Happy Wednesday {{first name | my friend}},
We spend a couple of minutes a day brushing our teeth and almost no time on the rest of the mouth, which is strange when you consider that it's an entire ecosystem, and also the entry point of your airway. I've picked up five habits over the years that hardly anyone uses. They're all in the Deep Dive.
Wednesday Wisdom
September 23rd, 2026
🐿️ CREATURE FEATURE 🐿️
Credit: Vulture Conservation Foundation
Bearded Vulture
The only bird on earth who lives mostly on bone. Eating actual skeleton is about 85 to 90 percent of the diet. Their stomach acid is so strong it can dissolve bones within a day. If a bone is too big to swallow, they carry it high and drop it onto rocks until it cracks. Every 100 grams of bone gives them about the same energy they'd get from that weight of meat.
They start as grey and white, but bathe in iron-rich mud and springs until the feathers stain a rust color. Nobody is sure why - one theory is that the compounds act as a disinfectant in sunlight. People hunted them out of the Alps completely on the belief that they carried off lambs and babies, and the last Alpine bird was killed in Italy's Aosta Valley in 1913. A reintroduction program brought them back, and there are more than sixty breeding pairs up there now, dropping bones onto the very same mountains.
WORD OF THE WEEK
Aposiopesis: A deliberate breaking off mid-thought, as if the feeling is too big to finish the sentence.
🌅 Before the World Takes Over
We've all had mornings where we check the inbox too soon. Today's headlines, and our phone notifications. It’s surprisingly easy to hand your morning over to everyone else before you’ve even decided what you want from the day.
But it's important for our nervous system to keep space for ourselves. That could be as simple as just the time it takes to make something warm and actually enjoy it...being present.
Pique’s Nandaka has become one of my favorite ways to start the morning. It’s a rich ceremonial-grade cacao drink with organic functional mushrooms and fermented Pu’er tea for a smooth lift.
There’s something about slowing down with ingredients this well sourced that helps me feel more intentional. I notice a sharper focus and that feeling of my willpower coming “online.”
What makes this blend stand out:
Ceremonial-grade cacao with naturally high cacao butter content for a rich, satisfying sip.
Functional mushrooms, including both extracts and fruiting body powders: lion’s mane, cordyceps, chaga, and a reishi-forward blend with reishi spore powder.
Fermented Pu’er black tea that brings a gentle caffeine lift to the cacao and mushroom blend.
Ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and other warming spices round it out. Let this be a distraction from your phone. Social media and emails can come later.
🍎 NUTRITION 101 🍎
TUDCA (TAUROURSODEOXYCHOLIC ACID): A bile acid that supports liver detox, gallbladder function, and mitochondrial health. It’s gaining popularity in metabolic and neuroprotective protocols.
🌏 DEEP DIVE 🌏
Five Oral Health Habits Almost Nobody Uses
A lot of people now have narrower palates and smaller airways than our great-grandparents had. There is no one answer that experts agree on as the cause.
Some blame a century of orthodontics that pulled teeth to fix crowding. Others point at our food choices, since a jaw is bone, and bone builds in response to load. So our ancestors spent hours a day working through tough roots, raw vegetables, dried meat and gristle. Whereas many of us now eat things that almost dissolve in the mouth.
Either way, your mouth is an ecosystem, and it's the start of your airway. Very few oral care products respect the ecosystem or the airway aspect of the mouth.
But here are five habits that most people haven't tried:
Tongue scraping. Most of the bacteria behind morning breath live on the back of your tongue, not on your teeth. A scraper clears them better than a toothbrush does. You’ll be shocked what comes off the first time you do this.
Non-PFAS floss. Dentists tell us how important flossing is, but the coating that makes most floss glide is a Teflon-style chemical. Find a brand made without it.
Oil pulling. Swishing a spoonful of coconut oil for ten to fifteen minutes appears to help gum health. It's an addition to brushing and flossing, not a replacement.
Nasal dilators. If your nose closes up at night (or useful during exercise) you may find dilators that go inside the nostril having better effect than external strips. Though both can offer support that make you take the fullest breath you have in a while.
Mouth taping. Not as much science behind it…yet. But this focuses your sleeping breath as nasal breathing, which has significant benefit. *Only consider it if your nose is clearly open, not congested or the possibility of sleep apnea.
I go through all five inside the community this week: the brands I use, how to work up to nasal breathing safely, and two tips I once liked that I’ve now stopped doing.
To a healing future,
— Rob