How to Improve Oral Health & Its Critical Role in Brain & Body Health

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are discussing oral health. Now, when most people hear oral health, they immediately think tooth health and appearance, and presumably fresh breath or lack of bad breath as well. And while, of course, tooth and breath, freshness, whiteness, and health is a critical component of oral health, today you will learn that oral health, including the oral microbiome, the health of your palate, your tonsils, indeed the entire oral cavity is an extremely important component of general bodily health. So much so that today we are going to add a seventh pillar to the so-called six pillars of mental health, physical health and performance. This is not a trivial step to add a seventh pillar to the six pillars. If some of you have been listeners of this podcast for a while, you may recall that the six pillars of mental health, physical health and performance, that is the six things that everyone needs to invest specific protocols into each day, or in no particular order, by the way, sleep, sunlight and light exposure generally, which by extension also includes dark exposure, nutrition, exercise, which we could also call movement, both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training, stress management and relationships and social engagement, including relationship to self. And today we are going to add oral health and microbiome health. And I suppose we could generally call this oral and gut health, because as you know, if you think about it, your mouth, your oral cavity and your gut are contiguous with one another. We are going to add oral and gut health as the seventh pillar of mental health, physical health and performance. Because as you will learn today, there are so many aspects of oral health and daily protocols for oral health that extend to cardiovascular health, to metabolic health, and indeed to brain health and to staving off diseases in all of those bodily compartments. I cannot overemphasize enough how much oral health influences your general bodily health. So today you will learn about oral biology and health. We won't go too deep into the biology, but we will go deep enough into the biology that you will learn some incredible things such as your teeth have the ability to literally fill back in cavities that have formed, provided those cavities haven't gone too deep into the teeth layers yet. You will learn that saliva, while most people think of it as just spit, is an incredible substance, fluid, that contains all sorts of interesting and important things that allow you to rebuild the strength of your teeth and indeed to support the health of your oral cavity and gut microbiome and body generally. So saliva is super interesting and important. And today you're going to learn many, many protocols, including zero cost protocols, protocols that will actually save you money, as well as some low cost protocols to both restore, improve and maintain oral health. And in doing so maintain and improve your overall bodily health. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Mateína. Mateína makes loose leaf and ready to drink yerba mate. I often discuss yerba mate's benefits such as regulating blood sugar, its high antioxidant content, the ways that it can improve digestion and possible neuroprotective effects. I also drink yerba mate because I love the taste. While there are a lot of different choices of yerba mate drinks out there, I love Mateína because again, they have the no sugar variety as well as the fact that both their loose leaf and their canned varieties are of the absolute best quality. So much so that I decided to become a partial owner in the company. Although I must say, even if they hadn't allowed me to do that, I would be drinking Mateína is the cleanest tasting and best yerba mate you can find. I love the taste of brewed loose leaf Mateína yerba mate, and I particularly love the taste of Mateína's new canned cold brew zero sugar yerba mate, which I personally help them develop. If you'd like to try Mateína, go to drinkmateína.com/huberman.
Right now, Mateína is offering a free one pound bag of loose leaf yerba mate tea and free shipping with the purchase of two cases of their cold brew yerba mate. Again, that's drinkmateína.com/huberman to get the free bag of yerba mate loose leaf tea and free shipping. Today's episode is also brought to us by ROKA. ROKA makes eyeglasses and sunglasses that are of the absolute highest quality. I've spent a lifetime working on the biology of the visual system, and I can tell you that your visual system has to contend with an enormous number of challenges in order for you to be able to see clearly under different conditions. ROKA understands this and designed all of their eyeglasses and sunglasses with the biology of the visual system in mind. Now, ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses were initially developed for use in sport, and as a consequence you can wear them without them slipping off your face while running or cycling and they're extremely lightweight. ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses are also designed with a new technology called FloatFit, which I really like because it makes their eyeglasses and sunglasses fit perfectly and they don't move around even when I'm active. So if I'm running and I'm wearing my glasses, they stay on my face. Most of the time, I don't even remember they're on my face because they're so lightweight. You can also use them while cycling or for other activities. So if you'd like to try ROKA glasses, go to ROKA. That's roka.com and enter the code Huberman to save 20% off your first order. Again, that's roka.com and enter the code Huberman at checkout. Today's episode is also brought to us by Helix Sleep. Helix Sleep makes mattresses and pillows that are of the absolute highest quality. I've spoken many times before on this and other podcasts about the fact that sleep is the foundation of mental health, physical health, and performance. One of the key things to getting a great night's sleep is to make sure that your mattress matches your sleep requirements. The Helix website has a brief two-minute quiz that if you go to it, we'll ask you questions such as, do you sleep on your back, your side, or your stomach? Do you tend to run hot or cold during the middle of the night? As well as some other questions that allow you to determine the optimal mattress for you. When I took the quiz, I personally matched to their dusk mattress, the USK, which has allowed me to significantly improve my sleep. So if you're interested in significantly improving your sleep, go to helixsleep.com/huberman.