and also oiling your fingers is also the ancient tool of gua sha as well. Notice when you clench or press or stress in these areas, and that is a mindfulness thing that you can better approach the tensions in your face. Reset your taste. Take two to three weeks off with added sugars, heavy salt. Get enough zinc from my favorites, pumpkin seeds, cashews, legumes, you know, and of course, B12 is always great, and iron, and make sure you get tested, which this keeps the tongue surface really healthy. And of course, drink plenty of water, get hydrated, eat slowly, and actually taste your food. Check for a tongue tie. If you can't lift your tongue to the roof of your mouth with a mouthwash. Keep your mouth wide open, you can try this right now, or you've struggled with speech, swallowing, or jaw tension your whole life, have a dentist or myofunctional therapist that you can find, and watch your kid's tongue's posture and breathing early, because that can help create a stronger facial structure. Okay, so this is, this is obviously, this is on video, but most people listen to the audio, so you can make sure you check the show notes. You can find, find 15 seconds, close your lips, bring your teeth slightly apart, now place the whole tongue on the roof of your mouth, the tip just behind the front teeth, and then the middle, and then the back, breathe slowly through your nose. So place your tongue on the roof of your mouth gently, and breathe through your nose. This is a great practice. Do it 15 seconds. Seconds. Suction hold. Press your whole tongue flat against the roof of your mouth again, create a suction, like you're going to do a tick, right? So just create that suction, hold that for 15 seconds, and this is a great stretch under your chin, and it helps the hyoid strength as well. And then you can actually go into tongue clicks. So suction up at the top, and do that for 15 seconds. Put the tip. Up of your tongue, just behind the front teeth again, slowly slide your tongue back along the roof of your mouth, as far back as it goes, and then return to front. You can feel that stretch, okay? Reach and stretch. Stick your tongue straight out, as far as it goes. Hold for three seconds. Now reach up towards your nose. Hold. Down towards your chin. Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold. your tongue to the left, to the right, back in, and keep rotating that for 20 seconds. Press your tongue hard into the right cheek, then the left cheek. Push your fingers against both sides of the cheek to resist even more. Hold for five on each side. And my favorite one is hum for 20 seconds. Lips closed, tongue on the roof of your mouth again. Take a slow breath in through your nose and hum on the exhale. Feel the buzz in your face, your throat, your chest, and the calming. And then come back to home. Two minutes. That's it. You can do it while you're stretching, do it while you're meditating, or just before you meditate, before you go to bed. This is powerful. This is the muscle most people don't acknowledge. It is so powerful to help the face open, open up the face as create space in the breathing canal, as well as activate nitric oxide from the bacteria on your skin. The tongue is one of the hardest working parts of your body, and nobody's going to remind you it exists. Your dentist cleans your tongue, your dentist checks your blood pressure. Nobody looks at what and where your tongue sits. No company selling mouthwash is going to tell you all of this. No food company is going to tell you that this soft, over-processed food is damaging to your jaw and your tongue. Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth, breathe through your nose, chew real food, and get two minutes a day of tongue exercises. That's how you get a muscle back that the modern world, the modern life took from you. Take back that fatal convenience. Take action yourself today. Start right now. And where your tongue is sitting as you listen to this right now, be aware. This is super life. This is information. Apply it today. Like, share, and get people to be aware.
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