Saturday 7

Published: Sat, 10/14/23

Good morning!

Here's your Saturday 7 roundup!

😮 What's shrinking:

Our jaws are shrinking.

Hunter-gatherers had fully developed jaws that accommodated all 32 teeth.

With the industrial revolution, we see jaws shrink and the rise of crooked teeth and the need for wisdom teeth extractions.

Today, malocclusion and extractions are the norm.

Mouths have shrunk so much that the airway is collapsing and getting blocked when we sleep (sleep apnea).

Almost no one knows this is diet related.

🔁 This is a vicious cycle:

He was one of my first patients ever. He had sleep apnea and was about 100 pounds overweight.

We treated the apnea with an oral device.

At his 6 month recall visit, he looked like a different person, down 62 pounds.

I asked him what he did.

"Nothing," he said.

I came to discover that many of my patients would spontaneously lose weight (without dietary counseling) just because we got their sleep fixed.

The Research

Many large-scale studies show that the less you sleep, the higher the risk of obesity as well as chronic disease and mortality. (r, r)

A single night of poor sleep impairs insulin signaling. (r)

Consistent bad sleep alters your appetite-regulating hormones (ghrelin and leptin) and increases cravings for calorically dense high sugar, high fat "foods." (r, r)

If you've had a night out drinking, just think, what kinds of food do you want the next day?

Poor sleep results in chronically elevated stress (higher sympathetic tone and elevated cortisol) and a drop in HRV. (r)

We also see a drop in testosterone and increase in ED with poor sleep. (r, r)

All of this can be summed up in a 2020 study that showed sleep restriction reliably increases caloric intake (500+ calories). (r)

Conclusions

Our shrinking jaws can lead to an obstructed airway and poor sleep ➡️ Poor sleep leads to weight gain ➡️ Weight gain (and "fatty tongue") leads to worse sleep ➡️ and round and round it goes...

Having small jaws and excess weight is a recipe for bad sleep and more weight gain.

If you want to lose weight, you have to open your airway and get your sleep.

😤 What's the risk:

Most people breathe wrong when they sleep. They do it with their mouth instead of their nose. (this is why it happens)

You don't want to be mouth breathing while you sleep.

The Risk of Mouth Breathing

Breathing through your mouth will cause you to bypass a critical nitric oxide production pathway and can lead to severe cardiovascular consequences (from high blood pressure to ED).

Paradoxically, mouth breathing also further shrinks the airway.

How to Stop

Assuming you don't have an airway obstruction*, there are 2 great ways to train nasal breathing while you sleep:

Nasal Dilators
Mouth Taping

You can even use these in combination.

Right now I'm testing different mouth tapes, I'll let you know what I discover.

Do you have a favorite? (hit reply — I'd love to know!)

*NOTE: I only recommend using these to train nasal breathing, not to treat sleep apnea, which needs to be done under the care of a professional who may use mouth tape or dilators as adjunct therapies.

💡How to impair sleep:

These are the apps Americans fall asleep to.

🧠 What quote I've been thinking about:

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.

– John Steinbeck

💤 Don't sleep on this:

In less than 4 minutes, from minutes 40:25 to 44:10, towards the end of a presentation, Michael Saylor makes everyone feel FOMO, warning what could happen if you sleep on bitcoin...