June 19, 2025 • 50 mins
Unlock the transformative power of proper breathing and discover how it can elevate your health and well-being!
In this episode, you'll feel inspired as we explore actionable strategies to improve breathing, oral posture, and sleep with Myofunctional Therapist and expert Karese Laguerre. Learn practical tips to overcome challenges like sleep apnea, anxiety, ADHD and focus issues while embracing intentional growth and realistic goals for a healthier, happier you. From enhancing your energy levels to boosting your daily productivity, this conversation is packed with insights that will help you connect with your core self and prioritize progress over perfection.
Whether you're a parent wanting to better support your child or looking to optimize your own health, this video offers the tools you need to thrive. Don’t miss out on these simple yet impactful changes that can transform your life!
If you're ready to embrace mindful resolutions and take the first step toward lasting change, hit the like button, drop a comment sharing your favorite takeaway, and subscribe for more empowering content! Together, we can create a life of intentional living and happiness.
#anxiety #ADHD #breathebetter #myofunctionaltherapy #upperairwayresistancesyndrome #selfimprovement #neuroscience
CHAPTERS:
00:30 - Karese Laguerre Introduction
01:21 - Myofunctional Therapy Explained
02:08 - Personal Journey in Myofunctional Therapy
09:34 - Mindset Shift in Health Approach
11:04 - Understanding Proper Oral Posture
17:40 - Correcting Oral Posture Techniques
20:32 - Supporting Children's Oral Health
24:52 - Sleep and ADHD Connection
27:50 - Identifying Sleep Issues
29:10 - Sleep Issues Sneaking Up on Us
32:50 - Sleep's Impact on Allergies
37:54 - Empowerment in Health
44:14 - Debunking Common Myths
45:51 - Getting Started with Myofunctional Therapy
47:10 - Life Changes from Myofunctional Therapy
49:20 - Final Words of Wisdom
CONTACT Karese Laguerre:
Social Media Links:
FB, IG, TikTok: @themyospot
LinkedIn: @karese.laguerre
Website URL: www.themyospot.com
Amazon link for the book:
Accomplished: How to Sleep Better, Eliminate Burnout, and Execute Goals
https://a.co/d/9toeyQO
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES (FREE):
Core Happiness Website: www.corehappiness.com
Core Happiness Meditations & Affirmations: @CoreHappiness
FOLLOW Core Happiness:
Instagram: @CoreHappiness and @coachkacee
Youtube: @CoreHappinessPodcast and @CoreHappiness
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
karese laguerre (00:00):
So we know that when you are going without sleep for
elongated periods of time, your braindoes not get to do its own proper detox.
Our brain only does its cleansing routineat night during sleep, and when it doesn't
get to do that it can't function the same.
Kacee (00:28):
Welcome to the show.
Today we are joined by Karis Lag,a registered dental hygienist
and myofunctional therapist.
Karis is the founder of Myo Spot whereshe helps clients overcome issues
like sleep apnea, TMJ disorders andanxiety through myofunctional therapy.
She's also the author of AccomplishedHow to Sleep Better, eliminate
(00:49):
Burnout and Execute Goals.
In this episode we'll explorehow breathing and oral posture
can help impact overall health.
We will also explore how small changesin breathing and oral posture can
lead to significant improvementsin health and overall wellbeing.
So if you're struggling with sleep,struggling with focus, or just
looking to enhance your overallhealth, this conversation is for you.
(01:11):
Enjoy
Carice.
Welcome.
I'm so excited to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining the show.
karese laguerre (01:19):
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited.
Kacee (01:21):
I wanna start off first before going into your background, because
I know a lot of your journey is in,myofunctional therapy, but can you
tell us for the people who may not befamiliar with that term, what that is?
karese laguerre (01:34):
So bio functional therapy is kind of like having a personal
trainer of sorts, but only for the musclesbelow the eyes and above the shoulders.
So in this wonderful area that no oneever thinks about working out, there's
over a hundred different muscles and.
I really help to strengthenand coordinate them.
That way we can get proper functionbecause a lot of important material
(01:54):
is in this area, , specifically how webreathe and how we eat, how we speak,
how we, you know, do a lot of funtasks that keep us going day to day.
Kacee (02:06):
And I know that your journey into Marrow Functional
Therapy was a personal one,
karese laguerre (02:13):
Yeah.
Kacee (02:13):
a little bit about how you first discovered this
world and what got you into it?
karese laguerre (02:17):
So it was my children.
I'm a mom of four and as a motherof four I, I believe that most other
parents, and I never like to speak foreverybody, but I think this is pretty
much across the board, uh, most.
Parents, when somebodyasks you, how's everything?
We give the highlight reel, like we'realways talking about all the good stuff.
This one's got a dance recital.
(02:37):
That one just won a soccer tournament.
Like we got all the good stuff ready togo, but there's a lot of things that like
we don't talk about under the surface and.
My original licensure is as a registereddental hygienist and I was working for a
pediatric dentist, and , I told her aboutsome of the stuff that was going on kind
of underneath the surface, like the thingsI would never talk to anybody else about.
(03:01):
So out of my four kids, Ihave one boy, he's the oldest.
He's been disappointed every timeI've gotten pregnant since, but
he, uh, had a lot of issues withlike emotional and like just.
Being able to regulate his behavior.
So a lot of sensory issues.
And so he was very, very difficult.
I remember the teachers from kindergartentelling me that he had a hard time
(03:24):
focusing and staying on task, andI was like, oh, but he's five.
And then we played thatgame well, but he's six.
Oh, but he's seven.
Like, what?
7-year-old wants topay attention in class.
We played that game for a bit too long.
, And around the age of, . Eight or ninewhere it was looking like he probably
wasn't gonna make it through fifth grade.
(03:46):
It was, okay, we gotta actuallydo something about this.
And we took him to a pediatricneurologist and boom, diagnosed A DHD.
We will come back to hisstory in just a little bit.
My daughters, my oldest daughter,had every sleep issue under the sun.
You name it, she experienced it.
So whether it was night terrors,sleepwalking, tossing and turning, like
(04:11):
falling outta the bed, middle of thenight, blood curdling, scream from those
night terrors, the snoring, the grinding.
She bed wet too every singlenight for his 10 years.
It didn't matter what we did, if itwas like, okay, no liquids, like four
hours before bed, or like, you haveto go to the bathroom before bed or
we'll make you go twice before bed.
(04:32):
Bedwetting was guaranteed everysingle night for 10 years straight,
and my youngest two daughters hada lot of upper respiratory issues,
so I don't know if anybody else canrelate, but I had those two kids
that were constant nose congested,ear infection, throat infection.
It felt like every time I could probablypredict it, like we're going to the
(04:54):
doctor and it's either , an ear infection,or their throat is infected like.
One of the two.
'cause that's what it always was.
So we were on this constant cycleof antibiotics with those two.
And it was in talking to thatpediatric dentist that I learned that
all of that, though, it sounds very,very different and these children
are very biologically similar.
(05:15):
It's all connected, and it was allconnected to how they were utilizing
these muscles in my wonderful area ofexpertise and how they were breathing
and that all of that really, reallyaffected the emotional, the regulatory
control issues My son had, the sleepissues, my daughter had the respiratory
and infection issues that my young, uh.
(05:37):
Young, young two had, and it was justabsolutely mind blowing, game changing.
So I always talk aboutmy son for this part.
So let's go back to him for justa second, if we go back to his
story, we spent a year and a halfafter he was diagnosed with A DHD.
And I'm telling you, we waited tosee the best pediatric neurologist.
(05:57):
At that time we were livingin New Jersey and she spent.
Maybe no more than 15 minuteswith us, asked us some questions
off a little questionnaire.
Boom.
That was his diagnosis.
A year and a half, we went throughthree different types of medication.
Every six months we saw her and it waslike we get a new script because none
of it's working, and that's reallyall you can do with a DHD, right?
(06:18):
His.
Just medication.
But I had discovered and had thatconversation with the pediatric dentist
as we were coming up to our next visit.
And so I started to tell the pediatricneurologist when we went back, I
think I wanna go a different route.
I don't want a fourth medication.
I wanna go a different route.
I wanna look into his sleep and Ithink I'm gonna have him sleep tested.
(06:39):
And immediately she stopped me.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Didn't let me finish my thought,my sentence, anything said.
You never told me hehad issues with sleep.
And I said, well, youknow, you never asked.
So there's that part, but I never toldher there were issues with his sleep.
I also didn't know therewere issues with her sleep.
'cause I.
(07:00):
I was never asked these questions,and so she began to tell me what I had
already known from the pediatric dentist.
This pediatric neurologist is nowbeginning to tell me that there's a
70% overlap between the symptoms inchildren who have sleep deprivation,
so they're not getting good enoughquality of sleep or long enough duration
of sleep, or they have some sort ofdisorder that is disrupting their sleep.
(07:24):
70%.
Overlap in the symptoms that present forthat and the symptoms that present for
ADHD So there was a very real possibilitythe entire time we've been medicating
him that there was something else.
That there was something else andwe never once talked about it.
And that.
(07:44):
It set me off.
It set me off as a parent, you know,because A DHD is just one of those things.
There's no blood work you can take for it.
There is no MRI or CAT scan thatyou're gonna, oh, there it is.
There's that A DHD gene.
It's all symptom-based.
And so not having that differentialdiagnosis made a big, big difference.
(08:06):
And once I started doing thework with him, I dove into
myofunctional therapy very selfishly.
To help address my own children.
But once I started to see the changesand I really saw them, and I like to
say I met them for the first time on theother side of all of this stuff, where
they could really flourish, uninhibitedby all of these things that were really.
(08:31):
I don't know.
I wanna say like preventing themfrom being their full selves.
So not to say that maybe theyweren't their full selves, but
there was so much more under there.
Kacee (08:39):
Mm-hmm.
karese laguerre (08:39):
And so once I saw that, I was like, everybody needs this.
Everybody needs this.
So many more parents we're,none of us are talking about it.
We're all keeping it kind of surfacelevel when somebody says, how are you?
So
Kacee (08:54):
Yeah.
Because it's, it's almost likemissing one question just kinda
leads you down in a whole differentavenue that you never would've known.
And most parents don't know that.
So if a doctor's
karese laguerre (09:02):
Yes.
Kacee (09:03):
Asking or inquiring, then it's like, how do you know what, what to bring
up or what would affect a diagnosis ornot, or create something else like, so
that is so fascinating and it's alwaysinteresting to me too, how, um, a personal
struggle or personal experience canoften be the driver for the, our purpose,
(09:24):
And just kind of that push down.
whether you do a deep dive or whether youare looking into something and whether you
make it your career, I always find thatthat's very interesting how that happens.
How did this realization happen, likein terms of affecting your mindset
shift of how you approach healthboth personally and professionally?
(09:45):
I.
karese laguerre (09:45):
Oh, I love that.
Um.
How did it shift how I approach health?
I really changed 150%.
I felt like as soon as I discoveredthere was something wrong with the
breathing, I knew that there hadto be other things that were wrong,
and so I wanted to get to the root.
Of everything.
And so we started seekingthings out of the diet.
(10:06):
We started changing overa lot of things that way.
We were more on a natural trajectoryof health as opposed to what we were
doing, which was all traditionalmedicine, which to that point,
I felt had not worked for me.
At that point.
They had kind of left me.
Without many answersor without any resolve.
(10:26):
The children just kind of carried onin the same pattern for a while, so.
It just shifted the way thatI thought I wanted to go.
A bit more natural, holistic.
Let's look at all the alternatives.
If nobody's talking to me aboutsleep, there are other things
they're not talking to me about too.
So let's start taking things out.
Let's remove the dairy.
Uh, let's remove the gluten.
And then we started removing a lotof other things from the diet too.
(10:50):
Taking down some of the processedthings, reducing the sugar, like
we just changed over lifestyle.
Let's start moving more as a family.
It was a big shift.
Kacee (11:00):
Yeah.
you mentioned in your work , thatpoor oral posture can impact
essentially your whole body.
karese laguerre (11:09):
Yeah.
Kacee (11:09):
Can you walk us through just like some symptoms that you found surprising
that people might not realize that areconnected to the way that they breathe
or the way that they hold their mouth?
karese laguerre (11:21):
Yeah.
So let's just start off with what is.
Proper oral posture becausea lot of people are just
unaware as to what that is.
And so I have a one minute breathtest that we can kind of do
together, and I'll talk about whatproper posture is once everybody
kind of determines what theirs is.
So if you're sitting andyou're able to, and you're not
listening to this while driving.
If you're driving, payattention to the road.
(11:42):
But think about this later on, ifyou're sitting and you're able to.
Plant both feet on the ground.
I want you to sit up as nice and tallas you can be mindful of your posture,
and I want you to, with closed lips,take a deep inhale through your nose.
And then you're gonna exhale throughthe nose, and I want you to repeat that.
And you're gonna do thatabout three or four times.
Now as you're doing that,I'm gonna keep talking.
(12:03):
Just keep breathing.
Inhale.
Exhale through the nose.
I want you to just be reallyinternally reflective.
I want you to think about whereyour tongue is, in your mouth,
how your teeth are resting.
Are your teeth together?
Is your tongue high?
Is it in the middle of your mouth?
Is it down low?
Is it half up?
Half down?
Just process it.
And think about it, and as you're comingout of what's possibly that fourth
(12:25):
inhale and exhale from the nose, andyou're more aware of where things are,
let me tell you that proper rest postureinvolves yes, predominant nasal breathing.
So if you were very uncomfortable orunable to do that because three or
four breaths through your nose waschallenging or difficult, you're already
in an improper posture, but predominantnasal breathing with lips, closed teeth.
(12:48):
Slightly apart.
You don't want your teeth together.
Your teeth are gonna be bracing,and that's most likely a lot of jaw
problems that you might have, but teethslightly apart and tongue suctioned
lightly against the whole palette.
So from the front, just behind the teeth.
From the front all the way to theback, like where your uvula is, and
for those who are unfamiliar withthat term, your uvula is that dangly
(13:10):
ball in the middle of your throat.
When you open yourmouth, you should see it.
If you don't see it, that's another redflag we'll talk about later, I'm sure.
But your tongue should be taking up allof the space in the roof of your mouth.
That's proper rest posture.
A lot of great things happen whenyou're in proper rest posture.
When you are in proper restposture, you're able to adequately
(13:33):
stimulate the nasal floor.
We need our nose for breathing.
Our bodies were designed for that.
The nose is going to naturallywarm and humidify the air
that is entering the body.
We're gonna produce nitric oxide,which is gonna help that oxygen
bond to the red blood cells for ourhemoglobin so that things can kind of.
Go through the body and we canbreathe adequately and get all
(13:55):
that oxygen where it needs to be.
We're gonna be able to get our lowerthird of our lungs filled so we'll
be able to get more oxygen and reallyadequately oxygenate the back of the
tongue being connected to the soft palateand like the back portion, if everybody's
unfamiliar with their soft palates, theback portion of the roof of your mouth.
(14:18):
That connection is incrediblyimportant for our vagus nerve.
Our vagus nerve is one of thebiggest nerves of our cranial
nerves, and it powers everything.
It is like the battery, Ishould say, of your body.
That is where all your organsget their ability to function.
That is.
How we regulate ourautonomic nervous system.
(14:40):
Everything gets thrown offif our vagus nerve is off.
If you don't have good , vagaltone, that is going to impact
how you're able to cognitivelyfunction and go about your day.
Big connections with anxiety anddepression with the vagus nerve and
poor vagal tone, but that tongue beingable to sit against that back half of
(15:02):
the roof of the mouth, the palette.
It is going to stimulate that vagus nerve.
It's going to help you be more ableto self-regulate that autonomic
nervous system and to keep justeverything else running well because
it is the powerhouse of the body.
And so we want to be able to have thatproper breast posture because when we
don't, you don't breathe as efficientlyand you don't function as efficiently.
Kacee (15:28):
Does this have a, this, first of all, that explanation is
phenomenal that just even from.
Me connected so many pieces and I'vebeen, as I mentioned before to you,
I've been talking about breath workon this podcast for a long time.
We talk about the vagus nerve,but that puts so many different
pieces together for me.
And I'm wondering if this, this iskind of a two part question, but
(15:49):
wondering how this differs if itdoes, from mewing, and then I'm also
wondering if that is why mouth taping,, sleep has become popular in recent.
Years, I guess.
So I'm kind of wondering if, ifthose two things are related into
the work that you're talking about.
karese laguerre (16:10):
Yes, to a degree.
So I would say they're pieces ofthe puzzle where Kneeing is like.
Um, it's kind of like one dimensionalmyofunctional therapy, so where it's a
heavy, heavy focus on just the tongue,whereas I deal with, like I said, like a
hundred muscles that surround everything.
So if there's other dysfunctions viewingdoesn't really address those at all.
(16:31):
And so you might have other compensationsor other things that are in disharmony
when you're not addressing them.
Kacee (16:41):
Okay.
karese laguerre (16:41):
are.
Uh, mouth taping.
Mouth taping is also likea piece of the puzzle.
Like I said, you wanna be predominantlynasal breathing, and so if you're taping
your mouth, you're forcing nasal breathingand therefore you're going to be receiving
all of those benefits of nasal breathing.
Nobody thinks of sleep as being.
So connected to breath, but it,it's incredibly, it's all regulated.
(17:06):
How you go through your sleepcycles is entirely determined by
the quality of your breathing.
Once you get into hypoxia, like you'renot getting adequate oxygen, you'd no
longer get those restorative functions.
So why you're feeling like you'regetting more restorative sleep is
because you're now oxygenating better.
That's where your mouthtaping is coming in.
(17:27):
And so yes, those are all like piecesof the puzzle, but what I do really
addresses like a greater area ofdysfunction than just what's going
on with your lips or your tongue.
Kacee (17:38):
Okay.
And then, so for listeners who werewith this, and we went through that
experiment together with the nasalbreathing, and for those who, let's
say, had their teeth together, orthey realized that their tongue was
resting at the bottom of their mouth.
are some first initial steps that onewould take just to correct basic posture?
karese laguerre (18:03):
Becoming more aware.
Of that over a longer period of time.
So incorporating conscious breathing, andI think a lot of people, when they think
of conscious breathing, they think of itas something like, oh, I have to sit down.
I have to meditate.
I have to like turn my mind off.
I can't do that, or I don't, Idon't have time for it, or whatever.
It could be as simple as like thislittle task that I like to do.
(18:24):
I call it rhythmic breathing.
You might have another name for itbecause people in breath work always
do, but I call it rhythmic breathing.
You're going to turn on a song that'ssomewhere between 60 to 85 beats.
Per minute.
A lot of Bruno Mars in thatarea, he's just a popular artist.
Uh, some Elvis in that area, you know,some Michael Jackson in that area,
(18:44):
just to name some popular artists.
So it's not like you haveto listen to boring music.
You can listen to really exciting,fun music, but 60 to 85 beats
per minute, no higher, no lowerbecause you wanna keep yourself.
Relatively regulated.
What you're gonna do is you'rejust gonna listen to the song,
listen to the music, and I wantyour breath to dance along to it.
(19:05):
So feel free to pause breathing, toelongate your breath, to take deeper
inhales, to take shorter breath,like manipulate your breathing.
You'll be consciously.
Breathing for that three tofour minutes that the song
might be on during that time.
Be very, very aware what's going on.
(19:25):
So this could be done in the carwhile you're on your way to work.
Uh, if you're on a jog and you're, you'rerunning, you can do this at any time.
And really just be aware of whatthe posture is most commonly.
Some people might find that when they'restressed, that's when they're checking.
And everything might be like your jaw'sfairly tight or your posture's low.
(19:46):
Things change that's functional breathing.
It changes so that our body can adapt.
But what is it most commonly?
And then once you know what it is mostcommonly and not just what it is on like
a one-off type of basis, I want you totake some of that rhythmic breathing
time and try to see if you can relaxyour jaw so that it's not together
(20:08):
for the three minutes of the song.
If you can keep your tongue upfor the three minutes of the song.
If you find that you've spent a weekor two or four and it's a struggle for
you, you might need additional help.
And at that point then I would sayyou want to call in, some sort of
specialist, whether it's a myofunctionaltherapist and or anybody else.
(20:29):
Else.
Kacee (20:31):
That is so helpful.
And then for parents, like Iknow you mentioned, This all kind
of started with your children.
So for a parent who is trying to supporttheir child or even trying to figure
out, if there are issues with oralposture or breathing, or they're trying
to evaluate oral habits or sleep oranything along that line, what would
(20:54):
you say a parent who's trying to beginthis journey or just support their
child naturally and not with medication?
I.
karese laguerre (21:03):
Yeah.
What you wanna do is you wanna make surethat one bedtime is as consistent as
possible, create routines around bedtime,and you wanna start getting into a
little bit of nasal hygiene if you can.
I know that that becomes very challenging.
Not a lot of kids like these salinesprays or anything sprayed up their
nose, but you gotta keep it clean.
(21:24):
And we're cleaning every otherpart of our child except the one
that's like the most important.
We could go for, you know, dayswithout water, weeks without
food, but nobody can go.
But for a few minutes withoutair, we need to breathe.
So clean out your children's nose , makethat a part of your bedtime routine and
make bedtime as consistent as possible.
(21:45):
I know it's hard.
I have four kids, you know, people havesports and afterschool activities and
extracurriculars and all sorts of things,but you gotta get into some sort of set
rhythm because our circadian rhythm, I.
It is just that it goes off ofthese routines that we create
when we're early on in parenting.
(22:07):
Everybody's telling you, oh, yougotta get the baby on a schedule.
Keep the baby on a schedule.
Babies love schedule.
Guess who else loves schedules?
Well, one adults like,hello, we need it two.
But children, children thriveoff these schedules too.
And so set a really good routine andstart monitoring your child's sleep.
I know you know for me, once you get them.
(22:29):
Either out of your bed if youwere co-sleeping or you get them
just sleeping through the night.
You just wanna go to your bedor like do your own thing.
Or it's mommy time now.
Right.
And you're not thinking about them.
But really, I wish I was moreaware very early on of how
they were sleeping and the.
Signs that were all there,that there was dysfunctional
(22:50):
patterns through their sleep.
Nothing scares you morethan witnessing an apnea.
So we talk about obstructivesleep apnea for adults a lot.
You'll hear it when you'retalking about older men.
You might, your, your dadsnored, your grandfather snored,
your husband might snore.
Like we talk about men a lot, but thereare children who snore and it's not cute.
(23:12):
It's not.
Starring is the sound of air, meaningresistance, trying to get into
your lungs, so we don't want that.
But also, apnea are only officiallydiagnosed as an apnea, like on
a sleep study when it's stoppingof breath for 10 seconds or more.
When you start to witness things likethat happening in your children's sleep.
(23:34):
So you don't have to stand over themand like creepily, watch them sleep.
But if you put a phone there, um, ifyou put a, an Apple watch or one of the
Android watches, you put that on yourchildren because they can monitor sleep.
And many of those devices have beenFDA approved to do home sleep testing.
You put that on there and if younotice how many times they stop
(23:57):
breathing, sometimes I think thatwill ring enough bells because.
If we stood here and we just counted out10 seconds, and you just imagine your
child's not breathing for that entiretime, it is a long period of time.
So I think it's really importantthat as parents create a routine.
Around sleep.
Make sure you're doing nasal hygiene.
(24:18):
Get them optimally engaged for sleep.
I know a lot of people don't like tomouth tape, um, children to go to sleep.
You want them to be able to opentheir mouth if they need to,
whatever, so prime their nose.
Make sure their noseis ready for breathing.
Then make sure that you're monitoringit and that you're seeing the
quality of their sleep and any redflags alert, a medical professional.
(24:42):
Right away.
Don't ignore any of the signs.
So the symptoms, it doesn'tget better on its own.
It doesn't resolve on its own.
You do have to activelyput in some type of work.
Kacee (24:52):
And I'm wondering too, for the, like a parent listening or even
somebody going to this themselves, likethe connection between dysfunction and
focal challenges, being able to focus,or maybe if they were diagnosed with
a DD or a DHD, uh, like your son, likewhat is something that they should know
(25:14):
about that connection or be aware ofabout the connection between breathing,
dysfunction and focal challenges?
karese laguerre (25:21):
I think what some parents don't understand, , especially with A
DHD, so it happens with a DD two, butwith a DHD that age for the hyperactivity,
you think, oh, my kid's not sleepy.
They're bouncing off the walls.
Hyperactivity happens a lotvery frequently in children
that are sleep deprived.
Whereas sleepy adultswill be more fatigued.
(25:43):
You're anticipating yourchild would be fatigued.
They are hyperactive becausejust physiologically, the
body is just really wound up.
It really wants to go to sleep.
So it's kind of exciting itself tohopefully induce some sleep earlier.
And then you see them, they knockout, they go to sleep right away.
Going to sleep too fastis always a red flag.
(26:05):
Uh, they shouldn't be.
So tired that they fall asleep so fast,but that hyperactivity, real red flag.
That's why they can't focus.
That's why they have that inabilityto really stay on one task.
Their body is really just tryingto get to the next thing so
that we can go to sleep faster.
Uh, so that's gonna be a.
Really difficult focal challenge.
(26:27):
If you're finding that your childis not getting adequate sleep at
night, that's a hundred percentimpacting their cognitive abilities.
So we know that when you aregoing without sleep for elongated
periods of time, your brain doesnot get to do its own proper detox.
Your brain has its own things that ithas to, you know, we have our endocrine
system, we have our lymph nodes andthose are going to help remove things
(26:49):
that we don't want from the body.
We flush things out throughour kidneys and clean.
We have our liver thathelps to detox things too.
Our brain only does its cleansingroutine at night during sleep, and
when it doesn't get to do that duringday, it can't function the same.
So if your child is unable tofocus or really pay attention.
(27:09):
Yeah, there's a lot that hasn'thappened at night that the brain
needs to have happen so that it canwork in the same way in the morning.
And so sleep is incredibly important.
Make sure that, you know, you askyour child important questions too.
I think I should have brought thisup earlier, like, are they dreaming?
Ask them if they remember ever dreaming,uh, even if it's a nightmare, if they
(27:33):
say, oh, I only remember nightmares.
Okay, well, at least Dave is.
Entered some stage of REMbecause that's really important.
That's when all of the importantrestorative tasks happen at
night, like the brain detoxing andmemories imparting and so forth.
Kacee (27:50):
I like that you mentioned that because I think that's an important part.
I mean, all of it is important,but that's very important because
I think so many of us, just asadults, get tired and we think.
it's normal that I feel tired.
Um, but are those some signsthat we should look out for?
That could be sleep issues or evenbreathing issues as if, are we dreaming?
(28:11):
Are we remembering our dreams?
Like are those things that weshould be monitoring for ourselves?
karese laguerre (28:16):
Yeah, you should note that you're dreaming.
So it's really difficult.
A lot of times you're gonna forgetyour dreams, so you won't remember
it 10 minutes after you've woken up.
But you would remember, ohyeah, I did dream last night.
I can't remember what about,but I did dream last night.
So that's a big red flag.
If you're not dreaming.
All the tossing and turning, that's a bigsign of non-restorative sleep at the two.
(28:39):
So if you go to bed and you know,sheets are one way and you're wrapped
one way and then you wake up andeverything's all over the place.
Like red flag, you did notget enough sleep at all.
And so make sure that you arelooking out for those types of signs.
Adults are gonna be, yes, very fatigued.
Uh, teenagers will even be fatigued,but children, when they're tired
(29:00):
sometimes do not present as fatigued.
They can,
Kacee (29:04):
Mm-hmm.
karese laguerre (29:04):
they don't always, more often than not, they may
present with more hyperactivity.
Kacee (29:10):
Yeah.
And your book accomplished, um,talks about sleep and burnout,
and I love how you weave breathinginto that conversation, but can
you explain how, , mouth breathingor the sleep disorders that we're
talking about can sneak up on us?
karese laguerre (29:28):
Oh my gosh.
Everything stinks up on us.
'cause I don't think we're everlooking for all of the signs.
I really don't think we'reever looking for the signs.
It's very hard to know.
You think of sleep apnea, I thinkpeople immediately think of like
very loud, obnoxious, snoring.
Like you think of your dads, yourgrandpas, your your people who you've
(29:50):
heard having this terrible sleep, but.
It creeps up on you in that,and it compounds as you age.
So what might start as like maybesome little cute snoring, or it
might start out as like, okay,they've got their mouth open at
night and you don't really hear it.
It might be like.
A little audible breathing.
There's a lot of parentsthat describe that to me.
(30:12):
It's not a snore, it's audible breathing.
Okay.
Well, breathing is supposedto be inherently quiet.
You shouldn't hear breath happenat all if you're hearing breathing.
That's the sound of the airtrying to make its way through.
And we don't want that.
No obstruction to the air, gettingto where it needs to be in our body.
And so it's gonna sneak up on youbecause as it's compounding over time.
(30:35):
You're not really catching the symptomsor the signs and that will add up.
So I like to compare it tokind of like a, and I do this
in the book accomplished too.
I compare it to like a washing machine.
Everybody who has a washing machine,whether it's front loading, you know,
top loading or whatever, you put clothesin your washing machine, you let it
wash, everything's wet, and it kind of.
(30:57):
It looks like a smaller volumeof things, so if you have a top
load, it might be more off to theside around the edges of the bin.
If it's a front load, everything lookskind of smashed down and it looks like you
could just add some more clothes and justkind of start that whole thing up again.
Let's just wash somemore clothes with this.
Sure, go ahead.
(31:18):
You could put more in, and I'm sure thatthat will kind of smash down and you might
be able to get in a third load, but thequality of these washes, the quality of
the clothes, it's not getting any better.
You're just, IM pounding, impartingmore and more and more, and
that's what happens with sleep.
When you're not catching the signs earlyon, you're just adding more and more and
(31:39):
more problems and it just really compoundsuntil one day you realize, oh, I can't put
anything else into this washing machine.
It, it's full.
It.
It's done.
And that's where you startto see signs and symptoms.
You, you're hearing the kids grindingvery hard and you're wondering why
their teeth are wearing down, orthey might be complaining of jaw
pain, or they might be complaining ofneck or upper back pain or tension,
(32:02):
or you take them to a chiropractor.
There's a lot of, very forward thinking.
Parents who are taking their childrenvery early on to chiropractors and
they're getting pediatric adjustments andthey say, oh, well there's some tension
along one side of the neck or so forth.
Like a lot of this is really tiedinto how they're sleeping, how they
might be manipulating themselvesin order to get adequate breathing.
(32:25):
How they have to, you know, moveor manipulate themself in sleep.
Whether they're crunched up orthey're expanding their body
or tilting more to one side.
That way they can open up their airway.
So.
It compounds because you really don'tnotice the very, very subtle first signs.
It's only when it becomes really loudand glaringly obvious that we start
(32:47):
to say, oh, there's a problem here.
Kacee (32:49):
Yeah.
I know we've been talking a lotabout, sleep, but in just hearing
what you said now in terms of someof these things can seem subtle, and
so I wanna go back to what you saidearlier about your daughter with the,
allergies and like the congestionand like kind of the nasal things.
Like I don't know if it's.
Just the oral posture or, but how wasaffected in terms of what you found out
(33:14):
with your daughter and her allergies,or what you thought with allergies?
karese laguerre (33:19):
So when you are not breathing adequately, like if you're mouth
breathing particularly, you're not gettingthe filtration, the air is not being.
Humidified or warmed, and it'snot really prepped for the body.
So when you're not getting thatfiltration or the warmth, you're
exposing your body to more of thethings that will cause inflammation.
Our tonsils wind up being likea first line responder 'cause
(33:42):
that's part of the lymph.
System, and so those tonsils will startto become inflamed and catching things
and trying to be some form of a barrier.
It's not the same as when you respiratethrough your nose, you're supposed
to take in that air through your nosethat's going to filter and so forth.
Once you have that inflammation, yourbody is now going to be more reactive.
(34:04):
So what may start out aspollen and you might not be as
affected, may suddenly hit you.
Really, really hard and havewhat a lot of people like to
call like year round allergies.
'cause you're more sensitive tothe histamines, you're inflamed.
Your body is unable to reallyprocess everything because it's
(34:26):
just catching things all the time.
You're breathing and all the airyou're taking in through your mouth is
needing to be filtered and processed.
And now we've got histamines and nowwe've got other things coming at us.
Whatever bacteria andyou know, kids there are.
Kids are yucky to begin with.
And so all of that sharing of germs, likeall of that extra that comes with that,
(34:47):
they have a hard time processing it.
And so it just, it increasesthat inflammatory process.
It increases the, his histamine response.
And so the body is more likely to bereactive when there are allergens nearby.
So we find that actually a lot oftimes that when we, , switch over,
we get them nasal breathing andwe start including nasal hygiene.
(35:08):
Really, really important because somenasal hygiene, particularly those
salines that have, , xylitol in them,those sprays are gonna sit there.
It's gonna have like anice antimicrobial factor.
It's going to help you kind offight off that and keep down some
of that sinus inflammation thatwould occur when you know you're
breathing in a lot of allergens.
So we're finding that when weswitch over and we establish nasal
(35:32):
breathing and nasal hygiene, thatwhat was allergies and was really.
Ruining your springs, ruining your fallsis actually just improper breathing.
They were just more prone to it.
So not to say that it goes away fully,but you know, you don't have those big
attacks of allergies as you once had.
Kacee (35:54):
Very interesting.
Okay.
Yeah, I, I love this too, because.
I think even as adults, and I knowmy father, was like struggling.
He's like, all of asudden I have allergies.
And he had these year-round allergiesand he didn't have allergies before,
his sleep had also gotten worse and hewas starting to snore and was like going
through, like a sleep study to kind offigure out what was going on with his
(36:16):
snoring and stuff when he was breathing.
So that's kind of interesting And thenwhen you talk about nasal hygiene, I
know you're, um, you've mentioned thesaline, but would that include like
neti pot and those types of things?
Like in terms of, irrigation?
karese laguerre (36:31):
Yes, ma'am.
So when you're irrigating, even witha Neti pot or any other thing, , you
would absolutely use saline as younever use, just like regular tap
water, it would always be a saline.
That way you're not introducing, you know,any, anything detrimental into your body.
So, yeah, saline and youwould be actually rinsing out.
(36:52):
Not everybody's.
You know, a fan of that.
I think it's a really great way to cleanseout, but not everybody's a fan of that.
It goes up one nostril,it comes out the other.
It really cleans and flushesout those nostrils really well.
But you could also just usea spray and spray up there as
well, and then that's gonna help.
Really important for the spraysactually, 'cause nobody ever talks
(37:14):
about this, but you wanna look atyour toes when you spray your nose,
so you're gonna tilt your chin down.
That way when you spray,you get the right angle.
Otherwise, if you're spraying whileyour head is straight, it's going
somewhere trapped along your nostrilslike it's not going anywhere.
So you gotta look at your toeswhen you're gonna spray your nose.
Very important.
Kacee (37:34):
And I like that it rhymed.
It's easy to remember.
karese laguerre (37:36):
Exactly.
Kacee (37:37):
Look at your toes when you spray your nose.
Um, that's actually a good notebecause I know a lot of people
when they do it, they tend to like
karese laguerre (37:44):
Tilt backwards.
Yeah.
Kacee (37:45):
to
karese laguerre (37:46):
It's not going in the right spot.
Kacee (37:48):
and, okay.
So that's.
Very, very good to know.
karese laguerre (37:53):
Yeah.
Kacee (37:53):
to know.
one of the things that I wanna talk toyou about was sort of the, empowerment.
And I say that because I think thatyou are a great example of a person
who turns the challenges , that they'veexperienced with their personal or with
your kids into like this global mission.
And so.
I'm curious to know for someone who'slistening today who feels like they're
(38:15):
stuck or they're tired or they'reoverwhelmed or maybe they're struggling
in some way, piece of advice can yougive that would encourage them, or
something that you would leave them with?
karese laguerre (38:27):
Yeah, there's always somebody willing to listen to you.
I think that's the biggest thing.
So always advocate for yourself.
I wish I had advocated more formy children because during that
10 years of my daughter wedding,the bed every night, you know?
Of course I talk to the pediatricianabout that every single time,
and she's like, don't worry.
(38:48):
She'll outgrow it.
She'll outgrow it.
She'll outgrow it, butlike you're missing.
So many things that during these vitalyears where she's growing, we shouldn't be
ignoring these things and just waiting forher sleep to magically one day get better.
So
Kacee (39:05):
Hmm.
karese laguerre (39:06):
never felt right with the answers I got.
I never felt right thatlike, why are we on our third
medication for this a DHD thing?
And none of them are working.
Like, it just doesn't feel right.
And if it doesn't feel right.
It doesn't mean that you know you'redoing something wrong or that your
kids are getting terrible treatment.
It means that you just haven'tfound the provider yet that
(39:28):
is willing to listen to you.
And there are people, many, manypeople who will listen to you.
So it doesn't have to be, I, I thinkI grew up with that mindset that
like doctor knows best just deffer tothe doctor, but you can collaborate.
In healthcare, you canbe a part of the team.
(39:49):
And really, I don't wanna overstatehow you collaborate, but there will be
people who will listen to you and willbe willing to look down other avenues
and provide you with alternative waysthat you can reach the same end goal.
So keep advocating for yourself.
There's always somebody whowill listen and it's not you.
(40:10):
You're not the problem.
Kacee (40:11):
That is so important.
And I think especially for women, Ithink we have a hard time with going.
To look after ourselves, numberone, and then going to the doctors
and then whatever we usually hearback, we just take at face value.
But I think it is importantto advocate, for yourself.
So I love that.
And then I just also wanna bring it incircle because I know we talked about
(40:33):
myofunctional therapy and like you said,it encompasses so many different things.
But can you explain how italso compliments other holistic
therapies, like you mentioned,chiropractic care , nutrition
, psychotherapy, likehow does it compliment?
karese laguerre (40:48):
Yeah, so breathing is very well attached to a lot of
our ability to regulate our autonomicnervous system, as I've kind of
stated a little bit, and that's.
Really how it goes hand inhand with mental health.
Really, really big factor.
We all know that once you go to apsychiatrist or a psychologist and
it, it's anything to do with anxiety,the first thing they start to show
(41:10):
you are some breathing exercises.
So we've always known that there wasthat connection there, but being able
to adequately breathe and like reallyimproper posture really does help as
a natural aid to other methods and.
Other things.
We never wanna discount traditionalmedicine fully, but it can be
complimented in a lot of different ways.
(41:31):
Uh, myofunctional therapy is really,really great for those who are
struggling with a lot of GI issues.
If you're breathing throughyour mouth and you have to eat
with your mouth digestion first.
And foremost starts in the mouth,and you can alter the pH and the
content of your salivary flora by justmouth breathing, by not adequately
(41:54):
breathing properly and proper posture.
That's gonna have a negative impact.
As you're breathing through your mouth andyou're trying to eat and take breaths, you
wind up in some ways, swallowing more air.
It makes you more prone to inflammationand leaky gut and those types of things.
And so it's very complimentaryof myofunctional therapy too.
(42:16):
A lot of the GI issues.
And we work well withgastrointestinal doctors , sleep
physicians for obvious reasons.
We've talked a lot about sleep.
It works.
Really, really great withdentistry because we find a lot
of people who are struggling.
You think all you gotta dois brush and floss, right?
If you just brush and floss and you dowhat the doctor says, that everything
(42:36):
should be fine in your mouth, well, howyou breathe and the quality of what's
going on with your salivary flora,that's going to have an impact too.
So when that's altered, you findyourself more prone to gum disease,
inflammation, the ability to have.
Cavities or disease andso forth in the teeth.
And so we want to also make surethat we have proper posture so
(43:00):
that we can keep our teeth and ouroral health as optimal as possible.
Uh, it compliments a lot of thingswith children with growth and
development because when that tongueis up in proper posture, it's doing.
Yes, stimulating the nasal floorand stimulating the baby's nerve,
but it's also applying a nice light,soft, consistent pressure that helps
(43:20):
to expand our maxilla naturally.
We're seeing a lot of kids, it's almostlike a rite of passage these days to get
braces and braces are not normal, okay?
That is not something you shouldanticipate for your child.
It should be something where like,oh, is this something I'm gonna need?
There's something wrong here.
And if there's proper tongue posture.
(43:42):
They develop naturally,they develop normally.
Um, so it's compliments a lot of differentthings and a lot of different ways for
health and just overall wellness becauseas far as I'm concerned, and there are
people who feel like it's one way orthe other, but I think it could be both.
I think health starts from thetop down and so everything here
in my wonderful area is going toimpact things further down too.
(44:06):
So it works well with alot of different things.
Thanks.
Kacee (44:09):
My mind's blown honestly, like just how much it can
affect so many different things.
I didn't even know.
But what are some common myths aboutwhether it's breathing or whether it's
or maybe it's just myofunctional therapyin general, but what are some common
myths that you wish more people knew?
karese laguerre (44:29):
Ooh.
I really wish more peoplewere aware that one.
The tongue.
It has its own proper posture and thatthat's incredibly important to address.
Two, everybody thinksthat snoring is normal.
Snoring is not normal.
It's common.
Common and normal are not the same.
Okay?
So it might be common, and it could verywell be common through your family, but.
(44:53):
That does not make it normal.
It's not something thatyou should anticipate.
Uh, genetics only playa, a portion of the role.
I think that's a verycommon misconception.
Everybody assumes genetics isa hundred percent the thing.
The study of epigenetics has provento us time and time again that it's
multifactorial, it's nature and nurture.
(45:14):
So genetics, uh, it plays a role,but then a lot of the external
factors that come on after birth and.
As you are being, you know, fedand, and neutral and whatever.
A lot of that plays a common factor.
So that's a big one too, isthat it's just not all genetics.
So just because you had a particular, type of sleep pattern, or maybe you
(45:37):
had a DHD or what you think was aDHD while you were growing up, that
does not destin your child to it.
These are things that we can veeraway from with better habits,
better diet, better function.
Kacee (45:50):
Great.
if the listeners want to knowmore, if they want to dive deeper
into healing or breathing orsleep, where should they start?
karese laguerre (46:02):
So I have a website.
I think it's a great place to start.
If you at any point in time wanna just.
Talk and kind of geekout about this stuff.
I do complimentary consultations, andso you can find that on my website.
It's the mayo spot.com.
I'm sure it'll be in theshow notes or something, but
that's a great place to start.
It'll also link off to my blog.
(46:23):
My blog is Airway matters.blog,
and there you'll find a lot ofgreat resources, references, and.
Information that's really gonna helpyou guide yourself through this journey.
'cause it's not easy.
It wasn't easy for me.
And so I try to make it asstreamlined and it's easy for others.
Uh, but I'm happy to talk to anybody atany time about myofunctional therapy.
(46:45):
It's not everybody's firststep, and so that's a big thing.
I should have said that with some ofthe myths too, is a lot of people think
that, oh, my very first step is to figureout what's going on with my tongue.
Not always.
A lot of times there's other thingsthat need to be into play and so.
Kacee (47:00):
And of course we will link everything you mentioned, as well as
your book accomplished, the myo spot and
karese laguerre (47:05):
Yes.
Kacee (47:05):
amazing resources in the show notes.
Of course.
karese laguerre (47:08):
Thank you.
Kacee (47:08):
And I just wanna know like.
I mean, obviously we startedoff talking about your family.
I kind of wanna end it that way too,because look all the things that you
have to worry about already with beinga mom, and then you're worried about
your children and sleeping through thenight and in accidents and 10 years of
straight accidents, like things like that.
So I just wanted like, how has this trulychanged your life and your family's life?
(47:33):
How would
karese laguerre (47:33):
changed everything.
Absolutely everything.
My son, uh, we started out withfifth grade and like really?
Started on our journey intothe A DHD around that time.
And it wasn't looking good for him.
Like it, he was not doingwell in excelling at school.
But once we kind of made it throughour journey, there was this.
(47:54):
Little brilliant boy that I feel bad wasso hindered for so many years because I
played that game of like, oh, he's six.
Oh, he's seven, you know, whatever.
Because by the time he was17, he graduated high school a
year early ahead of his peers.
He was able to graduate early and andjust move forward in life, and he's.
Just absolutely brilliant once he was ableto sleep and get the rest that he needed.
(48:18):
Um, my daughter, with all the sleepissues, we hadn't had any bedwetting
and she's 19 now, so solid nine years,and hopefully she keeps going more, but.
But it's starting to not be my problem.
So, yeah.
But she's been getting really, reallygood sleep, which is able to a, allow
(48:38):
her to really thrive during the day.
So she's been able to flourish and justbe more of herself and be more present.
She doesn't struggle with likefatigue or, or issues getting
out of bed in the morning.
So I'm, I'm so blessed.
Um, and then my youngest two, we havenot been on antibiotics in my home I
mean, not one antibiotic for any purpose.
No ear infection, no throat infection.
(49:00):
These things that, you know, I wastold are so common and like destined
to happen stopped happening years ago.
So I feel really, really blessed thatwe were able to, come on the other side
and really see them for who they are.
Kacee (49:16):
That's amazing.
And then is there anything thatyou would like to leave with our
listeners just as, any last words ofwisdom, insights, or anything that
you want to share as a parting note?
karese laguerre (49:31):
Yeah, just get started cleaning your nose.
Get started, like that's the.
Biggest thing get started.
No matter what it is.
Whether it's monitoring howyou're breathing, watching your
kids sleep, getting into somenasal hygiene, like get started.
Don't just listen and like goput a pin in it for another time.
Just get started.
Get started now.
(49:51):
You won't regret it.
Kacee (49:53):
I love it.
Chris, thank you so much.
Thank you so, so muchfor being here today.
karese laguerre (49:57):
Thank you.
It was my pleasure.
I thank you for joining me today.
If you enjoyed this podcast, pleasefeel free to rate it or leave a review.
If you have any thoughts or questions,I would love to hear from you.
You can email podcast core happiness.com.
For show notes and additional resources.
You can visit www.corehappiness.com.
(50:20):
as always, please remember, neverlet anyone diminish your light.
Until next time, sending you my love.
So we know that when you are going without sleep for
elongated periods of time, your braindoes not get to do its own proper detox.
Our brain only does its cleansing routineat night during sleep, and when it doesn't
get to do that it can't function the same.
Kacee (00:28):
Welcome to the show.
Today we are joined by Karis Lag,a registered dental hygienist
and myofunctional therapist.
Karis is the founder of Myo Spot whereshe helps clients overcome issues
like sleep apnea, TMJ disorders andanxiety through myofunctional therapy.
She's also the author of AccomplishedHow to Sleep Better, eliminate
(00:49):
Burnout and Execute Goals.
In this episode we'll explorehow breathing and oral posture
can help impact overall health.
We will also explore how small changesin breathing and oral posture can
lead to significant improvementsin health and overall wellbeing.
So if you're struggling with sleep,struggling with focus, or just
looking to enhance your overallhealth, this conversation is for you.
(01:11):
Enjoy
Carice.
Welcome.
I'm so excited to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining the show.
karese laguerre (01:19):
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited.
Kacee (01:21):
I wanna start off first before going into your background, because
I know a lot of your journey is in,myofunctional therapy, but can you
tell us for the people who may not befamiliar with that term, what that is?
karese laguerre (01:34):
So bio functional therapy is kind of like having a personal
trainer of sorts, but only for the musclesbelow the eyes and above the shoulders.
So in this wonderful area that no oneever thinks about working out, there's
over a hundred different muscles and.
I really help to strengthenand coordinate them.
That way we can get proper functionbecause a lot of important material
(01:54):
is in this area, , specifically how webreathe and how we eat, how we speak,
how we, you know, do a lot of funtasks that keep us going day to day.
Kacee (02:06):
And I know that your journey into Marrow Functional
Therapy was a personal one,
karese laguerre (02:13):
Yeah.
Kacee (02:13):
a little bit about how you first discovered this
world and what got you into it?
karese laguerre (02:17):
So it was my children.
I'm a mom of four and as a motherof four I, I believe that most other
parents, and I never like to speak foreverybody, but I think this is pretty
much across the board, uh, most.
Parents, when somebodyasks you, how's everything?
We give the highlight reel, like we'realways talking about all the good stuff.
This one's got a dance recital.
(02:37):
That one just won a soccer tournament.
Like we got all the good stuff ready togo, but there's a lot of things that like
we don't talk about under the surface and.
My original licensure is as a registereddental hygienist and I was working for a
pediatric dentist, and , I told her aboutsome of the stuff that was going on kind
of underneath the surface, like the thingsI would never talk to anybody else about.
(03:01):
So out of my four kids, Ihave one boy, he's the oldest.
He's been disappointed every timeI've gotten pregnant since, but
he, uh, had a lot of issues withlike emotional and like just.
Being able to regulate his behavior.
So a lot of sensory issues.
And so he was very, very difficult.
I remember the teachers from kindergartentelling me that he had a hard time
(03:24):
focusing and staying on task, andI was like, oh, but he's five.
And then we played thatgame well, but he's six.
Oh, but he's seven.
Like, what?
7-year-old wants topay attention in class.
We played that game for a bit too long.
, And around the age of, . Eight or ninewhere it was looking like he probably
wasn't gonna make it through fifth grade.
(03:46):
It was, okay, we gotta actuallydo something about this.
And we took him to a pediatricneurologist and boom, diagnosed A DHD.
We will come back to hisstory in just a little bit.
My daughters, my oldest daughter,had every sleep issue under the sun.
You name it, she experienced it.
So whether it was night terrors,sleepwalking, tossing and turning, like
(04:11):
falling outta the bed, middle of thenight, blood curdling, scream from those
night terrors, the snoring, the grinding.
She bed wet too every singlenight for his 10 years.
It didn't matter what we did, if itwas like, okay, no liquids, like four
hours before bed, or like, you haveto go to the bathroom before bed or
we'll make you go twice before bed.
(04:32):
Bedwetting was guaranteed everysingle night for 10 years straight,
and my youngest two daughters hada lot of upper respiratory issues,
so I don't know if anybody else canrelate, but I had those two kids
that were constant nose congested,ear infection, throat infection.
It felt like every time I could probablypredict it, like we're going to the
(04:54):
doctor and it's either , an ear infection,or their throat is infected like.
One of the two.
'cause that's what it always was.
So we were on this constant cycleof antibiotics with those two.
And it was in talking to thatpediatric dentist that I learned that
all of that, though, it sounds very,very different and these children
are very biologically similar.
(05:15):
It's all connected, and it was allconnected to how they were utilizing
these muscles in my wonderful area ofexpertise and how they were breathing
and that all of that really, reallyaffected the emotional, the regulatory
control issues My son had, the sleepissues, my daughter had the respiratory
and infection issues that my young, uh.
(05:37):
Young, young two had, and it was justabsolutely mind blowing, game changing.
So I always talk aboutmy son for this part.
So let's go back to him for justa second, if we go back to his
story, we spent a year and a halfafter he was diagnosed with A DHD.
And I'm telling you, we waited tosee the best pediatric neurologist.
(05:57):
At that time we were livingin New Jersey and she spent.
Maybe no more than 15 minuteswith us, asked us some questions
off a little questionnaire.
Boom.
That was his diagnosis.
A year and a half, we went throughthree different types of medication.
Every six months we saw her and it waslike we get a new script because none
of it's working, and that's reallyall you can do with a DHD, right?
(06:18):
His.
Just medication.
But I had discovered and had thatconversation with the pediatric dentist
as we were coming up to our next visit.
And so I started to tell the pediatricneurologist when we went back, I
think I wanna go a different route.
I don't want a fourth medication.
I wanna go a different route.
I wanna look into his sleep and Ithink I'm gonna have him sleep tested.
(06:39):
And immediately she stopped me.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Didn't let me finish my thought,my sentence, anything said.
You never told me hehad issues with sleep.
And I said, well, youknow, you never asked.
So there's that part, but I never toldher there were issues with his sleep.
I also didn't know therewere issues with her sleep.
'cause I.
(07:00):
I was never asked these questions,and so she began to tell me what I had
already known from the pediatric dentist.
This pediatric neurologist is nowbeginning to tell me that there's a
70% overlap between the symptoms inchildren who have sleep deprivation,
so they're not getting good enoughquality of sleep or long enough duration
of sleep, or they have some sort ofdisorder that is disrupting their sleep.
(07:24):
70%.
Overlap in the symptoms that present forthat and the symptoms that present for
ADHD So there was a very real possibilitythe entire time we've been medicating
him that there was something else.
That there was something else andwe never once talked about it.
And that.
(07:44):
It set me off.
It set me off as a parent, you know,because A DHD is just one of those things.
There's no blood work you can take for it.
There is no MRI or CAT scan thatyou're gonna, oh, there it is.
There's that A DHD gene.
It's all symptom-based.
And so not having that differentialdiagnosis made a big, big difference.
(08:06):
And once I started doing thework with him, I dove into
myofunctional therapy very selfishly.
To help address my own children.
But once I started to see the changesand I really saw them, and I like to
say I met them for the first time on theother side of all of this stuff, where
they could really flourish, uninhibitedby all of these things that were really.
(08:31):
I don't know.
I wanna say like preventing themfrom being their full selves.
So not to say that maybe theyweren't their full selves, but
there was so much more under there.
Kacee (08:39):
Mm-hmm.
karese laguerre (08:39):
And so once I saw that, I was like, everybody needs this.
Everybody needs this.
So many more parents we're,none of us are talking about it.
We're all keeping it kind of surfacelevel when somebody says, how are you?
So
Kacee (08:54):
Yeah.
Because it's, it's almost likemissing one question just kinda
leads you down in a whole differentavenue that you never would've known.
And most parents don't know that.
So if a doctor's
karese laguerre (09:02):
Yes.
Kacee (09:03):
Asking or inquiring, then it's like, how do you know what, what to bring
up or what would affect a diagnosis ornot, or create something else like, so
that is so fascinating and it's alwaysinteresting to me too, how, um, a personal
struggle or personal experience canoften be the driver for the, our purpose,
(09:24):
And just kind of that push down.
whether you do a deep dive or whether youare looking into something and whether you
make it your career, I always find thatthat's very interesting how that happens.
How did this realization happen, likein terms of affecting your mindset
shift of how you approach healthboth personally and professionally?
(09:45):
I.
karese laguerre (09:45):
Oh, I love that.
Um.
How did it shift how I approach health?
I really changed 150%.
I felt like as soon as I discoveredthere was something wrong with the
breathing, I knew that there hadto be other things that were wrong,
and so I wanted to get to the root.
Of everything.
And so we started seekingthings out of the diet.
(10:06):
We started changing overa lot of things that way.
We were more on a natural trajectoryof health as opposed to what we were
doing, which was all traditionalmedicine, which to that point,
I felt had not worked for me.
At that point.
They had kind of left me.
Without many answersor without any resolve.
(10:26):
The children just kind of carried onin the same pattern for a while, so.
It just shifted the way thatI thought I wanted to go.
A bit more natural, holistic.
Let's look at all the alternatives.
If nobody's talking to me aboutsleep, there are other things
they're not talking to me about too.
So let's start taking things out.
Let's remove the dairy.
Uh, let's remove the gluten.
And then we started removing a lotof other things from the diet too.
(10:50):
Taking down some of the processedthings, reducing the sugar, like
we just changed over lifestyle.
Let's start moving more as a family.
It was a big shift.
Kacee (11:00):
Yeah.
you mentioned in your work , thatpoor oral posture can impact
essentially your whole body.
karese laguerre (11:09):
Yeah.
Kacee (11:09):
Can you walk us through just like some symptoms that you found surprising
that people might not realize that areconnected to the way that they breathe
or the way that they hold their mouth?
karese laguerre (11:21):
Yeah.
So let's just start off with what is.
Proper oral posture becausea lot of people are just
unaware as to what that is.
And so I have a one minute breathtest that we can kind of do
together, and I'll talk about whatproper posture is once everybody
kind of determines what theirs is.
So if you're sitting andyou're able to, and you're not
listening to this while driving.
If you're driving, payattention to the road.
(11:42):
But think about this later on, ifyou're sitting and you're able to.
Plant both feet on the ground.
I want you to sit up as nice and tallas you can be mindful of your posture,
and I want you to, with closed lips,take a deep inhale through your nose.
And then you're gonna exhale throughthe nose, and I want you to repeat that.
And you're gonna do thatabout three or four times.
Now as you're doing that,I'm gonna keep talking.
(12:03):
Just keep breathing.
Inhale.
Exhale through the nose.
I want you to just be reallyinternally reflective.
I want you to think about whereyour tongue is, in your mouth,
how your teeth are resting.
Are your teeth together?
Is your tongue high?
Is it in the middle of your mouth?
Is it down low?
Is it half up?
Half down?
Just process it.
And think about it, and as you're comingout of what's possibly that fourth
(12:25):
inhale and exhale from the nose, andyou're more aware of where things are,
let me tell you that proper rest postureinvolves yes, predominant nasal breathing.
So if you were very uncomfortable orunable to do that because three or
four breaths through your nose waschallenging or difficult, you're already
in an improper posture, but predominantnasal breathing with lips, closed teeth.
(12:48):
Slightly apart.
You don't want your teeth together.
Your teeth are gonna be bracing,and that's most likely a lot of jaw
problems that you might have, but teethslightly apart and tongue suctioned
lightly against the whole palette.
So from the front, just behind the teeth.
From the front all the way to theback, like where your uvula is, and
for those who are unfamiliar withthat term, your uvula is that dangly
(13:10):
ball in the middle of your throat.
When you open yourmouth, you should see it.
If you don't see it, that's another redflag we'll talk about later, I'm sure.
But your tongue should be taking up allof the space in the roof of your mouth.
That's proper rest posture.
A lot of great things happen whenyou're in proper rest posture.
When you are in proper restposture, you're able to adequately
(13:33):
stimulate the nasal floor.
We need our nose for breathing.
Our bodies were designed for that.
The nose is going to naturallywarm and humidify the air
that is entering the body.
We're gonna produce nitric oxide,which is gonna help that oxygen
bond to the red blood cells for ourhemoglobin so that things can kind of.
Go through the body and we canbreathe adequately and get all
(13:55):
that oxygen where it needs to be.
We're gonna be able to get our lowerthird of our lungs filled so we'll
be able to get more oxygen and reallyadequately oxygenate the back of the
tongue being connected to the soft palateand like the back portion, if everybody's
unfamiliar with their soft palates, theback portion of the roof of your mouth.
(14:18):
That connection is incrediblyimportant for our vagus nerve.
Our vagus nerve is one of thebiggest nerves of our cranial
nerves, and it powers everything.
It is like the battery, Ishould say, of your body.
That is where all your organsget their ability to function.
That is.
How we regulate ourautonomic nervous system.
(14:40):
Everything gets thrown offif our vagus nerve is off.
If you don't have good , vagaltone, that is going to impact
how you're able to cognitivelyfunction and go about your day.
Big connections with anxiety anddepression with the vagus nerve and
poor vagal tone, but that tongue beingable to sit against that back half of
(15:02):
the roof of the mouth, the palette.
It is going to stimulate that vagus nerve.
It's going to help you be more ableto self-regulate that autonomic
nervous system and to keep justeverything else running well because
it is the powerhouse of the body.
And so we want to be able to have thatproper breast posture because when we
don't, you don't breathe as efficientlyand you don't function as efficiently.
Kacee (15:28):
Does this have a, this, first of all, that explanation is
phenomenal that just even from.
Me connected so many pieces and I'vebeen, as I mentioned before to you,
I've been talking about breath workon this podcast for a long time.
We talk about the vagus nerve,but that puts so many different
pieces together for me.
And I'm wondering if this, this iskind of a two part question, but
(15:49):
wondering how this differs if itdoes, from mewing, and then I'm also
wondering if that is why mouth taping,, sleep has become popular in recent.
Years, I guess.
So I'm kind of wondering if, ifthose two things are related into
the work that you're talking about.
karese laguerre (16:10):
Yes, to a degree.
So I would say they're pieces ofthe puzzle where Kneeing is like.
Um, it's kind of like one dimensionalmyofunctional therapy, so where it's a
heavy, heavy focus on just the tongue,whereas I deal with, like I said, like a
hundred muscles that surround everything.
So if there's other dysfunctions viewingdoesn't really address those at all.
(16:31):
And so you might have other compensationsor other things that are in disharmony
when you're not addressing them.
Kacee (16:41):
Okay.
karese laguerre (16:41):
are.
Uh, mouth taping.
Mouth taping is also likea piece of the puzzle.
Like I said, you wanna be predominantlynasal breathing, and so if you're taping
your mouth, you're forcing nasal breathingand therefore you're going to be receiving
all of those benefits of nasal breathing.
Nobody thinks of sleep as being.
So connected to breath, but it,it's incredibly, it's all regulated.
(17:06):
How you go through your sleepcycles is entirely determined by
the quality of your breathing.
Once you get into hypoxia, like you'renot getting adequate oxygen, you'd no
longer get those restorative functions.
So why you're feeling like you'regetting more restorative sleep is
because you're now oxygenating better.
That's where your mouthtaping is coming in.
(17:27):
And so yes, those are all like piecesof the puzzle, but what I do really
addresses like a greater area ofdysfunction than just what's going
on with your lips or your tongue.
Kacee (17:38):
Okay.
And then, so for listeners who werewith this, and we went through that
experiment together with the nasalbreathing, and for those who, let's
say, had their teeth together, orthey realized that their tongue was
resting at the bottom of their mouth.
are some first initial steps that onewould take just to correct basic posture?
karese laguerre (18:03):
Becoming more aware.
Of that over a longer period of time.
So incorporating conscious breathing, andI think a lot of people, when they think
of conscious breathing, they think of itas something like, oh, I have to sit down.
I have to meditate.
I have to like turn my mind off.
I can't do that, or I don't, Idon't have time for it, or whatever.
It could be as simple as like thislittle task that I like to do.
(18:24):
I call it rhythmic breathing.
You might have another name for itbecause people in breath work always
do, but I call it rhythmic breathing.
You're going to turn on a song that'ssomewhere between 60 to 85 beats.
Per minute.
A lot of Bruno Mars in thatarea, he's just a popular artist.
Uh, some Elvis in that area, you know,some Michael Jackson in that area,
(18:44):
just to name some popular artists.
So it's not like you haveto listen to boring music.
You can listen to really exciting,fun music, but 60 to 85 beats
per minute, no higher, no lowerbecause you wanna keep yourself.
Relatively regulated.
What you're gonna do is you'rejust gonna listen to the song,
listen to the music, and I wantyour breath to dance along to it.
(19:05):
So feel free to pause breathing, toelongate your breath, to take deeper
inhales, to take shorter breath,like manipulate your breathing.
You'll be consciously.
Breathing for that three tofour minutes that the song
might be on during that time.
Be very, very aware what's going on.
(19:25):
So this could be done in the carwhile you're on your way to work.
Uh, if you're on a jog and you're, you'rerunning, you can do this at any time.
And really just be aware of whatthe posture is most commonly.
Some people might find that when they'restressed, that's when they're checking.
And everything might be like your jaw'sfairly tight or your posture's low.
(19:46):
Things change that's functional breathing.
It changes so that our body can adapt.
But what is it most commonly?
And then once you know what it is mostcommonly and not just what it is on like
a one-off type of basis, I want you totake some of that rhythmic breathing
time and try to see if you can relaxyour jaw so that it's not together
(20:08):
for the three minutes of the song.
If you can keep your tongue upfor the three minutes of the song.
If you find that you've spent a weekor two or four and it's a struggle for
you, you might need additional help.
And at that point then I would sayyou want to call in, some sort of
specialist, whether it's a myofunctionaltherapist and or anybody else.
(20:29):
Else.
Kacee (20:31):
That is so helpful.
And then for parents, like Iknow you mentioned, This all kind
of started with your children.
So for a parent who is trying to supporttheir child or even trying to figure
out, if there are issues with oralposture or breathing, or they're trying
to evaluate oral habits or sleep oranything along that line, what would
(20:54):
you say a parent who's trying to beginthis journey or just support their
child naturally and not with medication?
I.
karese laguerre (21:03):
Yeah.
What you wanna do is you wanna make surethat one bedtime is as consistent as
possible, create routines around bedtime,and you wanna start getting into a
little bit of nasal hygiene if you can.
I know that that becomes very challenging.
Not a lot of kids like these salinesprays or anything sprayed up their
nose, but you gotta keep it clean.
(21:24):
And we're cleaning every otherpart of our child except the one
that's like the most important.
We could go for, you know, dayswithout water, weeks without
food, but nobody can go.
But for a few minutes withoutair, we need to breathe.
So clean out your children's nose , makethat a part of your bedtime routine and
make bedtime as consistent as possible.
(21:45):
I know it's hard.
I have four kids, you know, people havesports and afterschool activities and
extracurriculars and all sorts of things,but you gotta get into some sort of set
rhythm because our circadian rhythm, I.
It is just that it goes off ofthese routines that we create
when we're early on in parenting.
(22:07):
Everybody's telling you, oh, yougotta get the baby on a schedule.
Keep the baby on a schedule.
Babies love schedule.
Guess who else loves schedules?
Well, one adults like,hello, we need it two.
But children, children thriveoff these schedules too.
And so set a really good routine andstart monitoring your child's sleep.
I know you know for me, once you get them.
(22:29):
Either out of your bed if youwere co-sleeping or you get them
just sleeping through the night.
You just wanna go to your bedor like do your own thing.
Or it's mommy time now.
Right.
And you're not thinking about them.
But really, I wish I was moreaware very early on of how
they were sleeping and the.
Signs that were all there,that there was dysfunctional
(22:50):
patterns through their sleep.
Nothing scares you morethan witnessing an apnea.
So we talk about obstructivesleep apnea for adults a lot.
You'll hear it when you'retalking about older men.
You might, your, your dadsnored, your grandfather snored,
your husband might snore.
Like we talk about men a lot, but thereare children who snore and it's not cute.
(23:12):
It's not.
Starring is the sound of air, meaningresistance, trying to get into
your lungs, so we don't want that.
But also, apnea are only officiallydiagnosed as an apnea, like on
a sleep study when it's stoppingof breath for 10 seconds or more.
When you start to witness things likethat happening in your children's sleep.
(23:34):
So you don't have to stand over themand like creepily, watch them sleep.
But if you put a phone there, um, ifyou put a, an Apple watch or one of the
Android watches, you put that on yourchildren because they can monitor sleep.
And many of those devices have beenFDA approved to do home sleep testing.
You put that on there and if younotice how many times they stop
(23:57):
breathing, sometimes I think thatwill ring enough bells because.
If we stood here and we just counted out10 seconds, and you just imagine your
child's not breathing for that entiretime, it is a long period of time.
So I think it's really importantthat as parents create a routine.
Around sleep.
Make sure you're doing nasal hygiene.
(24:18):
Get them optimally engaged for sleep.
I know a lot of people don't like tomouth tape, um, children to go to sleep.
You want them to be able to opentheir mouth if they need to,
whatever, so prime their nose.
Make sure their noseis ready for breathing.
Then make sure that you're monitoringit and that you're seeing the
quality of their sleep and any redflags alert, a medical professional.
(24:42):
Right away.
Don't ignore any of the signs.
So the symptoms, it doesn'tget better on its own.
It doesn't resolve on its own.
You do have to activelyput in some type of work.
Kacee (24:52):
And I'm wondering too, for the, like a parent listening or even
somebody going to this themselves, likethe connection between dysfunction and
focal challenges, being able to focus,or maybe if they were diagnosed with
a DD or a DHD, uh, like your son, likewhat is something that they should know
(25:14):
about that connection or be aware ofabout the connection between breathing,
dysfunction and focal challenges?
karese laguerre (25:21):
I think what some parents don't understand, , especially with A
DHD, so it happens with a DD two, butwith a DHD that age for the hyperactivity,
you think, oh, my kid's not sleepy.
They're bouncing off the walls.
Hyperactivity happens a lotvery frequently in children
that are sleep deprived.
Whereas sleepy adultswill be more fatigued.
(25:43):
You're anticipating yourchild would be fatigued.
They are hyperactive becausejust physiologically, the
body is just really wound up.
It really wants to go to sleep.
So it's kind of exciting itself tohopefully induce some sleep earlier.
And then you see them, they knockout, they go to sleep right away.
Going to sleep too fastis always a red flag.
(26:05):
Uh, they shouldn't be.
So tired that they fall asleep so fast,but that hyperactivity, real red flag.
That's why they can't focus.
That's why they have that inabilityto really stay on one task.
Their body is really just tryingto get to the next thing so
that we can go to sleep faster.
Uh, so that's gonna be a.
Really difficult focal challenge.
(26:27):
If you're finding that your childis not getting adequate sleep at
night, that's a hundred percentimpacting their cognitive abilities.
So we know that when you aregoing without sleep for elongated
periods of time, your brain doesnot get to do its own proper detox.
Your brain has its own things that ithas to, you know, we have our endocrine
system, we have our lymph nodes andthose are going to help remove things
(26:49):
that we don't want from the body.
We flush things out throughour kidneys and clean.
We have our liver thathelps to detox things too.
Our brain only does its cleansingroutine at night during sleep, and
when it doesn't get to do that duringday, it can't function the same.
So if your child is unable tofocus or really pay attention.
(27:09):
Yeah, there's a lot that hasn'thappened at night that the brain
needs to have happen so that it canwork in the same way in the morning.
And so sleep is incredibly important.
Make sure that, you know, you askyour child important questions too.
I think I should have brought thisup earlier, like, are they dreaming?
Ask them if they remember ever dreaming,uh, even if it's a nightmare, if they
(27:33):
say, oh, I only remember nightmares.
Okay, well, at least Dave is.
Entered some stage of REMbecause that's really important.
That's when all of the importantrestorative tasks happen at
night, like the brain detoxing andmemories imparting and so forth.
Kacee (27:50):
I like that you mentioned that because I think that's an important part.
I mean, all of it is important,but that's very important because
I think so many of us, just asadults, get tired and we think.
it's normal that I feel tired.
Um, but are those some signsthat we should look out for?
That could be sleep issues or evenbreathing issues as if, are we dreaming?
(28:11):
Are we remembering our dreams?
Like are those things that weshould be monitoring for ourselves?
karese laguerre (28:16):
Yeah, you should note that you're dreaming.
So it's really difficult.
A lot of times you're gonna forgetyour dreams, so you won't remember
it 10 minutes after you've woken up.
But you would remember, ohyeah, I did dream last night.
I can't remember what about,but I did dream last night.
So that's a big red flag.
If you're not dreaming.
All the tossing and turning, that's a bigsign of non-restorative sleep at the two.
(28:39):
So if you go to bed and you know,sheets are one way and you're wrapped
one way and then you wake up andeverything's all over the place.
Like red flag, you did notget enough sleep at all.
And so make sure that you arelooking out for those types of signs.
Adults are gonna be, yes, very fatigued.
Uh, teenagers will even be fatigued,but children, when they're tired
(29:00):
sometimes do not present as fatigued.
They can,
Kacee (29:04):
Mm-hmm.
karese laguerre (29:04):
they don't always, more often than not, they may
present with more hyperactivity.
Kacee (29:10):
Yeah.
And your book accomplished, um,talks about sleep and burnout,
and I love how you weave breathinginto that conversation, but can
you explain how, , mouth breathingor the sleep disorders that we're
talking about can sneak up on us?
karese laguerre (29:28):
Oh my gosh.
Everything stinks up on us.
'cause I don't think we're everlooking for all of the signs.
I really don't think we'reever looking for the signs.
It's very hard to know.
You think of sleep apnea, I thinkpeople immediately think of like
very loud, obnoxious, snoring.
Like you think of your dads, yourgrandpas, your your people who you've
(29:50):
heard having this terrible sleep, but.
It creeps up on you in that,and it compounds as you age.
So what might start as like maybesome little cute snoring, or it
might start out as like, okay,they've got their mouth open at
night and you don't really hear it.
It might be like.
A little audible breathing.
There's a lot of parentsthat describe that to me.
(30:12):
It's not a snore, it's audible breathing.
Okay.
Well, breathing is supposedto be inherently quiet.
You shouldn't hear breath happenat all if you're hearing breathing.
That's the sound of the airtrying to make its way through.
And we don't want that.
No obstruction to the air, gettingto where it needs to be in our body.
And so it's gonna sneak up on youbecause as it's compounding over time.
(30:35):
You're not really catching the symptomsor the signs and that will add up.
So I like to compare it tokind of like a, and I do this
in the book accomplished too.
I compare it to like a washing machine.
Everybody who has a washing machine,whether it's front loading, you know,
top loading or whatever, you put clothesin your washing machine, you let it
wash, everything's wet, and it kind of.
(30:57):
It looks like a smaller volumeof things, so if you have a top
load, it might be more off to theside around the edges of the bin.
If it's a front load, everything lookskind of smashed down and it looks like you
could just add some more clothes and justkind of start that whole thing up again.
Let's just wash somemore clothes with this.
Sure, go ahead.
(31:18):
You could put more in, and I'm sure thatthat will kind of smash down and you might
be able to get in a third load, but thequality of these washes, the quality of
the clothes, it's not getting any better.
You're just, IM pounding, impartingmore and more and more, and
that's what happens with sleep.
When you're not catching the signs earlyon, you're just adding more and more and
(31:39):
more problems and it just really compoundsuntil one day you realize, oh, I can't put
anything else into this washing machine.
It, it's full.
It.
It's done.
And that's where you startto see signs and symptoms.
You, you're hearing the kids grindingvery hard and you're wondering why
their teeth are wearing down, orthey might be complaining of jaw
pain, or they might be complaining ofneck or upper back pain or tension,
(32:02):
or you take them to a chiropractor.
There's a lot of, very forward thinking.
Parents who are taking their childrenvery early on to chiropractors and
they're getting pediatric adjustments andthey say, oh, well there's some tension
along one side of the neck or so forth.
Like a lot of this is really tiedinto how they're sleeping, how they
might be manipulating themselvesin order to get adequate breathing.
(32:25):
How they have to, you know, moveor manipulate themself in sleep.
Whether they're crunched up orthey're expanding their body
or tilting more to one side.
That way they can open up their airway.
So.
It compounds because you really don'tnotice the very, very subtle first signs.
It's only when it becomes really loudand glaringly obvious that we start
(32:47):
to say, oh, there's a problem here.
Kacee (32:49):
Yeah.
I know we've been talking a lotabout, sleep, but in just hearing
what you said now in terms of someof these things can seem subtle, and
so I wanna go back to what you saidearlier about your daughter with the,
allergies and like the congestionand like kind of the nasal things.
Like I don't know if it's.
Just the oral posture or, but how wasaffected in terms of what you found out
(33:14):
with your daughter and her allergies,or what you thought with allergies?
karese laguerre (33:19):
So when you are not breathing adequately, like if you're mouth
breathing particularly, you're not gettingthe filtration, the air is not being.
Humidified or warmed, and it'snot really prepped for the body.
So when you're not getting thatfiltration or the warmth, you're
exposing your body to more of thethings that will cause inflammation.
Our tonsils wind up being likea first line responder 'cause
(33:42):
that's part of the lymph.
System, and so those tonsils will startto become inflamed and catching things
and trying to be some form of a barrier.
It's not the same as when you respiratethrough your nose, you're supposed
to take in that air through your nosethat's going to filter and so forth.
Once you have that inflammation, yourbody is now going to be more reactive.
(34:04):
So what may start out aspollen and you might not be as
affected, may suddenly hit you.
Really, really hard and havewhat a lot of people like to
call like year round allergies.
'cause you're more sensitive tothe histamines, you're inflamed.
Your body is unable to reallyprocess everything because it's
(34:26):
just catching things all the time.
You're breathing and all the airyou're taking in through your mouth is
needing to be filtered and processed.
And now we've got histamines and nowwe've got other things coming at us.
Whatever bacteria andyou know, kids there are.
Kids are yucky to begin with.
And so all of that sharing of germs, likeall of that extra that comes with that,
(34:47):
they have a hard time processing it.
And so it just, it increasesthat inflammatory process.
It increases the, his histamine response.
And so the body is more likely to bereactive when there are allergens nearby.
So we find that actually a lot oftimes that when we, , switch over,
we get them nasal breathing andwe start including nasal hygiene.
(35:08):
Really, really important because somenasal hygiene, particularly those
salines that have, , xylitol in them,those sprays are gonna sit there.
It's gonna have like anice antimicrobial factor.
It's going to help you kind offight off that and keep down some
of that sinus inflammation thatwould occur when you know you're
breathing in a lot of allergens.
So we're finding that when weswitch over and we establish nasal
(35:32):
breathing and nasal hygiene, thatwhat was allergies and was really.
Ruining your springs, ruining your fallsis actually just improper breathing.
They were just more prone to it.
So not to say that it goes away fully,but you know, you don't have those big
attacks of allergies as you once had.
Kacee (35:54):
Very interesting.
Okay.
Yeah, I, I love this too, because.
I think even as adults, and I knowmy father, was like struggling.
He's like, all of asudden I have allergies.
And he had these year-round allergiesand he didn't have allergies before,
his sleep had also gotten worse and hewas starting to snore and was like going
through, like a sleep study to kind offigure out what was going on with his
(36:16):
snoring and stuff when he was breathing.
So that's kind of interesting And thenwhen you talk about nasal hygiene, I
know you're, um, you've mentioned thesaline, but would that include like
neti pot and those types of things?
Like in terms of, irrigation?
karese laguerre (36:31):
Yes, ma'am.
So when you're irrigating, even witha Neti pot or any other thing, , you
would absolutely use saline as younever use, just like regular tap
water, it would always be a saline.
That way you're not introducing, you know,any, anything detrimental into your body.
So, yeah, saline and youwould be actually rinsing out.
(36:52):
Not everybody's.
You know, a fan of that.
I think it's a really great way to cleanseout, but not everybody's a fan of that.
It goes up one nostril,it comes out the other.
It really cleans and flushesout those nostrils really well.
But you could also just usea spray and spray up there as
well, and then that's gonna help.
Really important for the spraysactually, 'cause nobody ever talks
(37:14):
about this, but you wanna look atyour toes when you spray your nose,
so you're gonna tilt your chin down.
That way when you spray,you get the right angle.
Otherwise, if you're spraying whileyour head is straight, it's going
somewhere trapped along your nostrilslike it's not going anywhere.
So you gotta look at your toeswhen you're gonna spray your nose.
Very important.
Kacee (37:34):
And I like that it rhymed.
It's easy to remember.
karese laguerre (37:36):
Exactly.
Kacee (37:37):
Look at your toes when you spray your nose.
Um, that's actually a good notebecause I know a lot of people
when they do it, they tend to like
karese laguerre (37:44):
Tilt backwards.
Yeah.
Kacee (37:45):
to
karese laguerre (37:46):
It's not going in the right spot.
Kacee (37:48):
and, okay.
So that's.
Very, very good to know.
karese laguerre (37:53):
Yeah.
Kacee (37:53):
to know.
one of the things that I wanna talk toyou about was sort of the, empowerment.
And I say that because I think thatyou are a great example of a person
who turns the challenges , that they'veexperienced with their personal or with
your kids into like this global mission.
And so.
I'm curious to know for someone who'slistening today who feels like they're
(38:15):
stuck or they're tired or they'reoverwhelmed or maybe they're struggling
in some way, piece of advice can yougive that would encourage them, or
something that you would leave them with?
karese laguerre (38:27):
Yeah, there's always somebody willing to listen to you.
I think that's the biggest thing.
So always advocate for yourself.
I wish I had advocated more formy children because during that
10 years of my daughter wedding,the bed every night, you know?
Of course I talk to the pediatricianabout that every single time,
and she's like, don't worry.
(38:48):
She'll outgrow it.
She'll outgrow it.
She'll outgrow it, butlike you're missing.
So many things that during these vitalyears where she's growing, we shouldn't be
ignoring these things and just waiting forher sleep to magically one day get better.
So
Kacee (39:05):
Hmm.
karese laguerre (39:06):
never felt right with the answers I got.
I never felt right thatlike, why are we on our third
medication for this a DHD thing?
And none of them are working.
Like, it just doesn't feel right.
And if it doesn't feel right.
It doesn't mean that you know you'redoing something wrong or that your
kids are getting terrible treatment.
It means that you just haven'tfound the provider yet that
(39:28):
is willing to listen to you.
And there are people, many, manypeople who will listen to you.
So it doesn't have to be, I, I thinkI grew up with that mindset that
like doctor knows best just deffer tothe doctor, but you can collaborate.
In healthcare, you canbe a part of the team.
(39:49):
And really, I don't wanna overstatehow you collaborate, but there will be
people who will listen to you and willbe willing to look down other avenues
and provide you with alternative waysthat you can reach the same end goal.
So keep advocating for yourself.
There's always somebody whowill listen and it's not you.
(40:10):
You're not the problem.
Kacee (40:11):
That is so important.
And I think especially for women, Ithink we have a hard time with going.
To look after ourselves, numberone, and then going to the doctors
and then whatever we usually hearback, we just take at face value.
But I think it is importantto advocate, for yourself.
So I love that.
And then I just also wanna bring it incircle because I know we talked about
(40:33):
myofunctional therapy and like you said,it encompasses so many different things.
But can you explain how italso compliments other holistic
therapies, like you mentioned,chiropractic care , nutrition
, psychotherapy, likehow does it compliment?
karese laguerre (40:48):
Yeah, so breathing is very well attached to a lot of
our ability to regulate our autonomicnervous system, as I've kind of
stated a little bit, and that's.
Really how it goes hand inhand with mental health.
Really, really big factor.
We all know that once you go to apsychiatrist or a psychologist and
it, it's anything to do with anxiety,the first thing they start to show
(41:10):
you are some breathing exercises.
So we've always known that there wasthat connection there, but being able
to adequately breathe and like reallyimproper posture really does help as
a natural aid to other methods and.
Other things.
We never wanna discount traditionalmedicine fully, but it can be
complimented in a lot of different ways.
(41:31):
Uh, myofunctional therapy is really,really great for those who are
struggling with a lot of GI issues.
If you're breathing throughyour mouth and you have to eat
with your mouth digestion first.
And foremost starts in the mouth,and you can alter the pH and the
content of your salivary flora by justmouth breathing, by not adequately
(41:54):
breathing properly and proper posture.
That's gonna have a negative impact.
As you're breathing through your mouth andyou're trying to eat and take breaths, you
wind up in some ways, swallowing more air.
It makes you more prone to inflammationand leaky gut and those types of things.
And so it's very complimentaryof myofunctional therapy too.
(42:16):
A lot of the GI issues.
And we work well withgastrointestinal doctors , sleep
physicians for obvious reasons.
We've talked a lot about sleep.
It works.
Really, really great withdentistry because we find a lot
of people who are struggling.
You think all you gotta dois brush and floss, right?
If you just brush and floss and you dowhat the doctor says, that everything
(42:36):
should be fine in your mouth, well, howyou breathe and the quality of what's
going on with your salivary flora,that's going to have an impact too.
So when that's altered, you findyourself more prone to gum disease,
inflammation, the ability to have.
Cavities or disease andso forth in the teeth.
And so we want to also make surethat we have proper posture so
(43:00):
that we can keep our teeth and ouroral health as optimal as possible.
Uh, it compliments a lot of thingswith children with growth and
development because when that tongueis up in proper posture, it's doing.
Yes, stimulating the nasal floorand stimulating the baby's nerve,
but it's also applying a nice light,soft, consistent pressure that helps
(43:20):
to expand our maxilla naturally.
We're seeing a lot of kids, it's almostlike a rite of passage these days to get
braces and braces are not normal, okay?
That is not something you shouldanticipate for your child.
It should be something where like,oh, is this something I'm gonna need?
There's something wrong here.
And if there's proper tongue posture.
(43:42):
They develop naturally,they develop normally.
Um, so it's compliments a lot of differentthings and a lot of different ways for
health and just overall wellness becauseas far as I'm concerned, and there are
people who feel like it's one way orthe other, but I think it could be both.
I think health starts from thetop down and so everything here
in my wonderful area is going toimpact things further down too.
(44:06):
So it works well with alot of different things.
Thanks.
Kacee (44:09):
My mind's blown honestly, like just how much it can
affect so many different things.
I didn't even know.
But what are some common myths aboutwhether it's breathing or whether it's
or maybe it's just myofunctional therapyin general, but what are some common
myths that you wish more people knew?
karese laguerre (44:29):
Ooh.
I really wish more peoplewere aware that one.
The tongue.
It has its own proper posture and thatthat's incredibly important to address.
Two, everybody thinksthat snoring is normal.
Snoring is not normal.
It's common.
Common and normal are not the same.
Okay?
So it might be common, and it could verywell be common through your family, but.
(44:53):
That does not make it normal.
It's not something thatyou should anticipate.
Uh, genetics only playa, a portion of the role.
I think that's a verycommon misconception.
Everybody assumes genetics isa hundred percent the thing.
The study of epigenetics has provento us time and time again that it's
multifactorial, it's nature and nurture.
(45:14):
So genetics, uh, it plays a role,but then a lot of the external
factors that come on after birth and.
As you are being, you know, fedand, and neutral and whatever.
A lot of that plays a common factor.
So that's a big one too, isthat it's just not all genetics.
So just because you had a particular, type of sleep pattern, or maybe you
(45:37):
had a DHD or what you think was aDHD while you were growing up, that
does not destin your child to it.
These are things that we can veeraway from with better habits,
better diet, better function.
Kacee (45:50):
Great.
if the listeners want to knowmore, if they want to dive deeper
into healing or breathing orsleep, where should they start?
karese laguerre (46:02):
So I have a website.
I think it's a great place to start.
If you at any point in time wanna just.
Talk and kind of geekout about this stuff.
I do complimentary consultations, andso you can find that on my website.
It's the mayo spot.com.
I'm sure it'll be in theshow notes or something, but
that's a great place to start.
It'll also link off to my blog.
(46:23):
My blog is Airway matters.blog,
and there you'll find a lot ofgreat resources, references, and.
Information that's really gonna helpyou guide yourself through this journey.
'cause it's not easy.
It wasn't easy for me.
And so I try to make it asstreamlined and it's easy for others.
Uh, but I'm happy to talk to anybody atany time about myofunctional therapy.
(46:45):
It's not everybody's firststep, and so that's a big thing.
I should have said that with some ofthe myths too, is a lot of people think
that, oh, my very first step is to figureout what's going on with my tongue.
Not always.
A lot of times there's other thingsthat need to be into play and so.
Kacee (47:00):
And of course we will link everything you mentioned, as well as
your book accomplished, the myo spot and
karese laguerre (47:05):
Yes.
Kacee (47:05):
amazing resources in the show notes.
Of course.
karese laguerre (47:08):
Thank you.
Kacee (47:08):
And I just wanna know like.
I mean, obviously we startedoff talking about your family.
I kind of wanna end it that way too,because look all the things that you
have to worry about already with beinga mom, and then you're worried about
your children and sleeping through thenight and in accidents and 10 years of
straight accidents, like things like that.
So I just wanted like, how has this trulychanged your life and your family's life?
(47:33):
How would
karese laguerre (47:33):
changed everything.
Absolutely everything.
My son, uh, we started out withfifth grade and like really?
Started on our journey intothe A DHD around that time.
And it wasn't looking good for him.
Like it, he was not doingwell in excelling at school.
But once we kind of made it throughour journey, there was this.
(47:54):
Little brilliant boy that I feel bad wasso hindered for so many years because I
played that game of like, oh, he's six.
Oh, he's seven, you know, whatever.
Because by the time he was17, he graduated high school a
year early ahead of his peers.
He was able to graduate early and andjust move forward in life, and he's.
Just absolutely brilliant once he was ableto sleep and get the rest that he needed.
(48:18):
Um, my daughter, with all the sleepissues, we hadn't had any bedwetting
and she's 19 now, so solid nine years,and hopefully she keeps going more, but.
But it's starting to not be my problem.
So, yeah.
But she's been getting really, reallygood sleep, which is able to a, allow
(48:38):
her to really thrive during the day.
So she's been able to flourish and justbe more of herself and be more present.
She doesn't struggle with likefatigue or, or issues getting
out of bed in the morning.
So I'm, I'm so blessed.
Um, and then my youngest two, we havenot been on antibiotics in my home I
mean, not one antibiotic for any purpose.
No ear infection, no throat infection.
(49:00):
These things that, you know, I wastold are so common and like destined
to happen stopped happening years ago.
So I feel really, really blessed thatwe were able to, come on the other side
and really see them for who they are.
Kacee (49:16):
That's amazing.
And then is there anything thatyou would like to leave with our
listeners just as, any last words ofwisdom, insights, or anything that
you want to share as a parting note?
karese laguerre (49:31):
Yeah, just get started cleaning your nose.
Get started, like that's the.
Biggest thing get started.
No matter what it is.
Whether it's monitoring howyou're breathing, watching your
kids sleep, getting into somenasal hygiene, like get started.
Don't just listen and like goput a pin in it for another time.
Just get started.
Get started now.
(49:51):
You won't regret it.
Kacee (49:53):
I love it.
Chris, thank you so much.
Thank you so, so muchfor being here today.
karese laguerre (49:57):
Thank you.
It was my pleasure.
I thank you for joining me today.
If you enjoyed this podcast, pleasefeel free to rate it or leave a review.
If you have any thoughts or questions,I would love to hear from you.
You can email podcast core happiness.com.
For show notes and additional resources.
You can visit www.corehappiness.com.
(50:20):
as always, please remember, neverlet anyone diminish your light.
Until next time, sending you my love.
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