The Root of The Matter
Welcome to the world of biologic dentistry! Meet your host, Dr. Rachaele Carver, who presents a comprehensive overview of biologic dentistry and interviews amazing holistic, functional medicine doctors and health practitioners. Dr. Rachaele Carver, D.M.D. is a Board-Certified, Biologic, Naturopathic Dentist & Certified Health Coach.
She owns and practices at Carver Family Dentistry in North Adams, Mass. She is on a mission to provide the best quality holistic dentistry available and educate the world about biologic dentistry.
Learn from one of the best biologic holistic dentists in the country easy, effective methods of improving your dental and oral health and how to use this to improve your overall health!
Did you know that many people with a chronic or recurring disease or physical condition can be greatly helped by improving their oral health?
Find out how biologic dentistry can help with disease prevention or eradication. Become your own oral health advocate! Find the best dentist for you.
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The Root of The Matter
Natural Wellness Strategies for Modern Living With Dr. Rachaele Carver
Kickstart your 2025 with a fresh perspective on achieving health goals as we unravel the secrets to maintaining resolutions and embracing change. Through personal anecdotes, I reveal my ambitions for the year, including expanding my dental practice, teaching at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and considering boarding school for my children. Discover the power of keeping your goals visible and how writing them down can fuel your determination and success throughout the year.
Join me on a journey to balance mental and physical wellness amidst life's chaos. Experience the calming effects of Qigong as a daily moving meditation, and learn why traditional meditation didn't quite work for me. I also discuss the energizing benefits of red light therapy and efficient strength training solutions like the Mirror subscription. As someone who loves natural beauty products, I share my favorite picks and tips for detoxifying our bodies using infrared saunas and activated charcoal to combat environmental toxins.
Our conversation with Dr. Rachaele Carver, a leading naturopathic and biologic dentist, sheds light on the staggering prevalence of gum disease and its broader health implications. Learn about practical, holistic methods to enhance your well-being, from ozone therapy and nutrient-dense foods to mastering sleep through circadian rhythm alignment. We're bringing you insights on optimizing health with wearable technology and simple yet effective oral health practices that could prevent serious diseases, leaving you empowered to be your own best health advocate.
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
Reverse Gum Disease In 6 Weeks! With Dr. Rachaele Carver Online Course!
Learn more about here: https://reversegumdiseaseinsixweeks.info/optinpage
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.
Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Root of the Matter. I am your host, dr Rachel Carver. I really want to thank everybody who's been tuning in to the podcast. I actually recently just got a note from somebody all the way out in Scotland, so that's just really encouraging to me, knowing that our message is getting out there, that we're creating awareness, that people are looking for ways to help themselves and their families, and that's what this is all about. This is not something I do to make money, but rather something that I do that I feel so passionate about because I just want everybody to be able to be their own best doctor, and the only way we can do that is if we have the knowledge to learn and to create the best lives for ourselves. So thank you again for all of my listeners. I really appreciate all of you and thank you for supporting me. You can also support us by giving us a five-star review. The more reviews we have, the more people who will see or listen to our podcast and, again, the more we can spread the wonderful message and wisdom. So we're coming up on our third season of the podcast already, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:I can't believe how much time has gone by and you know I get people all the time asking me to do some more solo episodes. You know they tell me they love my interviews but they want to hear more from me. So Ryan and I my wonderful producer and editor have decided to kind of come up with a different plan for this year. So, while I will continue to do my interviews, because I just love to learn and I have so much fun listening and meeting new people and learning new things and challenging my way of thinking because you know the thing about knowledge, the thing about science, right, it's not stagnant. The only way we ever really make progress is if we keep questioning the status quo. And that's what I think is so exciting about doing podcasts. You know, I always thought that I wanted to write a book, but then the more I thought about it, you know the book here, you write it and you know, by the time it's published, maybe some of that knowledge is already passe and it's not relevant anymore. So you know it's exciting to be able to do a podcast and keep learning, and so I can keep treating my patients better and better, learning more things, just to improve all of our lives. So we decided that at least once a month, I'm going to do a solo podcast and you know we will theme it for months of the year.
Speaker 1:And since it is January of 2025, I wanted to start out the year with kind of you know my favorite things, and people ask me all the time you know, how do I have time to fit everything in? And I think it really comes down to priorities. We always make time for things that we love. We always make time for things that line up with our values. So, you know, january, it's always a time brand new year we're thinking about what do we want to accomplish this year? What should our goals be? You know, is it losing weight? Is it getting healthier? You know, there are really some common themes, but the other common theme is that usually by the end of January, we've all almost given up. And so why is that? What is the problem?
Speaker 1:I think we often think in our logical brains. You know, yes, I want to lose weight and I want to be in shape by that, by summer vacation. Right, I want to start eating healthier. Right, we all know how to eat healthier, but it's complicated, you know. We're so busy, we feel stressed, we don't plan ahead. You know there's all of these things that kind of complicate. You know our best interest too.
Speaker 1:So what are some advice maybe that I can give all of you? How do I get my goals accomplished? And I think the most important thing is to write it down. So if we really want to accomplish something, we need to actually physically write it down and put it somewhere where we see it every single day, multiple times during the day. So, for instance, possibly, boarding school, which I never, ever thought I would want to send my kids away to school. You know, I just feel like I have so much wisdom and I want to teach them everything. But let's be honest, you know those of you who are parents of teenagers it's really hard for them to appreciate the wisdom that we want to give them. So, you know, I'm hoping that maybe they will be able to be accepted into a boarding school and then have the option. Whether or not that comes true I don't know, but I wrote that down.
Speaker 1:I also wrote down that I would like to be able to teach for the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I got my health coaching degree there 10 years ago now, which is crazy to think, and I think it's a wonderful platform, but they don't have anything specifically related to oral health, which, as you all know, is absolutely vital to our overall health. And for all of these health coaches out there, I think it's really, really important that we're training them to look for those things. I think the oral connection, oral disease it can be a missing link in a lot of these chronic illnesses we have. So that was my second goal, and my third one is to bring in a partner to my practice. You know I'm so busy and I love what I do, but you know we're booking out so far and I want to not only be able to provide all of my patients with the best possible care, but good access to care so we can see everyone in a timely manner. And I want to share all my knowledge, wisdom and skills with somebody else who wants to be able to practice whole body dentistry, who really cares about treating the whole person. So I wrote those three goals down and have them right next to my computer and I see them every single time I come up between patients and I read them, you know, over and over and over again. So I think that is one super easy, crucial step.
Speaker 1:So if it is to, I want to eat healthy. You know, the more that we see that, the more that our brain is processing. So it's not just a hope kind of thing. There's actually, you know, physiology and quantum energy that goes into looking at something, thinking about something, reading something. It's that whole idea of manifestation, which is kind of a complex topic, but you know, but it's, it's real and I've seen it, my kids have seen it, my kids know all about it, they know how to manifest. And again, it's just, we all have the ability to choose the life we want and it's a matter of putting in a little bit of that work but envisioning that life you want, the future you want, whatever that goal is you want.
Speaker 1:Maybe this is the year that you have perfect oral health, right, and you know I'll put a little plug in. I have my brand new course, you know, six weeks to help reverse and stop gum disease. You know it's a quick and easy course, not expensive, and really when we get that oral health, they're really the basics of how we create good oral health, but a lot of it is really fundamentally how we create overall health, because if you've been listening to this podcast. You know they go hand in hand. So, again, you know I didn't pick a hundred different goals, right, just three specific ones that I want to focus on, you know, and maybe in a few months I'm going to focus on other goals, but for now that's where I'm trying to put my energy. So I also want to talk about you know where. How do I have time and how do I learn all this? You know, I do.
Speaker 1:I love to read, I'm a very, very curious person, but I do have limited time. So, you know, probably my favorite way to get information is through podcasts. I have about a 25 minute ride to work to and from and so I love, I love listening to my podcast. So I'll tell you, you know different kinds of categories. You know, my favorite one to learn about new and upcoming kind of like longevity strategies is Dave Asprey's the Human Upgrade.
Speaker 1:It was formerly Bulletproof Radio. He's a really, you know, interesting guy. He has a lot of really interesting people who come on and, again, he wants to live till he's 180. So he's always talking about ways to enhance the human experience and recently he's gotten more into the energy and the quantum. So it's exciting, he's really embodying kind of the holistic view of health, so that's a fun one that I always love to listen to For personal growth.
Speaker 1:My aunt actually introduced me to the Mel Robbins podcast. It's one of the top five, I think, in the world. Mel Robbins is a really fabulous, down-to-earth woman who actually just lived not that far away from me in Southern Vermont, and she talks a lot about mental health, emotional health, gives great strategies, has lots of wonderful resources, and I often save a lot of her podcasts and I want my kids to listen to them because I'm always trying to teach them at their young age how can we be the best versions of ourselves? And so that's a great one, and when I need a little pick-me-up, I love what's in it. To Mel Robbins, one of my other favorites is Integrative Radio with doctors Nick and Nicole, and they are really fabulous. They call it a disruptive podcast. I met them through Cellcor and they just have again a really wonderful way of looking outside the box at different health issues. You know how is health related to mental, emotional things that we talk about? I had Dr Nick on the podcast too, so I really love how they incorporate all the different aspects of health but related to a specific condition. So that's fabulous.
Speaker 1:I'm really big into energy medicine those of you who you know listen to me and so I love my friend and colleague, dr Christine Schatzner, who was just on, also she has. I mean, she's a brilliant, brilliant doctor and she has a wonderful podcast called the Spectrum of Health. She also interviews all sorts of people about so many different topics, but she definitely has a spin on the energy side, the quantum world, so she's just really fascinating. And lastly, probably is my other good buddy, who is the one who encouraged me to do the podcast in the first place, kelly Kennedy, who is the Lip Queen. Hers is the Flow Podcast, f-l-o-w-e, and she really talks a lot about the fascia, the lymph. I think that's kind of the missing organ system in the body, you know, other than kind of oral health we forget about. Not a lot of people talk about. You know, the fascia and how that integrates every aspect of the body and the lymph Lymph often gets so clogged up, you know, supposed to be our drainage system. So many of us have the inability to detox well because our elimination organs don't work really well. So, understanding how to use simple tools, you know, just like your hands and doing simple tapping on the body. She has a lot of great resources also. So those are some of my favorite podcasts that I listen to all the time when I'm trying to get more information and I often you know, sometimes take some of their guests. They will interview somebody. I'm like that's really fascinating. I like to talk to them a little bit and see how they put the oral health spin on it. So those are all great.
Speaker 1:When I come also to think about, you know, my mental health and stress, you know I have a very busy, busy schedule a big team raising kids, all those things and it's really important for me. I can be definitely a type A person, definitely kind of live in that sympathetic nervous system a lot of the time. And what I've found really works for me is not meditation, unfortunately. Dr Nick taught me great meditation this summer and it was absolutely amazing. But I think maybe I can do it guided, but on my own I'm not good. I always feel like I wake up at 530 in the morning and I have a limited time to get in my exercise before the kids get up, before I have to make breakfast.
Speaker 1:So what I found works for me is Qigong. I used to do yoga but I found yoga kind of too slow and my mind would be too busy and I, you know, and I'm very inflexible, so I found yoga to be very hard. But Qigong is like a moving meditation and I subscribe to the channel Yuqi Y-O-Q-I. It's a very inexpensive monthly subscription. She has tons and tons of videos, anywhere from 15 minute exercises to hour long exercises, and it's just a wonderful way that I set my energy, and my team members can tell you they know the days that I don't get a chance to do my Qigong, if I do it first, I am setting my energy in a very calm space and also putting almost like a protective energy ball around me, because, you know, I interact with a lot of people all day long and most people are not that excited to see me, right, and so by having that strong energy field going into work, it keeps me strong, it keeps me focused, keeps me energized, and I literally do 15 to 20 minutes every day standing in front of my red light panels.
Speaker 1:I love my red light panels, especially where I live in the Northeast, where it's cold and dark this time of year, getting in some of that red energy, because unfortunately I can't go out early in the morning and stand in the sunshine. One, it's too cold. Two, a lot of days there is no sunshine, so I really rely a lot on my red light panels, especially in the wintertime, to get me some of the good light at work. I have a full spectrum light that I have next to my computer screen that will be on and again trying to give me some of that light that I may not be getting as much in the winter Anything to kind of ward off those depressive blues and you know the winter blues as we call them. So I'm a big fan of Qigong and I also. My husband bought the mirror, so we have that wonderful subscription and one of my other goals not written down, but maybe I also my husband bought the mirror, so we have that wonderful subscription and one of my other goals not ring down, but maybe I should because I'm not being as good and strict sticking to this one. But I'm gonna be 47 next month, so it's really important that I start maintaining my muscle and building that muscle.
Speaker 1:So trying to do three days a week of my strength training and on the mirror. I have so many different options and that's feeling really good. And, again, I can do a 30 minute workout. You know, the more science we're understanding is we don't have to kill ourselves two hours in the gym, right? The high intensity interval training is shown to be not only as effective, but maybe even more beneficial and healthier than you know. A two hour aerobic workout and a HIIT exercise, as it's called, could be 15 minutes, and every so often I will do this on my elliptical machine in the morning, where I might warm up, you know, low intensity, for about five minutes, and then I hit it as hard as I can for 30 seconds. Then I give myself a few minutes to calm down and I hit another 30 seconds as fast as I can go, another few minutes and then one more 30 second high intensity, as fast, as hard as I can go, and I'm done takes about 15 minutes and I feel very, very accomplished. And you know, again, I have all that other time to do everything else I want to do. So that's a wonderful way that I try and stay in shape. So that's a wonderful way that I try and stay in shape.
Speaker 1:So how about my favorite beauty products? Right, I don't I'm not one really to wear much makeup. You know, when I go to work I'm wearing scrubs, my hair is all tied back, so, you know, not really a beauty contest there, but I do want to have healthy, clean skin. I obviously want to have nice oral hygiene, but I also want to be careful of the products that I use, because this is where the average woman may put a hundred chemicals on or in her body before she even goes to work, right Between the shampoo and the hair and the toothpaste and the mouth rinse and on and on, and on and on. So one of my favorite brands for face wash is Purity Woods. They have great exfoliation and face wash, all sorts of products, some moisturizers, all very natural ingredients and they feel really good on my skin. So I feel good.
Speaker 1:I love the Primal Life Organics. They have a ton of products, both oral care, body care, face care again, all very natural products. My favorite toothpaste is for biting. I love this toothpaste and I have seen the proof in some of my oral saliva tests that this really, because it's built on vitamins, minerals, prebiotics, that it really builds the good bacteria in the body. And if you've been listening to my podcast, you know I say all the time that it's not about killing the bad, it's about supporting the good. So the more of the nutrition that we provide for our body, the better off we are, and I think Revitalant is very, very good at supporting the good.
Speaker 1:Now sometimes I feel like, because there's not much grit to that, I feel like I need something a little grittier to clean my teeth, and so then I might switch to the Primal Life Organics. They're all clay-based toothbrush. So you know, the thing about products is I'm always switching. You know I don't use the same thing every day for months and months on end. I don't think that's necessarily healthy for us. Same thing with supplements. You know, our body will get too used to something right, and so he can kind of switch around.
Speaker 1:There's lots of good brands out there. I'm just naming some of the ones that I've been using frequently, but I do rotate the products. I love the Akame Floss. It's fulvic acid, it's black. So not only can you see the plaque you're getting out between your teeth, the fulvic and humic acids are supplying a lot of electrolytes and amino acids between the teeth, right where the toothbrush can't reach. So those are often where we find cavities between the teeth. A toothbrush bristle can't get there. So having those, the extra minerals and electrolytes, the nutrition between the teeth, will also prevent those between the teeth cavities. You know that's when if you have to go over and have a filling, you have to have the wedge and the band and all that uncomfortable stuff. So if we can avoid those cavities between the teeth, all the better.
Speaker 1:Some of my favorite ways to detox right. So this is very, very important In today's day and age. You know, you've heard me say we've got about 80,000 chemicals in our environment today. Most of them have not been studied. We don't know all the effects, but you cannot deny the amount of chronic disease in our country today have to be detoxing. You know, our liver and our kidneys and our bowels, they just weren't designed for this onslaught of chemicals that we have today. So how do we support our kidneys, our liver, our bowels right, our lymph? Like we have to sweat.
Speaker 1:You know, years and years ago when I first had my eczema, I never sweat. I got in my sauna. I could stay there for 30 minutes and not break a sweat Like that's not a good thing. You know, as women we may think it's polite not to sweat very much, but that's not necessarily a healthy thing. Right, sweat is the natural way that we get rid of our toxins, especially heavy metals. So I'm a big fan of saunas. I have a near infrared sauna that I've had in my house for years and years and years. We have a far infrared one at the office, and there are many iterations of saunas, you know, and there's a lot of, you know, conflicting. What's better? Near or far, do you want to have? You know. So full spectrum may be your best bet. But again, the point is that you're going to have little different aspects, little different bits of detoxification, but as long as you're sweating, you are getting something out right. So it's really important.
Speaker 1:Before you go in a sauna, maybe you take some binders. So whether that's an activated charcoal, a pectin-based product, bentonite clay obviously you've all heard me talk about Cellcor I always take a Viradchem binder before I go in the sauna, because that is a little bit of the biotox, a little bit of the heavy metal, and then also get some chemicals as well. So any kind of binder will be helpful before you go in the sauna. And then I also take a very large glass or my you know 30 ounce water bottle full of electrolytes, right. As we know, when we sweat is very salty, right, so we're losing all of our sodium, the chloride, all those electrolytes are really important for absorbing water. So when we go in the sauna we sweat that out. We need to replenish all of those electrolytes so that we don't become too dry Somebody.
Speaker 1:For me who tends towards constipation and dryness, it's really really important. If I want to keep my bowels moving properly, they need to stay moisturized. So, again, it's not just pure water. We need to have those electrolytes in order to absorb the water. So if you're somebody who can drink and drink and drink and you pee all day long, you know you may not be absorbing that much water. So always think about electrolytes.
Speaker 1:Some of my favorites are the Ultima brand, you know, but a squeeze of a lemon or lime and a pinch of sea salt, like real salt Redmond's real salt is perfect. You know you don't have to get the fancy ones with the flavor, because often they do have chemicals and stevia, and you know they say natural sugars, but still it's better. You know, if you want it a little sweeter, then put a little cane sugar. If you need to, you know, if you want it a little sweeter, then put a little cane sugar if you need to, you know. But the electrolytes are very, very important. So sauna is one of my favorite.
Speaker 1:The foot bath. So we have the ionic foot bath that I use a few times a week. And one thing people often get confused because if you sit in there the water gets very grimy and gross looking right, and that is not the toxins being pulled out of your body. What the foot bath is doing, it's literally putting electricity right into the water. It's just kind of like, if you've ever heard of grounding, when we go outside in our bare feet, we are pulling electrons from the earth up into our body. You know, hugging a tree same kind of thing. We're pulling the electrons out of that tree into our body. So in the wintertime, when, if you live up north, like I do, and you can't really go out barefoot, well you can, but I prefer not to freeze my butt off. So the ionic foot bath is another way to pump electrons into the body and for the next three days it has an effect of changing those, those like ion gated channels.
Speaker 1:You know, in our kidneys. We, we, they talk a lot about this. We need to have charge in ourselves in order for nutrients to come in and for toxins to come out. If we don't have enough charge in our body, this is when we get sick or really run down. Right, we can't get those toxins out, we can't get the nutrients in. So the more charge we have, the more. You can also think of it like prana or chi, right, all of these things are different, cultures are life force, right, and it all. If you really get into the nitty gritty about how the heart pumps, right, there are some people say heart isn't really a pump. It's really the electricity in the body that's allowing the blood to flow deep into these itty bitty capillaries. So foot bath is one really, really good way to get energy in there so that your kidneys can help to offload a lot of those toxins, right? So again, same thing I'm taking binders when I do that.
Speaker 1:I also really love coffee enemas. People kind of poo-poo and get squeamish about it. But I'm telling you, once you do it, once it feels amazing, once you kind of understand the ins and outs, how it works, how to position yourself, it is a fantastic feeling. I have so much energy after I do a coffee enema. You guys, I will give you a link to instructions on the type of coffee enemas I like to do. You can buy an enema kit right on Amazon, or very simple, you don't need a lot of setup, easy to do. But another really good way to get the kidney. So coffee enemas. The idea is you try to lay on your right side so that coffee can go right into the portal vein up into the liver, right, because we know the liver is where we're processing a lot of those toxins. So we kind of give that liver a boost, help it kind of flush out all the toxins that have been sitting in there, and again just giving our liver a boost.
Speaker 1:Now some people say you got to be careful. Too much coffee and caffeine can be very taxing for the kidney. So I think that's true. But you know if you were going to go do some cancer treatment, you know one that you go to a specialized clinic. They may have you doing two enemas a day, you know, for a week or two to really get the you know the detox going. Now, if you're just trying it for the first time, or maintenance, you know you certainly don't need to do that often but definitely, you know, good idea to talk somebody about it before you go right to that, because if you do have sensitive kidneys you do need to be really careful.
Speaker 1:And there are other types of enemas. You can just do water. I found a herbal company that has a nice herbal one, you know that just helps especially, like I said, for me I need to keep everything moisturized, so I have one that's just full of herbs. That just helps keep the mucus layer, you know, working properly. So a lot of different options there. I mentioned red light. I do red light probably every single day. Red light is known to stimulate your mitochondria and anybody who's interested in longevity and living longer and being healthier. We need to keep our mitochondria working efficiently. Mitochondria is what helps us create good immunity and it's what gives us energy, and so really, really important that we're doing our best to support them, not only with our food but with light. People don't really understand how much light is a nutrient and we've done a bunch of podcasts to explain that, so check those out if you're interested in learning a little more. I also love Epsom salt. Detox baths right, you just throw a cup into a nice warm bath or you can just put it in as a foot soap.
Speaker 1:But magnesium is one of those minerals that is lacking for most people, and this is mostly because our soils have become so deficient. Our food is much less nutrient dense than it used to be a generation ago, and magnesium is responsible for over 300 different enzyme reactions in the body and that's why it gets depleted so quickly. And the good thing is, magnesium is well absorbed through the skin. So I often tell my patients you know, if I see a lot of calculus building up on their teeth, you know to me that's showing some kind of calculus imbalance. Could be from several things, but a lot of. But what we do know is magnesium helps keep calcium in solution. So if you're seeing a lot of calculus or you build that a lot on the back of your teeth, you know that makes me concerned. Does that mean you're building calculus in your arteries also? Right? So let's get some more magnesium on board so you can take supplements. You can do a detox back. They have magnesium lotions, sprays, you know all sorts of great ways, but with Epsom salt bath that can cause a little bit of detox too. But again, you'll also get some good magnesium.
Speaker 1:I also really love castor oil packs. So this is again something you can order a whole kit and wonderful way to get circulation. So, as I said, you know a lot of people have sluggish livers and we've talked about it a lot but people don't really realize. You know, diabetes, blood sugar issues. That's often because the liver is overloaded, it's not doing its job properly. It can protect the pancreas and we always think of diabetes is all about just blood sugar in the pancreas, but the liver is a key factor in that too.
Speaker 1:So the castor oil you rub a little bit on, put the flannel over your stomach, a nice hot water bottle I don't really recommend a heating pad because we don't want that dirty electricity but a nice, you know, warm, warm bottle. That way you can sleep all night with it if you choose to. And the castor oil the acid that's in the castor oil is really, really good about dilating blood vessels, which is really crucial. If we want to be able to cleanse ourselves, get things moving, we have to have really good circulation, so it helps us clear the lymph. It's really good for any menstrual issues that you have and you can use castorol anywhere in your body. Just caution that it can stain. So you've got to be careful. Don't wear your favorite pajamas because you might ruin them. So something black, you know, maybe a towel down, but you can use it on your thyroid. You can use it on your eyes Any sore muscle, you know, is a great, great way. And Queen of Thrones have really good packs and have elastics and they have a small one that fits perfectly on the thyroid that you can use over your eyes and other small areas like a wrist. But she has a couple of different sizes that make it good to be able to utilize all over the body.
Speaker 1:I really like that Ozone. You guys have heard me talk about ozone An excellent way to clear out infections. So you can do it as an ear insufflation, a nasal insufflation, you can use it rectally or vaginally. We can do an IV of ozone. So that's something I probably do for myself once a month just to try to clear out my blood, make sure I don't have lots of weird things, you know, coming on. It allows more oxygen to be delivered to the cells, which we know is absolutely vital to protect against cancer.
Speaker 1:I have one of my best buddies, my dental rep. We got him an ozone machine after he'd had a couple of bouts of cancer and you know, knock on wood, he's doing great since he has that and no recurrence. So I love that for him. And he was able to do it at home. He got his own kit, was totally affordable for him and that's exciting because he's so young and you know that's a pressing concern, always thinking about that. So I love that.
Speaker 1:Flowpresso is another great tool that we have for those of us who might have clogged lymph. Flowpresso is a whole body suit suit basically, and there's also pulse, electromagnetic frequency in it. So it warms you as it's kind of massaging all the lymph to help us get rid of all those. So and lastly, you know, sometimes I'll stand in front of my red light and I take my tuning fork and I will hit that and I will rub that all over my body for about five minutes. That's another good way to get the blood flowing. It's every tuning fork has a different frequency, right, and different frequencies are allow our body to do certain things, whether it's detox or increased energy. Again, there's so many different, different areas of the body like different frequencies, so it's very simple, kind of easy way to get that lymph flowing. It's a great way to get rid of cellulite, believe it or not. And you can buy biofield tuning from Eileen McKusick. I mean, her sonic slider is a little over a hundred dollars, you know. It's not a huge investment for absolutely amazing outcomes in five minutes a day. Great, great way to get that energy flowing.
Speaker 1:As I said, energy is life, so the more energy we have, the more able we can conquer everything in our day. So let's talk about supplements. What are my favorite supplements? We already went into magnesium. You know that's the number one thing that I wrote down right. So in today's world, as I said, because our food is so less nutrient dense than it used to be, so it's frustrating. But you know there's there's a whole movement coming with this regenerative farming and you know who knows what this new administration is going to bring. There's a lot of promises coming out here, so let's just hope for the best. Let's hope that we can encourage everyone to start farming better farming for the good of humanity, that we can reduce the seed oils, reduce the high fructose corn syrup I think those are two of the worst things for our human health and the glyphosate all of the pesticides and herbicides that are used are basically antibiotics.
Speaker 1:I think we don't realize that and herbicides that are used are basically antibiotics. I think we don't realize that. You know, everybody talks about being gluten sensitive, but while there may be, you know people who are sensitive to the wheat and the gluten, I think the glyphosate named Stephanie Senna from MIT has recently come out stating that she believes a lot of this sensitivity is coming from the glyphosate, which you know it's probably a combination of all these things that all these things are toxic. Our gut isn't used to that, right, and every time we know now, right, that antibiotics it's becoming a problem. They're so overused. We're getting an antibiotic resistance, right. We know it can kill our gut anywhere from three to 12 months to recover right. But if we're eating wheat every day laden with antibiotics, you know this is why we have such immune problems, right, because we're killing off all of the good immunity, all of the good bugs that enable us to absorb our nutrients. They help us stay immune to the more dangerous things. So it's a really, really important.
Speaker 1:You know we can't all afford organic all the time, but every single year, you know, we come out with the dirty dozen and the clean 15. So look that up. You know, if you have to, can only buy certain things organic, then definitely go for the things. Think about things with thin skins, right, strawberries, grapes, but something like a banana which is a thicker skin, you know, don't, don't waste your money on organic for that. You thicker skin. You know, don't waste your money on organic for that. You know it's not a problem. Peppers, you know those often you know it's so thin that the pesticides really get in there. So you know again, the more nutrient dense food we have, the healthier we'll be.
Speaker 1:So magnesium my second biggest thing is minerals, minerals, minerals, minerals, minerals. You know people ask me about fluoride all the time. Our teeth are made of minerals. We need minerals If we want to have healthy teeth and gums, we need minerals and so minerals. Whether it's in a supplement form, a liquid form, I don't really care, as long as you get it in there. If you tend to have digestive issues, I say go for the liquid. Liquid doesn't, you know, don't have to dissolve a capsule in your stomach. A lot of us have low stomach acid and we don't digest very well, so go for the liquid minerals. So there are a bunch of companies out there. I don't really care which ones you buy, but go for some minerals.
Speaker 1:Binders, as I said, very, very important because of the toxic world we live in, especially if you know you're traveling. You're going to be eating out a lot, you're going to be exposed to all sorts of exhaust and fumes and other people's perfume and all those kinds of things. So Biner's is always good, especially when you travel. Take that with you. B vitamins that's something that a lot of foods are fortified with B vitamins, but you know they may not be the most assimilable B vitamins, so a B complex is really important. You can buy B pollen, is an excellent food source, and that's. Those are little granules. You can sprinkle them on any kind of food you want, so throw them in a smoothie, it's great.
Speaker 1:And my other big favorite way to get bee vitamins is liver capsules. I wish I could say that I eat liver every week, but I just can't do it. I've tried, it's not bad, but it's a mental block. So fortunately we have liver capsules. You can buy grass-fed, really, really high quality. We're getting our good minerals and now we're getting our copper and we're getting our B vitamins. We're getting our iron right the good form of iron that's really important that we don't really get from plant foods.
Speaker 1:And then the fat-soluble vitamins. So that's vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin K. Those four fat-soluble vitamins, along with the minerals, is what creates strong, healthy teeth and gums, right. So we need that combination and we need to have healthy liver and gallbladder right so that we can absorb. If we have issues with our liver maybe we don't have a gallbladder anymore it's hard. If we don't create quality bile, we might not be absorbing those fat-soluble vitamins. So, again, trying to get that in our diet right.
Speaker 1:And those are most commonly found in animal products. So this is why I'm not a huge fan of veganism and for some people it may work, but for a lot of us the quality of those fat-solid ones has to come from animal foods. But again, everyone is unique and people can have great genetics and are able to take supplemental form and be perfectly healthy. So those are, I find, very, very crucial. And if you know, maybe you don't have a gallbladder, then maybe you need support with a bile. Salt like Tudka is a really good one, or you take digestive enzymes that have lipase in them. But those are good ways to help be able to absorb the fat, create good bile so that we can absorb all those vitamins. The fat create good bile so that we can absorb all those vitamins. Right, I always I drink tea every morning. I'm not a big coffee person, but I love teas and there are so many great herbal teas and you can get a lot of nutrients from teas, right.
Speaker 1:One of the big categories of health foods is polyphenols, right, and you get a lot of those from coffee. We think about them in brightly colored vegetables, right, all those colorful. We say about them in brightly colored vegetables. Right, all the those colorful we say eat a rainbow. Right, and that's because we want those polyphenols. They feed our good bacteria. They're just full of a lot of nutrients that help all of our cellular processes just work better. They support our mitochondria and make sure that we have really good, healthy looking cells and we want to make sure that we're getting proper, healthy fats.
Speaker 1:Every single cell in our body is lined with fats, mainly cholesterol. So this is why I get on a tizzy when so many people are on all these stands that maybe don't need to be. We need to have cholesterol. It is absolutely vital for every cell in our body. So if we have high cholesterol, absolutely vital for every cell in our body. So if we have high cholesterol, we need to think beyond just looking at HDL and LDL and really understanding what is the makeup of the sats in our blood, because it's much more complex than just those two molecules. And if we do have high cholesterol, why? But again, please understand that the science shows the healthier you are, the older you are, the higher your cholesterol is. So those individuals who are in their 80s, they can may have cholesterols of 400. And they're healthy as a horse. So again, it's more than just the numbers. You have to look at the whole body, right, and we get so pigeonholed because there's so much you know specialization in medicine today and we just focus on one little thing instead of looking at the whole picture. So let's look at the whole picture.
Speaker 1:I think digestive enzymes sometimes, and stomach acid support can be really, really crucial. If you're somebody who suffers from a lot of gas and bloating, there's definitely an overgrowth in bacteria where there shouldn't be and that's mostly because not enough stomach acid. So you have a lot of people who are on the you know the PPIs and shutting down because they have reflux. But again, as we've talked about and I tell my patients all the time, most of the time the reflux is from not enough stomach acid. The other big aspect could be sleep apnea. Right, when we are not breathing properly, when our diaphragm isn't working properly, we can create reflux. That pressure differential can cause us to push up stomach acid into the mouth.
Speaker 1:So, again, as I was just saying, when we're thinking about these symptoms we're having, let's look at the whole picture, right, not just about that specific symptom, but let's ask the question why, why do I have this symptom? Right, and we need to look at all the different aspects of health. So we have to have that oral exam as part of it, right, because if you have erosion all over your teeth, right, that's a big deal we can see. Do you have sleep apnea? Looking at the structure of the mouth, but also the way that we breathe, are we hunched over all the time? What is our posture like? How can we improve breathing that may improve the reflux without having to be on? These medications would actually shut down our digestion, which lead to a lot of chronic disease.
Speaker 1:So my last big topic I want to talk about were sleep habits. You know, if you ask anybody in the longevity space, wellness space, you know sleep is one of those pillars of health. You know, people say you got to get seven to eight hours of sleep per night and I think that's an average and most people agree that's good. But more specifically than that, we have to have a good balance of the type of sleep. So we may be in bed for 12 hours, but if we're not getting enough of the deep, restorative type of sleep, then the rest is just kind of junk sleep. So some people can thrive on four and a half hours of sleep because they're getting an hour and a half of deep sleep. They're getting an hour and a half of the REM sleep. And those are two important aspects of sleep. Where deep is when we drop into the parasympathetic nervous system. It is when our entire body is detoxing itself. It is refreshing, it is regenerating, it is getting rid of all the junk and that's very, very important for our body to reset itself. And the REM, or the rapid eye movement, that is when we're kind of consolidating our memories and everything we've learned for the day. So for good cognitive health we need to have quality REM and that is about the average that we want to try to attain about an hour and a half of each of those.
Speaker 1:Now there are so many amazing wearables I can't even name them all but more and more technology. It's really exciting. We're in a really exciting age where there's coming out with so many great wearables to really track all these different aspects of our health. My husband just got me a product. We've been using it together. It's called Voluminumen and it's a way to check your metabolism. How well are you metabolizing your carbs and your fats? By detecting your carbon dioxide. So you breathe into it. Different aspects of the day will tell you how your metabolism is doing and then it will give you recommendations Eat this many carbs today, or this many carbs, or decrease your fats. Or, if you work out out how many more carbs should you eat. And for a woman, it tracks based on my menstrual cycles, telling me how many carbs I should have, which I think is really exciting, because so many of us get worried right about eating carbs. But as a cycling woman, carbs are very, very important, which don't want to have too many, but we also do need enough to create the hormones in order to cycle properly. So that's a cool little gadget we've just been using since the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1:So let's finish our talk about sleep here. So ideally we want to be kind of in bed by 9.30, asleep by 10 o'clock, and why we say that is because we have a circadian clock right, and the way that the earth and the moon and everything works together is always on this clock. In Chinese medicine there are different hours of the day that relate to different organs of the body, right. So if we're in bed by 10 o'clock our melatonin should be kicking in and that is how we're going to get the most restorative sleep. Interestingly, my deepest sleep is often in that first window between 10 and midnight. So you know, if I'm out or whatever I'm at a conference, and then maybe it's a late night, I'm not getting that deep sleep. So really important to try to be in bed by 10. Other big important factor is stopping to eat three hours before laying down, if at all possible. We want to make sure that our stomach has emptied before laying down. That's also it's going to reduce the you know incidence of reflux. We're going to finish digesting because when we're sleeping we don't want to be digesting right. We want to be getting rid of all that toxins. We want to be doing all the cleanup, we don't want to be busy digesting, you'll get much better sleep. If you track your sleep, you'll know when you have an earlier dinner, you sleep much more soundly and you get much more of those two quality types of sleep Breathing exercises.
Speaker 1:So another thing I always felt, you know I've had a couple episodes of talking about breathing, because I've started to see that in my work when I'm thinking about apnea I think a lot of it has to do with the way we breathe. You know, I've noticed it's not just about anatomy, there's that physiology to it too. And I notice oftentimes, you know, the easiest way to get into the parasympathetic or, you know, resting nervous system is by breathing slower, a little bit deeper, a little bit slower. And so I bought a special band. It goes around my waist or above my waist, really right under my rib cage, called OXA O-X-A, and it will track my breathing. So it tracks my sleep as well. But ideally you want to have about six to 10 breaths a minute. That's ideal. I know when I wear it at work I'm at like 17 breaths a minute, which is crazy. No wonder I can get tired during the day. I'm over breathing. So along the ox it has all these great resonance breathing exercises and when I start to do that, I may take five to 10 minutes before I go to sleep. I set myself up for that parasympathetic and I will slip into deep sleep so much easier.
Speaker 1:But you don't have to have the gadget right. So if you simply tell yourself or make yourself breathe, you go, breathe in for four, breathe out for six, breathe in for four, breathe out for six. You know anything like that. It's simple doing that you know, for five to 10 minutes you can listen to. Also, my favorite thing to do is listen to an app I have called Meditative Mind. It's a monthly subscription but again has all these different frequency and one of my favorite ones is called Deep Sleep. Right, I want to get into that deep sleep, I want to recover and restore, so I will listen to that while I'm breathing. So I've got now the sound and I've got the breathing to help me take me into that proper nervous system. So I get really restorative deep sleep so that the next day I can charge ahead and do everything I need to do. I also make sure I stretch a little bit before I go to bed. I might do a few like cat cow exercises and little yoga moves, just a little bit of movement before I'm laying down and kind of being stagnant for, you know, eight hours.
Speaker 1:Mouth tape is my favorite. I always love to put the tape over my mouth because when your mouth is closed it's very difficult to snore, right. And so very, very important If you mouth breathe you also put yourself in sympathetic so you don't detox, you don't sleep as deeply before I know it, but sometimes you still can snore with mouth tape. If that tongue falls down off the roof of your mouth, you can still make a little snoring. So before I go to bed, after I brush and floss my teeth, I always try to do a few tongue exercises. You know I've had some myofunctional therapists on the podcast.
Speaker 1:I always tell all my patients about this couple of YouTube videos called six exercises for snoring and sleep apnea. Look them up. There's a couple of people I like, um, and they're mainly the same kind of things. Right, where we're strengthening the tongue. The stronger the tongue is and then it will stay in place instead of collapsing back into the throat, the less likely you'll snore, the less likely you will obstruct the airway and wake yourself up, right, that's going to distract from getting all that deep sleep. So those are simple exercises. Adds five to 10 minutes to your, you know, hygiene routine every night. It's completely worth it. And my patients who I've been treating with laser for sleep apnea since I added that aspect, the results are profound, you know. 10 times better than just laser alone Because, again, I think there's more of the breathing, the physiology, the way the tongue goes, than just having a small airway. So really, really powerful, you know, try to avoid. A lot of people hate the CPAP, you know. So if we can train the body to breathe properly, to do these exercises, keep the tongue strong, then we can hopefully avoid those kind of invasive treatments.
Speaker 1:And always when I travel, I'm always taking a mask with me because, you know, inevitably in a hotel room there's lights everywhere, you know, and we want to sleep in a darkest room as possible, right, because any kind of light is going to disrupt that circadian rhythm. So as dark as possible. My bedroom at home is very, very dark, but again, in a hotel room or somewhere I'm not used to always take a sleep mask with me. So that is all of my advice for how we start the new year off well. And so I just want to kind of recap. I think number one thing if you have a goal and something you really want to accomplish this year, write it down. And the other thing to think about that's really important is align those goals with your values, right? So maybe we say I want to lose weight or I want to eat healthier, but if that's not really one of your values, you know, if you just want to do it because you think you should, you're never going to accomplish it Right. And how do we? How do we know what our values are?
Speaker 1:One of the best things I did last year was I went and visited Dr Nick and Nicole and I knew a place in Italy and went on an amazing retreat that they cultivated. That was one of the best experiences I've ever had and it was five days of just being in the now living. We did meditation, which I didn't think I knew how to meditate, but Dr Nick, he showed me how to do it and it was fabulous and we were just experiencing life and food. It was just freshly grown food. We were in the ocean every day, but every morning we started out talking about what our values were, and Dr Nick and Nicole really learned this a lot from Joe Dispenza and John Demartini, who has a really great books and he has a good website and you can go run on his website for free. You can do a quick little questionnaire to learn what your values are.
Speaker 1:One of my highest values is teaching right and sharing which is no surprise right to everybody. So when I think about my goals, right, one of my goals, I want to teach at IIN. That's aligned with my value, so I'm going to be more likely to achieve that goal because it's one of my values. My other values is, you know, being a good mom, raising my children well. So, again, another one of my values. My other values is, you know, being a good mom, raising my children well. So again, another one of my goals is trying to give them the best education I can, right and so and more likely to accomplish this goal is because they are my values, not something that I think I should do right or that society's expecting of me. It's what is deep in my soul. So so figure out what your values are and again, it may take 10 minutes. You can go online at Dr Demartini's site, do a little value quiz, very, very easy, and then maybe redefine what your goals are right, and I just want to leave you with the thought of just living for the moment.
Speaker 1:We don't know how much time we have on this planet. We're always rushing to go here or there, thinking about the future, thinking about the past. If we really want to change our lives and create our lives, we need to be in the now. We need to put the energy in the now, not just wishing for what we want, what we could have or what we don't have right. It's putting that energy into the here and now.
Speaker 1:So again, I want to thank everybody for being loyal listeners to our podcast. Please let me know any questions that you have. I love it when people reach out to me and I love directing them to wherever they need to be. If you can, please leave us a review. That really helps get the word out. It helps other people learn about our podcast so they can get other great guests on the show. So I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of their day. I wish everyone a happy, healthy 2025, and I'll see you on the next episode. Bye for now.
Speaker 1:Hello. I'm Dr Rachel Carver, a board-certified naturopathic, biologic dentist and a certified health coach. Did you know that over 80% of the US population has some form of gum disease. Many of us don't even know that we have this source of chronic infection and inflammation in our mouth that's been linked to serious consequences like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia, colon cancer, kidney disease, even pregnancy complications. Would you like to learn how to reverse and prevent these chronic, debilitating conditions without spending a lot of time and money at the dentist? Join me for my six-week course, where I will teach you the root cause of disease. You'll learn how to be your own best doctor. Are you ready to get started? Let's go.