by Kellie KuechaWhile many of you know me as a marketer, I am also a mom of 4 (5 if you count Cliff) and a very well educated wellness and nutritional junkie. While I don’t have a formal degree, I have spent the last 20 years since I was diagnosed with Cancer and Endometriosis (and told I would never bear children) studying alternative and holistic treatments. My own health crisis was the inspiration behind my women’s group called Women’s Wellness Society and this insatiable quest for knowledge. Through that organization and my various other creative outlets, I have been able to help thousands of people throw away their nebulizers, get rid of their allergies, reduce their cholesterol and best of all INCREASE their immune system health. I am not a doctor and nor am I making medical claims but I know without a doubt that if you follow some of my advice, you and your family will be on the path to better health!
Dear Friend,
I come from the philosophy that it’s much easier to stay well then it is to get well once we get sick. I am sure you have heard the saying - An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Unfortunately many people wait until after they become ill or disease stricken to concern themselves with their health and by that point - are forced to react from pure panic. When it comes to optimal heath, I believe that the formula is quite simple – Decrease the load on the immune system by caring for what goes into your body and in turn Increase the immune system’s capacity to protect by also caring for what goes into the body. Hippocrates said it best “let thy food be thy medicine” which I believe in wholeheartedly. However, we can no longer just rely on food to do the trick. The days are gone where we can trust manufactures, farmers and government to look out for our well being. Being a proactive parent requires us to do our own research and become the primary caregivers of our children’s health. Think about it, if we are proactive and are focused on prevention rather than treating sickness then is there really a need for routine visits to a pediatrician? I don’t believe so! While this document may ruffle some feathers, it’s merely meant to open your eyes to the warped system that many of us fall victim to each and every day. If I can help one child get healthier because a concerned mom reads this, then I have done my job! I worked hard to conceive my children and I don’t take my role as their mom lightly and I know you don’t either!
Kellie Kuecha
1. Use Probiotics – 80% of all immune system health resides in the gut! A healthy gut equals a healthy body and a strong immune system. Unfortunately antibiotic use is a common practice, especially in pediatric medicine. Children with ear infections are often prescribed antibiotics, which seldom are necessary. A recent analysis of 135 published studies found that most kids who see a doctor for ear infection do not need an antibiotic. The review, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) determined that 80 percent of children with ear infections will get better on their own in about three days. 50% of all antibiotics are prescribed unnecessarily. Over-prescription of antibiotics contributes to antibiotic resistance and affects the ability of bacteria to survive antibiotic treatment. That’s very important because if antibiotics do not work for infections, there isn’t much else. Unfortunately each time an antibiotic is used to kill an infection it wreaks havoc on the healthy intestinal flora that keeps your immune system strong. This becomes a vicious cycle if Probiotics are not taken on a regular basis to combat the negative effects of antibiotic use. My kids take probiotics daily. Probiotics literally means “for life.” There are many ways in which probiotics function “for life,” for without them we would be seriously ill and succumb to many different diseases.
2. Rid your Home of Toxic Chemicals – chemicals enter our bodies in three ways - absorption, inhalation and ingestion. While the kids are little of course ingestion is a big problem if you are using mainstream cleaners. But the real risk after that is with absorption and inhalation. Our skin is our largest organ and will absorb whatever it comes in contact with so caring for what goes ON your body is crucial. Our cosmetics, shampoos, lotions and the like are all ridden with chemicals many of which have been proven to cause long term harmful effects. According to the EPA formaldehyde (which is used in many of our homecare and personal care products) is a known carcinogen. It is being used legally as a preservative but without a doubt is a huge contributing factor to the demise of our immune system health. I was shocked years ago to see it in Johnsons Baby Shampoo under the alias Quaternium 15. Good luck reading labels because manufactures are not required to list ingredients by their actual name. Asthma is responsible for 1 out of 3 of all emergency room visits which is truly alarming and an unnecessarily high statistic that oftentimes can be traced back to the inhalation of household cleaners. When I met my fiance Cliff, he had the worst case of asthma that I had ever seen. Today is he asthma free! Lymphoma is the #1 cause of death in children, poisoning in the home is #2. At the turn of the century 1 out of 8,000 people were at risk for getting cancer, today it’s 1 out of 3. The warning signs are there, we must all commit to being ambassadors for change by committing to learn better, safer options. Take a few moments and take the No Toxic Zone Pledge at www.thenotoxiczone.com and commit to learning simple, small and effective ways to create change.
3. Take Good Absorbable Vitamins and Minerals – Food is still the most important source for good health however for over 100 years now our soils have been over farmed and depleted leading to a huge mineral deficiency in our fruits and vegetables. According to JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association) every adult regardless of age or health status needs to take a daily multi-vitamin. The problem is that not all vitamins and minerals are created equally. Furthermore, it’s not what you take but more importantly what you absorb! I would need an entire book to write about this conspiracy theory but here is the skinny. Vitamins are an unregulated industry which pretty much allows for the doors to be wide open for anyone to manufacture a supplement, slap a label on it and call it a vitamin. There are no watchdogs! Here is another place where you must be an educated consumer. With thousands of manufactures displaying products on your local store shelves, how is one to know what to choose? You must search for a vitamin backed by scientific research that can clinically prove maximum absorbability. I was finally able to naturally conceive my children as a result of nutrition therapy years ago. Grapeseed extract became the hero for me! Grapeseed has been documented to help with over 65 different degenerative diseases, is a food supplement and can even cross the blood brain barrier. It also acts as a natural anti-histamine for those of you that suffer from allergies! I personally use Vitality 6 vitamins and supplements which guarantee the highest absorption on the market today and are also refundable for up to 90 days. My older kids also take this line as well which is a combination of a multi-vitamin, omega-3 fish oil, grapeseed and resveratrol, probiotics, calcium and mineral supplement and a broad spectrum antioxidant. With this mixture I was able to get off of my thyroid medication and more recently my 9 year old has gotten relief from her sweaty palm syndrome that has no cure!
4. Stop Following the Herd and Start Surrounding Yourself with Like-Minded People – I remember years ago when I made the tough choice not to vaccinate my kids being out casted but the other moms in my mom’s club. I was so excited to share my newfound knowledge with the other moms when quickly I realized I had made a big mistake in being so open. I knew I had made the right choice but all of the sudden the other moms viewed my child as a risk to theirs when in fact their children were more of a risk to mine! I quickly realized that if I was going to be supported in my own beliefs I needed to surround myself with other moms who felt the same way so I started the Women’s Wellness Society. Since then I have become a member of many other groups of women that share similar interests and you will want to do the same! The last thing you want to do is start second guessing yourself once you made a well educated choice! You will gain lots of reassurance and many new friendships to being a part of such groups both offline and online!
5. Understand your options when the kids get sick – Running to the doctor every time the kids got sick was never my plan of action. After awhile I relied less and less on doctors and started learning my own simple remedies coupled with proactive health planning. I found a great holistic doctor in my area that gave me access to him after hours on his cell in the early years when I was adjusting to natural parenting. I used chiropractors as a means for proactive health and I did NOT reduce fevers every time my kids got one! Fever is the body’s natural way of fighting sickness and if the fever was under 104, I just let it work through its natural course. We NEVER use mainstream cough and cold remedies. If they do cough, we put the oil on their chest, on their pillow, in the diffuser and sometimes use Chestal which is a natural honey exlixer. I also relied heavily on my two bibles, Prescription for Nutritional Healing and Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child. Every day the kids got grapeseed in their bottles and went to bed at night with Melaleuca Oil in their vaporizers and diffusers. These little techniques added up to the amazing results I have had with my children’s health today. Pink eye was common in our home the first few years but since I was breast feeding I used the breast milk to cure the pink eye. I also used garlic and Melaleuca oil the few times that the kids got ear infections. We rarely deal with either anymore!
6. Eliminate the Sugar! – Believe it or not, sugar in the number one weakener of the immune system. The over consumption of sugar today has not only caused a terrible increase in obesity in our country but it’s making our kids chronically sick! I did not give my kids juices, sodas, Yohoos, sugar water, Gatorade and loads of candy growing up! If you don’t introduce your kids to them they will never ask for them. As a result, my kids ask for water at meals and my older daughter despises anything sweet. Eating or drinking 100 grams (8 tbsp.) of sugar, the equivalent of about two cans of soda, can reduce the ability of white blood cells to kill germs by forty percent. The immune-suppressing effect of sugar starts less than thirty minutes after ingestion and may last for five hours. In contrast, the ingestion of complex carbohydrates, or starches, has no effect on the immune system. Disease thrives on sugar! I also personally do not believe that children grow up fat because of genetics. They are taught habits by us as parents. Sugar is one area that if handled properly, will help you to avoid most of the common colds and other infections that come down the pike. Why vaccinate your kids against the flu when you can be proactive in preventing the flu in the first place. Don’t get me started on that topic!
7. Buy Organic – Although you may not be using prescription antibiotics with your children, unless you are feeding them only organic meats and dairy products, they are still getting regular doses of antibiotics in their food. I remember the first meat and dairy seminar I attended years ago, I was so alarmed that I became a vegetarian overnight. I then attempted to raise my first child vegetarian which seemed like a great idea at the time until all of her preschool friends enticed her with chicken nuggets every Tuesday. That was the end of that! Our non-organic fruits and veggies also contain large amounts of pesticides that are huge immune system disrupters.
8. Open Your Windows – Studies show that indoor air quality is much more toxic than outdoor air and the EPA has stated that women working from home are 55% more likely to develop some sort of cancer as a result. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) come from paints, solvents, pesticides, air fresheners, hobby supplies, dry-cleaned clothing, aerosol sprays, adhesives and fabric additives and wood treated with arsenic (CCA). Some of these VOCs can cause eye, nose and throat irritation; headaches; loss of coordination; nausea; or damage to the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system. Open your windows as often as you can, clean your air ducts and avoid air fresheners and toxic candles! Stay away from carpeting and only use NO VOC paints!
9. Bring Wellness into the Classroom – Now that you have done all this great work at home, you send your kids off to an 8 hour school day where their environments are full of toxins! My kids had not developed immunity to bleach and Lysol cleaners because they were never exposed to them and as soon as they started school, they both developed circles rashes on the backs of their knees. It’s as simple as requesting that their teachers use Non Toxic alternatives and provide them with the products to help them seamlessly make that change! We have now been successful at getting entire schools and daycare centers to take the No Toxic Zone Pledge and our taskforce can help them through the transition!
10. Opt OUT of the School Milk Program and Monitor School Meals – While many of us were raised that milk does that body good, it’s a bunch of BS. Milk does the body more harm than good in many ways! We are lead to believe that our kids need milk for vitamins and calcium but by the time milk is pasteurized and treated, very few nutrients are left. In addition, unless you are buying organic, you are getting an entire slew of other junk in the milk. Did you know that we are the only species on the planet that drinks another mammal’s milk! We don’t need it! I found a great website that you can do additional research on www.notmilk.com. You must opt out of the milk program at school to ensure your kids don’t get enticed into drinking the chocolate stuff while you aren’t looking! There are no watchdogs at school either so you have to frequently monitor this one also! I found my little one buying ice cream daily and no one was paying attention. I quickly put that to an end!
Although this information can seem a bit daunting, I can help you through some of the initial stages that matter the most! We have a team that can do free eco-audits over the phone and help get you and your family on your way to optimal health! Please refer to the disclaimer listed below. For further information you can reach my office by email at kellie@kelliekuecha.com or 561-416-1769.
