This week Uche and Mahsa bring us the 10 things every dental professional should know about the human microbiome!
Dr. Odiatu is a practicing dentist, certified trainer, author, speaker, and repeat AToTH guest. He always brings us content that we can use to make us and our patients happy and healthy. Be sure to check out the many episodes with Dr. Uche and head over to our YouTube channel and watch the videos Dr. Uche and Michelle did to help you stretch and take care of your body!
Contact him!
www.facebook.com/https://www.facebook.com/UcheOdiatuodiatu
odiatudmd@gmail.com
Instagram:
Uche- @fitspeakers
Mahsa- @tooth_boss
Book: The Miracle of Health
View other TIPisodes here: https://ataleoftwohygienists.com/tipisodes/
This TIPisode has been transcribed for your viewing pleasure:
Michelle Strange: A Tale of Two Hygienists presents this week’s TIPisode: Quick and easy tips to keep you up to date and presented by the experts in the profession. Now, get ready for your unofficial TIPisode.
Uche Odiatu: Here to help you to realize the new signs of the microbiome evolution. It’s the new science. Basically, if you understand the microbiome, you’re going to understand what makes your hundred trillion single-celled organism tick. You can only [indiscernible] healthy yourself. You can also get your patients healthy chairside.
Scientific America in 2015 reported the new science of the microbiome is literally shaking the foundation of medicine and shaking the [indiscernible] of nutrition.
A few things you can do to support your 80 trillion gut flora and enjoy more overall health is the following 10 things.
Mahsa Bakhshandeh: Here we go. Number one. Exercising most days of the week will boost your flora diversity. I’ve kicked so many cravings just by adding exercising a few times a week. It’s easier than you think. Just take the first step, and don’t delay.
Uche Odiatu: Number two. Five [indiscernible] servings of fruits and vegetables. Did you know that 95 percent of your patients — 95 percent of you don’t eat the recommended amount of vegetables every day?
When I ask my naturopathic doctor patients, they say the number one thing North Americans do to get healthy is simply eat more vegetables. It’s literally — it’s the fiber. Fundamentally, your fiber — they have a foundational relationship with fiber. What they want is they want this on a daily basis. 25 grams a day for women, 35 for men. It’s so important. And, literally, only 5 percent of your patients are having enough.
And, literally, when they make — when they eat fiber, they ferment it in the large intestine, what happens is they make short-chain fatty acids. What is — you know what a short-chain fatty acids are [sic], SCFAs? They’re the most potent anti-inflammatory agents your body makes. It literally douses the flames of inflammation in the periodontium, in the joints, in the arteries, and in your patient’s brains.
Mahsa Bakhshandeh: Number three. You got to manage your stress. It literally strangles your happy gut flora. Anxiety, frustration, envy, resentment, they all stop your mojo because the elevator cortisol, it slows down digestion, it strengths [sic] your hippocampus, the seat of your memory.
Take a deep breath through the nose when you’re upset. Taking a moment to step back and ask yourself will this matter five years from now because a stress master — you need to become a stress master and enjoy all the moments that you’re missing.
Uche Odiatu: Number four. Sleep is so foundational. It’s not even a pillar of health. It’s foundational. Literally, when it’s dark, you need to be asleep; when it’s awake, you need to be alert and alive.
Literally, basically, for a million years of human history — we’re talking pre history — any time we’re awake at nighttime, we’re sabotaging the health of our microbiome. Literally. And, 100 years ago, only one percent of the population slept less than six hours a night. In 2020, a third of our patients are sleeping less than six hours. Literally a third of our patients are not getting the rest they need. Irregardless of a good day’s sleep, you need to sleep seven to ten hours a night. This is according to research by Matthew Walker, PhD, in Berkeley.
So, any patients, a poor sleeper is a poor healer. We need to talk about this chairside. They’re starving for the information. They’re not getting it elsewhere. Why not you?
Mahsa Bakhshandeh: Number five. Use antibiotics only when necessary. They do kill bad bacteria as per the microbiologist Marty Blaser, PhD, and disrupt your good flora for 6 to 12 months after any prescription. It’s a good idea to take a probiotic during the prescription and get some good sleep. Have a salad each day to bring stability to that gut garden of yours.
Uche Odiatu: What kind of probiotic? Well, what I love — I’ve tried them all. Align, Ultimate Flora, Renew. I’ve basically come down to Hyperbiotics. Hyperbiotics out of Nevada. So hyperbiotics.com if you want one of the best probiotics I’ve seen. They have seven to eight different lines. They have one for emotional well-being. They have one for kids. They have one for people over 50. I’m taking, right now, PRO-Compete for the athletic patient.
So it’s one way — if someone’s taking an antibiotic, one of the best ways to bring stability and diversity to your flora is literally take a probiotic during the next 30 days of that antibiotic prescription. And some people might need 60 days because they’ve been out of sorts for so long. So probiotics as [sic] a great thing you can take. It’s a great adjunct, and it’s whatever the patient wants. I’ve often shown the patients chairside where they can go.
So, if you want to actually save some money yourself, if you want to actually try them yourself because I basically say you can’t take your patients on a journey that you haven’t been on, so go to hyperbyotics.com, use coupon code FITLOVE at the checkout, and you can save 20% off your first order. That’s our gift to you today.
So number six. Filtered water rocks as chlorine is antibacterial. Think of the hundred trillion cells in your body. They are bacteria. So, any time you’re drinking water that’s chlorine-filled, it is antibacterial, causing instability.
Also, think of your mitochondria. They have bacterial origins. 500 million years ago these little bacteria organisms entered our body to give us ATP, which basically rock our world. 86 thousand heartbeats a day. 20,000 breaths a day. We need ATP. And the basis is our mitochondria because they have bacteria origins. We got to treatment our microbiome with kick loves.
So, filtered water, reverse osmosis, any way you want to, our patients are starving for this information.
Mahsa Bakhshandeh: Number seven. This one’s for the hygienists. Don’t be hyper clean. There’s the hygiene hypothesis that says being too clean with detergents and antibacterial cleaners on our skins will disrupt your normal flora. A 2014 Danish study showed children who great up in an environment that’s microbial-rich have stronger immune systems.
Uche Odiatu: Number eight. Eat a wide variety of food. Consuming the same food items every day is so boring for your wild and woolly single-celled friends who love it when we go off the beaten path. The whole idea being the more diverse your food intake, the more diverse your grocery shopping — I’d say every week, try one new thing. Artichokes, leaks, scallion, shallots. Onions are fine, but why not red onions? Why not spring onions? Why not garlic?
Anytime you try something new, your microbiome loves it. Did you know that 10 to 20 to 100,000 years ago, the average male or female caveman and cavewoman would eat, on average, about 200 different food items every seven days. In 2020, 80 percent of what we eat is the same 12 items literally strangling our gut garden. And, in every rainforest, diversity rules. So, if you want the healthiest gut garden possible, if you want the healthiest patients possible, encourage them to have a more diverse food intake. So I challenge you — and challenge your patients. Ever week, try one new food item every time they go grocery shopping.
Mahsa Bakhshandeh: Number nine. Avoid a sedentary behavior. Your gut flora thinks you’re close to the end of your life cycle and starts shutting down mitochondria, your amazing energy factories. Think of sitting for extended periods of time as sending every cell in your body decay messages. What’s your decisions? Decay messages or live messages?
Uche Odiatu: Number ten. Get into the sun for 30 minute a day. Talk about vitamin D. 80 percent of the population’s low in vitamin D. Vitamin D is important for your immune system. It’s important for protein synthesis. It’s important for muscle. It’s important for calcium absorption. Literally, it’s impossible to have a strong immune system without getting enough sunlight. But another microbial reason or bacterial reason is the fact that your microbiome is very sensitive to the light-dark cycle. They tap into the brain. Actually, they send all these messages to the vagus nerve. It’s called your enteric nervous system.
Did you know there’s a hundred million cells in your gut garden? Did you know that’s about the size of a cat’s brain for those of you who have cats? You have an intuitive sense in your body. Michael Gershon, author of the book The Second Brain, said that your gut, when you’re in tune with it, when you don’t have disruption, when you don’t have constipation, when you don’t have reflux, you can tap into the intuitive sense that happens in your gut.
So get out in the sun before noon every day, and let your gut know that it’s awake and alive. It’s the best way to be alert.
Those are your ten things. Those are your ten things you can share with your patients because basically within every dental hygienist, you have it within your scope of practice to talk nutrition. And did you know that the microbiome is one of the ways that you can impact health as much as your genes do?
That is @fitspeakers. That’s my Instagram, @fitspeakers and tooth_boss. So follow @tooth_boss for more daily wellness inspiration.
Michelle Strange: We hope you enjoyed this week’s TIPisode. Be sure to reach out to our guest experts and let them know how helpful their tips were. Follow A Tale of Two Hygienists on Facebook, Instagram, and head over to ataleoftwohygienists.com and subscribe to our newsletter. You can also email us at ataleoftwohygienists@gmail.com, and keep listening for more awesome content from your unofficial dental hygiene podcast.
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