People traditionally come to gyms to “get in shape,” often citing their desire to lose weight and improve their fitness capacity. The advent of Personalized Fitness has broadened the objectives of clients, the skills needed by the coach, and the level of understanding around human physiology—and how it is impacted by various stimuli. Clients often describe their desire to “optimize their life” and maximize their performance, health and longevity in an effort to live a fulfilling life. One of the common goals that people mention is improving their mental clarity and energy.
This “brain fog” remedy was generously taught by Dr. Thom of the American Center of Biological Medicine. The cliff notes version is that if you can get more oxygen to the brain, you will feel more restored in the morning, having recovered better and likely be more apt to breathe through your nose versus your mouth while sleeping. Dr. Thom’s understanding is that epithelial cells in the sinus cavities are close to the blood-brain barrier and that there is the potential to receive various nutrients, including oxygen, into the brain for a deeper and more restorative sleep.
One of the most common trends the Central Athlete coaching staff observes during their intake process is that despite an optimal amount of sleep, clients feel unrefreshed, groggy, and struggle with low energy and brain fog. Of course, this can be a multivariate situation; however, we need various tools to move people toward health and optimal function. This nebulizer protocol MAY improve circulation in the cranial cavity and deliver more oxygen to the brain. These findings have been confirmed by thermography scans on patients and may be a helpful adjunct to traditional therapies for foggy-headedness and headaches.
Nebulizer protocol
- 5ml of saline (always)
- 1 cap of glutathione (always)
- Mix and match UNDA 5, UNDA 27, and UNDA 710 x 10 drops (chronic sinus infections)
- Fungisode x 10 drops (chronic fungus)
- Colloidal silver x 6 sprays (chronic infections)
Just like anything else, the people who have the best results with any protocol are the ones who practice the regimen consistently and frequently. If you go for an hour-long walk once per week, that is a step in the right direction, but likely not enough of a stimulus to create a therapeutic effect in objective and subjective signs of wellness. The same goes for this nebulizer protocol and why anyone who is curious about this is encouraged to embark upon a 30-day challenge. Buy a nebulizer and the relevant remedies and nebulize for about 20 minutes each evening for 30 consecutive days. Many people who do this stick with the protocol after the 30 days due to their observed benefits.
Mouth Taping
If you are looking to maximize the benefit of the nebulizer protocol, consider taping your mouth closed when you sleep. Taping the lips closed while sleeping trains you to breathe through your nose while you sleep. It helps break the habit of mouth breathing, especially when combined with other therapies to address the causes of the individual’s mouth breathing.
Habitually, breathing through your mouth doesn’t provide the same benefits as nasal breathing. In fact, it may be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea and puts your heart at risk. Children who are mouth breathers also may suffer from misalignments in their teeth, improper facial bone development, difficulty speaking, and other developmental issues.
Mouth breathing may also negatively impact oral health by contributing to dry mouth, teeth shifting, and tooth decay. It is also a sign of breathing issues that can negatively affect children and adults of any age.
Mouth taping might be beneficial as a snoring treatment. In a study of people with mild obstructive sleep apnea (1), wearing a porous patch over the mouth caused all the participants to breathe through their nose, and it changed the angle of the palate and the tongue. These changes led to significantly less snoring and fewer instances of lapsed breathing.
Researchers have not yet examined if or how mouth taping impacts snoring in people who do not have obstructive sleep apnea. As a result, more research is needed to say with certainty whether mouth taping can effectively treat snoring due to other causes.
Nevertheless, proponents of mouth taping claim it may help reduce the negative effects thought to be associated with mouth breathing, including:
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms
- Sleep-disordered breathing
- Dry mouth
- Cavities
- Gum disease
- Bad breath
- Slowed growth in children (2)
- Decreased cognitive ability (3)
The confusing thing about health and fitness is that it can be difficult to tease out how a specific change affects an individual. Was a specific improvement associated with a new habit, change in temperature, a less stressful month, etc? This line of thought likelys stems from a reductionistic mindset that has been indoctrinated in us from an early age to think a particular way.
When a car has an issue, typically we find the source of the problem and replace the faulty part. Western medicine has a similar Newtonian framework. Allopathy (Western Medicine) means “opposite”: antibiotics, antivirals, or removing something with a surgery. An Einsteinian framework is likely a more relevant way of looking at the human body and various systems. Essentially, each cell in our body has an energetic imprint that can be influenced by a host of environmental factors. Treatment modalities are multifaceted, but the base philosophy is to support the body’s natural physiology.
As opposed to asking, “Did this nebulizer protocol help my [ailment]?”, ask yourself, “Do I generally feel better after beginning this treatment?”
At Central Athlete, it is our duty for the staff to continually invest in their education in all aspects of health, fitness, and performance. In an effort to collectively support “optimal performance” for our clients, cultivating a “beginner’s mind” is necessary to our staff’s collective wisdom.
If you are interested in chatting with a Central Athlete coach to assess how Personalized Fitness would be helpful in your specific case, book a Strategy Session today.