Airway Awareness and Brain Mapping

Speaker 1 0:48

We are live . Hello , hello everybody , happy Thursday night . Let me just make sure that we go live on Instagram real quick . Hang in there , hang in there . Oh , my goodness , look at everybody's talking from . We are about to start .

Speaker 1 1:08

Sorry , a little bit late today , all right , let's do this . If you are an A Way Circle member , please say me and thank you . Thank you everybody . You are the reason why we are able to do this to stream live our lectures every Thursday night , to raise awareness to airway issues , to bring airway to everybody . So you are responsible for the growth of the airway field . Thank you , thank you , thank you . If you're not a member yet , please join us as soon as this comes off the air . I'm taking it off the air and it goes inside our membership . So if you're becoming a member today , you'd have immediate access to tons of other lectures that we have done . We have close to 200 now and they are really , really , really good , so you do not want to miss them .

Speaker 1 2:01

I actually , before we start start , I would like to say something about , obviously , what's going on in Brazil . You guys know that I was born and raised in Brazil , and specifically in South Brazil , where the floods are happening right now . I just shared a reel a minute ago and I'm explaining that the size of my state is double the size of the state of Georgia , so it's as if the whole state of Georgia is underwater . It is a lot . There's over 300 cities , many , many , many people displaced . They're not going to be able to go back to their homes because the water is not going down . Just super sad . So I am going to do something with Aerie Circle . I haven't prepared it yet , but I'm going to be sharing with you guys that I'm going to give you guys a discount code and for everybody who's not a member , who would like to help , from now until the end of the month , any new membership that come in with a discount , 100% of that money is going to help the families down there . So join me in helping and , of course , you guys get access to our wonderful membership . So you're learning and you're helping at the same time , and I will share with everybody all the memberships that we get and 100% of it being deposited to families down there .

Speaker 1 3:34

And now let's start with our very , very special speaker . So I met Dr Ron in Houston not very long ago and we heard him speak and my jaw was on the floor . I mean , the whole room was like silent because we were so engaged into his presentation and I am so honored to have him here with us today . So Dr Ron is a board certified internal medicine doctor . He's an author , an international speaker , who is the founder of Texas Center for Lifestyle Medicine in Houston , texas . His goal is to create new health system utilizing integrative medicine approaches to be implemented into the conventional medical insurance model in the United States . Physician Transformation Institute as an ecosystem where healthcare professionals can learn purpose business technology and develop a transformational mindset . Today's topic is the skull-brain connection the airway dilemma in complex cases . Welcome , welcome , dr Ron .

Speaker 2 4:40

Hey , thanks for having me . I appreciate you and much prayers to those in Brazil as well . Noble thing that you're doing .

Speaker 1 4:47

Thank you . It is very sad . We are definitely helping each other out . The civilians are doing an incredible job . So thank you for saying that . So tell us first of all a little bit about yourself . I know that I read your bio , but I know there's so much more to that . So introduce yourself to those who do not know you yet , please .

Speaker 2 5:07

Yeah , my name is Chang , you can call me Chang . I saved Dr Ron for my clinical days , but on the outside I'm just Chang . So I was born in China . I came to the US when I was a wee little lad , at the age of seven . My mother's acupuncturist herbal specialist , my father he's an MD-PhD . On the research side , I really had the East meets West sort of deal throughout my whole life , and so that's sort of the way I approach medicine is trying to figure out , like , what the root cause is . And a lot of that has led me down this pathway of discovering at first sleep apnea and then from sleep apnea into sleep disorder , breathing , and from that into a whole world that I really dove into the last three years after I started using something called brain mapping , using a quantitative EEG model , to figure out what really is the root cause of a lot of brain and mental health disorders and later on autoimmune disease , cancers , et cetera , et cetera , which still all leads back to the airway as well . So that's the short version .

Speaker 1 6:21

That is amazing . I am looking down everybody because as soon as we go live , I actually share our live in every Airways Circle Facebook group that we have . If you're not aware , we have , I think , close to 30 state or country groups . We call them state chapters . So I like to share on everybody so nobody misses it . Brain mapping you know , when I met you in Houston , susie Quintana was telling it , um , brain mapping . You know , when I met you in houston , suzy quintana was telling me about , uh , brain mapping . She was like you have to ask him to talk about this . Yeah , so your father had sleep apnea oh , me too .

Speaker 2 6:58

Um , it runs in my whole family . So ultimately what happened is , um , uh , early on in my , in my when I was a student , medical students and then ultimately , residency had multiple concussive injuries which led me down this path of neurological issues and then mood issues and then existential crisis issues , and then we all have that I know right and uh , and that turned into sort of this self-discovery of what else is really out there , because conventional modern medicine is not going to cut it , and so , um , that's really when I got into this thing called quantitative eeg brain mapping , and it was at a time where I start reading about well , how do you turn feelings into numbers ? Right , it's like I feel bad , what does that mean ? Or , I have brain fog . What does that mean ? I have poor memory . What does that mean ? I have ADHD , do you really ? It's like , what does that mean ? So it led me down this journey into the realm of something I never thought I'd get into , which is quantum physics , looking at bioenergetics , meaning that bio means body and energetics is the energy , and a lot of our energy is generated and interpreted by the brain , and so this is seen on EEGs , which has been traditionally used to look at seizure disorders , and so this is seen on EEGs , which has been traditionally used to look at seizure disorders .

Speaker 2 8:26

But quantitative EEGs have been developed to look at different parts of the brain , what a signaling is , and then we can relate that to the way that people feel , based on where the signal abnormality is .

Speaker 2 8:44

We can relate that to things that you see like speech impediments , right , or lack of finding words , not just speech impediments if you can't find words , attention , et cetera , et cetera . And so we're able to see these patterns . And these patterns exist in the world of psychiatry . So they're looking at attention , adhd , they're looking at bipolar disorder , et cetera , et cetera , right , and that's where the quantitative EEG has been since the 1960s . Now I look at it from the medicine point of view not just psychiatry , but tying together the body and I start realizing , wow , I'm really good at predicting sleep apnea , narcolepsy , other sleep breathing disorders by looking at these patterns , and so I create . At that time I create this is what 10 years ago no , eight years ago I created a machine learning engine to actually learn all these patterns for myself . And then I'm like , wow , we're seeing this relate to not just a lot of chronic illnesses , but especially like mental health disorders .

Speaker 2 9:48

So I thought in my head that because this quantitative energy was locked away in psychiatry for such a long time , let's pull it into medicine , pull into neurology , put it into general medicine , pull into functional holistic medicine and see what we have here . And then I met this other brilliant guy named Nathan Haas at Institute for Functional Medicine and then we hit it off and I just learned a whole lot more about it and they got it . I got into other scans , such as Dr Daniel Amen , a famous psychiatrist , and his work on specs , and now we're really looking at how they correlate together . So it really became this compendium of you know what we could turn words into numbers , and not only that during treatment and then even after treatment you can see how much people improve .

Speaker 2 10:37

So I started doing pre and post brain mapping on people with different appliances , with CPAP , BiPAP , et cetera , right and correlating with diagnoses . And in June of this year we'll be at the sleep conference here in Houston presenting the predictability of my engine on narcolepsy and so we're translating it into these different things . And then that turned into even a bigger project where we started looking at PAS and dysautonomia and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome , connective tissue disorders who all have sleep disorder , breathing because they all have those high palates and tongue ties and stuff like that , just from a genetic standpoint , and we're able to now look at population cohorts and say that you know what these people have , these brain patterns . Perhaps they got this going on right , so it's no longer a guesswork , and that's what the brain mapping has been .

Speaker 1 11:36

So what is this machine that you come up with ? What does it look like exactly ?

Speaker 2 11:40

Well , for Qantas AVG , it's nothing new , it's like 60 years old .

Speaker 1 11:44

Okay , but what did you come up with ?

Speaker 2 11:46

Oh , what did I come up with ? Oh yeah , so it's the different way of interpreting it , right , because it's really been interpreted in neurology and psychology for such a long time . But whenever we look at this , we're like , well , what else is really going on ? Sometimes we can look at chronic infections , especially chronic sinusitis and periodontal disease have a specific pattern that we see on the mapping , and so it's the way that I interpret . I even made an online course out of it . That's a way I actually interpret this . We're not just looking at , like you know , inattention and short-term memory and mood and stuff like that , but so much of it really relates back to the airway .

Speaker 1 12:29

How can breathing , chewing and body structure impact the brain ?

Speaker 2 12:34

So , when you think about it , the brain is an organ that is interpreting things at any given time , right . It is the most important organ when it comes to consciousness . Now , consciousness is not created in the brain , because even plants have consciousness , right . Consciousness is there , it's energy . Our humans and our human brain interprets it as different things . So that's consciousness , that's sort of the awareness , right . And so what happens is that , in order for this engine to determine consciousness , what we have to do is to make sure that we are able to interpret it in a way where it's actionable , right , and so our brain will naturally categorize things normally categorize things normally , categorization is basically keeping it so that whenever we have thoughts that come into our body , we can compartmentalize it and categorize it to different things .

Speaker 2 13:36

Now , people categorize things very differently and we all have different realities , and that's the case . But in order for the brain to do that , it needs oxygen , it needs nitric oxide , it needs to have a carbon dioxide exchange it , magnesium . It needs water , it needs salt like sodium , right , and so a lot of the brain , of uh , chemistry and physiology , is dependent upon hydration , nutrition , breathing , etc . Etc . But , believe it or not , most people think well , that's because we deliver blood flow to the brain . That's how brain gets its nutrition . We're wrong . That's not how it works .

Speaker 2 14:16

In fact , we need our sinuses . We need our sinuses to actually help with the brain . Now , the sinus is part of the airway , right , and so got your ethmo sinus , sinus and all these different places . And whenever you look at these sinuses , whatever area they're proximal to around the brain , like the ethmoids around the frontal lobe , sphenoid around the pituitary right , maxillary around the temporal lobe , whatever is proximal to that gets affected . If you have , let's say , chronic sinusitis , like you're mouth breathing a lot , your turbinates are super enlarged . You got a deviated septum right , everything's like clogged up and those parts of the brain start to shrink whenever your sinuses are obstructed . Okay , and worse off if you have a connective tissue disorder . You're born with smaller sinuses anyways .

Speaker 2 15:01

In fact , some people are missing their ethmoid sinuses when some connect to the tissues right , and so the sinuses are important because they provide the body with the majority of the production of nitric oxide , and nitric oxide is , I call it , the third gas . There's oxygen and carbon dioxide , which you know about . Nitric oxide is what determines the exchange between the oxygen and carbon dioxide , and nitric oxide is required for body to grow . Nitric oxide is required for memory to not have Alzheimer's , to not have ADHD , right , and so it's not surprising we're seeing a lot of neurological disorders and then a lot of psychiatric disorders relate to things that are in the sinus

Skull-Brain Connection and Sleep Patterns

Speaker 2 15:44

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Speaker 2 15:44

In fact , we learned the hard way with COVID . What happens is that the spike protein attached to the sinuses thickens the submucosa and the mucosa , closing off these areas , and people will develop post-COVID syndrome , or as I like to call it , acute dysautonomia . And what happens is that these thickened areas become so entrenched and there's very little air moving in . It causes even more mouth breathing , less nitric oxide . People get brain foggy . This is the whole definition of like long covid , it's got nothing to do with the virus itself has to do with the immune response of airway obstruction .

Speaker 2 16:22

So this is how important breathing is to the brain , right , and so your . Our ability to move air through our nasal sinuses is extraordinarily important , even in in ancient civilizations where they used to mouth tip . I guess we mouth tip again now these days . I used to mouth tape babies , right , to make sure they induce air . It's like an induction , you know , it's kind of got your car person to ram air intake . You're , you're literally getting air into the nose to create that nitric oxide effect . So our mitochondria , or energy units in the brain can actually do its thing and chug along , and so the entire breathing mechanism depends on the skull . This is why it's called the skull brain connection , which is the topic of this talk .

Speaker 1 17:06

Amazing Anne is asking a question . Can you share some patterns that you are seeing relating to sleep ?

Speaker 2 17:12

Well , that's everything . Everything relates to sleep . In fact , we can hack our sleep . We can hack a lot of our biological systems and disease states . So the patterns that really relate to sleep . Just'm just fair warning I'm an adult doctor . I don't really see children , and so children , um , they exhibit different things . For example , in children there's hyperactivity . When it comes to adults , that's not hyperactive anymore . It's like oh , it's 1 pm , why do I need my fifth cup of coffee ? Right , that's . Those are certain patterns you also have nighttime urination happens in both adults and kids and people thinking oh , no , I'm not sleeping , I have to get up to pee .

Speaker 2 17:52

It's like no , you have to get up to pee because your brain frequency is not getting low enough to paralyze the bladder , enough where you feel like you have to pee . And so a lot of times we're seeing bruxism or chewing and grinding right and tmj issues . Or some people don't even have tmj issues but their dentist will say , hey , you look like you grind . They're like no , I don't , yes , you do no , I don't , yes , you do . Hear that a lot , right . So we look a lot of uh , the teeth and see exactly what that looks like . Sometimes you got people like my face I have masseter hypertrophy . See that my masseter is a kind of humongous right here .

Speaker 2 18:29

You know , my mom thought it was right that , that chronic bruxism since I was a little baby and not knowing I sleep at me , that occurs as well . Another huge one is fibromyalgia all right . Fibromyalgia , written by my friend linda harris , it's called the fibromyalgia tnj connection . All right , fibromyalgia , or chronic pain , is huge . All of them actually have sleep apnea or sleep breathing disorder and , um , the way that their bite is either there's a cross bite , overbite , underbite , something that's causing a lot of oral facial strictures , so a lot of chronic pain . So , and then you have , of course , the forehead posture . Doing one of these , you know , I may be something that's causing a lot of oral facial strictures , so a lot of chronic pain . And then you have , of course , the forward head posture . Doing one of these , I may be preaching to the choir . Where the head goes forward , there's a lot of back strain . And then there's those people who say you know what ? I can't exercise because I have the tightest hamstrings . Yeah , tight hamstrings , that's airway obstruction , right .

Speaker 1 19:23

Really .

Speaker 2 19:24

Yeah , because the of hamstrings are the ones where people have to compensate because of either forehead posture or the sternocleidomastoid is locked to their to their clavicles so much that they really can't move the rest of the way down right you're talking to me plantar fasciitis .

Speaker 2 19:42

It's another one at the bottom of the foot where it's like oh yeah , a lot of foot issues . Podiatrists look at that a lot . But when you have plantar fasciitis you have to look in the mouth too . You know , a lot of bruxism can actually create plantar fasciitis . I mean , I can go on and on and on and on .

Speaker 1 19:58

We are here to listen . No , you're totally , totally fine . If you want to go a little bit more into the topic today the skull brain connection you're welcome to yeah , so I'll tell you that , um the way that the skull is , we're not . I have my kid in here too , so don't feel too bad yes , I'm actually gonna step away to get him a food and I'll be right back . But I'm listening . I got you in my ear sounds good .

The Skull's Impact on Health

Speaker 2 20:24

So what happens is that when we look at the skull all right , so you got your cheekbones connected to all these different tissues in your jaw right here , right ?

Speaker 2 20:34

What happens is that if you look at our sternocleidomastoid , which is right here , going from the mastoid process to the sternum , ok , a lot of people are kind of tender in this area and in fact , if you actually press on yourself right now you get tender . Your posture may be affected . One of the things that the skull controls is your lungs , ok , and so this is sort of a big missing part is that when your skull is trying to manipulate the airway especially if you have , like sleep disorder , breathing , um a lot of fascia gets super tight . Right here , fascia is sort of the connective tissue with millions of nerve points , nerve endings that are in there . So the fascia goes down and actually goes down and connects majority of the um , well , not majority all of the something called intercostal fascia . Intercostal means between the ribs and you're literally like locked down . So if you're clenching , your ribs are actually locked down . It's really hard for you to lower your diaphragms , even take a deep breath in . So when people have airway obstruction , they actually have lung obstruction as well . They go hand in hand . In fact , I dare say this that a huge portion of people with COPD and asthma actually has upper airway obstruction . That's triggering the lower airway issues because of this connectivity that's right there , and then the skull also controls your gut digestion . So a lot of times in functional medicine , which is my field , people are like oh , I got these leaky gut issues and I got IBS and constipation diarrhea , whatever it is right .

Speaker 2 22:12

Well , a lot of times that may be stimulated by the way that our oral facial systems are , because one of the things that affects the gut is the vagus nerve . The vagus nerve travels from the bottom of our brain down and goes everywhere . It's called the wandering nerve , the vagabond . That's how it got its name the vagus bird . It's a vagabond , vagabond is the wanderer right . And as the vagus nerve travels down into our neck and going in , one of the things that people don't realize is that the vagus nerve is responsible for the gut functions . Even the microbiome , the gut bacteria , is dictated by the function of the vagus nerve , wellated by the function of the vagus nerve . Well , what creates the function of the vagus nerve ? Your teeth , your canines , especially right Canines , and incisors right here .

Speaker 2 22:55

So what happened is back in the 60s they used to shave down dogs' canines and the dogs couldn't form a regular bite . So what happens is , as they bite down , they don't have a good bite force , and they found out that these dogs were having a lot of issues , from gut issues too , and they were going like feral , they were going crazy . And so in humans , if you got bruxism or if you have a cross bite or any bite issues or overlapping teeth and you can't form a good bite , what happens is there's a nerve right here called the maxillary branch to the trigeminal nerve right here that's supposed to , whenever you take , whenever your bite form is supposed to go back to your brain and calms the vagus nerve down , or actually shouldn't say that it calms the body down by increasing the the tone of the vagus nerve and that that's how you digest . So a lot of people were like , oh , I'm allergic to this food and this food and I can't tolerate this gluten and dairy , and then whole nine yards right . What happened is that no one's really looking at their teeth and their airway .

Speaker 2 23:58

So these people get labeled different things , such as mast cell activation syndrome and all sorts of dysautonomia and all sorts of different , but actually has to do with the way that the bite is formed and neurologically , they can't necessarily activate their brain to create this triggering mechanism for the vagus nerve to really help the body . And the vagus nerve also calms the brain down . So these people get labeled ADHD , bipolar disorder . The really severe ones get labeled schizophrenia and all sorts of things , because they literally can't calm the brain down , right ? And so you see , there's such an intimate connection with the skull , the brain and the rest of the body , and so much of our our body systems are dependent upon the way that our airway and skull formations are .

Speaker 2 24:48

And the last thing that I want to get into is this concept , and this concept has more to do with our entire body as an energy source . So what happens is , like you and I , we're talking , we're using our brains , but what happens is , you know , there's always a feeling that you get when you're around some people , right , the unspoken feeling that there is , and that's what's called the subconscious . What happens is that the subconscious triggers a mechanism in our body to also grind down our teeth . Right , we're not comfortable around somebody . Something triggers us . Maybe it's a previous trauma or something like that , right , you start going like this and guess what ?

Speaker 2 25:30

If your bite is off , you can't use that to calm your brain . You can't induce that bagel tone . Your brain doesn't calm down either .

Airway Dentistry and Brain Health

Speaker 2 25:40

And so a lot of people with , like , post-traumatic stress , a lot of the PTSD population if they have bite issues , that's one of the first things I tell them to do . Is you got to work with the orthodontist on your PTSD , right ? A lot of them are biting down . Why ? Because they have sleep disorder , breathing and airway issues right , which necessitate the bruxism that's there as well . So it's really . I mean , our entire body is sort of an end to end system , with our mouth and our sinuses and our nose and our wrists .

Speaker 1 26:10

My mind is blown right now . Are you kidding me ? Vegas nerve vagabond canines . I know that everybody else is like freaking out . Yeah , so validating , oh , my goodness , she was asking . So most chronic illnesses are airway issues .

Speaker 2 26:31

I wouldn't say that . I wouldn't say that I say a lot of them are . I wouldn't say most are . I would say that more and more chronic issues are airway issues because , you know , everyone's a gerber baby , right ? Everyone that doesn't have solid food for like a year and a half these days , right , instead of that four or five months , like they're supposed to right ?

Speaker 2 26:54

uh , you know one of my friends , uh and , by the way , I have so much knowledge because I have really awesome friends one of my best friends in the world is this guy who wrote this book right here . His name is felix leo yes , we love him . He's spoken for us before yeah , felix and I , I feel like I feel like he's my spirit human and I'm really good friends with his son , franklin .

Speaker 2 27:19

He's a chef , uh here , and you know , felix introduced me to this concept a while back . It's funny because a lot of what I talk about in facial structure comes from his thoughts , which then really got me in touch with a lot of people in airway dentistry , biological dentistry , surgeons , like David Alfie here in Houston he's one of my good friends , right Chris Tran , the ENT over here . We're buddies right there , actually , uh , and so we have this really amazing network here that I really learned from . So I've got to give a lot of credit to them , because I didn't learn this in medical school .

Speaker 1 27:54

None of this was taught in medical school . Um so just holding your bite together is improper . Occlusion allows the vagus nerve to relax um , I wish it was that easy .

Speaker 2 28:09

So so what happens is , um , whenever we're we're sustaining a normal bite , everything meets together , right . No cross , by no over , by no under bite , right . Whenever the bite meets together , it feeds back into this uh nerve bundle called the gasserion ganglion , and the gasserion ganglion goes up into the hypothalamus of our brain and that's where the origin also , where the vagus nerve comes out of right , uh , where the initial , uh initial area that that promotes the vagus nerve . So it tells this area hey , vagus nerve , do right . Which is why , when you're angry , you clench your teeth to actually calm you down . That's what all mammals do . When you're angry , you clench your teeth to calm you down .

Speaker 1 28:53

That's crazy for me . What happens when you can't calm ?

Speaker 2 28:55

down Because you have some bite issues , right . Then you start doing one of these things . You start trying to figure out where am I going to put my teeth so I can calm down ? And then you do it when you're unconscious , when you sleep . When you do it when you're subconscious , oh my goodness , and that triggers your fascia to be super tight . In fact , this is , this is the origin of fibromyalgia . Actually , this is the . You trigger your fascia . It's just so tight , right , and all of a sudden you start looking like one of these things , right here , right and uh , you know a lot of our brain health patients . They come in and they sit down . I come in and they do one of these . Hey , dr Ron , how are you doing ? You know I'm like we're talking about your brain . There's a lot to work on here before we even get into a lot of the brain health , because that's fundamental .

Speaker 2 29:45

You know , but that's a lot of it has to do with your bite as well , not just your life .

Speaker 1 29:49

That is just incredible . So what happens when people get four premolars extracted ?

Speaker 2 29:55

good question . I am no expert in this but I see patterns , right , and a lot of people with connective disorders , disorders Ehlers-Danlos , do get 4P molars extracted . It's really common because they don't have the ability to deploy specific genes to widen the palate when they're younger . Right , it's part of the genetic makeup and so there's not enough real take away the brace , seeing structures of the mouth , the mandible or the maxilla , then epigenetically it just kind of shrinks and develop over time , right , and so you know that's not really seen as a problem to most . I think you know regular dentists , but it is seen in the airway dentistry group . It is seen in the airway dentistry group and I will tell you that we take a pretty awesome orthodontic history in my practice and most doctors you know most physicians won't right .

Speaker 2 30:57

Because I didn't even know what premoles were in medical school , and so a lot of people who have a lot of these teeth removed tend to have in the brain mapping what's called hypervigilant EEGs , where the brain's like ping-ponging between like go , go , go and then like I'm tired , right , and there's like nothing in between . That's usually the people who have a lot of these pre-malar removed and have some bite issues as well . I wouldn't say that's everyone , but that's a bigger population than I originally thought .

Speaker 1 31:24

And when you're talking about people coming down and planting together , that really makes me think about children , especially special needs children , where you know things are happening in much faster rates . I feel like in the brain you know all of these ASD kids and they grind so much . I have heard in our field people say that grinding is 100% airway and I'm like , I'm like , no , I don't think it is . There's so much more that we don't know .

Speaker 2 31:52

We can never say a hundred percent , you know so I'll tell you it's not a hundred percent airway , but it is a hundred percent perception , and I'll tell you why so a hundred percent perception means that , like our brains always receiving signals right , and those kids who are neurodivergent on the spectrum and stuff like that , like the problem is , like you and I , when we learn something , we compartmentalize and categorize Right , we can see things are important , not important . They just think everything's important and then they can't calm that system down and then they rock and they grind . They don't have to have sleep disorder , breathing for this that . That comes in because of the , because of the perception of the brain . Let's call it the consciousness . You know spiritual value .

Speaker 2 32:36

So something is creating , um , creating a discomfort within the consciousness and our most powerful , my most powerful nerves was the trigeminal nerve is trying to do the best they can to feed back the vagus nerve . Hey , like , kick in , like you know , start calming me down . And sometimes that doesn't happen , especially in a lot of people with , like , generational trauma , right Inherited family traumas . There's a lot of brusting , that kind of goes on . But they don't have to have issues Right . They have to have that perception , their perceived reality that there's discomfort that's really there , to to create that mechanism that's there oh , my goodness , I think it was louis lane that I heard talk about .

Speaker 1 33:19

You know everybody wanting to turn on the vegas nerve and you know , activate the vegas nerve , vegas , vegas is the new thing . But she was saying that you cannot turn on the vagus if you do not do the other cranial nerves so you just mentioned , you know

Importance of Olfactory and Trigeminal Nerves

Speaker 1 33:36

exactly . And then the olfactory nerve is something that I've been focusing a lot with my patients lately . Like you have to be able to breathe , you have to be . You know our nose is so important .

Speaker 2 33:47

I had a doctor just spoke . Yeah , so the olfactory nerve is smell sensing , but your ability to breathe is still the trigeminal nerve . Oh my gosh , so your throat has these branches , like my hand right here , right . So all we talked about so far is the maxillary branch of the trigeminal nerve . There's the mucosal branch of the trigeminal nerve that senses air velocity through the nasal sinuses . Right they still go back to the same basarian ganglia . There's an auricular branch of the trigeminal nerve that goes into the pariorbital fascia .

Speaker 2 34:19

So you're doing one of these things , you're squinting . It's also triggering the same trigeminal nerve , right ? So your entire face , from your orifice and everything like that . I mean , this is why I always have my blue blockers on me in case I get a little too foggy , or one of these things to stop the auricular sensory branches , trigeminal nerve to to this . This helps me calm and relax and increase my serotonin as well . Right , but the vagus nerve is is one part of the story . The trigeminal nerve in your skull is a much bigger part of the story to ignore .

Speaker 1 34:57

Yeah , um , there was a doctor that told me that , uh , the olfactory nerve was the most important . That's why it was number one , because of your sense of smell . And back in the day , in cave days , we were able to smell danger . That's why we were able to go into deep sleep , we were fine , but now nobody can breathe . You know , we have allergies , enlarged turbinates , deviatedated septums , and we live inside homes and most of us have really lost our incredible sense of smell . I haven't . I can smell anything . By the way , I think I have that condition , whatever it's called . I can smell anything from a mile away . It's a problem sometimes , let me tell you .

Speaker 2 35:36

However , most people can't yeah , so the olfactories are like two little bulbs sitting on top of the ethmoid and so , um , I'm sorry , not that one the cryptiform plate . The cryptiform plate separates the sinuses and the rest of the brain , so by the time your olfactories are knocked off , your trigeminal is already like oh my god , like this is discombobulated right .

Speaker 2 35:57

So a lot of people will like , uh , mold um they knock out their , their trigeminal uh uh response , they knock out the olfactory response and they accelerate towards dementia and brain shrinking really , really quickly . You know , and we see that all the time there's a uh . There's a paper published by dr dale bredesen , who wrote the book end of alzheimer's , and if y'all can look it up , it's called inhalation alzheimer's . It talks about this effect where you're inhaling particulates and mold and stuff like that which knock out a lot of the receptors in the olfactories and the trigeminal nerve and then the sinuses become impacted and that triggers a downstream cascade and your adrenals mess up , your hormone mess up .

Speaker 2 36:40

It's sort of a big issue , right and so , but some people are affected and some people aren't . But guess who's more affected by mold ? The people with sleep apnea , right . The people who have even lower airway obstruction , right and so there is a system here that we have to think about from a holistic standpoint . The airway is part of the bigger equation , but we have to think about the a holistic standpoint . The airway is part of the bigger equation , but we have to think about the rest of the skull structures , not just the airway , but literally your cheekbones , your septum and all this stuff in areas as well that makes sense to me .

Speaker 1 37:13

You know we were interviewing dr david gozal , uh some time ago and he is just incredible . He was talking about how he ? You know , if you keep waking up these mice , not letting them sleep , so this fragmented sleep will change your gut flora . So if you're not sleeping well , you're being exposed to something that's not good for you . Where your gut flora is not as good well , you're going to take longer to get healthy . So , that makes so much sense .

Speaker 2 37:41

I have this really unpopular opinion . I don't think the gut floor is really important . I think the oral microbiome is way more important than you actually like . You know lower gut floor because or or microbiome is still , still uh , it's still part of the gut floor and the reason I say that is this is because your oral microbiome determines your gut microbiome and it's less so the other way around okay , perfect , that's good to know and in fact , let's say you have a piece of celery in your hand right , break the celery , you just swallow it whole , okay , it goes into your gut .

Speaker 2 38:14

Versus if you chew this thing 27 times and then swallow it , your microbiome response to that celery is completely different . Completely different , right ? Your acromantia , your formicity , all the species are quite different , because digestion starts um pre-chewing , when you're visualizing the food , and you're visualizing the food and salivate , and that's when the microbiome gets this . It's , uh , it's going . But then if you bypass the chewing part , it becomes an issue , which is why in Chinese medicine , my mom hates people being on smoothies . When you do clean smoothies , it completely ruts your microbiome for some people , right , and you think you're being healthy , but then you have people to chew . There's still a chewing component . That's really quite important . Actually , that's all of Eastern medicine and Ayurvedic medicine is the same way , right . Important . Actually , that's all of eastern medicine and ayurvedic medicine is the same way , right . You gotta be able to kind of like chew your food and create that digestion process it isn't yeah I get a lot of slack for it .

Speaker 1 39:09

But that's okay , and then let's just put food in pouches , because all kids need is nutrition . They don't need to experience anything . Yeah , oh , my gosh . Um , since you went a little bit into mold , I would love to ask you yeah , are there any good tests out there ? I have a couple patients who know they've been exposed and they've tested the house and they mentioned to me that there there aren't very good tests about testing yourself . What is it better ? Is it better to test the environment ? Is it better to test the person ?

Speaker 2 39:42

if you think you have it , you have . You don't have to test anything . And I'll tell you why . I've never seen a negative mold test in the city of houston before ever wow uh , we use great plains laboratories before and we use vibrant all sorts of things in the real-time labs . Uh , like , the problem is , you're going to excrete mycotoxins . These are urinary tests , right , you're going to excrete mycotoxins in the urine .

Speaker 2 40:05

Myco means mold , m-y-c-o the mycotoxins that get excreted are supposed to be excreted , and so you better have it , because if your test was actually negative , you're probably the most mold toxic of anybody , because you can't excrete the toxins in the urine , right . And so what happens is there's a lot of allergists that do sort of the mold skin testing and stuff like that . That's only testing one arm immune system . It's not that great , um , but the real question is is is not , is not ? Is there mold or not ? There's mold , right , there's mold . The real question is whether or not it really affects you , right , so I'm biased , so I actually use my brain mapping quantitative eeg to actually look at that answer , and there's actually specific things that are in there that tell us that . Um , but if you're one of those people that have a fancy cone beam ct like cpcts , and you see those really thick mucosa and sub mucosa and you see those encroaching nasal septums onto the turbinates , right , you're going to be affected by mold just because there's not enough velocity in the airway to even move air and your sub mucosa is really large .

Speaker 2 41:13

Right , we work . So we work with one of my really good ent friends , local to me here , which is dr michael kaplan to work on these , these sinus patients , right , and lo and behold , guess what happens ? Like , sometimes people can get sinuplasties and sinus washouts and then we do the mold test at the end and they're fine . You know , they don't really have to go through anything . Sometimes we have a little , get a little more aggressive , um , but the mold thing is , um is one of the things that are in there . There's , there's VOCs , like volatile organic chemicals . That does the same thing .

Speaker 2 41:44

Covid does the same thing as mold , right , there's no difference , right ? And even when we did the studies on the first , like SARS-CoV-1 , right , yes , that did the same thing as well . And so you have . It's all about resilience , right . A lot of our resilience is based on the airway in our skull , and that's true . One of the things that we're doing now is so I'm an AI nerd , and so we actually wrote programs to analyze patient datas , turning from unstructured data to structured database of what are some things so we can inquire on our data , which means that , let's say , I upload eight years of data of patients , right , and I say , hey , who's are really affected by mold ? I can say that all people who are affected really by mold are the people with ahi of eight and above on the sleep study right , or rdi of 22 or above . Right now , now we can look at stuff like that , which we're doing right now .

Speaker 2 42:37

Um , I think technology has really come a long way . Now we're able to inquire data we haven't done in a long time , and it's crazy , because this is like the time where we can ask higher quality questions instead of being stuck in a paradigm that someone has told us something .

Speaker 1 42:56

Data is everything . What we do with data is everything . Kim is asking when working with patients with facial tension or facial tension , how often are you also seeing tongue restriction ?

Speaker 2 43:10

All the time . Have I seen someone with facial tension without tongue restriction is the question ? I don't think so . I think it's always has tongue restriction right and it doesn't necessarily have to be a tongue tie right . It could be underdeveloped tongue . It can also be a lot of glossitis , which is enlarged tongue . Now , granted , some people's tongues appear enlarged because their palate is too small for the normal size tongue . Some people actually have really enlarged tongues for other medical disorders right . One that comes up is amyloidosis , which is one of the people think it's rare . It's not that rare and you deposit protein in the tongue and it just gets larger and larger and larger .

Speaker 1 43:50

Okay , what was that called ?

Speaker 2 43:52

Amyloidosis yeah .

Speaker 1 43:54

Okay .

Speaker 2 43:54

Yeah , it's another one called sarcoidosis . We can have the same thing , but these are autoimmune issues that can deposit protein and collagen in the tongue and the tongue actually gets bigger . And so I know a lot of the airway dentists says no , it's not a large tongue , it's just a palate too small . That's not true in all the cases . You know it's a lot .

Speaker 1 44:12

I have a few patients . I mean I look at them like , oh lordy , Like we know that either you know this person is not that transverse deficient or ap deficient , you can tell when there's that increased tongue volume . I really started talking a lot more yeah to my patients and to the area circle girls or my circle girls about increased tongue volume . We really need to use that as um , you know , are we going to recommend a tongue tie release or not ? I feel like that's more important than anything Increased tongue volume . We need to start talking about it .

Speaker 2 44:47

And you probably know as well as I do , tongue tie really doesn't really fix anything right . Sometimes buccal releases , tie releases , doesn't necessarily do anything for the patient . Sometimes it makes some things worse . So there are some things medically that we have to look at I'm not giving that today and there's some hereditary disorders that we have to look at in addition to just the functionality . You know , like I said , although some of the stuff works in most people , doesn't work in some of these people and usually by the time they get to my practice they're in the minority already . That's failed every other option Right , my practice . They've seen airway . They've seen multiple myofunctional therapists . Sometimes they have jaw surgeries . Right , like everything's like optimal , like what else is missing , that there are a lot of stuff in the back end that still requires optimization in the human body so it's not .

Speaker 2 45:32

You know , it's not like . A lot of time it is airway , but then sometimes it's not , and then you have to figure out . There's a lot more individualization on the back end as well um .

Speaker 1 45:42

Dr tran is here . Hey , dr tran um , surprisingly . In colorado , where we have a very dry climate , we have lots of mold . I have patients test all the time . It's very impactful , uh , so there are options to treat mold .

Speaker 2 46:02

So color , colorado . Even though there's a dryer , there's a lot of air movement . There's transitions based on the elevation , so Colorado is a big area . Whenever you have these humidity transitions , different mold species get aggregated . But yeah , that's true , whereas in Arizona you don't have a lot of that . But then they have other problems like mercury and dust storms . They have other problems . No matter where you are in the country , there's some sort of toxins that can get aggregated .

Speaker 1 46:35

Anne is saying , is food sensitivity testing or genetic testing something that you find helpful to help manage and support patients with food sensitivities intolerances , or are those tests not very useful ? It's a great question .

Speaker 2 46:49

Another popular opinion . I don't think anyone should really get food-sensitive testing . I'll tell you why Because if you test on a Monday , tuesday , wednesday and Thursday , all four days , it's four different tests .

Speaker 1 46:59

I'll be honest , really .

Speaker 2 47:00

Because I used to do it right . I used to prescribe this all the time . It's honestly a waste of money and I'll tell you why .

Multi-Generational Trauma and Health

Speaker 2 47:08

On Monday you do the testing . You get result . A Monday night someone texts you . You receive bad news . You slept four hours and you wake up the next morning your test results look completely different because you only slept four hours . And then that evening you get consolation I'm gonna go to sleep , I had a good big cry , I feel pretty good . And that next day , all of a sudden , your sensitivity goes to zero . Your ig iga goes to zero .

Speaker 2 47:31

For foods right , because you had good quality sleep and you had emotional release . Right on thursday you go into disorder bereavement and then you're like now eating a bunch of different things and stuff like that , and then your test goes different . So you know my father's MD PhD , but his PhD is in blood assay development . So one of the things we look at blood assay development is consistency , right , not just the cross section in time , but consistency . My issue with it is that we get patients all the time that's limited down to like three , four foods . I'm like what am I going to eat ? I was like well before that . First of all , are you drinking smoothies ? Are you chewing ? All right , that's number one , right ? Number two um , if you're eating , are you eating in a time where you're go , go , go eating in the van or with your kids , like going to like gymnastic practice , or are you calmly sitting down ? Because you're sitting down , you're not going to form the immunoglobulins that you see in the blood work for the food , right ? Number three what's the weather outside ? Right ? If it's a little muggy like today's , super humid in Houston , your sinus is all clogged up . Yeah , your IgG IgA in your gut is going to go crazy because it's supposed to right . So it's looking at a cross-section in time . But it's the one test that creates a lot of complexity , that impedes progress , right ? So instead we should be looking at okay , if I do have food sensitivities let's say you get a really well kid or whatever you do your blood spot , you have food sensitivities . Think about life Like how am I breathing ? What's going on ? Am I sleeping ? Am I hydrating ? Oh , yeah , dehydration also causes the food sensitivity to go rise as well . Right , you have too many factors , the fundamental factors of life that are there . That creates the sensitivities , and then you have the placebo effect . If you believe you're allergic to almonds and you eliminate almonds for a year , you do the food sensitivity again next year . Your almonds are still there and you're like shit , I . I eliminate almonds for a year and it's still there .

Speaker 2 49:28

Your , your brain can literally create these immunoglobulins based on memory cells , memory t cells , right . That , uh , that will stimulate the b cells which , which create these antibodies to be created . This is my fit my , so my major in texas a&m is is immunology , microbiology . This is my favorite topic right here . We're talking about our body are supposed to build these antibodies because if it didn't , we'd be dead .

Speaker 2 49:55

There's genetic disorders where we have no sensitivities . You don't hear about them because they die at the age of three months . They don't exist . And then there's there's other disorder that all of a sudden , you get no immune response . It's called aids . You die there too , right , and so , like , people are seeing this autoimmunity or this inflammation as a bad thing . Well , what's that ? Autoimmune inflammation ? We , neither of us , would exist right now , right , so you have to have that happy medium . This means I go back to the airway . Still , if you're having a lot of food sensitivities , like what's going on , like , show me how you're taking air into you know either of your nostrils , right ? Do you have any pressure in your face ? So this is where my ENT partners are extraordinarily important in this . The minute I see everyone's's super highly sensitive to food . The next step is hey , dr Tran , he's on here . Hey , I need to get a sinus evaluation or something like that . Right , look at the arrow first when you have specific sensitivities and this is also relating to histamine activation mast cell activation stuff like that .

Speaker 1 51:01

Oh my goodness , do you think the generational trauma like people you know are family members from the past that have been through very , very traumatic situations Can we carry that on physically in our body ?

Speaker 2 51:18

Yeah , we better . I'll tell you why . Our species is homo sapien . We have these things called complementary DNAs , which scientists used to call junk DNAs . They didn't know what it used to do . These complementary DNAs get flipped up and down off and on whenever there's a sequence . That occurs , usually with experiences . So what happens is that these complementary DNA we're getting from both sides mom and dad , multiple generations . So what happens is we're the product of multiple generations of traumas , and if we didn't have traumas , we wouldn't be alive . Right , homo sapiens will be extinct . Right , that's true for all organisms .

Speaker 2 52:02

Doesn't matter if you're amoeba or if you're a human or a monkey or a bird , right , and so what happens is , um , these generational traumas shouldn't be seen as something that's good or bad , they just are right . Right , so my father , my grandfather , went through the Chinese Cultural Revolution , were a multi-generational physician family , and during the communist takeover , well , the intellects and the doctors were tarred , feathered and jailed , like most of my family , right , and so that's a trauma that propagated my grandmother to go into kind of survival mode . Right , a lot of these personalities , you see , are from multiple generations of patterning that really occurs , and there's something called a four generational pattern that occurs , which I won't get into because it's really complex for for psychology , but what happens is that these traumatic states gets carried into our bodies . They could could be chest pain , back pain , foot pain , et cetera , et cetera , right . And when you combine multigenerational trauma with the fact that our mouths are getting smaller , right , skull formation is different . You have a physical phenotypic issue plus multigenerational experiences that's conglomerating into the human that we are now and our kids and stuff like that , right , and so the so , I think , multi-generational trauma because we're here .

Speaker 2 53:22

But you can reframe your , your most generational trauma as well . Um , and that's what I'm really passionate about , I have a whole new tech startup that's actually developing this , but we're actually training AI to decipher into multi-generational traumatic patterns to help with patients . But what happens is we have to ask the bigger question . The bigger question is if I'm the product of multiple generations , do I have to blame myself for this ? The answer is usually no . That's how you reframe that , because , even though you have multi-generational , do I have to blame myself for this ? The answer is usually no , right , and that's how you reframe that , because , even though you have multi-generational trauma , when you flip the script on the trauma , it stops in your generation , and then your next generations can believe different things , right .

Speaker 1 54:09

I hear that we do that out of love .

Speaker 2 54:12

We do what out of love .

Speaker 1 54:16

You know , guilt ourselves into being like them . Oh yeah , Because we love them so much .

Speaker 2 54:21

Of course , and it has to do with modeling , right . We model who we love , right . We're also at the mercy of what we're shown in our , in our reality , right ? So I didn't plan on talking about this , this , this discussion .

Speaker 2 54:39

I know this is not even our topic , but I just so we're actually starting a psychedelic therapy center in Houston , here in my facility , actually next week . But we're we actually get into a lot of traumatic States , especially with the airway patients too . Right , yeah , that that really helps with the chronic disease pattern as well yes , I have um several .

Speaker 1 54:59

Several patients have been coming to me recently that I'm just catching like , oh , emotional , emotional , emotional trauma . We need emotional releases . So what can we do for emotional release ?

Speaker 2 55:08

well , first , uh , sometimes I will not release your emotions . Tongue tie release will not release your emotions . Most people think that . Most , a lot of patients think that , um . So I actually want to relate this to tongue ties for a second . So most people relate tongue ties to the genome , mthfr , metal tetrahydrofolate reductase , um , snip , single nucleotide polymorphism . So in psychiatry you learn that , oh , the 1298C and 677T of MTHFR , you know , one's related to depression , the other one's related to anxiety and bipolar disorder . Right , that's psychiatry . And then you go into my wife's an OBGYN in fertility . You go into fertility it's like , oh , this is associated with , you know , early trimester miscarriages . Cool , all right . And then you go into this functional medicine and holistic medicine . You're like , no , this has to do with people not breaking down folate , so they must take the right supplementation to break down folate which I actually don't agree with , by the way .

Speaker 2 56:09

All right , another big thing . Okay , then you got me with my little ai engine here . I was like what is the big picture here ? I was like well , um , mthfr , technically is the sleep apnea gene , right ? So sleep apnea is the number one risk factor of early , early um , preterm labor and ob-gyn is the one risk factor for depression , anxiety , edc , right , et cetera , et cetera .

Speaker 2 56:37

So the question is are we just calling this MTHFR gene because we associate it with a methylation defect , or is the methylation defect because we have airway obstruction ? So my argument is start with the airway in the first place , right ? And so this is the problem with science is that whoever's the first to discover something , whatever fuel , just cause that , you're like okay , well , it's because I have a fully Well , not necessarily you have to breathe , right ? You can methylate just as good by breathing than you can take an L-methylfolate . You really could .

Speaker 2 57:13

Now , does it say it doesn't work ? No , it works well , people feel better with it . And then , but some people will take it so much what's called over-methylate where they get a little anxious to have B vitamins , that's because you're taking it , but you're always so obstructed . If you're always so obstructed , you're going to over-methylate , right , and so that's the issue right here with functional medicine is that there's always that little caveat . That's right here that we have to kind of see everything else . So I don't really feel there's a best type of medicine . I just think that we should really all work together and just give each other great , great advice .

Speaker 1 57:42

That is incredible . We're having people ask can you come on once a month to hang out with us ? Yes , oh , my goodness , this is so interesting . Madison said you're speaking my language . So many symptoms , syndromes , psych relations that need to be connected and talked about . This is so good . Yes , I know that we have so many questions , but we have reached our time . Everybody , dr Ron , you are incredible Blows my mind every time . Thank you so much .

Speaker 2 58:16

Appreciate that .

Speaker 1 58:17

Thank you for being here , my pleasure , a lot of fun .

Speaker 2 58:21

I appreciate you .

Speaker 1 58:22

This is awesome . Let me give some announcements for next week , if I can find my other screen right here .

Speaker 1 58:31

I'll wear my glasses Everybody , and please share , share , share . This . It's going to go straight into our membership , so if you're not a member , join us today . I posted the code below with the discount . Next week we have Dr Mike Patton . He's a holistic chiropractor , so next Thursday at 8 pm Eastern time , if you are a healthcare professional , join our Facebook group and stay informed on the next speakers . We also have a newsletter on our website that you can join us . And then we also have a new course coming up called the foundations of our facial myofunctional therapy starts August 1st . The girls will post a link for our wait list . We have a new podcast called Beauty at the Breathing . We've had a fantastic start lots and lots of downloads . They're a little bit shortened versions of our Aerie Circle , where we get to ask questions for about 20 , 30 minutes , and it's absolutely fantastic . Dr Ron , thank you , thank you , thank you . I cannot wait to see you again . Can you please share with everybody right before you go ? How can people get in touch with you ?

Speaker 2 59:45

I'm still here .

Speaker 1 59:46

Can you guys hear me ? Okay , I totally came out . I don't see the screen or myself anymore , but can you share with everybody , if you don't mind , how to get in touch with you ?

Speaker 2 59:59

I think most people on here are professionals , so find me on LinkedIn . It's my name C-H-E-N-G-R-U-A-N-M-D . I have the same tag on Instagram and Facebook as well . I don't do TikTok anymore for ethical reasons and then you can find me . So my practice is Texas Center for Lifestyle Medicine , and then , if you're a healthcare professional , I have a nonprofit organization . We actually raise funds for mental health services that are anonymous for physicians and other healthcare professionals . That's Physician Transformation Institute , and we actually have our retreats every year . Our next retreats in two weeks . Usually we're full , but it's a spiritual , a conscious awakening , a psychedelic retreat We'll touch AI in there as well which we have every year . We might have to have it three times a year now because it's a giant one . Yes , and is that for everybody or just professionals , which we have every year ?

Speaker 1 1:00:54

Might have to have it three times a year now , because it's a giant one . And is that for everybody , or just professionals ?

Speaker 2 1:00:58

It's just that one's just for , like , healthcare professionals . Other part the thing that I'm studying is actually for everybody . We're launching that pretty soon . We're about to have some local retreats in Houston , actually in Lake Livingston , just north of Houston , over there and so a lot of things to look at . But if you follow me on LinkedIn , I actually post all that stuff .

Speaker 1 1:01:20

Okay , awesome . Yes , if you can send us some links , we'll post on ARA Circle Everybody . Thank you so much . Yes , if you are on ARA Circle , professionals , we're going to post all the links over there for you guys so you can follow along . Dr Ron , you are fantastic . Thanks for all the work that you were doing . I know that you were helping so many more people that , um , you know , we can even imagine . So thank you . Thank you everybody . Have a wonderful night . See you next Thursday . Bye-bye .