HOW CAN WE CREATE A BALANCED LIFE?
Dr. Jessica Lederhausen, founder of the Lagom Method ™, a lifestyle and coaching platform, and author of ORAL: The Swedish-inspired Secret to Full Body Health Starting in Your Mouth.
Video transcription:
Liz Lundry, RDH - Hello. Welcome to the StellaLife Innovator series. I'm Liz Lundry, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Jessica Lederhausen. Dr. Lederhausen is a dentist, a public health advocate, a lifestyle coach, as well as a speaker and the author of the book, Oral: The Swedish Secret to Full Body Health Starting in Your Mouth. She believes that small changes in how we eat, sleep, breathe, and move can improve our oral and overall health. Dr. Lederhausen's Guide for Balanced Living is based on these four pillars of sustainable health and is known as the Lagam method. Welcome, Dr. Lederhausen. Thank you for joining me today.
Dr. Jessica Lederhausen - Well, hi, and thank you for having me. This is very exciting.
Liz Lundry, RDH - I am excited. I want to learn more about your method. I'd like you to tell us about that. Tell us about your mission and what has shaped your journey.
Dr. Jessica Lederhausen - I'm from Sweden, where I became a dentist after a short career as a professional golfer, which shaped me a lot. When you said what shaped... You ended up asking the question, which shaped me, I thought, That really shaped me. I want to mention that. I brought some resources in mobile dental care, where I looked at barriers to health, which led me to my Master's in Public Health Epidemiology. I landed in coaching because I thought I've been through... I lived a longer life than, and I had so much experience with different things, and I thought, put it all together would be neat, which took me a while. I got distracted with running and founded TEDx Chicago, which was fantastic. I let a large group of people, we put up these events with Ted speakers, come to us and we found the speakers and we coached the speakers. I got very inspired by their diving deep in something they I heard about, which made me think more and more, what do I really want with this coaching, which led me to my book because I was talking around three of the four pillars I have in the book with my coaching.
And then I realized one day, it all starts in the mouth. And here I am, a dentist. Why don't I see that? Because all these other things affect your mouth and then also your overall health. So that was how I came to where I am today, I would say, in a short version of it.
Liz Lundry, RDH - Well, that's quite a journey. You have such a broad perspective and so much experience on many levels with health and with your coaching. I'm sure you're also dealing with people's emotions and other things which are also related to those pillars, with nutrition and rest and everything else. Through this, what is your perspective on that oral connection to the overall health, the oral health and the overall health connection?
Dr. Jessica Lederhausen - Well, yeah. As always, I think about things, I guess. Then I think we are disconnected in a few ways. We are disconnected between medicine and dentistry. We are disconnected between the patient and the doctor. I think the worst thing is that we're disconnecting the head from the body. I mean, we are. We think we can do anything with your mouth, and it's as if they're parts of a car or something. That's the underlining view I have on the mission I'm on, which is, I guess, to communicate with doctors and with patients. I talk to both sides or both groups in different ways, but I try to... The thing I really landed in is I hope that we can Bring in all the new information we have with the microbiome that we are... This is new information that we just learned the last 10, 12, 15 years. Yeah, it takes time. I know that. But then you have patients who come to dentists and they read something about something called oral microbiome. If I had a clinic today, which I don't, I would be embarrassed if my group would not have an answer to the question.
I'm not sure we all have an answer, or the group have their answer, at least, how they work with this and incorporate what we're talking about. That's one way I'd really like to be out and speaking, which I'm just kicking off. And otherwise, I like to empower people to ask the right questions at the dentist office. I better hurry up training the dentist, I guess. So they have the answers. Or no one might have an answer, but at least understand the question.
Liz Lundry, RDH - I so agree with you on this compartmentalization of this here, and it's like separate entities. In the American healthcare system, there's been ongoing now conversations and criticism of how they're all these specialists, and they don't communicate with each other, and patients are taking multiple medications that one doctor is not We're aware of. In industry, it's again, where all the mouth is part of the rest of the body, and the people are having other health issues, we see that reflected in their mouth as dentists and hygienists and clinicians all the time. Really recognizing that and keeping that in mind as we come up with our treatment plan. Your approach with this balance of all of these things that we do every day, so they are balanced, is incredibly important. What would you say is the most important lesson that you've learned along the way?
Dr. Jessica Lederhausen - .Well, the biggest lesson I've learned is that you can have it all, meaning But you have to decide what your all is because there's so much noise around us, what you should be or what you should do when it comes to careers, health, level of exercise or no exercise. Some people then say, I can only do this, I can't do that. But I think it's been a debate for years going on with Anne-Marie Slawder and her husband had articles out in regards of this. I think it's a worthwhile thought to even bring to your health. I think you can have all, but you have to decide what your all is.
Yeah. It's very individualized, right? Just as our treatment planning should be in dentistry, so when you're talking about the oral microbiome, it's this emerging field. Now we're having ways of testing what bacteria are present in the patient's mouth. We have so much technology, but how to integrate that and present to the patient, I think that's the challenge because we're all on a learning, having a learning experience right now as the technology and the research evolves. So a still life, absolutely. We do have this respect for the oral microbiome as we're learning how really important these bacteria are. Then again, with people's health plans, everybody's an individual. It has different-Yeah, but my answer was maybe more a whole life answer, but I think it's the same for, obviously, every part of your life.
Liz Lundry, RDH - Yeah. It's very individualized, right? Just as our treatment planning should be in dentistry, so when you're talking about the oral microbiome, it's this emerging field. Now we're having ways of testing what bacteria are present in the patient's mouth. We have so much technology, but how to integrate that and present to the patient, I think that's the challenge because we're all on a learning, having a learning experience right now as the technology and the research evolves. So a still life, absolutely. We do have this respect for the oral microbiome as we're learning how really important these bacteria are. Then again, with people's health plans, everybody's an individual. It has different-Yeah, but my answer was maybe more a whole life answer, but I think it's the same for, obviously, every part of your life.
Dr. Jessica Lederhausen - It's easy. It might take it some time.People like us can get impatient because we want to see some rapid progress there because of our awareness. But yes, that's why we're trying to educate each other and learn on our own as we carry on.Another thing I'm thinking of is that we like to compartmentalize. So either you're integrated or you're functional or you're whatever. I hope we can all agree on integrating everything depending on the patient needs more. So we are not so focused on saying that the way I do it is the best way or it's the right way. I think that is happening, but it's, again, a little slow.
Liz Lundry, RDH - Yeah. Part of that, too, I think is so important to actually listen to the patient and give them a chance to talk so you can find out more about their lives because we tend to do all the talking. This is what you need to do. This is what you've got. But we can be more helpful to them if we can, again, make it more individualized based on their specific needs of their lives. Do you have three tips that you can share with us that we can do so we can improve our own health?
Dr. Jessica Lederhausen - Yeah, let's do one for each pillar. My pillars are breathing. My best tip is to try nose-mouth taping to see if you are a nose breeder or not, because most people are mouth readers, but most people think they're nose readers. Try it. If you're uncomfortable, it means you need to practice your nose breathing by using tape, for example. For my sleep pillar, the best tip is to take it seriously and actually go to bed. Remember, the circadian rhythm is you can't control that. So if you need to sleep, we all need to sleep. When it comes to eating, I think the quickest tip would be to stop snacking. I think that would be it. Most people would benefit from that idea. I don't say what to eat when... I mean, stop snacking. Don't eat after dinner. But that's two things, but similar. Then moving, my best tip there is to say, I would say, is whatever makes you happy that is a movement, please do it. Make sure you do it.
Liz Lundry, RDH - Yeah, that's beautiful. I think we can definitely easily apply those, do whatever type of movement you like, whether it's taking a walk outside or whatever your routine is, but then being consistent with it. You're always feeling good. I think it's about feeling good. So thank you so much for sharing your perspective. And I'm eager to see the book, and I want to make sure our listeners can have that. We're going to have links available so that you can check that out. Thank you so much. And please continue your work. And I'm really looking forward to hearing about what you do and your ongoing contributions so that all of us can help others so we can have a healthy society overall. Thank you, Dr. Lederhausen. I really appreciate.
Dr. Jessica Lederhausen - Fantastic. And thank you so much. It was lovely meeting you.
Liz Lundry, RDH - You're very welcome. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. And looking forward to seeing you next time on our next Innovator series. Please live in balance and stay well. Thank you all so much.