This week we’d like to step back and take a broad view to find what may be the primary undermining factor that keeps each of us from living our fullest life possible with an optimized immune expression.
After all, without an immune system humming along in good rhythm, chronic infections like gum disease can continue to grow and undermine the health of our entire body.
We often talk about how we approach gum disease from a ‘two prong’ approach…
addressing the issue ‘locally’ via ‘in the mouth’ strategies and
addressing the issue ‘broadly’ via ‘system wide immune support’ strategies
While in the mouth strategies like oil pulling, conscious flossing and what order you brush, floss and swish are important, today let’s turn our attention toward an often overlooked foundation…
A strong, resilient, vital, and balanced immune response.
After all, without a strong ‘whole body’ strategy in place, any strategies we apply in the mouth will only provide temporary benefit. If we really want to reach that ‘place’ where we are no longer ’suitable hosts’ for the opportunistic thug bugs implicated with gum disease, we must address oral health from a system wide approach too. (1)
Interestingly, since our approach is very strongly rooted in holistic principles (aka that the body/being is one system and we cannot treat the parts individually) even many of the ‘in the mouth’ strategies we suggest also benefit our immune response.
The Primary Pillar to Optimal Health
While much of the health internet (including us) tend to point out that nutrition plays a foundational role in living an optimally vital life, we find that a healthy psychology is even more central to expressing optimal health.
You’ve probably experienced some stress around trying to eat well.
Questions like wondering if the foods you choose for you and your family are best for you all can provoke stressful thoughts. If we habitually stress out that our diet isn’t perfect, we’re still causing stress (inflammation) in the system which will undermine our ability to be optimally healthy.
And, as we all know, stressing about food is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to things we can stress about, right?
Bottom line, we must manage our stress levels and cultivate a healthy psychology as a daily habit or we are going to fall short of our potential genetic expression of health and vitality.
Not surprisingly, the scientific literature is awash in studies proving that stress makes gum disease and periodontal disease worse.(2,3)
Yes, it’s true that stress helps us grow. That’s the way the principle of ‘Use it or Lose it’ works. We have to stress a muscle to make it stronger, challenge our memory to keep it sharp and regularly stretch if we want to maintain flexibility.
The stress we’re referring to here however is the chronic stress (that is very manageable by the way) that’s born from how we respond to life.
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters…
The Greek philosopher Epictetus stated, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
When I first came across this truth, it hit me like a train.
It’s not what happens to each of us. It’s how we react to what happens to us that determines whether we freak out and cause damage to our health or are able to let the changing winds of life pass by without taking up arms about what just happened.
I’m sure you’ve had the experience of being in such a great mood that when something that would have normally gotten under your skin happened, because of your great mood, you were able to laugh it off. That’s the power of a healthy relationship with stress. That’s the central importance of our ability to manage stress in a healthy way in order to optimally express our genetic capacity of health and vitality.
But what about all the other times when we’re not already in the ‘good graces’ of an awesome mood?
What can we do to manage our reaction to life?
It turns out that there’s actually quite a lot we can do.
Count your blessings.
We all know how good we feel when we ‘wake up’ and remember that we don’t have to stress out. Stopping to count the blessings in our lives is a very powerful way to shift from a place of stress to a peaceful place.
Making a habit of counting our blessings not only supports our oral health but is such a gift to anyone who witness that intentional cultivation of a life well lived. Not only do we give to ourselves with the habit of counting our blessings, but our habit ripples out waves of peace, calm, and good feelings into the lives of others around us.
When angry, take 3 breaths.
The physiological benefits of deep breathing span every single system in our bodies.
However, it doesn’t count to quickly snort 3 breaths so you can ‘get them over with’ and maintain the stressed out state! Really, pause, turn your attention within and take three conscious breaths.
If you want to supercharge your stress shifting attitude, try silently repeating to yourself ‘This too shall pass’ while taking those breaths.
Mentally step back from the stressful situation.
A good friend and mentor of ours taught us many years ago to mentally step back from the current whatever we’re choosing to be all stressed about and see how in the grand scheme, it’s a rather insignificant situation we’re choosing to stress over.
Taking a mental step back helps to reframe the situation and provide the very beneficial ‘distance’ to be able to put the stress into its rightful ‘insignificant’ place.
Wrapping Up…
So, while most of our writing is on the details of how to navigate to greater oral health, let’s remember to keep in perspective the primary factors that either contribute to or undermine our ability to optimize our immune response.
How about you? What do you do to manage your stress levels? What would you like to do more regularly to better support yourself? How have you found that managing your stress more effectively has helped you live a healthier, happier life?
And, if you have active periodontal disease and you’d like to learn about a kit that can help you address periodontal-disease-causing microbes from the comfort of your own home, you can read about our HealThy Mouth System here.
We hope this helps you along your path to optimal oral (and whole being) health!
Helpful, Related Resources:
What is oil pulling? [article]
How to create greater oral health for the whole family [article]
What’s the best order to brush, swish and floss? [article]
4 Reasons why brushing is SO important [article]
HealThy Mouth System [product solution]
Sources:
1. Emotional stress on immunity, gingivitis and periodontitis
2. Stress and periodontal disease: The link and logic
3. The influence of academic stress on gingival inflammation
ME DIAGNOTICARON PERIODENTITIS Y QUE DEBO EXTRAER TODOS MIS DIENTES, ME ATERRA LA IDEA, ME RECOMENDARON SUS PRODUCTOS , ME GUSTARIA ADQUIRIR TODO LO NECESARIO PARA QUE MIS ENCIAS SE VUELVAN FUERTES Y NO PERDER MI DIENTES ..
Aloha Miladys,
Thank you for reaching out to us.
We’re so sorry to hear about your dental difficulties!
We here at OraWellness aren’t medical or dental professionals, so we can’t treat, diagnose, advise, etc. Instead, what we can do is share information with you to help you become self-empowered on your journey.
It’s our understanding that for gum disease, the vicious cycle goes like this: the gum-disease-causing bacteria in our mouths slip below the gum line and start building colonies. While building their numbers, they also attach tartar to our teeth to protect themselves from us. The tartar irritates our gums, so our gums start to pull away from the tartar-coated teeth. This creates a gum pocket. The bacteria move down to the now-deeper base of the gum pocket, where they lay down more tartar, which irritates the gums and causes them to pull away more, etc.
Our HealThy Mouth System contains all the tools necessary to get down to the base of the gum pockets and kill off the bad bacteria that are wreaking havoc down there. Reducing and eliminating infections in gum pockets can lead to the reduction of gum pocket depths.
Brushing, although beneficial, is only able to reach 2mm down into the gum pockets. Flossing and oral irrigators reach down to 4mm. The key is to kill the bacteria at the base of the gum pockets. The Pocket Applicator in the HealThy Mouth System makes it easy to reach the base of gum pockets as deep as 12mm.
Here’s a link to Susan’s story, here’s an article on the positive changes one of our customers was able to achieve in just 42 days, and here’s a link to our Customer Testimonials pertaining to the HealThy Mouth System. These may help you to gain an understanding of how our system has worked for others.
Also, as you may already know, we’re big fans of taking a two-pronged approach to oral health by providing support both in the mouth and in the rest of the body, since our systems are all intertwined and can influence each other.
So, we would encourage you to sign up to receive our free video tutorial course, the 5 Steps to a Healthy Mouth. This series covers A LOT of ground regarding the importance of nutrition and how it relates to oral health.
I hope that helps!