76. How to Create Immune Resilience in Your Kids with Dr. Elisa Song

Dr. Elisa Song 0:03

Almost two years into the pandemic we know so much more we know that we don't have to have the same fear that grips us but we need to have knowledge

Dr. Stephanie Gray 0:12

Welcome to the your longevity blueprint podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Stephanie gray. My number one goal with the show is to help you discover your personalized plan to build your dream health and live a longer, happier, truly healthier life. You're about to hear from Dr. Elisa song. Today we're going to discuss immune resilience in children Mental Health Resilience in kids and preparing for the winter. Ultimately what you can do to keep your family healthy. Let's get started.

Welcome to another episode of The your longevity blueprint podcast. today. My guest is Dr. Lisa song who's an integrative pediatrician, pediatric functional medicine expert and Mama. In her integrative pediatric practice whole family wellness she's helped 1000s of kids get to the root cause of their health concerns and help their parents understand how to help their children thrive, body, mind and spirit by integrating conventional pediatrics with functional medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine and essential oils. Dr. Sun created healthy kids happy kids as an online holistic pediatric resource to help practitioners and parents bridge the gap between conventional and integrated pediatrics with an evidence based pediatrician backed approach. Welcome to the show, Dr. Song.

Dr. Elisa Song 1:24

Thank you, Stephanie. It's an honor to be here today.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 1:27

Well tell us your story. So first, what led you into becoming integrated with your approach to children's health in general,

Dr. Elisa Song 1:33

that goes way back, because I grew up in a very conventional household. My mom was an OB GYN and, you know, we grew up with medicines and everything very, very conventional, although, you know, being Korean Koreans do tend to gravitate towards more kind of herbal and natural, you know, therapy. So it was interesting, I grew up with my grandmother at home. So she was like, my, my second mom. So when I went to college, first of all, I had no no intention of becoming a doctor. I actually, I wanted to do policy and be a lawyer and advocate for children in Washington, DC, and I spent a couple of summers with the Children's Defense Fund lobbying for you know, children's health rights and poverty, fighting poverty. So children were always my heart. But then, you know, I remember thinking as a junior, taking the LSAT and thinking about law school, I'm thinking, Oh, my gosh, well, if I'm a lawyer, I mean, I can do, hopefully some good for kids, but I'm not going to work with children.

So then I kind of switched gears and senior year was when I took all of my pre med courses. And it was senior year at Stanford that I saw this sign now I'm going to date myself, this is back in the, you know, late 80s. You know, where I saw this sign up for this conference for the American Holistic Medical Association. I'm like, what is that, you know, so, so I just I went, you know, whatever, whatever got into me as a junior to drive to the Santa Clara Convention Center. And, and it was so amazing. I mean, I heard from these people that were just barely getting started. And you while you know, Deepak Chopra, Johor Sanko, and literally, like my mind was, was blown, and I'm going to be a naturopathic doctor. And so I remember calling my mom and saying, hey, you know, I want to I want to, I'm looking at best here.

And she's like, what is that? Never and I spoke with this, like, what is that? So of course, I wasn't necessarily encouraged to go that route. And I end up going to medical school. And I'm actually really glad that I went this way, because that's why I really consider myself more of an integrated pediatrician. I, you know, because throughout my career, even in medical school, I wasn't satisfied with what I was learning. I wanted to go to this holistic medicine, student medical, medical students elective in Virginia with paly delivered and, of course, my advisors of med school, NYU, very traditional, were like, Nope, sorry, that's, you know, we can't accept them like what? So then, you know, and UCSF I did, I created my own elective in integrative medicine during my rheumatology, immunology, I said, Hey, can I share my elective and, and I wrote a primmer, did research and went to different chiropractors and acupuncture offices and learn about an integrative approach to juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

So it's always been in my heart. When I finished my residency, I just thought, what can I do? You know, I'm not happy with whatever I'm seeing. It's just we're all rich like Band Aid medicine, and we're great at trauma. We're great at, you know, acute infections we're great at, you know, but all of these chronic conditions were just skyrocketing. And I thought, Well, I think I want to do something more integrative. So that's when I went back and did additional training. And I started off in medicine in clinical practice as an integrative pediatrician. So yeah, that's always been my passion. And the only way I would practice we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, right? There's a time and a place for everything. But we know now that what we're doing in conventional medicine, I mean, antibiotics can be life saving, but we need to understand the unintended consequences on the Developing child's got microbiome and the effects on their brain and their immune system and their hormone. So it really takes that holistic integrative approach

Dr. Stephanie Gray 5:09

and love and I love it. That's how I practice only for adults, not children. So many parents have called you the voice of reason that's helped them navigate this pandemic with a calm confidence using facts over fear. So tell us about your journey to becoming the go to integrated pediatric expert for the pandemic. I know there's a story there. So please share.

Dr. Elisa Song 5:29

Well, it was never my intention, right? I mean, the life happens thrown at you for a reason. And so if we kind of stepped back way back, I mean, not that long ago. But you know, just remember where we were back in January of 2020. Right, February of 2021. We're just hearing about, you know, this thing, this virus and there was taking over the world and the fear. I mean, there's so much fear, remember, you know, at the end of February, just talking my husband, should I go to this conference, a forum conference, were supposed to talk at the end of February, like, should I stay home? Should I wear a mask? What should I do? And you know, it was just this whole thing. And I remember, you know, at that point, you know, we're like, Well, okay, I receive His children with his influenza, like illnesses that were flu negative, right. And remember, back then, we had no way to test for COVID, I was on the waitlist for quest to get my hands on this precious swabs to be able to do COVID testing.

And then even if you did COVID testing, it was taking like, a week to get back. So we were just in this wild west of fear. And so when I have fear in me, you know, I just I need to find the facts. So I just dug into what we knew about, you know, what was being called, we weren't even calling a SARS cov. Two, back then it wasn't what we were calling SARS. cov. Two, but it wasn't COVID just yet. And I just looked at all the research on SARS cov. One and, and really looked at it from a functional medicine, integrative perspective, and I wrote an article, if you guys know me, like, you know, my articles are really in depth, I go into this size. And you know, I wrote this article with like, I don't know, like, 82 citations and like, Okay, we just need to approach this with a little bit more, more knowledge. And that was on I think it was February 22. And it was the first article right of this stuff. 20/21 article on really looking at a comprehensive approach to SARS. cov. Two, and it literally, I mean, no pun intended. I mean, it went viral within hours shared everywhere across the world. And it's had I think now over probably over about 1.5 million views. I mean, it was just Wow, crazy. And

Dr. Stephanie Gray 7:37

we need to post the link to that in the show notes. I gotta make a note. Yeah, if we can if it's available or

Dr. Elisa Song 7:42

available. Up. Yeah. And, and I spoke about, you know, things like glutathione and vitamin D, and what can we do to try to arm ourselves, you know, with this unknown thing. So that was the end of February. And then we went into lockdown March 13. I mean, that's when our schools got the notice. Okay, well, we'll we'll take a two week break over spring break, and then come back. And, of course, nobody went back, right. But just before the lockdown, I said to kids, who had this very strange flu like illness. In fact, one boy was subsequently hospitalized at UCSF for this Kawasaki like illness. And a retrospect, I think that was obviously COVID back then. But we didn't know we can test. And so shortly after going to lock down, my kids got COVID. Right. My daughter, she had the classic sign, she was 11 at the time, actually 10 At the time, and she had this cloud of the classic, the cough, the fever, the shortness of breath, of course, you know, as a pediatrician, I had a pulse oximeter, and she would drop down ideally ideal normal pulse oximeter, his oxygen saturation is over 97%.

And she would get to like 9394 95%. She never looked like she was short of breath. She always said I feel fine. Right. But I had no swabs back then to test. So wasn't until her seventh day of illness that I finally got my box of quest swabs. And I tested her. Sure enough, I was like, oh my god, she has COVID We weren't quarantining. I mean, how could you your child sick, right? And then about a week after she got sick, my son got sick and he didn't have any of the classic symptoms. His first symptom was severe abdominal pain, severe headache, and back then that was not considered a COVID symptom right it was fever, cough, shortness of breath. And then he started having hallucinations hearing mean voices seeing really scary things. She got a rash I mean all the signs that we would now think of as heading towards multi system inflammatory syndrome in children Am I see his oxygen levels start to drop drop drop Ivan got home oxygen tank for him, which I would never ever recommend that you do as a mom right? But But what his oxygen levels dropped to 80 percent. I mean, that's when I was like, I can't do this at home.

And you know, just just the fear was so incredible. So I brought him to UCSF. And then at that point, after I kind of shook myself Are you kind of have to give yourself a little like, like shake or a slap in the face of like, okay, get a hold of yourself. What did you just research? What do you need to do for your son? Right? And so that's when I had already been giving him vitamin C and glutathione and doing everything that you know that I thought we could, but then I added some other things for my integrative medicine toolkit, melatonin serums ribo and immunoglobulin specialized pro resolving mediators, and we were in the hospital and literally, as soon as I started those, his oxygen levels or decline, his hallucinations went away, is you know, he was were present like he just had this really goofy weird look with these ticks is I really ticks you is doing in your yard, the bejesus out of me, right?

Like he just wasn't my kid right then and there. And we know that COVID Now can trigger these neuropsychiatric symptoms, almost like a man's a pediatric nurse, I get like neuropsychiatric syndrome in children. My conjecture is that he probably got COVID, around the same time as Kenzie, but probably since he was only eight at the time. And we know that 50% of kids will have asymptomatic infection, I'm going to guess he had an asymptomatic infection then. And that was why, you know, two weeks later, he developed this Mia SD type presentation, which we know is a post COVID presentation. And we're like, why did you get covered? What about your husband, and we didn't unravel the mystery. until several months later, when antibodies were available. And I checked all of us it showed up my husband and I had antibodies.

And in retrospect, the weekend when we went into lockdown about you know, five days before my daughter started to get sick, I had this intense four day headache, and I'm not a headache person. Right? And enough that I slept all day, one day and my husband's like, are you okay, you know, so that must have been and my husband had GI distress, right for about a day, a little bit of a headache, you know, little nothing major. Right. But But we obviously have very mild symptoms that must have been COVID that then, you know, again, not quarantining, I must pass it on to my kids, which, as you know, Stephanie, I mean, just the PTSD of that, you know, has has really been huge for me. But since then, you know, because I never, ever one another, parents have to go through that fear again. I mean, literally, when we went to UCSF, you know, and I was walking in with my son and saying goodbye to my daughter and husband. I mean, remember back in March, right, 2020, we had no idea of how kids were doing.

The assumption them was the kids were doing gonna do worse with COVID, just like they do with flu compared to adults. And I mean, I literally, like, I don't want to speak these words, but I didn't know like, who was gonna come out at the end of the day, right? I mean, it just like it was that fear. And so somehow that kind of thrust me into trying to bring more knowledge to parents. And here I am, you know, I like over almost, you know, two years later, and I'm still doing this work, trying to really educate parents and empower parents, because now, almost two years into the pandemic, we know so much more, we know that we don't have to have the same fear that grips us. But we need to have knowledge.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 13:19

So good. Tell us about your son, though. So So what happened? Did he quickly or slowly improve or

Dr. Elisa Song 13:26

quickly, quickly? And by quickly? I mean, we went into the hospitals, you know, probably 10 o'clock at night. You know, I don't remember what day that was. I think it was maybe a Saturday. No, I take that back was a Thursday night. I started him on melatonin that night, you know, and his oxygen levels again, quickly, like rapidly he would he started to climb, climb, climb back up, his eyes came back, you know, his tics went away, his illusion, hallucinations went away. And we were ready to go home the next day, except that, you know, they wanted to watch us a little bit more closely.

Because, honestly, the hospital, I mean, UCSF, the nurses and the staff were so amazing, but they didn't know what to do. And I was like, what about you know, back then, you know, there were some different medications that were being tried. And like, we don't have any experience with kids. So we're just not recommending that. So if you got IV fluids and oxygen, right, but no medications, no treatment, they tried an Albuterol inhaler for him. It didn't make a difference. You know, he quickly turn around and I can I say it was because of you know what I did? I can't for sure. But that was the only thing different because I was giving him oxygen at home to write you know, we were actually stayed two nights in the hospital just resting and by the next day. I mean, he was back and he he thought it was a blast because UCSF the Children's Hospital, Benioff Children's Hospital is gorgeous. And he's like, I don't want to go I have this. I have this huge TV, right? I can play video games on my TV.

I could order room room service on the TV. And I was like, buddy We have to go right. So Saturday, my husband and Kenzie picked us up. And he I mean, that afternoon he was, you know, running off Kenzi in the yard, I'm like, slow down, take it easy, right. But he was running around, they were jumping on the trampoline. And Sunday was Easter. And we I mean, we did an Easter egg hunt in our yard. I mean, it was like nothing had happened and knock on wood, thankfully, thankfully. I mean, I actually took him to the cardiologist a few months later, just to check his heart. Nothing, there's no residual problems at all. So, and to this day, he's doing 100%. I mean, he's still now he's back to his his normal, goofy self, as opposed to the kind of scary goofy that he was in the hospital. So, I mean, he just he bounced back. And, and that's where, you know, really want parents to know. I mean, it's, it's really, I mean, that was kind of the next question that that will we were going to go into is really, what do we know now about immune resilience, right? Yes, you know what we think about immune resilience.

But I tell parents over and over again, it's not about never getting sick. I mean, we've lived in a bubble for the past two years with our kids. And you know, so many parents tell me, it's amazing. My kids didn't get to get all this past year and a half or two years. And I don't know that that's necessarily good thing. Because our immune systems have kind of lost their training, we have to get back on our training wheels and you know, immune resilience. It's not about never getting sick, it's about your immune system in your body, learning how to overcome each and every single hits, so that it can be stronger for the next hit. And by hit, it's not even just infections, right? It's environmental toxins. It's emotional stress, psychological stress is as inflammatory to our immune system, as any infection or toxin. And in fact, when Bodie was in the hospital, you know, the power of mind body medicine, it really has to be up there way up there, in fact, higher up than I think any medication that we're using any supplementary using, you know, really, you know, we do need to think about food as medicine, but food is medicine, and mind body medicine, I think are the two most important pieces for immune and cellular resilience.

So and I know that firsthand, when Bodie was in the hospital, his oxygen levels was start to drop. And he started to look a little shorter breath, of course, my mommy brain would kick in, I start to be like, Bodhi Are you okay? And start to kind of panic and, and he was started to breathe faster, his oxygen levels start to drop more. And he said, at one point, he's like, Mommy, stop, you're scaring me. So I'd have to kind of I must have all my strength. And I would calm down, I would have Bodie kind of sit up and I take your body, let's, let's just slow it down. Let's do our square breathing. That's a breathing technique where you just imagine a box, it's box breathing.

And we have this app called Stop, Breathe, think where fish goes up and around the box. As the fish goes up, you take a slow breath in, hold it across the top, and then as officials and you exhale and hold it across the bottom. So we do our square breathing. And then we would just say our healing monitors with seven Shall we had a private room in the corner, and we just shout out as loud as we could, you know, my body is strong, my lungs are strong, I'm getting stronger and stronger. And immediately, you know, he'd go from like, 88 89% to like 95 96% I mean, within hoovering minutes, right? And so we cannot discount the power of using harnessing you know our mind to get that mind immune system connection, mind gut connection, working properly.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 18:35

Love it, love it, love it. So you teach parents and practitioners about these foundations of immune resilience. So let's break down those three things. You mentioned that food is medicine, the supplements, and then what we can do to support emotional health. So let's talk about food. So tell us about your food as medicine approach.

Dr. Elisa Song 18:51

So you can't out supplement a bad diet and lifestyle, right? We know that right? Whenever, you know, people talk about, you know, building immune resilience, you know, supporting their child's immune system. The first question is, well, what supplements can I give them? Which supplements have a role? I'm not saying they don't, and I give supplements to my kids, and I recommend supplements, but you have to start with a foundation. Now, I totally get 100%. But some kids are really they're, they're picky, or they're not quite eating, you know, five to nine servings of vegetables in a day. And right now, as we head into the holidays, you know, from Halloween to Christmas, it's a sugar fasts, right? I mean, it's like, we can't escape some of that. And so we need to support ourselves with supplements. So really, we want to get down to the foundations of food as medicine and prioritize that.

Just take a moment with a word on sugar. And I'm not going to say I don't give my kids any sugar. I mean, Halloween just happened and you know, they're having one thing of candy from their Halloween I really, you know, I would say if you can please avoid any artificial colors and flavors, but the sugar let's talk about the sugar, sugar in any form, whether it's glucose or fructose, and I'm going to say even, you know, attack fruit sugar. The studies have had this old study back in the 70s. But found that sugar within 20 minutes of consumption reduces your white blood cells ability to basically as macrophages that are per white blood cells to and golf to eat to trap infections and fight infections by 50%. And that effect can last for you know, at least five hours or longer. Now, pre pandemic in the days of you know, bouncy house parties were or like, you know, your, your, your pump it up parties, where there be cake and Skittles and lots of candy and everyone's touching and you know,

you're like, oh, boy, but it's no wonder that the next day, you know, so many kids, they wake up with a runny nose or their throat sore, right? Yep. So we just want to remember that and know that, you know, if your your kids are having a tree, you know, or having a sure load and, you know, our family, we've been going through a very stressful time right now with some medical, you know, issues with elderly you know, aging grandparents. And so, it's been stressful. And there's a reason why when we're stressed our brain wants sugar because it is it gives you that kind of feel good hormone release, but we want to take that and just know Okay, when we're stressed already, or resistance, a little doubt, don't load it up with sugar. But if you're gonna have some sugar, balance it out right? balance it out with antioxidants, and, you know, greens and you know, enough sleep, right? Sleep is healing sleep is so important. You know, getting your body moving, get some exercise, and so it just balance. It's all about balance, right?

And then when we think about food as medicine, but also get you Stephanie, for the listeners is I have a little guide, a little shopping list, you know, called Food as Medicine for Coronavirus, but I really need to change that to food is medicine, you're for immune support, because it's really the foundations of all immune health. But I listed top nutrients, the vitamins or the minerals that are really so foundational for your immune health on one hand, and then on the other side, I list all the top foods with those nutrients in it. And what what a lot of parents have done, which I think is awesome, is to print it out print in the fridge. And then as they go through a makeup, their weekly shopping list. Have your kids involved, have your kids picked out a food from each of those categories. And even if they're not eating it quite yet, you can say okay, for the glutathione we're gonna work on cabbage this week, you know, and try to find some different creative ways to eat cabbage. Right? So if your kids can help with that, it gets a more invested in more interest in at least trying some of these foods, you know the top foods, and I'll tell you what's on the list.

There's zinc, there's quercetin, there's vitamin C, there's vitamin D, there's glutathione vitamin A and probiotics and omega threes. Now that sounds like oh my gosh, that's a lot right. But a lot of foods I mean, you do double duty, right? Because your your cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, kale, Brussel, sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, those can do double duty with vitamin C, and with glutathione glutathione enhancing foods, some of them are going to be reaching in quercetin. So it's not like you have to choose a ton right your zinc foods or your zinc rich foods. If you choose seafood, there's also going to be rich source of Omega threes. So there are a lot of them do double duty, right. But each of these, you know has a role in supporting different aspects of our immune system when it comes to COVID. In particular SARS cov to virus, we have a lot more data from SARS, Kobe one, but we know that for instance, zinc, which a lot of people have heard of zinc and quercetin by now, you know, as we're kind of now two years into the pandemic. And why are those such super nutrient powerhouses? Because zinc, at least for starters, Kobe one, the first SARS virus was found to inhibit replication multiplication of the virus inside the cells. And quercetin, which is found in red apples, you know, red onions in grapes and spinach.

Cruciferous vegetables, quercetin is what we call a zinc ion a for which, I mean, could you imagine into the pandemic, how much more language medical language we have, right, you know, not just as laypeople, but even as practitioners, right? Do you think most medical professionals have ever heard of a zinc ion before before the pandemic? Probably not right now. It's like it kind of rolls off the tongue for a lot of people but a zinc ion a four helps to drive zinc into the cells so that your cells can use it more right? So that's that's why you know some of those now vitamin D, if you're going to prioritize any supplement it hands down is vitamin D so important that I wrote an article while kids need vitamin D, right? It's the most important supplement through the winter. Very often, if you look at the food sources of vitamin D, they're not the most kid friendly Right, there's mushrooms, caviar.

Yeah, right now, dairy cows, dairy is odd. But you know, a lot of my kids that I see are sensitive or allergic to cow's milk products. And you know, from a Chinese medicine perspective, cow's milk creates a lot of damp, and phlegm and mucus and really don't want that in the wintertime, either or one more sick. So vitamin D for vitamin D, you often need supplementation, even in the summer, when there's enough sunlight to get conversion through your skin. I mean, we live in an inflammatory world, let's just put it that way, we have a lot of forces on our immune systems in our brains, that really make us use so much vitamin D, every day that even even in the middle of summer active five, when I measure 25, hydroxy vitamin D levels, almost all kids need a little extra vitamin D. But that would be like the one supplement that tip you're gonna focus on. And then you know, if your kids are not yet the most varied eaters, and let's face it, you know, even the healthiest eaters could uplevel their their healthy eating game a little bit, right? You know, supplements can be a way to just have a little bit more of that security under you.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 26:11

Well, let's let's go through those. But can we go back to vitamin D for a minute? Because I'm sure a lot of parents are thinking, Okay, how do I dose that in the adult population that I see I check their level, and then they dose them based on how low they are? So in kids, especially if they have not had levels tested? Now, let's start with even infants, like how much should we be giving them how much vitamin D?

Dr. Elisa Song 26:31

I mean, there's a very different answer in the very conventional world in the more integrative functional medicine world. And and, you know, just have listeners understand, and your listeners know this, that there's a huge difference between what one would consider normal and what one would consider optimal. And when you look at the vitamin D ranges, the 25 hydroxy, vitamin D ranges at let's say, a conventional lab like quest, the normal value will be anywhere from 20 to 100 nanograms per milliliter, that's a huge range. So when I have you know, a mom come in, and they'll say, oh, yeah, I had my vitamin D levels checked, and I was told it was normal. Right? This is, especially for pregnant mom, right? Because vitamin D, during pregnancy to optimize is so important for your baby's developing immune system and brain. And I want to know the exact number because if she's at a 22, that's not okay, right, that might be normal, but it's not optimal.

So I like to get kids to an optimal range of about 60 to 80 nanograms per milliliter, which I think is that's the same for adults, too, right? It's really not that different. But the dosing, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all breastfed infants get supplemented with 400 international units 400, I use vitamin d3 daily. Now, why is that just for breastfed babies? Why not formula fed babies should have breast milk be the perfect baby food, right? I mean, that's just evolutionarily that's what we were born with. Really. And truly, the reason is because most moms are deficient or insufficient in vitamin D. So when measuring babies, if moms don't have enough vitamin D in their system to have that pass to the breast milk, then yes, babies are going to be more likely to be deficient or insufficient. That's why when you're pregnant or nursing, it's so important to optimize your own vitamin D levels.

So that baby gets enough. And then there probably isn't going to be need to supplement if you are at adequate levels. Now, that being said, you know, that's a recommendation of 400 I use for a baby. And then then it's just it's, there's not really clear guidelines on whether or not from the American Academy of Pediatrics, whether or not older kids need supplementation, but they don't recommend more than about 1000 I use per day for any, you know, any age. Now, I will say knowing that most kids are deficient or insufficient, that's typically not enough. The vitamin D council had had guidelines, the maintenance dose, once you reach an optimal level for vitamin D, is about 1000 international units per 25 pounds of body weight up to 100 pounds. So up to 5000 IU. So once you get to 5000 US per day, you can maintain it that now that's a maintenance dose. So there you go.

Yeah, first. So that's where I measured levels and, you know, get some kids, they might need, you know, 10,000 I use a day for a month, and then we repeat and see if they're adequate, and they might not still be adequate. Right? And so if you can, it's best to test because I cannot look at a child and say, you know, their vitamin D levels are low, right? I might suspect that I can suspect it. If your child gets frequent infections or they have asthma, or autoimmune conditions, or any neurologic or psychiatric conditions. I presume them you know that your child probably has sub optimal vitamin D levels, but I won't know until I test so you can test them to do that.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 29:58

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And this product was formulated with those dosages in mind to be safe for those that are pregnant or lactating. If you want more, however, you can easily double the dose of the product. And it can also be combined with your daily complete multivitamin or my favorite product mitochondrial complex. Research has shown that those taking this blend of nutrients fare much better with illnesses like viruses, making this the perfect time of year to stock up on immune support. In addition to being a fantastic option for anybody looking to boost immune reserves and support a healthy immune response, bottle of immune support would fit perfect in your loved ones holiday stocking, use code immune support for 10% off at your longevity blueprint calm. Now back to the show. Then yeah, then let your provider guide you on everything you need. Yes. And then continue with the maintenance. Let's go on to some other supplements you alluded to giving your son some I think he said serum derived immunoglobulin. So can you talk to the listeners about the role that they play, why they're important, we were just talking about breast milk. So there's a little bit of overlap there. Breast milk also contains immunoglobulin so.

Dr. Elisa Song 31:49

So one of the things that we've learned that many people have learned, you know, through COVID-19, I mean, this is something that that we should understand, in general, from that functional medicine, medicine perspective. And this is really a life lesson, right? There's really very few things that are 100% good or bad in life, right? I mean, think about I mean, like very, very few things. So and the word inflammation when you say inflammation, what do most people go to, oh my God, that's bad. We can't have inflammation, we got to squash it, right. And when it comes to cytokine, Storm, or you know, sepsis, when inflammation goes out of control, yes, we that is not a good thing, we want to lower that. However, we have to remember that when you are sick, initially, inflammation is a good thing. Your it's your body's natural response, those cytokines when you mount a fever, right? When you when you cut yourself and you get that redness around, that's all of your white blood cells going there saying, creating pus, I'm trying to heal myself, those are those white blood cells doing their thing. It's when things don't, then you know, reach resolution, right?

You've managed the infection, you've managed the cut, right? The past, your immune system has to say, okay, inflammation, you've done your job, let's bring it back down and resolve it back to a normal state. When that resolution doesn't occur appropriately. That's when you get the cut that just oozes and loses and loses Right? Or you get the infection that then goes on into that second week of COVID. Right after the honeymoon period where you're getting better. might tip over into pneumonia, cytokine storm sepsis, right? So there's a time and a place for everything. We do not want to suppress inflammation when our body's trying to do its job. But when it's done as job, we want to support it in resolving that inflammation. And that's where the key role of immune modulators come in. Now we know with SARS cov. Two there are a lot of different inflammatory pathways that are triggered. One of the more important ones is the NL RP three inflammasome immunologist love their acronyms and their initials, right. So at the NLRB, three inflammasome that gets triggered when you have an infection, and then we want that to settle down.

Now, when things start to go a little bit off kilter, we start seeing signs of the NRP three inflammasome is now inappropriately activated. There are things that we know from a functional medicine, somebody that can bring that down, but not suppress, right, we don't want to just squash inflammation because then you know, that's that's not helping you to get to a normal healthy state to get back to the homeostasis so melatonin does, right melatonin is amazing at that. Melatonin is not just our sleep hormone, but it is an immune regulator also protects the brain, which is why it's used in Alzheimers and with cancer patients. There's also our specialized pro resolving mediators or ES PMS and you know, my followers and my patients know that is probably hands out apart from vitamin D My favorite ever supplement. They are molecules derived from the EPA and the DPA of your Omega three essential fatty acids, your fish oils, but you really kick it in by drinking tons of fish oil. So that's another variety of supplement manufacturers that have purified out these SPMs.

They have been game changers to my patients with autoimmune illnesses because what happens in autoimmunity is scan that dysregulated immune response. So, with COVID as well, I can never say to treatment, right, we don't want to get in trouble with the FDA by calling anything a treatment, but it can help the symptoms of hyper inflammatory, a dysregulated immune response. Amazing, right, I've used used s PMS to support a healthy immune response to not just COVID but two infections, two kids with pans and pandas, you know, support healthy immune responses to you know, even things like vaccinations, and then those are s bi, which is an even less well known supplement is the serum derived bovine immunoglobulin. What this is it's bovine meaning cow. So it's cow antibodies.

But it's not meant to boost your antibody systems with what SB eyes do is they act on the gut. And we know that for people who present with the gut symptoms like with Bodie did, there's some evidence that that actually pretends predicts possibly a more serious COVID infection. Because we know you know, with for instance, with MMIC, what they found the multi system inflammatory syndrome in children, that there is evidence that they have elevated levels of Zonulin a protocol Zonulin in their blood, then the kids with COVID, who didn't go on to develop MHC and Zonulin is a marker for leaky gut. And so we know from a leaky gut, in sepsis, there are endotoxins that are secreted by gram negative bacteria that can get absorbed and create something called metabolic endotoxemia.

These endotoxins are called LPS Lippo polysaccharides. This LPs, when it's been absorbed has been implicated not just in sepsis, but in autoimmune illnesses like Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis. neuropsychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and a whole host of autoimmune diseases. What SBI does is it absorbs these endotoxins, this Lippo polysaccharide, right, these LPS before it can get absorbed into the bloodstream. It's been amazing for some of my patients with like social anxieties or, you know, with autoimmune illnesses, with COVID, I think it's an important piece of the puzzle, especially if you have GI symptoms. Now in Spain, they're actually doing it's a study called picnic.

And I cannot remember what that acronym stands for. But they're actually using as a trial using SB eyes, in the hospital in patients who are hospitalized in the ICU with COVID. So a lot of these things, again, great that they're investigating these, these functional medicine tools that we have, that we can see in the literature that make clinical and makes hypothetical sense. So now we need to see does that translate into then clinical improvements, because, you know, let's face it, I mean, these you know, million dollar drugs that are being you know, investigated, we have at our tools, I mean, melatonin and an SPM and SBI that are not nearly the cost and, you know, much more easy accessible. So I really do hope that there are more findings and more good studies on some of these functional medicine approaches.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 38:27

You probably know vitamin D based on its relationship to seasonal affective disorder or sad in the winter, and it's true. People experiencing sad generally have low levels of vitamin but vitamin D isn't just beneficial during the cold dark winter months. I've tested 1000s of my patients vitamin D levels over the years and rarely do I find the patient doesn't need to supplement regardless of the time of year. Vitamin D is a steroid vitamin A group of fat soluble pro hormones that are best known for the role they play in supporting bone health, and aiding in the absorption of calcium and phosphate from the gastrointestinal tract. However, a growing body of research highlights its important role in supporting other body systems as well, including cardiovascular and blood sugar balance, as well as increasing musculoskeletal strength, neurologic and immune function enabled by its ability to target over 200 different genes throughout the body.

At the same time, deficiency and insufficiency of this important nutrient has reached epidemic proportions around the world, making the achievement of optimal levels extremely important to overall health. Known as a sunshine vitamin. Yes, you can get some from the sun but fish and milk are also decent sources as well. But if you listen to this podcast, you know I'm not one to recommend dairy. So it's best to supplement and it's best to have your levels tested to see how low you are and how high of a dose you need to take. We carry 1005 1000 international units of vitamin d3 With and without Ketu as well as a 50,000 iu dose pack. Usually patients take that high dose pack short term, use code vitamin D for 10% off these products at your longevity blueprint.com Now let's get back to the show

Thank you for explaining that you explain that very well, the LPs and how sbig is important. So love that. So we talked about and I'm sorry, our brand is called we call it SPI GG of the serum derived butyl globulins. For listener, sorry, I'm energy, this term. So we talked about food as medicine and the role supplements play. Let's talk a little bit about the state of mental health emergency in our nation. So what role does emotional and psychological health play in immune resilience? You've already talked a little bit about this, but let's go there for a minute and then kind of talk about how we can help our kids optimize their vagus nerve function.

Dr. Elisa Song 40:37

Yes. And you know, many people, I'm sure in your audience have heard of vagus nerve, you know, supports and the parasympathetic versus the sympathetic nervous systems. When we take a step back, and we look at stress, right? What is stress? Again, nothing's good or bad. 100%. When we say stress, immediately, people think, Oh, I don't want stress, I don't want my kids to be stressed. Let's get rid of stress. Well, that's not a good thing either. Right? stress causes us to adapt from a mental physical and immunologic level, right stress. When we learn from our stress, we learn from our stress, we overcome it. So you know, there's this idea of tolerable stress or toxic stress. And, you know, when we have stress, it's that we manage, and we're in this state where we have stressors, and then we manage and we learn how to do better the next time that's called you stress, eu you stress right? You stress is that state of you know, living in a world where we can balance stress and harmony, right.

But when stress becomes a distress, then that becomes more inflammatory, right. And as I mentioned before, psychological stress causes the very same cascade of inflammatory responses in our immune system as physical stress or immunologic stress, right, the very same, it's no different. So when we have this onslaught of, you know, psychological stress after stress, or stress, or we're not handling, we can present with the very same, you know, inflammatory symptoms. And we are currently the American Academy of Pediatrics has announced and we know that the pandemic has triggered a state of mental health emergency. It's not new, it is not new. But we talked about this, and I've talked about this for years. I mean, before COVID When, you know, every winter, we come along, and everyone starts to panic over influenza.

And when you look at it, teenagers, our teams and our youth are 17 times more likely to die by suicide than they are of influenza. Right? I mean, even now, the CDC came out with the analysis that COVID now is, I think they said the eighth was in 2020, the eighth biggest killer of children, well, suicides, five to 11 years suicide still higher, right? I mean, you know, where we need to think about what our mental health prayers are, our public health priorities are, because what's here is not separate, you can't disconnect ahead from the rest of your body. And we know how important that gut brain immune brain connection is. So when we think about this, you know, what I point people to is landmark work, the life changing work of Robert navio, down at UCSD, who's really identified something called the cell danger response, and the cell danger, dangerous watts, I love to talk about the cell danger response.

And I just had the honor of meeting Dr. Robert navio. For the first time this weekend when I was lecturing. You know, with him, I just went an honor to have your mentor there. I think I'm right go right after him. His work is is life changing. And he describes a cell dangerous spots as our cells normally live in health cycle, right, where we have a normal waking metabolic process to happen while we're awake. And then our restorative healing process when we're asleep. That's our our health cycle. Now, when it comes to this health cycle, and boom, we get this hit, whether it's psychological stress, and environmental toxin, or an infection, or physical trauma, our cells get thrown into the cell danger response. That then is called the healing cycle that we have to go through step by step phase one, phase two, phase three of the cell dangerous wants to get back into then the health cycle, in that very simplistically, in the first phase of the cell danger response, that injured cell walls itself off from the rest of our body because it needs to protect us, right? We don't want this inflammation to go crazy.

And it triggers ATP release into our into our extracellular space and recruits all these other cells, you know, to help heal and we try to neutralize the threat whatever it is, right? The infection or you know, environmental toxin or psychological trauma. If the threat is contained, then our cells can move into the next phase two of the cell danger response. If that insult is not continuous ticking infection, it gets walled off, right, it gets hidden away kind of wrapped around by let's say clocks, you know, fibrin, so that our immune system can kind of defend itself with his wall. That's what happens right with chronic infections, right. But then we move into the cell danger response to words, the repair cycle stem cells get generated so that there's, you know, any old cells that didn't survive, get replaced, cells that can be repaired, get repaired.

And that's where all of our functional medicine interventions are really important to support mitochondrial function, metabolic function, you know, immunologic function, methylation, detoxification, when that happens correctly, our cells can move into the third phase, cell danger response, phase three, this third phase is where many, many, many people, kids and adults are stuck in, right, their cells are stuck in this third phase, because they can't move back into the healing cycle. What happens in this third phase, our mitochondria get restored, and the cells are separated all these new cells that were were created in phase two, and the initial cells that were, you know, walled off separate from the rest of our body have to reconnect to the rest of our body through the vagus nerve that happens to the vagus nerve.

And when you're stuck in this phase three, that could really be what's happening for our long, COVID patients. They're stuck here, you know, for our patients with autism, for PTSD for autoimmune illness, illnesses, and they can't recover very often, they're stuck in this phase. And I see this too, right for our kid, my kids were if they have autoimmune illness, and we do our functional medicine work, and we can get them into remission. But what happens, right, maybe we can get them into remission briefly, but another stressor comes along, and they go right back, right, they're not staying there. But if we can incorporate these vagus nerve supports, which kind of get put into the side category, mind body medicine, but it really is the foundation of everything that we're doing, they can stay in the health cycle.

That's why patients who have chronic Lyme, many of my colleagues are really moving to supporting them now with vagal, retraining, you know, through integrated listening systems or through amygdala retraining with DNRs, or the Gupta program, right? There's different programs, because we have to retrain the way our brain and our vagus nerve are operating, you know, get out of that, that sick mode. It's that healthy mode. So it's so important. But what what can we do? Um, even before we get into that phase, we want our kids to have in ourselves as parents to have all the tools to have the strongest vagus nerve possible.

What can we do, right, we can learn how to do those breathing techniques before we're sick before we need to do them. There's no way Bodie would have effectively use that square breathing if we hadn't already been doing it with that app, before he got sick. Right? We use those breathing techniques at our house when our kids kind of get or win. I mean, I do that too, right. We use our breath work. You know, mindfulness meditation, EFT tapping has been shown to improve vagus nerve function. Hearts math is another program that's been shown to improve vagus nerve function. And how do we measure vagus nerve function, we measure by looking for optimal or good heart rate variability. And you know, when I listen to a kid's heart, and their lungs when I'm listening at, it's not just that lungs are clear, and they have no murmurs. I'm listening as a proxy, what is our heart rate variability. And you can do this all parents and kids do this, you could just find your pulse on your neck, or find it on your wrist and take a big breath in.

And then take a slow breath out. And as you do that, when you take a slow breath in,

your heart rate should speed up and as you exhale, heart rate should slow down. So that's what heart rate variability is, right? We want that respiratory sinus arrhythmia, we breathe in our heart, we should speed up. When we exhale, heart rate should slow down. If your boom boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, up all the time. That means you're in that sympathetic fight or flight mode a little bit more. Let's train our nervous system to get back into that slow steady, parasympathetic, rest digested heal state. And there are clinically we know from studies, meditation can do this yoga can do this Heart Math can do this diaphragmatic breathing that belly breathing, EFT tapping, also something called loving kindness meditation, right, which I love. And it's so easy to do. When you practice loving kindness, meditation, either yourself or you know, have your kids do it.

There's only four sentences that you say, May you feel safe, may you feel happy, may you feel healthy, may you live with ease. That's it and their six week meditative loving kindness meditation, studies that have been done in adults and with college students that have been found an improvement in the heart rate variability, improvement in your sense of connectedness and your joy, well being. And when we do this, we always start with ourselves. We always start with giving loving kindness to ourselves and gratitude to ourselves. That's so important, because some of the harshest words that we hear are from our own voice, right to ourselves. And so first we have to really, really make sure that we stop, we sit, we close our eyes, we give ourselves love and gratitude, and we just tell ourselves, may I feel safe?

May I feel happy, may I feel healthy? May I live with ease. And then we can sit and think, just one by one, think about family or friends that you want to extend that loving kindness to your neighbors, your community, the world, whoever you want to in the beginning, I was really sending this out to all those frontline workers, and then extend that loving kindness to them, you know, may you feel happy, may you feel safe, may you feel healthy. May you live with ease. And you know what? Guess what, you know, loving kindness meditation has also been found to increase telomere length and white blood. Right? Right.

And so, I mean, all of this, that's where in functional medicine, it we've come a step closer in really educating on the importance of mind body medicine, but we're still not close enough yet. Because it's still not something that many of us know the practical tools to teach our kids and our parents and our adult patients. It's not enough to say, take a yoga class, or here download this meditation app. Because when you give your patients a list of supplements, and then some diet recommendations, lifestyle recommendations, meditation recommendations, they might do the supplements, but all those lifestyle diet, things tend to go down to the bottom, we need to elevate that we need to make sure as practitioners that we prioritize the diet and lifestyle piece as even more important than the cellphone piece. Right?

Dr. Stephanie Gray 51:49

So true. So good. Mic drop, we could just end the podcast right there. But I, I want to go back to fever, because I think it's so important as we wrap up the show. You alluded to fever not being a bad thing earlier. So what's one of the biggest mistakes that parents make when their kids are sick? Like having a fever? And what can they do instead?

Dr. Elisa Song 52:10

Yeah, so number one mistake, not just parents, but practitioners, too. Right? nurses, doctors, parents, grandparents, the number one mistake is having fever phobia. Number one, what happens when kids have a fever and you go to the ER to urgent care before anyone lays eyes on that kid, that kid gets a dose of Tylenol, right? Immediately, without looking at this child. The first thing that happens for a lot of parents when their kids have a fever or grandparents oh my gosh, get the motion. Bring the fever down, you know, fevers dangerous. So the first thing to do is change that mindset, right? And understand, like we were talking about before, that there's nothing that's ever good or bad 100%? I mean, there are some things I can think of a few things right?

But very few things are 100% good or bad. Fever is one of the fevers your body's natural response to fighting infection, fighting physiologic trauma, human psychological trauma. I mean, have you ever had kids or yourself or you've been so stressed and anxious? And obviously you get a fever, right? Same thing, right? We want to understand that it is our body's natural response. And there are studies show that if you reduce fever artificially with anti Pyretic, anti fever medicines, like Tylenol or ibuprofen, that it can actually prolong the duration of the illness, prolong shedding from your nose in the virus, so you're more infectious for longer, and it doesn't help your kids get better faster. Right? And so,

Dr. Stephanie Gray 53:36

did you hear that parents, you might have to say that again?

Dr. Elisa Song 53:39

Lowering the fever artificially does not help your kids get better, faster. In fact, it can keep them sicker longer now, just like everything, there is a time and a place for everything. Do I give fever reducers Sure. When kids are so uncomfortable that they they're not wanting to drink, or they're they can't fall asleep, because sleep and hydration are a must when you're sick, okay. But there are many, many ways to help your child's fever naturally without suppressing it. Because what happens when you suppress the fever tele or motion comes right back after four hours or wears off, it doesn't do anything to support your body's immune response. What do we want to do we want to support your child's immune response so that their fever can come down naturally using natural immune mechanisms and shorten the duration of their illness right without suppressing. So I mean number one thing is hydration, right? We I mean just be dehydrated in the summertime. If you run a marathon, you get a fever right? So stay hydrated.

Electrolytes are best like coconut water or if you're making herbal teas throw in a little pinch of sea salt, a little pinch of sugar honey, and then you know I use this I teach parents how to use essential oils, acupressure points, different herbs or supplements. homeopathic medicines for all sorts of acute conditions. For essential oils. Lavender is very safe even for young kids. You can dilute but is one of the ones that can be used with neat, you know, without even diluting and use them on acupressure points. So one of the acupressure points that's really good for fever and supporting immune responses here, large intestine forth in the web space with your thumb and index finger, put a drop of lavender on your finger and just hold firm gentle pressure or you can massage. So that's a really easy thing to do, then as far as how we panic medicines go in homeopathic medicines, and they're coming into the little blue tubes. They're one of the forms of medicine that there there are some good studies on but it's one that I think many people are the least familiar with.

And it's hard to wrap your mind around using these substances that are so dilute, you know, isn't it just a sugar pill? Isn't it just placebo? But there are some especially for kids. And even in animals, there are some good studies showing their effectiveness. One One homeopathic medicine that is good to have on hand is called ferrum phosphoricum. You get three little pellets. Kids love them every few hours. And that's just a general kind of nonspecific low grade fevers. There are other ones as well. Of course, you're going to have your vitamin D, you know, there are different herbs that you can use. One of my favorites is a Chinese herbal formula called windbreaker.

The reason why it's called windbreaker is the I mean, kids always can give the winner you're passing when it's not that. But it's because in Chinese medicine, when kids have a fever, it's considered to be an attack of the wind, the wind has attacked your now you have a fever. And so it helps to break that wind and break the fever, which it really, really is very helpful. So just those are just some ideas, you know, lots more tips for parents. But the first thing just when your kids have a fever, take a breath. It's okay. It's not dangerous to them in a neurologically intact kid, right? He doesn't have you know, any any kind of neurologic problem. And I'm not talking about autism, I'm talking about really bad neurologic severe neurologic disease. Unless you're over bundled rat so much that you can't have heat escape, your temperature cannot get too high.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 56:58

Good to know, we needed to hear that your wealth of knowledge. I'm sure you've heard that before. So tell us where listeners can connect with you and learn more of your tips.

Dr. Elisa Song 57:07

So the best place to find me is on my online educational site. My blog is called Healthy Kids happy kids. And that's WWW dot healthy kids happy kids.com. That's where I write articles. And then if you sign up for my newsletter, I don't write too many newsletters, but they're always information packed. And then you know, my Instagram and Facebook pages, if you just search Healthy Kids, Happy Kids, you'll find me that's where I post up to date information and my interpretation of different research papers that come out inspirational tips for moms, so that those are the best places to find me.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 57:40

Awesome. And I hear you have a free ebook gift for our audience as well.

Dr. Elisa Song 57:44

I do I mean talking about fever. It's an ebook called The top five mistakes parents make when the child has a fever, and what you can do instead. So I'll give you that link. And then also mentioned the foodist medicine guide. Make sure that you have that link to

Dr. Stephanie Gray 57:59

awesome. I'll post those in the show notes. All right. Last question. What's your top longevity tip?

Dr. Elisa Song 58:05

My top longevity tip? Well, I think you might be able to guess it's to really center your mind. Right? Practice your mind body medicine engage that vagus nerve, not only as I mentioned before, can increase telomere length, but it can cause epigenetic changes and methylation of different genes that all promote health and well being. So it's not just for relaxation, stress relief, it really is for health and longevity.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 58:32

I love it. Love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today and hopefully reducing parents fears over illness by helping empower us with information on nutrition and supplements, and ultimately teaching us how to improve our child and our family's immune resilience. So you are such a gem to this nation's, also parents and the children of this nation. So thank you so much for coming on the show.

Dr. Elisa Song 58:52

Oh, thanks, Stephanie. It's an honor to be here.

Dr. Stephanie Gray 58:57

I hope you so enjoyed this interview. It's so clear that helping children has been her heart. But she's not just helping kids. She's helping whole families learn how to create immune resilience. Please share the show. And lastly, I'll leave you with this. May you feel safe. May you feel happy. May you feel healthy, and may you live with ease. Be sure to check out my book your longevity blueprint. And if you aren't much of a reader, you're in luck. You can now take my course online where I walk you through each chapter in the book. Plus for a limited time the course is 50% off, check this offer out at your longevity blueprint.com and click the Course tab. One of the biggest things you can do to support the show and help us reach more listeners is to subscribe to the show. Leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I do read all the reviews and would truly love to hear your suggestions for show topics guests and for how you're applying what you learn on the show to create your own longevity blueprint. The podcast is produced by the team at counterweight creative as always, thank you so much for listening and remember, wellness is way

The information provided in this podcast is educational. No information provided should be considered to be or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your personal medical authority

Transcribed by https://otter.ai