Every disease in adulthood can trace its roots back to childhood health, habits, and events.\u00a0 Poor childhood health has been shown to increase lung and cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, obesity and increases the number of deaths from these and other diseases.<\/p>\n
There are many simple things parents can do to set their children up on a healthy path and support the development of the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems, which are the keys to childhood health and setting the stage for good health into adulthood.<\/p>\n
Lots of tender, loving touch<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Children are particularly susceptible to stress because so much of their lives is dependent on others.\u00a0 Children often can\u2019t verbalize feelings of stress but over-stressed children have greater trouble with obesity, infections, conduct disorders, mood disorders, and socialization.\u00a0 Loving touch substantially reduces stress in children and skin-to-skin contact improves immune functioning.\u00a0 Children who have a stable family life, are cuddled a lot, and are told often that they are loved will grow into adults with less stress and better stress management skills.<\/p>\n Routine<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Children thrive on routine.\u00a0 Our bodies have many internal rhythms, from our obvious heartbeat to our subtle hormone releases and sleep-wake cycle.\u00a0 All of our hormones are released in cycles, and the endocrine system is one of the primary systems developing during childhood.\u00a0 Having routine in the way we live our lives helps those internal cycles function more optimally, and children need routine to help these internal rhythms get established from the very start.\u00a0 Routine also helps children identify boundaries and to get a sense of how they fit into the world and day around them.<\/p>\n Routine is exceptionally important when it comes to sleep.\u00a0 Children with less sleep don\u2019t function at the same level as children who get enough sleep on a regular basis.\u00a0 Sleep-deprived children will have greater difficulty with focus, controlling emotions, and irritability, will have a lower threshold for frustration, and be more prone to injuries.\u00a0 Sleep-deprivation can also set children up for respiratory disorders, cardiac disorders, and obesity in adulthood due to the behaviors learned.\u00a0 Parents can also lose up to 200 hours of sleep per year due to their children\u2019s sleep habits!<\/p>\n Children need different amounts of sleep at different ages. Infants need a minimum of 14 hours per night, and children 12 to 36 months old need 12 to 14 hours per night.\u00a0 Preschoolers need only slightly less (11 to13 hours per night) and children up to 11 years old need at least 9 hours per night.<\/p>\n Probiotics<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Having the correct types and balance of good intestinal bacteria helps reduce the incidence of respiratory and food allergies, helps keep the immune system functioning in a non-allergic\/non-inflammatory mode, reduces inflammation in the gastro-intestinal system, improves digestion, and provides protection against colon cancer later in life.\u00a0 Breast feeding gets the proper balance started, but it needs to be supported through childhood with supplementation of beneficial bacteria.\u00a0 This is especially important if babies were not breast-fed.<\/p>\n Essential Fatty Acids<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Essential fatty acids (EFAs) reduce the incidence of allergies, help keep the immune system functioning in a non-allergic\/non-inflammatory mode, reduces development of auto-immune diseases, reduces colic, improves learning, supports healthy nerve and brain development, and reduces anxiety and depression.\u00a0 EFAs are found in particularly high amounts in fish, nuts, and seeds, and the EFAs in fish oil are particularly good for a child\u2019s developing brain.<\/p>\n Bioavailable Magnesium<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Magnesium plays an essential role in a wide range of activities in the body.\u00a0 It is required for the integrity of bones and teeth, regulates the absorption of calcium, regulates the contraction of all muscles (including the heart), is used in the stomach to produce the acid required to digest protein and absorb minerals, and is involved in at least 300 different enzyme reactions.<\/p>\n Most people are magnesium deficient, and high levels of calcium can block magnesium absorption.\u00a0 Magnesium also works only when it actually gets into the cell, so using a source of magnesium that the cells can absorb and hold is essential.\u00a0 Magnesium is in the center of the chlorophyll molecule in plants, so green vegetables are one of the best food sources for magnesium.<\/p>\n B Vitamins<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n B vitamins are used as cofactors for many enzyme reactions in the body, and function in many processes, including blood sugar regulation, lipid metabolism, neurotransmitter synthesis and nervous system functioning, building DNA and blood cells, immune system functioning, hormone regulation, amino acid\/protein metabolism, and antioxidant effects.\u00a0 Food sources of B vitamins include seeds, legumes, meat, eggs, many dark green vegetables, yeast, many whole grains.\u00a0 Supplementation is best done as a B-complex to ensure the correct balance among all the individual B vitamins.<\/p>\n Blue-Green Algae<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Blue-green algae has the highest concentration of easily absorbable protein of any food source, are high in bioavailable magnesium, and provide all the elements necessary for life, especially minerals, at doses close to physiological levels.\u00a0 Algae are also what fish eat to produce the EFAs found in fish oil.<\/p>\n (based on the ideas of Dr. Dickson Thom,DDS,ND)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every disease in adulthood can trace its roots back to childhood health, habits, and events.\u00a0 Poor childhood health has been shown to increase lung and…<\/p>\n