Something You Should Know - Weird Human Behaviors Explained & Be Kind to Your Mouth -SYSK Choice

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Starting point is 00:00:27 Download June's Journey now on Android or iOS. Today on Something You Should Know, how simply drinking water can make you smarter. Then some of the fascinating reasons why human beings behave so strangely. For instance, Human beings have a tendency to exaggerate. We tend to tell each other stories where I went out fishing

Starting point is 00:00:50 and later on I'm telling about the fish I caught and it becomes a lot more dramatic. And that seems really bizarre. Why can't we just tell the story as it is? Why does it have to grow in the telling? Also, the seven-year itch. Is it a real thing? Not exactly.

Starting point is 00:01:06 And what you probably don't know about taking care of your mouth and why it's so important. The number one subject that patients exaggerate about, dare I say lie about, is their flossing habits. But I got to tell you, flossing is so critical because if you tell me, hey, Dr. Haas, is brushing more important than flossing? I would say flossing. All this today on Something You Should Know. At New Balance we believe if you run you're a runner however you choose to do it because when you're not worried about doing things the right way, you're free to discover your way. And that's what running's all about. Run your way at NewBalance.com slash running.

Starting point is 00:02:01 Something you should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts and practical advice you can use in your life today something you should know with mike carothers hi welcome and thank you for spending part of your day today listening to something you should know it is very much appreciated first up up today, imagine this. Drinking water, just the simple act of drinking water, could make you smarter. In a study presented at the British Psychological Society a few years ago, undergraduate students who brought water with them to take

Starting point is 00:02:40 tests outperformed those students who did not. The researchers took prior grades into account, so it wasn't simply that the smarter students remembered their water bottles. So how is it that sipping water can improve test scores? Well, one possibility is that drinking water may have a direct physiological impact on cognitive function. Water is essential for every cell, tissue, and organ in the body, and the brain is no exception. Also, not surprisingly, research has shown that mental performance can take a nosedive when dehydration is brought on by heat or exercise. So, it stands

Starting point is 00:03:20 to reason that if dehydration makes you perform worse, being hydrated will help make sure that doesn't happen. Drinking water can also aid concentration in the same way a sugar pill can ease pain, by activating the placebo effect. Water has received a lot of good press. If people believe that sipping water helps their brain work better, that expectation alone could be enough to boost brain power. And that is something you should know. Why are human beings the way we are? Why are we at the top of the food chain? What makes us such a dominant species on this planet?

Starting point is 00:04:04 And why do we act and think the way we do? Well, it's clear that some of the many challenges that human beings have faced over time have shaped who we are today in many ways that you may not have ever considered. And it all has real consequences to all of us today. Here to explain is William von Hippel. He is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia, former professor at Ohio State, and author of the book, The Social Leap, the new evolutionary science of who we are, where we come from, and what makes us happy.

Starting point is 00:04:43 Hey Bill, welcome. So bring this into focus here. What is the big point? If you want to understand what humans are like, you can look at all of our traits and qualities and say, oh, we like to do this, and oh, we hate to do that. But if you don't know where they came from, you don't really know why we like to do this and why we hate to do that. And so you need to understand our origins to understand where these processes come from. What does this harm? What does this good? And what's mutable? What can we have a good shot of changing? And what features about ourselves are going to be really, really hard to change? And once you start to look at our evolutionary history and you see where these

Starting point is 00:05:18 things come from, you start to go, ah, that's why it's so hard for me to live in the present. That's why it's so hard for me to stop comparing myself to the Joneses and feeling bad when they drive a nicer car into the driveway than I have. And you start to understand these processes in the absence of knowing where we came from. You don't know. You just know we do this. You don't know why. And so you don't know what's mission critical and you don't know what's easily changed.

Starting point is 00:05:41 And so explain some of those things. Why do we compare ourselves to the Joneses? Why do we do the things that you just mentioned? Sure. So comparing ourselves to the Joneses is a great one. If you think back to our ancestral conditions, here we are living in small groups of people. They varied, but they'd be typically between about 20 and 60 individuals. And we're noodling around where these nomads just sort of wandering around the savannah following game, trying to always get fresh water, et cetera. And in that environment, there's a couple of key things that we need to do. And one of the most important things that we need to do is stay in our group's good graces. We can't be regarded as somebody who's more cost than their

Starting point is 00:06:21 benefit. Secondarily, we also need to be chosen by somebody as a mate. Now, you could live your life quite happily never having partnered up, but then evolution doesn't care about you. Evolution only cares about you to the degree that you procreate and pass on whatever traits you have. And so, those things that made us want to mate, that made us successful at mating are characteristics that are now universal in our species. Well, what's going to make me successful in mating in a small group on the Savannah? It doesn't matter how good of a guy I am. It doesn't matter how strong I am. It doesn't matter how good looking I am. It only matters how I stack up on those domains compared to you,

Starting point is 00:06:56 my fellow group member. And so, if I'm kind of a schmuck, but you're even worse, if I'm a lousy hunter, but you're even worse, well, then I'm still going to get people to partner up with me. I'll find a mate. But even if I'm a great hunter, if you're better and everybody else is better, well, then nobody's going to want to be with me. So everything is relative. And because everything is relative, we engage in this social comparison process all the time. We're trying to see how we stack up in status and ability and friendliness, whatever domain you want. We're trying to see how we stack up compared to others. And that thing, that's hardwired into us. It's critical for our survival. So our group doesn't give us the heave-ho and it's critical for our chances

Starting point is 00:07:34 of mating. And as a consequence, we just cannot stop ourself from engaging in the social comparison process. And it's a vicious one. If I told you, oh, hey, by the way, I've got this new drug and I'm testing it out. And if you'd like to try it out, you're welcome to. It'll double your IQ. You'd say, sure, I'll have that. You'd pop it in your mouth. You'd feel super smart immediately.

Starting point is 00:07:53 And you could do all sorts of things that nobody else can. But then if it turned out that I gave everybody around you two doses, suddenly you'd feel like an idiot. So it doesn't matter that you're twice as smart as you used to be. It just matters that everybody else is four times as smart as they used to be. And so social comparison really is everything. It's too bad because it can be in domains that really don't matter at all. If you pull up to your house in the Jaguar and I'm driving a VW, that does me no harm whatsoever, but it doesn't stop me from feeling bad because suddenly now

Starting point is 00:08:22 you're a better prospect than I was. So talk about happiness. How does happiness fit into this? So happiness is one of evolution's most important tools. Evolution uses happiness to motivate us to do what's in our genes' best interest, and it uses us to avoid doing what's against our genes' best interest. So most people get happy when they eat fat, salt, and sugar because in our ancestral environment, those things were rare. And therefore, eating a good meal, which means it's got lots of those things in it and they're combined well, eating a good meal makes you happy. In contrast, if you intentionally or accidentally ate dog feces, you're going to feel terrible.

Starting point is 00:08:59 It's going to be a miserable experience because that's more likely to kill you than it is likely to benefit you. And the same thing holds in all sorts of domains. Evolution uses this motivation. It gives us happiness when we do things that are going to benefit us or our progeny. But the key is this, it then takes happiness away slowly over time. So think back on your life and how many times you said to yourself, gee, if I could only do X, I'd be happy forever. Maybe it's a promotion, or maybe it's getting that girl to go out with you or whatever the case might be. Well, you might have got some of those things, probably did, but I promise you that even if you did, you weren't

Starting point is 00:09:33 happy forever. Because if evolution gave you happiness and it allowed it to be permanent, well, you'd never be motivated to do anything again. And so it needs to give you happiness when you do what's in your genes best interest, and then it needs that feeling to slowly fade. So you're hungry again, you're motivationally desiring to get back out there and kill that mastodon or ask the other person out on a date or get that next promotion because otherwise you're at risk of being left behind by your group. Well, but I would distinguish in that description, the difference between happiness and pleasure. Like a good meal gives me pleasure.

Starting point is 00:10:07 I don't know if it makes me happy. That's a good point. Pleasure and happiness are not quite the same thing. And we as humans have all sorts of layers that we put on top of this. And so one of those layers is leading a meaningful life. One of those layers is leading a connected life with others, etc. And when you reflect back on your life and you say, what has made me happiest? You tend to reflect back on some big things. For example, people often say, oh, my children have been a great

Starting point is 00:10:34 source of happiness in my life. Now, Danny Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winning psychologist, but won the prize in economics, has done some lovely work where he tries to do exactly what you're talking about and differentiate between this kind of reflect back on your life happiness and in the moment positive emotion. And what he finds is that those in the moment positive emotions are not very tightly linked to that big reflective happiness. So, for example, he did one study where he beeps people, says, what are you doing? How happy are you in the moment?

Starting point is 00:11:04 How much positive emotion are you experiencing? And it probably won't surprise you to learn that when he beeped you while you were having sex, when you did answer the beep, that was one of the most positive moments that people report having. But interestingly, what would you guess? What do you think comes in at number two after having sex? Well, maybe it is food. Maybe it is eating. Food's a good guess, but sadly, it's something kind of more depressing than that. It's TV, watching TV. Now, how many people go through their lives and say, I've had this amazing life, I've seen a ton of killer TV? You probably never had anybody tell you that, right? But in the moment, TV's loaded with happiness. There's all sorts of positive affect that people feel and not

Starting point is 00:11:43 much negative. Now, if you look at their kids, remember, I mentioned that as an example, as something that people do reflect back on and say, oh, I've had a great life. My kids are really wonderful. Well, the average moment with your kids is literally a tiny bit lower than the average moment folding the laundry. And so, your actual day-to-day life with your kids, it's that pleasant. It's not terrible, but it's not that great. The thing is that never has anybody told you I've had a really great life and folded a lot of laundry really well. And so, what that tells you is that laundry differs from kids in that there are no peak experiences. Even when you get that sheet folded just right, you don't really care. Whereas when your kid comes up to you and they're little and they've learned something new or

Starting point is 00:12:20 they've done something wonderful, these are peak experiences that then weigh heavily on our sense of our life satisfaction. And so, O'Connor's work shows us really well is that there's this disconnect, just like what you mentioned, between our daily lives and our actual reflected life. And that disconnect in some ways makes sense. Pleasure from food is not quite the same as happiness. Although, if you get lots of great meals, particularly great meals with friends, they do make you happy. But there's also a disconnect in the sense that peaks and endings weigh really heavily on your sense of life satisfaction, whereas they don't play as much of a role in your day-to-day life. Well, maybe this is related, but when you talk about raising children, having children, and people reflect back on that as having so much satisfaction.

Starting point is 00:13:06 But on the other hand, most people can reflect back and say that raising children was one of the most difficult things they've ever done. So how do you reconcile that? Is that kind of like women say having a baby is the most painful thing and now they want to have another one? Yeah, I can't speak to your willingness to go back and pass another bowling ball out of one of your bodily orifices because I've never had that experience. But what I can say is that in general, your point is very well taken. And it is often the case that the things that are the most meaningful to us are the things that we didn't achieve really easily, but rather the things that we really strive for.

Starting point is 00:13:48 And it's one of the cues that actually we've evolved to be this way because there are lots of things that we can gain easily and they're often important. But the things that really are going to differentiate us from our group are the things that we strive for. And so just imagine here we are 100,000 years ago, you and I are in the same group and you're just a better hunter than I am. And every day when we go out, you're far more likely to get that giraffe than I am. Well, eventually I have to say, okay, I'm trying, but Mike here is outperforming me and the girls are all admiring him and not me. Let me find another way that I can contribute to my group. And so if I put in the hard yards, I might become the best arrow maker in our group, maybe the best healer, I can find the plants that help us, etc. And so we've evolved through this process. It's super interesting, whereby as we make these incremental gains on a long term goal, our brain actually gives us a shot of dopamine, it tells you, yeah, yeah, you make good progress. And it's progress toward an uncertain goal. And that motivates us along the way, what can be sometimes years of effort in order to turn yourself into somebody who's a value to a mate or a value to your group. And so that process of sacrifice is actually super important and does have an impact on what really makes us happy.

Starting point is 00:14:57 Professor William von Hippel is my guest. He teaches at the University of Queensland in Australia. And the name of his book is The Social Leap. This winter, take a trip to Tampa on Porter Airlines. Enjoy the warm Tampa Bay temperatures and warm Porter hospitality on your way there. All Porter fares include beer, wine, and snacks, and free fast-streaming Wi-Fi on planes with no middle seats. And your Tampa Bay vacation includes good times, relaxation, and great Gulf Coast weather. Visit FlyPorter.com and actually enjoy economy.

Starting point is 00:15:37 This episode is brought to you by Melissa and Doug. Wooden puzzles and building toys for problem solving and arts and crafts for creative thinking. Melissa and Doug makes toys that help kids take on the world because the way they play today shapes who they become tomorrow. Melissa and Doug, the play is pretend, the skills are real. Look for Melissa and Doug wherever you shop for toys. So Bill, it is interesting when you think about it, people who seemingly achieve things with ease versus achieving it with great struggle, that somehow the struggle makes it more satisfying, I think, at least that's my experience, that the things I achieve easily, I don't think I appreciate them as much. Oh, I totally agree. If you achieve things too easily, they don't seem as important.

Starting point is 00:16:32 And the other consequence of that is the sort of, not the flip side, but the consequence of that for people who do it all the time is that achieving too much fame early, achieving too much glory in those kinds of contexts is not for people's happiness. If you look at the happiness of these immensely successful movie stars or rock stars or scientists or whatever who achieve these aims really young, which typically goes with really easily, not always, you often find lives that are very disturbed and the people, they struggle to find meaning in their existence. And I suspect part of the problem was everything came so easy that there

Starting point is 00:17:09 were all these highs that then dissipate rather quickly. Whereas if I remember the example I gave before, if I work hard towards something, I get all these happiness moments along the way as I start to get closer and closer to achieving my goal. And then when I get to that goal, well, I've got something that's going to last a little bit longer. Now, I don't know if you remember when Alex Honnold did that free solo climb and he climbed up El Cap without ropes. And when he got to the top, he was interviewed by another famous climber who's also a journalist. And the person asked him, well, you've just done perhaps the most extraordinary athletic achievement ever achieved by any human being. Because to climb up that enormous piece of rock without ropes means you can't make a single

Starting point is 00:17:47 mistake in doing something that's actually so difficult that most humans can't do it at all. And he said, what are you going to do to follow this up? And Honnold said, yeah, people actually warned me about this. They were like, when you achieve your dreams, even if they're dreams you worked really hard for, that feeling is going to dissipate and you're going to have this hollow feeling later. So, it's super important to have the next goal already in mind. And so, I think that the point you make is apt, that when you achieve things too easily, that feelings of happiness are softer and they're more fleeting. But even if you work hard to achieve your goals, it comes back to the point I made earlier, which is that sense of happiness dissipates over time.

Starting point is 00:18:24 And so, you need to have something else in place. You can't ride that feeling. You can't say, okay, once I've climbed El Capitan without any ropes, I'm never going to do anything again, because I'll always reflect back on how fun that is. Well, that doesn't work. What else are we hardwired, like we're hardwired to compare ourselves to the Joneses? What other things like that are in the wiring that we may not really understand why? Human beings have a tendency to exaggerate. We tend to tell each other stories where I went out fishing and later on I'm telling you about the fish I caught and it becomes a lot more dramatic, either the size of the fish increases or the effort involved in bringing

Starting point is 00:19:01 in or whatever the case might be. We also exaggerate when we tell you about how rude our boss was to us yesterday or about the pizza that we had the other night. And that seems really bizarre. Why can't we just tell the story as it is? Why does it have to grow in the telling? And it turns out that if you think back on our ancestral history, you start to realize that once we get to the point where we're on the savannah, where we're cooperating with each other, and where we can start to work together, there's a whole bunch of processes that we then evolve to make us more effective at that. And one of those processes is what's called theory of mind, my ability to understand what you're thinking, and my ability to understand that you're not necessarily thinking the same

Starting point is 00:19:38 thing I am. Because once we understand that the contents of other people's minds differ from our own, it allows us to work together much more effectively because we're aware when we're on the same page and when we're not. But here's the tricky thing. Well, so first of all, no other animal can really do that. But the tricky thing about that is if we're going to work together as a group and we're going to be effective, then we all have to be on the same page. We have to understand that that group coming over the horizon is a threat, or we have to understand that there are an opportunity. If half of us see it as threat and half of us see it as an opportunity, well, our group is going to be terribly ineffective and we won't accomplish anything.

Starting point is 00:20:13 And so human beings evolved once we got to this point, probably about a million and a half years ago. And I can talk about the data if you're interested, but we got to the point where we started to want to share the contents of our minds with each other at all times, because we know that they're not necessarily the same. And we know that we're more effective if we can be on the same page. So, we got so that when I learn something new, I want to tell you about it. And when I feel something, I want to tell you the way I feel. But it's not enough just that you know the things that I know. It's not enough that I

Starting point is 00:20:42 tell you, oh, there's a group of people coming over the horizon from group X. It's also super important that I share with you that I see that as a threat or I see it as an opportunity. I'm happy and excited. I'm afraid and scared. I need you to share that feeling as well. And so, we evolved this desire to be on the same page, both information-wise and emotionally with each other at all times. No other animal shows this desire. The consequence of that is that if I start to tell you a story and you don't react the same way that I do, I feel terrible. I feel like you and I don't have a real connection and I haven't achieved my goal. And of course, what does that get me to do? That gets me to exaggerate my story when I tell it to you. Because if I exaggerate what happened, then I have more confidence that you and I are going to be on the same page. The consequence of that,

Starting point is 00:21:28 of course, is that it introduces all sorts of inaccuracies into our understanding of the world, but it does achieve the goal that we really had, the more fundamental goal of making sure that you and I agree. And we do that by communicating and making sure you know what I mean. But it also seems that humans, and I imagine humans are somewhat unique in this way, that we communicate even though we don't necessarily have much to talk about, you know. Like, we like to talk for talking's sake. That makes us feel good. And so my colleague Thomas Sudendorf is the first who pointed out, you know, we're the only species that's constantly trying to share information, even when it's irrelevant at the moment. So monkeys, for example, will make an alarm call

Starting point is 00:22:13 when there's a hawk coming, and they make a different alarm call when there's a snake coming. But otherwise, they feel no particular need to share anything with each other. Human beings, in contrast, you know, when you come home at the end of a day at work, and you've been apart, a super common thing is both partners tell each other about their day. Well, why are you doing that? Your day's probably functioning the same as every other day. But of course, you're doing that because it allows you to get back on the same page, sharing the same information, sharing the same emotional state, and now you feel comfortable that you're a unit again, and that should things go wrong, you're going to be able to cope with them now we don't know

Starting point is 00:22:47 that's the underlying basis but that's what's driving these kinds of behaviors just because of the way humans have lived we've lived in relatively small groups throughout most of human history and yet now we're part of this big group but you know we're in touch with everybody on social media. You can see what everybody's doing. So how does that play into this? We call that an evolutionary mismatch. And there's lots of cases of those.

Starting point is 00:23:16 And let me give you one for example. So in our ancestral environment, you and I are members of a group of 30 people. And I just, I want to be the best at something. You know, as we've discussed, you're way better at giraffe hunting than I am, but I slowly turn myself into the best arrow maker. And so now I'm happy again. I would love, be lovely if I could hunt better than I can, but that's the way it goes. I've got my way of contributing to the group. I can bring in more calories than I cost because I'm making a critical contribution to our group by being the best at something. Well, in the world we live in today, where we're not only are there billions of humans,

Starting point is 00:23:49 but we can connect to all those billions via social media and via just the news, it's no longer possible to be the best at anything. And there's going to be one human out there who's the best basketball player, but the bazillion of other humans are just not. And so it's no longer possible to be the richest and therefore to be the most attractive in your group. It's no longer possible to be the anything-est, smartest, best looking, anything. And so what used to be a sensible goal, I need to be the best at something. I need to make sure that I can keep my group happy with me and try to attract a mate is no longer a sensible goal. We just can't be the best at anything. And that's really hard for us to let go.

Starting point is 00:24:30 When we get on social media, and especially when we see the curated photos that other people put up, their vacations look better than ours, their food looks better than ours, their car is nicer than ours, we just feel bad about ourselves. And that's a complete leftover from a time where we couldn't afford to be not the best at something, or at least near the top of our group. Now, of course, it's irrelevant. The fact that you drive a nicer car than me, you don't even live in my state, I don't know you, et cetera, it shouldn't make any difference. But then you and I are friends on social media, and I see that, and I feel bad about myself. And that's an example of this kind of evolutionary mismatch, where we now live in this densely interconnected world with enormous numbers of people when we just never did that before.

Starting point is 00:25:07 Something I've always wondered about, you'd be the perfect person to ask this. It's pretty well understood. I think we've all witnessed it, that gorgeous people are treated differently. You know, the stereotypical woman, beautiful woman gets pulled over by the police and he doesn't give her a ticket because she's so beautiful. Well, why? Why do we treat beautiful people differently? It's not as if that policeman thinks, well, if I don't give her a ticket, you know, I'll get to sleep with her or something. It's not that. So what is it? Yeah. So we've evolved to take advantage of potentially lucrative mating opportunities.

Starting point is 00:25:47 Even if we don't consciously think that there's any mating opportunity here at all, this person is just passing me by, particularly if they're attractive. And by the way, what makes women attractive to men are features that make her more fertile. Youth and an hourglass shape and all sorts of things like that. And so what we're really responding to when we see beauty is we're responding to health and fertility and, and what women respond to in male attractiveness has much more to do with status and ability to provide. Now it's, it's not as simple as that.

Starting point is 00:26:18 Both sides are interested in, in the same kinds of things, but when there's discrepancies, they're of that sort or they're of that order. Now, so what that means though, is that when an attractive woman walks by me and they've done these studies, they'll literally have an attractive woman walk by me right before I rate my relationship satisfaction. If she walks by me, I don't even know her. She just literally walks through my viewpoint. Suddenly my relationship, which was a seven is now a six. And similarly, if women see a really dominant or successful man, right before they create the relationship satisfaction, the same thing happens. So it's not that we think, oh boy, I'm going to go ahead and switch right now. But what the idea is, is that there's always that possibility in the back of our mind that maybe

Starting point is 00:27:02 there's a better opportunity out there and that we shouldn't do anything that might negate that possibility. Now, we do know that this actually happens as well. We know that if you live in an urban environment, you're more likely to get divorced than if you live in a rural environment. We know that if you're rich and famous, you're more likely to get divorced than if you're pretty much a nobody. It's because opportunities keep coming along. And our ancestors evolved that when an opportunity came along to always pay attention to it because you never know where it might lead. Those ancestors who ignored those opportunities have fewer kids. And so the tendency to ignore attractive people largely has disappeared from our gene pool.

Starting point is 00:27:38 Well, all these things you've talked about, you know, why people exaggerate, why we act differently around beautiful people, why we act differently around beautiful people, why we compare ourselves to other people so much. I'm sure people have wondered why we do it, and now we know why we do it. William von Hippel has been my guest. He is a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia, and his book is called The Social Leap, the new evolutionary science of who we are, where we come from, and his book is called The Social Leap, The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy. And you'll find a link to that book in the show notes. Thanks, Bill. Thanks for being here. Thanks. It's been a lot of fun chatting with you. I

Starting point is 00:28:16 really had a great time today. This is an ad for better help. Welcome to the world. Please read your personal owner's manual thoroughly. In it, you'll find simple instructions for how to interact with your fellow human beings and how to find happiness and peace of mind. Thank you and have a nice life. Unfortunately, life doesn't come with an owner's manual. That's why there's BetterHelp Online Therapy. Connect with a credentialed therapist by phone, video, or online chat. Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more.

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Starting point is 00:29:43 And in fact, how you are taking care of your teeth and mouth may not be optimal. Here to discuss all of this is dentist Dr. Kami Haas. He's on the board of counselors at the UCLA School of Dentistry. He's CEO of a company called The Super Dentists, and he is author of a book called If Your Mouth Could Talk. Hi, Kami. Thanks for coming on. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I think when people think about their oral health,

Starting point is 00:30:11 they think of it as separate from their other physical health. You know, we have a separate doctor for our mouth, and that doctor doesn't really talk to our other doctor, and this is all very separate, but you make the case that oral health and your overall physical health are very much connected. 100%. So this problem has started because dental schools and medical schools have always been separate. So this has been taught separately. And over the last couple of centuries, people have

Starting point is 00:30:43 just come to believe that the mouth doesn't even, it's not part of the body anymore. And they treat it like, hey, what's the big deal? We get a cavity, it gets filled. And if I ask the average person, hey, how do you stay healthy? They say probably just to eat healthy foods and exercise daily. But there is a third piece of this puzzle here, which happens to be right under your nose. And it can add 10 to 15 years to your life. So your mouth has a gateway to your can add 10 to 15 years to your life. So your mouth as a gateway to your body, from its microbial health to its structure, can impact your physical and mental wellness in countless ways. And what are some of those ways?

Starting point is 00:31:16 So your mouth health impacts literally everything from conception to death. So a mother's oral health can impact their fertility. A dad's oral health can impact their sperm count and the quality of their sperm. So it can impact conception and it can impact the timing of birth. It can impact the oral and development of the baby, which can then impact the airway and the oxygen intake,

Starting point is 00:31:43 which can impact their physical and intellectual development. As a child gets older, the health of the mouth can impact their nutrition, how they sleep, their behavior, how they do in school. The number one reason kids get bullied in school is their teeth. It can impact their confidence. There was a study at USC a few years ago that showed that children with dental problems are three times more likely to miss school and four times more likely to get below average GPA. It impacts their future success. Adults with nice teeth and a beautiful smile, on average, make $250,000 more in their career over people with crooked teeth. Oral health is linked to countless chronic diseases ranging from cardiovascular disease to diabetes to Alzheimer's and it can impact longevity. So as you can see,

Starting point is 00:32:32 your oral health is so much more than just getting cavities and gum disease. When you say that oral health can impact things like fertility and development and all these things, how does that work? What's the connection? Yeah, so the connection of oral health to body health is primarily through two routes. One is the oral bacteria or its toxins can get into the bloodstream through bleeding gums when you have gum disease or oral infections. When you have dental infection,

Starting point is 00:33:00 they can get through the root canals. And once they're in the blood, they can travel anywhere in the body, of course. They can travel to the brain, they can travel to the heart, to the lungs, to the unborn baby and cause local infection or an inflammatory response in the body. Also, the inflammation in the mouth caused by the oral bacteria can cause systemic inflammation that can damage organs. So what is good oral health to you? Because I think to most of us, it's brush your teeth twice a day, floss, and go to the dentist twice a year. That's good oral health. Is that good oral health? No, actually, a lot of people think your mouth is

Starting point is 00:33:40 just a collection of teeth. So all you have to do is brush your teeth. And these are inanimate teeth, you know, dead teeth. So you have to just brush them from the outside twice a day and go to the dentist twice a year. But your mouth is so much more than the just inanimate objects. First of all, to begin with, your teeth are very much alive. They have living internal structures that require nutrients to develop correctly and to protect themselves against the harsh environment of the mouth. So they need calcium and vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin K2, and vitamin D. And those last two vitamins, vitamin D and K2, are just depleted from our daily routines in the Western civilizations because we spend our time inside and our food doesn't have any more vitamin K2 because of our modern diets. So that's just on the teeth. And then another important thing is your mouth is filled with

Starting point is 00:34:29 billions of microbes collectively known as your oral microbiome, which not only can dramatically impact the health of your mouth, but it can also dramatically impact the health of your body. In fact, to give you some interesting statistics, we have more microbes in and on our bodies than we do have human cells. So in so many ways, we're more microbes than we are humans. We have 360 times more microbial genes than we do human genes. So the health of our oral microbiome, which affects the health of our gut microbiome, can dramatically affect our overall health. And so what's the recommended practice then to take care of our mouth and take care of our teeth? What should we be doing? We recommend that you brush your teeth and you take care of your mouth.

Starting point is 00:35:18 Your oral care should be done before breakfast and before bedtime. So BB and BB. So the reason you should brush your teeth before breakfast is because, and that's probably the biggest mistake I've seen people make is they try to brush your teeth after they eat because they think they just want to remove the food particles. But when you, just about every time you put food in your mouth or any drinks, your pH level of your mouth, which is typically neutral at about around pH of seven, it drops to about 5.5 or below that. And that's when, and becomes acidic. That's when some small particles of the minerals that form your teeth called hydroxyapatite, they start demineralizing and dissolve away from your teeth into your saliva. And if you eat too frequently, and if you eat a lot of acidic or sugary foods,

Starting point is 00:36:04 then your body doesn't have enough time to put those minerals back in your teeth and you get cavities. So that's how cavities form. So the way you want to take care of your mouth is when you wake up in the mornings, first thing you want to do is use an alkaline mouthwash, not an antiseptic mouthwash that kills everything, but an alkaline mouthwash that reverses the pH of the mouth and gives it the nutrients that it requires for its healthy development. And then you want to use a toothbrush. You want to floss your teeth first and potentially even use a tongue scraper to clean your tongue because your tongue is a common source of bacteria that causes bad breath. And toothbrushes, the bristles are not

Starting point is 00:36:40 really designed to reach those microbes and remove them effectively. And then once you floss and brush your tongue, then you want to brush your teeth with a really nice toothbrush that has soft or ultra soft bristles, so they don't damage and scratch the enamel. And a toothpaste that has ingredients that not only protect the teeth, but also support all parts of your mouth. So potentially has prebiotics for the microbes in the mouth. It has another wonderful ingredient that I love is called hydroxyapatite or nano hydroxyapatite, which is really what your teeth are naturally made out of, but this is a synthetic version of it, which they can fill these, these fill those issues and the cracks and up the teeth. So it can reduce the sensitivity, it can protect the teeth

Starting point is 00:37:25 and buffers it. So when you do have your coffee or juice or eggs for breakfast, you're less likely to cause any damage to your teeth. Talk about fluoride because there has been controversy over the years about fluoride. Many of us have fluoride in our drinking water. Some people object to having fluoride. What's your take on fluoride in our drinking water. Some people object to having fluoride. What's your take on fluoride? So fluoride is such a big question. I like fluoride for older people and moderate to high risk people. But fluoride is a drug, obviously. FDA has regulations on it. In fact, if you have any fluoride toothpaste or mouthwash, you can just get it out of your cabinet right now and look at it. Even if the ones that are for children, it has a FDA warning on it

Starting point is 00:38:10 that says, keep away from children under age six and call the poison control center if this is ingested. That's on all the fluoride products. And so because fluoride has those side effects and on younger children, especially if they ingest it a lot and younger children just have a more tendency to swallow toothpaste and mouthwash as they use it. So I don't recommend toothpaste so much or fluoride so much for young children or with low risk patients. I recommend it for older kids and people who have a high risk, meaning they have a daily

Starting point is 00:38:44 soda habit or they have a history of cavities, there is a significant prevalence of dental fluorosis in our country, which is a discoloration of enamel, which is caused by early ingestion of fluoride. And that's just because fluoride is so common now in our water supply and kids are using too much fluoride toothpaste when they're using it. There was a CDC study just a couple of years ago that showed 40% of children are using way too much fluoride toothpaste when they're using it to brush their teeth and they're ingesting a lot of it and that's why they have all these side effects. And the discoloration is to what color?

Starting point is 00:39:22 So the discoloration could be yellow, brown, and it could be varied from minor to very extreme. And it can also damage the development of the enamel. So in extreme cases, and some of the statistics show that up to 60% of children in the United States now have some degree of dental fluorosis. And so for that, for those reasons, because we do have an alternative, the nano hydroxyapatite, that's a wonderful ingredient to use for younger children and for lower risk population. You mentioned that one of the big reasons kids get bullied is about their teeth when their teeth aren't perfect. So talk about that whole cosmetic dental thing that seems so important in our society.

Starting point is 00:40:07 So in our society, looking good is important. Like it or not, attractiveness impacts personal and professional successes. And the number one physical feature when people are surveyed about what makes a person attractive is their smile above all other factors. And so we know smiles open doors, you know, a smile invites reciprocity, friendship, love. And so smiles are critical to a person's quality of life. And we all want white smiles. And so there's a ton of cosmetic ingredients, cosmetic work from laminates and all sorts of things that are available

Starting point is 00:40:50 in today's market. But many of those have side effects and cause damages long-term. For example, when you use a bleaching on your mouth, which today's materials are primarily a variation of hydrogen peroxide, immediately you get some whitening results. But over long term, it can actually cause some sensitivity because it's actually damaging your teeth and your teeth can over time become dull and yellow, in fact. I remember going to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned and the hygienist said to me, oh, your gums aren't bleeding. That's unusual. And I

Starting point is 00:41:26 thought, really? That's unusual that I floss my teeth and so they don't bleed when you floss them? Is that really that unusual? Yeah. So I can tell you the number one subject that patients exaggerate about, dare I say lie about, is their flossing habits. So unfortunately, people hate to floss. And I can see, I can understand why, because your typical floss, over-the-counter floss, you know, you got to wrap it under your finger, it's going to, you know, it's going to hurt. And then you have to floss between your teeth. And if you're not an, you know, a really good flosser like you are, you know, and your gums are inflamed, it can cause bleeding, and then it's going to hurt. And so people just don't like flossing for

Starting point is 00:42:09 in general. But I got to tell you, flossing is so critical. Because if you tell me, hey, Dr. Haas, is brushing more important than flossing, I would say flossing. Because brushing is easier, everybody does it. And even when you eat food, when you eat an apple, the surfaces of your teeth are getting cleansed just by the food rubbing against your teeth. But in between your teeth is very difficult to clean. So if I had to prioritize, I would prioritize flossing over brushing even. Now, there are a lot of great flosses that people can use. And you should, just like everything you put in your mouth, because when you eat food, you want to make sure they're clean and they're organic and whatever else that is important to you.

Starting point is 00:42:47 But then we ignore oral care products. We just put in our mouths and the mouths of our kids, whatever we've seen on TV and whatever they advertise on social media. But every ingredient that's in a toothpaste, in a mouthwash or the floss material, even themselves, it can get absorbed through our tissues in the mouth or people or patients can, people can swallow them and it can go throughout our body. So it's really important

Starting point is 00:43:11 that you, and this is something you put in your mouth twice a day. So when it comes to floss, as an example, the floss materials are critical. There was a study a couple of years ago that showed that some floss, some very popular flosses on the market have these material made out of this material called PFAS. Teflon is the brand name for it, that these people had very high toxic level of these chemicals in their bodies. And so there are many flosses are made with these waxes that are petroleum based, which is very dangerous. They use artificial flavors, which we should all try to avoid. So we should be thinking about all the products that we put in our mouths, but there are a lot of also great products. You can get materials made out of silk or other materials

Starting point is 00:43:57 that are fantastic for your teeth. You can have waxes like beeswax, which is perfectly healthy. You can have flosses that ingredients like prebiotics and xylitol and erythritol that are actually good for your teeth and that they feed the good microbes and they starve the bad ones. So you need to be selective on the oral care products that you choose for yourself and your family, but you shouldn't avoid them. You should only avoid the ones that are going to be hurtful when used in your mouth and especially the mouth of your kids. Explain as best you can briefly, because we hear about there is a connection between dental health and heart disease and then dental health and dementia. It's a great question.

Starting point is 00:44:41 So I just want to, I think a lot of people have heard that your oral health is has some connection to the heart health and to dementia. But I want to emphasize that your oral health really impacts almost every part of your body. Because as I mentioned, your oral microbes can travel everywhere in the body once they're in your blood, and the systemic inflammation can damage every organ. But specifically about the heart, what happens is that the inflammation in the mouth can cause inflammatory responses in our blood vessels. And the lining of our blood vessels, these endothelial cells are called, they can, once they're damaged, they interfere and impair blood flow throughout the body. So if this happens in the heart, it can lead to a heart attack. And if it happens in the brain, it can lead to a stroke and other, and in different other body

Starting point is 00:45:28 parts, it can lead to other major problems. In patients with Alzheimer's, they found a very common gum disease bacteria called P. gingivalis. And we didn't know if this was a cause or effect, but a couple of years ago, there was a study that they infected mice with this particular bacteria. And when they examined their brains, they found out that this bacteria caused these plaques that is very commonly formed around these bacteria as sort of a defense mechanism that's common in Alzheimer's patients. So now we think there could be a cause of these oral bacteria as it impacts and affects the brain development. And the prevention of this is just good oral health or is there something specific? It's flossing that really saves the day or something like that.

Starting point is 00:46:19 So the solution really to all of this is taking better care of your mouth, which means brushing correctly, flossing correctly, using the right oral care products that are completely safe and effective, and going to your dentist twice a year to make sure that they take care of all the things that you cannot take care of at home. Well, it is interesting how, based on what you said at the beginning, of all the things that oral health affects, and I don't think people really take that into account. They really just, it's more about, well, I want my teeth to, I want my mouth to smell good and I don't want my teeth to fall out, so I'll, that's why I brush. That's 100% right. And the problem is we have done a terrible job as a profession, educating people about the importance of oral health and how it literally impacts every part of our life,

Starting point is 00:47:11 the quality of our life, our longevity, our physical health, our mental health, and those of our children. And so that's why I really decided to put all this information together because I felt like the information was so scattered and I just wanted to make sure that people realize that oral health is so critical and taking care of it is so easy. Well, I think there's just kind of a general complacency, you know, if I'm not getting cavities, I must be doing okay. And that oral health is, you know, it's just about fresh breath and clean

Starting point is 00:47:43 teeth and that's about it. And as you're saying, it's just about fresh breath and clean teeth. And that's about it. And as you're saying, it's a lot more than that. As I mentioned, the last 30 years, oral health has not gotten better, not only in our country, the number one chronic disease in the United States for children is dental disease. The number one disease in the world affecting more than three and a half billion people, half of the world population, is oral diseases, which are gum disease and cavities. 70% of people over age 65, these are CDC numbers, have gum disease. 70%. Half of people over age 30 have gum disease. So you would think actually with all this advancement in medicine and science and

Starting point is 00:48:23 technology, we would have better oral health, but in medicine and science and technology, we would have better oral health, but we don't. And again, this is with just thinking that oral health only affects cavities and gum disease. But as I mentioned, because it impacts so many areas of our life in countless ways, it's so critical that we get a hold of this and do things differently because obviously our current methods are not working. And so we got to think a little bit differently if we want to have a different impact on our lives. I feel like I want to go brush my teeth and maybe floss again. Dr. Kami

Starting point is 00:48:55 Haas has been my guest. He is on the board of counselors at the UCLA School of Dentistry, and he is author of the book, If Your Mouth Could Talk. And there is a link to his book and a link to his company called The Super Dentists. I have a link to that as well in the show notes. Thanks, Kami. This was great. You're so good. Thank you so much, Michael. This was so easy to talk to you. I'm sure you've heard of the seven-year itch. There was even a movie made about the seven-year itch some years ago. It's the average time that goes by in a marriage or relationship before the passion starts to die and things can go sour. Well, according to research, the seven-year itch has been downgraded to three years.

Starting point is 00:49:42 It seems that stress levels in most relationships tend to peak now at the 36-month mark. Researchers say that that's about the time when couples start to take each other for granted or get on each other's nerves. And one of the researchers said that money worries and longer working hours are also taking a toll sooner on modern relationships.

Starting point is 00:50:06 And that is something you should know. And now that we're at the end of this episode of Something You Should Know, it is a good time to ask that if you enjoyed it and found it entertaining and interesting, that you share it with someone you know. Let them hear it and hopefully they become a regular listener. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome

Starting point is 00:50:36 murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very

Starting point is 00:51:05 own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Jennifer, a co-founder of the Go Kid Go Network. At Go Kid Go, putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called The Search for the Silver Lightning, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. During her journey, Isla meets new friends, including King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, Thank you. Neeson, Emily Blunt, Kristen Bell, Chris Hemsworth, among many others, in welcoming the Search for the Silver Lining podcast to the Go Kid Go network by listening today. Look for the Search for the

Starting point is 00:52:10 Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Something You Should Know - Weird Human Behaviors Explained & Be Kind to Your Mouth -SYSK Choice

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