Does stretching necessarily work? Tim Caulfield discusses popular trends that may be in your morning routine

Teeth whitening and stretching are talked about as part of a thoughtful start to your day, but does science back that up? Tim Caulfield from the UofA explains.

People may be including stretching and teeth whitening in their morning routines. But does science back these people trends up? Tim Caulfield, the Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta joined CTV Morning Live Edmonton to break them down.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Kent Morrison: We’ve got whitening toothpaste, charcoal, purple lights, strips, professional grade, all kinds of ways to whiten your teeth. Do these work?

Tim Caulfield: There are many that actually do work. Some of these over the counter products actually work. What you want to do is look for the ones that are approved by professional organizations. The results may not be as dramatic as you’re hoping, and if you overuse these products, you can do damage to your gums and get teeth irritation. If you really overuse it, you can even do damage to your enamel. There are other products, like the activated charcoal and the natural ones, that don’t work. This is one of those things that I think, go talk to your health care professional, talk to your dentist, get advice. The clinic usually works better. One of the things that I’m fascinated with is, why do people care? This is one of those great examples of a cosmetic procedure. It creates insecurity in people: “Your teeth are yellow!” Then they sell a product to solve that problem and address your insecurity. Our teeth get darker as we age and maybe we should really just embrace that.

Kent: I think almost everybody in their New Year’s resolutions said, “I’ve got to stretch more so I feel better,” but science doesn’t necessarily back up stretching for all that it’s cracked up to be.

Tim: That’s right. This is a topic that I have been obsessed with for decades because it’s one of those areas where there’s this assumption that it works and it’s effective. The reality is, the evidence has never really supported it. We’ll look from a fitness and health perspective – If you’re an Olympic gymnast, if you’re a goalie, you have to have a range of motion. That’s different from all of us stretching for health purposes. Very recently, there was an expert study where experts reviewed the literature on stretching and it found it doesn’t benefit injury prevention, it doesn’t benefit things like posture. It’s not an efficient post-exercise routine. It doesn’t even benefit performance. In fact, there’s some other evidence that shows, in some circumstances, that it might hurt performance. Yes, it can help with range of motion if that’s something that is important to you, and I think as you get older, that is something that can be important. But there’s ways to do that better, like full-body weight lifting, squats, deadlifts, those kinds of things that put your body through a range of motion, are just as efficient from a range of motion perspective. The other big thing is, is this the best way to spend your fitness time? When we all are stretched for time, maybe focus on things that are going to get you a bigger bang for your buck. But if you enjoy stretching, no judgment. Knock yourself out.

Kent: Sometimes you go through a stretching routine and you feel really good afterwards, does that feeling come from the exercise benefits rather than the stretching itself?

Tim: I think this is one of the reasons why the myths around stretching just don’t die. Intuitively, it seems like it should work and it feels like it’s doing something, right? There’s also all of these activities that are closely linked to stretching, like pilates and yoga, etc. It’s really become part of the fitness culture. You see professional athletes do it all the time. You go to an NFL football game, there’s like a billion dollars worth of athletes on the field and they’re doing static stretching, even though there’s no evidence to support it at all, especially in that context. There’s lots of reasons why these myths live on. If you enjoy it, do it, but the evidence tells us it may not be as beneficial as you might think.