Most Replayed Moment: Mouthwash REVERSES The Benefits Of Exercise! Dr Nathan Bryan

Steven Bartlett (0:04)

If I've just listened to everything you've just said there, and I want to improve my oral microbiome, what should I be doing?

Nathan Bryan (0:10)

Well, I think the most important thing we've learned is what you shouldn't be doing.

So it's not what should we do, it's what we shouldn't be doing. Number one, we have to get rid of fluoride. You know, just this past weekend, I was speaking at a dental conference in Salt Lake City, and there were people there from the National Toxicology Program, which in the US is the organization tasked with, if there's any kind of risk of exposure of a viral toxicant, they're charged with doing the toxicology studies to see if there's an increased risk. What is the risk? And is there a safe level that is without risk? And what they report is that fluoride, there's no benefit of fluoride, and it's all risk. It lowers IQ in kids by as much as seven points. And it shuts down your thyroid function. And it's a neurotoxin. And as I mentioned before, most toothpaste has fluoride in it. And if you read the back of your toothpaste, it will tell you, at least in the US., I don't know about in other countries, but it says if you swallow this, call poison control. Because it's a poison. They're putting poison in toothpaste. And then if you also pay attention, it says only put a pea-size amount of toothpaste on your toothbrush. A pea-size. But everybody that I know fills the entire bristle of the toothpaste with, toothbrush with toothpaste. So that's about 10 or 15, sometimes 20 pea-size amounts of toothpaste. And a pea-size amount of toothpaste contains about half a milligram of fluoride. Now if you're using 10, 20 times more than that pea-size, now you're exposed to five milligrams. 10 milligrams of fluoride. And you don't even have to swallow it. This is a very small molecule, a molecular weight of 19 So it's absorbed directly across the buccal mucosa, the oral cavity, and it becomes systemic.

Steven Bartlett (1:58)

I'm not going to use it anymore.

Nathan Bryan (1:59)

No, you shouldn't.

Steven Bartlett (2:01)

What should I use instead?

Nathan Bryan (2:02)

You have to use a non-fluorinated toothpaste.

Steven Bartlett (2:04)

And what about things like tongue scrapers?

Nathan Bryan (2:07)

Now tongue scrapers, the data, again, that's time-tested, that's an ancient practice. And even in our study, we found that people who do tongue scraping have a more diverse oral microbiome, and they seem to have better oral health.

Steven Bartlett (2:20)

Why is this? My girlfriend's been banging on to me. She's always bloody right. My girlfriend's been banging on to me about tongue scraping for the last two years. And I've kind of just ignored her. I've just kind of, yeah, babe, sure. And when she's not in the bathroom, I'm not using a tongue scraper, because it just looks strange. For me, based on what I knew about the oral microbiome and the microbiome generally, I'm like, should I be scraping off all my bacteria?

Nathan Bryan (2:44)

Well, if you're going to plant a garden, do you plant a garden on un-tilled soil?

Steven Bartlett (2:49)

Listen, I know nothing about gardening. I'm the wrong guy, so maybe, yes.

Nathan Bryan (2:52)

I grow my own food. So you have to till the soil, right? You got to break up the soil so the seeds actually can be aerated, and you break up that biofilm. Yeah, you take the back of the dorsal tongue, I mean, almost to the point of the gag reflex, and you just pull that ideally copper tongue scraper forward, and you're going to see this goop coming in there, but it's kind of like tilling the soil, and it's increasing the diversity of the dorsal part of the tongue, the microbiome.

Steven Bartlett (3:21)

So my girlfriend was right?

Nathan Bryan (3:23)

In that regard, yes. But what we found was, in that one kid, we saw the greatest increase in blood pressure. If you tongue scrape and use antiseptic mouthwash, that's the absolute worst scenario.

Steven Bartlett (3:36)

Interesting.

Nathan Bryan (3:37)

Just think about this. You're tongue scraping, you're opening up the pores, and now you're using mouthwash. It's better to easily penetrate deep in the crypts of the tongue and more effectively kill the bacteria.

Steven Bartlett (3:48)

So you want to tongue scrape and then use a toothbrush without fluoride toothpaste?

Nathan Bryan (3:53)

Absolutely. And no antiseptic mouthwash.

Steven Bartlett (3:57)

Okay. And what about going to dental hygienists and things like that? Do you think that's an advisable idea? Because once every quarter or so, I'll go and see a dental hygienist just to get everything sort of cleaned out.