What's the Buzz September 2008
The official E-Newsletter of Bee Well Kidz
|
As school starts and your children come face to face with many other kids and their germs, keeping your kids healthy becomes a challenging task. This issue will focus on simple steps you can take to strengthen your kids immune systems to help them stay healthy throughout the school year.
Enjoy this issue of What's the Buzz?? and please let us know if there are any topics you would like to see in future issues.
Bee Well,
Naomi Richman
CEO and founder, Bee Well Kidz
|
In This Issue:
Building Immunity
What IS a Healthy Diet?
Onion Ear Muffs.
| |
Building Immunity
From the time we are born the majority of our immune system is built up by an interplay between our internal environment and our gut.
From a medical perspective, the inside of our intestines is really outside our bodies. When we eat food or drink fluids they need to pass through cellular barriers before they become part of our bodies. Things that never pass through these barriers exit the body hours or days later as waste products (pee and poop!). To help the body learn to differentiate between helpful and harmful substances, the intestinal wall is lined with immune cells. Once activated, these cells tell the body we have ingested something harmful and the immune cells mount a defense.
This process is essential to our survival, however, when we continually eat foods that our bodies view as harmful, this immune reaction causes a chronic and systemic inflammatory process, which the Chinese refer to as dampness, phlegm and Yin Fire, depending upon the physical manifestations. This chronic inflammation has a number of negative effects on the body and can cause disease responses such as constipation, diarrhea, eczema and ear infections. It also weakens overall immunity.
When the body is in a constant state of inflammation, tissues are ripe for attack from exogenous influences. Children are particularly susceptible because their immune systems are immature. To help your children stay healthy it is important that they eat a healthy diet and one that is appropriate for their constitutions.
But what is a healthy diet? Read on...
|
What IS a Healthy Diet?
The answer is that our nutritional needs vary according to our age, constitution, level of activity and stress levels.
Western nutritional information is very complex, breaking foods down into their component parts and siphoning out particular nutritional elements. Blood tests can determine food allergies and sensitivities as well as specific nutritional deficiencies. Once these sensitivities, allergies and deficiencies are determined, patients are instructed to steer clear of offending foods, and ingest supplements (including digestive enzymes, fish oils and probiotics) to supplement deficiencies and strengthen the gut wall. While this method of treatment can be effective, western nutritional testing is generally time consuming and expensive. (Office Visit + Tests + Supplements will generally run $700 and up).
Chinese Medicine takes a broader perspective and employs the tenets of Chinese Dietary Therapy when determining what foods are helpful and harmful to the system. For thousands of years, Chinese medical practitioners have understood that food is medicine because different foods act upon and react with our bodies in different ways. Some foods heat us up, speed up our metabolism, cause us to sweat, and stimulate our senses. These foods are considered Yang foods and are used to balance out Yin constitutions and Yin diseases. Some examples of Yang foods are chili peppers, garlic, ginger and onions. On the other hand, Yin foods cool us, calm us and slow our metabolic processes. Yin foods are used to balance out Yang constitutions and treat Yang diseases. Examples of Yin foods are mint, citrus fruits, fish and fats and oils.
Every person comes into this world with a natural imbalance. Children are naturally more active but have inherently weak digestive and immune systems simply because they have not completely formed. Understanding basic principles of Chinese Medicine gives parents a guide to unraveling the complex nature of their children and tools to keep their children healthy using only what nature provides.
|
Onion Ear Muffs - (this really works!)
Ear infections are exceedingly common in the US but not so in Asia. Why? Diet. Diet. Diet. If your child is getting ear infections, here are the steps you should take to break the cycle.
1. Stay away from the antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. Antibiotics are harmful to the natural balance of the intestines. And as we saw earlier, when the intestines are not healthy, the immune system suffers.
2. Avoid foods that are difficult to digest (ie. dairy products). Foods that are hard to break down can damage the intestinal walls and cause inflammation in the body. In my experience excessive intake of diary products is the number one cause of chronic recurring ear infections. Cut out the diary for at least one month to clear the body.
3. Onion Ear Muffs. If your child complains of ear pain or is diagnosed with an ear infection, cut a thick slice of onion, wrap in a sock, thin kitchen towel or 2 paper towels, microwave for 10-20 seconds (depending on the strength of your microwave) and hold near the affected ear for 5 minutes. Make sure the surface is not too hot. Onions have antibacterial properties and the vapors help release the pressure and clear the infection. The only side effect is that your child will smell like an onion.
4. Acupuncture, Acupressure, Chinese Pediatric Massage and Herbs. If the infection will not clear, see your nearest Bee Well Kidz provider for treatment.
|
|
