Dr. Erica Steele: Vitamin D has a lot of antiviral properties to help naturally stimulate your body’s natural ability to kill off different things that it’s being exposed to. And now, with cough, cold, and flu season upon us, we really wanna make sure that vitamin D is getting. It’s also essential to take a lab vitamin D level just to ensure you’re not over-supplementing Vitamin D.
You wanna shoot for between about 50 and 70 milligrams for your vitamin D in your lab panel. And so five drops typically is about 5,000 in. And then, if you have an immune system, challenge 10,000 IUs is accepted. And we can find it in sources such as the liquid format. We can see it from the sun, as well as from food sources such as mushrooms.
Your holistic doctor can take a lab panel for you of your Vitamin D and help advise you if vitamin D three is good for you.
Dr. Erica Steele: Nowadays, it’s essential to be mindful of the products that we use inside your body, on your body, and around your body. PBAs and Phalates are found in plastics, takeout containers, and canned food linings. We wanna make sure that we reduce PBAs and palates because the toxic load affects the overall organ health and function.
Ways to reduce PBAs and Phalates are not to reheat your takeout containers. Reheating or heating any kind of plastics in the microwave can create leaching with PBAs and palates. Also, make sure all the PVC piping is PBA and ate free, not leaving your plastic water bottles in your car and drinking after them, and ensure that you have P VC or ate free.
Bottles and canned foods are essential to reducing your overall intake of PB eights and palates. This is because PB eights and palates can affect the body’s toxic load in the system, leading to many different diseases. So as you reduce those within your environment, you reduce toxic loads within the body, leaving your body healthy, happy, and whole for years to come.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Millions of Americans suffer from autoimmune diseases and inflammation, and the number of cases is rising, but the causes of these chronic conditions are often misunderstood. Dr. Erica Steele from Holistic Family Practice in Virginia Beach is here to assure all of us, so I’m so glad you’re here. Yeah. Welcome.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Yes. Appreciate it. And I know many people have issues where they’re always tired, down in the dumps, or depressed. They don’t know what to do about it and may have GI issues. So yeah. And you’re saying a lot of this could be from autoimmune diseases.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And I also find that a lot of times people, they’ll go to doctor after doctor, they’re very frustrated, they feel. Hopeless, all of those various emotions that come up with not feeling well, plus they’re not feeling well. A lot of times, people don’t necessarily understand what the immune system does; what it does is it connects self from nonself or instead separates out self from nonself so the body will attack anything that’s. Nonself, like the environment, like heavy metals. Oh yeah. Chemicals, bacteria, viruses, any of those sorts of things, and any pathogens the body may be exposed to. And then, over time, the body begins to misfire, almost like the body gets tired if you will. And that’s why people with autoimmune conditions often have so much fatigue because their immune systems are running nonstop to try. These invaders.
Speaker 1: What types of autoimmune diseases are you speaking of? Like thyroid, things like that?
Speaker 2: Like Hashimoto’s, thyroiditis has an autoimmune component. Lupus, Lyme disease, there’s so many different, there’s about 80 different autoimmune, I know autoimmune diseases with all sorts of different variations to them, but in essence, it’s just the body attacking itself.
Speaker 1: Ooh, yeah. And so, why does this happen, and how do you prevent it.
Speaker 2: So often, people talk about understanding the microbiome, meaning the bacteria. So we went from a period where our hygiene practices could have been better. , then we went to like super clean with antibacterial everything. So they’re saying in the scientific studies that we’ve over-cleaned ourselves. So we’re not being exposed as children to all the various bacteria that help the body build a healthy immune system. The first thousand days of life are critical to the. Also, many people don’t think about perinatal care, meaning getting their bodies prepared for that before they actually get pregnant. So then they’re eating healthy, maybe they’re not. They may have balanced nutrition; perhaps they’re not.
Then they have children and then antibacterial. Chlorine on everything, and oh no. Yeah. And so what happens with that is that the body doesn’t build up its immune system to resist, let’s say, different bacteria or viruses it may be exposed to.
Speaker 1: How do you know if you have an autoimmune disease?
Speaker 2: So we look at the immune system. So we look at a CBC with differential, which is a blood work panel. But then we’re also looking at various different immune system markers. So we’re looking at your H S C R P, your inflammatory markers, cuz inflammation is just a response to something in the body.
So that’s a key indicator to let us know that there’s something underlying that’s going on. We can look at organic. Profiles in terms of your small intestines, how that’s doing. Again, most of your immune system is housed in your digestive system. We also look at the large intestines. We can see bacteria, viruses, candida, and yeast. Oh yeah. All different sorts of,
Speaker 1: They can all cause inflammation and, oh yeah. So many doctors I know need to look at the full-body approach. Yeah. Why is that important to do?
Speaker 2: It’s essential because every organ to every other organ. It’s not okay; your liver’s over here, your GI system’s over here, you’re all one human being, And so we wanna look at all the various components to be able to balance those. It’s all about finding balance. And when people have an autoimmune disease, their body isn’t hyperdrive; they’re not in harmony.
Speaker 1: Okay. I know you have some classes as well that talk. Stuff. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2: Definitely. Every month we teach various classes. So we have courses on May 14th, May 19th, and May 25th. They’re all of our food for thought classes. They all relate to autoimmunity and inflammation, and we understand why people pick themselves apart. Meaning like an autoimmune condition related. To somebody, literally, their bodies are fighting themselves.
Speaker 1: From an emotional level, we look at criticism, self-worth, self-acceptance, and self-appreciation, all relating to the GI system. Wow. That is excellent information there. You learn something new every day. Your contact information is on the screen. Yes. Dr. Steele, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 1: A report from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group or E W G found that several popular brands of cereal and oatmeal and granola, and snack bars may con, may contain glyphosate. So that’s the same active ingredient found in the weed. Roundup. All right. Shock here. Dr. Erica Steele from Holistic Family Medicine is in Virginia Beach, and she’s here to explain what this can mean for our children’s health. Okay, so when I heard that news, I was stunned. I’m like, round up what the weed killer is in my kids’ food. Yes. So what do we do as parents?
Speaker 2: So the most important thing is to stay educated. Okay. And be aware of what you’re actually putting in your body. And that’s universal, right? We shouldn’t be mindless. Just going in. We just listen to a whole grocery store. That’s all about that conscious awareness. A lot of people, especially families, are jam-packed. They don’t have time to read every single ingredient. That’s why I really promote more of a whole food, plant-based diet.
Where you know, if it doesn’t grow in a tree or you can’t pick it, it doesn’t have vital force life energy in it, then you pretty much know most of those foods that, they found, they were foods that were in boxes, in bags, they were processed foods, so we already knew. You already know intuitively. Those foods don’t necessarily have all the most significant things in them. But I think we just needed a little extra wake-up call to say, wait a second, what are we doing to ourselves?
Speaker 1: How do we discover this? I look at the packaging and how many sugars and added sugars and all of those things, cuz I know those are bad for us. Yeah. But, like, how did we come upon this, that there was the same thing in Roundup?
Speaker 2: Yeah. I always say I have this funny analogy when I’m talking about food. It’s kinda like a mul. Business in the front party in the back. Okay. So like, in the front, it’s, it’ll say, heart, healthy, organic, whatever.
But then you flip it over, and you look at the ingredients. There are a couple of literal rules of thumb. One, you put your finger on, their thumb on there, and if the ingredients list is longer than that, it’s not healthy. But I think just over time, with trying to help with the growing population of all the people and trying to feed, they use the herbicides to be able to cut down on some of the weeds. And then now it’s just, Spun out of control. Now we have genetically modified foods. They were trying to replicate different seeds and things like that. I don’t think at the time, like they weren’t thinking, oh, this is gonna, this is some sinister plan,, was just, they were trying to really help with the ever-growing population. Okay. And feeding everyone.
Speaker 1: Okay. So how does it impact a child exposed over a long period?
Speaker 2: So herbicides can affect the neurological system, the hormonal system. So like focus, concentration, and behavioral it also, heavy metals tend to combine with minerals in the body. So that can create all kinds of even aversions to food. Especially when, like teens, they start to have their period, their cycles, and things like that.
It can throw that. It has a lot of long-term impacts, unfortunately, if it’s missed and treated, and that’s why detoxification, even though now it’s a fad, has really been something that’s been in holistic healthcare practice for ages. Okay. Because of all the ever-growing toxicities in our environment, we wanna be mindful of, I’m not afraid of them. We just want to be aware of them to decrease those out of our bodies.
Speaker 1: In your opinion, do you think this is connected to all of the issues children are having today? You’re seeing children that are very large or developed at a very early age. You’re seeing children with focus problems. Yeah. And do you think it’s somewhat related to this at all?
Speaker 2: The environment has a lot to do with the impacts. I think our food supply, I think what we’re eating. We’re eating faster on the go. We’re not eating whole foods. And it really puts a lot of stress on the liver. The liver has two main essential jobs. You can’t live without a liver, right? And so it’s to metabolize all the nutrition that you’re eating, so your proteins, your fats, your carbohydrates, but also to eliminate toxins. So if the food that you’re eating.
That you’re supposed to be digesting is toxic; what do you think is gonna happen to the body? The metabolism is just gonna go through all kinds of havoc. Got it. And so the metabolism starts to slow because it doesn’t identify the food as food. Cuz it’s really not food. It’s junk. And then the body can’t detoxify it properly.
Speaker 1: Okay. You have a wellness event too. Yes. Where people can get more information, they can find out how they can feed their families properly. Tell us about it. Yes,
Speaker 2: Definitely. We have three children’s health classes where we. Parents, moms, and dads especially how to really help their children and their children’s health.
So we always have about three or four dates. So we have September 15th at two 30, September 17th at five 30, and September 28th at 5:30 PM And again, all of our wellness classes are complimentary till the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Dr. Steele, and check out those labels, parents out there.
Dr. Erica: Natural healthcare integrates with your traditional healthcare team by offering support for you to stay well. Prevention is one of those ways. Prevention, such as maintaining yours. Fruits, your vegetables, your diet. Also, helping with your mental and emotional state can help prevent diseases.
Natural healthcare helps support and improve organ function, such as the liver. When we keep the nutrients in the liver, it metabolizes them well and detoxifies anything that’s not supposed to be in the body. Natural healthcare is designed to detoxify all the environmental stressors our bodies are exposed to.
From the air, food, and water, integrating natural and traditional healthcare can allow you to holistically maintain and optimize your health.
