With the rise of cancers, obesity, and other chronic disease skyrocketing we've become acutely aware of what we put on, in, or around our bodies. Especially with our kiddos.
There is an entire generation of moms out here right now, reading labels, making their own cleaning products, using natural body care products, and the list goes on.
We are doing our best to feed our families whole foods, buying organic when at all possible.
Searching out the best local, grass-fed beef and free-range chicken. You name it, we likely have a phone number on speed dial to source it.
Moms like me staying up at night trying to crack the code on how to source all our food locally without breaking the bank.
We're even learning skills our grandmothers had like canning, drying, and fermenting.
But....what if that isn't enough?
But Megan, how can our best be not good enough?
I'll let you in on a little secret. You are enough. You are doing enough. You are doing a fantastic job Mama! You really are.
And your kids see it. Even if they don't acknowledge all the extra effort you are doing and don't seem to appreciate it yet. Key word being yet!
They will Mama! They will.
Because all of the above matters. It does.
We freaking deserve trophies for the valiant efforts we go through on a day to day basis.
But one area that has been over looked for my entire life, and likely yours' too is our genetics.
A year ago this month our world was about to be turned upside down.
In a magnificent, un-believing, but still completely chaotic and tragic way.
God was there to shepherd us through. We could see his hand in every step.
It all started with my efforts to find answers on why we were still experiencing febrile seizures. This time around we went to Arizona to see another pediatric neurologist.
This time she did all the tests. From A-Z. My poor little had to go back to get his blood drawn three days in a row, just because they had to space out the amount of blood they could take from him in one day.
We came back home and waited for the results. About the same time I started my second year at Saybrook in the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Master's program.
By complete Godwink, I signed up for a Nutri-genomic class at the last moment. It was a first for Saybrook and it sounded intriguing to me. It promised to teach us how our nutrition impacts our genome and how our genome impacts our nutrition.
A few weeks in and we are just getting our results from the Neurologist when the professor of my Nutri-genomic course took a keen interest in my son's case.
I had explained during class one night how we have been all over trying to get answers with no avail. And how I have become a "Mom on a mission" to find out what was ailing my son and how to fix it.
Little did I know the most fabulous, complex story was about to unfold right in front of me. One I can't wait to share as it is still unfolding and I'm just starting to see the enormity of the miracle that it is.
What I've learned so far is, all the things above matter. Our lifestyle matters. Our diet's matter. The environment we create (both externally and internally) matters. They all matter in setting ourselves and our kids up for the best quality and longevity in life.
And we need to take into account our genes. Each of our individual, unique genetic make-up.
You see our genes can have hiccups where they aren't functioning at capacity. And this causes our bodies to still suffer the consequences.
In our case we were fighting an almost insatiable battle against inflammation. We needed to make key changes to reduce inflammation.
Once we did, we saw dramatic improvements in not only our physical health but in behavioral health as well.
The big areas we've personally experienced are in the areas of detoxing (especially mold and heavy metals), clearing stress hormones, triggering inflammation, and increasing our risks for obesity and cardiovascular disease.
There isn't a day that goes by that I am not thinking about how this or that will be impacted by our genomes.
It's a radical time to be alive and have access to this information.
And not only have access to the information, but to know what to do about each of these areas.
A few key supplements, a few key lifestyle changes, a few key diet changes and we are making our genomes work for us instead of against us.
I'm excited to share more about our journey and what we've learned over the past year. My dear friend has challenged me to do some more videos as well as blogging here.
So stay tuned for that updated delivery method.
I'll also be starting a newsletter for those interested in learning more about how to use food as medicine to work with our genomes and finally learn how to work with our bodies instead of them working against us.
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