It’s All Connected: Holistic Health and the Hidden Effects of Modern Life
Last updated April 2026
Mouthwash.
This seems to be my litmus test lately for finding my tribe—people who practice holistic health and wellness.
What does mouthwash have to do with overall health?
Exactly.
It’s all connected.
Mouthwash and erectile dysfunction
Conventional mouthwash kills all the bacteria in your mouth indiscriminately—bad breath germs as well as the beneficial microbiome. Some of the good bacteria in our mouths produce nitric oxide.
Dubbed “Molecule of the Year” in 1992 by the prestigious Science journal, one of nitric oxide’s primary purposes is regulating blood vessel dilation. Low levels of this molecule have been implicated in a variety of medical issues from high blood pressure to diabetes to erectile dysfunction.
Mouthwash commercials promise fresh breath to make you attractive—but they neglect to mention the potential tradeoff in vascular health and sexual performance!
Here’s a tip: drink some green juice, eat some parsley or gargle with baking soda and water to freshen your breath without killing your nitric oxide-producing microbiome.
Finding the "tribe" in conventional systems
I was pleasantly surprised to find another member of the tribe—Dr. Pankaj Vij, who started a Lifestyle Medicine program at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California. The holistic approach focuses on reversing diabetes and reducing the risk of heart disease through a whole foods plant-based diet, exercise, and mindfulness practices.
What stood out was not just the philosophy—but the setting. Kaiser is a large medical system where physicians often have 10–15 minutes per patient.
Contrast that with a more typical experience.
A colleague’s tween-aged daughter became mysteriously ill—headaches, fever, nausea, malaise. The pediatrician ran labs and prescribed antibiotics, yet symptoms persisted.
“Didn’t you just move into a new house?” I asked. “Could off-gassing from new carpet, draperies, or bedding be the issue?”
It was.
It’s all connected.
Given the brief window of time the pediatrician had to spend with the patient, the doctor wouldn’t have been able to get a holistic lifestyle history about the child.
In contrast, Dr. Sherry Sami, a holistic pediatric dentist and orthodontist in Southern California, has the freedom in her private practice to conduct a comprehensive intake—over 100 medical, dental, and lifestyle questions.
The result is a far more complete picture of patient health.
Holistic health is broader than the mind-body connection
Most people are on board now with regards to the mind-body connection. We know that stress affects the body and that many chronic diseases are related to lifestyle factors such as stress, diet, and exercise.
But the “mouthwash connection?” That’s still a stretch for many.
The gut microbiome was just a blip on the scientific radar 20 years ago. It gained momentum after the Human Microbiome Project launched in 2007, entering mainstream awareness around 2010.
It makes sense that the microbiome would be connected to the gastrointestinal system, but it’s less intuitive to think that the microbes in your gut could affect your emotions, mood, and immunity, and be linked to diabetes, allergies, obesity, autism, and other medical issues.
Likewise, it’s hard to imagine that mouthwash could affect your blood pressure, erections, and risk of developing diabetes.
It’s all connected.
Immune system development begins at birth
We're not machines that can be compartmentalized. We are holistic beings.
This begins at birth.
Cesarean sections (c-sections) have evolved from occasional life-saving interventions into common elective procedures of convenience that can accommodate scheduling preferences, increase hospital revenues, and reflect aesthetic preferences related to maintaining a tight, youthful body after childbirth.
At first glance, the outcome appears identical—a baby.
But research in recent years shows that babies delivered by c-section bypass the big dose of immunity-boosting bacteria in the birth canal. As a result, they are at greater risk of developing immune diseases such as allergies, asthma, and type I diabetes.
Similarly, formula-fed babies miss out on the immunity-building properties of breast milk.
Baby formula may appear nutritionally complete on paper. But isolated nutrients in processed foods cannot replicate the synergistic complexity of whole foods—such as the microbiological richness of breast milk.
Gluten sensitivity—or something else?
Another consequence of reductionist thinking is seen in modern agriculture.
Genetically modified wheat is engineered to withstand glyphosate, the main active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. This allows farmers to spray fields extensively, killing competing plants while leaving the crop intact.
Efficient, yes.
But not without consequence.
Exposure to glyphosate has been associated with cancer and other health issues.
Glyphosate works by disrupting the shikimate pathway—a biological pathway found in plants and many bacteria, including those in the human gut—which raises questions about its potential impact on the microbiome.
More recent research suggests that so-called “inert” ingredients, or their interaction with glyphosate, may significantly increase its toxicity.
Some individuals who believe they are gluten intolerant may, in fact, be reacting to chemical exposure rather than the wheat itself.
In addition to herbicide exposure, modern wheat has also been shaped by selective breeding and genetic modification for higher yields and baking performance—often resulting in higher concentrations of gluten than traditional varieties.
It’s all connected.
Industrial agriculture and its ripple effects
Industrial agriculture expanded after WWII, when chemical technologies originally developed for warfare were repurposed for use in fertilizers and pesticides.
The goal was to feed a growing global population.
But short-term efficiency has obscured long-term consequences:
• nutrient-depleted soil
• polluted water systems
• loss of biodiversity
• antibiotic resistance
• processed food that disrupts the human microbiome and contributes to chronic illness
Global food scarcity is not the primary problem—it’s distribution and access. Meanwhile, surplus monocrops like corn and soy have been repurposed into processed foods through engineered food science and aggressive marketing.
Factory farming and human health
In industrial CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), cows are fed grains, which their stomachs aren’t made to digest, no matter if the grains are organic or not. Cows’ stomachs are designed for eating grass.
Even more concerning, the FDA allows factory farms to supplement cattle feed with chicken manure, pig or horse parts, and even cow parts that are not infected with mad cow disease.
This leads to chronically unhealthy livestock needing routine antibiotics—which then contributes to antibiotic resistance when humans need antibiotics.
It’s all connected.
Contrast this with regenerative farming models like those of Joel Salatin’s Polyface farm, A self-described “land healer,” Salatin gained national recognition after being featured in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and the movie Food, Inc.
In Polyface’s biodiverse ecosystem, the herbivore cows eat their natural diet of grass and are moved to new pasture daily so the grass gets a rest and can continue to grow. The egg-laying hens follow the cows in the pasture rotation to eat bugs and scratch through the cow dung for maggots.
In the winter, the cows are fed hay in a shed, where they lounge on a bed of wood chips, sawdust, and hay to absorb their excrement. After the cows are done, corn is added to the fermenting compost and the pigs are brought in to root around for corn, aerating the compost in the process, creating a rich, natural fertilizer.
In Salatin’s self-contained ecosystem, he doesn’t have to pay for or burn fossil fuels in transporting cattle feed, fertilizers, soil conditioners, antibiotics, or cow manure disposal.
The parallel: soil health and human health
Industrialized agriculture depletes nutrients in the soil, disrupts the soil microbiome, and temporarily adds nutrients back in the form of chemical fertilizers—and with the plants’ immunity weakened, requires chemical pesticides.
Processed food does the same within the human body:
- depletes nutrients
- disrupts gut microbiota
- weakens immune resilience
Chronic illnesses follow, for which pharmaceuticals are prescribed to manage symptoms rather than address root causes.
It's not incidental that some multinational conglomerates maintain a cradle-to-grave portfolio spanning industrialized agriculture, processed food, and pharmaceuticals.
It’s all connected
The next time you’re presented with a choice that seems innocuous—or even beneficial—remember that it’s all connected.
Mouthwash to kill bad breath germs?
Organic baby formula?
Cheap processed or factory-farmed food?
Each decision leads to its own web of consequences.
It’s all connected.
Most of these connections aren’t obvious when you look at them in isolation.
They start to make more sense when you step back and see the whole system.
If you’d like to explore how lifestyle patterns contribute to chronic disease, you can read more about how I work with people.
Editorial Note
Originally published in Vol. 7 of the now-defunct holistic health and wellness journal MegaZEN, which was run by Dr. Sherry Sami and Dr. Habib Sadeghi.
This article was written prior to some of the more recent findings on Roundup’s toxicity, including the role of so-called “inert” ingredients. I came across this while researching Nature's Palette.
Update: On June 24, 2020, Monsanto's parent company, Bayer, announced it would pay up to $10.9 billion to settle approximately 125,000 Roundup-related cases.