Holistic Solutions for Autoimmunity in Adults and Children

Episode Transcript

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Hi, everyone, welcome to the show. I am Dr. Nicole, and on today’s episode, we are focusing on autoimmune diseases in children and how these impact not only their physical health, but also their brain health, their functioning and their behavior. Autoimmune disease really isn’t something that we used to talk about much at all. It was considered pretty rare and certainly almost exclusively in adults, but in the last couple of decades, we have seen an explosion in the number of adults and children diagnosed with a wide variety of autoimmune conditions and issues. This is important for us to understand as parents because in addition to the physical health problems they cause, these conditions take a huge toll on the brain, on a child’s ability to learn, to focus, to manage their emotions and behaviors, and everything about their mental health. So for kids who are having challenges in any area, it’s really important to understand that autoimmune issues and sometimes even the commonly prescribed treatments for those issues can be root causes of the challenges that they are having. So to explore all of that with us today I have invited my friend and colleague Dr. Madiha Saeed on the show today, I want to tell you a little bit about her before we dive in.

She is known as Holistic Mom, MD, and is a practicing board certified family physician in the United States. She’s an international speaker and a bestselling author. Her bestselling book, The Holistic RX: Your Guide To Healing Chronic Inflammation and Disease. She has a functional medicine children’s book series called, Adam’s Healing Adventures, and The Holistic RX For Kids: Parenting Healthy Brains and Bodies In A Changing World. These are all empowering the world towards healthier living. She is the director of education for Documenting Hope, she sits on multiple medical advisory boards and as the President of the International Institute of Islamic Medicine. Dr. Saeed’s children host the holistic kids show podcast, which I have had the pleasure of being on, and they interview the biggest names in the functional, holistic, and integrative medicine world, and are helping empower and educate other kids. Dr. Saeed, thank you for being here. Such a pleasure to have you.

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Oh my gosh, my honor, my pleasure, this is going to be so much fun. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

We have been wanting to do this for a while, and I am so glad that it worked out because I think you have such valuable expertise to share, especially around our topic today of autoimmune stuff, which really wasn’t on our radars in terms of kids, especially 20-25 years ago, right? So we are going to get into all the reasons why that is a bigger issue, but I would love to just have you start by sharing a little bit of your journey because you are certainly not a typical family physician. So I would love for you to just share what your passion and focus areas are and how you actually came to practice in this more holistic way.

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Absolutely, I actually started off with autoimmune diseases, so this is why this topic is something that I am really passionate about. But just like the 23 million Americans that have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, literally, that is more than 7% of the population, and actually, studies have even shown that it’s probably even more now. That population is even more than cancer and even heart disease combined. It’s craziness. So I was one of those numbers, but I continued on that hamster wheel, until one day my husband had a gut inclination. He said, “Can you go check up on our 10-month-old in daycare?” And when I went in there, it was like I walked into a nightmare. Every mother’s worst nightmare. The lights were dim, the daycare provider was rocking back and forth and back and forth in her chair, and I heard “Mmmmh” in the back and I ran back there and I saw my 10-month-old suffocating almost to death. The daycare provider had actually tied his arms and legs with receiving blankets and pacifiers in his mouth, eyes bloodshot. The Winnie the Pooh blanket was wrapped tightly around his face, and I quickly picked him up and ran out. And on that day, I was like, “Oh my gosh, God, you saved my child.” There’s no way I would have — me and my husband were both residents and interns, I would have just picked him up at 5 o’clock like I normally do. And I ran when I went, I was like, “Oh my gosh, God saved my child.” And then I made a solemn vow and promise on that day, that I promise I am going to take care of these kids the best that I know how. But then wait, hold back.

I am a family physician. I am falling apart. How am I supposed to take care of these kids if I as a family physician am completely falling apart? I was dealing with lupus, Hashimotos, digestive issues, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, severe eczema, allergies, acne, and I had all of these chronic health conditions. I even had shingles in my 20s. Craziness! This is how you know your body is just old. What’s going on? It’s falling apart. And so that is when I searched for answers because I knew these diseases, specifically autoimmune diseases are miserable. I had watched people slowly die from them. And so I made it my mission to help, to look for answers, and to help myself so I can help my family. And so I found integrative holistic functional medicine and that was combining what I had learned with parenting and combining what I had learned with integrative, holistic, functional medicine just blew my mind. And so that is when this will, this drive to really get to the underlying root causes to help not just ourselves as parents, caregivers and human beings, just to help humanity and our future, because unfortunately in today’s day and age, our kids are getting sicker and sicker, and we need to start taking action today. And so that is really where my passion is driven from.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

I so appreciate you sharing that because I think for people listening to hear that, okay, here is someone who had gone to medical school, here is someone who was in her residency training to be a physician who was suffering and struggling with all of these things. I am sure you were doing all of the conventional medical approaches for that stuff and you were still sick and having all these things, and I think that is so eye opening, and so important for people to understand that when we are talking about a lot of these types of things, we are really limited in terms of what the conventional allopathic medical world offers. We have to look outside of that and look at: What are the root causes here? And I have found that for myself. I am also someone who had numerous autoimmune related diagnoses over the course of my life, and was a big part of what led me into the realm of nutrition and functional medicine. We have our personal stories, a lot of us in the field do. But I think that is just so important to frame this discussion today around that even when you do get one of these conditions diagnosed, that doesn’t mean that the treatments or the approaches are going to really resolve that.

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Absolutely because specifically with conventional medicine, they are great for acute care, but when it comes to chronic care, specifically like autoimmune diseases, there are so many Americans and people that are suffering all over the world where that treatment is just not — there is something that is missing the boat. So that is why it’s super important to look at it holistically. 

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

I want to dive into why we are seeing so much more of this. But before that, let’s just give people some specific examples, and you actually shared a few of the common conditions that we think about under the umbrella of autoimmune illness, autoimmune conditions. You mentioned Hashimotos, which is a thyroid related condition, you mentioned lupus. What are some of the other common ones that people might recognize or that we are seeing a lot more even in children, that sort of fall under that umbrella of what we are talking about here?

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Absolutely. So there are more than 100 different kinds of autoimmune diseases, so it’s craziness. Just to step back, just to tell people what that even is, what is an autoimmune condition? An autoimmune disease occurs when your immune system starts to attack your own body. So you would be like, “What? Would it attack your own body? Doesn’t it love it anymore?” But actually, this autoimmune disease is essentially the immune system’s misguided attack on your own body. So your body is like a complex network of all these cells and organs, collectively called the immune system that defends your body from foreign invaders and germs and other bad guys. So in order to do its main job, it must be able to tell the difference between self and non-self. But with chronic inflammation, and the access of this inflammation, that confuses the body, and the immune system is unable to tell the difference between self and non-self. And unfortunately, and to make matters worse, the cells that are called the regulatory T cells actually fail to keep the immune system in line. So the particular body parts that are affected determine the specific autoimmune disease. There are more than 100. And so you would think children should be born with an immune system that is perfect. It shouldn’t be confused. How much chronic inflammation would that take? But what’s so scary is that because chronic disease is on the rise, because kids are living more and more in imbalanced lives, that is leading to more chronic inflammation and that is leading to sicker and sicker children. So specifically when it comes to the autoimmune diseases, to go back to back to your question, you can put them in one of two basic groups. And that is organ specific. So where they actually focus, where the autoimmune disease is affecting that specific organ system or a specific type of tissue, those are your Addison’s disease, autoimmune hepatitis that is affecting kids, Crohn’s disease, inflammatory bowel diseases are starting to affect more and more kids today, type one diabetes, we know that affects kids, that specifically affects the pancreas. Then we have ulcerative colitis, again, just a part of inflammatory bowel disease, another type that affects the gastrointestinal tract. And there are non-organ-specific disorders, specifically systemic problems that occur throughout the body. Unfortunately, we were thinking lupus can only happen in adults, but lupus is now affecting children. And so that affects the joints, the skin, the liver, the kidneys, brain, and bodies, and organs.

Then the other things that a lot of kids are dealing with now today are juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and that affects the joints, and even sometimes affects the skin and the lungs. And then we have juvenile dermatomyositis that affects the skin and the muscles, and even something called scleroderma that affects the skin and the joints, and sometimes the lungs and the intestine. I mean the list goes on and on and on. But these are the specific ones, and if you just look at the statistics — I mean, let’s just take one, unfortunately, the statistics aren’t that great for all of these because they just do all the statistics separately for all these specific diseases. So let’s just look at type one diabetes. Approximately 1.6 million Americans have type one diabetes, and they actually estimate that number to go up in 2050, to be increased to 5 million people expected to be diagnosed with type one diabetes. And as we all know, type one diabetes really starts to affect children. We see that more in children than we see it in adults. And so it’s going to be a 21% increase just when they have done the research before, a 21% increase from 2001 to 2009, under 20. And by 2050, they say specifically those children under the age of 20, will be 600,000 children. I mean, this is just crazy. I mean, if 5 million people are expected, we’ve got to stop this. Unfortunately, this is just getting worse and worse for every chronic health condition. So it is super important to figure out what is exactly going on, what is out of balance, and what are we going to fix it with.

 Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

So true. And I think whether you are listening and you have a child or yourself or someone in your family who has been diagnosed with one of these, or maybe as what happens with a lot of kids and adults, they have lots of symptoms that nobody can really figure out or put their finger on exactly what’s going on, but in the end, it’s some sort of, like you said, idiopathic autoimmune process. Maybe it doesn’t fit the specific criteria. But your point about what is going on here with immune systems that are sort of going rogue, immune systems that get dysregulated, that aren’t able to function in the way they are supposed to, and start to attack our own body and brain in various ways, it’s just really important to understand that this is pretty prevalent now. And I know that there are a lot of moms listening, middle aged women, moms and women in those motherhood years have rampant levels of autoimmune conditions at this point. So it’s our kids, it’s our parents. It’s everybody.

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

It’s everybody. Yeah, absolutely. But there’s hope. Right? There’s so much hope, because if you just think about it, the immune system, we are still learning about it. It’s an evolving field. But every 10 seconds, we make a million new white blood cells, we make 20 million new red blood cells, we make 30 million new platelets from our bone marrow that are constantly regenerating themselves every 10 seconds. So it is possible to put your body in an environment to optimize these new cells, to get rid of the old cells, to replace them with new fresh cells that have an appropriate response to your body. And that is this entire world called immuno-rejuvenation. But there’s so much hope!

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

And we are going to get into some of the specific things that parents can be doing. I would like your opinion on the lots of good studies, as well as just lots of professional opinions out there at this point about what’s driving the huge increase, because I think that is a question probably a lot of listeners are having right now. Like, “Okay, wow, this is really becoming more prevalent.” What do you think’s going on there? Why are we seeing so much more of this immune system dysregulation in people?

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

I think that, what you just asked right now, is the key. Because by understanding the why, there lies the hope. If we understand the root cause of the suffering, we can help put out these fires that are going on in our children’s brains and bodies and help them put them back into balance. So unfortunately, what’s going on is that I think that our children are sicker and sicker, they are living more and more imbalanced lives. So more and more junk food than ever before. Now add on top of that, the increased stress, the increased toxins, the negativity that they are growing up in this world today with fear. Then we have increased screen times, lack of nature, lack of environment, noise pollution. I mean there are so many different things that can really affect a child. EMF’s even. So they are bombarded by toxins on a daily basis. Our children are not meant to tolerate the 85,000 chemicals that they are bombarded with on a daily basis. And I really feel that it also comes down to — and this is why I love your work, and I love everything that you do, and I love supporting you, it all comes down to our kids’ decisions. What they wear, what they choose to eat, the decisions they make, and how they feel are all dictated by their brains. And so if we are constantly making the wrong decisions, it can lead to more chronic health conditions. But if we are making the right decisions that will help us and the child. So it really comes down to neuroeconomics. And that is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to explain human decision. So our kids are just making the wrong decisions. There are two main pieces of decision making, and those are their prefrontal cortex on their amygdalas. We talk a lot about this, the prefrontal cortex, the more developed part of the brain that is responsible for those rational decision making, examines the pros and the cons and helps your child think through their actions, takes a look at the entire picture, while the amygdala is that reactive part of the brain that is responsible for primitive impulsive fight and flight type. So because today’s children’s brains are completely out of balance, despite warnings of unhealthy diets and obesity — just in this last pandemic, diabetes has doubled in kids, doubled! That is craziness! But we are still on lack of sleep, eating more junk food than ever before, and all these things that are putting these children out of balance. And studies have actually shown that inflammation can actually decrease the strength between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, leading to children that are unable to use their full brain to make a logical decision. There is more anger, more violence, there is us versus you mentality. And it’s crazy, studies have actually shown this. In Harvard and Columbia, they looked at 4000 children with behavioral problems and all these other chronic health conditions. It’s so crazy, even just with your work and tying it back to autoimmunity and inflammation, it’s craziness because the fact that they actually found that these children with chronic behavioral issues and emotional functioning problems at the age of 8, when they checked their blood work at the age of 10, they had higher levels of 2 proteins: Your C reactive protein and your interleukin 6, which is a pro-inflammatory cytokine, that is produced when your body is under attack, or healing from injury, or all of those. It’s so crazy that even these slight symptoms we think of just as a behavior that is off balance or child that is just — that these can actually be linked to your immune system dysregulation and high inflammation. And that is then leading to disconnection between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, unable to make logical decisions. So then we are going after junk food and all of these worse decisions. That is really affecting our health. And that is why chronic disease, specifically autoimmune diseases are on the rise.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Yeah. And I think that is relevant to kids, and so relevant to adults, because kids, especially younger kids, but even kids through their teen years need guidance, education, boundaries, and modeling from those of us who are adults in their lives, because a person’s prefrontal cortex isn’t even fully developed until the mid 20’s. So if we are relying on kids to just figure all this out — we have to take the bull by the horns here and say, “Okay, we need to understand this because we need to be making these changes and guiding them and teaching them what they need to do with it.” That is part of what I think is so fun about the project that your kids do with their podcast, of speaking to other kids about this. And that is so important, educating kids. But also, equally important for us as adults, to be making these changes. And I know that you really focus on that with your emphasis on holistic parenting. And you talk about how holistic parenting is a really important way that we can support our kids’ physical health, but also their brain health and lower their autoimmunity. So I would love for you to share: How do you define holistic parenting? For you, what is holistic parenting all about?

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Absolutely. So we are mind, body, soul, and our children are mind, body, soul. They are little human beings, full packages. So holistic parenting is all about nurturing your child with love, compassion, and empathy, and nurturing their brain, mind, body, and soul from the inside out, and really giving them the skills that they need for emotional intelligence, so that they can endure deep friendships, make correct decisions, manage that stress, and be able to become resilient all throughout childhood, no matter what life throws at you. So what holistic parenting does is really helps to raise these mindful children. And if we know, mindfulness allows us to see our internal and our external world a little clearly, showing us how best to respond to the world around us. So then our children can be aware and be mindful at different levels of perception all at once. So holistic parenting can empower and educate your children to be mindful of their bodies, their minds, their emotions, their social lives, their environments, learning how to put their lives back into balance if they start to sway away a little bit, and increasing resilience in any situation. And it’s powerful, because right now, I think yes, autonomy is so important, having kids make their own decisions. But if their brains are unable to make those correct decisions because they have been hijacked, this is all about providing that environment to optimize their brain and body function through influencing their DNA and their cells and mitochondria, their microbiome, their immune system, and even their brains to make rational prefrontal cortex decisions instead of irrational limbic system driven decisions. And so then when you give them the autonomy to make those decisions on their own, guess what, they will be making better decisions now and for their futures. And it’s so powerful. Actually, I have experimented with this in my own house, this is just a little tidbit, I know you have seen the kids, and sometimes it’s unbelievable, it’s so much fun! Because when you give them the power — I treat them like little adults. Basically, I role model the behaviors and we do it together, and then they are on their own. We talk about it, love and compassion and all that, but it’s so much fun to walk in on your 10-year-old who is meditating on his own to put his nervous system back into balance, or your 7-year-old. It was so much fun. I walked into my 7-year-old eating breakfast, and what was in his bowl? Sauerkraut. And when I said, “Why are you having sauerkraut for breakfast?”, he said, “Oh, I just felt a little agitated when I woke up and I think it was because I had organic sugar yesterday, and that can throw me off a little bit. So I wanted to feed my good bugs in my belly so then when they feel better, I can feel better, and my day will go by better.” I am like “What?” So, you are teaching your kids to recognize any imbalances and have multiple levels of perception, being mindful of all of these different things, of what’s going on in all these different levels, and to apply it in their lives before it even becomes a problem. So it’s super powerful.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

That is so great. And I know that part of that, too, with holistic parenting is us being mindful as parents and as you said, I think a key there is creating an environment that supports brain and body balance. I know that you talk about that as being key, especially if a child or other people in the family are having autoimmune issues. Let’s delve into them, because I think this is really the hopeful part of it. What can we be doing? Where should we be focused as parents thinking about this holistic approach, this need to bring balance: Physical balance, stress balance and all of that. So where can we start with that? Are we thinking about food? Are we thinking about sleep? Movement? What are some of the things that you think parents should really be focused on to help get this balance in place?

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

So for me, over the last 14 years of practicing medicine, I have found that the one of the most powerful pieces of starting to create these mindful, resilient children and adults is by the power of gratitude and spiritual health. Because that in and of itself, studies have actually shown that it can build that connection between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. Gratitude and optimism can strengthen those connections, leading to overall health and wellbeing. And currently right now, we are living in a world with fear and negativity. So you can have the best diet, and you can be exercising, but if your kid is living in a world of fear and negativity, that is going to lead to an imbalanced lifestyle, and leading to these fearful, amygdala driven decisions, limbic system driven decisions. So what I love to do is incorporate gratitude every single morning and evening. And I sort of live a life of gratitude all day long. For me, with the kids, I started this when they were really, really young. We started singing a grateful song, and saying, “Thank you for my eyes, thank you for my ears, thank you for another beautiful day to save the world!” Giving them purpose there, too. But really being thankful because right now, I think with social media and the views, I mean, our kids are constantly bombarded by negativity and we have to consciously change our subconscious to instead of thinking negative all the time, to thinking positive. So it’s super important to immediately start with gratitude, and I find that even with my older adult patients, that is probably the most powerful thing, to really change your subconscious so that they are more resilient no matter what life throws at them.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Right, and resilient not only on a psychological level, but on a physical level too, because we have studies showing that brain body connection, and when our brain is in a place of fear, of anxiety, of stress that has a profound impact then on our body, particularly our immune system, right? So if we have got a child or an adult whose immune system is dysregulated, is malfunctioning, is creating these autoimmune kinds of conditions, one of the things we need to be focused on is getting the brain in a better place so it’s not driving all of this. So I love that you started with that, because I think the attention so often is given to the physical stuff, so I love that you spotlighted that mental state and stress level and anxiety, that those are huge pieces. I think that is so important.

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Absolutely. And especially if we just think back to our topic of autoimmune disease, these children if they have to poke themselves, like let’s say a diabetic, diabetes type one. I mean, they are not like every other kid. They are dealing with all of these negative pieces, and they are obviously being poked and prodded. If a child is dealing with chronic pain, it’s really difficult to sort of get out of that one thing that is going wrong in their lives. So we have to now focus on: Even despite that, what are all the great things, the millions of things that are going right in our lives? So really, specifically when a child is dealing with autoimmune diseases, it is more important to focus on that gratitude along with everything else, because now, if you have a child that is already feeling like they are out of the norm, and now you have to change their diets and all these different things, they are going to feel miserable. They are like, “Am I totally just — What am I?” So that is why it’s so important to focus on that gratitude, because when you can get a child with a chronic health condition out in the world, focusing on all the things that are going right in their lives, then doing all of the other pieces to help heal them and improve their illnesses will be so much easier psychologically, physically, mentally, emotionally.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

So, so good. Let’s talk a bit about the food piece, because I know you are big on that. Your books cover that, you even have a children’s book around that. So for our parents and professionals who are listening, what are some of the key things when a child or an adult, but let’s particularly focus on kids, have autoimmune issues and all of the associated behavior and attention and all of that that goes along with it. What are some of the key things that we need to be aware of from a food and nutrition standpoint?

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

So 70 to 80% of our immune system lies in the gut, right? We have 100 trillion bacteria that lie in our gut lining, and these bacteria are responsible for digestion, immune system, balance, neurotransmitter formation, turning things on and off — so basically, everything. And so food is just not food. It literally transforms our biology, our genes, and even rejuvenates our immune system that we talked about to really help optimize it. So we need to eat food that can heal us, right? Because right now, unfortunately, we are not eating enough of these vegetables, the clean protein, the healthy fats, the fruits, the lentils, because a diet rich in this plant-based nutrition is actually high in phytonutrients and antioxidants, vitamins, fibers; fiber that can actually down regulate an overactive immune system. And so these nutrient-dense foods are really great to help heal the gut, balance your insulin levels, to decrease insulin resistance, and then improve your overall immune system. And it’s not just that. All of these diverse foods will increase the actual biodiversity of our gut microbiome. And also, they have a lot more antioxidant activity, right? So they will help to optimize our immune system.

Another key piece is that the more processed junk food that these kids eat, it actually raises our blood sugar levels and our insulin levels, and now more and more children today are actually becoming pre-diabetic and insulin resistant. And insulin resistance really creates energy deficit in the body. And I can go in through a little bit more about what insulin resistance actually is. So every time we take a bite of food, it’s digested and absorbed into our bloodstream, and the glucose in our bodies is needed to provide our cells with energy. But glucose can’t enter the cell unless it has a key called insulin. And insulin is a storage hormone that is produced by the pancreas, which is responsible for controlling blood sugar levels and determining our metabolism, but over time, that flood of inflammatory signals starts to wear down this key because it really keeps on using it over and over and over and over. And that leads to your body going, “Wait, this key doesn’t work anymore?” And your body gets old, so your pancreas is like, “Wait, your cells are not responding to this insulin.” So it starts to make more and more and more. And overtime, the beta cells just can’t keep up with the body’s demand for insulin, and it leads to this excess glucose in the bloodstream. This is a known state called insulin resistance, where the body is unable to process the glucose effectively. But a diet filled with all of these artificial foods that our kids are eating today can lead to prediabetes, insulin resistance, and we know now, I mean, let’s just look at the world around us, that those people that are getting sick more often, their immune systems are going crazy because of all of these artificial foods that they are constantly consuming, and insulin resistance leads to an altered immune system. That is because all these artificial foods raise your blood sugar levels, and raise your insulin levels, and then even inhibit leptin, so it makes it so you are eating a lot more because you are never satiated. That in and of itself can also lead to an imbalanced immune system. So that is something I know that I really wanted to address because of the fact that the food is important. Obviously, these plant-based foods have thousands of phytonutrients that have been shown to optimize immunity and have anti-inflammatory effects. We can go into a lot, because there are some foods that can help to regulate immune balancing with polyphenols that are found in green tea, and apples, and onions because they have quercetin. And then grapes have resveratrol, and even curcumin and turmeric. So many amazing food benefits that we can incorporate into our children’s diet. But to keep it really simple, eat the rainbow. Eating the rainbow is one of the most powerful things that our kids can do to optimize their overall health, because just by doing that they can get all of those nutrients and help optimize their immune system. I mean, we can go through all the different colors, I wrote a book on it, but just eat the rainbow. Whole foods, real foods, focus on getting rid of and crowding out the junk foods. In my house, my kids, and I think this is another big piece of this, especially when you have a child dealing with autoimmune conditions, they are already living a different lifestyle. And now we are trying to change their diet. With my kids, I stock my house up for success. There is nothing that they can’t eat in the house. Nothing. It’s a yes mentality instead of a no mentality. So when we as parents stock our house up with sugar and junk food, it’s a constant battle that kids are dealing with. “No you can’t have that, no, you can’t have that. Stop and eat your dinner first, then you can have that!”, it becomes this struggle. In the no mentally, it’s your amygdala that is like “I am going to do this, I am going to make sure of it”, and then it goes into adulthood. But when you give your child all of us autonomy and create that environment to do so, my kids get pancakes and we do chips and pastas, but for example, instead of wheat pasta, we will use a lentil pasta. So instead of pancakes made out of just artificial flours, and that lack nutrients, they will have pancakes made with cassava flour or almond flour, or just chips with cassava flour that is a prebiotic that will help their gut bacteria.

So in my house, they have a yes mentality. What I have educated them about is that whenever they are hungry, to go down a list that is optimal for immune system function and all the overall health and optimizing our brain function, is tons of vegetables, some sort of clean protein, and healthy fats. That is what I try to do with them. And then they can have fruit, chips or whatever that they want. But they know that that is what I have taught them from the very beginning: egetables, clean protein, and healthy fats. And I have made it available for them to easily get that. We have a vegetable drawer, we have a fruit drawer, so they know that that is where all those things are. All our nuts or seeds are right there in front of them. We have little tins of olives, right there in front of them. So it’s very accessible to the children. They can have all of these things that really optimize their immune system and their brain health simultaneously.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Absolutely. And for any of you listening who have already gone through my Better Brain and Behavior Diet workshop, you are hearing a lot of things that she’s talking about that are connected to that, because the foundations for good physical and brain-based health are the foundations, right? And so I love that you are talking about that, and it’s especially important for kids and adults who are dealing with autoimmune issues. And I want to touch on the fact that people who are listening who maybe have been diagnosed with an autoimmune issue, or maybe their child has, they might be thinking, “Well, this is information that my child’s physician or my physician hasn’t said” I can say that also, as a patient, myself, who has been through multiple autoimmune issues with multiple specialists, I am always the one who has had to raise, “Well, here’s what I want to do from a nutrition perspective, here’s what I think is important.” And it’s just so unfortunate that this information that is very research-based has not yet become part of the standard of care and treatment, at least not in this country, for people with these conditions. And yet, we know that things like making diet changes like you just talked about, more nutrient-dense, more phytonutrients getting rid of the processed stuff, has a profound effect. People go into remission as a result of making those changes. And so I just really want to spotlight that because people may be going, “Well, gosh, my healthcare practitioner never said anything to me about how it might help my rheumatoid arthritis or my lupus or my child’s whatever it might be to do this.” And I just think it’s important for us to say that this is really, really critical.

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Absolutely. And I really wanted to also add to that point, where sometimes I think as us as moms, specifically moms and caregivers, it’s overwhelming to change our diet and lifestyle, right? It’s like you are having a child and now you have to deal with all of their other medications and other chronic health conditions. And now you have to change their lifestyle? What, are you kidding me? But it’s all about not removing, but just substituting. And to understand, for example, all of these rainbow foods, it can be so much fun! The kids actually love this kind of stuff. You just set out a plate of all the different rainbow fruits and vegetables, and they will snack on that whenever they want. For their eyes, it’s so colorful and fun. If your child doesn’t eat these kinds of foods, just incorporate them into the foods that they are already eating. For example, this is what I love to do. In my house I know that specifically for immune boosting foods, we know that mushrooms are great for immune boosting, they have great bioactives like beta-glucans, which are great, along with broccoli sprouts, they are packed with sulforaphanes to really help optimize the immune system, immune defenses. So these two foods, what kids are going to eat broccoli sprouts and mushrooms? So even cauliflower, great in sulforaphanes. What I have noticed is if I can put them — let’s say your kids love burritos or even pasta. In the meat sauce, it will be more vegetable than it will be meat, but the thing is I will put in cauliflower rice. The kids can’t tell. I will throw in broccoli sprouts. The kids can’t tell. I will put in mushrooms. The kids can’t tell. And then you can put in the pasta sauce, maybe with a little bone broth. That is what I do, I add bone broth to my pasta sauces, and then I will serve it over lentil pasta. The kids cannot tell. So now you have that kid that is just eating pasta, but now you have snuck in some immune-boosting foods in there. Along with another fun thing that my kids now love to do. In the morning they will actually ask me for this. We sometimes still can’t get kids to eat smoothies, but we made a smoothie bowl. I have the base of their smoothies, in which I have literally stuck everything in from zucchini to amla to acerola, to broccoli sprouts, kale sprouts, turmeric root, glutathione, all our favorite supplements in there. But they will have this, which is berries and fruits and vegetables and all the color of the rainbow, and then make them into a smoothie, and then they can top it with whatever they want for breakfast. So my kids love to add some goji berries on there, pumpkin seeds, they love to add grain-free granola to that. And then that is what they will have for breakfast with their pasteurized egg or some sauerkraut. It’s craziness, but that was so much fun. It’s like ice cream, and it’s like toppings that they can put on it. And so it’s literally that they actually ask, “Mom, can we have ice cream for breakfast?” And that is what it is. Because you put it all in the smoothies, and now the kids can top it just like they are normal, but they are getting all their phytonutrients at even just breakfast, it’s so much fun and powerful, right?

 Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Keeping it interesting, us modeling. And for people, if you think “Well, I have a really picky eater, that wouldn’t work,” you need to start exposing them to stuff. You need to continue to put it out there, build their comfort with it, build their experiences around these things. That is what gets kids to be more comfortable eaters. That is what broadens their health. So don’t write it off.

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Don’t write off. And I love that. Because I think if you get excited about it, they are going to get excited about it. So keep on bringing it out there, and you modeling it for them, and then they will slowly start to change and it’ll be so much fun. It is a lot of fun to incorporate these ideas.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

You have got so many more ideas, strategies, all that. You have got all these books. I know that we are going to need to wrap up here, but I want to make sure that people know about your new book coming out and about what you have got available, because you have got tons of these kinds of ideas for families to implement. So where can people find out more?

 Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Absolutely. So my new book, The Holistic RX For Kids: Parenting Healthy Brains and Bodies In A Changing World can be found on Amazon, on my website, and in bookstores. But again, it’s all about providing those tools for adults and children to make more mindful decisions to empower them, to create more healthy brains and bodies so that they will make thought out decisions. And because I live this lifestyle, that is what’s super important. And what’s awesome is that I actually incorporate recipes in there, I give you my tips on what I do in my own house. Recipes, weaning guides. It’s so cool. Over the last 14 years of me practicing this and studying parenting, I have compiled lists of how to optimize brain and body function at every stage. So you know how you go to a well-child check, and they give you this 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months sheet? So this book actually has those well-child visits and how to optimize, holistically, your child’s brain and body. So there are so many powerful tools. Plus, I have another one, the next children’s book. So we talked about the rainbow foods and how to get your kids to optimize their immune systems and lower autoimmunity. It’s all about eating the rainbow foods. So this is also coming out simultaneously, the children’s book on the power of rainbow foods. 

 Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Awesome, and these make the information so accessible. And what I think is great is you are a mom of four kids. You are living this every day, and I think those of us who are not just talking about it, but actually having to do it have just a wealth of information on a practical level. You are not just somebody who is saying, “Oh, you should do this.” You are, “No, I am a parent of four kids”. Mine are teenagers. I think that is great. So I want to encourage everybody to go get the new books. What is your website where people can go, or social media, or where else can they find you?

Dr. Madiha Saeed 

www.holisticmommd.com

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Holistic Mom, MD. So go there, check out everything that she has available. I want to thank you so much for spending the time with us today and covering this really, really important topic.

 Dr. Madiha Saeed 

Thank you so much. It was so my honor, my pleasure. 

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

And thanks, as always, to all of you for being here and for listening. We will catch you back here next time.