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Alyssa Luck

Alyssa Luck

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Video: Controlled-arch braces day 2 report – lisp city

Alyssa Luck · Jun 10, 2020 · 6 Comments

Real talk about how getting controlled-arch braces kind of sucks, plus a brief overview of the treatment plan going forward. I’m going to try to post my before/after picture from the AGGA growth phase on the blog soon! (Edit 8/11/20: Posted!)

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Functional Orthodontics & Orthotropics

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Comments

  1. Daniel Green says

    June 10, 2020 at 3:46 pm

    Alyssa, the third time is a charm, right!?! 😉 I can’t wait to see your AGGA pics too. Get some GishyGoo from Amazon to help your cheeks. You should start to notice less lispy-ness soon. Hang in there and thanks for sharing your journey! -Daniel

    Reply
    • Alyssa Luck says

      July 1, 2020 at 1:09 pm

      Thanks Daniel! Yes – lispy-ness much improved!! Hoping to share pics soon – just waiting to get them from my dentist.

      Reply
  2. Josh says

    June 10, 2020 at 5:40 pm

    Hi Alyssa. Can you post the before and current intraoral photos please? The ones I’m interested in are the side shots (perpendicular to your back teeth from the side) to evaluate some of their claims. Did your dentist take a cephalometric radiograph and/or CBCT prior to treatment to compare to your future final results? Otherwise there is no knowing for sure what was done and the epigenetics claim is snake oil. Thanks. I am genuinely curious as there is zero scientific literature from peer reviewed journals. I can find claims on dental pages and the their epigenetics website, but none of those claims are supported by reliable literature.

    Reply
    • Alyssa Luck says

      July 1, 2020 at 1:14 pm

      Hi Josh – yes, as soon as I get the pics from my dentist, I’ll post them! As far as the scans prior to starting – I had a CBCT scan less than a year prior to starting AGGA, but I can’t remember whether we did additional scans immediately prior to starting. Once I’m finished with the process, I plan to pull together any and all before/after info I have at my disposal.

      But yes, absolutely agreed – the claims can sound great, and make some mechanistic sense, and even have some great results, but without a solid database of before/after data, we don’t really know what’s going on for sure and can’t make any sweeping claims.

      Reply
  3. Margaret says

    September 27, 2020 at 2:52 am

    Ah I’m so grateful for this video! I just got my AGGA put in and went through the same thing the first few weeks. I have all the same issues you did and am hoping for similar results (tongue space and reduced TMJ discomfort) so please keep us updated with this part of the process! I’d love to see your before and after images when you get a chance to share because I’m most curious about that aspect. Really appreciate your blog, I jumped into this commitment with some worries and you definitely made me feel more assured.

    Reply
    • Alyssa Luck says

      September 28, 2020 at 2:53 pm

      Hi Margaret – thank you so much for your comment, that’s lovely to hear! I actually already posted the before/after pics I have so far – it’s the most recent post on here. I’d love to hear how you progress, so please do keep me posted if you’re so inclined!

      Reply

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Primary Sidebar

 

Hi! I’m Alyssa. I like thunderstorms and cats, hate wearing shoes, and I get really nerdy about gut bacteria. 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 (in the realms of gut health and orthodontics, mostly). I created the IBD Index to help people with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease discover their next health breakthrough. If you want to know more about me, click here!

alyssa.luck

alyssa.luck
To continue my recounting of the health things I'm To continue my recounting of the health things I'm experimenting with, let me tell you about DNRS: the slightly cheesy, arguably outdated “brain rewiring” program that has changed my life. 

I found it because I was looking for ways to “retrain” my nervous system. I watched some success stories. None of the “target” health conditions matched mine, but I went for it anyway. Probably the best decision I’ve ever made for my health. 

The core of DNRS is built on the principles of neuroplasticity. They call it "brain rewiring" because you intentionally take triggers that would normally stimulate a negative response in your body or mind, and associate them repeatedly with neural signals of safety. If that sounds pseudosciencey, I hear ya – one of my goals with future posts is to bring some concreteness and specificity to the topic. I imagine there are lots of people who could benefit from this type of thing who are turned off by the overly abstract or touchy-feely language. 

There are tons of "brain rewiring" programs like DNRS, but they're all built on similar ideas. Most bring in elements of other popular approaches, ranging from the scientifically validated (cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy) to the type of new-agey stuff I always scoffed at (shadow work, inner child work, parts work). 

For me, DNRS has provided the perfect framework to finally achieve what meditation experts and therapists and mystics alike are always advocating – the ability to step into the role of “curious observer.” It's given me everything therapy and meditation promised but could never deliver, helping me recognize my own patterns of thought and behavior and consciously redirect unhelpful ones. If this sounds vague, that's because there isn't a single area of my life that hasn't been improved by using this framework. 

I spend far more time in states of joy and peace and gratitude, and less time in states of anxiety or depression or frenzy. Many chronic worries that used to occupy my mind or keep me up at night – whether related to health, relationships, or my future – have disappeared, and the others are on their way out. (Cont. in comments)
Isn’t it crazy how something can be so easy and Isn’t it crazy how something can be so easy and natural for one person, but so hard for another? 

Me doing food: I can totally cook everything I eat from scratch, no prob

Me doing mental health: just doing my hour of daily mindful cognitive gratitudinal journalization

Me doing physical therapy: I can’t do it I don’t have that muscle

I’ve done many hard things in the name of health, but I think they’ve all been the types of hard things that come naturally to me. And frankly, that hasn’t gotten me where I want to be. 

So I’ve decided to finally tackle something that feels very unnatural: developing a real relationship with my muscles and bones, and learning - through experience, not from a book - how they coordinate with each other and how to use them. 

I never really considered my musculoskeletal system a key player in autoimmune or digestive woes, but now I realize it’s naïve to think dysfunction in one part of the body doesn’t affect another. And since this is so obviously my weakest link, it’s high time to make it a priority!

Even though I’ve done strength training in the past, I never dedicated the time and focus to figure out what my body actually needed to function better, and workouts often felt awkward or led to injury. 

I’ve always dreaded PT-type exercises because they felt simultaneously like “not enough” and also SO HARD, especially when there’s no way to confirm whether I’m doing them “right” (my nightmare). 

But I’m pretty sure the fact that targeted “mind-muscle” work is so hard for me means it’s what I need the most. (That’s how that works, right?)

Anyway, I’m happy to report that I’m finally through both the initial phase of being a giant baby because I have to do something I’m bad at, AND the second phase of neurotically worrying about doing it “wrong.” And hopefully I’m on my way to better posture, improved breathing, and greater strength! 

Super thankful to have people in my life who remind me to have fun and stay curious, when my natural disposition is to write a 27-step plan to “fixing” everything “wrong” with me. And to remind me that it is, in fact, a JOY to be a novice at something (as @_john_the_savage_ would say).
"If your nervous system is balanced, your heart is "If your nervous system is balanced, your heart is constantly being told to beat slower by your parasympathetic system, and beat faster by your sympathetic system. This causes a fluctuation in your heart rate: HRV." (whoop.com) 
 
This statement is a formidable example of one of the biggest misconceptions about heart rate variability (HRV). 
 
HRV is highest during rest or sleep, when sympathetic input is lowest. If HRV was the result of an autonomic “tug-of-war,” why would it be greatest when one of the contenders has entirely dropped the rope? 
 
Part of the misunderstanding may stem from failure to recognize that the heart has an intrinsic rate, well above the resting heart rate maintained by the vagus nerve. Varying vagal impulses create HRV without any sympathetic input at all. 
 
There are many other common misconceptions, such as the notion that HRV metrics measure autonomic tone, or that HRV itself is a metric with one interpretation. 
 
Such misconceptions aren’t only found in layscience – they also pervade academic and clinical literature. For instance, you’ll see LF used as a measurement of “sympathetic tone” and LF/HF as a measurement of “sympathovagal balance,” even though it’s been clear for decades that those interpretations are not physiologically accurate.
 
This post (and the associated article at alyssaluck.com/hrv101) can be thought of as “foundations for understanding HRV research.” And it provides a good example not only of the insufficiency of “sound-byte” science, but also of real science in action. 
 
The unfortunate reality is that we can’t always take researchers’ conclusions at face value. Few have the time to adequately assess a field before adopting one of their metrics, and once a misinterpretation has taken root it can easily become an accepted fact that propagates through repetition, becoming more entrenched with each published paper.
 
Thankfully the ramifications in this case are not very serious - misdirection of experimental design and analysis, and many false statements, but no dire consequences. Nevertheless, it’s a good reminder that science is a human institution, and it never hurts to question oft-repeated “facts.”
My latest diet experiment: the bean protocol! This My latest diet experiment: the bean protocol! This was one of the changes I made immediately prior to my drastic increase in HRV. 

Brief background: the bean protocol entails eating lots of soluble fiber (particularly beans) as a way to support detox. It rests on the assumption that most chronic health issues are the result of fat-soluble environmental toxins, excess hormones, and other fat-soluble things being recirculated in the body rather than eliminated. 

There is some scientific merit to this: the liver does eliminate many toxins and other compounds through the bile, these things can be subject to reabsorption via enterohepatic recirculation, and certain types of fibers do interrupt this process by binding bile, preventing reabsorption and allowing excretion in the feces.

That said, there are many unanswered questions that would need to be answered for me to be on board with that as the sole or even primary explanation for the anecdotal success of those on the protocol. I think there are almost certainly other mechanisms at play, and I doubt things work exactly as proponents of the protocol describe. 

But at the end of the day, what matters is not mechanisms, but practical outcome. And whatever the reason, it works for many! It seems especially popular and effective for hormonal issues and acne, but the preeminent bean spokesperson @uniquehammond cured her severe Crohn’s with it. 

For me, I experienced better digestion and clearer skin, among other benefits (like not having to wear deodorant). On the less-good side, I lost weight I didn't need to lose, had cold hands and feet, and developed some dry patches on my skin. 

(The dry patches [and perhaps weight loss] were probably because I kept fat too low – mostly because their favored fat source, nuts, is a no-go for me.)

I'm continuing to experiment, hoping to find a balance that lets me reclaim the benefits (which I lost after returning to my normal eating pattern) while avoiding the pitfalls. I’ll share any exciting developments, and will eventually dig into the science behind it too. 

For info about what the protocol entails, you can visit alyssaluck.com/the-bean-protocol-for-ibd!
Fighting the Sunday scaries by reading this PDF ab Fighting the Sunday scaries by reading this PDF about the autonomic nervous system. This quote from the introduction to the book highlights a big reason why I'm so fascinated by the ANS these days. Silos abound in medicine (and everywhere else, for that matter), and while silo-ing is probably an unavoidable result of the specialization that has allowed us to make such phenomenal advances in technology and knowledge, it's quite limiting when it comes to actually treating patients. 

Anyone who’s ever had an upset stomach from nerves or grief knows that the mind can affect the body, but the precise nature of the border between the two remains fairly elusive. 
 
Some people (including many doctors, unfortunately), when faced with things they can't explain, tend to default to the position that it therefore must not exist, or isn't possible. Personally, I find it exhausting to try to contort reality to fit my existing beliefs – reality always seems to obstinately stay the same. And I think it's way more fun to try to find explanations for such things anyway!

In the case of health, this means taking the real observations and experiences of myself and others at face value, and searching for an explanatory framework into which they fit. From patients with persistent and debilitating symptoms that no doctor can find a physical cause for, to the placebo effect, to the effectiveness of some “alternative” treatments such as acupuncture, to the innumerable "medical miracles" that nobody can explain – it's easy for science to deny or brush these things aside because they don't fit nicely into existing scientific frameworks, but wouldn't it be better to build a new framework into which all these observations can fit?

I guess some people will say that's simply not possible, but only time will tell. Meanwhile, if you need me, I'll be over here hanging out at the ineffable border between mind and body.
Most people equate the sympathetic nervous system Most people equate the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) with “fight or flight,” and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) with “rest and digest.” This conflation can be misleading in two ways: 

1) Leads you to believe that each branch of the autonomic nervous system always activates globally, and that you’re always in either one “mode” or the other.

2) Paints a picture of the SNS and PNS as antagonistic, fighting each other.

I think it also fosters a third, more insidious belief: that sympathetic = bad, and parasympathetic = good. 

It's absolutely true that humans (and other animals) have a "fight or flight" stress response that involves global activation of the SNS, and that the PNS is largely responsible for "rest and digest" activities. It's also true that sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves often have opposite effects...but they are rarely directly antagonistic, and in fact most tissues only receive innervation from one system or the other. 

The best example of a truly antagonistic relationship is at the sinoatrial node of the heart, where sympathetic nerves increase heart rate and parasympathetic nerves decrease it. The fact that the heart has historically been the focus of research into the autonomic nervous system is probably a big reason the notion of antagonism is so powerful. 

Humans love dichotomies, especially when one side can be categorized as "good" and one as "bad," but our physiology doesn't care about moral frameworks. So, I’m sharing a few tidbits here to help break down this dichotomy and paint a slightly more nuanced picture of the autonomic nervous system. 

For my full article covering the basic anatomy and physiology of the autonomic nervous system, plus the references for this post, visit alyssaluck.com/ans101!
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Recent Posts

  • Heart Rate Variability 101: What It Is and How It’s Measured
  • Autonomic Nervous System 101: Anatomy and Physiology
  • Vitamin A Detox Diet for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease
  • Brain Retraining: How to Choose a Program?
  • Dynamic Neural Retraining System: Can DNRS Work for IBD?

Recent Comments

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