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Uche’s tips about exercise
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: Uche Odiatu from druche.com sharing with you my insights with the people I care about most, my dental colleagues. So, when I’m chairside and every patient knows, you know, we know everything about the mouth, we know about the body-mouth connection, how do we make it real for them?
You see, we’re also perceived as a health care provider, obviously, so they’ll ask us questions maybe not looking totally related to the mouth. Patient will ask, you know, did you get vaccinated? What are your thoughts on vaccinations? Well, I’m a huge vaxxer. I’m — I firmly believe in getting vaccinated. I have my first shot. In Canada, it’s a little delayed, but second shot coming up later on. However, there’s other ways to boost your immune system.
And I know patients are asking questions about safety, and we’ve totally done a great job in the dental industry reinforcing that with PPE and room filters and hypochlorous acid sprays, et cetera, between patients. However, we can also tell them ways to boost immunity. Now, this involves exercise, and you’re thinking Uche, what do a hygienist — why would I even talk about exercise? Well, we’re health care experts. You should have like a — kind of a working knowledge of what’s good for the body, a working knowledge of how to boost immune system [sic].
Well, the sad thing is 85 percent of our patients have no regular physical activity, which means they don’t benefit from the immune boosting effects of exercise. So, whenever I get patients talking about needing reassurance and I get the idea that they’re kind of scared and unsure with all the pandemic and uncertainty, I tell them, “Well, okay. Vaccination for sure number one. Two, social distancing, masks, you know, keep your hands clean. But one of the way [sic] you can boost immune system health is to be — do regular physical activity.”
So here’s five little known facts about exercise, which you can take one or two of them. You don’t have to know them all. You don’t have to become an exercise scientist. This is strictly just take two you feel comfortable with. Patients love it when you share things with them over and above what they normally would expect.
So here’s one. First one about exercise. So, first one: a regular exerciser, they have their immune system regularly defragged. Everyone knows about computers. Everyone knows about software, and many times people know a old, slow [sic] laptop is slow to turn on, slow to shut off. This is because too much old software. Well, that’s the analogy I give with exercise. Exercising regular — on a regular basis actually helps defrag or remove old, stale memory cells from the immune system and make it work better.
Okay. Two. What else does exercise do? Well, most patients doubt this, and people in general don’t know that a fever is basically your immune system working. So, any time the body pumps up the temperature, guess what? The viruses are less active, and antibodies are more active. Well, one way that exercise duplicates a fever is that it heats up the body. Any time the body heats up at a pre-clinical level, viruses and any toxins are told by the body, “Hey, you’re not welcome here. Bye bye.”
Third. Exercise increases the gut lining and increases the strength of the gut lining, lowers the chance of gut-membrane permeability. People know now about the term “leaky gut” from watching Dr. Oz, but any time we can strengthen a gut lining, it’s perceived as making the immune system stronger because people don’t know this that actually that 80 percent — almost 80 percent of the immune system cells are in the GI tract. So, any time you get a gut lining stronger, it means the immune system’s going to be better.
Also — what it also does: it boosts your microbiom’s diversity. The microbiome, the hundred trillion cells that call us home, live in our bodies. Any time we’re regularly active, any time we’re moving around more often and how much — lots of little different, you know, thought leaders and fitness gurus say different things. However, regular exercise — so most days, okay? Don’t be an all-or-nothing. You’ll end up falling off the wagon.
But what exercise does is it boosts your microbiom’s diversity, and it boosts stability. Any time your gut flora is more stable, any time there’s more species inside, you’ll have a healthier overall body and a healthy overall immune system.
So there you go. Four little known facts about exercise that can make your patients go, “hmmm, something to think about.”
I know they perceive you as being the full mouth-body connection, so it’s not just about vaccination, not just about wearing masks and washing hands. By being regularly physically active, the whole body can have a stronger, more vital immune system.
This is Uche Odiatu signing off. Follow me on Instagram @Fitspeakers. I post daily, post often. Take care.
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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