So here’s the connections I’ve been making. I may eventually come back and add links. But until then, most of this is stuff I’ve been able to find/double check online with just a search.
American diet transitions to processed foods.
This leads to poor jaw development due to lack of nutrients & oral muscle development.
Most births are now in hospitals, so midwives no longer routinely remove tongue ties at birth. This can also restrict oral development. In some cases it leads to breathing and/or sleep problems.
It can also lead to difficulty breastfeeding – so then we have more processed foods and further lack of oral development due to limited nursing. (Just a note, FED is best, I attribute being able to breastfeed myself and even finding this rabbit hole of tongue ties and airways to go down purely to the luck of finding a good lactation consultant right before we would have had to go to formula for failure to thrive – thus I’m sharing so that hopefully others can benefit). Again compounding the breathing/sleep.
American diet also moves away from organ meats as part of the trend toward processed foods. Reduced liver consumption possibly makes a previously unremarkable genetic variant a common health issue (MTHFR – Riboflavin).
There is a hypothesis that increased folate supplementation (possibly needed due to the reduction in folate consumption – leafy greens and liver!) could be contributing to increased tongue ties. Or it could just be that because tongue ties were no longer being routinely addressed, it took an increase in breastfeeding rates – and an increase in breastfeeding problems – for people to begin to look at the issues resulting from untreated tongue ties. (https://www.drjustinroche.com/blog/91-folic-acid-and-tongue-tie.html – not one of my original ones, but a good one I found just now, and a second one more along the lines of what I’m doing, sharing knowledge: https://healthhomeandhappiness.com/folate-vs-folic-acid-mthfr-and-why-i-regret-taking-my-prenatal-vitamin.html)
So now we get to the tongue tie part. I was concerned about tongue tie impacting speech. As I did more reading, I realized it could also be impacting the airway and sleep. Mike Mew has a lot of information, but the thing I find very telling is seeing his father’s very long and thin face, and then his own face being very square – after being treated by his father since childhood.
Also as part of my information gathering, I learned that the fascia from the tongue connects all the way down to the toes! (Toe walking anyone?)
Sleep disturbances can cause all sorts of problems – including hyperactivity. So how many kids are diagnosed in school as ADHD, when really they are just always tired from a restricted airway (whether due to tongue tie or something else?). Add that to the increases in class sizes, the reduction in play for increased academics, and the reduction in recess, and is it any wonder kids can’t sit still in class?
A restricted airway can put the body in fight/flight/freeze mode (sympathetic nervous system) – not very restful! And to me that explains why someone would wake up every two hours and need some comfort to get back to sleep – this isn’t waking up between sleep cycles and drifting back to sleep, this is waking on the edge of panic and needing to calm down to go back to sleep, even though you’re so tired from the ongoing sleep deprivation.
So now you have sleep apnea or upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) – add that to the processed foods we eat (which also are fortified with folic acid which can block the body’s folate receptors!) and now we start having metabolic syndrome and IBS and SIBO, oh my!
For me personally, I found out I had a tongue tie that was being compensated for by the floor of my mouth stretching and my jaw moving. My overall body pain and function have drastically improved since my surgery. It has almost eliminated my cervicogenic headaches (which I had been told were migraines).
I can now also use my tongue to monitor my oral health. The tip is more sensitive, like finger tips. So now I can reach all my teeth with my tongue tip – not only does that result in better food removal, I can feel when I need to brush more. This also explains why some folks have more problems with cavities than others, irrespective of care routines.
And there is plenty of info out there about how your oral health can affect overall health.
And I’m falling asleep, so that’s all for now folks!