Allergies and Inflammation During Pollen Season: What Parents Need to Know
If you or your child have seasonal allergies it’s imperative to understand how allergies and inflammation are related – especially if you live in the southeast (North Carolina, to be exact) like I do. When it’s pollen season here, it covers EVERYTHING. This is unfortunate for me because people already accuse me of waiting too […]
Histamine & Allergies: How to Manage Allergies Naturally
If you struggle with seasonal allergies and are looking for ways to manage them naturally, then you’ve come to the right place! You may have heard of the word “histamine,” or perhaps antihistamines (think BENADRYL® or Claritin®), but what exactly does that mean and what does it have to do with allergies? What Is Histamine? […]
The 5 Triggers of Inflammation: What They Are and How to Address Them
To some extent, we need inflammation in the body. (For example, an acute response to stop the bleeding if you cut yourself.) However, when inflammation goes unchecked, and the body keeps mounting an inflammatory response to the same trigger, it leads to chronic inflammation and disease. Integrative medicine teaches us that we need to look […]
Is Being Sick the New Normal? Inflammation’s Role in Recurrent Illness
50% of American children suffer from chronic illnesses—more than at any other time in our history. Check out these shocking stats… I talk a lot about inflammation in my book, Healthy Kids, Happy Moms. There’s a reason I keep coming back to it… inflammation plays a key role in our overall health (including how frequently […]
The ABC’s of Probiotics: Your Gut is like a Garden
A diverse and robust microbiome is critical to our overall health and immune function. Since 70% of the immune system resides in the gut, eating a diet high in fiber (vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds) and adding the right probiotics helps support that gut diversity. In my book, Healthy Kids, Happy Moms, I use a […]
Mold in Schools: How to Fight Back Against Environmental Toxins
Here’s a not-so-fun fact about mold… According to recent studies, up to 50% of schools in the U.S. have indoor air quality issues, which often lead to mold growth and contribute to exacerbations of asthma, allergies, and eczema among children.1 It’s definitely not an ideal situation, but no need to add a hazmat suit to […]
How to Combat Fall Allergies
Fall allergies can be just as troublesome for kids as the ones that come in spring. Let’s talk about allergy triggers and how to relieve them.
Food and Environmental Allergy Testing Part One
General pediatrics is filled with kids who have chronic runny noses, poorly controlled eczema and asthma, and many of them need allergy testing.
Asthma: Is Wheezing the First Sign?
When I know a child has an increased risk of asthma or any other type of inflammatory issue like allergies, constipation, or reflux, I look at the bigger picture and ask, How can I reduce this child’s overall systemic inflammation?
What Role does Genetics Play in Celiac Disease?
Celiac disease is more prevalent in people of Northern European descent. One can have symptoms without having celiac disease.
