Kids Immunity Basics

There are obvious concerns about our children going back to school. Beyond still navigating a pandemic, there will be other illnesses present in the coming months. Colder weather on the horizon means more people stay inside, get less sunlight exposure, and are typically together in confined spaces. We break down a few simple ways to help boost your children’s immunity and help guard against illness.

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Brian Strickland  00:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to Nutrition Made Simple a video series that we created that takes a look at topics surrounding natural health. And then we break them down into easy to understand and actionable steps that anyone can take. My name is Brian Strickland, and here with me, again is Ed Jones. He's the owner and founder of Nutrition World. And for the month of August, we've been taking a look at some back to school basics essentially, last week, we talked about a holistic approach to ADD and ADHD and gave some pointers there. But this week, we're going to be talking about immunity. And we're going to give some basic tips and maybe some things that you haven't thought about yet to keep your kids well and give them a fighting chance as they enter, enter in back to school. So with that being said, we're going to hop right into this information. And one of the things that we talked about all the time, and we will continue to talk about is the effects of sugar on the body. And one of the big things that actually does affect is immunity right?

Ed Jones  01:11

Big time. And I remember reading books in the 70s from a guy named Dr. Don Spock and I would tell my dad, I would say Dr. Don Spock says sugar makes us have a weak immune system. No one believed that at all back in those days. Well, we still have a lot of people who don't understand the significance of excessive sugar. We know that through some studies, not all, when you consume even not too excessive, but a modest amount of sugar for hours, your immune system goes into a weakened state. That means that if you're at that point, we're around someone who is sickly, you're going to have much higher risk of getting it. We have a lot of protective mucosal membranes and different parts of the immune system. The frontline defense of immune system often stops you from being sick, and you never even knew you got exposed. But when you eat sugar, it drops those front lines. And it allows things to go in that shouldn't. And when you look at the quantity of sugar, just in a bowl of cereal expecially, the kid cereals, it's no wonder we have a nation that has never been sicker in the history of this United States than it has been in the past many, many years.

Brian Strickland  02:27

Yeah. Yeah. And of course, without the sugar in the high carb diet, you have to replace it with something. And so that often looks like moderate proteins, and high amounts of healthy fats. Right?

Ed Jones  02:40

That's right, and also less processed carbs. I'm not saying not eat them. Kids don't need me on the kind of keto diet that I tend to live on most of the time. But we have to clean up some of this excessiveness if we desire better health. And the people who design foods and advertise them are masters of manipulation. They're making magic words out of natural and, and all the like unprocessed, even organic. That doesn't mean that that is a healthy product, you have to be a detective and look at these things. And when you see a breakfast meal of any kind, it doesn't matter if it's a waffle, a pop tart, a cereal, you're devastating your children's hope of a good immune system by giving us each and every day. The problem is they're addicted. You cannot give this for more than a few months without an addictive quality happening within the brain. The brain gets used to it as it does nicotine. It wants and wants and wants. So we have to learn about the significance and then try to teach the children as they're embracing a little bit different breakfast, and hopefully some other meals of the day. 

Brian Strickland  03:50

But breakfast seems to be one of the worst, right? 

Ed Jones  03:52

Yeah, absolutely.

Brian Strickland  03:53

So moving into more of the supplement realm, one of the big things that kind of came to light through the last year we'll say is vitamin D, and vitamin d3, I should say. Can you just explain why it's so important and what it does to affect the immune system? And why it should be a consideration for kids going back to school? 

Ed Jones  04:17

Well, first off, we are also in a nation of a large amount of kids and adults are deficient in vitamin D, at least 50% Why? Well we use suntan lotion. We keep our clothes on, where are many times in parts of the country, we just don't get that much sun. I know by looking at so many blood tests that even people who have tans does not guarantee that you're going to have blood level of 50 nanograms or above which I believe as many experts do that that's the sweet spot for the best immune system, best mental state best bone health. In fact, before I did this, I looked on PubMed which is the source of Probably the most reputable science out there. And I do have to do a warning. A lot of the headlines are based in science that's not reputable. It's a paid for science. But PubMed seems to be the better place. It's where most physicians go to. I went in and typed in vitamin D. Children's Health, just on the first page, and there's actually 5600 studies on PubMed. It talked about vitamin D, about how it prevents acute respiratory issues, bone health issues, oral health problems, ADHD, Pregnancy issues, autism, on and on and on. Vitamin D is actually like a hormone is actually a hormone more than it is a nutrient. And it runs and monitors a lot of the genetic expressions within the human body. And we know from history that rickets was the number one problem of vitamin D deficiency. And if you have a blood test of 20 or less, which I've seen many people with 20 or less, if that was that person growing up, they're going to have bone deformities. It is so easy. It is so safe. It is so reasonable. Why more experts are not embracing it is a sad story.

Brian Strickland  06:12

Yeah. As far as amounts are concerned, I mean, yes, it is a safe nutrient. There can be some side effects if you take too much, obviously. But what kind of range of intake should we be looking at for say, kids?

Ed Jones  06:28

Well, kids four and above, somewhere between 1000 and 2000 is the minimum that I would be doing. And again, if they have medical conditions, we're not practicing medicine, we're not telling you to treat anything with it. We're giving good lifestyle advice. But it's so easy to get 1000 units out of a dropper where you can put two or three drops into something they drink, they'll never know it gummy bears liquids off a spoon. And I'm still a huge believer that the sun has magical properties to it. I do not believe as some headlines have always said that we should run from the sun. It actually reduces some of the disease's we have including, believe it or not, Manas sun reduces skin cancer, excessive sun causes it but modest reduces it. So following the rules and wisdom of nature has been my whole life. And I rarely never really actually seen nature go wrong if we truly know what it's trying to teach us.

Brian Strickland  07:25

Yeah, absolutely. Next on the list is zinc, which is another big immune booster that is often popular when cold and flu season comes around. Why is that? What is zinc actually doing in our body that helps immunity?

Ed Jones  07:40

If they want to make rats have weak immune systems, they can create a diet that's low in zinc. Thanks very important part of the orchestra of how the immune system works by stimulating all the different lymphocytes and neutrophils in the parts of the system that go after as the enemy comes in and attacks it. And when we're low in it, skin issues, big time, smell, taste, hair, but then immune system. I'm a huge fan of getting this from foods not I don't think at all that we should live on supplements, supplements or the insurance. Because we have such unpredictable sources of food sometimes. Some of the raw nuts are phenomenal with zinc. And so encourage your child to eat a lot of the raw nuts once they're cooked in those bad oils, you pretty much negated a lot of the benefit. So I mean, here at nutritional we're one of the few stores that sell organic nuts. Most stores sell nuts, but they're not organic nuts.

Brian Strickland  08:39

Um, one thing that may not be on a lot of parents or or people in general, is actually mold. Because it's in more places than we often think it is. It's a it's a sneaky little thing. So what about mold in the home? How is that actually going to affect long term immunity? And what can be done about it?

Ed Jones  09:03

You're right, the word sneaky is perfect for the mold issue. I have listened to 10s of 1000s of stories watched people search for answers and struggle with health for over four decades. Traditional Medicine really doesn't embrace mold, because one is there's not a good test. If I thought I was exposed to mold and I had it and I went in to get traditional bloodwork. There really isn't anything that can you confirm it. It's not like a bacterial infection, right? But I'm telling you that mold is and can be and has been one of the most devastating issues that decreased the immune system cause hypersensitivity where people can't be in rooms with any odors and they have a tiny list of foods they can eat. anxiety, depression, it there's almost nothing that mold can't trigger that may be different than coffee. But it can trigger almost everything. And the fact that we have so many tight buildings. And if you've ever had a water leak in your house I don't care was 20 years ago, you're going to have something growing because mold loves three things. It loves darkness, it loves moisture. And it loves heat. The our human body is the perfect grounds to grow mold because it has all three of those. And breathing it on a constant basis, you can get it in and you might not have a symptom, and you might, and it's not surgically removed. It actually takes botanicals, I believe heavily in the use of natural botanicals to help decrease this mold. But the key number one is figuring out if you keep being exposed to it and your children, you kind of have to look for it, we sell actually these petri dishes you put in your bedroom or house, and it catches the mold spores and then you watch it grow. If you have mold spores after about three days, then you know you have an issue. And they're not totally accurate, because some people actually have mold from the previous house they lived in. So the house they're in now may not have it but the previous one did. The body doesn't know how to handle mode very well, it can do bacteria, pretty good new viruses extremely well, if you're healthy, but mold, it just sneaks around it is the sneakiest little devil.

Brian Strickland  11:14

So if it is present in the home, or there are other things that people can do to help protect themselves against it.

Ed Jones  11:21

It's limited, there are things maintaining a humidity of about 36% tends to make the mold go dormant. That means if it's over 45% means too humid or under 25% to not humid to dry, it can actually create more of the energy for the mold. That's not, that's not impossible to keep it around 36. But you gotta have the right equipment. So that's the first thing is to maintain that. I think I'm a huge fan also of the ozone and heppa filters. Regular filters, don't remove it. But a type of infrared and or ozone with heppa in a bedroom can be a really good plus expecially for your children. If you can't get out of your house, and you're not really even sure if you have it, get them the right air of air filtration and let them at least have a sleep sanctuary where the air is not feeding it into themselves. Yeah,

Brian Strickland  12:15

That's good advice. And last on the list that we have today is talking about the microbiome. gut health is severely important when it comes to immunity. And I'm sure we'll touch on that in just a minute. But what is it about the microbiome that is so important and how can we encourage a healthy gut bacteria and kids?

Ed Jones  12:37

It is one of probably the most powerful influences on our immune system. And you know, nature, again, natural pharmacy, which we all have built into us has been negated the doors have been closed into this pharmacy because of our lifestyle. And it's not all our fault because our opportunities in some ways have been open and otherwise closed. Roundup, which is sprayed on all foods is an antibiotic. And if you get organic, you're going to get far less of that. If you can budget for organic please do so. Because roundups killing a lot of the good bacteria are our gut is like a massive parking lot has a billion parking spaces. Well guess what? Something's gonna park in every single space. But the problem is 80% of was parking there now are troublemakers. They are not helping our immune system. They're negating it because they're trying to survive on their own. They're not a friend or foe. Well, taking antibiotics, round up, non sterile or anti inflammatories, chlorine in water, too much sugar, blank, blank, blank, all of these kill it. Now you don't have a problem with killing it as long as it's moderate in dose and we replace it. How do you replace it? It's not with a single cup of sweetened yogurt. We have three pounds of bacteria in our gut and as an adult, that would be like throwing a little handful of sand on the beach and expecting some difference to happen. It's just not. How do we do it? We need cultured foods. We need the right probiotics from the right manufacturer. Yeah, we need to be therapeutic with it, we need to be consistent with it. We need to make sure that we're that we maybe even move around and use different brands of probiotic. It's like planting a garden and we want to plant all these good guys within us. I've done many stool tests, and I found it's kind of limited. It's slow growing, this does not happen in a week, it took me almost five months to go from one stage of stool implant to a better stage by using very hot dosing. And in children it would be about the same.

Brian Strickland  14:43

Yeah. And obviously this can be a little tricky with kids too, because we want to encourage it from food sources as well. Cultured foods, fermented foods and obviously that's probably not high on the list for most kids as far as what's appealing to their taste buds. But with that being said, we do have several options for probiotic supplements that for kids that are either sweetened with stevia or something like Richard tall, so you're not getting the sugar in them, but you're still getting all the benefits from this healthy bacteria. Anything else that you want to touch on to wrap it up?

Ed Jones  15:18

I would like to say that when you go in and shop for probiotics for children, the studies really are very clear about four and a half to five years old, they actually the gut is switching or attempting to to the adult versions, when you see children's versions of probiotics, I'm usually very disappointed in them because they're too weak, and they don't have enough to truly make a significant difference. Some do, and they're better than nothing. But when your child gets about five, and again, if medical issues are an issue, then you ask your doctor or health professional, but if they're perfectly fine, I suggest adult versions from five and on because then you get the potency and even if you pull the capsule apart and put it on apple sauce if they can't swallow, there's plenty of options to make this happen. And lastly, because you have a parking lot full of these billions of spaces that something's parked in you know sometimes if you're a have a trouble section of town and you bring the police in there can be some fighting initially while the police tried to control the the negative influences. Same with the probiotics don't think because you had a day or two of gas that is a negative thing. It's actually sometimes pushing the back bad bacteria out.

Brian Strickland  16:27

Yeah, precisely. Alright, everyone. That's it for this week. We really hope this information was helpful and some things that you can take away and do to help protect your kids as they go back to school. As always, if you ever have any questions about what we talked about, please feel free to comment or reach out to us via phone email. Leave a comment on our social media. We're always happy to help in any way that we can. Thank you so much for watching. Be sure to like and subscribe for more content just like this. And we'll see you next time on Nutrition Made Simple. Take care everyone. Thank you.