June 1, 2026
If the eyes are the window to the soul, the mouth is the gateway between you and the world. The mouth has its own ecology. When in balance, microbes and bacteria, many of which are important for health, are an important part of the mouth’s ecosystem. But what of the tongue?
The tongue is needed to taste, swallow masticate food, form words, sleep well and even to breath efficiently. Life is much more enjoyable with good oral care and proper positioning of the tongue.
Illness and disease in various parts of the body can register on the tongue, not to mention that the tongue itself can become inflamed and progress to a diseased state. Along with your toothbrush, dental floss and other implements, tongue scrapers, which come in a variety of shapes, is an important instrument to work into your oral care routine. Gargling with salt water, of course, both morning and night is excellent to keep the tongue and throat in a good state of health. We are familiar with tips for maintaining a healthy mouth ecology, and hence, overall health of the body, for, as the saying goes, ‘disease begins in the mouth’. So, it is important to consult your health practitioner if there is evidence of mouth problems. Prevention and early diagnosis are the keys to maintaining health.
We know much more about oral care than we do tongue posture. I, myself, did not know how important tongue posture was until a physiotherapist figured out that my neck pains and headaches were associated with misplacing my tongue. Why? More about that in a moment.
While the tongue plays a variety of roles as noted above, its positioning in the mouth is often neglected, if not taken for granted. As you are reading these words where is your tongue positioned? Is the tip of your tongue touching your bottom, top front teeth, or is it firmly planted against the roof of your mouth? The latter is the natural posture of the tongue from infancy onward, which is evidenced by infants latching onto their mothers breasts or being soothed by a pacifier. Even children who suck their thumbs, mimicking the feeding mechanism, keep their tongues to the roof of their mouth. This article and this youtube page offer excellent information effects on the body for inefficient and optimal tongue posture, and, physical wellbeing overall.
Tongue posture, it turns out, is as important as spinal posture. Indeed, by not having your tongue planted to the roof of your mouth except when eating or exercising, spinal posture, especially from the base of the neck to the shoulders can be thrown off. As was my case, improper tongue posture can lead to misalignment of the vertebrae, but it can also lead to misaligning teach.
So, aside from the reasons noted above, why should African descent men care about tongue posture? Well do you find yourself clinching your teeth throughout the day, and especially at night? Cracking your teeth, sensitivity, headaches and neck strain can result from teeth clenching. But why should be concerned about this? Surely a mouth guard at night can fix that problem. What if your tongue misalignment may result from stress? Go with here.
We face incredible stress from anti-Black misandry. Aside from hostility, distrust and the presumption we are incompetent, African descent men wear stress on theirs bodies, not to mention their psyches, in ways different from other men. In fact, ‘John Henryism’ is the term given by epidemiologist James A. Sherman in a series of reports as early as 1982. The syndrome is named after the mythic, or not so mythic figure, John Henry, who drove more railway spikes than a steam-driven machine – but at the price of wearing himself out to death.
John Henry is only part way a myth. African descent men men played a crucial role in in Canada and the United States in building railway infrastructure. And, as exquisitely detailed by Cecil Foster in 'They Call Me George', they played an even greater role as porters on passenger trains in Canada and the United States of America from the late 1800s into the early 1960s.
What Sherman discovered is that anti-Black misandry was marked by increased morbidity and mortality resulting from the hypertension that corrodes the bodies, and minds, of African descent men. Without effective coping mechanisms that bring social interaction and individual psycho-somatic therapeutic modalities into play, anti-Black misandry sickens and kills. The hypothesis of ‘weathering’ speaks to the ways how through anti-Black racism African descent people are constantly in the survival mode of fight, flight, freeze or fawn response. Our bodies are literally being worn down.
So, what to do? Healing is in our hands: both physical, psychological and spiritual. Or, in this case, starting with the mouth, it may be in the position of your tongue!