81 | More Health Hacks for the School Year - Back to School

I just had a lot of caffeine. I'm feeling good. Is that going on the podcast?

Oh, yeah.

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast.

We are in a series now, talking through really how to raise healthy children through the month of August. If you missed the last episode, we kinda had a discussion on immune support. And this episode, I'm gonna give you some, like, nonnegotiables. What are 3 nonnegotiables to raising healthy children. Before I do, this is, I figured it'd be probably, well, apropos, even in this season, to have a discussion on what I'm seeing in our city right now in terms of health concerns.

So one of the big things that we're seeing in children particularly is mycoplasma pneumonia. This is a bacterial type pneumonia that's being diagnosed at really an alarming rate. Now, I could go into some tangents on why I think that is, but, you know, it's not for today's episode. I do think it's important to know that mycoplasma pneumonia is prevalent throughout Knoxville, as well as some other respiratory viruses. It's important to note that there's a difference between a bacterial and viral infection, and so mycoplasma-based pneumonias are bacterial infection.

And so the symptoms are gonna usually be like a sore throat, you know, chest congestion, starts with a dry cough, fever. And if one of your children is dealing with unresolved chest tightness, sore throat that's really beyond a few days with a recurring high temperature, we should consider pneumonia as a possibility. So, hey, just wanted you to be aware. This is prevalent right now. This is nothing to be scared of, it's just bringing awareness of what virus loads or bacterial loads are existing in our culture right now so that you can be aware of, hey, this is this is happening.

We're also seeing some hand, foot, and mouth, so be mindful of hands and feet and any little bumps in the mouth. These are gonna be like pustule, almost a clear vesicle-like. So, if you've ever had like a poison ivy in the very beginning, it's like this clear vesicle that comes to the surface and pops and oozes. That's similar to what you'll see with hand, foot, and mouth, so just be mindful that if your child has like a sore throat or like little almost like red, blisters on the inside of their mouth, this may be early signs of hand, foot, and mouth. Obviously, this is a virus.

This is gonna, a lot of times have a have a fever with it. So those are 2 things that we're seeing which is something that we're actually talking about. Last episode, I mentioned one thing you have to have in your home this season and actually forgot to mention it. So I got off the episode, I was like, "should I jump back on? I'll just save it for today."

So because you are a avid listener, you actually are gonna hear it on today's episode. What is one thing that you need to have at home for the upcoming season? And this is a nebulizer. So a nebulizer is something that vaporizes water, so you just fill up this little container of water- it's a hose- and through ultrasonic waves, it takes that water and puts it in like a small- like a mist and then you breathe that in. And it's a mask that you're gonna put on so there's there's pediatric masks as well as adult sized masks and these nebulizers as you're bringing bringing in this humidity, right, this air that's attached with higher concentrations of water, it really is very soothing to the respiratory system and can provide a sense of relief because it creates production.

And what we'll typically put in that solution, so we don't just use a nebulizer, we put saline solution in that nebulizer and saline or salt water is very calming to the respiratory system. And these are isotonic solutions so they match our blood so it's almost like bringing fresh filtration to the lungs, the respiratory system, to the nose, the nasal passages, very similar to what you would do with like a naveage or nasal washing. So a nebulizer is also great because not only would you use saline solution, but for us in our home, what we do is we add colloidal silver to that as a natural antibiotic, a natural antibacterial and antiviral. Colloidal based silver, particularly a water soluble based silver, the one that we have at the office, you just spray a couple times in your saline solution and you respire that or you breathe that in through the nebulizer. And this is something that's fantastic for the lungs to handle bacterial and viral infections and to again mitigate the effects of, bronchitis or pneumonia and reduce those symptoms pretty pretty quickly.

So this is something I want you to really have in your arsenal. Have a nebulizer. Don't get it when your kids are already sick. It's too late. Go ahead and buy it now.

Amazon. Easy access there. They're usually about 50, $60. You're just looking for the mask that goes over a kid's face, over an adult's face, and, and then you're gonna have to buy separately those isotonic solutions, those, saline solutions, and then you have to buy separately the colloidal silver and you kinda combine those 2 to 3 things and you breathe that in. Now it's fantastic for asthmatics, so it's something you can do every day.

There's no harm or risk in it that's negative at all. It will only help and that's why people who live near the beach, salt water, have a better respiratory system than those that live in a Knoxville Valley where, gosh, it's just a cesspool of dust and mold. So nebulizing every day is great but it's even even more effective when there is illness sickness especially within the respiratory system. So this is great to have in your home. Make sure you get it, a nebulizer, get some colloidal silver, and have that ready to go for this winter season ahead.

This is a must. It's an absolute must. And then the second one I mentioned just a few seconds ago- it is a must- is also having some type of sinus irrigation. Especially with littles, you need to be irrigating their sinus cavity. You know, most of those those little babies, they need that- they need their nose sucked and drained, so those little nose Friedas are great.

And then you can get these like neti bowls that you fill up with salt solution, distilled water plus salt, and you just squirt through their nose, wash out their sinus cavity, suck it out. For us as adults we can use a sinu gator from NeilMed or any type of sinus irrigation system and that is fantastic at preventing like sinus infections that are secondary to a respiratory virus that we see a lot. We should be irrigating our sinuses every day especially again here in Knoxville, but even if you did it once a week or have it when you are showing any signs of respiratory illness, again, helps prevent secondary infections. That's why it's- that's so important. It's not just the virus.

It's also preventing secondary sinus infections or respiratory infections. Something like a mycoplasma pneumonia, that's straight bacterial, hey, we may need to do some different interventions there. But with most viral infections, preventing secondary infections are so so important. So again, salt solution through the nose, salt solution through a respiratory nebulizer, should be in your home ready to go this upcoming fall season. Alright.

What's a- what's another health hack, in essence? So my daughter yesterday, so we're filming this on Thursday so this is Wednesday, comes home and she immediately after school looks like she just got hit with a Mack truck. And it was either, hey, are you tired? It's first day of school. Or are you expressing symptoms of virus?

So for her, she was expressing symptoms of virus. Pretty obvious. So what did I do? Okay. So this was last night.

Got home about 6 o'clock. We gave her the immunaberry, which is that beta glucan, you know, mushroom extract elderberry formulation that we talked about last week that's in the office as part of our wellness package for the upcoming season. So gave her an immunaberry. Then the next step was I adjusted her, immediately adjusted her, upper cervical spine to help initiate the rest, and digest this and call it parasympathetic nervous system. So immediately adjusted her atlas, it was her first bone in the neck, and then gave her a very high dose of vitamin a.

Vitamin a is a strong antiviral and immune stimulator. So I gave her a liquid form of emulsified vitamin a and then put her butt to bed. And she slept from like 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock all the way through till this morning about 8 AM. She woke up, she's probably 80% today. So she had a really good immune response to whatever she was fighting, seemed like she handled it pretty well.

For us, that's kind of our go- that's our go to, like when we have illness sickness, we're going to stimulate immune system health, we're gonna stimulate the nervous system to help fight the virus, we're gonna put that baby to bed, and we're going to pray over that child and see if she can, you know, really bring some life back to her body within 24, 48 hours. And she crushed it. She really did. She is healthy today. She looks great.

She's out, moving around getting sunlight. So this kind of helps us set the example of, hey, if she if she's displayed any signs of respiratory illness, we would have immediately done nebulizing today. She's not seeing- we're not seeing anything like that. But if we do, which could still come, we're gonna use that colloidal silver nebulizing trick. This is now leading into the rest of today's episode which is okay.

We talked about a nebulizer and irrigation. Then I mentioned in that protocol vitamin a. Vitamin a is antiviral. They actually give it in third world countries. They give high dosage vitamin a for the treatment of measles.

And so an emulsified vitamin a heavy dose so come to the office, we'll talk about what that dosing is because you can't just take a ton of vitamin a consistently, you can create liver type toxicity with it. So there has to be a very specific dosing, but we give a high dose vitamin a and then we got her adjusted. Chiropractic care for kids is vital in this season. If your kid's not getting adjusted every week, this is your public service announcement. Get them adjusted.

Get them adjusted every single week. No matter how busy life is, no matter how crazy life is, get them adjusted. Why? Because chiropractic care is not about instantly feeling better. It's about instantly healing better.

And I think that's very important to know that chiropractic care in kids is not designed to make them feel better when they walk out. It's to up regulate the function of their nervous system which drives immune system health. And this can help their bodies handle infections through the fall winter more effectively than kids that are not getting adjusted. So what does this look like? Instrument assisted adjustments that we do in the office are fantastic in helping shift the immune system properly.

There are studies that show an increase in natural killer cells after an adjustment. These are cells that go throughout the body and kill viruses. So I want you to be bringing your kids into me when they're sick. That's the most important time to get adjusted. Don't stay at home and pop a bunch of pills.

Come to the office. Let's get them adjusted. Let's take a look at them. That's why we exist, to help you when you're not doing well and your kids aren't doing well, not when you're doing well. Okay?

Not only when you're doing well, but obviously when you're in those moments where you're needing advice, support, and care. Specifically, the upper cervical spine is a fantastic area of the spine to work with because it regulates a part of the nervous system called the rest and digest part. And this allows the body to rest, break stress responses, up regulate the immune systems, particularly natural killer cells, and allow your body to fight- and your kid's body to fight infections better. So that is one other part to this, like, this, like, blend of, you know, irrigation or nebulizing, you know, immuniberry, vitamin a, chiropractic adjustment. And something that we're doing for the month of August for kids returning back to school is we are discounting your new patient appointment for kids.

So if you're listening to this and you've never had your kids checked, never been adjusted, now's the time. Call one of the offices at the Health Factory Armor Health and talk about this podcast and you'll get a discount on your new patient appointment. The last thing, sleep. Put your kid to bed. Now, how much sleep?

We alluded to it in your previous episode but we need to set a healthy rhythm of sleep to where kids in grade school we're gonna talk really high school below, specifically middle school below need 10 hours of sleep. High school can get away with about 8 hours, but that's, like, bare minimum. Middle school below, we really need to be at 10 hours sleep. So what does this look like? It means you're starting bedtime at 8 o'clock.

That's what that means. And I know that may seem like really, wow, that's a shock, but if you start the rhythm of, like, nighttime at 8, shut electronics down. Right? Brush teeth, have story time, bible time, pray, relax, be in a dark environment. Their nervous system's already shutting down.

They're able to get to bed sooner. Okay? So let's just say they get to bed and they fall asleep at 8:30 or 9 o'clock and they're up by 7, 6:30, 7. Guys, we just knocked out 10 hours. So we want to try to strive for a healthy rhythm of sleep where we are putting them to bed at the same time and waking up the same time.

Okay? So we're trying to go for 10 hours and then high school students, college students, adults can operate closer to that 8 hour mark, but we still really are trying to get 8 hours of a consistent sleep pattern. Be the example parent. Like set the example in your home. Don't be on your computer, laptop, phone, iPad, TV at 10 o'clock and then tell- and scream to your kids in their bedroom, go to bed, turn your turn your electronics off.

No. You should be in bed setting a healthy rhythm and pace for your whole family. Set the example. Be the example for your kids. I promise you.

They will look to you with action not with words. Your action speaks louder than the words you're speaking. Okay? So be the example, set the example. Let's try to get 8 to 10 hours sleep per night.

And if we are, taking some of those strategies we talked about nebulizing, vitamin a, immuno berry, chiropractic adjustments and restful sleep, we are definitely expressing health in our children. So as we're raising healthy children in this month of August, be mindful of some of the things we talked about in the beginning of the episode of viral loads and bacterial loads that are existing in our culture, especially in Knoxville. If you need any help, we're here to serve you, care for you, love you in any way possible. Thanks again for listening to another episode of the Real Health Podcast.