The Teen Health Revolution with The Holistic Kids: Rational Wellness Podcast 448

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The Teen Health Revolution with The Holistic Kids and host Dr. Ben Weitz.  

[If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.] 

 

Podcast Highlights

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The Holistic Kids, Abdullah, Zain, Emaad, and Qasim are the co-hosts of The Holistic Kids’ Show Podcast.  They have co-authored four best-selling books with their mother Madiha Saeed, MD,  Adam’s Healing Adventures children book series which have been featured as Dr Mark Hyman’s Top 5 Picks.  Their latest book The Teen Health Revolution: Unlocking lifestyle secrets to Optimizing the Mind, Body and Soul is out now. Their YouTube page is HolisticMom, MD.

Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.

 

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Podcast Transcript

Dr. Weitz:  Hey, this is Dr. Ben Weitz host of the Rational Wellness Podcast. I talk to the leading health and nutrition experts and researchers in the field to bring you the latest in cutting edge health information. Subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast for weekly updates and to learn more, check out my website, dr Weitz dot com.  Thanks for joining me, and let’s jump into the podcast.

Welcome to the Rational Wellness Podcast where we explore cutting edge ideas in functional and integrative medicine, I’m your host, Dr. Ben Weitz. Today I’m excited to be joined by the creators of the Teen Health Revolution, Abdullah Zane Emad and Kasim Ansari, also known as the Holistic Kids, today represented by Abdullah, since his brothers are in school. Along with their mother and co-author, Dr. Madea [00:01:00] Seed, this book. The Teen Health Revolution is a powerful call to action for teens and families addressing a growing crisis in teen, mental, physical, and emotional health. And of course, physical is mental, which is emotional.  Today we’ll explore what’s driving this crisis, the Revolution framework, and what teens and parents can do starting today. Abdullah. Thank you so much for joining us and representing your team.

Abdulla: It’s really my pleasure. And I, I usually, I do these podcasts with my brothers, my three other brothers, but right now they’re in school right now.  So, they would love to be here, but sadly, you know, they can’t miss school. 

Dr. Weitz:  School has to be a priority,

Abdulla: But it is an honor to be here. So thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Weitz: Absolutely. And education is a priority, which is one of the reasons why we’re doing this podcast to talk more about a super important topic, which is teen health.  And teen [00:02:00] health is really an emergency today. Which as I understand is really why you wrote the Teen Health Revolution. So what is this teen health emergency and which trends concern you the most?

Abdulla: So right now, I mean, if we look at the statistics, we can notice that teen health is go, is continuing to get worse and worse.  Now, I mean, right now our lifestyles are completely messed up. One in two kids have at least one persistent health condition. One in three teens have pre-diabetes, which is supposed to only be for older people. And now yet one in three teens are developing it. One in 10 US children have a DHD or a behavioral problem.  Three fourths of anx of adolescents are experiencing a depression or anxiety. And I see this in my school and I see this in my, you know, peers and classmates and even one in three teen girls have seriously thought of committing suicide. And so right now, many, you know, the, [00:03:00] and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychia Psych psychiatry and the Children’s Health Association all issued a joint declaration of a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.  The thing is that it seems like as a teen, that nobody’s really doing anything about it. Yes, they’re saying, oh, do this, do that. But they’re not teaching us how to fix our lifestyles. They’re just saying, oh, you have a problem. Here’s a pill. Just take this. Just take that. And they’re not getting to the root cause.  And if we don’t fix that root cause, now we are going to be affected in dwell into our adulthood and for the rest of our life. And so we, things need to change now, otherwise it’s going to continue to get worse and worse.

Dr. Weitz: And if kids in their teenage years are unable to thrive and do well in school and get their lives set up, the whole rest of their lives are liable to be affected by that trajectory.

Abdulla: Exactly. And that’s why we need this revolution now. We need [00:04:00] this, we need to revolutionize the future of teen health.

Dr. Weitz: And why do you think we haven’t been addressing it?

Abdulla: So I’ll be honest, first of all, us teens, we don’t really wanna change our lifestyle as much. ’cause not because we don’t wanna be healthy, it’s because we don’t know.

Dr. Weitz:  So, no, I totally understand that. But how come society as a whole I don’t understand why we are not seeing what a crisis this is with all these kids with anxiety and it just, it’s incredible the problems that we’re seeing.

Abdulla: And I think sadly, it has to do with, I think the mindset that a lot of adults have.  They’re not teaching themselves and so they don’t teach us, and they think that, oh, when, once they become adults, they’re kids, they’re teenagers. Let them enjoy their life, let them have fun, let them do this, or eventually it’ll fix itself. You know, I turned out fine. Or like all of these different mindsets that a lot of adults have, which they think is completely okay, when in reality it’s affecting [00:05:00] us.  And it’s a negatively affect, negatively affecting us. Like you mentioned that, you know, why is it nothing happening? I mean, you would think that if there’s such a big issue that people would do something about it. And the reality is that. Teen health is being overlooked. And it’s just that it’s not being taught in schools, it’s not being taught in to te to parents how to deal with teens like this.  I mean, I know I was talking to some experts and they were saying that, you know, it’s just that a lot of parents don’t know what to do. And that’s how we wanna try to educate parents because it’s for our sake and it’s for our future and it’s for our generation and it’s for our future generations.

Dr. Weitz: And I think part of the reason is our healthcare system is not really designed to do preventative health.  Which is what we’re talking about, which is getting people to change their diet and lifestyle and figure out what the trajectory they’re on. And [00:06:00] really our system is designed when people are really sick to give them a diagnosis and give them a pill. And that’s pretty much the end of the story.

Abdulla: And that’s how I know my, even my mom said like when teenagers come to offices and clinics that most of them are just told, you know, take this or it’ll be okay.  When in reality that no doctors aren’t really looking into the lifestyle of teens, especially when it comes to. Eating ultra processed foods when it, I know they’re taught here and there about sleep and stress, but we’re not actually given practical steps and practical tips so that we can then go back home and improve and change our life.

Dr. Weitz: Right. And there’s really not much health being taught in school. Yeah. So there’s really not much health being taught in school. You learn math, you learn social studies, you learn science but you don’t really learn a lot about health and that there’s nothing more fundamental. And that ought to be emphasized more I think, [00:07:00] as part of the educational process.

Abdulla: A hundred percent. ’cause I a hundred percent believe that if we are able to educate parents, teens, educators, doctors, if this information that is so beneficial for teens is basically educated to the entire world, that we can reverse this epidemic, this chronic disease and mental health epidemic that we’re dealing with today.  And us teens don’t have to suffer for the rest of our lives because other people weren’t taught and because we weren’t taught. And I think that’s just where it lies.

Dr. Weitz: And you and your brothers all faced some serious health challenges. Maybe you can talk about that.

Abdulla: Yeah, so usually my brothers would tell their stories, but I’ll give a quick, you know, and I’ll tell their quick stories quickly.  My brother, my second oldest brother, he. He had like severe eczema he was dealing with. 

Dr. Weitz:  By the way, you’re the oldest of four, right?

Abdulla: I’m the oldest of five, yes. Five, [00:08:00] oldest five.

Dr. Weitz: Okay. And give their names and ages.

Abdulla: So it’s me, I’m Abdullah, I’m 18. It’s Zan. He is four 15. Ahad is 12. Go is 10 and I’m pretty sure my younger brother, my youngest brother is three.

Dr. Weitz: Okay, great. Yeah, go ahead. Talk about your, the health issues that you and your brothers have dealt with.

Abdulla: So first of all, my youngest brother Roseanne. He dealt with eczema, he was waking up and he didn’t know what to do with his eczema. And this day after day, it kept getting worse and worse.

Dr. Weitz:  And which is this itchy, scaly skin, right?

Abdulla: Mm-hmm. Exactly. And so he was what, seven, eight years old? And he thought basically, oh, there’s nothing really I can do until we started to get into holistic, like functional medicine. And now he’s completely healed. He does. He deals with none of that anymore. His skin is clear, like.  [00:09:00] You know, sometimes I look at his skin, I’m like, wow, that’s like compared to what I used to be.

Dr. Weitz: And unfortunately, if he e, even if he had gone to a dermatologist, he would’ve gotten some cream to put on that he would’ve had to put on forever because he, nobody would’ve gotten to the root cause of the problem.

Abdulla: Exactly, and he healed just by fixing what he ate, fixing his diet and putting the foods that his body needed and not eating what was destroying his gut microbiome. And so he knows that as well. He would tell you that as well. My ahad, my third youngest brother, he had severe sinus issues. He was used to wake up every single day with a waterfall, you know, just of sinuses and of.  So many different things that he was dealing with. I remember he used to just like every hour he used to go to the bathroom and we could hear like him blowing out his nose because of how bad his sinuses, sinus issues were. And so now he doesn’t have to deal with any of that. [00:10:00] And actually, I remember people are telling him, oh, it’s normal.

You know, it’s just like you’re just gonna have to deal with it. And now he doesn’t have to wake up every single morning and deal with that and wait and spend five, 10 minutes in the bathroom just trying to get his nose cleared. And so now he’s in middle school. He is a seventh grader, so now he’s living the life much better.  He’s completely healed. And then Ssim as well. My fourth youngest brother, he’s 10 years old right now. When he was four and five, he dealt with. Tons. Also eczema, allergies. And now he no longer deals with any of that. And the brother who is born into this, my 3-year-old brother, he’s also, you know, completely healthy and com, you know, just running around the house, lots of energy, giving us a hard time.  But, you know, he’s living as a three-year-old should be able to live not having to deal with health problems.

Dr. Weitz: And what about yourself? What health issue did you have?

Abdulla: For me, I had, you know, severe dizziness. I basically [00:11:00] had like a broken brain, terrible headaches and conventional medicine. I went to tons of doctors and they said, oh, you know, we can’t really do too much.  It’s gonna have to deal with it. And so conventional medicine didn’t heal me and until I started to actually go into and find that root cause, why is my. You know, why am I having these terrible headaches? Why am I having, like, I couldn’t even walk straight. Why is this happening? And just educating myself.  I was able to and helping the Amazing Mother, ’cause she’s the one that educated us. I was able to now

Dr. Weitz: Tell us who your mom is.

Abdulla: So my mom is you might know her as holistic mom, MD, or Dr. Made Saed, but she is the one that wrote tons and tons, like she wrote the Holistic the rx. She wrote a lot of other books for parents and for, you know, the general audience.  But she’s also been the one that’s taught us how to live our lives, the way that we should be living our lives. She’s the one that taught us, [00:12:00] you know what we need to be eating what not to eat. She’s the one that, you know, I mean, as her mom, like. I, we would be in a very different place if it wasn’t for her educating herself and then educating us.  So, you know, I have to give, I have to shout out my mom, ’cause she’s amazing.

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Dr. Weitz:  So what were some of the keys for you to change your life? What did you need to do? What were some of the mistakes you were making?

Abdulla: So, first of all. All of us, [00:14:00] we were just living like every other teenager, you know, talking my favorite food.  I was flaming hot Cheetos and I love Fanta. And that was basically my go-to. And so after that, you know, I realized when I was about seven years old and when my mom started to heal herself from the diseases she was dealing with, she was dealing with Lupus, Hashimoto’s so many other conditions. And now she’s no longer dealing with any of those, but she was educating herself and healing herself. And at the same time she was teaching us and we then stopped going to McDonald’s. So it’s been 10 years now. We stopped going to McDonald’s. We stopped eating, you know, ultra processed foods. We started reading labels. We started to, you know, not, we started to learn about GMOs and learn about, you know, the how red 40 and right there daily.  Number five are carcinogens that lead to cancer, how? We have tons and tons of toxins around us that are affecting [00:15:00] our gut microbiome, even if we think that they’re not doing anything. We learned how to manage and heal our gut and heal our brain through, you know, stress management techniques and through eating real food.

And that’s what we just started doing. And eventually, step by step, over 10 years, we were actually able to become that best versions of ourselves and we were able to, you know, completely heal. And now we realized how much teens in this generation could benefit from what we know and what’s happened to us and what our moms taught us.  So that we, so we decided, you know what? We need to start educating our peers and classmates because we saw that nobody else was stepping up. We, you know, we went to school every single day. Nobody was taught this. We were never taught this in school. And so we wanted to help other teens and help other kids by to, to help change their life and live a healthy life.  ’cause let’s be honest, like who wants to be sick? [00:16:00] Nobody wants to be sick.

Dr. Weitz: Absolutely. But how amazing that you were able to totally turn around your health simply by eating real food. It’s amazing that such a simple concept. Is being missed by so many people in the fact that so, so many kids are eating this fast food junk, what we used to call it, junk food.  Now it’s called ultra processed foods, which is just another name for what’s not really food. A bunch of chemicals lumped together with sugar, fat, and salt. To make it very palatable and get a seed, a whole bunch of it and amazing transformation of your health simply by eating healthy food.

Abdulla: And plus we freed ourselves from, you know, the food industry as well.  I know you’re talking about how they basically put tons of sugars and fats and they basically engineer [00:17:00] it chemically and genetically engineered so that we are addicted to eating McDonald’s, eating, going to eat ultra processed foods and we actually call it fake food ’cause it’s not even real food.

Dr. Weitz: Right.

Abdulla: Like you said, they’re just how hyper potable. You know, things that we digest. I remember we interviewed and someone, he said that if you removed all those colors and all of those, you know, additives and chemical ingredients, it would just look like some, the most unappetizing piece of white garbage that you’ve seen.  We were like, oh my God, that’s, that. This is what people are consuming on a daily basis.

Dr. Weitz: That is true,

Abdulla: and it’s just craziness to me.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah. It’s amazing that we don’t look at these drinks and these foods with purple, red, you know, bizarre looking colors and say, wow, this doesn’t even look like anything natural.  Why would we even consider putting this in our mouths? But we do.

Abdulla: [00:18:00] Yeah. That’s why we call it poison as well. ’cause that’s basically what it is. And now when we see flaming Cheetos, all I see is a bunch of poisonous garbage.

Dr. Weitz: Now.

Abdulla: Yes.

Dr. Weitz: Now, as a framework for this book that you guys wrote you use the acronym revolution, maybe you can tell us what that stands for.

Abdulla: So. In the book. ’cause I know a lot of people might know, they might be thinking, who’s this teenager? Or this random guy, you know, this random kid talking

Dr. Weitz: about. So everybody out there, you gotta get this book, the Teen Health Revolution, and make sure all your kids read it and you gotta read it too as a parent.

Abdulla: And a hundred percent guys listen to Mr. Ben, ’cause that’s what we need. This is the revolution. We need to start now. And so. Basically what we did, it was we interviewed over 210 experts, you know, New York Times’ bestsellers, world renowned experts, you know, Harvard Harvard professors, and we even interviewed you.

I remember we had you on podcast a [00:19:00] while back too.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah.

Abdulla: Because it was a while back, but,

Dr. Weitz: so all these interviews are on the Holistic Kids Podcast. Mm-hmm.

Abdulla: So I, I don’t like to self-promote, but you know, definitely check that out too. But what, after interviewing all those experts and ask them why, like, what the heck is going on?  Why is children health getting worse and worse? They all basically gave us the same thing, and they gave us tips and tools that we then also used to change our life. And so after interviewing all of them, we decided. You know, nobody’s gonna watch 210 episodes of all those podcast, episode, all of those, you know, all of that information that we have online.  And so what we decided to do was put it in a simple, easy, expert backed book that anybody can, you know, open up and implement even one tip. One tool into their lives to change their life and reach their true potential and all of, and then at the end of those chapters we have, I’m gonna get into the [00:20:00] revolution, like you mentioned.  We have, we broke it up into. Revolution, which is the acronym. So R is revolutionize the gut. E is eat real food. V is vanquish toxins. O is optimized stress management, L is love. Nature u Unite with others. T Tech Limits. I invest in Sleep. O open to gratitude and purpose, and N Navigate your decisions with mindfulness and so.

We use this Simple Revolution acronym to help teens and even parents educate themselves and implement these key principles into their lives. So now, how do I even use this Revolution acronym? One day, you know, you wanna fix your how you eat. Perfect. Eat real food. Revolutionize the gut. You wanna fix your sleep, your stress management, or you wanna manage your stress, you wanna fix your sleep schedule maybe.

Or you wanna learn how to use sleep to become better invested. Sleep opti. Oh, optimize stress management. And so. [00:21:00] We realize, you know, we’ve read tons of, like, nobody wants to read all of those health books. I have tons of information. You have no clue where it is you wanna find, and you, it’s like after the first chapter, you’re like, okay, this is enough that, that’s too factual for me.

And so we realize like we don’t even wanna read those books. And most people don’t wanna read those books. And so we wanted to put it in a simple organized way that anybody can, that any person, you don’t have to be a doctor or you know, somebody that’s, that knows a lot about health, to understand what we’re trying to say and to understand how you can become healthier.  And we think that any, every single person should be able to become healthier and. And easily, and that they should, and the education to become healthier should be simple and easy, and that’s not, we have the Revolution acronym. Anybody can improve their mind, body, and soul. Plus, [00:22:00] there’s over 20 chronic conditions.  There’s that teens are dealing with today, like acne, digestive issues that my mom as a doctor went over on how to heal those through lifestyle w. We also have recipes, shopping lists, you know, are my brother here Zan, he would plug how amazing the pictures he drew were that are in the book, but, and there’s so much more.

Dr. Weitz: That’s great. Why don’t we start with one of the chapters, which is about tech. And tech has been in the news lately, partially because the country of Australia decided to ban social media for all kids under 16. And I think the fact that so many kids are scrolling through social media, they. You no longer concentrate enough to actually read a book.

Abdulla: And we see, I see this firsthand. I mean, when I go to school and I go down the halls, I [00:23:00] see people, you know, they’re on their phones, they’re walking past, nobody’s talking to each other as much. Nowadays. We can’t even really make teenagers. We can’t even make eye contact with people anymore because of how much we’re looking down.  We’re not communicating with others. We’re not building those relationships, those connections we’re just stuck in this false sense of reality. And you know, it’s destroying our mental health. It’s destroying our physical health. We’re just scrolling and scrolling. I know it’s a dark image, but we’re basically in our rooms communicating only with our thumbs in a dark room with this bright screen on our faces, and we’re not.  And nobody’s teaching us how to kind of fix the problems that this is causing. And people might be like, oh yeah, but like, what’s the problem? Teenagers especially, and I think adults as well are dealing with this. I know my mom is like, you know, it’s adults and teens, but we’re just up on our phones until 2:00 AM scrolling mindlessly, vis, we don’t even know what [00:24:00] we’re visually consuming.  You know, just going, you know, short after short, real after real. And then we’re kind of spending these hours upon hours in social isolation. And then after those two hours, it’s 2:00 AM and we’re like. What did I just accomplishment with my life? Like, let’s be honest, who really feels good after spending that much time Scrolling.

Dr. Weitz: Definitely not, no doubt. And that’s why I think it’s good that some schools, some states in the United States have started to ban the use of cell phones in school.

Abdulla: A hundred percent. That’s why we say that, you know, no phones before 16 no social media, you know, until, especially before 16 maybe until high school.  Especially because nowadays so many teens and kids. We have this universe of information in our pockets, and you adults don’t think that this can negatively affect us. Right now, we’re already dealing with so much stress in school. Now we have the stress of what’s [00:25:00] happening in this person’s life. This per this is happening, that person this, we’re comparing ourselves like never before.

And that’s why I like to say that we’re also, so we’re social than ever before, but at the same time, we’re lonelier like and more than any other generation. And that’s also this loneliness epidemic that we’re dealing with. I mean. There’s, we just don’t know how to fix these issues that we’re dealing with.

And it all starts with us not being mindful. We’re not being mindful about what we’re doing. We’re not being mindful about what we’re visually consuming. We’re not being mindful about what time we’re spending on these devices, and because of that, we’re never going to be able to improve our life. We’re addicted and we’re addicted to our phones.

And that’s why I keep emphasizing that, you know, we’re stuck to our phones because this, that’s what it is. It’s an addiction, and just like any addiction, it’s destroying our brain, body, and even soul. And so. We, [00:26:00] you know, I just got a phone when I was 16. My brothers don’t have a phone in. They one of my brothers are in ninth grade and he’s completely fine.

And he is like, mom, like these people, they can’t even live without their phones. Like they, they, if they, if their teacher takes away their phone, they’re go, they go crazy or like, you know, they need to have their phone in their pocket. They have the, they have anxiety and. These phones are basically trolling us and they’re, and the where, and we think that we’re con, where we think that we are in charge, when in reality they’re in charge of us.

And that’s the tech industry. And it’s really a rig system because the phone in the tech industry and the. They’ve basically designed it so that we can’t get off of their product, that we need to use their phones, that we need to, you know, do whatever they want us to do. Basically. Like we need to be on social media.

Now, a lot of teens, they’re like, but we can’t. We need to, all of our friends are on social media. Like what we don’t wanna be left out.

Dr. Weitz: You know? I think the problem is that we’re all [00:27:00] consuming. Ultra processed information is well as ultra processed fruits. Exactly. That’s a new term, ultra processed information,

Abdulla: and I love that.

I’m have to steal that from you, but I

Dr. Weitz: just made, I just made that up.

Abdulla: That’s just the reality. I mean. Right now what? 91% of teens own a softball, a smartphone by the age of 14. And that comes with huge temptations and challenges that Oh, absolutely. Many of us are, our brains are not developed yet to even try to overcome, and because of that, we’re destroying our brains.  I mean, what, like I mentioned, three fourths of adolescents are dealing with depression or anxiety. You think that happened out nowhere. It is directly linked to, you know, this phone addiction that’s happening, this social media epidemic that we’re dealing with, that, you know, 96% of Gen Z said that they can’t even go to the bathrooms without their phone.  Like, that’s just [00:28:00] craziness to me. Why? Like, why do, are we so addicted to our phones? And obviously I know why, but why aren’t we doing anything about it? Why are we just saying, oh, it’s okay. You know? It’s, I love my phone. I need to be with my phone. Why are we not changing anything?

Dr. Weitz: That’s true, and I’m glad that you’re speaking up about it.  We need people to listen. So let’s talk about why is the gut so important and how do we improve the health of our gut?

Abdulla: So. Our gut. First of all, it’s the one of the most important things that we can do to change our health. I know people talk about exercise and taking this pill or taking these supplements or taking this or that, but if we’re not focusing and we’re not focusing on what we are putting into our body, then it doesn’t really matter what else you’re doing because we, in, after interviewing tons and tons of experts, I remember one of them told us, if you put junk into your body.  You’re going to work like junk. Your brain is gonna work like junk. You know your body’s gonna work [00:29:00] like junk.

Dr. Weitz: Sure. Pour a bunch of sugar water into your car.

Abdulla: Exactly. And so. Our gut right, has holds 70% of the immune system, trillions of gut microbiome. Basically what we like to say, these like, these gut, these good guys in our gut that help keep our body balanced.  And so what we, when we, you know, have all this fake food, we have tons of stress. We don’t deal with our toxins even, you know, some certain medications. They all play, they are all, you know. Into play with destroying our microbiome, the imbalance of gut bugs. Our gut is that working light’s supposed to, and it’s all because as well, food.  Food food. Where I remember we interview, our mom used to always say that food can either help you or hurt you. And that I’m still taking up to this day. ’cause now it goes back to mindfulness. What are you putting into your [00:30:00] body? Is this thing that you’re put that that you’re eating, going to help your body and help your health and keep you on diet?

Dr. Weitz:  So, so what foods do you need to put into your body to help your gut?

Abdulla: So it’s simple, real food, natural foods. It’s not that you have to do this entire diet or you know you have to do this or that. Yes, they’re out there, but, and you can do, definitely do them, which you know a hundred percent if that’s what you need to do, but it’s that simple.  As incorporating more vegetables. I know people got like, you know, a jerk reaction when I say vegetables, but especially teens, but vegetables and fruits into your life. You know, switching out tons and tons of ultra process sugar from maybe honey, you know, making those swaps, not consuming tons of ultra processed foods that are destroying our gut microbiome and.  Like I was about, like about to mention, food makes up every single cell of our [00:31:00] body and if we don’t feed our gut what it needs to heal our body, then we’re never going to be able to heal ourselves. And that’s why I remember we also interviewed another, you know, expert and they basically said that like, our body can heal itself, but we just need that to, we just need to give it the right tools to do so.

So also, so

Dr. Weitz: why don’t you tell us what you eat in the course of a day. Give me an example. Like, let’s say yesterday, what did you eat? And what times did you eat?

Abdulla: So yesterday we, I woke up and, you know, we started it off day. We I used to tons have tons of eggs, so I had some fried eggs. You know, my mom made some pancakes from from, with honey eggs and almond flour.

Dr. Weitz: Okay, I’m in flour

Abdulla: pan. And so, yeah, so those are amazing. And then in the morning I had some, like some chicken and some so some salad, you know, some vegetables and some [00:32:00] carrots sometimes. I used, I love to have those big carrots. They’re amazing for you, you know, you know, orange foods actually, they help with reproductive and eye health, you know, like everyone knows.  But actually on the topic of how color helps your body. We are, what my mom would still always say is, eat the rainbow. Not eat the rainbow of ultra food. Not eat m and ms and the Skittles, but eat the rainbow of natural foods. I mean, red lowers inflammation. Yellow, you know, has is linked to improving digestive health, green detoxification, blue brain health.  They have, you know, things like sulforaphane, gluc, and you know, they all they help improve our body. Pomegranates have something called amania in it that we can’t really get outside of pomegranates and they’re so beneficial and so in like. Important for our gut microbiome. And they, we basically need akkermansia to, to improve our [00:33:00] body and to live and to help our body work the best it can.

Dr. Weitz: And Akkermansia is one of the more important strains of bacteria that makes up on microbiome.

Abdulla: Yeah, exactly. And people think that, oh yeah. It’s just, it’s a pomegranate fruit. Oh yeah. I just, why want to eat an apple when in reality the apple has so many polyphenols, so many, you know. Things inside.  There’s so many different benefits for our body yet we’re like that. You know, that’s where the saying, if you ate Apple a day, keep the doctor away. But no truth to that. But like, obviously you just can’t eat apples and expect to be good. But you know, just replacing fake food with real food. Add foods that are packed with nutrients, you know, broccoli sprouts, himalayn, tartary buckwheat.  Like our mom used to make tons and tons of smoothie. She used to make smoothies for us as kids.

Dr. Weitz: I, I noticed you had Jeffrey Bland write the intro to your book with the Himalayan tartary buckwheat

Abdulla: and there’s so many.

Dr. Weitz: You got that down. I think most teens not only don’t know what it is, but couldn’t pronounce it.[00:34:00]

Abdulla: It’s so beneficial for us, yet nobody’s teaching us this stuff. And you know, as well, there’s over 7,000 different types of apples and you know, we’ve only had maybe one or two. And each of those can help our body in different ways. And, you know, just sauerkraut as well. Loves we love sauerkraut. It helps put increase our back.  You know, our gut microbiome help it work the best it can. I remember. As kids whenever we used to have like, you know, some stomach problems or like we ate something, maybe we weren’t supposed to eat or we had tons of glu, you know, tons of dairy and we were like, oh mom, my stomach, you know, it hurts so much like, oh, I shouldn’t have ate that.  It’s like, okay, here have some sauerkraut. It’s like, okay, we have As just have some sauerkraut and we still actually feel so much better now. I remember my, like he was a seven at the time. He woke up and he went downstairs and he just opened up. He basically started his day. He had some saury. My mom was like, what?

Why are you having saury? He’s like, oh, I didn’t feel so good. So I [00:35:00] know I need to help my gut bugs. So it’s even, you know, young people. I mean, I started this when I was seven. My youngest brother, he’s 10 years old. We started this 10 years ago. So he basically is born into this. Anybody can learn it and anybody can then implement it into their lives.

It doesn’t matter what age you are, you can be, you know, five, six, you can be, you know, 30, you can be 60. It doesn’t really matter. Anybody can improve their health because everybody should be healthy no matter what the age. So also, you know, stocking up for success. What our mom did was she didn’t bring these ultra processed foods into her house, and because of that.

I know a lot of parents complain, oh, but they go to the fridge and they have Oreos, or they go to the pantry and they have this food. Like, why are you even bringing it into the house in the first place? And so our mom would get better alternatives. We would, we have the candy, we have ice cream, we have pizza, but we have the natural versions.

We [00:36:00] have ones that are actually gonna help our body and not hurt us. We don’t feel guilty after having a burger or having, you know, sweets because. We know that actually it’s not destroying our body, that they’re all natural foods. And so, you know, o obviously there’s so much we can do to help our body. We can hydrate.

Definitely. I know, especially me hydrating is my worst enemy as a teenager especially. We had, I start to bring a water bottle around with me, so I remember to hydrate. And I know also my mom complains a lot about hydrating that a lot of, you know, adults don’t get the water that we need. Right. And as you, you know, took a sip from your drink that was just from,

Dr. Weitz: which is water.

Abdulla: Yeah, sure. Fine

Dr. Weitz: water

Abdulla: now automatically, you know, a little bit more thirsty. But you know, it, this, it’s so important and it’s so simple. It’s not that hard to drink water, and it’s not that hard to do these things and implement these into our lives. And yet they have such. And they’re so impactful on our health and on our mind, body and [00:37:00] soul, and on our future.

Dr. Weitz: That’s great. So, let’s hit one more of these. Sleep is so important for health. Maybe you can talk about the importance of sleep and what you can do to increase the likelihood that you’re gonna get good quality sleep.

Abdulla: So first of all, teens should teens and above. So teens, adults should at least get eight to 10 hours of sleep.  And for like pre-teens and kids from them, or experts recommend from 10 to 12. So at least getting eight hours of sleep to 10, like studies have come out that they drastically helps your memory. Do we do better? You know, in our studies it, I know a lot of teas especially think, oh, you know, let me just study until 2:00 AM and then, oh, you know, then I’ll be fine.  When in reality if we sacrifice our sleep. We might actually do worse on our tests because we’re not giving our brain the rest it deserves to properly heal itself, and so sleep. [00:38:00] If we’re able to take care of it, we can do so many more things in our life. And I know you mentioned how do we get good sleep?  Because I know a lot of adults and teens, we really suck at getting good sleep and trying to keep it consistent. You know, going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time. Don’t go on your phone at least an hour before going to sleep. You know that the blue light. Destroys our quality of sleep.

We might get 10 hours, but if we were spending two

now

Dr. Weitz: Why does blue light destroy the quality of our life? And why is it so important to go to sleep at the same time?

Abdulla: So blue light actually, it messes with our, you know, our brain’s system of telling us, oh, hey, you need to go to sleep now. Because

Dr. Weitz: our circadian

Abdulla: rhythm.

Our circadian rhythm, yes.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah.

Abdulla: And so our brain is used to when it’s becoming when once it’s dark, we get sleepy. But then once we expose ourselves to all this blue light and we have it right, right up to our face, it kind, it tricks our brain into thinking, oh, now [00:39:00] it’s daylight. I’m not gonna, I’m, it’s not time to rest.

Dr. Weitz: Exactly. Because in the morning when you get that blue light, which is part of white light, your body secretes cortisol that helps wake you up. And then at night. You get the red light, the absence of blue light, and that stimulates your body to release melatonin, which helps with your sleep.

Abdulla: Exactly.  And it’s such a simple thing to do. Just don’t go on your phone before you go to sleep. And yet if we do it, it has such negative impacts on our body.

Dr. Weitz: Right. 

Abdulla:  And that’s why, you know, just also waking up with, you know, and taking some deep breaths. We also talk about gratitude. Also my mom and us, we put our phones on, you know, airplane mode before going to sleep.  We you know, start winding, like I said, start winding down at least two hours before bedtime. And sleep is just, it’s like if we’re able to properly take [00:40:00] advantage of sleep, imagine where we can go with our life. And I remember nobody can really function on six hours of sleep. Right. It’s, we might think, oh, you know, I’m, I can do it.  But let’s be honest, nobody can properly function on only six hours of sleep. And if we want to work better, if we want to be better, if we wanna be able to become better human beings, if we want to be able to improve our life, improve the people, the life, even at some aspect of life, of the people around us, just getting good sleep can do so much for our body and successful people.  You know, most, if you look at their sleep schedules, a lot of them. They start, they get at least eight hours of eight hours of sleep. Because once we prioritize that, then like our body is just thanks us like never before. We can become the best versions of ourself.

Dr. Weitz: Okay. We’re gonna do a short, rapid fire section where I’m just gonna ask you three questions and then after that I’ll ask you a few questions as we wrap it up.  Here’s the three RA rapid fire questions. What’s your favorite healthy snack for teams?

Abdulla: Ooh, that’s a good one. Honestly, I, anything that’s natural. Okay. I’m not gonna give you, I know that. Like

Dr. Weitz: What’s a healthy snack that you had this week?

Abdulla: This, Ooh, a good one would probably be some fruits.  And some nuts. I know. It’s like, oh, okay. But like, honestly, like I also, we also have, you know, CHA chips,

Dr. Weitz: what are they?

Abdulla: CHA chips?

Dr. Weitz: No, I don’t, I’m not sure what that is.

Abdulla: So definitely check those out. They’re all they’re organic non GMO all natural and they taste amazing. I know we, I brought this,

Dr. Weitz: so these are chips made of what?

Abdulla: They’re made for their potato chips, but they’re no sea oils. They have clean ingredients. Okay. Yeah. No or no artificial bs, none of that kind of stuff. [00:42:00] And they’re just clean, easy. I remember we even brought them to school and my friends were like, oh, you know, these are natural chips.  Lemme try ’em. And they’re like, wow, these are even better than the chips we eat. I was like, yeah. ’cause they’re actually real chips. They’re real potatoes and they’re real, you know, flavors. That’s

Dr. Weitz: great.

Abdulla: So if you if you know fruits and nuts and, you know, all that kind of stuff is too, like you’re not there yet.  Cete chips are amazing. Definitely try those out.

Dr. Weitz: Okay. What’s one wellness myth you wish would just disappear?

Abdulla: Ooh, that you have to, yeah. That you have to be older in an adult to change your health. Okay.

Dr. Weitz: That’s a good one. And what’s the best book you’ve read this year, outside of your own book?

Abdulla: Ooh. It has to be this ancient, the anxious generation.

I read it last year, but ’cause this year’s been started, but the anxious generation, just learning how, you know, social media and anxie and anxiety and [00:43:00] depression and mental health issues are all connected and how it’s so simple to heal ourselves from that, even though we think that once we’re in that dark deep hole that we can’t get ourselves just learning about that it, it was so amazing.

Also, the and who,

Dr. Weitz: who wrote that book?

Abdulla: That was by here. I have to

Dr. Weitz: That’s okay.

Abdulla: Yeah. I think it was,

Dr. Weitz: we can find it.

Abdulla: Yeah, we’ll definitely find that.

Dr. Weitz: Okay.

Abdulla: It was a while back.

Dr. Weitz: That’s okay. So, I’m gonna ask you a couple of questions as we wrap up. Up. So, what gives you hope about the future of teen Health?

Abdulla: The, honestly. It is just the fact that, you know, like you mentioned, the social media being banned in Australia, that was amazing to see. As much as, you know, teens are like, oh my God, no. We don’t realize how much of an effect a negative effect social media has on us, and now we’re being gonna be able to live life [00:44:00] so much better.  Not, I’m not also saying no phones, because you know, that’s unrealistic. I have a phone, but going on social media, going on phone, our phone with a purpose, that’s what my mom always used to tell me. She used to tell me, go on your phone with a purpose. And that’s what I’ve been doing nowadays and just being able to take control and not being in controlled by phones.

But back to the question of. What also gives me hope, just being able to see people being like, okay, you know, I’ve been living this life. My parents are telling me, you know, or they’re not helping me. You know, find better choices, but. I’m gonna try this, I’m gonna try these natural foods, I’m gonna, you know, I start educating myself.  I have friends actually, like I’m not asking them to change their lifestyles, but they’ve taken pictures of like, oh, you know, I found this organic milk, or I found this natural milk, and I’m like, yes. That’s amazing. Like, that’s all I ask for. Or they’re just thinking about it. That’s what gives me hope, because once us teens start thinking about it, then we can take it to so many different [00:45:00] places and we can really, you know, change the world.  And start this revolution.

Dr. Weitz: Where can listeners and viewers find the Teen Health Revolution and follow your work?

Abdulla: So, follow us on the Teen health revolution.org. Dot com. We have, you can find it all there. You can also get bonuses if you purchase the book from there. There’s recipes, you know, shopping lists, stress management PDFs that my brother made that, you know, are amazing for anybody.  Also, you can check us out. I’ll plug shout out my mom, the holistic mom, md, you know, definitely good to check her out. That’ll make her really happy too. So check her out. She has a lot of many amazing stuff. A lot of our stuff are on there. A lot just really, we also have the Holistic Kid Show podcast where we interview, you know, experts and really trying to get how teens and kids can improve their life and just getting the best information out there.

Dr. Weitz:  And is your book available at book stories?

Abdulla: You know, Barnes and Nobles, it’s at Amazon. Really [00:46:00] anywhere you can get a, you know, we’re trying to get into,

Dr. Weitz: is it available now?

Abdulla: Yeah, it came out December 11th. Okay. So definitely go check that out. You know, it’s right here behind me. My so yeah, definitely check that out.  Holistic the holistic, the Teen Health Evolution. And then also it’s the Holistic Kid Show podcast. Oh. The Holistic Kit Show podcast is on, you know, it’s on Apple, Spotify podcast. Anywhere you can find podcasts, you can find that there.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah,

Abdulla: this out.

Dr. Weitz: Great. Thank you for joining me on the Rational Wellness Podcast.  If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe, share this episode and help us spread the word that the message of real root cause health and by the Teen Health Revolution. So thank you.

Abdulla: Thank you so much ’cause this revolution needs to happen and so I’m really honored. I mean, we’ve, you’re a role model for us.  We’ve been looking up to you since we interviewed [00:47:00] you and before that, so I can’t, it’s really an honor and I really can’t thank you enough.

Dr. Weitz: Thank you very much.

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Dr. Weitz:  Thank you for making it all the way through this episode of the Rational Wellness Podcast. For those of you who enjoy listening to the Rational Wellness Podcast, I would very much appreciate it if you could go to Apple Podcast or Spotify and give us a five star readings and review.  As you may know, I continue to accept a limited number of new patients per month for functional medicine if you would like help. Overcoming a gut or other chronic health condition and want to prevent chronic problems and want to promote longevity, please call my Santa Monica Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition office at 310-395-3111 and we can set you up for a consultation for functional medicine and I will talk to everybody next week.