Today, it has become “normal” that children spend most of their youth being sick with a runny nose, coughing or allergies. Parents have the mindset that it is normal for their child(ren) to be sick because they are surrounded by other children – at home, daycare, school, parks, etc. This is not true. It is not normal to be sick all the time – young or old.
Children’s illnesses range from a minor ear infection to a 24- hour virus to cancer. Any illness stems from physical, chemical and mental/emotional stress. At the Functional Medicine Center, we determine what stresses your child is experiencing through comprehensive, non-invasive testing and eliminate the stress(es). Most importantly, once stress is eliminated, we repair the damage caused by stress. A few of the common stressors in children include food allergies or food sensitivities. Food allergies may be a catalyst to imbalanced immune system function. This could either be increased as in autoimmune conditions like psoriasis, low thyroid, Rheumatoid arthritis, or Multiple Sclerosis. If decreased things like chronic ear infections, constant colds and AIDS. Determining food allergies/sensitivities can be done numerous ways, like muscle testing, blood or saliva testing but a combination is usually most accurate with the least amount of false negatives.
When you have a food sensitivity or allergy your GALT (Gut Associated Lymphatic Tissue) will be activated. If the GALT is irritated the body’s adrenal glands will produce an increased amount of cortisol. An increase in cortisol leads to gut deterioration causing the body to go into a “flight or fight” mode. The body is protecting itself from being attacked – trying to prevent the GALT from deteriorating. Increased cortisol also weakens the immune system globally as well as in your child’s gut, known as “leaky gut”. Leaky gut causes absorption of larger than normal proteins (foreigners) into the body, causing inflammation, which in turn leads to more leaky gut, allergies, adrenal stress and more immune system involvement. If left long enough and with a genetic predisposition this can be the trigger of an autoimmune condition in your child. This could also be the major contributor to air borne allergies like dog hair, grass, pollen etc.
Furthermore, a weakened immune system causes a chain reaction throughout the body causing your child to be more prone to infections. A leaky gut makes a good home for bad “bugs”. Antibiotics kill theses bad bugs, but they also kill the good bugs. Without any good bugs, your child is at risk for further imbalance in gut flora (good bugs) which leads to fungal and/or yeast infections. Ear, nose and throat infections are not only caused by bacteria. These infections can also be caused by fungus. Antibiotics do not cure fungal infections, in fact, they worsen the infection.
At the Functional Medicine Center, Dr. Ozzie uses specifically designed medical foods and products that can only be prescribed by a physician to repair the damage. Dr. Ozzie also looks at the structure and mental/emotional components as these may also be major catalysts to your child’s weakened.