How Food And Lifestyle Was The Answer To A Health Crisis

Introduction to Root Cause Medicine 0:00

Hi, and welcome to the second mini masterclass. I'm Doctor Joel Gator, your host of the ADHD, Autism and Chronic Disease Parenting Summit. And today I wanted to talk about a case that was really near and dear to me. One of the first cases where I really understood how powerful integrative medicine was and what a difference it could have, or really just thinking about root cause, and how that affected a child and why I think this is such a powerful health tool, and why I created the natural parenting course in general, and why I wrote my book, Parenting at Your Child's

A Child's Mysterious Recurrent Illness 0:44

Pace, and talk online on Instagram doctor Jill Gaiter about all these concepts, because what we do really does matter. And the media, for some reason, and the things that we're seeing these days seem to put everything on genetics, and it really takes away our power. And we do have so much power over these conditions. Yes, absolutely. Genetics contributes to our conditions, but oftentimes it's really just our environment. It's the things that we're doing. And as parents, we have to take charge of our children's health because we can make a difference.

And this was highlighted to me early on in my career. I was a physician in a great, hospital, wonderful pediatrics program here in Los Angeles. And I was the doctor, the resident task, with this patient, was about 7 or 8 years old and remember. Exactly. I think he was eight, and he was in and out of the hospital every few weeks with all sorts of conditions. Nobody knew what was going on or why this kid was sick. He was having inflammation, swelling, terrible rashes, infections, but they really could never find anything.

When they were doing the workups, he would just come in. It would flare up that it would get worse, and then we would watch him for a little bit and he would get better and the team that was there would watching him and he would get better. And this child happened to be on my team that day. And I walked into the room to do my exam and to talk to the family and to find out how this child was doing.

Food, Lifestyle, and Environmental Changes 2:04

And I looked around the room and saw all sorts of snacks and treats. And really crappy food, all over the place. And this child was just gorging himself on this food and, it's really just odd to me. And when I was talking on rounds to the team about this patient, you know, I said, we'll have. Have we ever talked about what this child's eating? Because, you know, it seems like there's just a lot of snack food, and I don't see a lot of healthy food around here. And everybody kind of laughed it off and kind of shrugged it off as being ridiculous.

And that's not what we're here for. And that's what the family can worry about after. But luckily, grandma was in the room that day, and, she pulled me aside later in that day and she said, you know, Doctor Joel, it was really nice to hear you talk about the food that that my aunt, my grandchild, is eating. I have been concerned about that. I've mentioned it to the parents, but they don't really ever want to listen to me about it. And I have some concerns about that. And I've always thought it was a problem.

And I'm wondering if, you know, maybe if I talk to the parents, if you think that maybe you could see this child, but when they get out of the hospital, in the clinic and, and talk about some of the stuff with them. And so, yeah, I said yes. And she did convince the parents to come see me. And over the next little bit we talked about all these things. We talked about the diet, and getting out the sugary foods and the snacks. We, we talked about, the lifestyle and exercise. And we got this kid moving a little bit more and involved in a couple of activities and sports.

We talked about the environment and some of the things that they were purchasing that were around, and they made some, some changes. And major, they I was sleeping, and it was amazing. I mean, it wasn't reckless. This child got better and I don't know exactly what it was, but there was a specific food or or just everything. But this child who was going to the hospital every few weeks for unknown

Why Environment Matters More Than We Think 3:56

swelling and and and infections and all sorts of things didn't have to go back any more and was getting better and, and just seemed so much more healthy and vibrant. And at that point I was like, you know, there's so much more to learn here, and there's so much more that I need to know. And if patients are going outside of the medical system and getting better, like, why is that happening? And what is this magic that is happening that's making these people get better? And like with this kid, you know, it really wasn't magic, right?

It was probably just the food that he was eating was probably the Doritos and the Oreos and the cookies and whatever, you know, the sugar. But nobody talked about it and nobody thought about it. And it really was just that simple. I mean, it's not always going to be that simple, of course, but if you have a child with a chronic condition like ADHD, or autism or an autoimmune condition before going to anything else, you know, of course, have not any severe symptoms like any other words. You you have to think about these things.

And that is what I discuss in my program, and that is what I discuss in the Masterclass in the Natural Parenting course, because we need to focus on our diet and our health, and we need to focus on our lifestyle. And these changes actually can make a difference. And for whatever reason, we lead not to believe so, but it absolutely is so vital and key. And, I hope you will join me on this journey and enjoy the rest of the summit.