How to Raise Healthy Kids: A Functional Medicine Approach

Episode 893

Overview

Every parent wants to raise a healthy kid, but our modern world, industrialized diet, and increased stressors can make that goal feel confusing and difficult. The good news is that we can do so many things during a child’s life, and even before it starts, to give them the best possible chance to truly thrive in body and mind. I’m thrilled to share this in-depth conversation with pediatric Functional Medicine expert, and mom to 2 thriving children, Dr. Elisa Song.

No matter how old your kids are, it’s never too late to upgrade their health with holistic approaches. I know you’ll love this episode as much as I did!

Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD

Sponsors

This episode is brought to you by ButcherBox, Thrive Market, and OneSkin. The Doctor’s Farmacy podcast works with a select group of sponsors to allow for ongoing production and allow it to be zero-cost to anyone who wishes to listen to and watch the podcast.

Topics Covered

  • Why Functional Medicine offers an important mindset shift for children’s health

    (6:30)

  • Why Dr. Song was so drawn to pediatric Functional Medicine

    (8:00)

  • The changes that have occurred in children’s microbiome

    (9:20)

  • The disappearing act of Bifidobacterium infantis and why it matters

    (12:45)

  • What are the factors perpetuating the changing gut microbiome?

    (16:40)

  • Why preconception support is so important for optimal epigenetic programming

    (23:35)

  • Her Gut Reset program

    (27:53)

  • How amazingly resilient kids are and why small changes can have huge results

    (36:20)

  • How Dr. Song gets kids on board with their own healing plan

    (44:30)

  • The bloodwork Dr. Song runs when first assessing a child

    (46:14)

  • One nutrient that might dramatically help your sensory-sensitive child

    ( 52:05)

  • What nutrients do most kids need to supplement with?

    (54:55 )

  • A grounded discussion around the controversial topic of vaccines

    (58:30)

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Resources Mentioned

Host & Guests

Transcript

Automatically generated. Please forgive any typos or errors in the following transcript. It was generated by a third party and has not been subsequently reviewed by our team.

Dr. Mark Hyman:
Coming up on this episode of the doctor's Farmacy.

Dr. Elisa Song:
Cross the board when I tell parents and kids when they're sitting in front of me, if they have any sort of attention concerns, behavioral concerns, focus concerns, anxiety. I mean, that's so many kids are suffering from anxiety nowadays. And when I tell them that 80 to 90 percent of the serotonin in their bodies is made by their gut microbiome. Right? And then usually there's a positive parents in kids, like, What?

Right? So that's a perfect segue into listen. Let's think about all the things that are happening that are disrupting your gut microbiome. And so that's an easier in to say, let's look at..

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Ep. 893 - How to Raise Healthy Kids: A Functional Medicine Approach