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Alyssa Luck

Alyssa Luck

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9-month AGGA update

Alyssa Luck · Mar 2, 2020 · 6 Comments

Thanks to my increasingly chaotic life, I have not been able to bring myself to sit in front of a computer and type a coherent update, but this evening I did manage to sit on the floor and speak an incoherent update, so hopefully that counts for something.

So behold – my first ever video appearance on the internet. (Outside of social media, y’know. Who wants to follow me on insta?! I know you all do, after seeing this masterpiece.)

I forgot to mention in the video that I did have a one-month ‘holding period’ of sorts, since my first AGGA broke and I had to be in a retainer for most of December while the new one was made.

Also, I highly recommend peeping the “Recent Comments” section of the sidebar for more of the latest. Because although I suck at posting regular updates, I do reply to everyone who leaves a comment. Eventually. And usually my commenters have far more valuable contributions to the broader conversation than my blog does.

Enough preamble. Here’s seven minutes of me talking.

 

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Comments

  1. Ryan says

    March 3, 2020 at 12:27 pm

    Hi Alyssa,

    Thanks so much for the update! I’m going to have to decide on AGGA soon and your posts have been the most helpful thing.

    I have a few questions about where you are now –
    1. How are you feeling about the experience overall so far? Has it been super uncomfortable?
    2. Have you seen anything concerning about the changes so far, or are they totally positive? Have you gotten the front tooth pain and/or tilting?
    3. Have you experienced any symptom relief? (not sure if it’s expected at this phase)

    Again, thank you so much for your time!

    Ryan

    Reply
    • Alyssa Luck says

      March 3, 2020 at 7:17 pm

      Hey Ryan! Aw, thanks for that! Always love to hear that my posts are helpful, however sporadic they may be.

      1. I’m feeling positive about it overall! It has been pretty uncomfortable in several ways (I’ve had my share of mouth ulcers/irritations from it, I LOATHE the bite pads, it’s hard to get used to talking/chewing properly, not to mention my job has high visibility to a lot of high-level company execs, so looking 16 and having a lisp doesn’t make me feel the most professional…), BUT, I’ve been through much worse, and I’m very goal-oriented, so it’s easy to suck it up knowing it’s for the greater long-term good.

      2. No front tooth pain, although definitely soreness anytime the AGGA is “activated.” Only very minor tilting, and I actually needed some tilting, so that’s a good thing. The “washboarding” of the gums/buccal bone loss like I talked about in my “concerning CBCT results” post is always a minor background concern, but I’ve decided to not worry about the possibility of pushing my front teeth so far forward that they lose integrity, and rather just trust in the process. So far denial is working out well for me this time around 🙂 Only other concern is if/when I’ll be able to re-train my jaw and neck muscles adequately enough to have my lower jaw exist naturally in a forward position, but that’s less a “I’ll regret doing AGGA if I can’t fix this,” and more a “AGGA needed to happen regardless, and getting the lower jaw to catch up will just be the next hurdle that needs to happen.”

      3. This is a hard one to answer, because I never actually had bad symptoms! I’d have occasional jaw pain, and I can’t say that’s resolved simply because my bite is still so all over the place, I haven’t found a comfortable chewing pattern yet. Doing AGGA more as a preventative, rather than having to intervene later on for symptom relief/damage control.

      Reply
      • Ryan says

        March 3, 2020 at 7:34 pm

        Thanks Alyssa, that all makes sense to me. Good luck!!

        Reply
        • Alyssa Luck says

          March 3, 2020 at 8:49 pm

          Thank you!! Good luck to you too, whatever you decide – and please come back and update us! It’s so great to have people share their experiences here, whether positive or negative, and the more people who do, the more it helps others who are trying to learn.

  2. Michael says

    March 30, 2020 at 5:22 pm

    Just stumbled upon this, really cool you’re posting about this! I did AGGA through December ’20 and am onto ACB now. The transition stinks a bit, but once that’s done, the bite pads get easier and easier each visit. After 3 ACB check ins I could bite/chew ~80% like normal again, though there is still a slight gap. Also, I felt like I had more lower jaw movement with ACB, because the top wasn’t expanding. It didn’t feel natural until recently. I was surprised how much continued to change after AGGA overall, especially Maxilla movement to “unscrunch” my face.

    Looks like you’ve got a positive attitude and great progress. Just wanted to share that it gets better and it’s cool to see someone else going through this.

    One question, is part of your exercise routine taping your mouth at night? I was advised that and found it basically worked out my tongue while I slept. Looking forward to when you post the exercises you’re doing.

    Reply
    • Alyssa Luck says

      March 31, 2020 at 12:16 pm

      Hey Michael – thanks so much for this! Very cool that you’re doing AGGA/ACB as well, and hearing about the changes that continue during the ACB phase is extremely helpful (and reassuring). I mean, I knew in my head that bite, jaw position, function, etc would probably continue to improve as long as I put in the effort (even after the entire process is done), but it’s great to hear from someone who’s actually experiencing that first-hand.

      And as far as the extra unscrunching…I can only hope that happens for me too! I imagine a lot of that is the tongue being able to do its job better, and thus the positive effects accumulating over time?

      To answer your question – it is not, and it should be!! There was a reason I didn’t start it sooner, but I can’t remember what it was, so I don’t think I have any excuse to not be doing this. Very much appreciate the reminder! And I’ll go ahead and post the tongue exercises now! Not me doing them, but at least the sheet I got from my dentist.

      Reply

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Primary Sidebar

 

Hi! I’m Alyssa. I like thunderstorms and cats, hate wearing shoes, and enjoy devising extensive research projects for myself in my free time. This is me in Bali with a monkey on my shoulder. And this is my blog, where I muse about health-related topics and document my relentless self-guinea pigging. If you want to know more about me, click here!

alyssa.luck

alyssa.luck
Photo dump from the last year. Thanks to everyone Photo dump from the last year. Thanks to everyone who made 28 the best yet - excited for 29🥰

(PS. In case anyone wants to know what it’s like in my head, I was going to write something like “year 28” or “my 28th year” but then I realized that the year between your 28th and 29th birthdays is not your 28th year of life, it’s your 29th year. I am turning 29 because I have been alive for 29 years. So then I had a whole thing about how to word it without being inaccurate and ended up going with what you see above which is vague and weird but the point is it was a good year and I love all the people in my life dearly)
Biology of Belief (2005) was written by Bruce Lipt Biology of Belief (2005) was written by Bruce Lipton, who earned a PhD in developmental biology in 1971 and was an anatomy professor and academic researcher in the 70s and 80s. Despite the book's presentation and Lipton's background, this is not a science book. It is an exposition of an ideology, supported by haphazard and poorly contextualized nuggets of evidence, rhetorical leaps, and a mind-boggling overuse of analogies. 

The book largely failed to deliver on its promised content. What it does is argue for the primacy of the environment over DNA in controlling life; propose that the cell membrane rather than the nucleus is the "brain" of the cell; invoke quantum physics to explain why modern medicine fails; explain that our behavior is largely controlled by our subconscious mind; inform parents that they therefore have a great deal of control over the destiny of their children; and conclude that humans must become nonviolent protectors of the environment and of humanity because Everything Is Connected.

It’s not that these points aren’t relevant to the topic at hand - they are. But they were not connected in a coherent way that would explain how “belief” actually works (like…biologically), and the treatment of scientific concepts throughout was careless, or perhaps disingenuous.

I think he's correct about many things, some of them being common knowledge. For instance, the "new" science of epigenetics is now old news, as is the critical role of parenting and early environment in shaping a child’s future. But however important these and attendant concepts may be, the book did not do a good job explaining, supporting, or connecting them. 

As far as practical guidance, he refers the reader to a list of resources on his website, which is fine, but I expected some scientific insight into how/why those modalities work. None was given. 

On the plus side, the book was quite thought-provoking, and I came away with loads of references and topics to follow up on. My favorite line? "There cannot be exceptions to a theory; exceptions simply mean that a theory is not fully correct."
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (section 382) Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (section 382), as quoted in the introduction to Thus Spoke Zarathustra because I like the translation better.
This paper totally changed the way I think about e This paper totally changed the way I think about early nervous system development and the relationship between physiology and sociality. 

The authors propose that newborn babies are not inherently social, and have just one goal in life: physiological homeostasis. I.e. staying alive. This means nutrients, warmth, and regulation of breath and heart rate, i.e. autonomic arousal (it’s well-accepted that newborns sync their breathing and heart rate with caregivers through skin to skin contact). 

All these things are traditionally provided by a loving caregiver. So what the baby experiences during the first weeks of life, over and over, is a shift from physiological perturbation to homeostasis (a highly rewarding event inherently) REPEATEDLY PAIRED with things like the sound of a caregiver’s voice and seeing their face. Thus, over time, the face/voice stimuli become rewarding as well. 

The authors argue that THIS is the beginning of humans’ wiring for sociality, and may explain why loving social interactions can have such a profound regulating effect on physiology throughout life: because the brain was trained for it at an early age. 

This framework holds all kinds of fascinating implications for what happens if that initial “training” isn’t so ideal. What if the return to nutritional homeostasis via feeding is paired with negative expressions and vocalizations rather than loving ones, perhaps as could occur with PPD? What happens if the caregiver has poor autonomic regulation, such that social stimuli become paired with cardiorespiratory overexcitement in the baby? Could that have potential for influencing later introversion vs extroversion? (Because if social interaction is paired with autonomic overexcitement, that could lead to social interaction literally being more energetically draining, which is what introverts experience. Thoughts?)

For my energy metabolism enthusiasts: Table 1 in the paper draws a link between metabolic rate and sociality across species. Swipe for a screenshot. 

Anyway, check out the paper! It’s free, just google “growing a social brain pdf.”
I’ll be under general anesthesia in a couple day I’ll be under general anesthesia in a couple days to have two tooth implants placed, and I think I’ll take the opportunity to have a little heart-to-heart with my subconscious mind. A bit of medically-assisted self-hypnosis, if you will. 

I randomly stumbled upon these papers a couple months ago - an RCT showing reduced post-op pain in patients who listened to recorded positive messages while under general anesthesia, plus a post-hoc analysis of the same data that found reduced post-op nausea and vomiting in a subset of high-risk patients. 

The full review paper from the first slide is unfortunately in German, but it has long been recognized that even when unconscious, the patient is listening (for better or for worse). 

It boggles my mind that it isn’t standard of care to have patients listen to recordings like this while under sedation, considering that almost nothing could be easier, safer, or cheaper, and we have at least some evidence of significant efficacy. I mean c’mon, what more could you want from an intervention? 

(Yeah, I know. Profit. If anyone still thinks that our medical system operates with patient well-being as the foremost goal, you’re deluding yourself.)

“There should be a fundamental change in the way patients are treated in the operating room and intensive care unit, and background noise and careless conversations should be eliminated.”

“Perhaps it is now time to finally heed this call and to use communication with unconscious patients that goes beyond the most necessary announcement of interventions and is therapeutically effective through positive suggestions. When in doubt, assume that the patient is listening.”
If you've seen "vagus nerve exercises" that have y If you've seen "vagus nerve exercises" that have you moving your eyes or tilting your head, you've probably encountered the work of Stanley Rosenberg. The exercises he created and introduced in his 2017 book now appear in instructional videos all over the internet. 
 
The book itself has much to recommend it: it's accessible, it's practical, it's inspiring. But it has one major flaw: the solid practical and informational content regarding the cranial nerves is framed in terms of the scientifically dubious polyvagal theory. 
 
I particularly enjoyed the book as an introduction to the therapeutic arena of bodywork, of which Rosenberg is a skilled practitioner. His book is full of case reports that demonstrate how immensely powerful extremely subtle movements and physical manipulations can be. These do need to be kept in perspective: it's a small sample size of the most remarkable cases, and the results were achieved within the supportive clinical environment of a skilled practitioner. You can tell from his descriptions how refined his technique is. But nevertheless, it was a paradigm-shifting read for me, and the exercises give you something concrete to play around with. 
 
The book also brought the cranial nerves and the concept of “social engagement” to the fore as arbiters of health. Rosenberg has a solid background in cranial nerve anatomy and shares many interesting tidbits and considerations that you don’t typically hear; for instance, the potential impact of dental and orthodontic work on cranial nerve function.
 
So, is it worth reading? If any of the above piques your interest, go for it! Just read my post on polyvagal theory first – you can use the book to practice separating the wheat (solid informational content) from the chaff (pseudoscientific framing). If nothing else, the book is a nice reminder that genuine healers who get lasting results for their patients do exist.

But if you just want to try the exercises, you can easily find them all on YouTube. 

“You learn techniques to understand principles. When you understand the principles, you will create your own techniques.” -Stanley Rosenberg
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