The Root of The Matter

Unlocking Health Through Functional Breathwork with Dr. Sachin Patel

• Dr. Rachaele Carver, D.M.D. Board-Certified, Biologic, Naturopathic Dentist • Season 2 • Episode 16

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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.

Dr. Carver :

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 and we're gonna hear a little bit from him. I first met Dr Patel this past May and we were at the CellCore EcoConference and it was really interesting because last year Cellcor had asked me to give them some ideas of topics and I said, hey, we've already discussed the infectious part of oral disease, cavities and gum disease and the real cause of that and how we can help that. I said, but we're really missing the functional part of dentistry which a lot of people don't know about. We don't necessarily learn a lot about it in dental school, but it's how did the jaws come together? How is the airway, how do we breathe, how all of these things impact our overall health. I was talking about we got to talk about James Nestor's book. Breath Like this is just amazing. I was so pleased when I showed up in Dallas and Dr Patel was there talking about all these wonderful things. Your presentation was awesome, led the whole 2,000 of us in this amazing breath work I wanted to bring him to all of you, because we all breathe, we don't really think about it, but it is the simplest, most inexpensive, most powerful tool that we all have, and Dr Patel, like myself, really wants to encourage all of us to be our best own doctor, because that is how we heal, when we stop trying to fix ourselves with a supplement or depend on somebody else to fix us when we can internalize and and we do so much of that with breath.

Dr. Carver :

On this podcast, we talk a lot about physical toxins. We talk about emotional toxins. Breathwork is one of the greatest 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.

Dr. Carver :

Last thing I just want to mention is what I loved when I read your bio is your first two qualifications on that were father and husband, that at the heart of who you are. It's about being intentional, being present, being a human being and being in that state of unconditional love. And I love reading some of your blogs when you're talking about the best mentors are the ones that have their whole life together, so not just the ones that are all over media and have a hundred books they've written and stuff like that, but the people who have the healthy relationships, who have everything together. I actually have a little banner in my office that says success does not bring happiness, but happiness brings success, and we've talked a lot about that in the podcast too. It's about how these relationships really improve, how we are.

Dr. Carver :

Any of us who are struggling, I know sometimes, when my husband and I are struggling, we can't show 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 important aspect of health and, again, I think it says a lot about you that 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 hand it over to you so you can tell all of us a little bit about you and where you are on your journey.

Dr. Patel:

Sure, first of all, thank you, dr Rachel. I appreciate it, and please call me Sachin. It's funny that the thing about my bio that people comment on the most is the fact that I'm a father and a husband. First, because that inspires me to be as healthy as I can be. Being a father inspires me to create a world that I want my child to live in, and being a husband holds me accountable to that. So certainly it's a big part of who I am, and sometimes we are things and sometimes we become things. So I'm blessed that my son made me a father, my wife gave me a beautiful boy, and those are things that I have become, but I'm constantly pursuing who I want to be, and so that's where all my training in chiropractic led me to functional medicine, which led me to lifestyle medicine, which then led me to the zenith of what I believe is lifestyle, which is how we breathe.

Dr. Patel:

It's something that is unfortunately taken for granted, and I believe breath is the zenith of both simplicity and sophistication, and Da Vinci said this and Steve Jobs echoed it, and they said that the greatest sign of sophistication, the ultimate sophistication, is simplicity. So if we look at the body as a sophisticated system and ecosystem, we start realizing that it should be simple to take care of it, not complicated, and it should be self-sustaining. That's what makes it so brilliant. If our body was clunky and it always broke down and it wasn't reliable and it wasn't predictable, that wouldn't be a very sophisticated system or machinery. However, if we acknowledge that the body is the most sophisticated organism in the entire universe that we're aware of at least I'm aware of then it must also, in order to qualify for being sophisticated, must be simple to take care of.

Dr. Patel:

So, then, the search should be for simplicity, not to match the body's complexity, and that's what direction medicine went in. Right, we had a choice, or, at some point, there was a fork in the road and we had to decide between are we going to go down the path of complexity and try to understand everything that the body does in real time, constantly, which is about one septillion functions happening simultaneously I think it's mind-boggling to think we'll ever fully understand it or do we go down the route of simplicity, which is understanding how to tame the body, how to nurture it and provide it with what it needs in order for it to take care of the complexity? And so that's where breath got me really excited because I can teach someone something super simple and it could be the lead domino in their life that addresses so many different areas of their health without them having to micromanage those other areas separately.

Dr. Carver :

Absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about breath. So, through my journey, I've really I started down the path. First I had eczema, so I first started down the path. I read Dr Axis, who was the first book I ever read, called Eat Dirt. So this was in 2011, when leaky gut was just getting out there, and so I said, okay, yes, I definitely I have leaky gut, I'm going to stop eating wheat, and that was really helpful. I went down that pathway for a little while, but I kept chasing symptoms right and over the 10, 12, 13 years. Now, once I got into the whole idea of energy medicine, the emotions impact us and I noticed that when I get super stressed, that's when my eczema might flare, because that stress really impacts the way we breathe right, which impacts what nervous system we're in. So maybe you can talk a little bit about how breath rate and how stress affects the breathing. How, then, that affects our nervous system, which then affects digestion.

Dr. Patel:

Sure, great question, and so I'll try to unpack it in a few different ways. So the first thing I want people to recognize is that our nervous system is constantly using our breath to biologically control functions and features of the body. So, for example, when we experience an emotion, like we hear something funny, we laugh, and laughing actually is a form of breathwork. Right, we actually laugh through our diaphragm. When we cry, we're actually using our breath to express ourselves, and so if we're running from a lion, our body shifts gears, changes the breath so that we can pump blood so much faster and harder to get to our arms and legs. So it's literally a two-way street. See, our nervous system is already using our breath to change its physical and emotional state and, depending on how you breathe, even your spiritual state. But we can actually manipulate our breath or take conscious control of our breath and actually change our physiology. So we can choose how we feel, we can choose where we send blood flow, we can choose which hemisphere we send blood flow to in the brain, and that is all at our control if we know how to control our breath. So in Hindi or in Sanskrit, the word pranayama comes from two root words Prana is life force and yama is control and breath. Work, which is the breath, is the life force and work is controlling. It is basically controlling that life force, which means that we can direct our body any way we choose to. So I lovingly refer to the breath as the steering wheel of the nervous system, which means that, just like you can consciously drive to work and not even know how you got there, you can unconsciously or unconsciously drive and not know how you got to work. You can unconsciously breathe throughout the day, and most people, including myself, for the first, probably 39 years of my life, I was breathing unconsciously. I just assumed that I was doing it and the only time I really paid attention to my breath was when I was exercising or working out, and then the rest of the time I was completely unconscious to it. I didn't realize it was something that I could manipulate and direct my body and how I wanted to function.

Dr. Patel:

So the depth that we breathe at the nostril, that we breathe through, whether we breathe through our nose or breathe through our mouth, the pace at which we breathe, whether we hold on the inhale, hold on the exhale, these are all little buttons that we can push and manipulate in order to change what our breath does for us. So, for example, if I wanted to balance my nervous system, I could do something called alternate nostril breathing. And alternate nostril breathing essentially just sounds like that breathing in and out through one nostril and then breathing in and out through the other nostril. I can breathe exclusively through a single nostril. So if I wanted to activate the left side of my brain, my more logical side of my brain, then I could breathe through my right nostril. If I wanted to calm my brain down and get into a more relaxed state and into a more creative state, then I could breathe through my left nostril. So I can change the nostril I breathe through, I can adjust the pace that I breathe through that nostril and I can stimulate different parts of me.

Dr. Patel:

So breathing is really just like there's an app for everything. There's literally a breath for everything. So if we start paying attention to how our nervous system uses our breath, we can start quickly learning that it has certain clues. So when we feel a sense of relief, as an example, what do we do? We sigh right, there's an audible sigh. We let the air out through our lungs, through our mouth, and we sink into it.

Dr. Patel:

But what if we did that consciously?

Dr. Patel:

What if, even though we mentally didn't feel a sense of relief or we were stressed out, but we wanted our body to feel relaxed?

Dr. Patel:

What if we use that same breathing tool or that same breathing signature I call it and actually exaggerated it to get the same effect?

Dr. Patel:

So, even though the stressor might still be present, whether it's financial or relationship or work or whatever the case may be that doesn't mean you always have to feel stressed out about it. Just because something is present, it doesn't mean it has to control you. So you can reset your nervous system by doing something like a physiologic sigh, and a physiologic sigh is where you breathe into your belly, breathing in through your nose, breathing into your belly, into your lungs and then into the top of your lungs. You hold that for a few seconds and then you let it out with an audible sigh through your mouth. And doing that three or four times over the course of a couple of minutes helps people instantaneously shift how they feel. And so once people start realizing that there's different breathing signatures that they can use, it opens up a whole new world of what's possible for them. And yeah, I'll leave it at that, but there's so much I could say about breathing.

Dr. Carver :

That's awesome. I love those little tools. So, knowing so, the brain is crisscross, so that's to remember. Right, the left is the logical, so you breathe to your right and you want to be creative and calming, breathe to the left. That's a really good piece. Now we've been taught over the years Okay, if you're calm, take really deep breaths, take really deep breaths, maybe, especially as a dentist. Right, most people don't really like being in the chair. When they come in, they're very anxious. So taking super deep breaths maybe that's not the exact right technique. So there's this alternate breathing, but talk to us a little bit more. I often use that 4-7-8 breath. That was something I learned a while ago.

Dr. Carver :

Why is it that the maybe talk a little bit about what that is, if that's good or not, and why be longer? Exhalation is actually where we get a little bit more relaxation. Why is that?

Dr. Patel:

Yeah, absolutely so. I like to use kind of living examples and I like to use the ends of the spectrum for effect. So if you were running away from a lion, the smart thing for your body to do would be for you to breathe as rapidly as you possibly can, because when you're running away from something, or if you're going to fight something, you want your lungs to assist in the pumping of blood. So think about where your lungs and your heart and your diaphragm are situated. Your lungs sit on either side of your chest cavity and then in the middle of that is your heart and then just below your heart is diaphragm. So if a lion was chasing me, my heart has to get blood to my arms and legs so I can run away or fight off whatever is chasing me, has to get blood to my arms and legs so I can run away or fight off whatever is chasing me. And so, in order for me to do that, in order for me to rapidly increase blood pressure and blood perfusion, it would make sense for me to breathe really fast so that my lungs are actually, and my diaphragm are, pumping my heart in order to assist it. So that is the description of a maximally stressful response. My mouth would be open, I'd be breathing rapidly in and out through my mouth, because that's how I can move the most volume, that's how I can rapidly expand and contract my lungs and move my diaphragm up and down, and it would make absolute sense for me to breathe that way. In fact, it would be stupid for me to slow down my breath in a situation like that, because now my diaphragm lungs and lungs aren't actually helping my heart. My heart now has to work harder in order to be able to breathe that way and in order to be able to pump the blood. So that's one end of the extreme. So if the opposite end of that would be, I would be breathing in and out through my nose, slowing down the air, pressurizing the air, cleansing the air right, because that's what our nose does and we can get 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 the roof of my mouth, because when my tongue is at the roof of my mouth it's pressing down on several, many nerve endings of the vagus nerve, so it instantly relaxes me. And then the other thing that happens is that now my lungs are rapidly not as rapidly expanding, contracting, so my heart isn't going to be as stimulated, right?

Dr. Patel:

If I'm breathing like this, my heart has no choice but to increase pressure and beat faster. But if I'm breathing like this now and beat faster, but if I'm breathing like this now, then you can see that instantaneously, automatically it makes sense that my heart beat is going to slow down. And when we're breathing in, the lungs are expanding, that's squeezing the heart, that's going 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 and it's going to not. Obviously we're relaxing the heart, we're letting off the heart, and so that's one of the reasons that as you breathe slower, especially on the exhale, you're shifting the nervous system into a more calm and relaxed state.

Dr. Patel:

And the 4-7-8 breath for all of you who may not be familiar with it is you breathe in for four seconds, hold for seven seconds and exhale for eight seconds. So you're essentially breathing in for four and the full exhale is taking about 15 seconds. So you're really lengthening that exhalation process which relaxes the nervous system. What's also interesting about that is that the slower we breathe, breathe, the more oxygen actually gets delivered to our cells. It's called the boar effect.

Dr. Patel:

So it seems counterproductive or counterintuitive, but with each breath we take, we only absorb about 20 to 25 percent of the oxygen, which means that with each breath we have about four or five actual full breaths in there. So you could literally breathe one fifth less and still survive and still not drop your O2 saturation levels. Slowing down our breath allows for more oxygen to be absorbed. It also allows for our CO2 levels to increase, allowing for more oxygen to be dumped at the tissues, and then that also helps calm our nervous system down. So slowing down? So just think of a situation in real life. Right, if you are running away from something, in a maximal stress situation, you'd want to be breathing fast, and you would be breathing fast to get away and to assist your physiology and physicality. And the opposite of that is the most relaxed state you could be in. You'd be breathing in slow and breathing out even slower and you'd be breathing in and out through your nose instead of breathing in and out through your mouth.

Dr. Carver :

Awesome. I'm glad you brought up the CO2, because that is something really poorly understood. I think if I breathe in more oxygen, 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 about on the podcast and it's talked about a lot too how nitric oxide is the molecule that helps dilate blood vessels, but in fact carbon dioxide it does. But carbon dioxide is even more important and maybe does more of that, and this is how breath work can actually help you get warmer extremities, right.

Dr. Carver :

So many of us wake up and we have cold hands and feet because our blood isn't flowing well. In Chinese medicine, the lung meridian is directly connected to circulation and skin, right. So when you can learn how to harness proper breathing, slow it down, you're going to build up 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 necessarily about the depths of our breath, but the rate. So the slower we breathe, the more carbon dioxide we build in the blood. That carbon dioxide is what pushes the oxygen off of the hemoglobin into the cells. So we need to have that carbon dioxide. What I found is I've been really into breath this year. It was like my thing. So it's so exciting that when you're at ECO it's like, oh God, this is again the universe Marvelous, and you're at.

Dr. Carver :

ECO. I was like, oh God, this is again. The universe is marvelous. It led me to you and I've joined all your stuff and I'm following you and it's really exciting. But before that's, at the beginning of the year, I had done some blood work and my CO2 levels 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, and I'm like I need to know how I'm breathing, cause when I'm working I have a really busy practice and I feel really stressed and I'm like I don't even think I breathe at all, or am I breathing?

Dr. Patel:

too much.

Dr. Carver :

What's happening. And when I put that thing on in the middle of my workday, I'm breathing like 18 breaths a minute, which ideal is what? Somewhere in the six to 10 range. So I'm way over breathing. So is it any wonder that I'm more stressed?

Dr. Carver :

So what's Sachin is helping me do through all of his great stuff which we'll link to in the end? Helping me to learn how to breathe, like even when I want to unconsciously breathe slower, because, obviously, when I think about it and it's interesting, when I'm doing a stilling, I have a curing light and that's usually at five second intervals. So I take the time now to be aware and as I'm curing that every five seconds, I'll say, okay, I'm breathing in for five. The little light beeps, I'm like okay, I'm breathing out for five so that I can try to maintain, because the more I feel, the more that I can create awareness while I'm in stressful situations, hopefully over time, unconsciously, even when I'm sleeping.

Dr. Carver :

Sometimes my sleep, my aura ring would show too, 16 to 18 breaths while I'm sleeping, and again, that's not great. I really want to be in parasympathetic when I'm sleeping so that I'm removing all the toxins and getting everything to drain properly. That's super fascinating. So, again, that's why my carbon dioxide was low, because I'm in the breathing, so really important, and sometimes I have cold hands and cold feet because I'm in. My nervous system tends to rest at that more anxious level, but it's because of my breathing.

Dr. Patel:

So that's super fascinating.

Dr. Patel:

Yeah, it's a two-way street. So the way I describe it is that a person's unconscious breathing is the unconscious state of their nervous system. So if I were to pay attention without somebody being aware, if I was just to pay attention to the way they unconsciously breathe, it would give me a window into the state of their nervous system. So if somebody was hypothetically breathing fast and shallow, or breathing through their mouth, I would understand that, because of that breathing pattern, what state their nervous system is, without them even knowing. And so it's always important like even when I do trainings online, I ask everyone to turn their cameras on, because I'm actually paying attention to how they're breathing as I'm teaching, and teachers should know this too.

Dr. Patel:

Right, if your students are breathing a certain way, you can understand the state of their nervous system. Are they even in a state of learning and retention, or are they in a state where they're going to forget everything that you're saying? And one thing I pay attention to especially is if somebody's breathing through their nose or through their mouth, because I know if they're breathing through their mouth, then they're probably overwhelmed. They're probably I've, probably their cup is probably full if I'm teaching them something new or they're feeling lost or behind and that's creating anxiety for them. So as even as teachers, it's important for us to pay attention to the state of our clients and, as a dentist, for yourself, just paying attention, taking a moment, and we can read body language, but there's breath language as well, and if we can pay attention to that, then we can tap into how they're feeling without them having to even say anything.

Dr. Carver :

That's an important point, for even us health practitioners Sometimes when we're spewing out this treatment plan. Another thing how are they breathing? Is their mouth wide open? And also, if we are, I'm also a health coach. So if I'm trying to coach a person on the right diet, if they're unsympathetic, you can give them the healthiest diet on the planet. If they're in sympathetic tone all the time, they're not going to be digesting well.

Dr. Carver :

So the nervous system is so key to the overall health. So again, you can have patients spend all sorts of money on supplements and this and that, but if you could just teach them how to breathe, maybe we don't need to rely so much on supplements and so much on these other tools. I mean, you come into my house, it's like being in a toy store, for you know, I've got like all the gadgets and all the things, because it's like, if I just do this, if I just do this, when, as you said at the beginning, simplicity and so a lot of these things are expensive, we can't all afford to have all these different things or do all the different things, but we all can afford to breathe right.

Dr. Carver :

So, let's go into, let's get a little more into the dental and talk about the mouth breathing and how. Let's tell me about like your son's story and your own story how you really helped your own jaw development. So we talked a lot about this before, how we talked with a lot of pediatric dentists and the importance of airway, but I think it's important the more times you hear something, the more it gets cemented in the brain. So tell us a little bit how mouth breathing affects the development of the facial structure, the brain. All that good stuff.

Dr. Patel:

Yeah, absolutely so. It's not just how we breathe, but it's also the positioning of the tongue. And when we position our tongue correctly, or have our children position their tongues correctly, then it actually almost forces them indirectly, forces them to breathe right. So when your tongue is positioned at the roof of your mouth, it becomes virtually impossible to breathe through your mouth. And so, as the tongue is positioned in the roof of the mouth, it also acts as an expander, so it will naturally push the palate outwards and forwards and the lips act as braces. So we actually have a built-in mechanism to have nice, beautiful dental arches and teeth and prevent overcrowding. But that's going to be dependent on is our tongue in the right position? And when it is, then it pushes the whole face outwards instead of creating a narrow face. And when people end up having that narrow face, then they end the consequences that they end up having narrow airways and their airways become restricted, and then that perpetuates the mouth breathing. So it creates this downward spiral, because it becomes very difficult or more challenging for people to breathe through their nose if the airway feels constricted. Now, one thing to keep in mind and maybe this has been discussed in previous interviews is there's an increasing prevalence we're noticing with tongue ties, and a tongue tie can oftentimes be associated with poor methylation and we're seeing many mothers these days are under-methylated and that's a whole different topic. But basically, if they're not getting the right types of nutrients in their body, then this can cause midline deformities, especially with B vitamin deficiencies, and one of those could be a very prominent tongue tie. And the tongue tie is essentially the frenulum underneath the tongue, that little stringy thing under the tongue. It becomes overdeveloped and children have a hard time placing their tongue at the roof of their mouth, and so what other challenges they might have is they may have difficulty with self-soothing, so they need pacifiers or they need to suck their thumb in order to push that magic button in the roof of their mouth. They may also have a hard time with breastfeeding and latching on, and there's consequences of that. So proper jaw formation does require that they are able to place their tongue in the correct position, and when they can't do that, then unfortunately children are weaned off and they're placed on formulas and other things. But if you look at the shape of a woman's breast and you look at the shape of most baby bottles, they're very different. The structure of the nipple that the child is sucking on. If it's a baby bottle, makes a huge difference in how their jaw is going to form as well. It used to be such that many decades ago that midwives would grow their pinky nails and they would just do an oral sweep and they would sweep the lip ties and the tongue ties so that children can latch on and it wouldn't be an issue. And for whatever reason, they stopped doing that so it's become an issue that can transpire all the way into adulthood.

Dr. Patel:

In fact, until we started doing this research, both my wife and son were impacted by dysfunctional breathing. So I'll share the story, since you asked so. A few years ago, when my son went to the dentist his first time going to the dentist, we had good news and bad news. So I said what's the bad news? And the dentist said well, your son has a ton of cavities and we're like, we were just like baffled because he eats right, he does all the things right and we just felt like total failures as parents. But so what's the good news? And he said the good news is they're all in his baby teeth and when we think of cause and effect, we didn't really figure out why he had those cavities until many years later when he went to another dentist and they said his teeth were overcrowded, especially his upper palate, and he would have to have some of his teeth pulled in order for them to come down. And I'm like, okay, that doesn't sound very right to me.

Dr. Patel:

And right around that time James Nestor's book Breath came out, and so as I'm reading it, it's describing everything my son was facing. He was a habitual mouth breather 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 attention to it, like most people wouldn't have known, and so I beat myself up for it. But at the same time that's why I'm intentional about spreading this message, because I don't want other people's kids to go through it and so we ended up going to four different dentists and then finally we found one that would put an expander in, and so we put an expander in to push his palate outwards and push his upper jaw forward, and all of his teeth have come in beautifully. So he didn't have to have any of them pulled and he's got a nice wide smile, which is awesome, and he's not too happy that he has braces, but I think he will be once all is said and done and he can breathe. He always used to complain about having a hard time breathing and now we realize why it's because his upper palate was so small, which meant that his airway was so restricted.

Dr. Patel:

So signs of mouth breathing in children are going to be behavior issues. They generally are going to be under, they're going to just not even know why they're stressed out, but it's because of the way their breathing is telling their nervous system to be in this low grade fight or flight state. They're going to drool on their pillow. Low-grade fight-or-flight state they're going to drool on their pillow. They may have cavities, like my son did. They may have overcrowding-type symptoms, they may develop adenoids or tonsillitis and they may have a chronically congested nose, because if you don't breathe through your nose, it actually starts getting smaller. The airways start filling up, so the body doesn't like stagnation. So if there isn't circulate air circulating in the sinuses, the body's this is just an empty hole in my head that can develop infections, so it starts sealing everything up. So those are some of the signs of that you want to pay attention to with your children.

Dr. Patel:

And if they are mouth breathers, then one of the best gifts that you can give them is to start educating them about the importance of breathing through their nose, and there's tapes that you can buy. Myotape is one of them. It's great for children because it allows them to keep their mouth open, but when the mouth is at rest it closes it for them. And then mouth taping at night is something that we did with my son. He still does it every night, as does the whole family, and that's made a profound difference for all of us and it's been wonderful to be able to help my family right as a functional medicine practitioner.

Dr. Patel:

My son grew up in a pretty, very healthy, I should say. Metabolically. He doesn't have any of the classic childhood issues that many children do, but he was a dysfunctional breather and I'm like, finally I found a way to help this guy and it's been profoundly rewarding for me. And it's been interesting because as we went through this journey, my wife she's had braces three times and when she was young she used to suck her thumb because she had a tongue tie, so she had a hard time breastfeeding, hard time latching on.

Dr. Patel:

She would suck her thumb until she was like, I think, eight or nine.

Dr. Patel:

She would always get teased about it and then she developed an overbite because of it, an open bite. So an open bite is dentists would know this but an open bite is where your front teeth don't line up properly, so it's hard for you to break off a piece of lettuce if you're eating a sandwich or something. And so she had braces multiple times to correct that. And it turns out that it was a tongue tie that she had. That was the root cause, or a stemative factor to all of these things. And just about seven or eight months ago she had that snipped and it instantly made a difference in her posture, it made a difference in her mood, it made a difference in her cervical curve. So it was quite profound to see how this one little piece of tissue was hamstringing so many areas in her health and in her life. And I wish she had known this sooner because she wouldn't have had to deal with the low-grade anxiety, the multiple dental procedures and so on and so forth.

Dr. Carver :

Yeah, it's so fascinating. The first time I really understood this I, years and years ago, went to a sleep apnea lecture and it was for adults. And as we're sitting there and I'm listening, because we didn't learn any of this in dental school and it started to make me think of my daughter, my younger daughter, who at the time was I don't know three, four maybe, and I thought, oh my gosh, I wonder if this is her problem, because she used to always wake up in the middle of the night and she'd crawl in my bed and I didn't mind because she'd rub my back and it was all nice and I was like, oh, isn't that sweet, that's great. But then, listening to this lecture, I'm like, oh my gosh, maybe her airway is so small, she's not breathing and it's waking her up, which is exactly what was happening. But at that time I didn't really follow through because I didn't really know. I didn't know of things to do for pediatrics and for the most part she seemed to be functioning well, so I didn't pursue it as much. And then a year or two went by. I found a local colleague who I brought my kids to and, yeah, sure enough, we did her airway assessment super tiny and she has a pretty significant tongue size, so they were able to go through the whole expansion process and the myofunctional right. That's another important thing. As you said, we have to train the tongue.

Dr. Carver :

My kids were breastfed, but they were also I was working too, so they were breastfed and bottle fed. My older one, she sucked her thumb until she was eight. She was pulled out with a suction cup and that kind of cranial messed up her cranium a little bit and so she put her thumb up there. Just like you said, that's a little stressful spot. That kind of connects the nervous system, like the front part of our energy and the back part, and it's a soothing. It's soothing for the nervous system and she's you know, and so it's like she used to drool like crazy as a baby. It was my first kid, so I didn't know. I was like, okay, that's normal. But my second daughter, she didn't drool at all. She was the easiest birth, not a problem, but so fascinating. And I wish I'd known this when I didn't do it too much with my older daughter either, because she wasn't showing the signs of thumb suckers where the palate was getting narrow like her teeth. All were pretty good. She has slight crowding, but not much. She wasn't, I don't think, applying so so much pressure and because I think she was breastfed, I think her tongue was in the appropriate place.

Dr. Carver :

But I see and I love what you said about that whole methylation, which is why I had another podcast with one of my colleagues and we were talking about prenatal health. So I wish more OBs really understood for so many reasons how nutrition is so vital. But when we talk about people talking about I have MTHFR in my experience it seems to be 80% or more. So I look at everybody as having these SNPs which mean that our detoxification systems are not as effective. Right, if we have one copy, we're 70% effective with detox with two copies which my kids are both lucky, they both have two copies they have 30% efficiency right and so, again, really important. This is where nutrition becomes really important and we see in kids. So it's another thing I want to talk to you about because I was so excited when you talked about this Aviko In our food supply table.

Dr. Carver :

We know we've talked about how much nutrition has really suffered. It's about 50% nutrient dense versus what it was a generation ago and all the foods are typically most of the foods we 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 video or actually it was Nestor's little snips that you have on your website and he was showing the evolution over thousands of years of the human skull right, and over the last millennium or whatever, it's gotten smaller and smaller and smaller. With all the processing of foods, all the squeeze pouches as convenient as those are and I used them before I knew better the worst thing you can do as you squeeze or suck on a straw, you are compressing the jaws with your cheek muscles Not great. And because most of us don't have good tongue function to be able to counteract that, that's really problematic. And so when we're not hunter gatherers, we're chewing on roots and all sorts of really hard stuff. That is what created that really square, angular face Right, and I love what you've talked about before.

Dr. Carver :

Where your parents grew up in India, they didn't have toothbrushes, right, they had beautiful straight teeth, no problems in need braces, and they were chewing on me, which I thought that's so fascinating. And it was funny because when Jay, at the end of Jay Davidson, the end of your eco talk or at the end of the conference, he was saying, oh, so interested in me. I texted him. I said I ordered them before Sachin even finished his and so I have them in the office now. Yeah, they do have a interesting taste. But the other thing I love about neem, which I've used for years my body tends towards a little bit of constipation and neem is really healing and soothing and moisturizing for the intestinal system and we know if we're not expelling and eliminating properly, that's how toxins can keep recirculating. So I love that, that the neem stick. Not only are you chewing and creating good functions, but you're also using a nice therapeutic natural ingredient to heal our digestion. So tell me a little bit about these Neem sticks.

Dr. Patel:

Yeah certainly.

Dr. Patel:

So just to give people some context, like when you give a child a toothbrush for the first time, even though they've watched you brush your teeth intuitively, what do they do? They start chewing it, they start biting it. And so one of the reasons, in addition to tongue positioning, that the jaw can be smaller is because we don't chew hard things. And I think of my son and we used to give him very nutrient-dense smoothies and we used to make his own baby food and all that good stuff, and so we thought, from a nutrient standpoint, we were delivering nutrients to his body but we weren't forcing him to chew all that food and because he wasn't chewing it, he wasn't stimulating proper jaw formation. And so for any of you who have young children, or even any of you who are adults, chew hard things I know they say, do hard things and one of them is to chew hard things because that helps us and certainly, rachel, you would know this better than me but that helps strengthen the ability for our teeth to stay in their sockets and stimulate stem cell production and bone density and growth so that our teeth don't fall out of our face as we get older. So chewing hard things is one of the other things that is worth mentioning when it comes to this topic in general. So what they would do is they would have these branches from neem trees delivered to them and it would just get a whole pile of them and you would just grab one and start chewing it. That would secrete the juices from the tree, the oils and protective mechanisms, and then that would force them to chew and then they would bristolize the end of the brush and then they would use it to brush and clean their teeth. Human beings are the only animals that have toothbrushes and we're the only animals that get cavities. So go figure, right. So it's not just about brushing your teeth and removing. Obviously you don't want to have food and stuff like that stuck in your teeth. We're not suggesting that. But your mouth, when you have the right oral microbiome, is self-cleansing, right? Just like we don't need to wash we're not dirty. Like we don't have to wash our skin. It sounds gross when you tell people for just cultural reasons but we don't get that dirty every day that we have to strip our complete skin microbiome every time we take a shower. 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 breathing through their mouth, they're going to change saliva concentrations, they're going to change their pH, they're going to change the type of bacteria that grow there and, of course, that's going to cause a whole host of issues.

Dr. Patel:

So this is what they would do they would chew these neem branches. They didn't have dentists growing up. They didn't have orthodontists growing up that's blasphemy and they had perfectly aligned teeth. Seeing a dentist was like a foreign concept for them until they moved to North America, and it was fascinating because that's when they started developing dental issues. I'm not saying that's what caused it, but they lost their tradition, right? They started brushing their teeth. They started using toothpaste which strip out the oral microbiome, instead of sticking to traditional things like chewing on a neem branch, which actually strengthens the teeth and preserves and probably initiates a healthy oral microbiome. So yeah, so it's interesting to think of something that seems so archaic and barbaric is the actual answer to a lot of people's dental issues.

Dr. Carver :

Your parents' story is exactly what Dr Price found too when he went around the world in the 1930s and all the Native populations who ate their Native diets had perfectly straight teeth. And when they changed to a westernized diet, that is when the time is that part of the westernization with the toothpaste and the toothbrush and this, and that there's too much emphasis on killing the bat. But, like you said, it is the environment right. So neem was not only helpful, it did stimulate saliva right. Anytime you chew, you're stimulating saliva. Saliva is incredibly protective, flushes away the plaque and stuff like that. Plus, you have a natural substance in the neem, which some natural toothpaste have. Neem as an ingredient, like I said, very helpful to the gut and the gut begins in the mouth. It's a really great product. I've used it for years for intestinal health and it's about supporting the proper environment. As you said, when you're mouth breathing, you create more acidic environment and it's this acidic environment, it's the change in the environment, that causes the so-called bad bugs to overgrow. I say it all the time. We don't one day swallow bad bugs and get gum disease. That is not how it works. The environment in our body changes. This is terrain medicine. When the environment changes, then the bugs have to adapt. It's the simple concept of evolution Things. When we have toxins toxicity which can be in just conventional toothpaste we now change to this processed diet, we are exposed to toxins. We now change to this processed diet. We are exposed to toxins, which therefore create deficiencies, which then creates disease and this creates and then the bugs that can survive in a more acidic environment with fewer nutrients. They're going to proliferate and their byproducts cause gum disease and cavities. Again, if we're just killing the bad, we're just on the hamster wheel Because if you don't correct the reason the bad overgrew in the first place, you're never going to have disease.

Dr. Carver :

I've had so many patients and functional medicine doctors refer patients to me because they put them on this gut healing protocol and now all of a sudden the oral microbiome looks worse, they have more bugs. And I say to them all, because we 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 breathe right? And I think it's so important. I have had a lot of holistic moms come to me and they're like you. They feel devastated that their kids have cavities because they're like I thought I was doing everything right. Yes, nutrient-wise, absolutely. But if they're mouth-breathing, they're in that sympathetic nervous system, which means even with the best diet, they may not be absorbing those nutrients, and then the acidic environment again is going to lead to the overgrowth of this vicious cycle.

Dr. Carver :

So that's why, when you go to a biologic dentist, you're looking at the whole person. Some of us dentists are just so myopic that we're just all we learned about was teeth, and that's how do teeth function in the whole body, and so that's really important. If you want to be the type of dentist who is treating your patient for overall health, if you want them to have the best possible future, we've got to consider how everything is working within the whole body. That's why I bring people like you on, so we get all these different perspectives. We can all bring it together and I know I'm sure you guys have enjoyed this you can probably feel such and such calm presence, Like I. Just my nervous system is always jacked up, but I just feel a calming presence around me. Just have that calming, soothing voice. Please tell us how we can learn more about what you're doing, how we can start helping breathe better. Where can we find you and how can we start being better?

Dr. Patel:

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. I wanted to mention this earlier and it's worth mentioning since you bring it up, is that the way we breathe actually holds space for others and and for yourself, dr Rachel, and any practitioner who's listening to this. When you walk into a room, pay attention to your breathing signature. Is it calm, is it relaxed, is it confident? Right? Because if your breathing signature is that of short, shallow breathing, or fight or flight or stress, then it's going to be the patient or everyone else in the room is going to be able to detect that. They may not know exactly what they're detecting, but it's going to give them so much more confidence and you're going to give them so much more certainty. If your nervous system is in a calm 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 holding space, and I'm grateful that it even comes through when I'm presenting and sharing online. So thank you for that In terms of where people can learn more. So I've actually created a whole bunch of free resources that are absolutely free, because I believe the best things in life are free is I put together a bundle it's a breathwork bundle and you can go to breathworkwithsachincom and my name is spelled S-A-C-H-I-N, so breathworkwithsatchincom, and there you'll get my notes. I've done a couple of keynotes on breathing that you'll be able to watch. You'll get the slides if you request them. You'll get my stop snoring guide. If you snore or your partner snores, there's an all natural guide that I've created and I share with you, step by step, how I stop my snoring. You'll also get my notes from James Nestor's retreat I went there last March and it was an amazing event and all the notes I share with you. I'm also going to share with you additional tools and resources I just wrote an article about a Navaj and how that can be helpful in cleansing the airways, and continuous resources that I'll be putting together.

Dr. Patel:

One of my most recent resources I put together is called Breathe Like this, not that, and it basically walks you through the state that you're in and what breath you need to use, what cadence you need to use in order to switch the way you feel. So if you're feeling anxious, there's a breath for that. If you're feeling, if you want to feel calm and relaxed, there's a breath for that. If you want to fall asleep faster, there's a breath for that. If you want to feel calm and relaxed, there's a breath for that. If you want to fall asleep faster, there's a breath for that. If you want to increase blood flow or core temperature, there's a breath for that. So there's all these different ways that you can breathe to tap into this innate capability that you have.

Dr. Patel:

I wanted to share a couple of fun facts that I think would really drive this message home for people. I know we have a couple of minutes here, so one thing I want to share is that your immune system starts in your nose, so we consume about 30 pounds of air every single day. It's the thing that we consume the most, and it's the way we engage with our outside environment the most. So having a healthy respiratory system is going to be absolutely crucial to your health, and so our defense against the outside world starts inside of our nose, and that's one of the reasons it's important to breathe through there. The other thing we mentioned was nitric oxide levels, and what you mentioned correctly, dr Rachel, is that nitric oxide and CO2 work hand in hand at increasing circulation and blood perfusion, especially to the brain, which is the hardest place to get blood, to. Slowing down our breathing is going to help increase CO2 concentrations and get better blood flow. And what's also going to happen is that when you breathe slower, especially through your nose, you're going to get a six-fold increase in nitric oxide production. If you add humming to the equation, then you're going to get a 15-fold increase in nitric oxide production. So something as simple as humming can enhance your immune defenses. Nitric oxide kills viruses and bacteria on contact. It helps with dilating our blood vessels and it helps with increasing circulation. We can get to have all the nutrients in the world, but if we can't circulate those nutrients, then they're not as effective. So that's another thing I wanted to share.

Dr. Patel:

And then the last thing I want to 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 down our breath. When you study animals in the wild, animals that breathe slower live longer compared to animals that breathe faster. So a turtle takes about three breaths a minute, lives about 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 to that six breaths per minute pace five and a half to six breaths per minute pace is going to significantly improve your quality of life, calm your nervous system down and it's really the fastest biohack to slow down the aging process. So those are some of the reasons. And then one last thing I want to share is habit change. So BJ Fogg wrote a book called Tiny Habits and he has a map of habit change. So the M stands for motivation. So hopefully, after today and through other conversations that you hear, you're motivated to take control of your breath.

Dr. Patel:

The second is ability. We all have the ability to breathe better and with consciousness and awareness. The third part that's missing is usually the prompt. So what I do is I identify something that I do frequently throughout the day and I use that 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 checking email, the next thought I have is my breath. If I'm going up the stairs, the next thought I have is my breath. So I'm always bringing breath into my awareness to the point where it becomes unconscious. So I probably think of breathing five to 600 times a day, and it's because I think of those other things five or 600 times a day, so I just attach it to something that I already do and that, for me, has made a big difference. Hopefully that's helpful. Grab the resources at Breathwork with Sachin. I've got a bunch of things in there and I'm going to keep adding to it and it'll always remain a free resource for everyone.

Dr. Carver :

Sajan, I can't thank you enough and for everybody listening, I think this is one of the most important podcast interviews I've done to date. It is, and thank you so much for making these resources free and available to all of us. So please listen again, share this with everyone. Again. This is the best, fastest, easiest way to really gain our health and especially when we're doing other things, the compounding will get there even faster. But I so appreciate your time. I look forward to getting to know you even better and better as I keep improving my breath work. We'll see how I do. I'm determined by the end of the year to get down to that six to 10 breaths per minute. But I love what you just said about that problem. Like me, with the light at work, that's always okay into that good breathing, so we can maintain that.

Dr. Carver :

I know, even when I'm driving I become aware I automatically slow down driving and everything is just much calmer. I always feel in my life I'm always trying to get somewhere and do something and all these things and that's not helpful. So I'm so glad that I got to meet you and again, I appreciate so much of what you're doing and I look forward to having another conversation very soon.

Dr. Carver :

So, everybody, please check out breathworkwithsatchincom. Start breathing properly right away and let me know all how everybody's doing so. Hope you enjoyed this episode, guys. Let us know any feedback you have, anything else you'd like to learn about, and we'll see.