The Hidden Crisis in Children’s Health with Elisa Song, MD

[00:00:00] Dr. Elisa Song: For the very first time ever in history, our kids were expected to have shorter lifespans than us, their parents, all due to diet and lifestyle related diseases. Now that is alarming and yet guess what? We can control what we put in our mouths and how we live. We just have to have the know-how.

[00:00:20] Dr, Melinda Ring: This is Next Level Health. I'm your host, Dr. Melinda Ring, Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Northwestern University. On this show, we explore ways to take actionable steps towards optimizing our health with leaders in the integrative, functional, and lifestyle medicine fields who believe in science backed and time tested approaches to well being. Let's take your health to the next level

[00:00:51] Dr. Melinda Ring: Welcome back to Next Level Health. Raising healthy, resilient kids today can feel like an uphill battle from ultra processed foods and environmental toxins to skyrocketing rates of anxiety and chronic illness and screen time overload. ParentsI feel like they're navigating a minefield, but my guest today believes there's hope and it starts with empowering parents with the right tools. Dr. Elisa Song is a pediatrician like no other. She is board certified in pediatrics. She's trained in functional and integrative medicine, and. Perhaps most importantly, she's a mom herself. For over 25 years, she's been helping families bridge the gap between conventional pediatrics and holistic root cause healing her incredible book, Healthy Kids, Happy Kids, and Integrative Pediatrician's Guide to Whole Gut Child Resilience is a practical. Evidence-based guide that covers everything from the gut health to the vagus nerve, mental health, to immune support. And it couldn't be more timely. And I'll say this personally as a mom of two sons who are now in their twenties, this is a book I wish I'd had when they were growing up. It is the kind of resource that makes you feel both empowered and informed instead of feeling overwhelmed and afraid. And I will say, I got this book. I thought I'm gonna look at it and then give it to my sister who has two little kids. And I'm like, Nope, I'm keeping this and getting her another copy. So I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Elisa Song to the podcast to share her wisdom.So parents, caregivers, grab your notes. App, you are going to want to remember this. Thank you, Elisa, for so much for being here.

[00:02:39] Dr. Elisa Song: thanks for having me. I'm, I'm honored and I'm really grateful to be speaking with your listeners.

[00:02:44] Dr. Melinda Ring: Thank you. All right, so let's just. Jump right in with, maybe some of the more concerning stats we're reading about, about these chronic diseases being on the rise in young people with nearly one in three now estimated to be living with a pediatric onset condition. What are the most concerning trends you're seeing and what do you think is driving this epidemic?

[00:03:11] Dr. Elisa Song: So we have so many different levels of concern for kids' health. We have immune concerns with one in three kids developing eczema, and then once they develop eczema, they can go on this sort of allergic march to eczema, then asthma and then uh, and hay fever. Later on in life we have. Neurodevelopmental concerns. You know, one in 10 kids has a DHD, and when we think about neuropsychiatric concerns, by the time our kids are teenagers, one in three girls is gonna be diagnosed with anxiety and one in three girls. Since the pandemic has actually been found to have seriously considered suicide, and this weighs really heavily on me as I have a teenage daughter right now, and I think, wow, this could be her or any of her friends and we need to.As parents and, and educators and practitioners and grandparents really understand the gravity of this, we have metabolic concerns. I mean, obesity and metabolic syndrome has skyrocketed in our kids, and it's worse for our black and Hispanic children. So addressing all of these, and as parents listening, many of us as adults have autoimmune concerns. Maybe that cropped up when we were 20 or 30 or 40 or later, but that foundation starts in. In the younger years there was one really alarming study that looked at a level of an antibody called a NA anti-nuclear antibody, and they took different age groups and looked at positive a NA rates through the decades and found that the age group with the fastest increase in rates of a NA positivity were our teenagers, our 12 to 18 year olds. Those rates nearly doubled in the eighties to the early two thousands, and then again tripled. So we need to really wake up to this and at the root cause, and why I wrote my book is if we really take that microbiome centric approach, many people have heard all health starts in the gut. All disease starts in the gut. Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine, is credited with saying that now that was. Over 2000 years ago, and we need to really understand that for, especially for our infants and our children, those foundations get set very, very early on in life. And not only that, we as parents have and and our children have so much that they can be empowered with to set that trajectory on a positive course.

[00:05:35] Dr. Melinda Ring: my boys again, again. They're in their twenties, but even in boys, like the amount of anxiety, depression that was happening in their peers, uh, it's really heartbreaking. And as somebody who treats adults to see things like insulin resistance that used to present in midlife, showing up in adolescence and even earlier, it just shows how urgent this really is.

[00:06:00] Dr. Elisa Song: and you know, I'm seeing kids who are athletes who look trim and fit on the outside, and yet when I check a fasting insulin and a fasting glucose, they are out of range or at the very high end of what we would like to have as optimal. And, these kids. This is really a diet and lifestyle related phenomena. Our genes have really not changed in the past century. Over the course of that time, chronic disease has skyrocketed in kids and adults. In 2005, a New England Journal of Medicine article noted that for the very first time ever in history, our kids were expected to have shorter lifespans than us, their parents, all due to diet and lifestyle related diseases. Now that is alarming and yet guess what? We can control what we put in our mouths and how we live. We just have to have the know-how.

[00:06:59] Dr. Melinda Ring: Now you said, and I saw in your book a lot about this, but that idea about that healthy gut. Being the foundation for that healthy body, mind and spirit. And like a great way to start, you know, if we're talking about epigenetics and you know, really having that change happen. So we prevent disease for kids. So for parents, new to the idea, how does gut health influence a child's immune system or their mood or resistance overall resilience. How, what, what role does the gut play? Like why is it so critical?

[00:07:34] Dr. Elisa Song: But we can kind of, we'll separate those out into, you know, the gut immune system connection and the gut brain connection just to make it easier. There's so much overlap and you know, it, it, they're not completely isolated. But when we think about a baby's gut microbiome or, or a toddler or a child's gut microbiome, it looks very different than an older kids, teenagers and adult microbiome, our microbiomes are dynamic throughout our lives, and even once we, we become adults, I mean, even our, our premenopausal microbiomes look very different than our postmenopausal microbiomes. So we're just at the tip of the iceberg of understanding these dynamic changes and the influences on our microbiome. But for a baby, we know that unlike an adult microbiome, they should have very little gut microbial diversity. So what does that mean for an adult? We think, oh, we want a lot of different kinds of good guys in there. We want a lot of bifidobacteria and lactobacillus and something called akkermansia and fatali bacterium that some people may or may not have heard of. In an infant we want up to 80 to a hundred percent of their microbiome composed of bifidobacteria. That's it. It is that important. And bifidobacteria feed their primary food source are these prebiotics, these special sugars found in human breast milk called human milk oligosaccharides. Now, there was a recent study that came out earlier this year. It was a baby biome study that found that, in cesarean section, babies and even vaginally birthed babies three out of four of those babies had insufficient or undetectable levels of bifidobacteria in their gut microbiomes. That is really significant because a bifidobacteria interacts with all of the things going into your baby's mouth and, uh, whether it's food or environmental toxins or whatever it is, and, uh, and pathogens, infections. And trains their immune system to identify, okay, are you an enemy or are you a good guy? You know, am I gonna kind of tolerate you? And this immune tolerance is really important to build so that our immune systems, as we get older, they're not responding and reacting and allergic to every single thing. Right now, we know that this lack of bifidobacteria can increase the risk of things like eczema and asthma and anaphylactic food allergies, and one in 13 kids nowadays has anaphylactic food allergies. I mean, when I was a resident and a medical student, I don't even remember ever writing a prescription for an EpiPen and guaranteed the listeners today, whether they are practitioners or parents, either care for a child who has anaphylactic food allergies or know a child who has anaphylactic food allergies. So our immune systems, our kids' immune systems are not getting trained appropriately. That bifidobacteria is so important for that. Now, when we talk about children. Brain development, that same bifidobacteria is responsible for helping coordinate your baby's stress response and also creating a lot of calming beneficial neurotransmitters, or what we really used to think of as brain chemicals, but they're really gut chemicals like. Serotonin, which is our kind of feel good, relax, calming neurotransmitter and gaba, which is also another very calming neurotransmitter. And when babies don't have enough bifidobacteria to train their developing brain connections, we can see without an increased risk for mental health concerns later on in life. And that includes anxiety and depression and ADHD and other neuropsychiatric concerns. In fact, your child's brain is exploding with these connections called synaptic connections. Um, you know, from the moment that they're born. I mean, you can literally see their wheels turning right, and their brain's changing. Well, that actually mirrors this. Explosion in, in development and progression of their infant microbiome. And if their microbiome doesn't develop in the appropriate way, we can have downstream later on increased risk for the concerns that we're trying to prevent. So the best prevention in life would be to start all babies off with an optimal gut microbiome. Well, what if my kids are already teenagers or they're in their 20s or I have adult children? It's never too late to restore and optimize even a disrupted gut microbiome. The key is knowing where to start. I will say that, the earlier you start, the easier it is to make these shifts, but it's never too late, and that's why it's so important to be aware of this.

[00:12:17] Dr. Melinda Ring: I certainly see these gut-brain immune pathways that you're describing in kids showing up in conditions with adults too so no question that whatever age we're seeing that it is relevant. Now, I'm, you brought up this study that I wasn't aware of and you know, I always think of. Uh, you know, I know the problem with some of the C-sections is that, that the baby's gut microbiome is, uh, in great part populated by going through the mom's vaginal canal and, and acquiring that. And so now we have more awareness of that. C-section shouldn't be the go-to. Um, that's not something that moms necessarily have control over at the time. Is the microbiome issue that you were describing about the lack of bifidobacterium. Is it because of lack of breastfeeding or something in the environment, like what's happening? Do you have a gun? Is there awareness of why the infants little, little guys are not having an adequate microbiome because that's so early.

[00:13:26] Dr. Elisa Song: It's so early, and you're right. You know, we understand that, you know, babies who are born by cesarean section compared to vaginally birthed babies tend to develop a microbiome that has more, you know, skin bacteria. It makes sense. I mean, they're born, you know, kind of out of our, our, out of our bellies and, into the hands of, surgeons. Right. Um, and same thing with formula feeding that can shift the microbiome to a more allergic potential signature. Um, and, and really that is in large part because of the bifidobacteria that doesn't have a chance to grow and take hold. But this study was really surprising that even vaginally born babies had this issue. Right. And there's another study, um, I mean this is, this is a hundred years ago, a Scottish pathologist who actually looked at baby microbiomes, I mean, in, in a much more limited way than of course the, the technology that we have now. But they could still do cultures back then. What he found was that breastfed babies back then a hundred years ago, had nearly a hundred percent bifidobacteria in their microbiomes as opposed to, you know, whatever formula looked like then even back then, some babies out of necessity needed to be formula fed. Those babies had different microbiomes, and then fast forward, when we compare the microbiomes of breastfed babies today, those babies microbiomes actually look much more similar to the formula fed baby microbiomes of a hundred years ago. to your point, what has shifted? Well, one of the major things that have shifted is also our microbiomes as mothers, right? I mean, you know, due to, um, how we're eating the environmental toxins that we're exposed to, endocrine disruptors we're exposed to, um, psychological stress. I mean, ultra processed foods, you name it. All of those have been shown to be microbiome disruptors, and in my book, I call them microbiome mischief makers, but they absolutely can knock down your beneficial bacteria and sometimes even preferentially preserve the, the, the quote bad bacteria like clostridia that we don't want. We as moms, are vaginal and gut microbiomes play a huge role and so we wanna try to optimize those even before, I would say, even before we conceive Dads don't get off scot-free though. Right? There's even literature now. I mean most of these are animal studies, but literature finding that the state of dad's microbiome before conception influences birth outcomes, you know, things like birth weight and even postnatal complications and, uh, and mortality. So we understand now the role of the microbiome in that. Epigenetic priming that occurs even before babies are conceived. So, so if we can move way upstream and ideally, um, you know, optimize both parents microbiomes and mothers gut and vaginal microbiome before conception and then really nurture and nourish that mama during pregnancy to maintain that healthy microbiome, um, and support vaginal birth and breastfeeding and skin to skin and all the things that would be, um, you know, present in an ideal world, then our babies, yes, would, would start off with an amazing footing. Um, but. Ideals don't always happen. And you know, and there's a reason why we have, um, uh, necessary birthing interventions when babies get in trouble. But it's just recognizing, as you said, that c-sections should not be the go-to. We still have an unacceptably high rate. Uh. Of c-sections that, that really on, on many planes would be considered more voluntary. I'm not talking about the urgent c-sections where they're, they're absolutely necessary for, for mom and baby. Um, so then if babies are born by C-section or need to be formula fed, then we wanna support that baby's gut microbiome. Now there are companies that, uh, that have these human milk oligosaccharides in supplement form to feed that bifidobacteria. Uh, and, and I would say even for, uh, vaginally birth and breastfed babies, 'cause I have some mamas who come in, well, you know, I had a natural vaginal birth. I breastfed for, you know, a year and a half and my baby still has eczema, they still have asthma. Well, there's still a lot in our environment and in our world that is kind of countering a healthy microbiome from developing so, so even with that foundation, that's awesome, but many still need that support.

[00:18:03] Dr. Melinda Ring: Let's talk about one other disruptor. It is common, but can disrupt the gut health, which is antibiotics. And this topic hits home for me because when my older son was a baby, he had a urinary issue. He needed to be on daily antibiotics during the first year of his life. And you know, like most parents, uh, I trusted. What I was told by the pediatric urologist, I didn't think about the long-term impacts at that point in my career. But looking back, I, um, you know, I wonder how did that affect his gut health? What, what, what might I do differently now? With what I know now, and so I'd love your perspective on what today's parents should be thinking about before starting antibiotics and, and then maybe there are things they can do to support their child's recovery afterwards, especially in those critical early years.

[00:18:58] Dr. Elisa Song: Yeah, this is so important and I, I kind of, I wanna shout this out to every parent and practitioner because, you know, we, we, we know now so much more about the long-term and unintended consequences of antibiotic use, whether appropriate or not. Now, I say that because in some studies, up to 70% of antibiotic prescriptions written for children are inappropriate. Because most of what children suffer from in terms of infections are viral, and so many are going to be inappropriately prescribed. But regardless, it doesn't matter whether it was absolutely necessary or not, it's still going to immediately disrupt the gut microbiome because antibiotics you know, for, for listeners who may not be thinking about antibiotics in this way, of course we want them to kill the bad bugs, but they don't care what they kill. They kind of like raise the, the, the ground and, and kill everything in their way. And some antibiotics even kill bad bacteria while preserving good bacteria, which is why we get the case sometimes where people will have an overgrowth of c diff and have problems with that, right? Because the c diff is not touched by certain antibiotics. And so when we also look at some of the studies, and these are studies that I want pediatric practitioners, um, you know, family practice practitioners, anyone who actually works with, future parents, current parents and children should know that, you know, there was this one very large study, nearly 800,000 children. It was a military study. It was published back in 2016, so we're heading now almost nine years later. So this study looked at 800 a thousand children and assessed antibiotic use in the first six months of life. And followed these children, antibiotic or antacid medication use in the first six months of life, and found that that significantly increased the risk, even doubled the risk of virtually every single allergic disorder by the time those kids were four years of age. So we're talking asthma, eczema, hay fever, hives, anaphylactic food allergies. Another really large study. This was, uh, I believe it was close to a million birth pairs in Denmark. Um, I looked at antibiotic exposure to babies, uh, in the first two years of life. And that included, um, in utero exposure, meaning if moms got an antibiotic for, for like a sinus infection or, um, you know, received antibiotics during the delivery because of group B strep vaginal colonization and found that those babies who were exposed to antibiotics had a significantly increased risk of mental health concerns by the time they were older kids or teenagers. And the highest risk occurred when those antibiotics were received in the first six months of life. Now we know this even from adult studies. In fact, in adult studies, we can see there's an increased risk of depression, anxiety after antibiotics. With this huge rise in anxiety and depression, if we can trace back, oh, actually I did have antibiotics last year and then all of a sudden I'm feeling more anxious than I used to. Well, that's because the gut microbiome has been disrupted. And so if we as practitioners understood that, even when we need to prescribe antibiotics, I'm not saying don't prescribe necessary antibiotics. What I am saying, be mindful about it and help support and educate your patients to recover their gut microbiome. And like I said, for parents listening, I mean, your son was on antibiotics for the first two years of life and that's what we did. Right? I mean, he had to because we didn't want him to get a urinary tract infection or a kidney infection as a baby. Um, my daughter is two weeks old. Itty bitty baby developed a urinary tract infection and my son at, you know, five weeks of age developed strep. Now, strep throat was going around our, we went to a family wedding and he didn't get strep throat because babies don't usually present with that. He had strep like pus coming out of his ear and that grew out of strep. And so of course. I'm gonna give antibiotics. I did cringe a little bit, but I knew, okay, I absolutely need to do this. Now. I was fortunate enough, know enough to know, all right, this is gonna set their microbiome back a little bit. Let's do everything we can to support their microbiomes. But even if now, I mean at, at 15 and 14, if I were looking back and they were having issues, I would, I would know, okay, let's look at their gut microbiome. So.

[00:23:23] Dr. Melinda Ring: Yeah. Yeah, right. We certainly have. To say like, we have compassion for us as we are as parents, and we do the best we can. And there, you know, like you said, it's never too late.

[00:23:34] Dr. Elisa Song: So moving into then, the restoration of the gut, uh, as someone who teaches culinary medicine, I have to say, I, I drooled over your recipes. You call them recipe hacks in your book. And wow, there's so many homemade fermented foods. I can only imagine what your kitchen looks like. Um. I'm curious, how do you find that kids react to the tanginess of these fermented foods? Are they, I guess they're a little bit of an acquired taste.

It definitely is an acquired taste. Right? Um, I mean, my kids right now, they're 15 and, and, um. 14. Um, we brew our own kombucha. And for those of you who, um, are familiar with kombucha, um, that's made with a combination usually of, um, black or green tea and sugar that feeds, um, this. Beautiful round, you know, round living organism called a scoby. Uh, which I mean, I think brewing kombucha is one of the most fun things you could ever do. Uh, we also brew our own John, which is similar, but it uses honey instead of sugar, but that same scoby and, and you know, with green tea. And so, um, they've gotten used to that tanginess of kombucha because some people, even when they first drink kombucha, um. Either they gravitate towards the ones that are super sweetened, you know, and, and lots and lots of sugar and fruit juices added to it. Um, or they just don't like that tanginess. So now they've gotten used to it. And you know, in, in, in the book, uh, in my book, you can see, you can actually ferment so many different things. I

[00:25:06] Dr. Melinda Ring: I know So

[00:25:07] Dr. Elisa Song: So many. I mean, my mind was blown when I went to one of our Locos farmer's markets. There is, um, a company called Wise Goat, um, organics. And, and you know, she ferments, um, of course cabbage with lots of different, um, sauerkrauts and vegetables and kimchi. Um, but she had fermented salsa. And that got my mind thinking, oh my gosh, if you could ferment salsa, you could probably ferment any condiment, and you actually can, it just gives it a little bit of a tangy flavor. But, um, but what way, if you're, I mean, how many kids love ketchup? Right? I mean, my son was like, okay, you're gonna have, you know, some ketchup with your french fries, not the other way around. And using that as a vehicle to scoop in as much ketchup as possible, right? I certainly am not gonna say that our family is perfect and I definitely cringe sometimes when my kids are out with their friends and, and some of the choices that they make. But, they know, and I know it comes back because I have kids who are now, have graduated from my practice and, you know, are in college. They read parts of my book and they've, they've written to me and said, Dr. Song, you know, I chose this package. You know, I know I'm, I know I'm buying packaged foods, but you know, I chose this at Trader Joe's to make, and, and, you know, making really those good choices.

[00:26:23] Dr. Melinda Ring: there's one other topic I wanted to talk about, uh, and focus a little bit on because you have a whole section on the vagus nerve. Calling it the bridge between the gut and the brain and the key to the kid's, a kid's resilience. So maybe just a really short overview of how that important nerve influences health, and what are some ways that parents can help their children strengthen their vagal tone.

[00:26:51] Dr. Elisa Song: Yeah, so the vagus nerve is such an important topic and how I explain it to kids in the office is we have two kinds of automatic nerve systems in our body that we don't have that much control over. So we have the sympathetic part of our automatic autonomic nervous system, um, that. Activates when we're getting ready for something, you know, some kind of a stress, even if it's a good stress, right? Even if it's, you know, going to Disneyland the next day. But it gets your heart pumping, your pupils dilated. And in, you know, when we were way back, when we were cavemen, it got us ready to fight or to flee, right? We have the balancing part because you know when the Saber two tiger is no longer there, we need to be able to calm that down. And so then we have this other balancing part called the parasympathetic nervous system, which is ruled by the vagus nerve. That helps us. Rest, heal and digest, and we need that balance. The problem nowadays is we are stuck in feeling like we're constantly fighting or running from the saber tooth typer, every little thing. We're late to school. We have a school project. There's a mean text from your friend, you know, you, um, you didn't do well in your soccer tournament, whatever it is, right? Um, so we're constantly running or freezing or, or fighting. Right. And so our vagus nerve here in the parasympathetic doesn't get any exercise, and it is this vagus nerve that we need for a healthy brain and a healthy gut microbiome. When we think about the vagus nerve, it's from the same root as the word vagabond, which means wandering, right? And so the vagus nerve wanders from the brain all the way down your body and, and touches every internal organ in your body. Most importantly, your gut. Right, and, and it's a two-way street of communication. So your gut communicates with your brain via the vagus nerve. Your brain communicates with your gut via the vagus nerve. 80% of that communication is from the gut to your brain. So when we think about calling the gut, our second brain, I would say we really wanna flip that because so much of how we feel and sense the world, whether we feel danger or threat, and our mood and our social connection is dictated by the microbes we have in our gut. And if we have healthy, beneficial microbes, we can more easily feel calm, connected, and get into that parasympathetic state. If not, if we have the wrong kind of bugs, they produce these compounds. There's a compound called lipopolysaccharides, which practitioners might be familiar with that can create this INF inflammation that goes up to the brain and creates anxiety and worry and OCD and so on. The vagus nerve is that central communication point. Now, the fascinating thing is if we can train our vagus nerve, as you said, increase our vagal tone, like give it more muscles, then that actually helps support a healthier gut microbiome in children. And this really occurs even independent of what they're eating. So for parents who are thinking, well, my kids only eat five things and it's the same five things every single day, I don't know if I can change their diet and that's causing more stress. Well then don't start there. Start with the vagus nerve because if you start with the vagus nerve, you can shift your child's microbiome. Your microbiome actually influences your taste preferences. So we can start to see the shift in what your child craves, because now they're no longer feeding just the bad guys in there and we don't have a lot of ways to control our vagus nerve, except one way that we do have is, is our breath, right? That's why chapter five is called Breathe in my book, because when we slow our breath down, really focus mindfully on inhaling slowly with our diaphragm, filling that balloon in our belly while keeping your shoulders down slowly, and then we exhale. Slowly, that slows your heart rate down and makes your heart rate more variable. So when you're in a stress state, if you were to feel your pulse, you would feel okay. It's pumping fast. Blood pressure's up, and it's kind of steady no matter when you're breathing up or down. It's just the same rate when we're in a calm state, like when we meditate, when we're laughing with and hugging our kids, when we're walking in nature, when we take a slow breath in. That heart rate should increase, and as we exhale, the heart rate slows down. There's a variability that is normal and that's why a lot of people do it. Who are now, these wearables are very popular, Apple Watch or an Aura Ring, or your whoop band, they measure heart rate variability or HRV because that is one of the best predictors of current and future health. And when we can balance a healthy HRV with a healthy gut microbiome, then that's the recipe for having a resilient brain resilience against life's stressors that are inevitable and really feeling more calm and content and happy. Not in a hedonistic way, I just want an immediate gratification way, but in a truly fulfilled way.

[00:32:20] Dr. Melinda Ring: And N for adults. We have tools like HRV, biofeedback, like HeartMath or va, non-invasive nerve stimulations, like sensate and other ones like this. I have no brand affiliations just mentioning them. Are there any emerging devices around? These VAs stimulation devices for kids or any kind of gamified kind of thing that helps them do these types of exercises.

[00:32:49] Dr. Elisa Song: Absolutely. Um, you know, because there are some mindfulness and, you know, breathing exercise suggestions that I give in my book, but sometimes when we're in a stressed state, I. We need something a little more passive, right? We need to just follow instructions or just have something done to us to get us into that calm state so then we can access our own mindfulness or breathing tools. Right? And you know, the first thing for parents and kids to understand, adults to understand whether or not you have children, is that when we work on our vagal tone and do these vagus nerve exercises, that is um. Probably one of the most important prescriptions I could ever write for you. Now, these vagus nerve stimulators, like True Vega I love. Um, but you, when you go on their website, it doesn't say that it's indicated for children and the manufacturers won't say that you can use it for children. Even though for me, as a practitioner, I will guide patients. To use the true Vega 'cause I think it can be highly effective. It just has two little metal electrodes. Part of your vagus nerve just runs behind your ear, down your neck, and it just directly, literally stimulates your vagus nerve. Um, but HeartMath, which is as you, as you mentioned, I love HeartMath for children too. Um, where you just look at this expanding rainbow and contracting rainbow. That as you, as it expands, you slowly inhale, pause at the top, and then as it contracts, you slowly inhale. So you take your conscious brain out of it. You're just looking at this circle, and that can help kids immediately get into that state of coherence or good heart rate variability. I love HeartMath for kids. Um, tapping if anyone's done, um, emotional. Freedom technique where you tap and you're seeing these affirmations. There are guided taps that kids can do that are, that are, um, brief and meant for kids on the tapping solution app. And, and even if you don't believe it, if you just tap these acupressure points, you will improve your heart rate variability. So that's another tool. I'm wearing one device right here. Again, no, no affiliations with the company. I just love it. It's called the Apollo, Apollo, uh, neuro. And so this had little. Vibroacoustic sensations so you can hear and feel the vibration. And it's set to different frequencies that can either stimulate, calm or focus or help with sleep. Um, and I just found out about this new device I got, it's called Moon Bird and I, and I got it to try. It's this little, it's this little device that if you, um, put your hand on it, it, um. It senses that you're ready to start a breathing exercise and it expands. You can see it kind of expanding on the side, and then you, as you hold up at the top, then it'll slowly start to contract and you exhale. So it's another way. Take your conscious mind out of it. Just follow the expansion and the contraction and this absolutely. Um, you know, kids can use it, so I love giving parents and kids some external tools while working on those internal tools because when they're at an exam, they may not be able to look at their phone to do HeartMath, right? Or, um, you know, before a soccer game, if they forgot, um, their moon bird or their Apollo, they still know, okay, I can do these breathing or visualization techniques to get back into that state.

[00:36:11] Dr. Melinda Ring: is there one final piece of personal wisdom that you'd like to share with our listeners? Something that they can take with them today to help their families thrive.

[00:36:23] Dr. Elisa Song: I, I will say for parents, you know, listening or reading the book, um, my goal is to take the overwhelm out of things. It's not so that you start everything at once. It's just to take one step. And if you're already reading and thinking, oh, I'm further along than I think, um, you know, I'm already eating a microbiome centric diet and, um, we're not eating ultra processed foods. We'll see how else you can move the needle just one step at a time. And I do really, really believe that it, it should be a family affair, even if you have one child who is having some health concerns by, by really, um, creating microbiome magic for the entire family, we can see everyone's health and mood and, and mental health just uplevel. So, um, really, uh, do, do yourself a favor too, as you're going through all of this. Um, do embody the same principles as you're working so hard to do for your kids because your health really matters.

[00:37:23] Dr. Melinda Ring: Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Song. That was really just a powerful and hopeful conversation. So to listeners, if you are a parent, if you're a grandparent or a caregiver, feeling overwhelmed by the complexities of modern childhood, I hope that listening to today's episode with Dr. Elisa Song reminded you that healing and resilience are possible, and you can start with small, intentional steps. Um, and again, I cannot recommend her book more. It is a true guidebook for raising whole children in a not so whole world. And I recommend her for anyone who has a hand raising kids in today's confusing world of options. So if you found this conversation helpful don't forget to subscribe, rate, share this episode with somebody who could use a little support on their parenting path. And until next time, stay curious and keep aiming for your next level of health. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Next Level Health. I hope you found some inspiration and practical insights to enhance your wellness journey. Don't forget to leave a comment on YouTube or review on Apple Podcasts. I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for future topics or speakers.

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