The most important medicine is preventive, keeping illness from happening instead of waiting until it occurs. It is less costly, and more effective, to anticipate problems and work to keep them from happening, than to have to address illnesses that may be incurable.
Efforts to ensure a child’s well-being, made before the child’s birth and during the early years of life, promote a lifetime of good health. It has been shown that children born premature, or with low or very high birth weight, are at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. It is also known that obese children will tend to grow into obese adults, with all the associated complications.
Our clinic offers a program to improve fertility, and to provide optimal nutrition for the pregnant woman to have healthy offspring. The fetus lives off its mother, and will experience the same nutritional deficiencies and toxic effects that she experiences, both during and leading up to pregnancy.
Recreational and pharmaceutical drugs, environmental pollution, inadequate nutrient levels in soils and foods, polluted water, toxic farming methods, chemical and heavy metal exposure, and mother’s emotional stresses may all damage fetal health.
The responsibility for the future health of a child should not lie solely on the mother. Beginning at least four months prior to conception, both prospective parents should pursue healthy lifestyles. Environmental toxins, including heavy metals, chemicals and radiation should be avoided. A detoxification program should be initiated including avoidance of caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, recreational drugs and over the counter drugs, with regular exercise, stress reduction, and a diet consisting of organic, fresh foods and purified water.
A great deal of research has been done on nutritional supplements, and the medical literature shows that specific nutritional supplements are known to be beneficial for the developing fetus. Mother’s ingestion of folic acid in a dose of at least 5000 micrograms (5 milligrams) a day will greatly diminish the possibility of spina bifida and anencephaly and may lower the risk of Down syndrome. Vitamin D supplementation of 1000-2000 international units daily for the mother will reduce the child’s risk of type 1 diabetes by at least 50%, and should also be provided to the infant at 400 units daily. Omega 3 fatty acids from fish oil (also known as essential fatty acids, or EFAs) support neurological development in the child. Thus the pregnant woman should take fish oil daily, 1500-2000 mg of EPA and DHA, the components of fish oil shown to be beneficial. The newborn child should receive 300-400 mg of EPA/DHA daily. This should continue throughout the developing years, in higher doses as the child grows.
Many prescription medications have adverse effects on the developing fetus. These include most anti-depressant medications, anti-seizure drugs, the cholesterol medications known as statins, several antibiotics, and retin-A, a medication for acne. Women should always verify that all of their medications, including over-the-counter items, are safe for the fetus. If the risk is uncertain, omit the drug. Remember thalidomide, the drug used to treat nausea in pregnant women that led to terrible arm and leg deformities in many children before the danger was discovered.
There is a small but finite risk of vaccination complications in children. Though recent research suggests that vaccines do not directly cause autism, there is still evidence that they may contribute to it in some children. Though the dangers of vaccines are uncertain, it would be prudent to follow a careful schedule of inoculation, and not to inject a one day old child with hepatitis B vaccine when the risk of hepatitis B does not present itself until at least the teenage years. Children should not be vaccinated when they are ill, and should not receive more than one injection on a given day, regardless of the pediatrician’s assertions of safety.
Diabetes is the epidemic disease of this century. There are over 20 million diabetics in this country, and more than twice as many with prediabetes, an elevation of blood sugar that leads inexorably to diabetes unless lifestyle changes intervene. Of white children born in the year 2000, 30% will develop diabetes at some point in their lives. Of black children, 40% will develop diabetes, and of Hispanic children, 50% will be afflicted. These are appalling numbers.
For most children, obesity is the precursor of diabetes, and obesity is rising. One-third of children are overweight, while 14% of 2-5 year old children are obese. That number rises to 19% in 6-11 year old children. Type 2 diabetes, the type mainly caused by obesity and once rare in children, has become commonplace in grade school and high school. As our children become more sedentary and overweight, diabetes will reach epidemic proportions.
It has been demonstrated that 50-90% of diabetes is preventable or reversible through changes in lifestyle. Why subject a child to a lifetime of diabetic complications, to heart disease, blindness, neuropathy, kidney disease, and leg amputations, when adopting effective measures of exercise, proper food choices, weight loss and targeted nutritional supplements will eliminate the risk?
Habits are difficult to change, so children should be instructed early in choosing the right things to eat, avoiding fast foods, soft drinks, sugars and refined carbohydrates like bread, pasta, pizza and bakery products. When children are exposed early in life to the unique tastes of peas, carrots, broccoli and spinach, they are more likely to enjoy the taste of these foods, and choose them in preference to high sugar items. Children should learn how to shop, read food labels, and cook. They will also learn to appreciate the taste of good foods. Many times I have seen children with diabetes come to my office with their parents, clutching boxes of cold cereal and fruit juice, their parents unaware that those foods aggravate diabetes and overweight, and will make diabetes that much more difficult to treat. Children are intelligent, and can easily learn to exercise good judgment. They need proper instruction, and the absence of false information. Good nutrition should be taught at home and in school, and parents should make sure they have the right information before passing it on to their children.
Probiotics have been an underutilized health resource. Probiotics are good bacteria. They include lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidophilus, and a dozen other beneficial microorganisms that crowd out disease-causing organisms from the intestines. Formulations of probiotics are now available for all children, including newborns. Given to newborns, up to the age of 6 months, they reduce the risks of asthma, eczema and ear infections. In older children they protect against upper and lower respiratory infections. They should also be administered to all children receiving antibiotics for any reason, to reduce the risk of antibiotic-associated colitis, yeast overgrowth, and other antibiotic-associated side effects.
Children should be given basic nutritional supplements. They need zinc, vitamin D, calcium and magnesium, a full array of B vitamins and trace minerals, and additional vitamin B12 and folic acid. Supplements should be started in small amounts and gradually increased until the child is accustomed to taking them. Once taken on, the use of nutritional supplements will become routine. Remember to purchase products that are pharmaceutical quality and contain therapeutic doses. Discount store vitamins may not match the label claim or provide the purity required to be effective. See a physician with experience in using supplements. He or she can help you choose effective products.
Children should learn about drugs, how dangerous and destructive they are. Parents should feel secure that their children know the dangers of drugs and will refuse to take them despite social pressures to do so. Recreational drugs are a major source of illness, both mental and physical. The responsible and aware child will not choose to use drugs and will spare his parents a lifetime of regret.
These and other health measures are elemental and commonplace. Still, they are underutilized and often misunderstood, especially by parents who fail to appreciate the effect they have on their children. It is far better to institute a family health program directed at young children, than to spend one’s later years correcting a child’s entrained bad habits, and paying for hospitalization and medications that could have been totally unnecessary.
-Allan Sosin, MD
www.iprogressivemed.com
(*The information contained in this article is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any illness or condition. These recommendations have not been reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No content contained in this article is a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Never increase, reduce or discontinue any medication or treatment without first consulting your doctor. If you are seeking the advice of a medical professional and wish to make an appointment with one of our doctors, please call our office at (949) 600-5100. Unsolicited e-mail may not be answered and is not a substitute for obtaining medical advice in person from a qualified health professional. If you have a medical emergency, contact your personal physician or local medical emergency service immediately.)
Allan Sosin is the founder and medical director of the Institute for Progressive Medicine. He received his medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School and is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Nephrology, the study of kidney disease.
For thirteen years Dr. Sosin ran a private internal medicine practice in Philadelphia. During that time he became increasingly interested in alternative approaches to medical problems including nutrition, vitamin and mineral therapies, chelation therapy, acupuncture, natural hormone replacement therapy, exercise and stress management. He also held the position of Assistant Medical Director at The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, a world-renowned facility for the treatment of brain injured children.
Dr. Sosin is an expert in the use of natural approaches to replace drugs and surgery. He has over 40 years of clinical experience in treating patients with traditional therapies and 15 years experience using alternative methods in combination with conventional medicine. He is a member of the American College for the Advancement of Medicine (ACAM) and is a certified Defeat Autism Now!® physician. Dr. Sosin has also worked extensively with IV therapy, acupuncture and natural hormone replacement therapy. He has successfully treated thousands of patients with serious medical conditions. Dr. Sosin is the author of two books, Alpha Lipoic Acid: Nature's Ultimate Antioxidant, and The Doctor's Guide to Diabetes and Your Child, and has appeared on both radio and television.