Summary
Dr. Perry Nickelston explains the surprising connection between tongue position, chronic pain, and the nervous system's fight or flight response. He covers how tongue posture affects breathing, posture, and pain patterns.
Key Points
- Tongue position and chronic pain
- Fight or flight nervous system response
- How tongue affects breathing patterns
- Posture and tongue connection
- Simple tongue exercises for pain relief
- Vagus nerve and oral cavity
Key Moments
Tongue exercises stimulate vagus nerve for pain relief
Dr. Perry Nickelston explains how tongue exercises stimulate cranial nerves 9, 10 (vagus), and 11 in the medulla, helping control inflammation and shift the body out of sympathetic dominance. The tongue movements cross-talk with upper cervical nerves to address chronic pain.
"Number 10 is the vagus nerve. Many of you may have heard of the vagus nerve because that's the nerve that helps control how well your body can tolerate, control inflammation in the body."
Nasal breathing and tongue position for health
Dr. Nickelston recommends keeping the tongue tip, middle, and back on the roof of the mouth and breathing in and out through the nose as foundational practices for reducing chronic pain.
"try to focus on keeping your tongue the tip the middle on the back up to the roof of the mouth, and not the floor of the mouth. That means the bottom of the mouth and breathe in and out through your nose unless you're eating, drinking or talking."
Poor posture affects tongue nerve and chronic pain
Discussion of how poor posture with rounded shoulders and forward head position compresses the hypoglossal nerve and irritates upper cervical nerves, contributing to chronic pain patterns.
"One reason because you have poor posture and your shoulders are rounded and your head's jutted forward, sitting instead of over your shoulders, it's in front of your shoulders because people look down at a phone all the time."
