Wellness is not simply the absence of disease but should be measured by normal growth and optimum functioning. Decades ago, Dr. Westin Price, a dentist, observed differences in children’s appearance who had been raised on contrasting diets. The healthy-appearing children with normal skin, teeth and bone development, grew up eating a traditional diet rich in organically grown raw foods. The impaired children had been exposed to a modern Western-style processed food diet, like the standard American diet (SAD).
Balancing all physiologic symptoms is the key to optimum health. Functional medicine has identified nine areas of imbalance that on the cellular level can cause disease. Nutrition, detoxification, gastrointestinal, and immunological balance are four common areas that lead to optimum health in children.
Good nutritional balance is still a major foundational principal for a child’s optimum wellness. Many children have deficiencies in basic nutrients including inadequate minerals, essential fats, and vitamins. Due to our societies salt phobia, many children do not get enough of the right kind of salt.
The EWG (Environmental Working Group) in their video “Ten Americans” show that all children born in this country are toxic with chemicals that their mothers are carrying in their bodies during pregnancy. Children who can detoxify (those with optimum kidney, liver and gastrointestinal tract function) are the children who grow up normally and stay healthy. Those who cannot detoxify well are at risk to develop many types of disease.
The immune system is effected by toxicity in a way that can and often does lead to disease. Asthma and/or allergies are two examples of that potential. The allergies may be from environmental allergens like pollen and mold or from multiple foods. Proper gut function is necessary for optimum health. Carotid disease often starts in the gut; 75% of immunological function is in the gut. Digestion is a major gut function that, when impaired, leads to disease.
An easy measure of GI function is the number and quality of bowel movements. A growing child should have at least one “mushy” bowel movement per day. Five components are necessary for this to happen. These components are enough water, salt, fiber, probiotics and essential fatty acids.
Healthy children become healthy adults. In so many cases, a simple, common-sense inexpensive strategy can achieve that goal. In more difficult cases, functional medicine testing can show what traditional tests will not. The results can lead to targeted nutritional supplementation.Targeted nutritional therapy guided by an organic test, for example, may mean the difference in a child with childhood depression and one that functions optimally. Tools are available to make a dramatic difference in helping children grow and live vibrant, healthy, productive lives.
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