Healthy not highly medicated

The Survival Rule of 3B: Breathing first, balancing the eyes with the horizon, and keeping the brain over the center of gravity.

I wrote this article four years ago, and while my knowledge has evolved tremendously since then, the application of the principles I shared remains unchanged.

It’s both humbling and an honor to see other practitioners recognizing and applying these same principles. Sometimes, the simplest concepts are the ones that stand the test of time. 💡

I’ve probably made a dozen posts about expansion and its potential role in improving breathing, but this point deserves to be stated clearly:

Opening the palatal suture is not synonymous with improving breathing.

There is far more to respiratory function than simply creating skeletal expansion. Airway dimensions, nasal resistance, soft-tissue anatomy, neuromuscular function, and the overall physiology of breathing all matter.

Surgically opening a suture may produce skeletal change—but skeletal change alone does not guarantee a meaningful improvement in physiological respiratory function.

The real question should never be, “Can we expand?”
It should be: “What is actually limiting this patient’s breathing, and will this intervention meaningfully address it?”

That distinction matters.

Expansion can be a valuable tool when appropriately indicated, but it should not be presented as a universal solution for breathing problems.

I hope this post answers some of the questions you may have—and perhaps challenges a few assumptions along the way.

What do you think?

What if improving the shape of the palate wasn’t just about creating more space—but about improving breathing without disrupting the structures that support and coordinate the rest of the body?

The palate is closely connected to important neurological and sensory structures, including the eyes, ears, and the systems involved in balance, coordination, gait, and posture.

The way we breathe—and the way sensory information is integrated through the nervous system—can influence compensatory patterns throughout the body. That’s why I believe how we create change matters just as much as the change itself.

One of the concerns I have with surgical palatal expansion is the mobilization of the paramaxillary sutures, which are connected within a complex cranial system that interacts with other sensory structures.

For me, the goal is to use a gentler, more physiological approach: improve breathing while respecting the body’s natural architecture and minimizing unnecessary disruption to the rest of the cranium.

Different strokes for different folks. There isn’t one approach that works for everyone.

What do you think? Would you choose a gentler approach when possible? 👇

Did you know the shape of your body has a lot to do with how you function
Let me explain…

Your posture isn’t random. It’s an accumulation of how your nervous system organizes your body—how you position your bones, control your muscles, and manage movement against gravity.

And one of the most important things your body has to organize is breathing.

Your brain is constantly receiving sensory information from your environment and, importantly, from your own body. A huge amount of that sensory information comes from the face, eyes, jaw, inner ear, and other areas involved in orientation and balance.

Your nervous system uses all of this information to figure out:

→ How to stand
→ How to walk
→ How to breathe
→ How to move
→ How to distribute your body mass

Left to right.
Top to bottom.
Front to back.

In a nutshell, that organization is reflected in the shape of your body.

So if you want to change the way your body looks and functions, it’s not always about “correcting” posture or forcing your body into a certain position.

It’s about creating better function so your body can occupy space with more symmetry, proportion, and stability.

And when your body feels more stable and organized, your nervous system can experience a greater sense of regulation and safety.

You can even see this reflected in your breathing.

Better breathing → better regulation.

Your body shape is not just how you look.

It’s a reflection of how your system is organizing itself to interact with the world.

What do you think? 👇
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

What if I told you that the position of your upper cervical spine can be closely connected to your jaw, your bite, your tongue, and even the way you swallow and breathe? 👀
Let me share the story of a patient who struggled with symptoms involving the muscles of swallowing, his airway, tongue, and neck.

He had tried adjustments before—but nothing seemed to truly resolve the problem.

The missing piece wasn’t simply another adjustment.

We had to create harmony between his dental occlusion (the way his teeth come together) and the relationship between the Atlas (C1) and the Occiput.

And this is where the body gets fascinating. 🧠

The body isn’t just a collection of separate structures. Everything is interconnected through structure, function, sensory input, and the way the brain perceives and organizes it all.

Sometimes, finding the solution means looking beyond the obvious—and understanding how all the pieces communicate with each other.

That’s the beauty of seeing the body as a whole. 🔄

Posture NeuroMusculoskeletal WholeBodyHealth FunctionalHealth HumanBody Chiropractic BodyConnection

✨ Another beautiful story. Another beautiful soul. ✨
After two months of phase, one diagnostic therapy therapy, her experience reminds us of something so important: everyone’s body has a different story.

For her, the journey involved chronic pain and tightness through the facial structures, rib cage mechanics, and the relationship between the mouth and cervical spine. By addressing the body through one simple approach—proper positioning and understanding the demands placed on the system—we began to see meaningful changes, including improved sleep.

Because sleep isn’t isolated. When the brain and nervous system begin to calm, the entire body can respond. Breathing, sleep, movement, and other downstream functions are often reflections of what’s happening within the system.

When we stop focusing only on the pathology and start looking at the whole person, we can begin to understand the compensation patterns that may have contributed to it.

Every person has a different story. Every body compensates differently. And every journey deserves to be understood. ❤️

I hope you enjoy listening to her story as much as I did.

Another beautiful soul who found a path toward solutions.
Grateful to be part of the journey. 🙏✨

ChronicPain MovementHealth BodyAwareness HealingJourney PatientExperience

🚨 **What if the problem isn’t the therapy… but the ORDER you’re doing it in?**

Even something that seems completely harmless—like myofunctional therapy or the trendy **“mewing”**—can potentially reinforce compensation when it’s layered onto a system that isn’t ready for it.

Over the last six years, one of the biggest things I’ve observed is this:

**You can’t train one piece of the system while ignoring the organization of the system around it.**

If the cranial structures, jaw, airway, posture, sensory system, and nervous system aren’t working together, simply “training the tongue” may mean asking an already compensating system to compensate even harder.

And that’s exactly what I’m demonstrating in real time here. 👀

**Asymmetry matters.**
Because if the system is still adapting around a distortion, adding more input without addressing the underlying organization may reinforce the very pattern we’re trying to change—and potentially reduce the system’s adaptive capacity.

The question isn’t simply:

**“Does this therapy work?”**

The better question is:

**“Is this the right input, for this person, at this time, in this order?”**

That’s where the conversation gets REALLY interesting. 🧠👅

What are your thoughts? **Have you seen therapy help—or unintentionally reinforce—a compensation when the sequence wasn’t right?**

WHEN POSTURE, MOVEMENT AND DENTISTRY COLLIDE 🦷🧠🎬

Dr. Bahar Esmaili, DDS Dr. Bahar Esmaili shares how her background in movement and dentistry led her to look beyond the teeth and jaw alone.

In this clip, she discusses patterns she has observed involving posture, head position, the pelvis, the feet, jaw tension and the way the bite comes together.

Those observations encouraged her to broaden the way she evaluates patients and consider how different parts of the body may relate to the concerns they bring into the dental chair.

Her comments reflect her individual clinical perspective. Jaw discomfort, clenching, posture and bite-related concerns can have many possible causes and should be evaluated individually by qualified dental or healthcare professionals.

Dr. Bahar Esmaili is featured in the upcoming Bye Ol’ Dentistry documentary series Byeoldentistry

Biological Dentistry, brought to you by Zanzi Zanzi Ai. Ask her anything.

Produced by Lolli Brands Entertainment , led by Anthony Lolli and TereZa Hakobyan-Lolli



Educational content only. Not medical or dental advice.

What if the key to improving foot posture, sleep, and breathing starts in the mouth? 🦷🧠🦶
This patient spent over a decade searching for answers, seeing multiple doctors across dental and medical specialties. Yet no one took the time to ask the bigger questions or look at her health as a connected system.
Instead of focusing on isolated symptoms, we began looking at the sensory information her brain was receiving and how the mouth, jaw, eyes, posture, breathing, and nervous system work together.
Within just a few weeks, she achieved more progress than she ever imagined possible after decades of searching.
This is what happens when we stop treating the body as disconnected parts and start understanding the whole person.
The mouth is not just about teeth. It is part of a complex sensory system that influences how the brain organizes movement, stability, and function.
True healthcare begins when we stop asking, “What symptom can we treat?” and start asking, “Why is the body responding this way?”
This is the future of healthcare I believe in. Not chasing symptoms. Not treating isolated body parts. Understanding the person as a whole. ❤️

TMJ NervousSystem WholeBodyHealth FunctionalDentistry TrueHealthcare