PODCAST- Dr. Maia Walton – A Holistic Approach To Pediatric Care

About Our Guest- Dr. Maia Walton – A Holistic Approach To Pediatric Care

Dr. Maia Walton is the Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of the M Center for Integrative Wellness. She is a board-certified Pediatrician by The American Board of Pediatrics and an active member of the Institute for Functional Medicine and the Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs (MAPS) and have been in practice for almost 20 years. Dr. Walton completed her internship and residency at the prestigious Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA) and have been practicing for over 15 years. She remained on staff at CHLA and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills until moving to Georgia where she is now on staff at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. After experiencing health challenges and learning differences with her own children and watching them blossom utilizing a more traditional and holistic paradigm, Dr. Walton decided to redirect her career so that she could help other families like hers. Dr. Walton specializes in ASD, ADHD, learning differences, PANS/PANDAS, and chronic conditions like autoimmune diseases.

Full Podcast Transcription

Dr. Maia Walton 00:13
We\’ve had, again children with bonafide autoimmune diseases and antibodies in the hundreds change the diet and by the time we repeated in three weeks that numbers cut in half, just by changing the diet. We haven\’t done anything. Kids that had been on very harsh pharmaceuticals with significant potential side effects. And they\’ve sent us pictures in two months and we didn\’t even recognize the child or wait, you know, it\’s amazing. If you just give the body what it needs. It can do so much.

Diva Nagula 02:20

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of From Doctor to Patient. Today I\’m joined with Dr. Maia Walton. She\’s the Chief Medical Officer and cofounder of the M Center for Integrative Wellness. She\’s a board certified pediatrician by the American Board of pediatrics and an active member of the Institute for functional medicine, and the Medical Academy of Pediatrics special needs and has been in practice for almost 20 years. She completed her internship and residency at the prestigious Children\’s Hospital of Los Angeles and has been practicing for over 15 years. She remained on staff at thla and theater Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills until moving to Georgia where she\’s now my staff at Children\’s Healthcare of Atlanta. After experiencing health challenges, and learning differences with their own children, and watching them blossom, utilizing a more traditional and holistic paradigm. Dr. Walden decided to redirect her career so that she could help other families like Dr. Walton specializes in ASD ADHD, learning differences. pan\’s pandas and chronic conditions like auto immune disease. Dr. Walton, thank you so much for being here today. How are you? I\’m Wonderful. Thank you for having me. No, it\’s interesting, I find more and more people that I\’ve talked to that practice, holistic medicine, such as functional medicine, or naturopathic, or integrative medicine, typically kind of start this path after either themselves have gone through some transformation, or family or friends. And I\’d love to hear a little bit more about your story on how you determined to make this transitional change into what you\’re doing right now.

Dr. Maia Walton 04:04
Yes, we all have a story that is true. Part of the story begins actually in school in in training, where I was kind of always the kid that had questions Why? How does that work? And how come and you know, there just weren\’t necessarily answers that I was looking for available in the western or allopathic paradigm. And then once I got married and had kids, my son, little background, my husband, his father and his father all develop type one or juvenile diabetes in their 20s. But their sisters are fine. So we\’re already kind of on notice that there may be some risks. And then his mother also has two autoimmune diseases as well. So I actually harvested both of my children stem cells. And then by the time my son was born, cord tissue was able to be harvested as well. And my thought at that time was You know, hopefully we will never need it. But maybe it\’s something that could be used therapeutically to help my husband and or my children if need be ever in the future. So fast forward. He was 20 months old. And you know, he was a very bright, engaging child, he was actually able to count before he was even a year old. I was pushing him in the swing and counting for another child and he chimed in at about 11 months old, and I kind of paused it kept going. And then my friend that was with me was like, wait a minute, did he just say seven? And I said, Okay, you heard that too. It was me. And then at about 20 months old, he contracted RSV respiratory syncytial virus, which is a very, very common childhood illness, most common cause of wheezing and a young child. And I noticed shortly thereafter, he just began to slowly withdraw. He wasn\’t as engaged. He completely went mute, stop talking. We had his birthday party, we had a house full of people, and it was like no one else was there. You know, I tried to engage him with eye contact, and he averted his vision work away from wherever I was. And so we went to his pediatrician, you know, to your well, child check, kind of knowing where this was going. And she said, Well, you know, he registers on the chat, but just barely when I see him sitting there, let me read in a book, but we\’ll do the referrals anyway, just to be on the safe side. And in the interim, that\’s eat his brain. So she recommended that I started him on omega threes, I went straight to the store, gave him one dose, woke up in the morning, walked in his room and called his name and Bill and he looked me right in the eye, and I said, Oh, okay, there\’s something here. The next day, one of my best friends had a case of books from Amazon, on my doorstep about how autism was treatable. So I read everything, again, you know, me with a grain of salt. But I kept seeing things that made sense to me and my personal and family history and his story. And then I went to the CDC website, and there was also mentioned at that time of anti yeast treatment, and so called this doctor, hey, this is what I\’m reading. This is the research, I\’ll drop it off at your office, would you be okay with implementing this for him? So she said, okay, we started some anti use treatment on Friday. By Sunday, which was Easter Sunday, I was talking to my daughter saying, say cheese, say cheese, so we could take a picture, and he leaned in and went, he hadn\’t spoken in months. So that\’s what really got my wheel spinning. And started digging deeper for some of those other things that are kind of missing from your standard allopathic curriculum. We learned all about the Krebs cycle and all those long funny sounding terms. But we don\’t learn about the different vitamins and minerals and heavy metals that influence those enzymes and those pathways. So I went and took my son to his own match doctor at the time. And we just kind of discussed, you know, hey, how RSV is in the same family of viruses as measles, both of which can just cause a very nasty immune response. And so it just all started to make sense. And I did some more workup on my own son and realize, you know, his propensity for having, you know, a th one lien with his immune system, like the rest of the men in the family was starting to manifest. So we\’ve been working really hard for the last few years through modulating, calm down his inflammation and immune response, support his micronutrient deficiencies, and give him what we can to kind of help his brain reconnect and heal. And so he is starting to talk again, he can do simple math he can do I mean, he\’s not 100% there yet, but he\’s still reminding us of how intelligent he is and how much he can do. He\’s meeting all his goals with his therapist, every six months, they come back and say who he met all his goals. So we have to make up some new ones and see where else we can help him. And they\’re starting to run out of things they can they can find to justify continuing to come. So it\’s a nice problem to have.

Diva Nagula 09:09
It\’s amazing – how old is your son now?

Dr. Maia Walton 09:11 He is eight now.

Diva Nagula 09:13
He\’s eight. And and this, at what age did he have the RSV and things started to change?

Dr. Maia Walton 09:19
So that was right at 20 months. So it was right after Christmas that January and his birthdays in April. And by the time we had his party just slowly over the next few months, he just started to disappear. And then by the time we had his doctor\’s appointment, I think it was around April, and then we saw the match doctor by June, July and just been going since then.

Diva Nagula 09:41

Right. Now, it\’s it\’s, I mean, this is all theory in my mind. But I always feel that everyone has their own tipping point. And you know, everyone\’s full of toxic burden. You know, whether you\’re born into this world with the toxic burden, or you acquire this after many many years living on this earth and being around just toxic substances, whether it\’s adjusted or environmentally, do you think he had a toxic burden and there was something that tipped him over? And it was it was at the RSV Do you think that tipped him over over?

Dr. Maia Walton 10:14
The final straw? Yeah. Do you think that was the kind of the tipping point for him, but when I was pregnant with him, which is common with many women who have children on the spectrum, I had got awful immune response, I had a terrible rash that I would just wake up with blood on the sheets couldn\’t figure out who\’s you know, the itching was intense. Three different different doctors got a skin biopsy, which finally just said it was chronic urticaria, or chronic hives, microscopically. But on the surface, it was just a bunch of bruising. And so in hindsight, that was my first time it there was already some immune predisposition issues there. I developed serious Candida so even bona fide thrush, my ob was like, let me think I\’ve never seen that before and an adult, you know, so I was immune system really tanked. And so, and these are, this is while you were pregnant, while I was pregnant, and I did not have my daughter\’s older, and I did not have those issues, during her pregnancy, at different issues. Every pregnancy is different, just more aches and pains with her, but with him. And I kind of like, well, maybe I\’m allergic to boys, but it was clear that his immune system has already kind of interacting with mine. And so you know, we eat pretty clean. You know, we do try to minimize some exposures, you know, since then, of course, I\’ve gone, you know, I guess overboard with making sure all of our waters clean, we get food from local farms here that I know is organic, you know, so I go the extra extra mile. But you know, living in this country, it\’s just really hard, you have to work really hard to reduce your exposure. And then, of course, part of his protocol that we have done up to this point did include detoxifying from some of the toxicants.

Diva Nagula 12:00

Wow, okay, that\’s amazing. And to me, on the autism spectrum itself, is really playing our society. And I believe it\’s what one in 32 that have that the spectrum. And then you know, within 10 years, they\’re predicting that it\’s going to be one in two or one in three.

Dr. Maia Walton 12:22
Correct. And so that\’s where I take issue with people looking for a gene, there isn\’t a gene, you don\’t get a genetic shift that quickly. We were at like one in 10,000, just a couple decades ago, and now we\’re almost in single digits. So yes, there are a constellation of genes that make you more susceptible to some of these environmental insults. And so it\’s typically not one thing, and we, you know, there\’s a saying in our community, if you see one kid with autism, and you see one kid with autism, you know, just when we think we\’ve got a rhythm, and we\’ve seen it all, then we have, you know, a red herring. Oh, wow. Okay, so it makes it and I love that because it makes me think, and look at things from different perspectives and angles, and it keeps me stimulated. It\’s definitely not a boring discipline. But you know, every child is different in their constellation of exposures, and genetic makeup is different. But oftentimes, we do see within the family tree, buckets of similarities, lots of autoimmune diseases, cancer, Alzheimer\’s, and things of that nature. We\’re where we will see repeated patterns throughout the family.

Diva Nagula 13:35

How do you? What\’s your approach? Do you take a prophylactic approach? You know, when you\’re counseling folks, who were perhaps even considering to having a child? Or do you counsel them during the pregnancy? Or do you just wait until after the baby\’s born? What\’s your approach?

Dr. Maia Walton 13:52
All of the above. Since we started our practice, a few years ago, there has been an increase or request or just regular welfare. So we have added that to our practice. And so we do have families where we were seeing one child and the mother is expecting and so we it, you know, she\’s willing to which many of them are, we do set up protocols, I do have recommendations before you even try to conceive again. What people don\’t realize is babies are parasites. They\’re gonna sit at your disadvantage everything from you. But sometimes that also includes toxic hands like heavy metals. So we did have one family where the mom talks about how wonderful she felt during her pregnancy. And after the baby was born, I was the best she ever felt in her life like this because he got all of your mercury. So really, yeah, yeah. So the kids mercury low was through the roof. And was born with being on the spectrum. They are now. Yeah, yes. And so what we try to counsel people about as well as detoxifying and preparing the mother\’s body before you even conceive, there are oftentimes also issues with conception or miscarriages. And so then we might find out the mom had an undiagnosed autoimmune disease or thyroid disorder or both. So again, going through the whole story in such detail helps us to give recommendations for the rest of the family. And oftentimes, you know, Apple just doesn\’t fall far from the tree. So, as we make recommendations for one child, for instance, about diet and nutrition, the whole house changes, and then everyone\’s like, Wow, my knees don\’t hurt in the morning anymore, whatever the case, may be, the whole family starts to feel and do better.

Diva Nagula 15:36

And then, I mean, obviously pregnancies having that we we sometimes we can plan it, sometimes it just happens, you know? What, I mean? I guess if you\’re going to plan a pregnancy, the best approach to this would be to really look at your diet from a holistic perspective, not only diet, but your lifestyle, and really optimize your health prior to going into a state of pregnancy. How long of a period Do you think a person needs to clean themselves up so to speak before they consider having a child?

Dr. Maia Walton 16:06
That\’s a tricky question. Because it can vary, it depends on the amount of the toxic load. One thing I do want to do an aside and mention as you don\’t want to detoxify during pregnancy or breastfeeding, because that will increase the excretion of your toxicants into the baby and your breast milk, I do want to make sure we point that out. And we do have colleagues that see adults that we work with, so we have serious concerns, and mom hasn\’t made, you know, notable chronic illnesses are complaints that we will refer to a colleague who can, you know, do the testing, and walk them through the detoxification process. And, you know, it\’s not always about taking stuff out, it\’s also about building up what\’s there and making sure they have active forms of Foley and B 12. And things like that, that their body can actually use, which may require, you know, you know, trying different versions, doing some labs, maybe even some genetics with that, because everyone can\’t tolerate all of those methyl groups as well. So it\’s not a one size fits all. And I do want to say with respect to genetics, we don\’t treat genes either. We if we find some genes that may be concerning, or some variants that may be concerning, then we look at labs to see if it\’s actively doing anything. Because as you know, there\’s genetics. And there\’s epigenetics, which is the influence of your environment, on the genes. But it\’s sometimes very helpful to have that information, especially if we have pre pubertal children, then we can kind of say, Hey, you know, in a few years, if you notice these behaviors, or these changes, it could be that this is now becoming an issue, give us a call, we can make some recommendations around that at that time.

Diva Nagula 17:44

Alright, so we talked about the pre pregnancy stages, and what approach can we take for for mothers who are pregnant? And whether it\’s the first second or third trimester? You know, are we at a point where it\’s too late to implement some strategies? Or, you know, what are the options for those ladies?

Dr. Maia Walton 18:03
Well, we\’re very hopeful here. So we never say it\’s too late. We have patients all the way up through their early 20s, that are still coming here to try and make changes. Because we feel like it\’s never too late to try and get healthy, and maximize your potential for health. So for that, no, but again, lots of education, about what you\’re eating, the types of supplements and nutrients that you\’re taking, making sure that you\’re getting them from a veritable source a lot from online places don\’t store things at the proper temperature, there\’s no guarantee that what\’s in the bottle is what\’s on the label. Those types of things we\’re working with your provider, with medical grade supplements from a company that\’s known and trusted by your practitioner, is important. And again, just supporting the body and giving the body what it needs to make sure the child and the mother get what they need and stress reduction. That\’s something that is not given the credit, it\’s due, when that fight or flight, stress cascade happens and what that does to your immune system. And that stress on the mother and the baby can make a huge difference and have a negative impact. And so self care which none of us do enough of and you know, taking care of yourself, but whatever it is, whether it\’s you know, meditation, mindfulness, yoga, to the best of your ability, prayer, whatever works for you, having your hormones checked appropriately, if you need to take some adaptogens that help simmer down appropriate acupressure acupuncture, again, if you\’re pregnant by someone who\’s specifically trained, and how to do that on pregnant women because there\’s certain points you don\’t want to touch when you\’re pregnant as it can trigger early labor. But lots of different modalities like that that can be held With just health and wellness, mentally as well as physically,

Diva Nagula 20:04
You\’re currently the Director of the M Wellness Center, and we talked a little bit about what you do for some of these folks – what else does the center focus on?

Dr. Maia Walton 20:15
So we do have a well and acute side, so you know, are typically developing babies, where parents want to advocate for their children and to have a say, in the medical care for their children and what they would prefer to do in terms of interventions. So we have that. And then sometimes though, we do pick up things on that side, and we kind of walk them over to the functional side, because there are some concerns. We do have detox room here as well, we have a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, we have a whole body agitator, the ion cleanse, foot bath, we do energy medicine as well. So we have a bio charger and some cold lasers. In my business partner has a really cool, he has a bio scanner, which uses Chinese meridians where you you know, pass energy through the body and see Were there any weaknesses or areas of inflammation or, or things to that degree. And so we tried to incorporate that, and we discussed with the family with their comfort level is if they want to do pharmaceuticals, homeopathic remedies, herbs, we\’ve had their reactions to mushrooms, whatever the case may be. Nothing is one size fit all fits all. We don\’t have any fixed protocols, everything is very tailored and unique to that patient and family. And so we incorporate and listen to the parents. And you know, we\’ve had parents leave our intakes in tears, because they finally felt heard. You know, where they\’ve been to doctor to doctor to doctor to doctor and had been dismissed and not heard.

Diva Nagula 21:52

Yeah, I think that\’s not only commonplace in the pediatric world, but in traditional medicine, we\’re seeing that all the time, you know, especially when physicians are, are seeing patients every 15 minutes, you know, in a primary care setting. And it\’s just, it\’s how can you care for a person in that given short period of time. And, you know, unfortunately, that\’s when it\’s the easy route of prescribing a prescription drug is kind of the go to because the pill, supposedly, is self explanatory and can help with a lot of these problems and diagnosis that physicians are treating traditional medicine, which is unfortunate, because we can accomplish so much more through, you know, counseling, and education. And that\’s what\’s really needed, in my opinion, the instead of the traditional route that we\’re all used to.

Dr. Maia Walton 22:45 And it\’s either that or referring to three different specialists that don\’t communicate with each other as though the body isn\’t a system of networks working together. It\’s not just the ears, just the gut, just the heart. They all interact and engage and one affects the other and vice versa.

Diva Nagula 23:05

Now, when I was reading your your bio earlier, your I mentioned, pans and pandas. I\’m not familiar with that. Can you go into a little bit of detail as to what that is? What are some signs and symptoms of it? And how can we treat that?

Dr. Maia Walton 23:19
Sure. So pandas is an acronym for pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders due to stress, basically, and pan\’s is the same thing due to something else. So there are a set
of common childhood illnesses that you know, many kids get, get over it, no big deal. But for some people that are predisposed to having a dysfunctional or deranged immune response to those things, you can actually develop an autoimmune phenomenon where you develop antibodies to your own tissue, namely, the brain in different parts of the brain. And then the result is a change in cognition, school performance, psychiatric disorders, like OCD and tics as a result of the irritation of the brain from those antibodies. And so, you know, you can have a classroom of say, 100 kids, and take someone in there with strep throat. Many might just get rid of the middle strep throat, if you make it absolutely nothing. And then maybe one ends up with this phenomenon. And so some of the classic presentation may include a precipitous change in handwriting. So we did have a kid that did a kindergarten test in August, did the same test in November got answers wrong that he got in August and the handwriting you can even decipher it. Whereas before you could Wow, along with some other behavioral changes. So that\’s one of the classic signs or symptoms of it. But again, some of it is debilitating tics, OCD, and other behavioral changes and cognitive changes, and so we\’ve had Good successes with children that have OCD and ticks. And we do the pan\’s pandas workup, find the night is and address the immune dysfunction, and then work on clearing the virus because it\’s not just the virus or the bacteria, it\’s how the body\’s responding to it, is there\’s a maladaptive response to it. And so we address that primarily reducing inflammation. And then once we get that settled, and make sure that the cup is not running over, in terms of the herxheimer, immune reaction that can come when you start to kill things, and then we go after what we think may be contributing to the immune dysregulation.

Diva Nagula 25:42

I mean, I guess in terms of treating these, you\’re basically treating this almost the same as you would be addressing a person who is in this autism spectrum, or even ADHD, it\’s essentially all kind of, you know, cleaning the body out and building the body up. Right. And they\’re avoiding toxins. Yeah, yeah, there\’s a lot of overlap between all three of those actually. And in your practice, are you basically focused on a lot of these type of conditions? Or do you have regular well visits and things of that nature as well?

Dr. Maia Walton 26:17
Yeah, so we do have regular well visits, we do regular diaper, rashes, eczema, severe eczema, asthma, our well visits your first appointment with us, it\’s an hour So to your point, in terms of 15 minutes isn\’t enough time and when I say an hour, that\’s an hour of face time with your practitioner mind is maybe taking your vital science is not sitting outside for an hour. we carve out that time just for you and your family. Your annual checkups, maybe about 45 minutes, a sick visit is 30 minutes again, that space time so we have time to actually dig deep to the history, babies history, mom\’s history, family history of how we got here. And then again, making recommendations which oftentimes do follow your standard, you know, developmental milestones, anticipatory guidance that we weave in traditional support. You know, we\’re not against Western allopathic medicine, I tell people all the time, if I\’m in a car accident and wrap my car around the tree, don\’t give me a garlic clove, take me to the O r, and take care of me, you know, but we would like to do everything we can to help you before you get to that point in a more natural way.

Diva Nagula 28:39

You know, I want to be sensitive to this topic. But I really would love to get your opinion on, you know, with this whole situation in movement with anti vaccinations and and even anti immunizations. How do you discuss this with parents who have questions about their immunizations who don\’t want to go through their series of immunizations or want to spread them apart? I mean, what\’s your role in your practice?

Dr. Maia Walton 29:06
So my belief is, it\’s our responsibility to make sure that the family is as educated as possible, and not one sided from one source. So we do offer several books that look at that issue from various ends of the spectrum in the middle with the plethora of resources in the back. We also take into account again, personal and family history, even the CDC will tell you for those live viruses. If there\’s a first degree relative with immune dysregulation reconsider, maybe this isn\’t a good idea and that\’s on the CDC website. Literally, if you google CDC who should not vaccinate, it\’s there on their website, unfortunately in school for us, what\’s drilled is the schedule, the schedule, the schedule, the schedule, and they are just kind of told they might get a fever and might get a rash. But there\’s a little bit more to that for some people. And so we try to honor that. We also make recommendations like, we don\’t recommend Tylenol when you get your vaccines if you decide to do that, because Tylenol directly knocks out gluta file from your liver, which is a major molecule that your liver needs to detoxify. So we have given you these edge events that come into vaccines and knock out your body\’s ability to clear them as effectively. So we recommend other things detox as other things that we can do. We may even get a little glue with ion with the vaccine. We talk with individual families about what your actual risk is, you know, some studies show if you wait until six months, you actually get a better immune response. And if you start early. Other things like Hepatitis B, if I have mom\’s Hepatitis B status, because she had the appropriate prenatal care when she goes to the hospital to deliver the risk of the baby contracting, it is 10 1520 years out, you know, I got a Hepatitis B Series I was in medical school before they let us in the hospital. Because we were going to be dealing with needles, scalpels and bodily fluids. That makes sense, a 12 year old baby, all that aluminum, we can wait. If they\’re going to be home with mom and dad versus going to a daycare very early, you know, there are different set of risks. And so we have some families that have to do some things versus the others, they\’ve got to go to daycare. So some of those communicable things they\’re more concerned about. So we allow them to do their research, we help support that. And then again, for those families that decide to vaccinate, we also offer support with detoxifying from some of the extra stuff. And so the issue that we have found many families have is not that they\’re so completely anti Vax, everything is not so polarized. Their concern is, can we slow it down? Can we you know, do it a little less often? Can we do these three first and then wait and do these three, and again, depending on the individual situation, that may be completely justified. And so just being able to have that conversation in a safe space, with the appropriate training, because again, there are families that are like, I\’m not a doctor, I\’m not a scientist, you know, I\’m just not sure. And then when you take into consideration, most people that do decide not to vaccinate are actually highly educated. So it\’s not that they\’re unintelligent, or unlearn it, they actually have college degrees are higher, and they\’ve done the research a lot of people in science choose not to. So it\’s just running the gamut and allowing the family to feel heard and then supporting their decision. Either way, I do believe that all children deserve medical care. So we have practices in the area that will, you know, take you out of the practice if you don\’t follow the rigid schedule and my heart breaks, because where are they supposed to go? They still need care. And so we will, we will see them.

Diva Nagula 32:57

That\’s wonderful. And for those who elects to go through the immunization schedule, that\’s recommended. Do you have some sort of support or protocol that you implement for these infants that are going through the immunization process? Or are their bodies just too fragile to undergo some sort of detoxification process while they\’re while they\’re on? immunizations

Dr. Maia Walton 33:21
It does depend on the age what we would recommend. And so yeah, so it\’s tailored to the family. But yes, we would discuss with them again, depending on what they decide to do, whether it\’s a live virus set or not, and what the personal risk factors are for the family and the age of the child and weight. Yes,

Diva Nagula 33:41
And glutathione, it\’s a really excellent antioxidant to be using, is there anything else that you would also stack on top of that?

Dr. Maia Walton 33:49
Yeah, maybe just simple, if a baby can tolerate it, Epsom salt bath or sea salt baths or clay baths, clay paste, you know, you can make a paste and put it over the area. So there is essential oils like so there are a lot of different gentle options, simple things. Making sure they\’re pooping, bowels are moving because that\’s how you\’re clearing your urine and feces. So making sure there\’s no issues there, giving gut support, things like that.

Diva Nagula 34:17

And finally, what I really want to get from you as a pediatrician in a specifically a holistic pediatrician, is what can we do for children now in terms of optimizing their health, you know, we\’re talking about just tidbits of information advice, you know, you know anything from eliminating screens or reducing screen time because it could have an influence on worsening their ADHD to things such as proper foods to avoid and things of that nature.

Dr. Maia Walton 34:48
So with the screentime you also have to think about Wi Fi in that how that affects the brain as well. So you\’ve got the the blue light sucking out the melatonin for the kids. You have the means stimulation for someone that may struggle with modulation. And then also the Wi Fi. So, you know, trying to make sure your Wi Fi router isn\’t in or near your bedroom. You know, there was a group of high school kids in Europe that did a study where they put some ceilings next to a Wi Fi router, and some away from it, and the ones next to the Wi Fi router didn\’t grow. So little things like that, you know, turning your Wi Fi off at night when no one\’s using it or getting one of those that automatically drops off their transmitters, stickers and things that you can put on your devices. I can\’t express how important clean water and clean food is. Ew g.org. But your zip code, you can find out what\’s in your water, fluoride, medications, hormones, all kinds of things are in your water, the plastic in the bottles that you\’re drinking, disrupt your hormones, they can impact different pathways in the body. The food is huge. It\’s, you know, really, really hard to eat well and a claim. Finding a good grocery store that\’s in your budget. I mean, even some of these big box stores have a lot of organic options in the frozen section and fresh depending on when you go. and reducing that load of you know the herbicides and pesticides trying to purchase through when it\’s in season in your area. A it\’s going to be cheaper to get fruits and vegetables that are in abundance during that time of year. But also they\’re going to have more nutrients because they\’re be grown and harvested when they\’re supposed to be. And that being harvested two weeks early spray with some stuff and dragged halfway around the world before it gets to you. A good quality multivitamin and the winner, vitamin D. Close clothes, people don\’t think about that wash your clothes before you wear them. Many of those colors are fixed in formaldehyde. You talked about food dyes and things like that, you know, real food rots, I usually tell people stick to the perimeter of the store. fruits, veggies, meats, etc. out anything on an island that can survive a nuclear war probably shouldn\’t be a main staple of our diet. I go in there for the toilet paper and paper towels, maybe you know, things like that. Other variety of colors, so little cancer, it\’s hard sometimes to get them to try and eat new foods. And even with a typically developing child, it can take 12 to 15 tries to get them to eat something new or different. And these are things we start talking about an infancy when they\’re transitioning from formula or breast milk, don\’t start with the fruit, sweet stuff, you want to start with the vegetables, and maybe even then meats and proteins to help reduce the nature of the anemia that can happen around that nine month age point. And also just you\’re honing the palate, to appreciate those flavors versus just everything so sweet all the time. You know, every different fruit or vegetable is a different color due to the different set of phytonutrients that are included there. So you know eating the rainbow on the variety. There are lots of CO ops. There are some that you can even do online where you can have meat from a farm shipped straight to you, fruits and vegetables, same thing shipped straight to you that are going to be healthier, and more bang for your buck. So you have to think you have to plan you can\’t be out and about without a plan because then you\’re left to what\’s around you, which oftentimes isn\’t very healthy. So it does take some effort. We usually tell people don\’t go home and throw out your whole pantry that\’s expensive. But as something runs out, replace it with something healthier, turn the label over if you can\’t read it, don\’t eat it. Like ketchup is supposed to be like tomatoes, vinegars, spices, method, corn syrup, and all the other things that oftentimes comes in a lot of processed foods. So just you know, being more aware and cognizant of what you\’re doing, and where you\’re choosing to eat and spend your money because you vote with your dollars, the more we spend on healthier food, the more that will be encouraged and vice versa.

Diva Nagula 39:08

Oh, that was really a great synopsis. And I I would imagine that if parents followed all those recommendations, it would really mitigate the necessity for being on on medications, and in some cases will reduce the need. In some cases, we just even prevent even being on these medications in the first place.

Dr. Maia Walton 39:29
Absolutely we have you know, during our intake, that\’s one of the things we just people want to leave with something to do. So we usually talk about diet and nutrition. And oftentimes, if they follow some of the things we recommend, by the time they come back and a few weeks ago where their results, they\’re already seeing improvements and there have been documentaries that feature that as well. We\’ve had, again children with bonafide autoimmune diseases and antibodies in the hundreds changed the diet and by the time we repeated in three weeks, that numbers cut in half just by changing the diet. We haven\’t done any We have other symptoms have improved, too, right? Absolutely. kids that have been on very harsh pharmaceuticals with significant potential side effects. And they sent us pictures in two months and we didn\’t even recognize the child the way that you know, it\’s amazing. If you just give the body what it needs, it can do so much better.

Diva Nagula 40:21

Wow, that\’s amazing. Well for our listeners who are catching this show today, if they want to find out more about you or maybe come visit you and your partner at work, what is the best way for them to find you?

Dr. Maia Walton 40:35
Well, we are on Facebook and Instagram, the M Center. You can also just go to our website, themwellnesscenter.com. And you can give us a call 888-381-8556. That\’s 888- 381-8556. And we do do visits via telemedicine, especially now. Yeah, so we have a video teleconferencing module built right into our electronic medical record. So you don\’t have to download any extra apps or anything like that. And we can start our journey together that way.

Diva Nagula 41:13
Awesome. This has been so helpful. Thank you so much for the information and thank you so much for doing what you do.

Dr. Maia Walton 41:18
Thank you and thank you for having me. You\’re welcome.