Today’s children are sicker than ever. Clearly, medications alone aren’t enough to address children’s chronic health conditions. Instead, many parents, like Dr. Saeed have found that their children improve by following her holistic Rx:
- Restoring digestive health
- Nourishing the body
- Detoxifying the body
- Reducing stress
- Getting quality sleep
- Building social support
- Cultivating spirituality
This customized, bioindividual prescription can help balance a child from the inside out.
Inflammation as a Root Cause
This book builds on Dr. Saeed’s first and bestselling book, The Holistic Rx: Your Guide to Healing Chronic Inflammation and Disease, which showed that inflammation is a major root cause in many chronic health conditions. This current book shows how imbalanced and stressful lives lead to inflammation and result in dysfunctional brains and bodies.
To illustrate the importance of inflammation, Dr. Saeed writes:
When a child goes to the doctor, let’s say for a headache, the doctor prescribes an anti-inflammatory. What about for eczema? An anti-inflammatory. For pain? An anti-inflammatory. Allergies? An anti-inflammatory. Autoimmune condition like juvenile arthritis? An anti-inflammatory. Cancer? Anti-inflammatory. Get the picture?
She discusses how chronic inflammation hijacks your child’s brain, which is why behavior and inflammation are intimately connected. In addition, she explains how chronic inflammation damages healthy tissues, cells, organs, DNA and mitochondria, so it truly is a root cause of so many chronic health conditions.
Dr. Saeed writes about factors leading to chronic inflammation such as:
- Lack of sleep
- Lack of real social connections
- Negative spiritual health
But she doesn’t just point out what’s causing so much inflammation and health problems, she offers sound and practical advice for addressing these factors that any busy parent can appreciate.
Digestive Health and Detoxification
Dr. Saeed points out that fixing your child’s brain actually starts in in the gut. “Taking out the bad stuff and adding in the good stuff”, that is, adding in foods that will help the body detoxify and removing inflammatory or toxin-containing foods can help lower overall inflammation, so that the child can optimize his brain and body function. Addressing root causes of chronic health conditions begins with changing the diet, which Dr. Saeed notes that she was taught very little about in medical school.
Optimizing the Immune System with the Four S’s
Dr. Saeed’s holistic Rx includes what she calls the four S’s: Stress management, sleep, social health and spiritual health. If any of these are out of balance, chronic inflammation can result. Fortunately, addressing them is not rocket science!
Stress Management
Managing stress is essential in any healing and disease-prevention program because thoughts, feelings, and emotions directly affect children’s physical health. By lowering stress with diet and lifestyle changes as well as certain therapies, inflammation is lowered as is the severity of health conditions.
Sleep
A good night’s sleep is crucial for healing because the body restores itself and essential processes take place during sleep. Dr. Saeed writes that:
This lack of sleep increases the chances of developing problems due to excess toxins, inflammation, and hormone imbalances; influences bad decision making; and contributes to negative emotions and even addictive behaviors.
Social Health
Social health is often overlooked in a fast-paced, online society, but a lack of it can cause extress stress (and thus inflammation). Dr. Saeed points out that:
Developing bonds of love, respect, and honor and being involved in a child’s life can help activate a sensory nerve in the child’s brain that releases oxytocin and natural opioids, which decrease stress response systems and provide the child with feelings of well-being and help the brain develop.
Spiritual Health
It is refreshing to see spiritual health addressed in a book written by an MD! Dr. Saeed believes that spiritual health is an important component of overall health (after all, she is the Holistic Mom MD), and she writes that:
Science has proven the importance of spiritual health and our children’s overall health. Gratitude and optimism strengthen the connections between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, improving overall health and well-being.
Who This Book Can Help
This book is helpful for parents of children with:
- Autoimmune diseases
- Skin problems
- Mood disorders
- Digestive issues
- Cancer
- Allergies
- ADHD
- Asthma
- Autism
- Chronic pain
- Weight problems
Not only does this book show how a functional-medicine, root-cause approach can help with these conditions, but it also highlights integrative modalities such as supplements, homeopathy, acupressure, and essential oils that can complement your child’s conventional care to optimize health and healing.
This helpful book belongs in your health-reference library.
About Madiha Saeed MD ABIHM
Madiha Saeed is a board certified integrative holistic family physician in Illinois. She graduated residency in Family Medicine from South Bend, Indiana, receiving the Resident Teacher Award by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine in 2010.
She is a diplomate of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine and holds a Diploma in Homeopathy from the CEDH.
She is the author of the best-selling book, The Holistic Rx: Your Guide to Healing Chronic Inflammation and Disease and The Holistic Rx for Kids: Parenting Healthy Brains and Bodies in a Changing World.
You can find out more about her and her practice at her website www.holisticmommd.com
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