Health Optimization for Parenting, Pregnancy & Family Life

In this episode of the Health Optimization Medicine Podcast, Dr. Scott Sherr and Jodi Duval explore:

• How does health optimization during preconception, pregnancy, and early childhood shape long-term resilience, metabolism, and development?
• Why are modern children experiencing increasing rates of sleep issues, anxiety, immune dysregulation, and metabolic dysfunction?
• What role do chronobiology, nutrition, environmental exposures, and nervous system regulation play in children’s health and behavior?
• How can parents create safer physiological and emotional environments that support healthy nervous system development for the entire family?
• Why does optimizing the health of parents often become one of the most important interventions for improving the health and resilience of children?

What We Discuss:

00:00 Parenting, Pregnancy, and the Core Faculty Connection
01:32 Inside the Preconception to Age 12 Masterclass
04:03 Mitochondrial Demands of Oocytes & Sperm
06:16 Managing Modern Pediatric Stressors: Insomnia, Allergies, Autoimmunity
08:55 Chronobiology, EMFs, and Pediatric Light Exposure
12:31 The Laboratory Debate: When to Test Children vs. Adults
16:19 Targeted Intolerance Testing & Fluid Inflammation
19:35 Parent Optimization: Reorienting Your Own Nervous System
22:26 Living by Example: Bringing Kids into the Routine

Full Transcript:

[00:00:00] Dr. Scott Sherr: Welcome back everybody to the Health Optimization Medicine podcast. I'm one of your hosts today. I'm Dr. Scott Sherr. I'm here with the lovely and amazing Jodi Duval all the way from Perth, Australia. Hello Jodi. How are you today? 

[00:00:43] Jodi Duval: Hi Scotty. You're too kind. 

[00:00:45] Dr. Scott Sherr: And it's just the two of us, right? It's, so usually there's a whole faculty group- It is

[00:00:48] Dr. Scott Sherr: but today it's actually special- ... because out of all the faculty at our nonprofit Health Optimization Medicine Practice, well, Jodi and I are the only ones with children currently, [00:01:00] although one of our faculty has a, has a daughter along the way coming soon. But Jodi and I have spoken a lot- together about parenting and about pregnancy.

[00:01:10] Dr. Scott Sherr: And so today what we're gonna do is give you a little bit of a tour of health optimization in parenting, in pregnancy, in, in those kinds of ideas because we all wanna optimize our own health, right? But how do we do this as a family? How do you do this with the children? How do you do this in a partnership when you have a spouse that you're also, you know, hanging out with and may or may not listen to anything that you want or do?

[00:01:32] Dr. Scott Sherr: So Jodi, I wanted to start off this one, uh, because I know you've done a full master class as part of our ecosystem on health optimization and parenting. Maybe talk a little bit about that, and then maybe we can talk a little bit about some of the, the finer points related to that as we kind of then delve into actually having the babies themself kind of thing, so.

[00:01:51] Jodi Duval: Mm. Absolutely. So yeah, so I, I focus a lot in my practice and therefore it comes into the health optimization practice. And [00:02:00] I obviously like to give a, a bit of a, a differing, um, uh, you know, piece of information because we cover adults quite a lot, you know, males, females- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm ... in the, in the adult ranges.

[00:02:09] Jodi Duval: And so doing the master class for me was really important because obviously we live it. It's in our lives. And also I see a lot of clients, um, children, pregnancy, fertility, and I tend to see what is going on with those particular groups. And it is-- it's gotten really quite scary, you know? It's not, it's not, um, not workable, but it definitely is a little bit scarier in what I'm seeing come through, um, to what I did 17 years ago.

[00:02:38] Jodi Duval: Hmm. So, you know, the, the master class itself covers the conception through to age 12. Um, and really because it is this, you know, basis of the fastest period of human growth and biological wiring, you know, from that preconception time- Mm-hmm ... and conception into age 12. So every system is [00:03:00] developing so fast.

[00:03:02] Jodi Duval: Uh, we've got all of the interactions with hormonal, immune, neurological. And so with health optimization, we're looking at all the pillars there, and it really just, it-- you, you can see how important each pillar is. So I focus mainly on the chronobiology, exposomics, and bioenergetics in the master class because I found that that was, um, the most, uh, predominantly changeable, um, c- components and the protocols that we can be using and just the- Hmm

[00:03:31] Jodi Duval: awareness around those. Mm-hmm. So yeah, we can dive into all that. But I really- Yeah ... feel that we, we don't think about this as much as we should. Like, I create programs on fertility and preconception and the timeline, that 90-day timeline. But really we should be aiming to be at our optimal fertility for our whole, you know, not, not our whole life, but that's, that's what optimal health is, is that- Right, right

[00:03:55] Jodi Duval: we're going to be ready to have babies at any moment because that's the optimal health. [00:04:00] So- Right ... um, that, that's another way of, of viewing it, I think. 

[00:04:03] Dr. Scott Sherr: So Jodi, one of the things that you just mentioned there was preconception, and also that, you know, when we are at most fertile and the most capacity to have a child is that we're most optimal, right?

[00:04:16] Dr. Scott Sherr: And I think what people don't realize is that our reproductive organs themselves, oocytes, eggs, have the most mitochondria per cell of any organ or any tissue in the body. So they're highly energy intensive, and sperm are not so far behind. And so mitochondria, the energy, the powerhouse of our cells, if those aren't working very well, th- where it's gonna show up first is in places that have the highest energy demands.

[00:04:39] Dr. Scott Sherr: And that includes, obviously, your eggs and reproductive organs, and then of, then of course there's other areas that have lots of energy needs, like your brain, your heart, your liver, and musculoskeletal tissue. But I think what we do at HOMeHOPe, which I think is important here, is, and I, and I know you and I agree w- and this is kind of our framework, which is that we kind of go down from the organ level to what we call, like, the holobiont [00:05:00] level.

[00:05:00] Dr. Scott Sherr: The, it's, it's the, the idea that our, our body's really made up of cells, right? It's made up of, at, at its base, cellular, um, cells themself, both human and non-human cells. And these human cells especially, they make up every single one of our tissues, although we find bacteria, fungus, and virus in all of our tissues as well.

[00:05:18] Dr. Scott Sherr: But we, th- what so we do is instead of looking at the heart, the eggs, the sperm, you know, the brain, we're like, "Okay, let's, let's drop it down to the metabolomic level," because that's the level where you can measure what, what's called the holobiont. So those are, those are lo- those are big words, but what I mean there is the metabolomic level is the level of metabolism.

[00:05:34] Dr. Scott Sherr: It's what's happening real time in your cells right now, um, as compared to your tissue. Yes, you can see things that are happening, but the, the difference is that, like, the cells run all of your organs. And so if the cells are working well, just like you mentioned with health optimization, everything else is going to work well.

[00:05:50] Dr. Scott Sherr: Just like if you're well, if you can, you know, have babies, um, that typically means that you can also have a brain that's gonna function well at the same time. Hmm. So I think people don't realize that that's [00:06:00] the case, right? So we have a lot of mitochondria per cell, and we, uh, especially in the, in, in the reproductive organs, and all of our cells have mitochondria instead of re- ex- except, except red blood cells.

[00:06:08] Dr. Scott Sherr: Hmm. And so we're kind of in this place now where, you know, I, I know a lot of people are coming to your office, uh, having fertility issues at quite young ages, right? 

[00:06:16] Jodi Duval: Yeah, absolutely. Fertility is really on the down. Yeah Um, and also for, from a perspective of, of male reproductive systems as well, we're, we're seeing some shocking things.

[00:06:29] Jodi Duval: Um, children, you know, as well, it- the, the health that is coming and, you know, insomnia I've, I've never seen in children before, you know, 10 years ago. Now it's just every second or every child having difficulties with sleep, um, allergies, and immune regulation issues. You know, you've got- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

[00:06:50] Jodi Duval: autoimmune in children, you know, so, so much, um, more than I would ever have seen before as well. Um, but I think, you know, from [00:07:00] a health optimization perspective, there is a lot of fear still around treatment of these certain age groups or population- Mm ... areas. And for preconception, not so much. I feel there's, you know, a little bit more that you can do.

[00:07:14] Jodi Duval: Um, but still around pregnancy and in childhood, there is a lot of fear around, uh, optimization, medical treatment, what you can and can't do. Uh, and I think it is down to the lack of, you know, obviously data. We know research, you know, can't be strong in these areas due to ethical reasons. Right. Right.

[00:07:36] Jodi Duval: Mm-hmm But also because of clinical data and experience, we haven't yet gotten to the point where we can feel confident in that, and I think that's where I wanted to dive into more of the health optimization because it is so safe. We've been doing it for so long. I- you can do it really well. Um, you just have to use interpretation or skills to be able to know what's suitable for that age range and do, [00:08:00] you know, your efficient data collection.

[00:08:02] Jodi Duval: Yeah. 

[00:08:02] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. So I mean, I think that so the preconception aspect of things, it really is just true health optimization medicine and practice, right? Mm. It's really the idea of really optimizing your health from the ground up, looking at vitamins, minerals, nutrients, metabolomic testing. But I think what, what you're really driving at, and, and, and that's not easy of course, it takes time and it takes, and it takes effort.

[00:08:20] Dr. Scott Sherr: But what you're really driving at here, which I don't ha- know a lot about, is like, is how to actually work with children, um- Right ... that have challenges, right? They're having sleep issues, they're having, you know, maybe o- uh, other kinds of anxiety and depression and things like that. What have you found to be some of the major ways that you can really leverage their biology?

[00:08:39] Dr. Scott Sherr: I mean, the nice thing about kids is that, you know, they're very resilient typically. If you can get them early with things, you can often reverse them. What are some of the ways or what some of the things that you've seen in kids that you've seen like significant improvements using some of these frameworks, whether it be testing, with testing or not?

[00:08:55] Jodi Duval: Yeah. Like kids for me are the easiest because they're- ... they're so responsive, [00:09:00] and they also just tell you how it is. You know? Once you get their respect and their trust, they will just, um, obviously, you know, go with what you say. But also they will just tell you how it is, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They, they, they sort of feel it to, to a degree once they understand their bodies.

[00:09:15] Jodi Duval: So, you know, it, it starts really basic there, you know? And you can, you can start with the, the lighting. You can start with education with the parents. A lot of appetite regulation issues I see in children because of chronobiology, you know- Mm ... from, from the light perspective, and they're not actually getting the natural sunlight.

[00:09:33] Jodi Duval: They're in front of computers too much. They're wearing, you know, Apple Watches and, uh, you know, things that have got EMF on them, you know- Mm ... which is not ideal. And, and getting their parents to actually listen to them. There's a huge anxiety component in children at the moment because there is just way too much going on, and there's no ne- nervous system regulation that they are learning.

[00:09:54] Jodi Duval: And, you know, so parents are having to look at breathing techniques with them. And I know you know these [00:10:00] very well, Scotty. You've taught me- Mm-hmm ... quite a lot in this field as well. Um, but you know, children need to be taught this. They need to be guided through this. And they, it, you know, as they get a lot older, rapid changes are happening.

[00:10:12] Jodi Duval: They're, they're shifting in what their bodies are doing, so they need guidance in this. Um, but nutrition I feel- Obviously we, we can always sharpen nutrition with children. Um, but it is this, uh, relat- relation with we are eating too much, uh, and not of the right nutritional quality. And so they are starving.

[00:10:32] Jodi Duval: And so when you correct nutrients from a very basic point of view, all of their appetite regulation comes back. Mm. And they don't want to crave, you know, sugars, and you change their behaviors and their, um, their ways of looking at foods. And they understand their bodies and how they feel under those circumstances.

[00:10:51] Jodi Duval: You know, my kids were the best example for this. You know, my son, we went out to lunch just on the weekend, and he's looked at his big plate of, um, like fried chips on his, on his plate, and [00:11:00] he's like, "Mom, I still know I can only have two or three of these, then I'm done. Like, I know I'm gonna feel rubbish.

[00:11:05] Jodi Duval: Why would I make myself feel rubbish?" I'm like, "I know, bub. Like, exactly. You can just leave it. Don't worry about it." So, and he was like that when he was re- really little because he would feel unwell very, and he was very sensitive to those sorts of foods. 

[00:11:17] Dr. Scott Sherr: Mm. Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:17] Jodi Duval: So- 

[00:11:18] Dr. Scott Sherr: Mm-hmm ... 

[00:11:18] Jodi Duval: you know, they, they become their own best, um, teachers, and also parents' teachers once you actually give trust in them for, for listening to their bodies.

[00:11:27] Jodi Duval: But- Yeah ... you know, I think environment as well. Mm-hmm. I do a lot of cleanup of the environment for the parents. So obviously you're looking for the heavy metals, you're looking for the VOCs. I get a HEPA filter in their room. So anything that is creating an, an unsafe, um, environment, whether it's a nervous system regulation or a body and cell, um, you know, issue, then we try and correct all of that.

[00:11:51] Jodi Duval: And they generally respond within weeks. It's incredible. 

[00:11:55] Dr. Scott Sherr: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's nice to have children and see how fast they respond to [00:12:00] certain things. Yeah. I mean, having children ourselves, you, we know you do something different with them, and all of a sudden it's like, oh my goodness. You know, like it can, you can- Yep

[00:12:08] Dr. Scott Sherr: practice, you know, various techniques on them that you're trying on yourself that take you years. Yep. But they can get 'em like in a day, you know, in five days or whatever. Yeah. That's it. Um, I, I think it's interesting, right? Because you're talking about re- you know, changing the environment and you're optimizing that.

[00:12:21] Dr. Scott Sherr: You're talking about optimizing their sleep- Mm ... their circadian rhythms, their light exposure. You're talking about their food, of course. Um- Yeah ... there's one problem here, or maybe two problems, Jodi Their 

[00:12:31] Jodi Duval: parents? Hmm. Yeah. Well, that was my, my question to you, Scott, was- Oh ... gonna be, um, you know, in terms of obviously you see a lot of children, you have a lot of children yourself.

[00:12:44] Jodi Duval: Testing-wise, do you think it makes a big data shift in also parents' mind if you see something in front of them? And what sort of- Hmm ... testing do you recommend for children? I know we talk about the health optimization principles and what we [00:13:00] test, but it's not always possible for children and for parents to do that.

[00:13:04] Jodi Duval: Um, so, you know, what, what do you, what do you see as sort of the gold standard that we can be looking at also as a convincing argument for the parents? 

[00:13:13] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. See, what's interesting, Jodi, is that I don't actually see children in clinical practice. 

[00:13:16] Jodi Duval: Hmm. 

[00:13:17] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. Um, I, I, I, I never did because I never really trained in children.

[00:13:21] Dr. Scott Sherr: You know, as a kid, I mean, as an adult, uh, and in my, in my- Yeah ... internal medicine practice, I, I, I would see adults, right? Sometimes I would see, you know, teenagers and things like that at, at, at the most. But you know what I, what I've found at least over the years with having children is that, you know, of most of the time, I would say about, you know, the majority of time, it's not required to do testing in kids.

[00:13:41] Dr. Scott Sherr: You know, I think that there are definitely exceptions to that rule, and I've sent many children over the years to practitioners who see children. Mm-hmm. And what I always hear about the testing and I always hear about the results is exactly what you described, Jodi. It's like everything has to be seen in context because there is no...

[00:13:57] Dr. Scott Sherr: If you do a GI panel on a kid [00:14:00] It's not supposed to look like an adult, but then if you have overgrowth and dysbiosis and, you know, w- things like, well, then what do you do about it, right? Do you start them on, you know, massive antimicrobial protocols like you do an adult or do you not, right? So there's, there's lots of different ways to go about this, which I don't pretend to be an expert in.

[00:14:16] Dr. Scott Sherr: But I, I think that what I- I've seen in my kids at least, and I- you mentioned this really, I think, I think effectively, which is that once you start nutrient optimizing them, getting them on good gut stuff for their belly, um, you don't have to check kids for labs as often because they're going to self-correct.

[00:14:33] Dr. Scott Sherr: They have a much higher capacity to self-correct once they're given the tools to do it. But I think- Yeah ... the challenge, and I was alluding to this with my question for you is, is, is the parents, right? Mm. And, and oftentimes it's not the kids that, that are the issue. I mean, as you said, Jodi, like kids are pretty easy most of the time.

[00:14:49] Dr. Scott Sherr: Mm. But it's the, it's actually the, um, it's the parents and trying to change their habits, especially if the parents don't agree on what- Yeah ... the situation might be. And I think that's the biggest one that [00:15:00] I've seen, and I've seen this, you know, my dad, my father, Dr. Allen Sherr, who's a chiropractor for 45-plus years on, in New York, and he's worked with a lot of autistic kids over the years.

[00:15:08] Dr. Scott Sherr: Mm. And it is the, the biggest thing that he sees. If he can get their diet and their lifestyle, their circadian rhythm, everything all squared away, like they do dramatically better. But then- Yeah ... the parents have to sign on and do those things too, right? Exactly. It's not like you can sit, like have a kid sit at the end of the table and feed him special foods.

[00:15:24] Dr. Scott Sherr: Like, no, everybody else has gotta do it too, and everybody's gotta sign on, otherwise it doesn't work. And it's like rever- reverse enabling on either side. You, you hope, like you hope you can enable the family to see like, oh wow, the kid's doing so much better, let's all do this. But it happens on the other side where nobody wants to do it, so the kid's not doing it either, you know?

[00:15:42] Dr. Scott Sherr: And so I think- Exactly ... the biggest thing I've seen, especially with, you know, with, with family friends and with, and my kids' friends over the years is just, you know, it's a significant dysregulation. And you, I think you really hit the nail on the head. It's like it, it's a, it's y- It's a word that we've been throwing around more recently.

[00:15:58] Dr. Scott Sherr: It's, you know, [00:16:00] safety. Mm-hmm. Um, and I think that it's a physiologic inner- and, and, uh, psychological safety, right? Our kids need to feel psychologically safe, that they're protected, that they're loved, that they're... That, you know, nobody's gonna be running in to hurt them. But they also need to feel, like, cellularly safe as well.

[00:16:13] Dr. Scott Sherr: And, and that's what, you know, a lot of the work that we do, uh, it, it sort of crosses both paths, right? 

[00:16:19] Jodi Duval: Yeah. Absolutely. And yeah, I think I'll, I'll add to that in, in terms of what I see in clinic and testing. Like, um, you know, obviously young, young kids, uh, you wouldn't, you wouldn't always need to be doing this.

[00:16:30] Jodi Duval: But I find, um, iron testing, the basics- Mm. Mm-hmm ... you know, what we know is a higher nutrient demand. And some parents don't realize that these things are necessary in the diet. And if they're not actually hitting the targets very well, then sometimes the data can actually give you that, especially if you've got split families and you're trying to, you know, like tell different pieces of information to different sides of the family.

[00:16:51] Jodi Duval: But what I have found to be quite useful in changing parents' behaviors around children is the food intolerance testing. Yeah. [00:17:00] So I do find that this, especially if I can, I can know in more of the older children that they are having specific reactions, and we need to create a little bit more of a idea around dietary focus.

[00:17:14] Jodi Duval: Mm-hmm. And if they've got a certain number of, uh, you know, small list of foods that they can't have for the moment for a short period of time, then it makes that a lot easier than a broad elimination diet for the parents. And I see some dramatic results. You know, I've had a client recently, her daughter, and she came in and she was half the size just from fluid that had left the body from an inflammatory, um, reason.

[00:17:40] Jodi Duval: Wow. And so by reducing some of the foods down, and now understanding that she tells me, like, she loved chicken. It was the only food she would eat. It came up on her intolerance testing, and she now tells me , she's like, "I don't... Do I have to go back to eating chicken? 'Cause I know how bad it made me feel."

[00:17:57] Jodi Duval: Yeah. I'm like, "Well, yeah, we introduce it slowly and we'll see how your body [00:18:00] is coping with it now." But it's, um, I think that from my perspective can be a, a very valuable test if we're needing to, to change habits dramatically. But it all is proof in the pudding. You know, once the child starts to behave better, concentrate better in school, s- t- you know, the teachers are not commenting to the parents or emailing the parents, and they're sleeping better- 

[00:18:22] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah, 

[00:18:22] Jodi Duval: yeah, yeah

[00:18:22] Jodi Duval: then, you know, that w- it, it's all proof in that. And the parents are like, "Well, I'm on board now. I can see it works." 

[00:18:30] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. I, I you mentioned sleep there, which I think is such a big one, you know, for- 

[00:18:33] Jodi Duval: Mm ... 

[00:18:33] Dr. Scott Sherr: for adults, but I mean, especially, especially for children, right? Because kids need more sleep. They have much more sleep pressure.

[00:18:40] Dr. Scott Sherr: They're running metabolically at a higher level. And so I've always been-- it's always like a push and pull in my house about k- getting the ba- getting the kids to sleep versus l- letting them stay up and read. That's usually, like, the push and pull. My wife wants everybody to read. I'm like, "Yeah, but everybody's gotta go to bed."

[00:18:55] Dr. Scott Sherr: And, uh, and so it's... You know, I used to be much more of a stickler about the red lights and things like that. Uh, but [00:19:00] I realize the kids aren't as sensitive, my kids at least, aren't sensitive, as sensitive to that. But they are sensitive to not getting enough sleep, right? And so if, uh, if they don't get enough sleep, it, it does show up, and then it's gonna affect their gut, it's gonna affect their mood, it's gonna affect everything else along the way.

[00:19:13] Dr. Scott Sherr: So it's one of the things where, like, as a parent, it's not easy, right? Because, you know, when you have a young kid, they have to nap all the time, and then they're older, and, like, you're still getting them going to bed early. Um, and then they're waking up in the middle of the night, and all those kind of kinds of things.

[00:19:26] Dr. Scott Sherr: Um, it, it's difficult for our circadian rhythms, you know, for sure, is it's important, uh, to keep ourselves optimized as parents too, right? Exactly. And I, I think that- 

[00:19:34] Jodi Duval: Parent optimization. 

[00:19:35] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. Parent optimization is big. I mean, you and I were talking about, like, uh, you know, before we started recording about, like, heavy days of stress with work all day and then kids.

[00:19:43] Dr. Scott Sherr: I mean, what are the things that you're doing as a parent for self-care is absolutely essential. Um, and if... because this is what I always-- I've said this a, a bunch before, but, like, if, if my son walks in the door after, like, at four o'clock in the afternoon and says, "Hey, Dad, I had [00:20:00] this happen at school today," and, and I say to something like, "Why did you come in the d- in, in this room without knocking?

[00:20:04] Dr. Scott Sherr: Like, why did you do this?" Right? Is Whose fault is that just there? Yeah. Like, I just got him upset about him coming into the day, and I realized that this is... it's a nervous system regulation thing for me, you know, for me. And, and if... So if, if you yell at your children, it's because your nervous system isn't regulated, right?

[00:20:22] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. And that unless it's like a, like something serious where, like, they're in danger of, you know, hurting themselves or something, right? That's different. But in general, it's hard for parents to realize this be- because it's... we're tired, too. We have a lot going on. But if you can reorientate yourself to go, "Okay, you know, this is my nervous system.

[00:20:40] Dr. Scott Sherr: This is my physiologic safety, both, you know, psychologically and physiologically that I need to do at the same time," then I show up and become a better parent. I think that's a huge shift for a lot of people. 

[00:20:49] Jodi Duval: For sure. And I think they, they pick up on it as well. You know, my... I will walk in the door and my daughter will be like, "Ooh, you okay, Mom?"

[00:20:57] Jodi Duval: Yeah. And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm fine." She's like, [00:21:00] "Ooh, have you, you had a big day?" I'm like- Yeah ... "Yeah, I kinda have actually. Yeah." They can sense it, 

[00:21:05] Dr. Scott Sherr: right? And I'm a 

[00:21:05] Jodi Duval: bit edgy. Yeah. Yeah, 

[00:21:05] Dr. Scott Sherr: they can sense I haven't been out of my tent. Yeah, like my kids sense my tone. Like they, they're like, if my tone's just slightly different, like they're like, "Dad, are you all right?

[00:21:11] Dr. Scott Sherr: Are you angry?" Yeah. I'm like, "I'm not angry. I'm just, I'm just, you know, I'm just- Just tired ... I'm focused. I got some stuff to do. It's all good," right? Um, but they, they sense that, right? And like I remember when my, when my wife was like studying for some tests like at... and she was all stressed. Like the kids had been sleeping f- like through the night forever, and then all of a sudden they're up all night, right?

[00:21:28] Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. It's be- I'm like... And she's like, "Why are they up all night? I have the test tomorrow." Like, "It's because of you." Yeah. "It's because of- Yeah ... 'cause you're vibing it." 100%. Right? You're vibing the stress, you know? So- 

[00:21:35] Jodi Duval: Yeah, 

[00:21:35] Dr. Scott Sherr: yeah ... like, and that's okay. Like that's, that's part of being a parent and adult. But I think I, I- Yeah

[00:21:40] Dr. Scott Sherr: I think in the end what we're really trying to convey to all of you listening today is that health optimization in parents is as important as in children and vice versa, right? But we don't have to be perfect at it. The nice thing about having kids is that they're very resilient, thankfully, you know?

[00:21:55] Dr. Scott Sherr: And so if it doesn't go well or things aren't going well, the great news is that you can [00:22:00] shift, and you can change things. And you can teach them or... and you can teach yourself by teaching them how to change and then just changing the light, changing their food a little bit, trying a little bit of something else.

[00:22:10] Dr. Scott Sherr: Like work on some good stuff for their belly. Work on ways to de-stress a little bit better. Talk about breathwork. Like there's lots of things that you can do. And it doesn't always have to be relegated to checking labs, although it can be helpful at times. You got any, any final words, Jodi? 

[00:22:26] Jodi Duval: Yeah, I think, you know, um, they live by example.

[00:22:31] Jodi Duval: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And what I've tried to do, especially it gets easier as they get a little bit older, but now my daughter will join me for a workout, you know, a couple of times a week. Mm-hmm. And she's learning that now. Um, I had a big chat to my son 'cause he's having nervous system regulation issues at the moment with stress and school and overwhelm, and so we've, um, scheduled in a meditation session every day together because- That's beautiful, yeah

[00:22:53] Jodi Duval: we're gonna keep the other on track, right? So we can actually keep... bring them along for the ride and, and have them there, [00:23:00] and it's a time that you can connect together. You don't have to then just be doing all fun stuff. You can actually just doing nourishing, uh, work with them. 

[00:23:07] Dr. Scott Sherr: Mm-hmm, 

[00:23:08] Jodi Duval: mm-hmm. And yeah, this sort of thing I've always believed in.

[00:23:11] Jodi Duval: I don't stop my routines. I, I bring them into my routines, so they can actually see what that looks like, so I'm not self-sacrificing, and that's my biggest thing as a parent, I think, is, that, um, I've held close to my heart, is that I will show them what type of person I want to be, and therefore, they don't see me sacrificing myself.

[00:23:30] Jodi Duval: So, you know, family is a part of life versus a self-sacrifice. So that's always been the biggest part for me. 

[00:23:37] Dr. Scott Sherr: I love it. That's beautiful. 

[00:23:38] Jodi Duval: Yeah, yeah. 

[00:23:38] Dr. Scott Sherr: Well, Jodi, it's been another fun episode of the Health Optimization Medicine podcast. I thought... Let me try that again. Yeah. Health Optimization Medicine podcast.

[00:23:45] Dr. Scott Sherr: We are so happy that all of you have joined us. We are, you know, we're parents ourselves. If you ha- like this podcast, don't forget to like and subscribe. If you have any comments or questions, you can always find us. Mm-hmm. You can check it out at homehope.org. We have lots of different courses for you. If you're a [00:24:00] practitioner, you can check them out.

[00:24:01] Dr. Scott Sherr: We also have a conference in October, October 2nd and 3rd in Chicago, uh, this year. We... If, if you're a practitioner, we have continuing medical education credits. You can come see a, a bunch of speakers. It's gonna be great. Jodi's gonna be there. I'll be there. Jodi's flying all the way from Australia, her favorite trip every year to come to America to hang out with us.

[00:24:18] Dr. Scott Sherr: Maybe one year we'll go to Perth and have our, have our, uh, conference there. But, um, two days of speakers. Um, it's, it's gonna be great. So, uh- Yeah ... thank you all for listening, and we'll see you next time on the Health Optimization Medicine podcast. Bye. Bye, everybody. 

[00:24:30] Jodi Duval: Bye, everyone. Bye.

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