The Root of The Matter

Breathing Right for Optimal Health: A Deep Dive into Craniofacial Development with Dr. Shereen Lim

• Dr. Rachaele Carver, D.M.D. Board-Certified, Biologic, Naturopathic Dentist • Season 1 • Episode 19

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Discover the powerful potential of simply breathing right in this fascinating conversation with expert guest, Dr Shereen Lim. As the author of Breathe, Sleep, Thrive, she brings in-depth knowledge and practical insights on early intervention for healthier craniofacial development in children. From exploring tell-tale signs of potential airway issues such as snoring and teeth grinding, to exposing how poor sleep quality can mimic ADHD-like symptoms, our discussion is a deep dive into a topic that is often overlooked, but incredibly crucial.

Did you know that something as everyday as the way we breathe can significantly influence our physical health, cognitive ability, and overall wellbeing? In this episode, we peel back the layers on the recommendation by the American Dental Association to screen for breathing disturbances in adults and children alike. We also delve into home sleep studies, the impact of pediatric sleep disturbances, and the effects of habits like dummy sucking on jaw development. By the end of this conversation, you'll be rethinking the role that breathing plays in your life.

Wrapping up our enlightening discussion, we tackle the profound influence of an obstructed airway on blood pressure, metabolism, and chronic diseases. We highlight the benefits of myofunctional therapy and stress the importance of screening for breathing disturbances, providing actionable insights for you and your family's health. You won't want to miss Dr Lim's expert take on how cranial therapy can help children develop the best airway. If you're ready to breathe better, sleep better, and ultimately, live better, this is an episode you won't want to miss. Connect with Dr Lim for further information and start your journey to optimal health today.

To find our more about Dr Shereen Lim's practice go to:

www.drshereenlim.com.au

To purchase Dr. Lim's book Breath, Sleep, Thrive go to:

www.amazon.com

And type in Breath, Sleep, Thrive. 

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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.

Speaker 1:

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Root of the Matter. I'm your host, dr Rachel Carver, and today I'm very pleased to have Dr Shreem Lim, all the way from Australia, coming to join us to talk about her new book. It's called Breathe, sleep Thrive. Now we've kind of talked about some airway things before, but this is a really, really important topic because so many adults and children go undiagnosed and breathing is absolutely vital. Dr Lim talks about in her book, references Dr Boyd who says if your child needs reading glasses, we don't just put them off a few more years until they grow older. Right, the same thing breathing is just as vital as seeing. So we really want to create this awareness and we're gonna go a little deeper, dive into some of the topics we have kind of brought up before. So, dr Lim, thank you so much for agreeing to come on and speak to our audience. Why don't you tell us a little bit about how you got into airway in the first place?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my interest in airway really began with my husband snoring and that frustration of the noise.

Speaker 2:

And one day I was so frustrated I decided I was going to learn more about dental sleep appliances to reposition the lorge or forward to help open up the airway during sleep to reduce snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. So I became qualified in that area one of Australia's first dentists to receive a qualification in dental sleep medicine and I became more and more involved in adult snoring and sleep apnea. But I could actually see that this is a problem of poor craniofacial development. We're making these devices to compensate for poor jaw development. Why don't we develop people's jaws better in the first place? And so that's why I became interested in early interceptive orthodontics and then really understanding that when the jaws don't form correctly it is a reflection of poor oral function. So the form follows function and we need to pay special attention to how the old facial muscles are working during the earliest years of life to promote better jaw development. And so, yeah, just becoming more interested in trying to help prevent the issue rather than having to deal with it at a very end-stage problem.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and that's as a person who treats all ages. It is challenging to treat the adults right.

Speaker 1:

It's much more because we know, right, most orthodontics don't even intervene till age 12, right, where we've already gone almost 90% of development, right? So those of us who understand airway, those of you guys who are out there treating all these patients, really want to get these kids in there before six, right? I know Dr Bounder, who we've had on who's in our county, that she's always saying that we've got to start before, for age six. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics has said that kids should be screened for mouth breathing and snoring in the first year of life. So this is recognized. Why do you think it's not so widely practiced by pediatricians and dentists? Is it just we? Just, we just aren't aware, we're just afraid to do it. I mean, why don't we know more about this?

Speaker 2:

I think overall there is not enough attention given given to sleep medicine and the importance of healthy sleep, yet alone the contribution that poor breathing can play to that. So I think there is just a lack of education. And yes, the American Academy of Pediatric Guidelines all patients children should be asked or screened for snoring before the age of one. But I know that pediatricians are very busy and they may not really have the time to click down into those questions. And even parents often they actually think their child's a good sleeper if they don't have to get up and attend to their child during the night. So I think parents also don't know what are the signs they need to look out for that snoring may not be a good thing for their child. So there's a lot of awareness that needs to be built around these topics and that's why we're doing this podcast interview.

Speaker 1:

Right, if I can reach all the way to Australia, this is very exciting. So, again, thank you for taking the time to do this. So let's review for everybody again what. What might be the signs that a parent might be looking for again, if they're not woken up in the middle of the night, they might not know. I know my younger daughter. She used to come in when she was one, two years old. She'd crawl into bed, rub my back and I thought it was great. I didn't mind until I took a sleep bath me, of course and I thought wait a minute, I don't think she should be, she should be waking up. So so tell us a little bit about signs or symptoms we should be looking for as parents.

Speaker 2:

Well, really importantly for a child to be getting full, restorative sleep. We actually want to see that they're pretty still. They should look restful, so not so much tossing, turning or sweating. We want them to be breathing silently, so we don't want to hear any.

Speaker 2:

Any snoring or any sound is a sign that there is resistance to airflow, and we also want them to have their mouth closed and breathing through their nose, and so other reflex that breathing may be often include things like teeth grinding, bedwetting for some of those older children, unusual sleep positions like neck hyper extension or sleeping on the stomach, or unexplained awakening. So yes, like some of the children that get come into mum's room in the middle of the night, we have to question what, why is it? What? What is it that is disturbing their sleep? And then, how are they in the morning? Are they waking, refreshed, are they in a good mood? Because when children don't have good quality sleep, it also plays out with symptoms like ADHD type symptoms, difficulties sitting still, hyperactivity or poor attention and concentration, difficulties with emotional regulation. So we want to consider all those factors during the nighttime, and how is a child functioning during the day?

Speaker 1:

And that's important, because I think things like ADHD, add, those kind of behavioral issues, are kind of on the rise, and so, instead of simply medicating those kids, we really need to understand because we could be doing more damage, potentially by putting them on drugs without actually discovering the cause. If it's a sleep issue and again, as children, we've got all sorts of devices and things to treat this, and it's a lot earlier, easier when we catch these things early, right? So, speaking about the kids too, what I've been seeing a lot in my practice is very enlarged tonsils and the parents will say, oh yeah, the pediatricians say it's normal and it's fine. Well, our tonsils aren't supposed to be swollen. I say this a lot just because something is common. Right, it doesn't make it normal. So talk to me a little bit about one. Why do you think tonsils and adenoids are more prominent these days? And talk to me about treatment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, yes, they do tend to peak in size around that two to three year mark, and part of it is that a child has a more narrow airway, a smaller airway, and they take up disproportionately large amount of space. And to say that they grow out of it. Well, if a child is not breathing well and it is just jebbing their sleep, we actually know that that zero to three year age group is the most critical period of brain development. If it's unaddressed at that point, a child is going to have increased risk of ADHD type symptoms or behavioral and learning concerns. So they don't really grow out of it, even if they shrink, because we don't know how it's actually impacting the way that they are supposed to grow, and so I think it's really important to recognize that.

Speaker 2:

What causes enlarged adenoids and tonsils, nobody really knows. One of the hypothesis that has been put forward by Dr Howard Stupak, ent specialist or facial plastic surgeon both of them is that it all begins with a narrow palate, and so when we have a narrow palate, it's a subclinical deficiency. It means that we have a narrow nasal floor or a narrow nasal passage, and this increases resistance to nasal airflow, and so we will be more prone to breathing through our mouth and not using our nose, and so when we actually breathe through our mouth, when we have our mouth open if you try to snore with your mouth open, you'll see it's a lot easier than with your mouth closed. It's actually more difficult airflow and we may have increased efforts to breathe, so we have to breathe harder and it actually increases the collapsibility of our airway. So when we increase the collapsibility of the airway, it's like creating vacuum pressures in our throat and this creates swelling, like the adenoids and tonsil tissue gets swollen and pulled into the center of the airway and that contributes to their swelling. So this is one hypothesis that has been put forward to. So we know that, for instance, there is research to suggest that when we widen the palate in children, they will often get significant reductions in the volume of their adenoids and tonsils. So there has been work published on this compared to children that didn't get palate expansion.

Speaker 2:

And so I do think that it is something in relation to how air is flowing that can contribute to these problems, and we want to have good nasal breathing and we can't really overlook the structural contribution of the palate to nasal breathing. The other thing that I think is a big factor that I see a lot of, I'm observing a lot of, is when we do have increased efforts to breathe, it allows stomach contents to be aerosolized inside our throat and to pull in the teeth. So I'm seeing a lot of children that have quite significant tooth wear that is related to acid or erosion, and when we look in their mouths we'll often see that their adenoids and tonsils are quite irritated as well. So we actually think that maybe this type of reflux can irritate those tonsils and adenoids and be one factor that contributes to their enlargement. And there could be many factors, but I do think that those two factors have a contribution.

Speaker 1:

That was really interesting when I was reading that in your book, to think we have plenty of children, but adults too, who have this acid erosion and we all just assume, oh, you have reflux, but could the reflex be from this poor airway? Like you said, that's creating this pressure, that's pulling that acid up. So I thought that was really, really interesting. And again, I think there's a statistic right, the 85% of people have some kind of obstructive sleep apnea and we don't even know it. And so for us dentists out there, these are the things that we can looking for. So acid erosion, that could be a component of it. Right. When we have the wearing of the teeth, right, people say that they're grinding. We in traditional dentistry and school growing it's like oh, you grind your teeth, we'll just make them a night guard. Right.

Speaker 1:

And that will solve the problem, but again why are we doing this Like?

Speaker 1:

that's not a normal function of the teeth, right? I think I learned once that normal wear of teeth is like one millimeter every 100 years. So those of us who've worn our teeth down, that's not a result of aging. There is a dysfunction right Happening in that area. So again, a lot of people have heard of sleep apnea when you think of that gasping, and we typically think of an older, overweight male. But again, I even have mild sleep apnea and I do not fit that description and I might fall more into the category of upper airway resistance syndrome. So a lot of people aren't as familiar with that term. Can you tell us a little bit about what that is and what that can cause?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So there's a whole continuum of disturbed breathing during sleep, and obstructive sleep apnea is the most severe end of the spectrum. And so to get a diagnosis you have to stop breathing for 10 seconds or more, at least five times per hour of sleep. So it's a very high threshold to get a diagnosis of a obstructive sleep apnea. So, for instance, if it's a nine second obstruction, that's not necessarily going to be counted.

Speaker 2:

And so when we have children or younger females or similar people or the premenopausal women, their sympathetic nervous systems may be more intact and they may have a final flight response to actually compensate for that narrowing of the airway. So they may not necessarily get those obstructions that last 10 seconds. But this chronic stress response may be associated with teeth grinding to kind of recruit the jaw muscles and open up their airway. So it's protective against obstructive sleep apnea. However, it's very disturbing to sleep, so it can lead to very similar symptoms. It's a constant state of sympathetic nervous system activation, and children can present with similar symptoms, like the poor attention and concentration, the difficulties with their emotional regulation. So I think that it's important that we don't diagnose by the numbers and we can recognize these more subtle forms as warning signs that things may get worse down the track.

Speaker 1:

So for adults, do you recommend? I know back in 2017, the American Dental Association recommend that dentists need to be screening for these kind of things. So do you feel like doing these now? We have so many options for home sleep studies and they're pretty accurate, but I like what you say, that's not. Don't look just specific at the number. So some of these sleep studies are really nice because we can see the pattern all night. We can see when there's some desaturations.

Speaker 1:

And just came back from an airway conference and they were saying you want to focus a little bit more on the oxygen saturation numbers versus, like you said, those numbers. Because how many times is your oxygenation levels falling below 95? Right, because that again you're triggering the sympathetic nervous system, which is letting your body with all these stress hormones, which most of us are pretty aware. That's not a good thing. And then, obviously, if we're not getting enough oxygen to our tissues, this is how we can lead to a lot of chronic inflammation, cancer, all sorts of things. So how do you feel about the at-home sleep studies?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, when I see adults, sometimes I will refer them for a sleep study to get that information to help determine treatment options. I think that when we get a diagnosis, this often opens up more options for them because people will take it more seriously. However, yeah, there's under recognition of these more subtle breathing disturbances and I think when it comes to children, even more important is ensuring nasal breathing. So we know that if a child is mouth-breathing for more than 10% of the night, they may have increased risk of problems and symptoms.

Speaker 1:

So talk to us a little bit about kids. What are some of those warning signs, how their teeth look, so that again a parent or a doctor could try to do some more investigation? What are we looking for?

Speaker 2:

What are the clues? In the mouth? Yes, well, well, I have this right in front of me, but there's a six red flags for pediatric sleep disturb breathing. I don't know if you're familiar with that one by Dr Audrey Yoon and Swoosh Sagi, or there's a whole team of people, and they identified one of the six top clues that we should be looking for, and so for Number one is mouth breathing.

Speaker 2:

When we have open mouth breathing, that is a red flag, also mental strain. So when a child closes their mouth, does they? Do they have a really dimpled appearance of their chin, because that could indicate that they don't. Their lips don't seal naturally During sleep, so that could be a warning sign. Having a look at their palate, do they have a narrow palate? Because a narrow palate is a reduced tongue space and it's also Reduced nasal passage as well. Do they have a tongue tie? Because if there is a tongue tie, their tongue will naturally sit lower Inside the mouth, and when we have low tongue posture, the base of the tongue is more floppy and it's more likely to Collapse in the base of the throat when, when the airway is more relaxed.

Speaker 2:

And so tonsils tonsils are something that we can actually look at as dentist or as parents. Inside the back of the throat, how big are the little lumps? Are they kissing tonsils towards the midline or is there a more open airway? But the top red flag inside the mouth of breathing disturbances is actually teeth grinding teeth related to where. So that is a very, very strong red flag and if a child presents with teeth grinding, we really need to be Investigating or ruling out sleep breathing disturbances. So they're the top six. There's many others to keep it simple.

Speaker 1:

Some of the others we think like with restricted jaw growth, right, ideally in baby teeth we should have big spaces right. In adult teeth we want to have no space, but in baby teeth we want to see large spaces there. There shouldn't be any crowding of baby teeth and that's another sign that the jaw isn't growing to its maximum potential we want to see. Some of the things I see often is what we call a deep bite, where the upper teeth Completely cover the lower teeth. That's another that that lower jaw is kind of restricted and maybe pushed back into the airway. Those are two things we see. So is it just genetics that our teeth are gonna be like this? I mean, I think that plays a role, but there's some other habits that can lead to poor growth development. So let's talk about what some of these like feeding habits, pacifiers, maybe even talking about a little bit of birth. How was the birth? My first daughter was pulled out with a suction and then she sucked her thumb. So I like what?

Speaker 2:

you talked about so.

Speaker 1:

So tell me a little bit about pacifiers and thumb sucking and how that can affect the development of the jaws and airway.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so really the best way to develop the palate is through tongue to palate suction during sucking, swallowing and breathing.

Speaker 2:

And this occurs even in utero. So as the tongue likely suction to the roof of the mouth during those functions, it's actually going to be nature's palate expander, so it's going to broaden the palate Broad, broaden the palate. And so when we have dummy sucking or pacifier sucking or thumb sucking, what we're actually doing is we're interfering with that normal tongue posture. We're pushing the tongue down and then we're increasing inwards sucking pressures of the lips and cheeks which are going to distort the palate, and so the impacts are going to be related to the Intensity, duration and frequency. And so the longer we have these habits, the more it's going to impact your development. And a lot of the time parents might think, oh, it's just a nighttime habit, the dump, the pacifier use. But the problem is, children are actually sleeping so much of the night, and it's that first year of life in which the jaws are the most malleable and moldable, and so it can have a very significant influence on the way that the palate is developing.

Speaker 1:

That's why another reason breastfeeding is so crucial and and not everyone's able to, we understand that but that more than just Giving the baby that nutrition, you are creating that proper tongue to the roof and the proper facial Development. So it's very interesting. In your book you talked a little bit too about craniosacral therapy at birth, and I think this was very interesting to me, obviously because, as I said, my first daughter she was pulled out with with suction and then she sucked her thumb till she was eight years old. And, as you mentioned, that thumb on the roof of the mouth, that that palate, is kind of where our two Kind of energy meridians come together in our head, and so it is a, it is a soothing mechanism. It actually stimulates neurotransmitters in the brain. So looking back, I'm like, oh, if I had known and if she had had some great craniosacral.

Speaker 1:

So any birth that involves suction forceps, anything like that and you think that baby is coming out of a very small area right, there's a lot of neck and body torsion and and so for so many years, until she had her first chiropractic point in age five, her spine, everything was a little bit out of alignment so that the thumb sucking was an actual, it was a biologic response to try to Calm and and connect her, her nervous system. So for those in moms out here, you obviously you can take away a pacifier, but you can't cut off a kid's thumb, right. So again, thinking about that thumb sucking is why do they need to soothe right? So should they get. And craniosacral is there a lot of therapists and it's a very gentle. It's not like chiropractic where we're snapping the neck or anything, but it's a very gentle therapy to try to ensure that all the the blood flow, the cerebral spinal fluid, everything, the fascia, fascia we've had a podcast about that that connects all of our Multiple and tissues and everything. So just making sure everything is fluid and flowing that allows proper brain and nervous system Development to.

Speaker 1:

So other thing we talked about other ways, as you mentioned, with a pacifier, getting that suction in, any suction pressing on the outside of teeth, like with our muscles, can create narrow jaws.

Speaker 1:

And one of the big things in the last decade or so are these little food pouches, and I used them too. I didn't know any better. But again that sucking action, like you said, suck in a straw, suck you on those pouches. If we're kids are having one of those every single Day, we're again creating that pressure that's causing more of the the narrow jaws. So something to be aware of as soon as we can. We want those kids feeding, eating with their fingers, using a spoon, and that's a big chewing to write chewing. That was just gonna say right. So talks us a little bit about the importance of chewing and how that now in modern life, where everything is so soft and the Typical first foods of babies were not getting that jaw development. Like you see in those pictures of cavemen, I who had the really wide jaws and no cavities and no crooked teeth, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2:

Anthropologists have actually found that there was a significant increase in the prevalence of crooked teeth around a few hundred years ago with industrialization, and so they relate it to the more processed diets and food that doesn't require as much chewing, and mothers going to work, and the reduction in breastfeeding. So prior to that, breastfeeding may have been done up to three years in combination with the solids. So then there was more introduction of formulas, bottles, pacifiers, so these type of factors have led to that increase in the incidence of crooked teeth, which is really a symptom of poor jaw development, and so we want to utilize those muscles, because form follows function, and when we use those muscles well, it will build stronger bone.

Speaker 1:

It's really important. We even, you know, giving the kids the finger foods and letting them kind of explore but use the jaws is really vital. But we tend to give them the cereals and the mush up the bananas and stuff like that. So it's important that they absolutely don't want them to choke, but getting them in the idea of chewing as soon as possible. Also, in your book you talked a little bit about, there is a spend some night guard study. So I know, like we said, we've been trained at dental school, you've got grinding, you've got wear, let's just throw a night guard on it. There's been some studies and actually right before we got on today there's Dr Gelb is doing a webinar talking about night guards. Like, is it good, Is it not good? So tell us a little bit about some of the studies, what you know about why they may not be the proper solution.

Speaker 2:

Well, night time grinding can often be a symptom of poor airway and it's a stress response to keep the airway open. So we're not really addressing the root cause if we put this night guard in someone's mouth. But there was one particular study, a pilot study by Giles Levine 10 patients, but six out of 10, they had an aggravation of sleep-disturbed breathing with the appliance placed inside their mouth. So what's happening when we put an occlusal splint in a person's mouth is it opens up their bite. And when we open up their bite and their lower jaw rotates down and backwards, that can encroach on the airway. It takes up airway space. So we're actually worsening their airway. And so in those type of situations where a person is not breathing well, they may be better off with some sort of splint that repositions their lower jaw forward, Because that can actually help to open up the airway.

Speaker 1:

And when Dr Lea was on he talked about that too that the mandibular advancement devices he's like it's the better step than just a night guard, but still not all the way as actually growing the palate, moving everything forward again as adults. That is more challenging to get people to do. I think people understand it, but having to wear some kind of device for 20 hours a day while you're working and living life can be a challenge for some people and that's why people like you and I and Dr Ballinger and so many others are trying to emphasize that we need to do this as early as possible, right when they are young kids and, like I said, ideally even before six, because already at six we're seeing so much of development and the habits right, a lot of the habits we want to correct. There's swallowing issues, right, and their speech.

Speaker 1:

The tongue ties, these kinds of things that we can address at an early age and then use myofunctional therapy to retrain right the muscle. The tongue is a muscle right, so we need to basically retrain the muscle where it needs to be. So what else? So we know most people are familiar with CPAP. If you're diagnosed with apnea, that's still considered the gold standard, which is basically just kind of forcing air down your throat. There are some side effects to that, because you're constantly putting pressure onto the airway and that can cause collagen changes and cause the airway to become a little more slack. So sometimes we have to keep upping the pressure and upping the pressure. A lot of times people wear the mask right and that can even in adults start collapsing the facial muscle, which again then pushes things back too. We have the mandibular advancement devices. Now there's something new that you may see on television here in the US called I forget the name brand they're calling but it's basically a hypoglossal nerve stimulator.

Speaker 1:

So they talk about something being implanted, either like in the shoulder or in the neck area. What is that device?

Speaker 2:

Hyperglocent nerve stimulation. Yes, so there is a sensor placed in the chest and it measures the efforts of the breathing and it can tell when there's going to be an obstruction and then it sends a signal to the hypoglossal nerve to actually fire away. So it increases the strength of the tongue basically, so we can improve the tone of the tongue. Sometimes could be referred to as electrical myotherapy to actually get the tongue working better. So this could have a role in some patients.

Speaker 1:

The idea of that is just frightening to me. I said the idea of that is just frightening to me. To be like while you're trying to sleep and you're getting kind of shocked and having something implanted versus actually fixing the problem is restructuring the jaw and people will say, well, after 12 years old or 13, 18, whatever it is, you can't reposition, you can't change the jaws. But we know that that's absolutely untrue. In my own practice I have moved 40 and 50 year olds jaws and teeth and had some really positive experiences there and I think that if you have a jaw surgery it can cause you can't be done. That's not true. We know through the study of epigenetics that our body can constantly change. We can constantly improve with the right stimulus and obviously we can worsen with the improper stimuluses too. So what else do you want our audience to know about airway and how to address it?

Speaker 2:

What else? Well, I think that a lot of the things that we do is bandaging these problems, and I think it's really important that we try to promote airway health, and airway health is really about promoting nasal breathing and airway structure and airway form. So, rather than be for adults, I think, instead of having to offer them CPAP and mandibular advancement devices all the time, I think that even adults should get that opportunity to be able to restore their structure through these skeletal surgeries like adult palate expansion and jaw surgeries that advance the jaws forward. And at the end of the day, we have to improve the function through myofunctional therapy of the tongue good, and to restore nasal breathing. So that people can do this 24 seven, they don't have to rely on just nighttime symptoms. So I think that that's a really important key for overall health and wellness and adults need to be aware of this.

Speaker 2:

But our best opportunity is if we can deal with this, with growing children, because if we can help growing children, we can develop their airway as well. But this will also spare them a lot of the problems that I'm seeing in the adults, as many problems that I deal with, whether it's a child that has difficulty with their breastfeeding and they've been told by 15 different people that it's normal not to worry about it. Or I see the ADHD children that are having a lot of difficulties. I think the most despairing ones for me are going to be the adults that have suffered the decades of these consequences, and you look in their mouth and think this could have been preventable and how much have they suffered because of it. So I do think it is important that we do all that we can to optimize this. The children and it's really important like to do shows like yours as well as like parents spreading the word as well. It's all making a difference to bring airway health to the mainstream.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and some people may not realize, but you know that obstructed airway, that hypoxic or less oxygenation when we're sleeping, is a major risk factor for blood pressure. I was just listening to a podcast yesterday and said that's one of the two key causes of high blood pressure is not getting enough oxygenation while we sleep. Right, metabolic disease there's. I think the statistic is that 95% I don't know if it's the whole population of just America but even people like me, who may be skinny and appear healthy on the outside, have metabolic dysfunction right and so and as I already said, I have a little bit of that mild, mild apnea. I have since expanded my airway here.

Speaker 1:

But poor growth in children, right, we talked about that too. But things like diabetes, obviously, the heart disease, cancer, all of those things have if we're not breathing and getting proper oxygenation. That's something that really needs to be looked at. When I see my patients with all these chronic diseases, I'm encouraging them. We need to do a sleep study, right, we need to, because if we can get better oxygenation, we're going to help your body deal with all this, the onslaught of the inflammation that's occurring everywhere. So I think it's just like we get. We go to the doctor once a year. Maybe we have, as women, we have annual pap smears, all these things for prevention.

Speaker 1:

It's so much easier to prevent something that it is to treat it, and that's one of my my passions and one of the reasons I wanted to start this podcast and speak to people like you is we've got to create this and we've got to let people know that all of these things are preventable. We just need to be aware of them. We need to understand what we can do and get help to to create these things. Even just talking about myofunctional therapy, there are so many great things. This is something that can be done on Zoom right. You don't have to do so much family. Something you can do right in the comfort of your own home. And that's my children do they? Their myofunctional therapist is three states away, but they meet once a month and they go through all the, all the exercises they wear, they've been expanded, all this kind of stuff. And I didn't find out really to my kids. We're a little bit older but still, even at six and eight, we were still able to expand and they're still as teenagers now. We're still going through the, the myofunctional therapy, because I don't want them to end up with apnea. And it's a nice way also, when you get it early enough, that the teeth will develop straight, right, they won't be crooked and hopefully they won't need any braces, because you've corrected the reason why teeth come in crooked in the first place. So again, the sooner we can recognize these I mean, you can see these things and as soon as babies start getting their their first teeth and it's a great way for us as providers to have that conversation with, with the adults try to get these things kind of nipped in the bud as early as possible.

Speaker 1:

So again, dr Schram has written this great book. It's called Breathe, sleep Thrive. It's a very well written, has great pictures and it's a very easy, fun read. So really want to kind of dive in and get more information. Definitely you can get it right anywhere like Amazon or any anywhere that books are sold. It's really good. When I was at the conference last week I saw somebody walking around with it and I was like, oh, it's so, so exciting. So we're trying to get that word out there. So if you are a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a godparent, this is kind of a great christening gift, maybe to take it to the, the baby shower, so that we can get as many kids off to the best start as possible? So, dr Lim, as we're kind of closing up here, are there any other final words or anything else you want to leave the audience with?

Speaker 2:

No, thank you, Rachel, for the opportunity. I think Airway Health is such an important topic and I loved how you summed it up in terms of all the chronic health diseases, that we see this really getting right down to the root level of how we can actually improve people's wellness Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And if anybody has any questions or concerns or would like to reach out to, is there some way that they could get in touch with you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, they can just go through DrSharineLimcomau, the website that hasa contact us page, or through Facebook Instagram.

Speaker 1:

Great. So this is very exciting, this transcontinental awareness that we're making here. So I'm excited that we've got a chance to talk and you keep doing your thing down under and we'll keep doing our thing here and making the world a better, more breathing, more efficiently, full world right. Try to have a better generation coming up.

Speaker 2:

Thanks so much, Rachel All right.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, dr Lim, and for everybody else. I'll see you on the next episode. Have a great day.