August 25, 2024 • 52 mins
Unlock the secrets to a healthier life with Dr. Sachin Patel, a chiropractor turned functional medicine expert and breathwork facilitator. Dr. Patel takes us on a journey through the transformative power of breathwork, dissecting various techniques like alternate nostril breathing and the 4-7-8 method that can reset your nervous system and enhance mental clarity. If you've ever wondered how something as simple as breathing can profoundly affect your overall well-being, this episode is a must-listen.
Uncover the often overlooked connection between oral health and breathing. Dr. Patel and Dr. Carver delve into the significance of jaw alignment, proper tongue positioning, and the detrimental effects of mouth breathing. They discuss early interventions and share personal stories, including the host's experiences with their son's health journey, to illustrate the long-term benefits of proper breathing patterns. Learn how paying attention to your child's breathing can prevent future health complications.
Modern diets and oral hygiene practices have a surprising impact on dental health and jaw development. Dr. Patel and Dr. Carver examine the decline in nutrient density in our food and its effects on our oral health. From the importance of chewing hard foods to traditional practices like using neem sticks, this episode provides actionable steps to improve your dental health naturally. Wrap up your learning experience by exploring the holistic approach of biologic dentistry and discover how mindful breathing can boost your immune system and potentially extend your life. Don't miss out on these invaluable insights to elevate your health and happiness.
Are you ready to connect with Dr. Patel? Start here "THE ULTIMATE BREATHWORK BUNDLE"
Check out Dr. Patel's website https://thelivingproofinstitute.com/
To learn more about holistic dentistry, check out Dr. Carver's website:
http://carverfamilydentistry.com
To contact Dr. Carver directly, email her at drcarver@carverfamilydentistry.com.
Want to talk with someone at Dr. Carver's office? Call her practice: 413-663-7372
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Dr. Carver (00:00):
Here's another episode of the Root of the
Matter.
I'm your host, dr Rachel Carver, and I'm very excited today to
have Dr Sachin Patel on with us.
He started as a chiropractor,moved into functional medicines,
breathwork facilitator.
His bio is quite extensive andwe're gonna hear a little bit
(00:20):
from him.
I first met Dr Patel this pastMay and we were at the CellCore
EcoConference and it was reallyinteresting because last year
Cellcor had asked me to givethem some ideas of topics and I
said, hey, we've alreadydiscussed the infectious part of
oral disease, cavities and gumdisease and the real cause of
that and how we can help that.
(00:41):
I said, but we're reallymissing the functional part of
dentistry which a lot of peopledon't know about.
We don't necessarily learn alot about it in dental school,
but it's how did the jaws cometogether?
How is the airway, how do webreathe, how all of these things
impact our overall health.
I was talking about we got totalk about James Nestor's book.
Breath Like this is justamazing.
(01:02):
I was so pleased when I showedup in Dallas and Dr Patel was
there talking about all thesewonderful things.
Your presentation was awesome,led the whole 2,000 of us in
this amazing breath work Iwanted to bring him to all of
you, because we all breathe, wedon't really think about it, but
it is the simplest, mostinexpensive, most powerful tool
(01:25):
that we all have, and Dr Patel,like myself, really wants to
encourage all of us to be ourbest own doctor, because that is
how we heal, when we stoptrying to fix ourselves with a
supplement or depend on somebodyelse to fix us when we can
internalize and and we do somuch of that with breath.
(01:45):
On this podcast, we talk a lotabout physical toxins.
We talk about emotional toxins.
Breathwork is one of thegreatest ways to get rid of both
.
So I'm super excited.
I would love for you, dr Patel,to talk a little bit about your
journey.
Last thing I just want tomention is what I loved when I
read your bio is your first twoqualifications on that were
(02:08):
father and husband, that at theheart of who you are.
It's about being intentional,being present, being a human
(02:28):
being and being in that state ofunconditional love.
And I love reading some of yourblogs when you're talking about
the best mentors are the onesthat have their whole life
together, so not just the onesthat are all over media and have
a hundred books they've writtenand stuff like that, but the
people who have the healthyrelationships, who have
everything together.
I actually have a little bannerin my office that says success
(02:51):
does not bring happiness, buthappiness brings success, and
we've talked a lot about that inthe podcast too.
It's about how theserelationships really improve,
how we are.
Any of us who are struggling, Iknow sometimes, when my husband
and I are struggling, we can'tshow up for each other.
We don't show up for our kids,we don't show up for the team
members that we work with.
So this is a really importantaspect of health and, again, I
(03:12):
think it says a lot about youthat that's your primary focus
is about humanity and about love, and out of that love and
happiness comes all this great,amazing a compliment.
So kudos to you and I will handit over to you so you can tell
all of us a little bit about youand where you are on your
journey.
Dr. Patel (03:31):
Sure, first of all, thank you, dr Rachel.
I appreciate it, and pleasecall me Sachin.
It's funny that the thing aboutmy bio that people comment on
the most is the fact that I'm afather and a husband.
First, because that inspires meto be as healthy as I can be.
Being a father inspires me tocreate a world that I want my
child to live in, and being ahusband holds me accountable to
(03:54):
that.
So certainly it's a big part ofwho I am, and sometimes we are
things and sometimes we becomethings.
So I'm blessed that my son mademe a father, my wife gave me a
beautiful boy, and those arethings that I have become, but
I'm constantly pursuing who Iwant to be, and so that's where
all my training in chiropracticled me to functional medicine,
(04:16):
which led me to lifestylemedicine, which then led me to
the zenith of what I believe islifestyle, which is how we
breathe.
It's something that isunfortunately taken for granted,
and I believe breath is thezenith of both simplicity and
sophistication, and Da Vincisaid this and Steve Jobs echoed
(04:38):
it, and they said that thegreatest sign of sophistication,
the ultimate sophistication, issimplicity.
So if we look at the body as asophisticated system and
ecosystem, we start realizingthat it should be simple to take
care of it, not complicated,and it should be self-sustaining
.
That's what makes it sobrilliant.
If our body was clunky and italways broke down and it wasn't
(05:01):
reliable and it wasn'tpredictable, that wouldn't be a
very sophisticated system ormachinery.
However, if we acknowledge thatthe body is the most
sophisticated organism in theentire universe that we're aware
of at least I'm aware of thenit must also, in order to
qualify for being sophisticated,must be simple to take care of.
So, then, the search should befor simplicity, not to match the
(05:25):
body's complexity, and that'swhat direction medicine went in.
Right, we had a choice, or, atsome point, there was a fork in
the road and we had to decidebetween are we going to go down
the path of complexity and tryto understand everything that
the body does in real time,constantly, which is about one
septillion functions happeningsimultaneously I think it's
mind-boggling to think we'llever fully understand it or do
(05:48):
we go down the route ofsimplicity, which is
understanding how to tame thebody, how to nurture it and
provide it with what it needs inorder for it to take care of
the complexity?
And so that's where breath gotme really excited because I can
teach someone something supersimple and it could be the lead
domino in their life thataddresses so many different
(06:09):
areas of their health withoutthem having to micromanage those
other areas separately.
Dr. Carver (06:15):
Absolutely.
So let's talk a little bitabout breath.
So, through my journey, I'vereally I started down the path.
First I had eczema, so I firststarted down the path.
I read Dr Axis, who was thefirst book I ever read, called
Eat Dirt.
So this was in 2011, when leakygut was just getting out there,
and so I said, okay, yes, Idefinitely I have leaky gut, I'm
(06:36):
going to stop eating wheat, andthat was really helpful.
I went down that pathway for alittle while, but I kept chasing
symptoms right and over the 10,12, 13 years.
Now, once I got into the wholeidea of energy medicine, the
emotions impact us and I noticedthat when I get super stressed,
that's when my eczema mightflare, because that stress
(06:59):
really impacts the way webreathe right, which impacts
what nervous system we're in.
So maybe you can talk a littlebit about how breath rate and
how stress affects the breathing.
How, then, that affects ournervous system, which then
affects digestion.
Dr. Patel (07:14):
Sure, great question, and so I'll try to unpack it in
a few different ways.
So the first thing I wantpeople to recognize is that our
nervous system is constantlyusing our breath to biologically
control functions and featuresof the body.
So, for example, when weexperience an emotion, like we
(07:34):
hear something funny, we laugh,and laughing actually is a form
of breathwork.
Right, we actually laughthrough our diaphragm.
When we cry, we're actuallyusing our breath to express
ourselves, and so if we'rerunning from a lion, our body
shifts gears, changes the breathso that we can pump blood so
(07:57):
much faster and harder to get toour arms and legs.
So it's literally a two-waystreet.
See, our nervous system isalready using our breath to
change its physical andemotional state and, depending
on how you breathe, even yourspiritual state.
But we can actually manipulateour breath or take conscious
control of our breath andactually change our physiology.
(08:20):
So we can choose how we feel,we can choose where we send
blood flow, we can choose whichhemisphere we send blood flow to
in the brain, and that is allat our control if we know how to
control our breath.
So in Hindi or in Sanskrit, theword pranayama comes from two
(08:40):
root words Prana is life forceand yama is control and breath.
Work, which is the breath, isthe life force and work is
controlling.
It is basically controllingthat life force, which means
that we can direct our body anyway we choose to.
So I lovingly refer to thebreath as the steering wheel of
(09:02):
the nervous system, which meansthat, just like you can
consciously drive to work andnot even know how you got there,
you can unconsciously orunconsciously drive and not know
how you got to work.
You can unconsciously breathethroughout the day, and most
people, including myself, forthe first, probably 39 years of
my life, I was breathingunconsciously.
(09:22):
I just assumed that I was doingit and the only time I really
paid attention to my breath waswhen I was exercising or working
out, and then the rest of thetime I was completely
unconscious to it.
I didn't realize it wassomething that I could
manipulate and direct my bodyand how I wanted to function.
So the depth that we breathe atthe nostril, that we breathe
(09:44):
through, whether we breathethrough our nose or breathe
through our mouth, the pace atwhich we breathe, whether we
hold on the inhale, hold on theexhale, these are all little
buttons that we can push andmanipulate in order to change
what our breath does for us.
So, for example, if I wanted tobalance my nervous system, I
could do something calledalternate nostril breathing.
(10:06):
And alternate nostril breathingessentially just sounds like
that breathing in and outthrough one nostril and then
breathing in and out through theother nostril.
I can breathe exclusivelythrough a single nostril.
So if I wanted to activate theleft side of my brain, my more
logical side of my brain, then Icould breathe through my right
(10:26):
nostril.
If I wanted to calm my braindown and get into a more relaxed
state and into a more creativestate, then I could breathe
through my left nostril.
So I can change the nostril Ibreathe through, I can adjust
the pace that I breathe throughthat nostril and I can stimulate
different parts of me.
So breathing is really just likethere's an app for everything.
(10:49):
There's literally a breath foreverything.
So if we start paying attentionto how our nervous system uses
our breath, we can start quicklylearning that it has certain
clues.
So when we feel a sense ofrelief, as an example, what do
we do?
We sigh right, there's anaudible sigh.
We let the air out through ourlungs, through our mouth, and we
(11:10):
sink into it.
But what if we did thatconsciously?
What if, even though we mentallydidn't feel a sense of relief
or we were stressed out, but wewanted our body to feel relaxed?
What if we use that samebreathing tool or that same
breathing signature I call itand actually exaggerated it to
get the same effect?
(11:31):
So, even though the stressormight still be present, whether
it's financial or relationshipor work or whatever the case may
be that doesn't mean you alwayshave to feel stressed out about
it.
Just because something ispresent, it doesn't mean it has
to control you.
So you can reset your nervoussystem by doing something like a
physiologic sigh, and aphysiologic sigh is where you
(11:51):
breathe into your belly,breathing in through your nose,
breathing into your belly, intoyour lungs and then into the top
of your lungs.
You hold that for a few secondsand then you let it out with an
audible sigh through your mouth.
And doing that three or fourtimes over the course of a
couple of minutes helps peopleinstantaneously shift how they
feel.
And so once people startrealizing that there's different
(12:13):
breathing signatures that theycan use, it opens up a whole new
world of what's possible forthem.
And yeah, I'll leave it at that, but there's so much I could
say about breathing.
Dr. Carver (12:23):
That's awesome.
I love those little tools.
So, knowing so, the brain iscrisscross, so that's to
remember.
Right, the left is the logical,so you breathe to your right
and you want to be creative andcalming, breathe to the left.
That's a really good piece.
Now we've been taught over theyears Okay, if you're calm, take
really deep breaths, takereally deep breaths, maybe,
(12:43):
especially as a dentist.
Right, most people don't reallylike being in the chair.
When they come in, they're veryanxious.
So taking super deep breathsmaybe that's not the exact right
technique.
So there's this alternatebreathing, but talk to us a
little bit more.
I often use that 4-7-8 breath.
That was something I learned awhile ago.
(13:04):
Why is it that the maybe talk alittle bit about what that is,
if that's good or not, and whybe longer?
Exhalation is actually where weget a little bit more
relaxation.
Why is that?
Dr. Patel (13:15):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I like to use kind of livingexamples and I like to use the
ends of the spectrum for effect.
So if you were running awayfrom a lion, the smart thing for
your body to do would be foryou to breathe as rapidly as you
possibly can, because whenyou're running away from
something, or if you're going tofight something, you want your
(13:38):
lungs to assist in the pumpingof blood.
So think about where your lungsand your heart and your
diaphragm are situated.
Your lungs sit on either sideof your chest cavity and then in
the middle of that is yourheart and then just below your
heart is diaphragm.
So if a lion was chasing me, myheart has to get blood to my
(14:01):
arms and legs so I can run awayor fight off whatever is chasing
me, has to get blood to my armsand legs so I can run away or
fight off whatever is chasing me.
And so, in order for me to dothat, in order for me to rapidly
increase blood pressure andblood perfusion, it would make
sense for me to breathe reallyfast so that my lungs are
actually, and my diaphragm are,pumping my heart in order to
assist it.
So that is the description of amaximally stressful response.
(14:23):
My mouth would be open, I'd bebreathing rapidly in and out
through my mouth, because that'show I can move the most volume,
that's how I can rapidly expandand contract my lungs and move
my diaphragm up and down, and itwould make absolute sense for
me to breathe that way.
In fact, it would be stupid forme to slow down my breath in a
situation like that, because nowmy diaphragm lungs and lungs
(14:46):
aren't actually helping my heart.
My heart now has to work harderin order to be able to breathe
that way and in order to be ableto pump the blood.
So that's one end of theextreme.
So if the opposite end of thatwould be, I would be breathing
in and out through my nose,slowing down the air,
pressurizing the air, cleansingthe air right, because that's
(15:07):
what our nose does and we canget into that in a second.
And because I'm in a calm state, I don't have to breathe as
much.
My tongue is going to be at theroof of my mouth, because when
my tongue is at the roof of mymouth it's pressing down on
several, many nerve endings ofthe vagus nerve, so it instantly
relaxes me.
And then the other thing thathappens is that now my lungs are
(15:29):
rapidly not as rapidlyexpanding, contracting, so my
heart isn't going to be asstimulated, right?
If I'm breathing like this, myheart has no choice but to
increase pressure and beatfaster.
But if I'm breathing like thisnow and beat faster, but if I'm
breathing like this now, thenyou can see that instantaneously
, automatically it makes sensethat my heart beat is going to
(15:50):
slow down.
And when we're breathing in,the lungs are expanding, that's
squeezing the heart, that'sgoing to increase pressure,
increase heart rate.
And when we're breathing out,that's going to allow the heart
to slow down its beat rate andit's going to not.
Obviously we're relaxing theheart, we're letting off the
heart, and so that's one of thereasons that as you breathe
(16:11):
slower, especially on the exhale, you're shifting the nervous
system into a more calm andrelaxed state.
And the 4-7-8 breath for all ofyou who may not be familiar with
it is you breathe in for fourseconds, hold for seven seconds
and exhale for eight seconds.
(16:32):
So you're essentially breathingin for four and the full exhale
is taking about 15 seconds.
So you're really lengtheningthat exhalation process which
relaxes the nervous system.
What's also interesting aboutthat is that the slower we
breathe, breathe, the moreoxygen actually gets delivered
to our cells.
It's called the boar effect.
So it seems counterproductive orcounterintuitive, but with each
(16:53):
breath we take, we only absorbabout 20 to 25 percent of the
oxygen, which means that witheach breath we have about four
or five actual full breaths inthere.
So you could literally breatheone fifth less and still survive
and still not drop your O2saturation levels.
Slowing down our breath allowsfor more oxygen to be absorbed.
(17:16):
It also allows for our CO2levels to increase, allowing for
more oxygen to be dumped at thetissues, and then that also
helps calm our nervous systemdown.
So slowing down?
So just think of a situation inreal life.
Right, if you are running awayfrom something, in a maximal
stress situation, you'd want tobe breathing fast, and you would
be breathing fast to get awayand to assist your physiology
(17:38):
and physicality.
And the opposite of that is themost relaxed state you could be
in.
You'd be breathing in slow andbreathing out even slower and
you'd be breathing in and outthrough your nose instead of
breathing in and out throughyour mouth.
Dr. Carver (17:53):
Awesome.
I'm glad you brought up the CO2, because that is something
really poorly understood.
I think if I breathe in moreoxygen, then more oxygen is just
going to go all to the muscles,where it goes, but in fact it's
the carbon dioxide.
And so we've talked a lot abouton the podcast and it's talked
about a lot too how nitric oxideis the molecule that helps
dilate blood vessels, but infact carbon dioxide it does.
(18:16):
But carbon dioxide is even moreimportant and maybe does more
of that, and this is how breathwork can actually help you get
warmer extremities, right.
So many of us wake up and wehave cold hands and feet because
our blood isn't flowing well.
In Chinese medicine, the lungmeridian is directly connected
(18:36):
to circulation and skin, right.
So when you can learn how toharness proper breathing, slow
it down, you're going to buildup as you're holding that breath
right, let's say, in the four,seven, eight, or you're taking
longer, slower breaths.
Again, it's not necessarilyabout the depths of our breath,
but the rate.
So the slower we breathe, themore carbon dioxide we build in
(19:00):
the blood.
That carbon dioxide is whatpushes the oxygen off of the
hemoglobin into the cells.
So we need to have that carbondioxide.
What I found is I've beenreally into breath this year.
It was like my thing.
So it's so exciting that whenyou're at ECO it's like, oh God,
this is again the universeMarvelous, and you're at.
ECO.
I was like, oh God, this isagain.
The universe is marvelous.
It led me to you and I'vejoined all your stuff and I'm
following you and it's reallyexciting.
(19:20):
But before that's, at thebeginning of the year, I had
done some blood work and my CO2levels were really low and I was
like that's my breathing.
So I bought an OXA belt right,because there's lots of heart
monitors and HRB and stuff, andI'm like I need to know how I'm
breathing, cause when I'mworking I have a really busy
(19:41):
practice and I feel reallystressed and I'm like I don't
even think I breathe at all, oram I breathing?
Dr. Patel (19:45):
too much.
Dr. Carver (19:45):
What's happening.
And when I put that thing on inthe middle of my workday, I'm
breathing like 18 breaths aminute, which ideal is what?
Somewhere in the six to 10range.
So I'm way over breathing.
So is it any wonder that I'mmore stressed?
So what's Sachin is helping medo through all of his great
stuff which we'll link to in theend?
(20:07):
Helping me to learn how tobreathe, like even when I want
to unconsciously breathe slower,because, obviously, when I
think about it and it'sinteresting, when I'm doing a
stilling, I have a curing lightand that's usually at five
second intervals.
So I take the time now to beaware and as I'm curing that
every five seconds, I'll say,okay, I'm breathing in for five.
(20:29):
The little light beeps, I'mlike okay, I'm breathing out for
five so that I can try tomaintain, because the more I
feel, the more that I can createawareness while I'm in
stressful situations, hopefullyover time, unconsciously, even
when I'm sleeping.
Sometimes my sleep, my aura ringwould show too, 16 to 18
breaths while I'm sleeping, andagain, that's not great.
(20:49):
I really want to be inparasympathetic when I'm
sleeping so that I'm removingall the toxins and getting
everything to drain properly.
That's super fascinating.
So, again, that's why my carbondioxide was low, because I'm in
the breathing, so reallyimportant, and sometimes I have
cold hands and cold feet becauseI'm in.
My nervous system tends to restat that more anxious level, but
(21:13):
it's because of my breathing.
Dr. Patel (21:15):
So that's super fascinating.
Yeah, it's a two-way street.
So the way I describe it isthat a person's unconscious
breathing is the unconsciousstate of their nervous system.
So if I were to pay attentionwithout somebody being aware, if
I was just to pay attention tothe way they unconsciously
breathe, it would give me awindow into the state of their
(21:37):
nervous system.
So if somebody washypothetically breathing fast
and shallow, or breathingthrough their mouth, I would
understand that, because of thatbreathing pattern, what state
their nervous system is, withoutthem even knowing.
And so it's always importantlike even when I do trainings
online, I ask everyone to turntheir cameras on, because I'm
(21:58):
actually paying attention to howthey're breathing as I'm
teaching, and teachers shouldknow this too.
Right, if your students arebreathing a certain way, you can
understand the state of theirnervous system.
Are they even in a state oflearning and retention, or are
they in a state where they'regoing to forget everything that
you're saying?
And one thing I pay attentionto especially is if somebody's
(22:19):
breathing through their nose orthrough their mouth, because I
know if they're breathingthrough their mouth, then
they're probably overwhelmed.
They're probably I've, probablytheir cup is probably full if
I'm teaching them something newor they're feeling lost or
behind and that's creatinganxiety for them.
So as even as teachers, it'simportant for us to pay
attention to the state of ourclients and, as a dentist, for
(22:42):
yourself, just paying attention,taking a moment, and we can
read body language, but there'sbreath language as well, and if
we can pay attention to that,then we can tap into how they're
feeling without them having toeven say anything.
Dr. Carver (22:55):
That's an important point, for even us health
practitioners Sometimes whenwe're spewing out this treatment
plan.
Another thing how are theybreathing?
Is their mouth wide open?
And also, if we are, I'm also ahealth coach.
So if I'm trying to coach aperson on the right diet, if
they're unsympathetic, you cangive them the healthiest diet on
the planet.
If they're in sympathetic toneall the time, they're not going
(23:17):
to be digesting well.
So the nervous system is so keyto the overall health.
So again, you can have patientsspend all sorts of money on
supplements and this and that,but if you could just teach them
how to breathe, maybe we don'tneed to rely so much on
supplements and so much on theseother tools.
I mean, you come into my house,it's like being in a toy store,
(23:40):
for you know, I've got like allthe gadgets and all the things,
because it's like, if I just dothis, if I just do this, when,
as you said at the beginning,simplicity and so a lot of these
things are expensive, we can'tall afford to have all these
different things or do all thedifferent things, but we all can
afford to breathe right.
So, let's go into, let's get alittle more into the dental and
(24:02):
talk about the mouth breathingand how.
Let's tell me about like yourson's story and your own story
how you really helped your ownjaw development.
So we talked a lot about thisbefore, how we talked with a lot
of pediatric dentists and theimportance of airway, but I
think it's important the moretimes you hear something, the
more it gets cemented in thebrain.
So tell us a little bit howmouth breathing affects the
(24:25):
development of the facialstructure, the brain.
All that good stuff.
Dr. Patel (24:30):
Yeah, absolutely so.
It's not just how we breathe,but it's also the positioning of
the tongue.
And when we position our tonguecorrectly, or have our children
position their tonguescorrectly, then it actually
almost forces them indirectly,forces them to breathe right.
So when your tongue ispositioned at the roof of your
mouth, it becomes virtuallyimpossible to breathe through
(24:52):
your mouth.
And so, as the tongue ispositioned in the roof of the
mouth, it also acts as anexpander, so it will naturally
push the palate outwards andforwards and the lips act as
braces.
So we actually have a built-inmechanism to have nice,
beautiful dental arches andteeth and prevent overcrowding.
But that's going to bedependent on is our tongue in
(25:15):
the right position?
And when it is, then it pushesthe whole face outwards instead
of creating a narrow face.
And when people end up havingthat narrow face, then they end
the consequences that they endup having narrow airways and
their airways become restricted,and then that perpetuates the
(25:37):
mouth breathing.
So it creates this downwardspiral, because it becomes very
difficult or more challengingfor people to breathe through
their nose if the airway feelsconstricted.
Now, one thing to keep in mindand maybe this has been
discussed in previous interviewsis there's an increasing
prevalence we're noticing withtongue ties, and a tongue tie
(25:59):
can oftentimes be associatedwith poor methylation and we're
seeing many mothers these daysare under-methylated and that's
a whole different topic.
But basically, if they're notgetting the right types of
nutrients in their body, thenthis can cause midline
deformities, especially with Bvitamin deficiencies, and one of
those could be a very prominenttongue tie.
(26:22):
And the tongue tie isessentially the frenulum
underneath the tongue, thatlittle stringy thing under the
tongue.
It becomes overdeveloped andchildren have a hard time
placing their tongue at the roofof their mouth, and so what
other challenges they might haveis they may have difficulty
with self-soothing, so they needpacifiers or they need to suck
(26:42):
their thumb in order to pushthat magic button in the roof of
their mouth.
They may also have a hard timewith breastfeeding and latching
on, and there's consequences ofthat.
So proper jaw formation doesrequire that they are able to
place their tongue in thecorrect position, and when they
can't do that, thenunfortunately children are
weaned off and they're placed onformulas and other things.
(27:04):
But if you look at the shape ofa woman's breast and you look
at the shape of most babybottles, they're very different.
The structure of the nipplethat the child is sucking on.
If it's a baby bottle, makes ahuge difference in how their jaw
is going to form as well.
It used to be such that manydecades ago that midwives would
grow their pinky nails and theywould just do an oral sweep and
(27:29):
they would sweep the lip tiesand the tongue ties so that
children can latch on and itwouldn't be an issue.
And for whatever reason, theystopped doing that so it's
become an issue that cantranspire all the way into
adulthood.
In fact, until we started doingthis research, both my wife and
son were impacted bydysfunctional breathing.
(27:49):
So I'll share the story, sinceyou asked so.
A few years ago, when my sonwent to the dentist his first
time going to the dentist, wehad good news and bad news.
So I said what's the bad news?
And the dentist said well, yourson has a ton of cavities and
we're like, we were just likebaffled because he eats right,
he does all the things right andwe just felt like total
(28:10):
failures as parents.
But so what's the good news?
And he said the good news isthey're all in his baby teeth
and when we think of cause andeffect, we didn't really figure
out why he had those cavitiesuntil many years later when he
went to another dentist and theysaid his teeth were overcrowded
, especially his upper palate,and he would have to have some
(28:31):
of his teeth pulled in order forthem to come down.
And I'm like, okay, thatdoesn't sound very right to me.
And right around that time JamesNestor's book Breath came out,
and so as I'm reading it, it'sdescribing everything my son was
facing.
He was a habitual mouthbreather and again, I didn't
know any different.
I didn't know any better.
I didn't know any different,didn't even think to pay
(28:52):
attention to it, like mostpeople wouldn't have known, and
so I beat myself up for it.
But at the same time that's whyI'm intentional about spreading
this message, because I don'twant other people's kids to go
through it and so we ended upgoing to four different dentists
and then finally we found onethat would put an expander in,
and so we put an expander in topush his palate outwards and
(29:15):
push his upper jaw forward, andall of his teeth have come in
beautifully.
So he didn't have to have anyof them pulled and he's got a
nice wide smile, which isawesome, and he's not too happy
that he has braces, but I thinkhe will be once all is said and
done and he can breathe.
He always used to complainabout having a hard time
breathing and now we realize whyit's because his upper palate
(29:36):
was so small, which meant thathis airway was so restricted.
So signs of mouth breathing inchildren are going to be
behavior issues.
They generally are going to beunder, they're going to just not
even know why they're stressedout, but it's because of the way
their breathing is tellingtheir nervous system to be in
this low grade fight or flightstate.
They're going to drool on theirpillow.
Low-grade fight-or-flight statethey're going to drool on their
(30:01):
pillow.
They may have cavities, like myson did.
They may have overcrowding-typesymptoms, they may develop
adenoids or tonsillitis and theymay have a chronically
congested nose, because if youdon't breathe through your nose,
it actually starts gettingsmaller.
The airways start filling up,so the body doesn't like
stagnation.
So if there isn't circulate aircirculating in the sinuses, the
(30:23):
body's this is just an emptyhole in my head that can develop
infections, so it startssealing everything up.
So those are some of the signsof that you want to pay
attention to with your children.
And if they are mouth breathers,then one of the best gifts that
you can give them is to starteducating them about the
importance of breathing throughtheir nose, and there's tapes
(30:43):
that you can buy.
Myotape is one of them.
It's great for children becauseit allows them to keep their
mouth open, but when the mouthis at rest it closes it for them
.
And then mouth taping at nightis something that we did with my
son.
He still does it every night,as does the whole family, and
that's made a profounddifference for all of us and
it's been wonderful to be ableto help my family right as a
(31:07):
functional medicine practitioner.
My son grew up in a pretty, veryhealthy, I should say.
Metabolically.
He doesn't have any of theclassic childhood issues that
many children do, but he was adysfunctional breather and I'm
like, finally I found a way tohelp this guy and it's been
profoundly rewarding for me.
And it's been interestingbecause as we went through this
(31:27):
journey, my wife she's hadbraces three times and when she
was young she used to suck herthumb because she had a tongue
tie, so she had a hard timebreastfeeding, hard time
latching on.
She would suck her thumb untilshe was like, I think, eight or
nine.
She would always get teasedabout it and then she developed
(31:48):
an overbite because of it, anopen bite.
So an open bite is dentistswould know this but an open bite
is where your front teeth don'tline up properly, so it's hard
for you to break off a piece oflettuce if you're eating a
sandwich or something.
And so she had braces multipletimes to correct that.
And it turns out that it was atongue tie that she had.
(32:09):
That was the root cause, or astemative factor to all of these
things.
And just about seven or eightmonths ago she had that snipped
and it instantly made adifference in her posture, it
made a difference in her mood,it made a difference in her
cervical curve.
So it was quite profound to seehow this one little piece of
tissue was hamstringing so manyareas in her health and in her
(32:32):
life.
And I wish she had known thissooner because she wouldn't have
had to deal with the low-gradeanxiety, the multiple dental
procedures and so on and soforth.
Dr. Carver (32:43):
Yeah, it's so fascinating.
The first time I reallyunderstood this I, years and
years ago, went to a sleep apnealecture and it was for adults.
And as we're sitting there andI'm listening, because we didn't
learn any of this in dentalschool and it started to make me
think of my daughter, myyounger daughter, who at the
time was I don't know three,four maybe, and I thought, oh my
gosh, I wonder if this is herproblem, because she used to
(33:05):
always wake up in the middle ofthe night and she'd crawl in my
bed and I didn't mind becauseshe'd rub my back and it was all
nice and I was like, oh, isn'tthat sweet, that's great.
But then, listening to thislecture, I'm like, oh my gosh,
maybe her airway is so small,she's not breathing and it's
waking her up, which is exactlywhat was happening.
But at that time I didn'treally follow through because I
didn't really know.
(33:26):
I didn't know of things to dofor pediatrics and for the most
part she seemed to befunctioning well, so I didn't
pursue it as much.
And then a year or two went by.
I found a local colleague who Ibrought my kids to and, yeah,
sure enough, we did her airwayassessment super tiny and she
has a pretty significant tonguesize, so they were able to go
(33:46):
through the whole expansionprocess and the myofunctional
right.
That's another important thing.
As you said, we have to trainthe tongue.
My kids were breastfed, but theywere also I was working too, so
they were breastfed and bottlefed.
My older one, she sucked herthumb until she was eight.
She was pulled out with asuction cup and that kind of
cranial messed up her cranium alittle bit and so she put her
(34:08):
thumb up there.
Just like you said, that's alittle stressful spot.
That kind of connects thenervous system, like the front
part of our energy and the backpart, and it's a soothing.
It's soothing for the nervoussystem and she's you know, and
so it's like she used to droollike crazy as a baby.
It was my first kid, so Ididn't know.
I was like, okay, that's normal.
But my second daughter, shedidn't drool at all.
(34:28):
She was the easiest birth, nota problem, but so fascinating.
And I wish I'd known this whenI didn't do it too much with my
older daughter either, becauseshe wasn't showing the signs of
thumb suckers where the palatewas getting narrow like her
teeth.
All were pretty good.
She has slight crowding, butnot much.
She wasn't, I don't think,applying so so much pressure and
(34:49):
because I think she wasbreastfed, I think her tongue
was in the appropriate place.
But I see and I love what yousaid about that whole
methylation, which is why I hadanother podcast with one of my
colleagues and we were talkingabout prenatal health.
So I wish more OBs reallyunderstood for so many reasons
how nutrition is so vital.
But when we talk about peopletalking about I have MTHFR in my
(35:13):
experience it seems to be 80%or more.
So I look at everybody ashaving these SNPs which mean
that our detoxification systemsare not as effective.
Right, if we have one copy,we're 70% effective with detox
with two copies which my kidsare both lucky, they both have
two copies they have 30%efficiency right and so, again,
(35:36):
really important.
This is where nutrition becomesreally important and we see in
kids.
So it's another thing I want totalk to you about because I was
so excited when you talkedabout this Aviko In our food
supply table.
We know we've talked about howmuch nutrition has really
suffered.
It's about 50% nutrient denseversus what it was a generation
ago and all the foods aretypically most of the foods we
(35:56):
give to young people are soft,or typically, most of the foods
we give to young people are soft.
There's another reason.
When I was watching your videoor actually it was Nestor's
little snips that you have onyour website and he was showing
the evolution over thousands ofyears of the human skull right,
and over the last millennium orwhatever, it's gotten smaller
and smaller and smaller.
With all the processing offoods, all the squeeze pouches
(36:17):
as convenient as those are and Iused them before I knew better
the worst thing you can do asyou squeeze or suck on a straw,
you are compressing the jawswith your cheek muscles Not
great.
And because most of us don'thave good tongue function to be
able to counteract that, that'sreally problematic.
And so when we're not huntergatherers, we're chewing on
(36:39):
roots and all sorts of reallyhard stuff.
That is what created thatreally square, angular face
Right, and I love what you'vetalked about before.
Where your parents grew up inIndia, they didn't have
toothbrushes, right, they hadbeautiful straight teeth, no
problems in need braces, andthey were chewing on me, which I
(36:59):
thought that's so fascinating.
And it was funny because whenJay, at the end of Jay Davidson,
the end of your eco talk or atthe end of the conference, he
was saying, oh, so interested inme.
I texted him.
I said I ordered them beforeSachin even finished his and so
I have them in the office now.
Yeah, they do have ainteresting taste.
(37:19):
But the other thing I loveabout neem, which I've used for
years my body tends towards alittle bit of constipation and
neem is really healing andsoothing and moisturizing for
the intestinal system and weknow if we're not expelling and
eliminating properly, that's howtoxins can keep recirculating.
So I love that, that the neemstick.
Not only are you chewing andcreating good functions, but
(37:41):
you're also using a nicetherapeutic natural ingredient
to heal our digestion.
So tell me a little bit aboutthese Neem sticks.
Dr. Patel (37:51):
Yeah certainly.
So just to give people somecontext, like when you give a
child a toothbrush for the firsttime, even though they've
watched you brush your teethintuitively, what do they do?
They start chewing it, theystart biting it.
And so one of the reasons, inaddition to tongue positioning,
that the jaw can be smaller isbecause we don't chew hard
(38:13):
things.
And I think of my son and weused to give him very
nutrient-dense smoothies and weused to make his own baby food
and all that good stuff, and sowe thought, from a nutrient
standpoint, we were deliveringnutrients to his body but we
weren't forcing him to chew allthat food and because he wasn't
chewing it, he wasn'tstimulating proper jaw formation
(38:35):
.
And so for any of you who haveyoung children, or even any of
you who are adults, chew hardthings I know they say, do hard
things and one of them is tochew hard things because that
helps us and certainly, rachel,you would know this better than
me but that helps strengthen theability for our teeth to stay
in their sockets and stimulatestem cell production and bone
(38:57):
density and growth so that ourteeth don't fall out of our face
as we get older.
So chewing hard things is oneof the other things that is
worth mentioning when it comesto this topic in general.
So what they would do is theywould have these branches from
neem trees delivered to them andit would just get a whole pile
of them and you would just grabone and start chewing it.
That would secrete the juicesfrom the tree, the oils and
(39:20):
protective mechanisms, and thenthat would force them to chew
and then they would bristolizethe end of the brush and then
they would use it to brush andclean their teeth.
Human beings are the onlyanimals that have toothbrushes
and we're the only animals thatget cavities.
So go figure, right.
So it's not just about brushingyour teeth and removing.
Obviously you don't want tohave food and stuff like that
(39:41):
stuck in your teeth.
We're not suggesting that.
But your mouth, when you havethe right oral microbiome, is
self-cleansing, right?
Just like we don't need to washwe're not dirty.
Like we don't have to wash ourskin.
It sounds gross when you tellpeople for just cultural reasons
but we don't get that dirtyevery day that we have to strip
our complete skin microbiomeevery time we take a shower.
(40:04):
Same thing with our mouth.
It's actually not that dirty.
It's a self-cleansing system,provided that we give it the
right environment.
But if somebody's breathingthrough their mouth, they're
going to change salivaconcentrations, they're going to
change their pH, they're goingto change the type of bacteria
that grow there and, of course,that's going to cause a whole
host of issues.
So this is what they would dothey would chew these neem
(40:24):
branches.
They didn't have dentistsgrowing up.
They didn't have orthodontistsgrowing up that's blasphemy and
they had perfectly aligned teeth.
Seeing a dentist was like aforeign concept for them until
they moved to North America, andit was fascinating because
that's when they starteddeveloping dental issues.
(40:45):
I'm not saying that's whatcaused it, but they lost their
tradition, right?
They started brushing theirteeth.
They started using toothpastewhich strip out the oral
microbiome, instead of stickingto traditional things like
chewing on a neem branch, whichactually strengthens the teeth
and preserves and probablyinitiates a healthy oral
microbiome.
(41:05):
So yeah, so it's interesting tothink of something that seems
so archaic and barbaric is theactual answer to a lot of
people's dental issues.
Dr. Carver (41:15):
Your parents' story is exactly what Dr Price found
too when he went around theworld in the 1930s and all the
Native populations who ate theirNative diets had perfectly
straight teeth.
And when they changed to awesternized diet, that is when
the time is that part of thewesternization with the
(41:42):
toothpaste and the toothbrushand this, and that there's too
much emphasis on killing the bat.
But, like you said, it is theenvironment right.
So neem was not only helpful,it did stimulate saliva right.
Anytime you chew, you'restimulating saliva.
Saliva is incredibly protective, flushes away the plaque and
(42:04):
stuff like that.
Plus, you have a naturalsubstance in the neem, which
some natural toothpaste have.
Neem as an ingredient, like Isaid, very helpful to the gut
and the gut begins in the mouth.
It's a really great product.
I've used it for years forintestinal health and it's about
supporting the properenvironment.
As you said, when you're mouthbreathing, you create more
(42:24):
acidic environment and it's thisacidic environment, it's the
change in the environment, thatcauses the so-called bad bugs to
overgrow.
I say it all the time.
We don't one day swallow badbugs and get gum disease.
That is not how it works.
The environment in our bodychanges.
This is terrain medicine.
When the environment changes,then the bugs have to adapt.
(42:48):
It's the simple concept ofevolution Things.
When we have toxins toxicitywhich can be in just
conventional toothpaste we nowchange to this processed diet,
we are exposed to toxins.
We now change to this processeddiet.
We are exposed to toxins, whichtherefore create deficiencies,
which then creates disease andthis creates and then the bugs
(43:11):
that can survive in a moreacidic environment with fewer
nutrients.
They're going to proliferateand their byproducts cause gum
disease and cavities.
Again, if we're just killingthe bad, we're just on the
hamster wheel Because if youdon't correct the reason the bad
overgrew in the first place,you're never going to have
disease.
I've had so many patients andfunctional medicine doctors
refer patients to me becausethey put them on this gut
(43:31):
healing protocol and now all ofa sudden the oral microbiome
looks worse, they have more bugs.
And I say to them all, becausewe don't want to kill, that's
not the right environment.
How do we get more nutrients?
How do we get more oxygen?
How do we get them to breatheright?
And I think it's so important.
I have had a lot of holisticmoms come to me and they're like
(43:51):
you.
They feel devastated that theirkids have cavities because
they're like I thought I wasdoing everything right.
Yes, nutrient-wise, absolutely.
But if they're mouth-breathing,they're in that sympathetic
nervous system, which means evenwith the best diet, they may
not be absorbing those nutrients, and then the acidic
environment again is going tolead to the overgrowth of this
vicious cycle.
(44:12):
So that's why, when you go to abiologic dentist, you're looking
at the whole person.
Some of us dentists are just somyopic that we're just all we
learned about was teeth, andthat's how do teeth function in
the whole body, and so that'sreally important.
If you want to be the type ofdentist who is treating your
patient for overall health, ifyou want them to have the best
(44:33):
possible future, we've got toconsider how everything is
working within the whole body.
That's why I bring people likeyou on, so we get all these
different perspectives.
We can all bring it togetherand I know I'm sure you guys
have enjoyed this you canprobably feel such and such calm
presence, Like I.
Just my nervous system isalways jacked up, but I just
(44:54):
feel a calming presence aroundme.
Just have that calming,soothing voice.
Please tell us how we can learnmore about what you're doing,
how we can start helping breathebetter.
Where can we find you and howcan we start being better?
Dr. Patel (45:11):
Oh, thank you.
I appreciate that.
I wanted to mention thisearlier and it's worth
mentioning since you bring it up, is that the way we breathe
actually holds space for othersand and for yourself, dr Rachel,
and any practitioner who'slistening to this.
When you walk into a room, payattention to your breathing
signature.
Is it calm, is it relaxed, isit confident?
(45:33):
Right?
Because if your breathingsignature is that of short,
shallow breathing, or fight orflight or stress, then it's
going to be the patient oreveryone else in the room is
going to be able to detect that.
They may not know exactly whatthey're detecting, but it's
going to give them so much moreconfidence and you're going to
(45:55):
give them so much more certainty.
If your nervous system is in acalm state, they're instantly
going to feel that.
So I appreciate you saying that, because it's not a shock to me
, but I do get that very often,and it's because I'm consciously
breathing slow and holdingspace, and I'm grateful that it
even comes through when I'mpresenting and sharing online.
(46:17):
So thank you for that In termsof where people can learn more.
So I've actually created awhole bunch of free resources
that are absolutely free,because I believe the best
things in life are free is I puttogether a bundle it's a
breathwork bundle and you can goto breathworkwithsachincom and
my name is spelled S-A-C-H-I-N,so breathworkwithsatchincom, and
(46:41):
there you'll get my notes.
I've done a couple of keynoteson breathing that you'll be able
to watch.
You'll get the slides if yourequest them.
You'll get my stop snoringguide.
If you snore or your partnersnores, there's an all natural
guide that I've created and Ishare with you, step by step,
how I stop my snoring.
You'll also get my notes fromJames Nestor's retreat I went
(47:02):
there last March and it was anamazing event and all the notes
I share with you.
I'm also going to share withyou additional tools and
resources I just wrote anarticle about a Navaj and how
that can be helpful in cleansingthe airways, and continuous
resources that I'll be puttingtogether.
One of my most recent resourcesI put together is called Breathe
Like this, not that, and itbasically walks you through the
(47:26):
state that you're in and whatbreath you need to use, what
cadence you need to use in orderto switch the way you feel.
So if you're feeling anxious,there's a breath for that.
If you're feeling, if you wantto feel calm and relaxed,
there's a breath for that.
If you want to fall asleepfaster, there's a breath for
that.
If you want to feel calm andrelaxed, there's a breath for
that.
If you want to fall asleepfaster, there's a breath for
that.
If you want to increase bloodflow or core temperature,
there's a breath for that.
So there's all these differentways that you can breathe to tap
(47:49):
into this innate capabilitythat you have.
I wanted to share a couple offun facts that I think would
really drive this message homefor people.
I know we have a couple ofminutes here, so one thing I
want to share is that yourimmune system starts in your
nose, so we consume about 30pounds of air every single day.
It's the thing that we consumethe most, and it's the way we
(48:15):
engage with our outsideenvironment the most.
So having a healthy respiratorysystem is going to be
absolutely crucial to yourhealth, and so our defense
against the outside world startsinside of our nose, and that's
one of the reasons it'simportant to breathe through
there.
The other thing we mentionedwas nitric oxide levels, and
what you mentioned correctly, drRachel, is that nitric oxide
and CO2 work hand in hand atincreasing circulation and blood
(48:37):
perfusion, especially to thebrain, which is the hardest
place to get blood, to.
Slowing down our breathing isgoing to help increase CO2
concentrations and get betterblood flow.
And what's also going to happenis that when you breathe slower
, especially through your nose,you're going to get a six-fold
increase in nitric oxideproduction.
If you add humming to theequation, then you're going to
(48:58):
get a 15-fold increase in nitricoxide production.
So something as simple ashumming can enhance your immune
defenses.
Nitric oxide kills viruses andbacteria on contact.
It helps with dilating ourblood vessels and it helps with
increasing circulation.
We can get to have all thenutrients in the world, but if
we can't circulate thosenutrients, then they're not as
(49:20):
effective.
So that's another thing Iwanted to share.
And then the last thing I wantto share is that I know a lot of
us are wanting to live longer,and the fastest way for us to be
able to do that is to slow downour breath.
When you study animals in thewild, animals that breathe
slower live longer compared toanimals that breathe faster.
So a turtle takes about threebreaths a minute, lives about
(49:48):
150 to 200 years.
A dog takes 35 breaths a minute, ages about seven times faster
than us humans do so.
Slowing down your breathing tothat six breaths per minute pace
five and a half to six breathsper minute pace is going to
significantly improve yourquality of life, calm your
nervous system down and it'sreally the fastest biohack to
slow down the aging process.
So those are some of thereasons.
And then one last thing I wantto share is habit change.
(50:09):
So BJ Fogg wrote a book calledTiny Habits and he has a map of
habit change.
So the M stands for motivation.
So hopefully, after today andthrough other conversations that
you hear, you're motivated totake control of your breath.
The second is ability.
We all have the ability tobreathe better and with
consciousness and awareness.
The third part that's missingis usually the prompt.
(50:33):
So what I do is I identifysomething that I do frequently
throughout the day and I usethat as my prompt to tune into
my breath.
Or I might do several things.
Every time I think of my phone,I think of my breath.
Next, every time I'm checkingemail, the next thought I have
is my breath.
If I'm going up the stairs, thenext thought I have is my
breath.
So I'm always bringing breathinto my awareness to the point
(50:56):
where it becomes unconscious.
So I probably think ofbreathing five to 600 times a
day, and it's because I think ofthose other things five or 600
times a day, so I just attach itto something that I already do
and that, for me, has made a bigdifference.
Hopefully that's helpful.
Grab the resources atBreathwork with Sachin.
I've got a bunch of things inthere and I'm going to keep
adding to it and it'll alwaysremain a free resource for
(51:18):
everyone.
Dr. Carver (51:19):
Sajan, I can't thank you enough and for
everybody listening, I thinkthis is one of the most
important podcast interviewsI've done to date.
It is, and thank you so muchfor making these resources free
and available to all of us.
So please listen again, sharethis with everyone.
Again.
This is the best, fastest,easiest way to really gain our
(51:40):
health and especially when we'redoing other things, the
compounding will get there evenfaster.
But I so appreciate your time.
I look forward to getting toknow you even better and better
as I keep improving my breathwork.
We'll see how I do.
I'm determined by the end ofthe year to get down to that six
to 10 breaths per minute.
But I love what you just saidabout that problem.
Like me, with the light at work, that's always okay into that
(52:03):
good breathing, so we canmaintain that.
I know, even when I'm driving Ibecome aware I automatically
slow down driving and everythingis just much calmer.
I always feel in my life I'malways trying to get somewhere
and do something and all thesethings and that's not helpful.
So I'm so glad that I got tomeet you and again, I appreciate
(52:24):
so much of what you're doingand I look forward to having
another conversation very soon.
So, everybody, please check outbreathworkwithsatchincom.
Start breathing properly rightaway and let me know all how
everybody's doing so.
Hope you enjoyed this episode,guys.
Let us know any feedback youhave, anything else you'd like
to learn about, and we'll see.
Here's another episode of the Root of the
Matter.
I'm your host, dr Rachel Carver, and I'm very excited today to
have Dr Sachin Patel on with us.
He started as a chiropractor,moved into functional medicines,
breathwork facilitator.
His bio is quite extensive andwe're gonna hear a little bit
(00:20):
from him.
I first met Dr Patel this pastMay and we were at the CellCore
EcoConference and it was reallyinteresting because last year
Cellcor had asked me to givethem some ideas of topics and I
said, hey, we've alreadydiscussed the infectious part of
oral disease, cavities and gumdisease and the real cause of
that and how we can help that.
(00:41):
I said, but we're reallymissing the functional part of
dentistry which a lot of peopledon't know about.
We don't necessarily learn alot about it in dental school,
but it's how did the jaws cometogether?
How is the airway, how do webreathe, how all of these things
impact our overall health.
I was talking about we got totalk about James Nestor's book.
Breath Like this is justamazing.
(01:02):
I was so pleased when I showedup in Dallas and Dr Patel was
there talking about all thesewonderful things.
Your presentation was awesome,led the whole 2,000 of us in
this amazing breath work Iwanted to bring him to all of
you, because we all breathe, wedon't really think about it, but
it is the simplest, mostinexpensive, most powerful tool
(01:25):
that we all have, and Dr Patel,like myself, really wants to
encourage all of us to be ourbest own doctor, because that is
how we heal, when we stoptrying to fix ourselves with a
supplement or depend on somebodyelse to fix us when we can
internalize and and we do somuch of that with breath.
(01:45):
On this podcast, we talk a lotabout physical toxins.
We talk about emotional toxins.
Breathwork is one of thegreatest ways to get rid of both
.
So I'm super excited.
I would love for you, dr Patel,to talk a little bit about your
journey.
Last thing I just want tomention is what I loved when I
read your bio is your first twoqualifications on that were
(02:08):
father and husband, that at theheart of who you are.
It's about being intentional,being present, being a human
(02:28):
being and being in that state ofunconditional love.
And I love reading some of yourblogs when you're talking about
the best mentors are the onesthat have their whole life
together, so not just the onesthat are all over media and have
a hundred books they've writtenand stuff like that, but the
people who have the healthyrelationships, who have
everything together.
I actually have a little bannerin my office that says success
(02:51):
does not bring happiness, buthappiness brings success, and
we've talked a lot about that inthe podcast too.
It's about how theserelationships really improve,
how we are.
Any of us who are struggling, Iknow sometimes, when my husband
and I are struggling, we can'tshow up for each other.
We don't show up for our kids,we don't show up for the team
members that we work with.
So this is a really importantaspect of health and, again, I
(03:12):
think it says a lot about youthat that's your primary focus
is about humanity and about love, and out of that love and
happiness comes all this great,amazing a compliment.
So kudos to you and I will handit over to you so you can tell
all of us a little bit about youand where you are on your
journey.
Dr. Patel (03:31):
Sure, first of all, thank you, dr Rachel.
I appreciate it, and pleasecall me Sachin.
It's funny that the thing aboutmy bio that people comment on
the most is the fact that I'm afather and a husband.
First, because that inspires meto be as healthy as I can be.
Being a father inspires me tocreate a world that I want my
child to live in, and being ahusband holds me accountable to
(03:54):
that.
So certainly it's a big part ofwho I am, and sometimes we are
things and sometimes we becomethings.
So I'm blessed that my son mademe a father, my wife gave me a
beautiful boy, and those arethings that I have become, but
I'm constantly pursuing who Iwant to be, and so that's where
all my training in chiropracticled me to functional medicine,
(04:16):
which led me to lifestylemedicine, which then led me to
the zenith of what I believe islifestyle, which is how we
breathe.
It's something that isunfortunately taken for granted,
and I believe breath is thezenith of both simplicity and
sophistication, and Da Vincisaid this and Steve Jobs echoed
(04:38):
it, and they said that thegreatest sign of sophistication,
the ultimate sophistication, issimplicity.
So if we look at the body as asophisticated system and
ecosystem, we start realizingthat it should be simple to take
care of it, not complicated,and it should be self-sustaining
.
That's what makes it sobrilliant.
If our body was clunky and italways broke down and it wasn't
(05:01):
reliable and it wasn'tpredictable, that wouldn't be a
very sophisticated system ormachinery.
However, if we acknowledge thatthe body is the most
sophisticated organism in theentire universe that we're aware
of at least I'm aware of thenit must also, in order to
qualify for being sophisticated,must be simple to take care of.
So, then, the search should befor simplicity, not to match the
(05:25):
body's complexity, and that'swhat direction medicine went in.
Right, we had a choice, or, atsome point, there was a fork in
the road and we had to decidebetween are we going to go down
the path of complexity and tryto understand everything that
the body does in real time,constantly, which is about one
septillion functions happeningsimultaneously I think it's
mind-boggling to think we'llever fully understand it or do
(05:48):
we go down the route ofsimplicity, which is
understanding how to tame thebody, how to nurture it and
provide it with what it needs inorder for it to take care of
the complexity?
And so that's where breath gotme really excited because I can
teach someone something supersimple and it could be the lead
domino in their life thataddresses so many different
(06:09):
areas of their health withoutthem having to micromanage those
other areas separately.
Dr. Carver (06:15):
Absolutely.
So let's talk a little bitabout breath.
So, through my journey, I'vereally I started down the path.
First I had eczema, so I firststarted down the path.
I read Dr Axis, who was thefirst book I ever read, called
Eat Dirt.
So this was in 2011, when leakygut was just getting out there,
and so I said, okay, yes, Idefinitely I have leaky gut, I'm
(06:36):
going to stop eating wheat, andthat was really helpful.
I went down that pathway for alittle while, but I kept chasing
symptoms right and over the 10,12, 13 years.
Now, once I got into the wholeidea of energy medicine, the
emotions impact us and I noticedthat when I get super stressed,
that's when my eczema mightflare, because that stress
(06:59):
really impacts the way webreathe right, which impacts
what nervous system we're in.
So maybe you can talk a littlebit about how breath rate and
how stress affects the breathing.
How, then, that affects ournervous system, which then
affects digestion.
Dr. Patel (07:14):
Sure, great question, and so I'll try to unpack it in
a few different ways.
So the first thing I wantpeople to recognize is that our
nervous system is constantlyusing our breath to biologically
control functions and featuresof the body.
So, for example, when weexperience an emotion, like we
(07:34):
hear something funny, we laugh,and laughing actually is a form
of breathwork.
Right, we actually laughthrough our diaphragm.
When we cry, we're actuallyusing our breath to express
ourselves, and so if we'rerunning from a lion, our body
shifts gears, changes the breathso that we can pump blood so
(07:57):
much faster and harder to get toour arms and legs.
So it's literally a two-waystreet.
See, our nervous system isalready using our breath to
change its physical andemotional state and, depending
on how you breathe, even yourspiritual state.
But we can actually manipulateour breath or take conscious
control of our breath andactually change our physiology.
(08:20):
So we can choose how we feel,we can choose where we send
blood flow, we can choose whichhemisphere we send blood flow to
in the brain, and that is allat our control if we know how to
control our breath.
So in Hindi or in Sanskrit, theword pranayama comes from two
(08:40):
root words Prana is life forceand yama is control and breath.
Work, which is the breath, isthe life force and work is
controlling.
It is basically controllingthat life force, which means
that we can direct our body anyway we choose to.
So I lovingly refer to thebreath as the steering wheel of
(09:02):
the nervous system, which meansthat, just like you can
consciously drive to work andnot even know how you got there,
you can unconsciously orunconsciously drive and not know
how you got to work.
You can unconsciously breathethroughout the day, and most
people, including myself, forthe first, probably 39 years of
my life, I was breathingunconsciously.
(09:22):
I just assumed that I was doingit and the only time I really
paid attention to my breath waswhen I was exercising or working
out, and then the rest of thetime I was completely
unconscious to it.
I didn't realize it wassomething that I could
manipulate and direct my bodyand how I wanted to function.
So the depth that we breathe atthe nostril, that we breathe
(09:44):
through, whether we breathethrough our nose or breathe
through our mouth, the pace atwhich we breathe, whether we
hold on the inhale, hold on theexhale, these are all little
buttons that we can push andmanipulate in order to change
what our breath does for us.
So, for example, if I wanted tobalance my nervous system, I
could do something calledalternate nostril breathing.
(10:06):
And alternate nostril breathingessentially just sounds like
that breathing in and outthrough one nostril and then
breathing in and out through theother nostril.
I can breathe exclusivelythrough a single nostril.
So if I wanted to activate theleft side of my brain, my more
logical side of my brain, then Icould breathe through my right
(10:26):
nostril.
If I wanted to calm my braindown and get into a more relaxed
state and into a more creativestate, then I could breathe
through my left nostril.
So I can change the nostril Ibreathe through, I can adjust
the pace that I breathe throughthat nostril and I can stimulate
different parts of me.
So breathing is really just likethere's an app for everything.
(10:49):
There's literally a breath foreverything.
So if we start paying attentionto how our nervous system uses
our breath, we can start quicklylearning that it has certain
clues.
So when we feel a sense ofrelief, as an example, what do
we do?
We sigh right, there's anaudible sigh.
We let the air out through ourlungs, through our mouth, and we
(11:10):
sink into it.
But what if we did thatconsciously?
What if, even though we mentallydidn't feel a sense of relief
or we were stressed out, but wewanted our body to feel relaxed?
What if we use that samebreathing tool or that same
breathing signature I call itand actually exaggerated it to
get the same effect?
(11:31):
So, even though the stressormight still be present, whether
it's financial or relationshipor work or whatever the case may
be that doesn't mean you alwayshave to feel stressed out about
it.
Just because something ispresent, it doesn't mean it has
to control you.
So you can reset your nervoussystem by doing something like a
physiologic sigh, and aphysiologic sigh is where you
(11:51):
breathe into your belly,breathing in through your nose,
breathing into your belly, intoyour lungs and then into the top
of your lungs.
You hold that for a few secondsand then you let it out with an
audible sigh through your mouth.
And doing that three or fourtimes over the course of a
couple of minutes helps peopleinstantaneously shift how they
feel.
And so once people startrealizing that there's different
(12:13):
breathing signatures that theycan use, it opens up a whole new
world of what's possible forthem.
And yeah, I'll leave it at that, but there's so much I could
say about breathing.
Dr. Carver (12:23):
That's awesome.
I love those little tools.
So, knowing so, the brain iscrisscross, so that's to
remember.
Right, the left is the logical,so you breathe to your right
and you want to be creative andcalming, breathe to the left.
That's a really good piece.
Now we've been taught over theyears Okay, if you're calm, take
really deep breaths, takereally deep breaths, maybe,
(12:43):
especially as a dentist.
Right, most people don't reallylike being in the chair.
When they come in, they're veryanxious.
So taking super deep breathsmaybe that's not the exact right
technique.
So there's this alternatebreathing, but talk to us a
little bit more.
I often use that 4-7-8 breath.
That was something I learned awhile ago.
(13:04):
Why is it that the maybe talk alittle bit about what that is,
if that's good or not, and whybe longer?
Exhalation is actually where weget a little bit more
relaxation.
Why is that?
Dr. Patel (13:15):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I like to use kind of livingexamples and I like to use the
ends of the spectrum for effect.
So if you were running awayfrom a lion, the smart thing for
your body to do would be foryou to breathe as rapidly as you
possibly can, because whenyou're running away from
something, or if you're going tofight something, you want your
(13:38):
lungs to assist in the pumpingof blood.
So think about where your lungsand your heart and your
diaphragm are situated.
Your lungs sit on either sideof your chest cavity and then in
the middle of that is yourheart and then just below your
heart is diaphragm.
So if a lion was chasing me, myheart has to get blood to my
(14:01):
arms and legs so I can run awayor fight off whatever is chasing
me, has to get blood to my armsand legs so I can run away or
fight off whatever is chasing me.
And so, in order for me to dothat, in order for me to rapidly
increase blood pressure andblood perfusion, it would make
sense for me to breathe reallyfast so that my lungs are
actually, and my diaphragm are,pumping my heart in order to
assist it.
So that is the description of amaximally stressful response.
(14:23):
My mouth would be open, I'd bebreathing rapidly in and out
through my mouth, because that'show I can move the most volume,
that's how I can rapidly expandand contract my lungs and move
my diaphragm up and down, and itwould make absolute sense for
me to breathe that way.
In fact, it would be stupid forme to slow down my breath in a
situation like that, because nowmy diaphragm lungs and lungs
(14:46):
aren't actually helping my heart.
My heart now has to work harderin order to be able to breathe
that way and in order to be ableto pump the blood.
So that's one end of theextreme.
So if the opposite end of thatwould be, I would be breathing
in and out through my nose,slowing down the air,
pressurizing the air, cleansingthe air right, because that's
(15:07):
what our nose does and we canget into that in a second.
And because I'm in a calm state, I don't have to breathe as
much.
My tongue is going to be at theroof of my mouth, because when
my tongue is at the roof of mymouth it's pressing down on
several, many nerve endings ofthe vagus nerve, so it instantly
relaxes me.
And then the other thing thathappens is that now my lungs are
(15:29):
rapidly not as rapidlyexpanding, contracting, so my
heart isn't going to be asstimulated, right?
If I'm breathing like this, myheart has no choice but to
increase pressure and beatfaster.
But if I'm breathing like thisnow and beat faster, but if I'm
breathing like this now, thenyou can see that instantaneously
, automatically it makes sensethat my heart beat is going to
(15:50):
slow down.
And when we're breathing in,the lungs are expanding, that's
squeezing the heart, that'sgoing to increase pressure,
increase heart rate.
And when we're breathing out,that's going to allow the heart
to slow down its beat rate andit's going to not.
Obviously we're relaxing theheart, we're letting off the
heart, and so that's one of thereasons that as you breathe
(16:11):
slower, especially on the exhale, you're shifting the nervous
system into a more calm andrelaxed state.
And the 4-7-8 breath for all ofyou who may not be familiar with
it is you breathe in for fourseconds, hold for seven seconds
and exhale for eight seconds.
(16:32):
So you're essentially breathingin for four and the full exhale
is taking about 15 seconds.
So you're really lengtheningthat exhalation process which
relaxes the nervous system.
What's also interesting aboutthat is that the slower we
breathe, breathe, the moreoxygen actually gets delivered
to our cells.
It's called the boar effect.
So it seems counterproductive orcounterintuitive, but with each
(16:53):
breath we take, we only absorbabout 20 to 25 percent of the
oxygen, which means that witheach breath we have about four
or five actual full breaths inthere.
So you could literally breatheone fifth less and still survive
and still not drop your O2saturation levels.
Slowing down our breath allowsfor more oxygen to be absorbed.
(17:16):
It also allows for our CO2levels to increase, allowing for
more oxygen to be dumped at thetissues, and then that also
helps calm our nervous systemdown.
So slowing down?
So just think of a situation inreal life.
Right, if you are running awayfrom something, in a maximal
stress situation, you'd want tobe breathing fast, and you would
be breathing fast to get awayand to assist your physiology
(17:38):
and physicality.
And the opposite of that is themost relaxed state you could be
in.
You'd be breathing in slow andbreathing out even slower and
you'd be breathing in and outthrough your nose instead of
breathing in and out throughyour mouth.
Dr. Carver (17:53):
Awesome.
I'm glad you brought up the CO2, because that is something
really poorly understood.
I think if I breathe in moreoxygen, then more oxygen is just
going to go all to the muscles,where it goes, but in fact it's
the carbon dioxide.
And so we've talked a lot abouton the podcast and it's talked
about a lot too how nitric oxideis the molecule that helps
dilate blood vessels, but infact carbon dioxide it does.
(18:16):
But carbon dioxide is even moreimportant and maybe does more
of that, and this is how breathwork can actually help you get
warmer extremities, right.
So many of us wake up and wehave cold hands and feet because
our blood isn't flowing well.
In Chinese medicine, the lungmeridian is directly connected
(18:36):
to circulation and skin, right.
So when you can learn how toharness proper breathing, slow
it down, you're going to buildup as you're holding that breath
right, let's say, in the four,seven, eight, or you're taking
longer, slower breaths.
Again, it's not necessarilyabout the depths of our breath,
but the rate.
So the slower we breathe, themore carbon dioxide we build in
(19:00):
the blood.
That carbon dioxide is whatpushes the oxygen off of the
hemoglobin into the cells.
So we need to have that carbondioxide.
What I found is I've beenreally into breath this year.
It was like my thing.
So it's so exciting that whenyou're at ECO it's like, oh God,
this is again the universeMarvelous, and you're at.
ECO.
I was like, oh God, this isagain.
The universe is marvelous.
It led me to you and I'vejoined all your stuff and I'm
following you and it's reallyexciting.
(19:20):
But before that's, at thebeginning of the year, I had
done some blood work and my CO2levels were really low and I was
like that's my breathing.
So I bought an OXA belt right,because there's lots of heart
monitors and HRB and stuff, andI'm like I need to know how I'm
breathing, cause when I'mworking I have a really busy
(19:41):
practice and I feel reallystressed and I'm like I don't
even think I breathe at all, oram I breathing?
Dr. Patel (19:45):
too much.
Dr. Carver (19:45):
What's happening.
And when I put that thing on inthe middle of my workday, I'm
breathing like 18 breaths aminute, which ideal is what?
Somewhere in the six to 10range.
So I'm way over breathing.
So is it any wonder that I'mmore stressed?
So what's Sachin is helping medo through all of his great
stuff which we'll link to in theend?
(20:07):
Helping me to learn how tobreathe, like even when I want
to unconsciously breathe slower,because, obviously, when I
think about it and it'sinteresting, when I'm doing a
stilling, I have a curing lightand that's usually at five
second intervals.
So I take the time now to beaware and as I'm curing that
every five seconds, I'll say,okay, I'm breathing in for five.
(20:29):
The little light beeps, I'mlike okay, I'm breathing out for
five so that I can try tomaintain, because the more I
feel, the more that I can createawareness while I'm in
stressful situations, hopefullyover time, unconsciously, even
when I'm sleeping.
Sometimes my sleep, my aura ringwould show too, 16 to 18
breaths while I'm sleeping, andagain, that's not great.
(20:49):
I really want to be inparasympathetic when I'm
sleeping so that I'm removingall the toxins and getting
everything to drain properly.
That's super fascinating.
So, again, that's why my carbondioxide was low, because I'm in
the breathing, so reallyimportant, and sometimes I have
cold hands and cold feet becauseI'm in.
My nervous system tends to restat that more anxious level, but
(21:13):
it's because of my breathing.
Dr. Patel (21:15):
So that's super fascinating.
Yeah, it's a two-way street.
So the way I describe it isthat a person's unconscious
breathing is the unconsciousstate of their nervous system.
So if I were to pay attentionwithout somebody being aware, if
I was just to pay attention tothe way they unconsciously
breathe, it would give me awindow into the state of their
(21:37):
nervous system.
So if somebody washypothetically breathing fast
and shallow, or breathingthrough their mouth, I would
understand that, because of thatbreathing pattern, what state
their nervous system is, withoutthem even knowing.
And so it's always importantlike even when I do trainings
online, I ask everyone to turntheir cameras on, because I'm
(21:58):
actually paying attention to howthey're breathing as I'm
teaching, and teachers shouldknow this too.
Right, if your students arebreathing a certain way, you can
understand the state of theirnervous system.
Are they even in a state oflearning and retention, or are
they in a state where they'regoing to forget everything that
you're saying?
And one thing I pay attentionto especially is if somebody's
(22:19):
breathing through their nose orthrough their mouth, because I
know if they're breathingthrough their mouth, then
they're probably overwhelmed.
They're probably I've, probablytheir cup is probably full if
I'm teaching them something newor they're feeling lost or
behind and that's creatinganxiety for them.
So as even as teachers, it'simportant for us to pay
attention to the state of ourclients and, as a dentist, for
(22:42):
yourself, just paying attention,taking a moment, and we can
read body language, but there'sbreath language as well, and if
we can pay attention to that,then we can tap into how they're
feeling without them having toeven say anything.
Dr. Carver (22:55):
That's an important point, for even us health
practitioners Sometimes whenwe're spewing out this treatment
plan.
Another thing how are theybreathing?
Is their mouth wide open?
And also, if we are, I'm also ahealth coach.
So if I'm trying to coach aperson on the right diet, if
they're unsympathetic, you cangive them the healthiest diet on
the planet.
If they're in sympathetic toneall the time, they're not going
(23:17):
to be digesting well.
So the nervous system is so keyto the overall health.
So again, you can have patientsspend all sorts of money on
supplements and this and that,but if you could just teach them
how to breathe, maybe we don'tneed to rely so much on
supplements and so much on theseother tools.
I mean, you come into my house,it's like being in a toy store,
(23:40):
for you know, I've got like allthe gadgets and all the things,
because it's like, if I just dothis, if I just do this, when,
as you said at the beginning,simplicity and so a lot of these
things are expensive, we can'tall afford to have all these
different things or do all thedifferent things, but we all can
afford to breathe right.
So, let's go into, let's get alittle more into the dental and
(24:02):
talk about the mouth breathingand how.
Let's tell me about like yourson's story and your own story
how you really helped your ownjaw development.
So we talked a lot about thisbefore, how we talked with a lot
of pediatric dentists and theimportance of airway, but I
think it's important the moretimes you hear something, the
more it gets cemented in thebrain.
So tell us a little bit howmouth breathing affects the
(24:25):
development of the facialstructure, the brain.
All that good stuff.
Dr. Patel (24:30):
Yeah, absolutely so.
It's not just how we breathe,but it's also the positioning of
the tongue.
And when we position our tonguecorrectly, or have our children
position their tonguescorrectly, then it actually
almost forces them indirectly,forces them to breathe right.
So when your tongue ispositioned at the roof of your
mouth, it becomes virtuallyimpossible to breathe through
(24:52):
your mouth.
And so, as the tongue ispositioned in the roof of the
mouth, it also acts as anexpander, so it will naturally
push the palate outwards andforwards and the lips act as
braces.
So we actually have a built-inmechanism to have nice,
beautiful dental arches andteeth and prevent overcrowding.
But that's going to bedependent on is our tongue in
(25:15):
the right position?
And when it is, then it pushesthe whole face outwards instead
of creating a narrow face.
And when people end up havingthat narrow face, then they end
the consequences that they endup having narrow airways and
their airways become restricted,and then that perpetuates the
(25:37):
mouth breathing.
So it creates this downwardspiral, because it becomes very
difficult or more challengingfor people to breathe through
their nose if the airway feelsconstricted.
Now, one thing to keep in mindand maybe this has been
discussed in previous interviewsis there's an increasing
prevalence we're noticing withtongue ties, and a tongue tie
(25:59):
can oftentimes be associatedwith poor methylation and we're
seeing many mothers these daysare under-methylated and that's
a whole different topic.
But basically, if they're notgetting the right types of
nutrients in their body, thenthis can cause midline
deformities, especially with Bvitamin deficiencies, and one of
those could be a very prominenttongue tie.
(26:22):
And the tongue tie isessentially the frenulum
underneath the tongue, thatlittle stringy thing under the
tongue.
It becomes overdeveloped andchildren have a hard time
placing their tongue at the roofof their mouth, and so what
other challenges they might haveis they may have difficulty
with self-soothing, so they needpacifiers or they need to suck
(26:42):
their thumb in order to pushthat magic button in the roof of
their mouth.
They may also have a hard timewith breastfeeding and latching
on, and there's consequences ofthat.
So proper jaw formation doesrequire that they are able to
place their tongue in thecorrect position, and when they
can't do that, thenunfortunately children are
weaned off and they're placed onformulas and other things.
(27:04):
But if you look at the shape ofa woman's breast and you look
at the shape of most babybottles, they're very different.
The structure of the nipplethat the child is sucking on.
If it's a baby bottle, makes ahuge difference in how their jaw
is going to form as well.
It used to be such that manydecades ago that midwives would
grow their pinky nails and theywould just do an oral sweep and
(27:29):
they would sweep the lip tiesand the tongue ties so that
children can latch on and itwouldn't be an issue.
And for whatever reason, theystopped doing that so it's
become an issue that cantranspire all the way into
adulthood.
In fact, until we started doingthis research, both my wife and
son were impacted bydysfunctional breathing.
(27:49):
So I'll share the story, sinceyou asked so.
A few years ago, when my sonwent to the dentist his first
time going to the dentist, wehad good news and bad news.
So I said what's the bad news?
And the dentist said well, yourson has a ton of cavities and
we're like, we were just likebaffled because he eats right,
he does all the things right andwe just felt like total
(28:10):
failures as parents.
But so what's the good news?
And he said the good news isthey're all in his baby teeth
and when we think of cause andeffect, we didn't really figure
out why he had those cavitiesuntil many years later when he
went to another dentist and theysaid his teeth were overcrowded
, especially his upper palate,and he would have to have some
(28:31):
of his teeth pulled in order forthem to come down.
And I'm like, okay, thatdoesn't sound very right to me.
And right around that time JamesNestor's book Breath came out,
and so as I'm reading it, it'sdescribing everything my son was
facing.
He was a habitual mouthbreather and again, I didn't
know any different.
I didn't know any better.
I didn't know any different,didn't even think to pay
(28:52):
attention to it, like mostpeople wouldn't have known, and
so I beat myself up for it.
But at the same time that's whyI'm intentional about spreading
this message, because I don'twant other people's kids to go
through it and so we ended upgoing to four different dentists
and then finally we found onethat would put an expander in,
and so we put an expander in topush his palate outwards and
(29:15):
push his upper jaw forward, andall of his teeth have come in
beautifully.
So he didn't have to have anyof them pulled and he's got a
nice wide smile, which isawesome, and he's not too happy
that he has braces, but I thinkhe will be once all is said and
done and he can breathe.
He always used to complainabout having a hard time
breathing and now we realize whyit's because his upper palate
(29:36):
was so small, which meant thathis airway was so restricted.
So signs of mouth breathing inchildren are going to be
behavior issues.
They generally are going to beunder, they're going to just not
even know why they're stressedout, but it's because of the way
their breathing is tellingtheir nervous system to be in
this low grade fight or flightstate.
They're going to drool on theirpillow.
Low-grade fight-or-flight statethey're going to drool on their
(30:01):
pillow.
They may have cavities, like myson did.
They may have overcrowding-typesymptoms, they may develop
adenoids or tonsillitis and theymay have a chronically
congested nose, because if youdon't breathe through your nose,
it actually starts gettingsmaller.
The airways start filling up,so the body doesn't like
stagnation.
So if there isn't circulate aircirculating in the sinuses, the
(30:23):
body's this is just an emptyhole in my head that can develop
infections, so it startssealing everything up.
So those are some of the signsof that you want to pay
attention to with your children.
And if they are mouth breathers,then one of the best gifts that
you can give them is to starteducating them about the
importance of breathing throughtheir nose, and there's tapes
(30:43):
that you can buy.
Myotape is one of them.
It's great for children becauseit allows them to keep their
mouth open, but when the mouthis at rest it closes it for them
.
And then mouth taping at nightis something that we did with my
son.
He still does it every night,as does the whole family, and
that's made a profounddifference for all of us and
it's been wonderful to be ableto help my family right as a
(31:07):
functional medicine practitioner.
My son grew up in a pretty, veryhealthy, I should say.
Metabolically.
He doesn't have any of theclassic childhood issues that
many children do, but he was adysfunctional breather and I'm
like, finally I found a way tohelp this guy and it's been
profoundly rewarding for me.
And it's been interestingbecause as we went through this
(31:27):
journey, my wife she's hadbraces three times and when she
was young she used to suck herthumb because she had a tongue
tie, so she had a hard timebreastfeeding, hard time
latching on.
She would suck her thumb untilshe was like, I think, eight or
nine.
She would always get teasedabout it and then she developed
(31:48):
an overbite because of it, anopen bite.
So an open bite is dentistswould know this but an open bite
is where your front teeth don'tline up properly, so it's hard
for you to break off a piece oflettuce if you're eating a
sandwich or something.
And so she had braces multipletimes to correct that.
And it turns out that it was atongue tie that she had.
(32:09):
That was the root cause, or astemative factor to all of these
things.
And just about seven or eightmonths ago she had that snipped
and it instantly made adifference in her posture, it
made a difference in her mood,it made a difference in her
cervical curve.
So it was quite profound to seehow this one little piece of
tissue was hamstringing so manyareas in her health and in her
(32:32):
life.
And I wish she had known thissooner because she wouldn't have
had to deal with the low-gradeanxiety, the multiple dental
procedures and so on and soforth.
Dr. Carver (32:43):
Yeah, it's so fascinating.
The first time I reallyunderstood this I, years and
years ago, went to a sleep apnealecture and it was for adults.
And as we're sitting there andI'm listening, because we didn't
learn any of this in dentalschool and it started to make me
think of my daughter, myyounger daughter, who at the
time was I don't know three,four maybe, and I thought, oh my
gosh, I wonder if this is herproblem, because she used to
(33:05):
always wake up in the middle ofthe night and she'd crawl in my
bed and I didn't mind becauseshe'd rub my back and it was all
nice and I was like, oh, isn'tthat sweet, that's great.
But then, listening to thislecture, I'm like, oh my gosh,
maybe her airway is so small,she's not breathing and it's
waking her up, which is exactlywhat was happening.
But at that time I didn'treally follow through because I
didn't really know.
(33:26):
I didn't know of things to dofor pediatrics and for the most
part she seemed to befunctioning well, so I didn't
pursue it as much.
And then a year or two went by.
I found a local colleague who Ibrought my kids to and, yeah,
sure enough, we did her airwayassessment super tiny and she
has a pretty significant tonguesize, so they were able to go
(33:46):
through the whole expansionprocess and the myofunctional
right.
That's another important thing.
As you said, we have to trainthe tongue.
My kids were breastfed, but theywere also I was working too, so
they were breastfed and bottlefed.
My older one, she sucked herthumb until she was eight.
She was pulled out with asuction cup and that kind of
cranial messed up her cranium alittle bit and so she put her
(34:08):
thumb up there.
Just like you said, that's alittle stressful spot.
That kind of connects thenervous system, like the front
part of our energy and the backpart, and it's a soothing.
It's soothing for the nervoussystem and she's you know, and
so it's like she used to droollike crazy as a baby.
It was my first kid, so Ididn't know.
I was like, okay, that's normal.
But my second daughter, shedidn't drool at all.
(34:28):
She was the easiest birth, nota problem, but so fascinating.
And I wish I'd known this whenI didn't do it too much with my
older daughter either, becauseshe wasn't showing the signs of
thumb suckers where the palatewas getting narrow like her
teeth.
All were pretty good.
She has slight crowding, butnot much.
She wasn't, I don't think,applying so so much pressure and
(34:49):
because I think she wasbreastfed, I think her tongue
was in the appropriate place.
But I see and I love what yousaid about that whole
methylation, which is why I hadanother podcast with one of my
colleagues and we were talkingabout prenatal health.
So I wish more OBs reallyunderstood for so many reasons
how nutrition is so vital.
But when we talk about peopletalking about I have MTHFR in my
(35:13):
experience it seems to be 80%or more.
So I look at everybody ashaving these SNPs which mean
that our detoxification systemsare not as effective.
Right, if we have one copy,we're 70% effective with detox
with two copies which my kidsare both lucky, they both have
two copies they have 30%efficiency right and so, again,
(35:36):
really important.
This is where nutrition becomesreally important and we see in
kids.
So it's another thing I want totalk to you about because I was
so excited when you talkedabout this Aviko In our food
supply table.
We know we've talked about howmuch nutrition has really
suffered.
It's about 50% nutrient denseversus what it was a generation
ago and all the foods aretypically most of the foods we
(35:56):
give to young people are soft,or typically, most of the foods
we give to young people are soft.
There's another reason.
When I was watching your videoor actually it was Nestor's
little snips that you have onyour website and he was showing
the evolution over thousands ofyears of the human skull right,
and over the last millennium orwhatever, it's gotten smaller
and smaller and smaller.
With all the processing offoods, all the squeeze pouches
(36:17):
as convenient as those are and Iused them before I knew better
the worst thing you can do asyou squeeze or suck on a straw,
you are compressing the jawswith your cheek muscles Not
great.
And because most of us don'thave good tongue function to be
able to counteract that, that'sreally problematic.
And so when we're not huntergatherers, we're chewing on
(36:39):
roots and all sorts of reallyhard stuff.
That is what created thatreally square, angular face
Right, and I love what you'vetalked about before.
Where your parents grew up inIndia, they didn't have
toothbrushes, right, they hadbeautiful straight teeth, no
problems in need braces, andthey were chewing on me, which I
(36:59):
thought that's so fascinating.
And it was funny because whenJay, at the end of Jay Davidson,
the end of your eco talk or atthe end of the conference, he
was saying, oh, so interested inme.
I texted him.
I said I ordered them beforeSachin even finished his and so
I have them in the office now.
Yeah, they do have ainteresting taste.
(37:19):
But the other thing I loveabout neem, which I've used for
years my body tends towards alittle bit of constipation and
neem is really healing andsoothing and moisturizing for
the intestinal system and weknow if we're not expelling and
eliminating properly, that's howtoxins can keep recirculating.
So I love that, that the neemstick.
Not only are you chewing andcreating good functions, but
(37:41):
you're also using a nicetherapeutic natural ingredient
to heal our digestion.
So tell me a little bit aboutthese Neem sticks.
Dr. Patel (37:51):
Yeah certainly.
So just to give people somecontext, like when you give a
child a toothbrush for the firsttime, even though they've
watched you brush your teethintuitively, what do they do?
They start chewing it, theystart biting it.
And so one of the reasons, inaddition to tongue positioning,
that the jaw can be smaller isbecause we don't chew hard
(38:13):
things.
And I think of my son and weused to give him very
nutrient-dense smoothies and weused to make his own baby food
and all that good stuff, and sowe thought, from a nutrient
standpoint, we were deliveringnutrients to his body but we
weren't forcing him to chew allthat food and because he wasn't
chewing it, he wasn'tstimulating proper jaw formation
(38:35):
.
And so for any of you who haveyoung children, or even any of
you who are adults, chew hardthings I know they say, do hard
things and one of them is tochew hard things because that
helps us and certainly, rachel,you would know this better than
me but that helps strengthen theability for our teeth to stay
in their sockets and stimulatestem cell production and bone
(38:57):
density and growth so that ourteeth don't fall out of our face
as we get older.
So chewing hard things is oneof the other things that is
worth mentioning when it comesto this topic in general.
So what they would do is theywould have these branches from
neem trees delivered to them andit would just get a whole pile
of them and you would just grabone and start chewing it.
That would secrete the juicesfrom the tree, the oils and
(39:20):
protective mechanisms, and thenthat would force them to chew
and then they would bristolizethe end of the brush and then
they would use it to brush andclean their teeth.
Human beings are the onlyanimals that have toothbrushes
and we're the only animals thatget cavities.
So go figure, right.
So it's not just about brushingyour teeth and removing.
Obviously you don't want tohave food and stuff like that
(39:41):
stuck in your teeth.
We're not suggesting that.
But your mouth, when you havethe right oral microbiome, is
self-cleansing, right?
Just like we don't need to washwe're not dirty.
Like we don't have to wash ourskin.
It sounds gross when you tellpeople for just cultural reasons
but we don't get that dirtyevery day that we have to strip
our complete skin microbiomeevery time we take a shower.
(40:04):
Same thing with our mouth.
It's actually not that dirty.
It's a self-cleansing system,provided that we give it the
right environment.
But if somebody's breathingthrough their mouth, they're
going to change salivaconcentrations, they're going to
change their pH, they're goingto change the type of bacteria
that grow there and, of course,that's going to cause a whole
host of issues.
So this is what they would dothey would chew these neem
(40:24):
branches.
They didn't have dentistsgrowing up.
They didn't have orthodontistsgrowing up that's blasphemy and
they had perfectly aligned teeth.
Seeing a dentist was like aforeign concept for them until
they moved to North America, andit was fascinating because
that's when they starteddeveloping dental issues.
(40:45):
I'm not saying that's whatcaused it, but they lost their
tradition, right?
They started brushing theirteeth.
They started using toothpastewhich strip out the oral
microbiome, instead of stickingto traditional things like
chewing on a neem branch, whichactually strengthens the teeth
and preserves and probablyinitiates a healthy oral
microbiome.
(41:05):
So yeah, so it's interesting tothink of something that seems
so archaic and barbaric is theactual answer to a lot of
people's dental issues.
Dr. Carver (41:15):
Your parents' story is exactly what Dr Price found
too when he went around theworld in the 1930s and all the
Native populations who ate theirNative diets had perfectly
straight teeth.
And when they changed to awesternized diet, that is when
the time is that part of thewesternization with the
(41:42):
toothpaste and the toothbrushand this, and that there's too
much emphasis on killing the bat.
But, like you said, it is theenvironment right.
So neem was not only helpful,it did stimulate saliva right.
Anytime you chew, you'restimulating saliva.
Saliva is incredibly protective, flushes away the plaque and
(42:04):
stuff like that.
Plus, you have a naturalsubstance in the neem, which
some natural toothpaste have.
Neem as an ingredient, like Isaid, very helpful to the gut
and the gut begins in the mouth.
It's a really great product.
I've used it for years forintestinal health and it's about
supporting the properenvironment.
As you said, when you're mouthbreathing, you create more
(42:24):
acidic environment and it's thisacidic environment, it's the
change in the environment, thatcauses the so-called bad bugs to
overgrow.
I say it all the time.
We don't one day swallow badbugs and get gum disease.
That is not how it works.
The environment in our bodychanges.
This is terrain medicine.
When the environment changes,then the bugs have to adapt.
(42:48):
It's the simple concept ofevolution Things.
When we have toxins toxicitywhich can be in just
conventional toothpaste we nowchange to this processed diet,
we are exposed to toxins.
We now change to this processeddiet.
We are exposed to toxins, whichtherefore create deficiencies,
which then creates disease andthis creates and then the bugs
(43:11):
that can survive in a moreacidic environment with fewer
nutrients.
They're going to proliferateand their byproducts cause gum
disease and cavities.
Again, if we're just killingthe bad, we're just on the
hamster wheel Because if youdon't correct the reason the bad
overgrew in the first place,you're never going to have
disease.
I've had so many patients andfunctional medicine doctors
refer patients to me becausethey put them on this gut
(43:31):
healing protocol and now all ofa sudden the oral microbiome
looks worse, they have more bugs.
And I say to them all, becausewe don't want to kill, that's
not the right environment.
How do we get more nutrients?
How do we get more oxygen?
How do we get them to breatheright?
And I think it's so important.
I have had a lot of holisticmoms come to me and they're like
(43:51):
you.
They feel devastated that theirkids have cavities because
they're like I thought I wasdoing everything right.
Yes, nutrient-wise, absolutely.
But if they're mouth-breathing,they're in that sympathetic
nervous system, which means evenwith the best diet, they may
not be absorbing those nutrients, and then the acidic
environment again is going tolead to the overgrowth of this
vicious cycle.
(44:12):
So that's why, when you go to abiologic dentist, you're looking
at the whole person.
Some of us dentists are just somyopic that we're just all we
learned about was teeth, andthat's how do teeth function in
the whole body, and so that'sreally important.
If you want to be the type ofdentist who is treating your
patient for overall health, ifyou want them to have the best
(44:33):
possible future, we've got toconsider how everything is
working within the whole body.
That's why I bring people likeyou on, so we get all these
different perspectives.
We can all bring it togetherand I know I'm sure you guys
have enjoyed this you canprobably feel such and such calm
presence, Like I.
Just my nervous system isalways jacked up, but I just
(44:54):
feel a calming presence aroundme.
Just have that calming,soothing voice.
Please tell us how we can learnmore about what you're doing,
how we can start helping breathebetter.
Where can we find you and howcan we start being better?
Dr. Patel (45:11):
Oh, thank you.
I appreciate that.
I wanted to mention thisearlier and it's worth
mentioning since you bring it up, is that the way we breathe
actually holds space for othersand and for yourself, dr Rachel,
and any practitioner who'slistening to this.
When you walk into a room, payattention to your breathing
signature.
Is it calm, is it relaxed, isit confident?
(45:33):
Right?
Because if your breathingsignature is that of short,
shallow breathing, or fight orflight or stress, then it's
going to be the patient oreveryone else in the room is
going to be able to detect that.
They may not know exactly whatthey're detecting, but it's
going to give them so much moreconfidence and you're going to
(45:55):
give them so much more certainty.
If your nervous system is in acalm state, they're instantly
going to feel that.
So I appreciate you saying that, because it's not a shock to me
, but I do get that very often,and it's because I'm consciously
breathing slow and holdingspace, and I'm grateful that it
even comes through when I'mpresenting and sharing online.
(46:17):
So thank you for that In termsof where people can learn more.
So I've actually created awhole bunch of free resources
that are absolutely free,because I believe the best
things in life are free is I puttogether a bundle it's a
breathwork bundle and you can goto breathworkwithsachincom and
my name is spelled S-A-C-H-I-N,so breathworkwithsatchincom, and
(46:41):
there you'll get my notes.
I've done a couple of keynoteson breathing that you'll be able
to watch.
You'll get the slides if yourequest them.
You'll get my stop snoringguide.
If you snore or your partnersnores, there's an all natural
guide that I've created and Ishare with you, step by step,
how I stop my snoring.
You'll also get my notes fromJames Nestor's retreat I went
(47:02):
there last March and it was anamazing event and all the notes
I share with you.
I'm also going to share withyou additional tools and
resources I just wrote anarticle about a Navaj and how
that can be helpful in cleansingthe airways, and continuous
resources that I'll be puttingtogether.
One of my most recent resourcesI put together is called Breathe
Like this, not that, and itbasically walks you through the
(47:26):
state that you're in and whatbreath you need to use, what
cadence you need to use in orderto switch the way you feel.
So if you're feeling anxious,there's a breath for that.
If you're feeling, if you wantto feel calm and relaxed,
there's a breath for that.
If you want to fall asleepfaster, there's a breath for
that.
If you want to feel calm andrelaxed, there's a breath for
that.
If you want to fall asleepfaster, there's a breath for
that.
If you want to increase bloodflow or core temperature,
there's a breath for that.
So there's all these differentways that you can breathe to tap
(47:49):
into this innate capabilitythat you have.
I wanted to share a couple offun facts that I think would
really drive this message homefor people.
I know we have a couple ofminutes here, so one thing I
want to share is that yourimmune system starts in your
nose, so we consume about 30pounds of air every single day.
It's the thing that we consumethe most, and it's the way we
(48:15):
engage with our outsideenvironment the most.
So having a healthy respiratorysystem is going to be
absolutely crucial to yourhealth, and so our defense
against the outside world startsinside of our nose, and that's
one of the reasons it'simportant to breathe through
there.
The other thing we mentionedwas nitric oxide levels, and
what you mentioned correctly, drRachel, is that nitric oxide
and CO2 work hand in hand atincreasing circulation and blood
(48:37):
perfusion, especially to thebrain, which is the hardest
place to get blood, to.
Slowing down our breathing isgoing to help increase CO2
concentrations and get betterblood flow.
And what's also going to happenis that when you breathe slower
, especially through your nose,you're going to get a six-fold
increase in nitric oxideproduction.
If you add humming to theequation, then you're going to
(48:58):
get a 15-fold increase in nitricoxide production.
So something as simple ashumming can enhance your immune
defenses.
Nitric oxide kills viruses andbacteria on contact.
It helps with dilating ourblood vessels and it helps with
increasing circulation.
We can get to have all thenutrients in the world, but if
we can't circulate thosenutrients, then they're not as
(49:20):
effective.
So that's another thing Iwanted to share.
And then the last thing I wantto share is that I know a lot of
us are wanting to live longer,and the fastest way for us to be
able to do that is to slow downour breath.
When you study animals in thewild, animals that breathe
slower live longer compared toanimals that breathe faster.
So a turtle takes about threebreaths a minute, lives about
(49:48):
150 to 200 years.
A dog takes 35 breaths a minute, ages about seven times faster
than us humans do so.
Slowing down your breathing tothat six breaths per minute pace
five and a half to six breathsper minute pace is going to
significantly improve yourquality of life, calm your
nervous system down and it'sreally the fastest biohack to
slow down the aging process.
So those are some of thereasons.
And then one last thing I wantto share is habit change.
(50:09):
So BJ Fogg wrote a book calledTiny Habits and he has a map of
habit change.
So the M stands for motivation.
So hopefully, after today andthrough other conversations that
you hear, you're motivated totake control of your breath.
The second is ability.
We all have the ability tobreathe better and with
consciousness and awareness.
The third part that's missingis usually the prompt.
(50:33):
So what I do is I identifysomething that I do frequently
throughout the day and I usethat as my prompt to tune into
my breath.
Or I might do several things.
Every time I think of my phone,I think of my breath.
Next, every time I'm checkingemail, the next thought I have
is my breath.
If I'm going up the stairs, thenext thought I have is my
breath.
So I'm always bringing breathinto my awareness to the point
(50:56):
where it becomes unconscious.
So I probably think ofbreathing five to 600 times a
day, and it's because I think ofthose other things five or 600
times a day, so I just attach itto something that I already do
and that, for me, has made a bigdifference.
Hopefully that's helpful.
Grab the resources atBreathwork with Sachin.
I've got a bunch of things inthere and I'm going to keep
adding to it and it'll alwaysremain a free resource for
(51:18):
everyone.
Dr. Carver (51:19):
Sajan, I can't thank you enough and for
everybody listening, I thinkthis is one of the most
important podcast interviewsI've done to date.
It is, and thank you so muchfor making these resources free
and available to all of us.
So please listen again, sharethis with everyone.
Again.
This is the best, fastest,easiest way to really gain our
(51:40):
health and especially when we'redoing other things, the
compounding will get there evenfaster.
But I so appreciate your time.
I look forward to getting toknow you even better and better
as I keep improving my breathwork.
We'll see how I do.
I'm determined by the end ofthe year to get down to that six
to 10 breaths per minute.
But I love what you just saidabout that problem.
Like me, with the light at work, that's always okay into that
(52:03):
good breathing, so we canmaintain that.
I know, even when I'm driving Ibecome aware I automatically
slow down driving and everythingis just much calmer.
I always feel in my life I'malways trying to get somewhere
and do something and all thesethings and that's not helpful.
So I'm so glad that I got tomeet you and again, I appreciate
(52:24):
so much of what you're doingand I look forward to having
another conversation very soon.
So, everybody, please check outbreathworkwithsatchincom.
Start breathing properly rightaway and let me know all how
everybody's doing so.
Hope you enjoyed this episode,guys.
Let us know any feedback youhave, anything else you'd like
to learn about, and we'll see.
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