The Mouth-Body Connection: How Oral Health Shapes Whole-Body Healing

Most people don’t realize that what happens in the mouth can ripple through the whole body. The balance of the oral microbiome—the community of bacteria living in our mouths—can either protect us or trigger widespread inflammation that affects the heart, joints, and brain. Hidden dental infections or mercury fillings can quietly drive fatigue, autoimmune issues, or dementia—and fixing the mouth often helps the rest of the body heal, too. The good news is that with simple steps like eating whole foods (often removing gluten), cleaning the mouth well, and breathing through the nose, we can protect both our smile and our overall health. When we care for the mouth as part of the body, lasting wellness becomes possible from the inside out. In this episode, Dr. Todd LePine, Dr. Elizabeth Boham, James Nestor, and I talk about how a healthy mouth microbiome is a key to whole-body wellness. Dr. Todd LePine graduated from Dartmouth Medical School and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, specializing in Integrative Functional Medicine. He is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. Prior to joining The UltraWellness Center, he worked as a physician at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, MA, for 10 years. Dr. LePine’s focus at The UltraWellness Center is to help his patients achieve optimal health and vitality by restoring the natural balance to both the mind and the body. His areas of interest include optimal aging, bio-detoxification, functional gastrointestinal health, systemic inflammation, autoimmune disorders, and the neurobiology of mood and cognitive disorders. Dr. Elizabeth Boham is Board Certified in Family Medicine from Albany Medical School, and she is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner and the Medical Director of The UltraWellness Center. Dr. Boham lectures on a variety of topics, including Women’s Health and Breast Cancer Prevention, insulin resistance, heart health, weight control and allergies. She is on the faculty for the Institute for Functional Medicine. James Nestor is an author and journalist who has written for Scientific American, Outside, The New York Times, and more. His book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, was an instant New York Times and London Sunday Times bestseller. Breath explores how the human species has lost the ability to breathe properly—and how to get it back. Breath spent 18 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in the first year of release, and will be translated into more than 30 languages. Breath was awarded the Best General Nonfiction Book of 2020 by the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and was nominated for Best Science Book of 2021 by the Royal Society. Nestor has spoken at Stanford Medical School, Yale School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, The United Nations, Global Classroom, and appeared on more than 60 radio and television shows, including Fresh Air with Terry Gross, the Joe Rogan Show, and more. He lives and breathes in San Francisco. This episode is brought to you by BIOptimizers. Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN to save 15%. Full-length episodes can be found here:The Functional Medicine Approach To Oral Health Getting Rid of Cold Sores and Canker Sores The Power Of Breath As Medicine