Dr. Teresa Fuller

Board certified holistic pediatrician

Health Conditions

Change 1 Thing! February Challenge

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“Change One Thing” is a 12 step process over one year to help you achieve your health goals.  You simply commit to make one change in your lifestyle every month, so that by the end of the year, you will have completely transformed to a healthy lifestyle.  Why each month?  It takes about 21 days to establish a new habit.  So each month, you will firmly establish one change before starting another.  Are you willing to take the challenge?

February Challenge

Eat 7 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day

Benefits of fruits and vegetables:

Full of fiber: Increased fiber content in your diet which will help keep you regular, and will stabilize your blood sugar.  Increased fiber intake also helps you lose weight. Fiber keeps our digestive systems healthy and prevents constipation, a problem for at least 40% of Americans.

Full of anti-oxidants: What are anti-oxidants?  Chemicals that get rid of damaging free radicals that cause cellular damage.   Examples of antioxidants are vitamin C and beta carotene which are found in a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Full of vitamins and minerals:  The American diet is deficient in numerous vitamins and minerals.  The average American consumes a diet containing low levels of calcium, potassium, fiber, magnesium, vitamins A, C and E to name a few.  We know that low calcium levels contribute to bone disease.  Potassium is important for regulating blood pressure.  Magnesium deficiency also is associated with insufficient bone mineral density, and also increased levels of inflammation which contributes to many diseases.

High water content: It is estimated that 75% of Americans are dehydrated – chronically!  Dehydration causes aches, pains and fatigue.  Not only do we drink too little water, but we also eat too much dry, dead food.  Fruits and vegetables have high water content.

Tips:

  • Eat fruit with breakfast, like a serving of berries in your oatmeal
  • Have a hearty salad with lunch
  • Make a smoothie of blended up fruits and vegetables
  • Eat a serving of raw fruit or vegetables as snacks between breakfast and lunch and dinner

    Continue your January habit of drinking at least 8 glasses of water every day!

10 Horizon-Broadening After-School Activities for Your Kids

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After your kids are back from school, they likely have a great deal of free time on their hands. Instead of leaving them to their own devices, you could encourage them to pursue a constructive activity or hobby of some kind. The right sort of activity can not only broaden their horizons but also offer countless hours of fun.

Dr. Teresa Fuller shares 10 activities that are both enjoyable and teach your child something about themselves and the world around them:

Saving the environment

The world’s climate is out of balance, natural disasters are rising, and resources are depleting rapidly. If your family feels strongly about the environment, you could teach your child to be a planet warrior – live more consciously, learn more about the environment, and help restore the balance (by planting trees, recycling, reducing your carbon footprint, and more).

Volunteering

There are several worthy causes out there that could use a helping hand, from assisting the homeless to rehabilitating injured animals and everything in between. Participating in a volunteer program would allow your child to learn valuable lessons (like giving back), pick up useful skills, and make lifelong friends.

Blogging 

Blogging (which is modern-day writing) can be surprisingly beneficial. It can teach your child discipline, give them mental clarity, and help them express themselves. Your child could blog about any subject they’re passionate about – like sustainability, science, fashion, food, or games.

Coding

Coding is quickly becoming a must-have skill. Teaching your kids coding can give them a leg-up down the road and expand their career options. Learning how to code isn’t as hard as you might think. Sites like Code Profs offer great coding resources and insights.

Gardening

Gardening is a wonderful way for your child to connect with nature. They can learn more about plants and the environment – and get their required dose of Vitamin D while they’re at it. Gardening is a natural health booster and can help their cognitive development.

Foreign languages

If your child enjoys learning and has a knack for communication, they may enjoy picking up a foreign language. They will also learn more about a foreign culture and history along the way, which can broaden their horizons and teach them about the world. And, again, knowing an extra language is good for their future career.

Meditating

Modern-day life can be stressful and demanding. One of the best ways for people to let off steam, manage their emotions, and stay calm amidst life’s various storms is by meditating. If your child learns how to meditate early in life, it’s going to stand them in good stead when they grow up.

Sports and other physical activities

If your child has a lot of energy to spare, you could channel it into a sport or other physical pastime. Besides keeping them fit physically, sports can also help boost their overall development by teaching them teamwork, decision-making, responsibility, and more. Some example sports are football, baseball, martial arts, and swimming.

Music 

Music is a wonderful hobby, and almost all children enjoy it. Besides the fun factor, it can also boost your child’s cognitive development, help keep their stress levels down, and, according to John Hopkins, keeps the brain young. Lessons are easily accessible on the internet these days for free. Some instruments your child may enjoy learning are the guitar, drums, piano, or violin.

Furthering your teen’s entrepreneurial ambitions

If your child enjoys the thought of being a businessman, you could help them to start their own business. Businesses aren’t hard to launch and can teach them practical skills – like math, negotiating, and money management. They can also learn all about what launching a business involves – creating a business plan, setting up a website, marketing, and forming a legal structure (like LLC). Read this ZenBusiness guide on how to start a company for ideas on getting started.

Some easy-to-start businesses are selling T-shirts, doing hair and make-up, offering lawn mowing, pet sitting, babysitting, and selling food. They could also support a worthy cause – like selling eco-friendly products – or do business in a planet-friendly way.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that your child probably has several preferences and ideas of their own – they are their own in-development person. You should sit down and talk to them about what they enjoy and then pick something that would be helpful to their development overall. Whether you’re helping them start a business, learn a new skill like coding, or practice meditation, you can broaden their horizons.

Image via Unsplash

By Jason Kenner of onparparent.com

Change 1 Thing! January Challenge

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“Change 1 Thing” Challenge

Have You Accepted the Challenge?

Take One Year to Develop a Lifetime of Optimal Health!

“Change One Thing” is a 12 step process over one year to help you achieve your health goals.  You simply commit to make one change in your lifestyle every month, so that by the end of the year, you will have completely transformed to a healthy lifestyle. 

Why each month?  It takes about 21 days to establish a new habit.  So each month, you will firmly establish one change before starting another.  Are you willing to take the challenge?

Your January Challenge (should you choose to accept it):

“I will drink my optimal amount of water every day”

What is my optimal amount of water?

  • Adults need at least eight 8-ounce cups of water per day. But if you’re overweight, you should add about 8 ounces of water intake for every 25 pounds of excess weight.
  • Children should drink about half their weight in ounces of water.  For example, a 40 pound child should drink about 20 ounces of water daily (about 2 and ½ cups)

What You Can Expect from This One Change:

  • You will have a decrease in the symptoms of dehydration.  Dehydration leads to fatigue, headaches, back aches and joint aches.  As many as 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. 
  • If you have problems with constipation, like 40% of Americans have, this one change will improve your regularity. 
  • You will lose weight.  Why?  The average American drinks 10% of his or her daily caloric intake.  By replacing sweetened beverages with plain water, you will be on your way to losing unwanted pounds.

Broccoli sprouts: a simple way to ameliorate a myriad of diseases?

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“We and many others around the world, have developed an enormous body of laboratory and pre-clinical data, and a burgeoning body of clinical evidence addressing the potential that sulforaphane has, not only in the prevention of environmental carcinogenesis, but in the prevention or amelioration of a very large, diverse, and seemingly unrelated series of conditions…[that] include autism spectrum disorder (ASD), schizophrenia, bacterial and viral infections, prostate, lung, breast, skin, and head and neck cancers, osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes, sickle cell disease, fatty liver, and asthma.” Read more here…

Reference: Fahey Jed W., Kensler Thomas W. The Challenges of Designing and Implementing Clinical Trials With Broccoli Sprouts… and Turning Evidence Into Public Health Action. Frontiers in Nutrition, Vol 8 . Apr 29, 2021

The Best Offense is a Good Defense

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Loved the discussion with Dr. William Li on the Model Health Show podcast! Dr. Li lays out 5 key health defense systems that define optimal health. As always, Shawn Stevenson’s program is full of actionable items that we can take to improve our health right now. By the way, Dr. Li specifically mentions how shoring up our defense systems helps fight back against long COVID syndrome.

So here’s one tip to strengthen each health defense system as recommended by Dr. Li:

1)Angiogenesis: growth of new blood vessels to improve your circulation

  • Tip: Eat 2 fresh fruits and 3 vegetables daily. Optimize this practice by including fruit peel in your fruit intake. A great way to increase fruit peel is by consuming dried fruit if your system can handle the sugar.

2) Boost your Stem Cells

  • Tip: Dark chocolate (80% or higher) can double the number of stem cells in your blood stream

3) Healthy Microbiome

  • Tip: Kiwi’s high fiber content. Eating 1 kiwi per day will “quickly start to change the number of your healthy gut bacteria.”

4) DNA self-repair

  • Tip: Sunflower seeds slow down the degradation of DNA

5) Healthy immune system

  • Tip: consume broccoli sprouts which contain 100x the immune-supporting compound called sulforaphane found in mature broccoli

Always a wealth of great info on the Model Health Show. Dr. William Li’s book is called Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body can Heal Itself