Jessica Lederhausen and I discuss the impact of oral health on overall health and wellness.
Your health starts in your mouth. Jessica shares her expertise as a former dentist, oral health expert and health coach, highlighting how oral health impacts your overall health. You may have heard of leaky gut, but are you familiar with leaky mouth? Your mouth has a microbiome just like your gut. Jessica offers practical tips about eating habits that allow saliva to do its job correctly and her other pillars for maintaining excellent health, sleep, breathing, and movement. Oral bacteria infection impacts your brain and heart health, and prioritizing the mouth is just as important as prioritizing good sleep.
Jessica shares her unique perspective as a Swede living in the USA and how the cultures differ around eating. We discuss the American phenomenon of snacking and how the digestive system, along with the microbiome of the mouth, prefers time in between meals and eating to reset for optimal function and health. The functional nutrition rhythm is eat, digest, rest.
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Dana Frost 00:07
Welcome to Vitally You, a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host Dana Frost, a wellness expert, life coach and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect conversations about vitality from the inside out with guest experts in the field of health, culture, and spirituality, and solo episodes along the way from me where I do deep dives into the topics of aging, heart intelligence, energy, medicine, and your innate capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger, while growing older, this is the place for you.
Dana Frost 00:54
I want to welcome Dr. Jessica Lederhausen into the podcast this week. Jessica brings her unique perspective as a Swede. She's a dentist, a public health advocate and the author of oral the Swedish secret to full body health starting in your mouth. According to Jessica small changes in how we eat, sleep, breathe and move can improve overall health. Just again I share many similarities. We both raised five children who are all adults now. We both lived as expatriates, both of us are grandmothers, and live between Chicago and southern Florida. I was excited to have Jessica on the show to highlight the relevance and connection of oral health to overall health and vitality. If you're not taking care of your oral health, you are missing a strategic and important component of your health.
Dana Frost 01:30
In today's show, I am declaring that your health begins in your mouth. Do you know that praying before you eat improves digestion. Your body releases digestive enzymes based on hunger cues and the aroma of food preparation. Oral bacterial infections can leak into the brain and cause neurological problems. micro organisms from the oral cavity are also found in other parts of the body, including the vascular wall of the arteries and patients with artery atherosclerosis. I'm getting that wrong, I practice it so hard for my episodes on cardio health. And it is a well known fact that there is a connection between oral cavity diseases and other diseases. And Jessica will show us how our daily habits start in our mouths. Jessica, welcome to the Vitally You podcast.
Jessica Lederhausen 03:13
Hi, thank you. And thank you for having me. This is very exciting.
Dana Frost 03:16
I knew a little bit about you. But I would love the valiev community to know a little bit about your background. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Sure.
Jessica Lederhausen 03:25
I would love to. I'm from Sweden, north of Europe. And growing up there in the 70s 80s was probably a very blessed moment in the history of humankind. I grew up with parents both working in health care. My mom ran and owned immunization clinic, which was the only one and the first one. People started traveling back in the 60s and we needed immunization to go places. And my dad's an OB GYN thing.
Jessica Lederhausen 03:53
So for me going into healthcare, which I did was a natural, or the thing I thought I always wanted. We lived a lot of outdoorsy lifestyle which you imagine if you know anything about Northern Europe, you think of it but it really is a thing. And I went to America the first time for one year in college after high school, I think I had two suitcases and a golf bag. But that was fast forward. But growing up I played a lot of golf and other sports and I took it so far. So I get to go to college in America, which was a goal and happy I went but I just stayed a year and I went back to Sweden.
Jessica Lederhausen 04:34
And before I went back I did apply for dental school. So I became a dentist. And during those years I got married I started family. And I did started working as a dentist and then we moved to America as a family. So it's interesting to look back how things happen or you do things when you're young and you don't no one knows where it's going to take you. So thank my golf career. I had took me obviously to America, and then again with my family. So I'm very happy with that I'd have that turnout. And my learnings from the golf in itself is a whole big part of me. I think I went took it as far actually. So I played professional as well, for a while. And what I learned from that are typically building your everyday habits finishing, not only being on time for things, but you really have to be prepared and show up.
Jessica Lederhausen 05:30
And everybody's worried that are competing in sports, I'm sure. But the best way to work on that is to be prepared. So at least you have a tool. So I learned a lot around those things. I brought it to the work I do today. But I can tell you more what I did when I arrived in America. So we were a big family of four kids. And my husband and I and I did bring research in mobile dental care, which I did with a group, I did clinic work for group at the Karolinska Institute. And they were so fantastic. And I learned a lot from them as well. And they let me bring my research.
Jessica Lederhausen 06:07
And this is before we had internet, we had dial up internet, actually we did. So I had something that I could care about and make my own when I moved with my kids and my husband. But after a year of sitting in the basement, basically, I felt this is not working, I have to do something else. So I went back to school for a master's in public health. Those two experiences really put me and maybe the way I was trained as a dentist in Sweden, maybe really look outside the typical dental clinic, or the typical dedicating work. And then I took a pause, and I felt it's time to go back to dentistry or medicine or health care, whatever.
Jessica Lederhausen 06:48
And I found actually coaching as my thing I felt that could bring all my learnings and be there for people who want a change in their life or didn't know where to go. And I felt I've done some pivots in my life, and I could contribute. And I also had basic health care, and working with people. So that was a journey in itself. And then I ran, literally run into TED and TEDx. And I found that TEDx Chicago, which took me, I would say further closer to where I am today, I had to look out and find people with amazing ideas.
Jessica Lederhausen 07:24
And that the focus on them thinking about my own idea I had boiling in me, which was the way I was coaching came up to the surface more from there, I have never written a book about my philosophy, or whatever it said, but it's a whole journey to where I am. And I believe that's for most people, if you let it be your journey, I think you can go places that you really want to become,
Dana Frost 07:48
I read your book, I loved it. And this is why you're on the podcast, right is to talk about this amazing book, which is really, as you beautifully described your history. It's the culmination of everything that you've experienced up to this point, I didn't realize how much golf factored in, I knew that you were a golfer. I knew you were a collegiate golfer, I knew that you were a professional golfer.
Dana Frost 08:10
But I I hadn't made that connection that your habits, the tiny habits program that you have really was influenced by your career as a golfer, and how now I can see really brought them all together in this book. And so congratulations for that. Because that's a big accomplishment when we can gather all of our life's experience and package them in a way that can be a gift to the world, which is what you've done. I think that's really beautiful.
Dana Frost 08:41
Jessica, for the listeners, we have a lot in common. We both raised big families. We both started at a young age, and we're both grandparents, which is kind of rare for women, our age and our generation. So we have that in common. We're both coaches. I really appreciate those commonalities. So one thing I really love about your work and your book is this connection between oral health and health like the rest of our body, because I've been reading for years, the importance of oral health and how it can impact your neurology. It can impact chronic diseases.
Dana Frost 09:21
And we somehow in the US, I don't know about Sweden, but in the US we've disconnected the health of our mouth with the rest of our body. I would love for you to speak into that a little bit because that I just find it so fascinating. I know that you're working with the whole body. But because you've got this background as a dentist, can you just speak into oral health as it has a potential to impact the other aspects of our health?
Jessica Lederhausen 09:50
Yeah, I love to and thank you for saying that. The book is you liked the book and now you understand me more which I hear but people read the book. First I want to say that I think we are disconnected in many ways, I see it in my lens with what I do in three ways. We are disconnected between dentistry and medicine in general that is connected patient and your dentist and patient and your MD, we are disconnected, the hand and the body are disconnected, not the brain, were you getting there, but the mouth is a big part of the whole head. And that's taken off the discussion.
Jessica Lederhausen 10:29
So if you start there we are far from just enlisting in the book, all the diseases that we now can see are affected by the mouth help. So don't try to be solving that problem per se. But I have more acknowledge it, obviously, and we're still learning about it. But I realized when I was coaching, I was working with pillars to make sense of the world and what I could give to people and I looked at sleep, and eat and love and habits was my thing. And when I got to learn more about all the new science for the gut microbiome, and then also the oral microbiome, which got me going big time for both of those, actually, then I realized I'm onto something because my pillars if I add breathing, which I did, and I took a whole year long course and I'm into breathing in many ways. Since my golf, I mean, you can imagine being a golfer and your heart is beating and you're waiting to hit, super important shot.
Jessica Lederhausen 11:33
And you're that boo blooms in some sports that's typical that others not the same way. So to me, those pillars, I was building that sense in the connection between the body and the mouth. Because now I will come to the point I want to make is that not only are there some commonalities, but not all the gut microbiome and the mouth is not all the same. We have leaky gut. We don't know about that. But the only other place we know so far is leaky mouth.
Jessica Lederhausen 12:03
And that's how you get the typical mouth bacteria out to other parts of the body. So then I'm thinking, how can we boost our immune, or our microbiome, I should say, balance in the mouth, it's all about balance. And my tool is then outside the dentist office nowadays. So I'm thinking if you breathe, sleep, aid and move at an optimal version for you, you can probably most likely boost your bacteria in the mouth. And also your overall wellness, like a side effect, which is okay. I hope. So that's where it all connects to me via the microbiome basically. Absolutely.
Dana Frost 12:51
It is another microbiome. So what are the things that people can do to improve their oral health? Let's just start there. I have ideas in my head. But what are some of the things that you recommend to boost the oral health? Or the oral microbiome?
Jessica Lederhausen 13:09
Yeah, there's a lot of things floating around. And I think we not agreeing on what it is. But for me, I think it's a good start to try to, like I said, my pillars if you go to your eating habits, if you give yourself time between meals, to reset your microbiome balance, and the pH those two together, and that means your saliva, which is a built in cleaning system, it's phenomenal.
Jessica Lederhausen 13:38
Have the body has the systems in place. But if you keep the food coming and drinking and sipping on difference, you never let the saliva do its work. You don't I mean, some people can handle more stress, so it doesn't show up. But some people can't see if you're fine, you're fine. But if you're not, maybe you should look at your eating, when you eat and how often you eat. So less often is more favorable. That's one thing. And then you have the time of the day.
Jessica Lederhausen 14:09
So again, the saliva takes a pause during night. So if you think of that you wake up with a dry mouth is because the saliva is not working as much it's sort of slowing down and that's according to our circadian rhythm. And that's how we are as hipbone. So to help your saliva or better you can eat a little before you go to bed so it has does it cleaning and then you can sleep. But you can also add looking over if you're a mouth breather or nose breather and learn from that and see if it could help yourself if you are more of a no Speedo which is favorable. So now I introduced when you eat and when the time of the day you eat and also if you can see if you are open mouth slipper, which would dry out Do your mouth and change the microbiome.
Jessica Lederhausen 15:02
So that's three fairly easy things to look at and try things and see what works for you.
Dana Frost 15:08
I think those are really important just again, to me, it connects into the rhythm that I suggest for clients in terms of eating, you ingest, you digest, and then you rest. And so what I hear you saying is that that rhythm is beneficial for your oral health. Because you're giving instead of what has become, at least the American way, I would say I lived in South America for 10 years, and it wasn't the South American way.
Dana Frost 15:37
But I definitely see snacking is an American habit. And that snacking, you're never giving your digestive system a chance to rest, which it needs. And what I hear you saying you're also not giving your oral system a chance to rest in your saliva. Yeah,
Jessica Lederhausen 15:57
it's making a balance. It's the but first of all, to say, I love that we see the same connection. And and it's so interesting. And then I want to say that there's not a official word for stalking. In Swedish, we use the American word snacking, but we actually call our meal between the males in Sweden, you do breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then you do in preschool, they have a snack, which is an English word, but we call it between the Neal small meal, but it's a shorter word in Swedish.
Jessica Lederhausen 16:29
So it's real food, you assume it's food being eaten? And not if I can generalize a package. Something, is it to bring with you No, no, we have the kids sit down and maybe have half a banana. Maybe something about a with an apple. I don't know, today, my kids are older than that. So I don't know. But when they were in Sweden, those were the things and you take a moment and actually eat food. So that's a big difference. And that's changeable. I mean, I'm not saying people is gonna go hungry every all day. But it's how you eat makes a difference and how you look at it. It's
Dana Frost 17:07
makes a huge difference. I know, in your book, you talk about gathering, I don't know if that's the exact word you use. It's the word I use. As a family, we had family meals together. And so to me, that's gathering, you gather and you sit down, and it includes eating and conversation. And our digestive system actually prefers that instead of standing and going through a drive thru and grabbing something and just eating in the car. Now, to your point, the rhythm to which we do these things we have to do we have to eat right, it's a part of our, you know, sustenance. And the way we do them is almost as important as doing them.
Jessica Lederhausen 17:53
Yeah. So that's part of the book I wrote. It's not to tell people to have a diet, that's gonna fix everything. Everything is about everything else. So like I say, so I do have a broad in the how, and I know it's hard for a lot of people to make it happen. But maybe once a week or twice a week or every dinner, we have a breakfast, there's a rhythm to that you can find that's personal. I do think it makes a difference. And again, it's the words we use. So when we moved here, I heard that they call family style eating.
Jessica Lederhausen 18:27
And for me that was like, What do you mean? I mean, I've been here long enough. So I know what I mean now, but when I moved here, family, like my effort eating was together with other people, family or not family. That's a big deal, too. I think it's just really out of touch with the basics. And I'm very much into basics such as how I am. I always try to grow some food, for example, I call that basics. I mean, it's very basic in life, I guess. But not anymore. And I'm not very good at it.
Jessica Lederhausen 18:56
But I think it doesn't matter. I tell my husband, it's not how well I do it. It's just a lot of seeing things grow. And sometimes it works out and we can eat it great. And sometimes I've told him that's okay. Oh, I have a really
Dana Frost 19:11
fun project for you. I just started growing microgreens Yeah, and it's actually maybe have you grown microgreens
Jessica Lederhausen 19:19
Yeah, yeah, it's fast and fun and useful. Yeah.
Dana Frost 19:23
But what I love is I met this lady who has a business I met her at the farmers market and she gives you the trays and she accompanies you on Zoom for 10 days for your first tray so your setup with when you buy her package are set up with four opportunities for growing seasons, if you will. Microgreens but she walks you through the first 10 days and then at the 10th day that's when you get to harvest.
Dana Frost 19:49
That's so any of the listeners in Chicago I'll put her link in the show notes because you can do it like I live in an apartment. I don't have an outdoor space and I can do it on my counter and If it's a really fun opportunity to grow, I love growing my own food too. I grew up with a father who had a massive, beautiful garden. And when I had a garden, I grew food, little amounts of food, not a lot, but little amounts.
Jessica Lederhausen 20:13
Yeah. And I think it's so fun for kids. So that 10 grandkids, and that's been so fun to see the kids, when they go and pick my cucumbers, that works well, for me, they grow. And all of a sudden, there's a cucumber First, there's nothing. And then two days later, there's a whole cucumber, and they love to pick things. And that's been a good place for them to hang out their little still. I want
Dana Frost 20:34
to go back because I think something you shared in your book I wanted to know more about you had a health incident with your mouth. And I think it was the gum recession maybe. And I had a daughter who had to have gum recession, surgery and the whole way through accompanying her. At the time, I was a functional nutrition practitioner, and I was like there has to maybe be a better way than this young person cutting and doing the gum surgery. Are you willing to share a little bit more because I think that it seemed like you discovered some other possibilities.
Jessica Lederhausen 21:11
I would love to share, but I have the great news. From my personal journey, it seems like no one really, at least I haven't seen anyone sharing how we can do this and then scientifically know what to do is that a surgery? Dentists claim they can do deep cleanings and antibiotics. But I mean something preventable. Reversing when you start getting it. And I believe firmly that we can reverse and rebuild this, we can rebuild other parts of the body.
Jessica Lederhausen 21:43
When we break an arm, break a bone, it will glue itself together by rebuilding cells. So it's the same in the mouth, I'm sure bones probably works the same, it might be harder, it might be something I don't understand. But I'm still looking for the solution. But I think I'm keeping it okay, because I'm aware and I'm trying to boost my health with, like I said, but how I sleep, so I take my mouth. So I can keep my saliva as much as it is during the night because we use sleep seven hours or so which I do. Plus, so then the saliva brings minerals to the teeth and the minerals are replacing the minerals that are the D mineralization.
Jessica Lederhausen 22:32
If that's what it's called, then you have the attack, so to say on the teeth. And the same with the microbiome, when it's in balance, we used to think we should wipe up or wipe out all bacteria if that's what we thought. I mean, it was a good thought. And we were really good at it. Until we realize the microbiome is 700 different than the mouse, they think maybe 900 Now it's changes as we are learning more, but a lot of different bacteria, viruses, and etc.
Jessica Lederhausen 23:01
And they live together in harmony. And I used to explain it like the community. I mean, we're not all the same, and we live in harmony together. But in this case, if you boost the ones who are prone to do damage, that's when you're in imbalance. So that's what I'm trying to do for my own health to do the right things with my eating habits and my breathing and sleeping. And even the moving you do is good just general for your health and for your mouth health as well.
Dana Frost 23:32
Okay, it makes my brain pop on a couple of fronts. Okay, one, even though I resisted for years, I don't like tracking I'm more of a big picture visionary person. But what functional nutrition really taught me is the value of tracking to gather information because the information is the information. There's no story to it, it's data, you can see trends I came to really appreciate and value tracking. I have clients track water, hydration, mood and mood is even like if you feel your joints are swelling.
Dana Frost 24:09
So it's not just the emotions, it's the emotions, but it's also what are the symptoms physiologically, and poop and food. So while you're in taking how it's coming out, there's so much information to be gathered by that, but could be very cool to add and just bring awareness. How's my saliva? Like you said, am I waking up with a dry mouth I'm actually a nose breather. So I've done my own like analysis on the nose breathing versus the mouth breathing and how you're sleeping and so I'm one of the lucky ones. I sleep with my mouth closed.
Dana Frost 24:43
But I love the idea of just you don't have to have all the information to bring your awareness to okay when I wake up is my mouth dry and start making those connections. How's the saliva flowing through the day you know once you bring awareness Do something, then you actually have the power to notice the trends and change something. Yeah,
Jessica Lederhausen 25:05
I totally agree. I'm very much like you, I like the big picture. But I do look at myself a lot. I know for me to be my best me, I love to be outside. And I also love to move. And I like to meet friends. So I tried to go for walks outside with friends, to use my time well, and etc. I have taken a lot of tests, once I've taken a functional test the whole kit with all the poop and all the everything. And it's time to do another one, but also do saliva testing. So I've done a few times, every six months or so for two years, I guess it is now.
Jessica Lederhausen 25:42
And I've worked with a company, there are lots of new companies popping up and Bristol health is one. I don't know if anybody's better or worse, but they do a pretty good work. I think they follow up with a call explaining things. So I can see how it's changing. I agree that you cannot see your bacteria. So obviously you need something at all. But you can send you know, or you can see if you're tired. I mean, so you can follow other things.
Jessica Lederhausen 26:09
Yeah, I think you get far without testing everything. But some things you need to test period. And I have to say, too, when you test your regular, let's say vitamin DS and magnesium, whatever it is, if they compare with average, you have to be a little careful there because our average is not up to par these days. So I think you have to look at your own journey and what you need and stick to that. Yeah, I
Dana Frost 26:36
look at labs from a functional lens. So it's very different. If we have functional lab numbers, they're very different from your individual lab numbers, which, yeah, that's a whole nother topic. How about if you give us a description of your pillars? Yeah,
Jessica Lederhausen 26:50
well, I use the pillows to guide inspire by groups I meet or anybody I talk to, to see if there's a small change in their everyday habits, they could try and see what happens. And a lot of times small changes go a long way. I think coming from golf, you have 18 holes. And if you do one thing differently 18 times it's gonna change a lot. So that's the idea behind having these pillars, I would say.
Jessica Lederhausen 27:18
So for eating I already said snacking is my best tip to look at to stop snacking, basically, and eat food and a whole food. It doesn't have to be gourmet ish, everything, just eat whole good food. And for sleeping, I would say the biggest thing would be take us seriously we need to sleep. We are actually in a sleep deprived. environment. People are heroic if they can do an all nighter, which I don't even know how to spell to because that will not happen personally, but look at how and when you sleep and get enough of it.
Jessica Lederhausen 27:53
It's fine. It's good. And then for breathing, my best tip is to see if honestly try to understand if your nose or mouth be though. I think data says 80% are mouth breathers and people I made 80% claim there are no speakers. So it doesn't make sense. So I would suggest we all try. And the good thing to try is to tape your mouth. And if you're very uncomfortable, you probably are probably I'm just saying probably a mouth breather that could train your nose to be what it should be used for.
Jessica Lederhausen 28:27
And it's also a lot of benefits. It cleans the air coming in. So you get immune system defense. I mean, it's fantastic to use your nose for what it's made for. And moving. My biggest tip is any movement that gets done is the right one for you. As long as you don't get hurt.
Dana Frost 28:46
Yeah, I love that. That's wonderful. Jessica, tell us where can people find you?
Jessica Lederhausen 28:51
Well, I have the login method is my company. And its online website. It's the log on method.com. And there I offer groups where we talk about a topic each time we meet that could be helpful and we are not telling each other what to do but we discuss and learn from each other. I do rare one on one coaching. And I have my book out which is found anywhere basically online and some bookstores.
Dana Frost 29:20
Yeah, we'll have the links in the show notes and I do recommend her book. I think you'll enjoy it. It's easy to read. It's really interesting. So I definitely recommend her book. Okay my question I ask all of my guests Jessica is What does feeling younger while growing older mean to you?
Jessica Lederhausen 29:37
That's a good question. And a fairly easy for me to ask. I'm very physical so for me to go on my runs make me feel good. And feel I'm still myself actually being able to spend time with grandkids and carry them and take care of them and it's comes back so fluidly being the little ones that I love it and spending time with my husband We have 36 years yesterday.
Jessica Lederhausen 30:02
So we still love each other and enjoy each other's company that makes me feel I don't know, younger, but it makes me feel good. I'm grateful for that. Yeah. That's really beautiful. Thank you, Jessica,
Dana Frost 30:14
thank you for being with us this week.
Jessica Lederhausen 30:16
Thank you, Dana. Thanks for having me.
Dana Frost 30:20
Thank you for joining us this week on the Vitally You podcast. Don't forget to check out Jessica's book, Oral the Swedish secret to full body health starting in your mouth. You'll find a link in the show notes. Please share today's episode with anyone who will benefit from Jessica's insights on health. If you haven't left a review, please do so you will make my heart smile. And until next week. I am as always streaming love from my heart to yours.