A year ago I learned in a Vice article about “mewing,” to retrain one’s tongue posture. Dr. Mew didn’t invent the technique or name it; he became famous for his advocacy, particularly among the “looksmaxing” crowd. I started practicing at that time and have noticed changes that made good on the promises: I stopped snoring (mostly) and have stronger jaw muscles.

These are changes I made in my 40s. Imagine if I had worked on this while still developing!

Well, I have some idea, since my stepbrother needed intervention as a child. He had a “short tongue,” which prevented his tongue from even reaching his palate. After minor surgery and orthotics to stretch the palate, his breathing improved and his stutter went away (while the former is causal, the latter is only strongly correlated).

I wonder, from reading this article, how much of our recent chances are purely environmental and how much are changing heritable traits, perhaps through epigenetics.