Karese Laguerre

Tony Winyard 0:00

Habits and health Episode 21.

Jingle 0:03

Welcome to the habits and health Podcast, where we believe creating healthy habits should be easy. Brought to you by an educator and coach for anyone who wants to create a healthier life. here's your host, Tony Winyard.

Tony Winyard 0:20

Welcome to the podcast where we give you ideas for habits you can create to have a healthier life. And in today's episode, I speak with Karese Laguerre. She is a myofunctional therapist and an Orofacial Myologist. If you don't know what either one of those are, so we're gonna find out a little more about what exactly is that all about? There's a lot to do with airways and breathe in and the mouth and it's quite an interesting episode. So that's coming up, if you do like this episode, if you know anyone who really get some benefit, and there's some really good information that Karese shares. Please do share the episode with them. And hope you enjoy this week's show. habits and health. My guest today is Karese Laguerre. How are you doing Karese?

Karese Laguerre 1:09

I am great. How are you?

Tony Winyard 1:12

I'm pretty good. Thank you. Summer is here in England at last. Our summer tends to last about four hours each year. So I think today is our summer.

Karese Laguerre 1:25

Oh, I have a turtle summer I'm in Florida in the US and it never stops being summer here.

Tony Winyard 1:32

That's one place in us I have not yet managed to get to. I've been to New York and LA and Vegas and stuff I haven't yet managed to get to. Is that where you're from? Have you've been there long?

Karese Laguerre 1:50

I have not been here long. This is like a newer thing for me. I'm in another stage of life right now. I guess down here. I am originally from New Jersey. So around that New York area. And it's like night and day for me , certainly weather wise, it's pretty different..

Tony Winyard 2:09

I would imagine. Yeah. Yes. Cool. Well, and we're going to talk about a subject I mean, just we kind of touched upon it just now before we started recording. It's a subject that is not given enough air time. And we're going to go some work. We're going to try to help educate, or, inform more people today some things that maybe they don't know. So can you tell us a little bit about what it is that you do?

Karese Laguerre 2:34

So I'm a myofunctional therapist. And the easiest way I like to break that down is to say that myofunctional therapy is like working with a personal trainer. But I work only with the muscles below the eyes, but above the shoulders. So in all of those muscles, if we think about that area between the eyes and the shoulders, you're looking at really your upper respiratory system, your mouth, your face, and everything that's in between, there's hundreds of muscles, they're doing lots of different things. And we work to strengthen and coordinate them to help facilitate better breathing, chewing, swallowing.

Tony Winyard 3:11

And just that just in that little statement you've made there. I mean, there's hundreds of muscles, that's probably could come as a surprise to many people aren't imagined just that fact. Absolutely. I

Karese Laguerre 3:21

think the most surprising fact when I speak to people is that the tongue in and of itself is not just a muscle. The tongue is comprised of eight muscles in pairs that innervate the tongue in order to, you know, make it make different shapes, move it about, it's a lot of muscles. And how,

Tony Winyard 3:39

how did you come to get interested in this topic?

Karese Laguerre 3:44

It really all started with my kids. I mean, I feel like that's a lot of parenting is that many things that happen in your life will then be a result of what's going on with your children. So I think that one of the most important things is that when we're parents, we do not speak to other parents about what's really going on. We'll give all the good highlights like oh, you know, Johnny's doing great and soccer and Julie has a dance recital. But you don't really get into the fact that you know, with my children specifically, I never really dived into the fact that my son had ADHD and a lot of behavioural and impulse control issues. My daughter had every sleep issue under the sun, whether it was sleep, walking, sleep, bedwetting, sleep talking, she was having night terrors, everything, you name it, we went through it at some point in time for about a 10 year span with her. Then my little two had a lot of health issues too, with a lot of recurring infections between the ears and the throat and all that upper respiratory stuff. So you don't talk to others about that. And it was in my primary profession as a registered dental hygienist that I was working with a paediatric dentist. And she was the one who kind of brought to life that large connection that though my kids were suffering Writing from various things, it all kind of stemmed back to the way they were breathing the way they were using this upper respiratory system and the muscles that innervate it. And so I dove deep to help my children and then from there, it branched out into helping as many other people as I could. And

Tony Winyard 5:18

was that did that come as a surprise at all when she's when she mentioned breathing that that could affect all those different behaviours? Were was that a surprise at all? What were you already aware of? Some of that

Karese Laguerre 5:29

was incredibly surprising. I had no idea. I don't think it's talked about nearly enough. I mean, we don't think about any of these muscles, we just use them repetitively, all throughout the day all day long. But the only muscles we think about is, you know, like, how do my abs look?

Tony Winyard 5:48

And so where did that lead you then from there?

Karese Laguerre 5:51

Well, from there that led me down a huge deep dive into what I would consider to be a rabbit hole, because from myofunctional therapy, and how you can engage the muscles into what happens neurologically with the brain and your cranial nerves that are really triggering what's going on with those nerve impulses. And then everything that has to do with breathing and breath work. I mean, you just dive deep and dig deeper and dig deeper until you find out that there are numerous ways to really bioengineer your own health.

Tony Winyard 6:25

And so how, since you you gain so much knowledge in his whole area, how the is your children's health now has to has you explained it, you know, few minutes ago,

Karese Laguerre 6:37

we are 100% away from everything we were before, I can't remember the last time I've had to get antibiotics in my household. I mean, we have really gone from all of those sleep issues to no sleep issues. You could walk around my house and you could hear a pin drop. I mean, nobody's snoring there is nobody sleepwalking, my son's not on medication anymore has ADHD is very well managed. I mean, I think that's the bigger connection there is the fact that a lot of his ADHD had nothing to do with him neurologically, but everything to do with how he was sleeping, and what was going on with his breathing and respiration. But I think that we are nowhere near where we were before. And I am so happy and very proud of them get to rediscover your children. And that's an honour for me.

Tony Winyard 7:31

I mean, it's a number of people are going to probably be very confused at the moment. How can breathing improve the ADHD? The snoring? The sleep that I think there's going to be? Probably a few people are pretty confused in the moment.

Karese Laguerre 7:46

I can understand that I've been there. Yeah. Well, if we're going to connect, we'll start with the ADHD if we're going to connect those two dots, I think the biggest thing to remember is that when it comes to ADHD, and add, a lot of these things are not something that you can go get blood work for and get a definitive diagnosis. You can't get you know, an X ray or an MRI and say, Oh, yeah, it's definitely ADHD. This is something that's more symptom based, right? So when it comes to things that are symptom based, we have to look at what are the other possibles, like what other things could potentially be causing this. And in fact, you'd be surprised to know that research has shown a 70% overlap between the manifestations of obstructive sleep apnea and ADHD. So 70% overlap for one thing that you can't really get a definitive diagnosis for, as opposed to another thing that you can go get a sleep study and you can have that be your definitive diagnosis like yes, it's a 100% is this. I think that's a really great route to go because when now we're talking about obstructive sleep apnea. obstructive sleep apnea is an obstruction. So when we're getting a closing off of that system in the upper respiratory area that is going to be impacting the way that you're able to breathe, and the quality of your sleep. So when children are tired, and they're not getting good sleep, and their sleep is impacted, it's not like us adults, we're tired, and we get lethargic, kids are tired, and their brain can't stop. It just keeps going. It keeps fighting and they are hyperactive, they can't control themselves. They have very poor impulse control, their behaviour is kind of spiralling down. It's night and day from what would be an adult reaction to the very same diagnosis.

Tony Winyard 9:43

When doctors typically diagnose a child with ADHD, what is the typical remedies they they advise

Karese Laguerre 9:53

when it comes to treatment for ADHD, primarily, the go to is Going to be medication. Outside of that you can make modifications in diet to potentially, you know, limit things such as sugar that might be encouraging hyperactivity. But primarily, they will always go to medication. First and foremost.

Tony Winyard 10:19

Yeah. And is that starting to change? Is? Is the word getting out to more doctors today? Is it a case of they need more, maybe not more retraining, but just more knowledge around the sort of areas that there is and medication? There's other avenues to go apart from medication?

Karese Laguerre 10:40

Yes, so I think that we are getting to a better place. I do also believe that there are still many parents and many people who would have to advocate for themselves and for their family members. Because while the research is out there, I think there's still a little bit of resistance to it. In my own story, we had a, I want to say seven to eight years period where my son was diagnosed. And then when we had a resistance to medication, and what we wanted some alternatives and weren't given any alternative. So we kind of tried to, you know, figure out our own way, but then we just settled into, okay, we have to medicate. So in that seven, eight year period, you know, I didn't know anything that I know now. But once I did, I did talk to the neurologist again, because he was seeing a paediatric neurologist at that time. And the neurologist was kind of not surprised that any of the information I knew, she said, Oh, yes, a sleep study can absolutely you know, diagnose obstructive sleep apnea, there is a correlation between these things. Well, for seven or eight years, we've been your patients, and not once did you recommend that? And I think that that's where we are in medicine. And sometimes you really have to advocate for yourselves because the information might be out there, but maybe they're a bit resistant to it. So the more you know, the more you can advocate and then get the proper referrals and treatment.

Tony Winyard 12:07

When I guess there's also an element of my feeling is the majority of people the First Avenue they would think of is medication. Not necessarily are How can I? How can I tackle this in a different ways? Normally, medication, just just get rid of the pain? Just treat the symptoms, and everything will be fine.

Karese Laguerre 12:30

Yeah, that sad system of palliative care where we're just kind of putting a bandaid on things and never really trying to close up the wound. And I don't know, we've got to get to a better place in medicine. But I think slowly and surely, we will definitely get there. I think we're just not there just yet.

Tony Winyard 12:53

So let's just get deeper into the whole kind of myofunctional and, and breathing and all these issues. So what is it about the way that many people breathe now that is unhelpful? Maybe

Karese Laguerre 13:08

mouth breathing is going to be one of the biggest problems that many people will be suffering with, but not really understand that they're suffering with because you figure you know, if I'm breathing through my mouth, then that means that I'm getting more air because my mouth is bigger than my nose, right? Well, that's actually not the case. number one. Number two, the mouth is not built for breathing Your mouth is for eating your mouth is for speaking, but it's certainly not for breathing. It's only in case of emergencies. Right. So you never want to put out all fires with a fire extinguisher, you only want to put out a big fire with a fire extinguisher. So when we're thinking about breathing, we want to use what we're supposed to use primarily our nose. Our nose is built and designed so beautifully we as humans, are only you know, at a fraction of understanding our wonderful design, but our nose is designed so beautiful for the optimal intake of oxygen. So it comes in and it is automatically filtered through those nice little nose hairs it is humidified or going to warm up that air and make it optimal for the intake and it's going to be really getting everything as primed and ready as possible. That way we can get that nitric oxide uptake in there and that's going to help us with getting that air to bond with the the haemoglobin receptors that are going to give that oxygen everywhere. So we have to use our nose that's the biggest biggest thing and people who have problems with using their nose that's where you know we have to look into intervention strategies.

Tony Winyard 14:50

And so when people I guess some people will respond to that Well, what's you know I've always brief on my mouth everyone briefs word of mouth how you know why What's wrong with breathing through my mouth? Or how maybe then it's not even that they just can't, maybe their noses always blocked and they can't breathe through their nose.

Karese Laguerre 15:10

So if your nose is always blocked, I think that there's definitely something there, right. So there's the concept or the idea of these perennial allergies, that, you know, you just never get over it, you have allergies all throughout the year, no matter the season, even if it's just four hours of summer, you've still got your allergies, right. I think that that is a very Miss common misnomer, I would say that is, is that it's not allergy, something's deeper going on. If you have persistent sinus infections, and so forth, something deeper is going on. When we're looking at our body, we need to look at the whole body, right? So we can't just detach our nose from our face, we have to actually think about what are the structures around, right. So right below the nose, if we think about it, just looking at ourselves as regular people, right below the nose is actually the mouth. So if you have a very narrow mouth, or you have a very small mouth, that's the floor of your nasal cavity. If we're thinking about those small mouths, and a small nasal cavity, could that be connected into why you're unable to use the nose, because there's a very small window of space where you could uptake that oxygen properly, that's something that we need to look into is the connection between the whole body, a lot of people don't see that what's going on in their mouth, is actually impacting the structures above it, our nose. And we definitely don't think about the fact that everything is connected. So when it comes to your ears, and your ability to have that balance or engagement, where you're able to actually, you know, get the system to work as well as it should the ears, the nose, the throat, that's all connected. So when we have blockages there, it's going to impact a multitude of things on the face, it's going to impact a multitude of things wellness wise, and we can't make up for any of that by taking in poor quality air through our mouth, it's actually going to increase our illnesses at that point in time. So

Tony Winyard 17:24

I'm, I guess, a question that many people say as well, you know, why? Why do I breathe from my mouth? And if we're supposed to breathe right now is Why Am I breathing through my mouth,

Karese Laguerre 17:31

I had that emergency system, the body's always tried to keep us alive, the body is like, you know, we've got it, we got to make it, we got to make it another day. And so that is your body's Emergency Response System, your body is coming in and saying, All right, we've got to breathe. So let's just get air in somehow, we don't care about the quality of it, we just needed to get in there. And so that's when we have that coming in through there. But through the mouth, I mean, there's nothing to filter, there's certainly nothing to humidify, the air, anything, it's going to dry out your mouth, which should be a naturally filled liquid, you know, you should have saliva in your mouth, you should not experience dry mouth, but dry mouth and will happen. So you're not going to get humidity of that air. You're definitely not filtering it out anywhere. And if you do get a filtration system, more often than not, it's probably coming from the tonsils. And that's going to really inflame that system, you're not going to have a great lymphatic drainage system in taking in a bunch of poor quality air through that mouse and it's not going to be optimal for you. So it's an emergency system. It's something that will keep you alive. Yes. But it won't keep you alive in the way that you will be thriving. It'll keep you alive so that you're just getting by.

Tony Winyard 18:55

And so someone realises Okay, now I am starting to see that is it would be more beneficial for me to breathe through my nose. But how would they go about that? If they're not sure where wherever they start?

Karese Laguerre 19:09

I would say your very, very first step is always to try to do something simple, like nasal hygiene. nasal hygiene is incredibly important. I think nobody thinks about it enough. we brush our teeth, we may clean our ears. We wash our bodies, but nobody's ever thinking to clear out that nose. You've got to clean it out to keep it nice and open and primed. Having a system where you use a sailing rinse or ceiling wash or perhaps even a neti pot. People love the neti pot where you can cleanse out your nose daily, that's going to keep that system nice and open. If you are still experiencing problems then it might be something that's a physical barrier like a physiological structural deviation of your septum. You might have deviated septum, you might have that new small mouth which is going to lead to a small nasal floor, meaning that you're going to have very pinched nose appearance, a very narrow system where that air can come in. So then there's something that's structurally wrong. If you have a structural blockage, even though you're clearing out your nose and you're not getting any help, then that's when it's time to seek professional advice, I would see an anti an ear, nose, throat doctor, also known as an otolaryngologist. But it's so much easier to say E and T, I would see an anti because that would be the best way to, you know, really remove those structural blocks. But then after that, after those structural things have been addressed, I think at that point in time, that's when it's time to say, okay, I've been functioning one way most of our most of my life, how do I get to a new pattern of function. And then that's when we think of the myofunctional therapy, because when it's come to a physical change in the body, we need to kind of rehabilitate, and you can't rehabilitate that upper respiratory system with any better system than a myofunctional therapy programme. While functional therapy programmes get to get all those muscles coordinated and strong again, and get you breathing optimally through that nose.

Tony Winyard 21:18

And so how would mean, I imagine most people won't have any knowledge about a mild functional programme or my my functional therapy. So what is involved in it?

Karese Laguerre 21:30

So myofunctional therapy, I've like to say first and foremost is a commitment based programme, it's kind of like, so when I compare it to the personal trainer, it's kind of like if you wanted to lose weight and go to the gym, right? So you could sign up to have a personal trainer work with you, you can go to that personal trainer in the gym. And you could work out with them for maybe an hour a week, and then go home and sit on the couch and do nothing for the rest of the week. But you'll never go to get the results, right. So my bookshelf therapy is kind of similar, where it's very commitment based. So you do work out with a myofunctional therapist, and they do diagnose and assess and create a custom programme for you, based on what muscles you need to have addressed and to have strengthened and engage, then we're going to give you exercises to do that are going to seem very simple. Because when we think about exercises for our face, we think, Oh, this is simple, easy stuff. But for some people who haven't worked those muscles, it's very strenuous, very engaged. So it's something that you have to practice, you have to have to practice. So it's very commitment based, because you might see your therapists only once a week, maybe once every other week. But you're doing exercises multiple times a day, every single day in between that way you can get those results. So it's really a guided exercise based programme.

Tony Winyard 22:55

So can you give an examples of any sort of transformations that you've helped someone through? So they've come to you with various issues, and you've helped them with myofunctional therapy, and they've got results, which they probably couldn't believe? Yeah,

Karese Laguerre 23:11

I have. This one woman that I talk about all the time, she's probably tired of me talking about. I had this one client who I will never forget, because her whole life It feels it's felt like was in a lot of disarray. Like she came to me and a lot of things were going on. So she had lost her job. She had lost a spouse she had kind of just came to this point where everything's falling apart, falling apart. And in everything falling apart. All that she really had left to work on was her health. And she just didn't want to be miserable and unhealthy at the same time. So she was suffering with a very, I would say moderate sleep apnea, but she had to sleep with this C pap machine and it was really draining on her. So emotionally, she was not well, on top of everything else. She just wanted to be healthy. So what we did was we started with the myofunctional therapy programme, we definitely threw in some affirmations a whole lot of breath work in there. She had a lot of different issues that were going on. But she came to this point where she was a new where she kind of got her own confidence back where she was able to get off of her steep path. She was no longer experiencing all of those obstructions no longer had those athletic events at night. She had to sleep studies during the time that we were working together and was shocked to see that she no longer had sleep apnea. She didn't have to wear her c pap anymore. She was able to get this new job. I mean, she was phenomenally different. She was dating by the time we were done. It was it was night and day to see who she was and To get her off of the supplementary devices that were supposed to be treating things and to get her off of a diagnosis that she didn't even want to begin with. I mean, it was phenomenal. absolutely phenomenal.

Tony Winyard 25:12

And what kind of timeframe was that?

Karese Laguerre 25:14

We worked together for I want to say about five or six months.

Tony Winyard 25:18

Okay, so you can get quite a lot of change in not that long a period. Really?

Karese Laguerre 25:23

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Cuz she was wearing that C pap for, I want to say four and a half years by the time that I met her. So you take a fraction of that time, and we were able to really work out a lot of those issues in there. And, you know, you get one thing done, and then suddenly, now you're able to accomplish and tackle other things. So that helps her a lot with a lot of her mental health as well.

Tony Winyard 25:48

So if someone's listening to this and thinking, mentioned that, I have a lot of allergies. Who would you suggest someone, for example, with allergies would go and consult a minor quantum mechanic?

Karese Laguerre 26:00

Absolutely. Absolutely. Someone with allergy is someone with asthma? eczema, you'd be surprised sometimes the way you're oxygenating, your skin can have a reaction to that as well. And so eczema, I would say, definitely, there are lots of different things that the myofunctional therapy can definitely help with, especially with regards to digestive system issues. You think about a lot of that digestion does not start in the stomach digestion starts in the mouth.

Tony Winyard 26:32

And how often have maybe patients come to you who have had sleep issues? And I don't know, I wouldn't say it's a last resort. But I've tried all sorts of different things, and they weren't able to improve their sleep. And then for some reason, they've come to see you and you've been able to help them is that as you had situations along those lines?

Karese Laguerre 26:57

Yes, I think a lot of people wind up falling into myofunctional therapy. So you've tried a whole lot of things and you're like what else could possibly be out there that might maybe help? I think we're getting to a point of better awareness. But for right now, a lot of people are those people who they've tried many different things. They've tried hypnosis, they've tried all the sleep hygiene habits that are out there, you can google sleep hygiene, and you could try every trick in the book. But sometimes when you have those physical barriers, so you have those things that are keeping you from actually implementing these things and getting the results. That's when you need the intervention of a therapist, that's when you need the intervention of someone who is a professional, who will be able to help you engage those muscles appropriately be able to engage in new and better habits so that you can improve your health.

Tony Winyard 27:52

And I'm guessing a lot of people have just never heard of myofunctional therapy.

Karese Laguerre 27:58

Yeah, it's a sad thing. That's like my number one question I get all the time. What is myofunctional? therapy? Yes, I think that it has been a blessing to have a lot more word about it out there. Now. You take expert Patrick McCune is out there promoting it, we have the wonderful new release the latest release from James Nestor breathe, where he talks about he touches on it. I think that it is getting to a place where more people will know about it. But right now we're still we're still struggling, still struggling to get the word out.

Tony Winyard 28:34

I mean, only when your conversation you talked about when you were working in a dental clinic. And so is it a case may be not just have doctors recommended it more but maybe dentist recommended and recommended it more or maybe is that already the case do dentists recommend more frequently?

Karese Laguerre 28:52

Yes, so dentists are actually on the front lines of recommending it. I think a lot of my referrals come predominantly from dentists. However, medical is getting in there. It's getting up there. It's you know, it's an interdisciplinary thing that we have to work on together. It's got to come from both medical and dental, because there is still a lot of scepticism with the general public and dentistry where you will trust the word from your physician a lot more than you would trust a word from your dentist and there's still a lot of people who don't even go see their dentist. So it is something that yes, dentistry is very much on the forefront of medicine is kind of catching up and getting better. But we've got to work together because there's so many gaps in there that we have to have filled in order to really get people to a place of wellness which should really be the goal, eliminating palliative care and getting people to help.

Tony Winyard 29:51

And you mentioned James nesters book Barry just now one of the things that fascinated me in that book was when he talked about one of the reasons why we put From our mouths more now is because our jaws have narrowed over, you know, because they've eaten all the soft food and everything. And that's why people often have problems with their teeth, because our jaws are just getting more and more narrow.

Karese Laguerre 30:13

So yes, we do have a lot of issues that do stem from that. So what's happened is that we've gotten incredibly advanced as a society, right, where we have a lot of more food that is produced for us, we don't have to produce food, we don't have to grow our own food, we don't have to hunt our own meat, we can go to the store and buy something that is pre packaged, which sounds wonderful and fantastic. But a lot of times that convenience comes at a detriment, right. So when we have a lot of kids that are, you know, not really chewing, they don't have to chew anything hard or tough. We have those smaller jobs that will develop because we're not stimulating that bone growth and development that would come from proper chewing and adequate chewing. I think that is something that we definitely need to lean away from for sure. I think that there's a multifactorial impact, though. So it's not just the chewing it because it's never just one thing. I think it's a lot of what's going on with us in our overall habits. I mean, we've gotten a lot more sedentary as a society. And so that's going to impact our growth trajectory to that's going to, you know, really make an impact in a lot of different facets of life. So I think that we've got a multitude of factors that do that do contribute to it, for sure. But it is something that genetically we are leaning towards being a world away from our ancestors.

Tony Winyard 31:47

So if someone is does realise that their mouth, maybe they their jaw is too narrow, they they're getting various issues, is there anything that can be addressed me, you talked about, obviously, you help people sort of strengthen muscles, and whatever, is there anything that can be done to the jaw, to maybe sort of correct things that have been going in the wrong direction?

Karese Laguerre 32:10

Absolutely. So I would say that you can definitely get your absolute best results when you intervene early. So parents of children who would like to see their kids have better health, as an overall intervene very, very early, there's lots of devices out there that do create a lot of growth, a lot of natural growth to a lot of this stuff, we don't realise that by the age of four to six, you've already got about 60 to 70% of your cranial facial growth completed. That's it like you won't get it back after age four to 60. So you've only got like that 40 to 30%. left, so you got to take advantage of that. So you get really great results with children. However, it is not too late. If you're an adult, it's just a little bit more time based. And it's a lot more intense, the appliances and the structural changes, however, it is possible. So yes, you can make those changes, you can make that difference. And just really myofunctional therapy, honestly, with its research has been shown to get about two to three millimetres of increased with in the mouth. Now, when we're talking about millimetres we know that's very, very small. But change is always always possible. And by

Tony Winyard 33:27

by doing that, what kind of benefits could people expect to receive.

Karese Laguerre 33:32

So we've got to think about a lot of the structures as a whole, right. So when we're thinking about that mouth, again, that is the floor of the nose. So with a widened space for that nasal cavity, you can intake oxygen optimally, that's going to be 100%. Much better for you, a lot of these devices will also shift the mandible forward, that's your lower jaw so that lower jaw will get shifted forward. So you'll have a lot more space in your upper respiratory system. Because that throat, that airway space will be increased. Once you get that mandible forward, you're going to see a lot of improvements with your sensory skills. So a lot of people who have those strong gag reflexes, who are very picky eaters who cannot tolerate certain textures, you'll find that you will be able to it's a lot of the body's defence mechanism to say, Hey, don't eat this thing because you know, you've got a really small space in here and we don't want to choke and die. Your body is always trying to keep you healthy and alive honestly. So your sensory skills you'll find will get a big improvement as well. You're going to see a lot of change overall, especially in your aesthetics. A man who doesn't want to look better, you'll look a lot better with a lot of these structural changes as well.

Tony Winyard 34:55

And another possible benefit from switching from our previous To nose breathe, and he mentioned before about the nitric oxide. And that's been shown more and more and more, as far as I'm aware, there's a lot of tests going on around the world in many different laboratories for the benefits of nitric oxide with viruses, which obviously is quite in the news at the moment.

Karese Laguerre 35:17

Absolutely. And I think that these tests have been very critical in getting the word out as far as medicine, because you did ask if dentistry was at the, you know, the head of the referrals, medicine is coming up. And I think that as the research is showing the benefits of this, and how nasal breathing is so impactful, and how once we are able to look at the numbers of the people who have really struggled a lot with this virus, because COVID is a respiratory virus. So if we're looking at the people who have struggled with this virus, are those people really, in taking oxygen optimally? If they're not, what's the issue, and when we look at, you know, the nose and its benefits to what's coming in as far as the quality of the oxygen, and what we're deriving from that oxygen, as opposed to what would happen with mouth breathing, where you're really not getting quality, that's when you're going to see those immune systems react differently. And I think that that's, that's a major player that not enough people are talking about.

Tony Winyard 36:22

What I'm about to say now is purely anecdotal. And there's no evidence behind it at all. But I remember, I'm, because I'm an oxygen advantage instructor as we were talking before, and I was we've got a Facebook group for oxygen advantage instructors. And last year, it would have been about this time last year, because the whole lockdown started in March. I think it was around about May or June, something like that. I asked, I posed the question. Does, do any of you have any of your clients patients had any issues like major issues were COVID, like sort of passed away or anything? And no one had no one knew anyone who they actually been working with and helping them waves or breathing issues and whatever, had had major issues with COVID. And as I said, that's purely anecdotal. But it was interesting. Yeah, that's,

Karese Laguerre 37:09

it's very interesting. And I think that it's a great starting point for some research, if you could get enough of those people together. And you can really, like get those numbers. I think that that would be a wonderful research project.

Tony Winyard 37:23

And I wonder if I mean to you, you I imagine you probably know many other people working in myofunctional therapy as well. And would that be a similar situation? Would many of the people that you and your other peers have worked with, have had any major issues with COVID, and so on?

Karese Laguerre 37:42

I haven't heard of any, I haven't posed the question to a large group of people like via social media. But I honestly, in my experience with my clients that I've worked with, I haven't heard of any that have had, you know, major effects of COVID-19. As well as some of my colleagues that I keep in regular contact with. I don't think any of us have had that experience now. Yeah.

Tony Winyard 38:07

Yeah. So it's unfortunate that the studies cost a lot of money that night. And so the people put in that kind of money and want to make the money back and they are often not going to make money back from things like improving breathing, because there's no money to be made in that.

Karese Laguerre 38:28

That's true. There are some products though, I think I'm clear nasal spray has actually invested in getting themselves in a test. And because they do assailing rents with xylitol, and because it's highly recommended that's been a floating around in some of my little groups. And amongst the peers, that clear, xylitol has been researched to help, you know, decrease your ability to acquire COVID-19. But who knows, I'm sure it was a small test size and a small study. But if you get the right products, I'm sure somebody would fund and back that sort of thing.

Tony Winyard 39:08

Just come back about 10 minutes ago, you were talking about, you mentioned about children, and when we were talking about widen the jaw, and so on, so anyone who's listening who has got small children, and children often like to maybe drink smoothies or shakes or whatever, what what advice would you give people with young children in as much as things that they could maybe eat more of to help with your development?

Karese Laguerre 39:36

Hard, chewy foods, always hard to eat foods. So we have good habits that we start with babies and then somewhere along the way, it falls by the wayside. So when we're thinking of a baby that is teething, one of the things that you would do is you'd give them something hard to chew on. You'd give them one of those little chewy things. Now, why are we doing that, I think many people psychologically just believe that it's soothing. But that's not actually why you're giving that thing. It's because that chewing and being able to get those gums on there is actually going to stimulate the growth of those teeth and get them out and breaking through the gums faster. That stimulation of the bone doesn't end once the teeth are erupted, you can continue to benefit from chewing, so hard, chewy things, I would say definitely, you want to have a lot of raw vegetables like the raw broccoli, raw carrots, celery, that type of stuff, anything that you could bite onto and get like a nice crisp crunch, that's going to be fantastic and phenomenal. Because chewing does stimulate bone deposition that will help them naturally deposit more bone along their upper and lower jaw. And that's going to help facilitate that better growth.

Jingle 40:59

We hope you're enjoying this episode of the habits and health podcast where we believe that creating healthy habits should be easy. If you know a friend or a loved one who might be interested in learning simple habits to improve their health, then please share this podcast with them. We also invite you to subscribe and to leave us a review on your favourite podcast app. Now back to the show.

Tony Winyard 41:25

Just wondering about your your reading. Do you? Is there a book that you've really enjoyed? And you mentioned the James Nesta brave? Is there any book in the last few years that you that really moved you for for whatever reason?

Karese Laguerre 41:39

I do enjoy Sandra Khan's jaws. I think that's really good. I've gotten into a lot more of a holistic stuff. I think that there's a nice touch on various topics in Aaron Alexander's align method. I think that's a great book. I think I've enjoyed so many books throughout this time. I think that those are just among the top two that I've got right now.

Tony Winyard 42:07

Well, great. So people want to find out more about you Where Where are the best places to look.

Karese Laguerre 42:13

My website, I think is a really great starting point, www.themyospot.com that's where you can always find me. And if you find that any of these things have resonated with you, you can always schedule directly from my website, a free consultation, so that we can go over what it is you might be experiencing. And if myofunctional therapy is right for you. I am on many social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook always at TheMioSpot. I have a wonderful blog, my blog site has a lot of simple and easy to digest to post that'll give you more information about myofunctional therapy and ways that you can help naturally improve yourself. And that is airwaymatters.blog

Tony Winyard 43:01

And is this something that can be done completely over like a resume call, for example? Or does it require a face to face consultation?

Karese Laguerre 43:10

So face to face is always ideal. But I think that we have come leaps and bounds from where we were prior to COVID-19 I think the world has gotten a little bit more adjusted to just being at home and doing things via a virtual conferencing system. So yes, we do work with teletherapy we do do things through virtual conferencing systems and it does work.

Tony Winyard 43:33

Well finally curious is there is there a quotation that you particularly like,

Karese Laguerre 43:38

Oh my gosh, I love Maya Angelou I think Maya Angelou was a phenomenal you know, author, person, just a wonderful source of light and energy. But I love her quote: "Do the best you can until you know better then once you know better, do better". That is phenomenal. Because I think that's all of us in life is that you just going by life doing what you can, and doing it the very best you can. But once you know a lot more, I think that's when you need to jump into the reality of such and do much better.

Tony Winyard 44:16

And the thing with Maya Angelou, you could pick out about 1000 quotes from

Karese Laguerre 44:21

so many. that's a that's a book I should have mentioned. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. That's brilliant, but I haven't read that in the past few years. That's a while ago. Well,

Tony Winyard 44:33

it's been a real pleasure really enjoyed the conversation. So thank you for giving so much really thoughtful information to a subject that I guess many people probably very unaware of or knowledgeable about. So hopefully it will help many people.

Karese Laguerre 44:48

I hope so. Thank you so much. I appreciated being here. Thank you for having me.

Tony Winyard 44:56

Next week is Episode 22 with Miriam Trahan She's an expert in meditation. And we discuss many different aspects of meditation and many different types of meditation that there are myths that are abound around meditation. Why it is that people struggle Why people aren't able to make it a habit that they want to and so many people really want to be able to meditate on a daily basis and struggle for various different reasons. So that's next week's episode all about meditation with Miriam Trahan. Have you enjoyed this week's show? If you know anyone who gets some more value from it, please do share it with them. And hope you have a great week.

Jingle 45:40

Thanks for tuning in to the habits and health podcast where we believe creating healthy habits should be easy. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favourite podcast app. Sign up for email updates and learn about coaching and workshop opportunities at TonyWinyard.com. See you next time on that habits and health podcast.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai