Hi and welcome to How Humans Heal. I’m Dr. Doni Wilson, and today I’m really excited to introduce you to the Holistic Kids. Abdullah, Zain, and Emaad are not only the hosts of the Holistic Kids podcast, but they are also the best-selling authors of the new book called The Teen Health Revolution. 

I think this is amazing because they are actual teens who are helping other teens to improve their health. They’ve already been winning awards and doing speaking engagements everywhere, talking about this important topic. I’m so grateful for them joining me here on How Humans Heal.

The Inspiration Behind The Teen Health Revolution

It all started back during the pandemic when the brothers had a lot of time on their hands. Someone suggested they start a podcast, thinking it would be really beneficial. So they started interviewing people, and they actually grew to like it a lot because they benefited from it themselves and saw how much the community was benefiting as well. 

But the real turning point came after COVID when Abdullah went back to school. That year was when his best friend threatened to kill him. It was a shocking moment that made them realize that teens and kids were experiencing a serious decline in their health. Before COVID, it wasn’t like this. They understood that somebody with a healthy mind would not threaten to kill anybody. This was back in middle school, and that’s when they knew something needed to change. They needed a revolution.

The brothers had already been working on Adam’s Healing Adventures, a health book series that focused a lot on nutrition, teaching kids about choosing healthier foods versus processed foods. But with The Teen Health Revolution, they wanted to go even deeper. 

This new book targets all aspects of health including physical health, mental health, emotional health, and social health. It’s a very practical guide for teens by teens because they realized that teens weren’t going to listen to adults. That’s why they made the book themselves. It’s for teens, by teens.

Coming Together to Create Change

The brothers come from a place of wanting to help each other out so that teens aren’t going against each other, but rather working together. They believe that if change needs to happen, everyone needs to get together and do this together. 

Right now, we’re actually facing a loneliness epidemic. Things need to change. Teenagers need to come together and start asking questions, start changing policies, and start bringing these conversations into schools. If we don’t do something now, the next generation is going to suffer. This needs to happen together, and it needs to happen now.

The brothers range in age from twelve to seventeen. Emaad is twelve, Zain is fourteen, and Abdullah is seventeen. They also have a fourth and fifth brother who are younger, ages ten and two. So these young men are leading the way in their family, saying they can create a better future for themselves and their generation. 

When they did their research for the Teen Health Revolution book and looked at what they were experiencing with their peers, they noticed the main issue is that teens are not educated. They’re not being taught in schools what to do. They’re not being mindful.

They’re not thinking about what they’re doing, what they’re putting in their mouths, or what they’re visually consuming. If teens started to educate themselves and be more mindful about what they’re doing, they could change anything. But they just have to take back control of their bodies and their minds.

The Power of Mindfulness

Mindfulness is such a really important topic because it’s left out in modern society. We’re running from place to place so quickly, but life is not supposed to be this fast. Mindfulness just means to be fully present in this world, in this room, fully present in the moment.

It means thinking about what you’re eating, what you’re smelling, tasting, seeing, hearing, and feeling. Just figuring out what’s around you and being present in the moment, not thinking about what’s happening next or what happened before. Just being fully present.

The brothers teach mindfulness practices in the book, including deep breathing and taking time in the morning to go outside and think about what you’re smelling and hearing. This helps you be fully present in the world and know what’s happening. Sometimes using our senses helps us get into the moment of what we’re perceiving. Taking a nice deep breath can help us get out of our heads, out of stressful moments, and back into the present moment. 

It’s amazing what we can do if we actually take back our minds and take back our bodies. Right now, our bodies and minds are not ours. Teens are running toward the food industry and tech companies. Usually, teens are known to want freedom from their parents, but in reality, they’re being controlled by their phones and the ultra-processed foods they’re consuming. 

Most teens are living blindly. They need to wake up now. If they can do that, they can change the world.

The REVOLUTION Acronym

In the book, the brothers use an acronym called REVOLUTION to make it easier for anybody to understand and educate themselves. Each letter stands for a different key aspect of health.

• R is for Revolutionize The Gut
• E is for Eat Real Food
• V is for Vanquish Toxins
• O is for Optimize Stress Management
• L is for Love Nature
• U is for Unite with Others
• T is for Tech Limits
• I is for Invest in Sleep
• O is for Open to Gratitude and Purpose
• N is for Navigating Decisions Mindfully

Each of these letters talks about a different key aspect of the book. One big component is gratitude because when you’re grateful, you can really change your entire mood and how you do things. You can change yourself to be more optimistic, more active, and stop thinking about all the negativity that a lot of teens do. 

By using the REVOLUTION acronym, the brothers want people to become better humans and take control back, control of their health, so they can live a better life going forward. Whether you’re ten years old, fifteen years old, thirty years old, or seventy years old, you still have the rest of your life. Nobody wants to live as a human without health.

Understanding the Gut-Brain Connection

The brothers address gut health in their book, which might surprise people. They encourage teens to pay attention to their digestion and their microbiome. 

The gut is very important for several reasons. First, it holds seventy to eighty percent of our immune system, which is vital to fight diseases. In the book, they call it our second brain. The gut translates messages and sends them to the brain to tell the brain what it’s feeling and how well you’re working. 

The brain is connected to the gut because eighty to ninety percent of neurotransmitters are actually made in the gut. The mind-gut-brain connection is one of the biggest things that determines our health in general, both mental health and physical health.

The research really shows we need to pay attention to our gut health. Gut health is very vulnerable to all the stress and toxins we’re exposed to. If we’re exposed to so much stress and toxins and if we’re eating processed foods, our gut health and our microbiome are going to get disrupted. Then it’s going to disrupt our immune system and our nervous system, and of course we’re going to notice problems in other areas of our body and mind. Addressing diet and gut health is so important.

Making the Transition to Healthier Eating

Becoming a teen is a time when you’re becoming a little more of a decision maker with your diet. Before that, your parents just give you food and put it in front of you, and you eat whatever’s there. But as a teen, you’re choosing your own foods and being responsible and accountable for what you’re feeding yourself. 

The brothers found that education was key for them making that transition. They believe that’s something a lot of kids and teens these days lack. They are not educated about what they’re putting in their food, what they’re eating, what they’re putting in their mouths. 

When you’re educated about what these different types of ingredients can do to your body, why would you want to eat it? It’s just like if a bag of Doritos had a big black box and it said can cause cancer, would you want to eat it? Nobody in their right mind is going to eat something like that.

The brothers learned from someone they interviewed on their podcast that if you eat junk, then you’re going to start working like junk. They noticed this in a lot of kids in their schools. These kids can’t focus. They’re always irritable. They’re always having anger issues and problems and chronic disease. They’re not working mentally well. 

Sadly, with autism and ADHD on the rise, it’s not just out of nowhere. It’s actually all connected to not eating real food.

Taking the First Steps Toward Change

Sometimes when people hear that they could change their diet and feel better, there’s a little resistance. Some people don’t want to change anything. 

In those situations, the brothers remind people that everybody wants to be a better person. If you don’t want to be a better person, then no one can do anything for you. You have to make that decision for yourself. Do you want to live the next fifteen or twenty years struggling mentally and physically with your health and your wellness? Do you want to live a life without your health? Do you want to live waking up every single morning with chronic disease, scratching your eczema, dealing with allergies and sinus issues? 

If you don’t want that and you want to make a decision, you don’t have to change overnight. Start making simple steps to become a better person, to better yourself. From there, just keep educating yourself, and you can always get there eventually. But all that matters is making that first step.

Each day is a new day, and each day we can make a different choice. It doesn’t have to be big leaps and bounds. It can be just little micro changes that start to add up. In terms of diet, the brothers recommend starting by learning about each different type of ingredient in something because then you get a sense of what you’re putting inside your body. You might not want to have the Doritos as much.

Then just start getting rid of an ingredient that is really toxic, one at a time. Look for foods that don’t have that ingredient. Maybe every day just eliminate an ingredient and say goodbye and don’t have it again. Or just swap out foods. Look for alternatives. 

The brothers eat ice cream, pasta, cake, chips, and everything else that kids have, but they have alternatives. Their friends have tried them and said these are actually better than what they usually have. You can have fun with your food. Food doesn’t have to be boring and healthy. It can also be fun and good for you. That’s why it’s all about making food fun, making real food fun, and actually living normally but better because you’re putting the right foods in your body.

Even if you haven’t been going to the grocery store much, you can pick up the package and flip it over to see what the other ingredients are in the product. Just get to know what it is that you’re eating, what’s in it, and what are the other options. People think that chips or donuts always have to be unhealthy, but the donuts you see at Dunkin’ Donuts have like thirty or forty ingredients in them. 

You can also find a donut at the store if you just look at the ingredients that has just what you would expect in a donut—five, six, seven, or eight ingredients. That’s how it’s supposed to be. You can start determining more just by doing a little research, looking for other options, and swapping things out. You don’t have to be denying yourself or restricting yourself. You can enjoy your food and be eating healthy at the same time.

Creating New Habits and Routines

Once you create a new routine and new habit, the next thing you know, it’s just normal to you. You don’t think about it anymore. When the brothers look at their classmates now, people always ask them if they feel left out. 

Don’t you feel weird when you see other kids eating their stuff at lunch? For them, they just think their classmates are poisoning themselves. They’re addicted to foods that are going to hurt them. They’re addicted to foods that are going to hurt their brain and their body. That’s why they don’t feel bad about their own choices. What they eat makes them feel good, and what their peers eat is eventually going to be bad for them.

Food addiction is real. We usually think of things we get addicted to as other substances, but it’s true we can become addicted to food. The food industry uses ways to get us addicted. It’s called sonic blasting or something similar where they calculate what it feels like when you crunch food. They add MSG to get that bliss point which creates that addictive quality that makes people want more and more and more. 

Especially with advertising, why do you think all the cereals you walk by in the grocery store are all super colorful and they all have a funny cartoon animal? Because when the kid sees that, they’re going to say they want that. Or maybe they see a superhero and think that maybe that’ll make them a superhero. But instead, it’s a trick that keeps people addicted and keeps kids who don’t know better wanting those brands.

Taking Back Control in an Overwhelming World

The brothers are pulling back the veil and saying you have to be more careful. You have to be aware that these companies are just trying to sell their products. They’re not really caring about your health. You have to be someone who cares about your health. 

Teens need to take responsibility for their health and what they put in their bodies and what they do in their daily lives to be able to be healthy without being influenced by all these different factors.

Living in an age where we’re constantly bombarded with information can feel overwhelming. There’s a saying that if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. With social media and everything that’s going on right now, people are trying to influence us constantly. We’re living with so much information that can overwhelm us. Then people go to social media.

Nowadays, a lot of people just go to ChatGPT, and a lot of people are getting misinformation because there’s just so much information out there. People don’t know what to do. That’s why the brothers wanted to come out with this book, a simple, easy, handheld guide. Anybody could just go find what they need, with practical tips anybody can do.

How The Book Was Created

The brothers worked together to write The Teen Health Revolution by dividing and conquering with different roles. 

One brother’s role was to create a baseline draft, just writing and writing in each chapter. Then Emaad would edit, add the jokes, add in the recaps, add some quotes and citations. They each did research. If they didn’t like anything, they’d put a comment saying can we talk about this. If they all came to a majority on something, then they were able to keep it. They just worked together on it really beautifully.

The brothers compiled over two hundred expert tips from all the people they interviewed on the podcast. Each of them had such amazing information. Imagine if you had all those Harvard professors, New York Times bestsellers, all those experts in one book, and it’s made practical because of how the brothers have been living for the past ten years. They know what teens have been doing. 

Anybody can just pick up the book, flip to a page, learn something new that they can implement that day. As long as you take it day by day, you can always keep getting better and better and better.

Every day is a new day. Even if you get disappointed with yourself one day or find something challenging, the next day you just pick up the book and the brothers are there to say here’s where you can keep going from there. Do this next. Try this next. 

They’re so supportive, encouraging people not to give up but to keep going. Because imagine where we can go if our minds and bodies actually worked. We could create so much, create such a better world. That’s why they wanted to make this book. They know that all the adults in the future are not going to be there when the teens of today are leaders of the world. Teens are the future. 

If their brains and bodies don’t work, the future is gone. That’s why they need their brain and body and soul to work. That’s why they can create a ripple effect that can spread across the world to anybody—teen, kid, adult—that can help bring people back to how it’s supposed to be and take charge over their health and body and wellness.

Where to Find The Teen Health Revolution

The Teen Health Revolution can be pre-ordered on Amazon and will be available in Barnes and Noble soon. The brothers also have a website for it. You can find it here.

On the website, you can also get three to four bonuses which will help a lot, like shopping lists and recipes, things that anybody can do. They also include how to make good lunches. Right now, they realize that a lot of parents don’t really make good lunches for kids because it’s hard. Then kids just go to school where they buy lunches. The brothers made something easy and simple that any parent can do to help their kids and make good nutrient-dense lunches.

This is also such an amazing gift for others. If you have a child or a teen in your life and you want to help them out, you could give the gift of The Teen Health Revolution book. The brothers are still talking to publishers about an audio version. Eventually, they’ll let everybody know. Right now, they’re focusing on the physical version. 

With their Holistic Kids podcast, people can come and learn from them all the time. They’re so good with their voices and their interaction with each other that the audiobook is going to be so powerful too once it’s available.

A Message of Hope and Possibility

The brothers want to leave everyone with this message: There’s always hope. 

Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. You can always get better. You just have to start putting in that work into yourself. It’s about saying you’re worth it. You’re worth the effort. You’re worth the learning and the implementing. That’s a beautiful message because a lot of times kids and teens don’t feel worth it. They don’t feel like they’re valued. But from the start, you’re worth it. You’re valued. Let’s start helping you to feel better.

They are already doing a lot of speaking and winning awards based on their work. If any school systems or anyone else wants to share this message, they can reach out so the brothers can share it with their community too. They would love to and would be honored. So many people are going to see what they’re doing and be so grateful and want to share it with others.

Note from Dr. Doni

Whenever struggling with any health issue, we need to consider what is underlying, and that is also true for children and teens. If we don’t address the underlying causes, the issue can recur over and over again. 

I help children and teens in my practice, and have for over 25 years. The health issues I see them struggling with include anxiety, sleep issues, difficulties with focus, skin rashes, allergies, frequent infections, as well as digestive issues and autoimmunity.

Common underlying causes of all of these health issues include stress exposure, food sensitivities, gut microbiome imbalances, cortisol and neurotransmitter imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, and exposure to toxins, such as toxic mold. 

When helping children and teens, I completely agree with the holistic kids, that it’s important to consider dietary factors, heal the gut and microbiome, as well as to support recovery from stress and toxin exposure. 

Through my research and clinical practice, I developed the Stress Recovery Protocol, which involves first testing your stress hormone levels (cortisol and adrenaline) in urine and saliva testing (done at home) and then following my three-phase protocol to rebalance your stress hormone levels using nutrients, herbs, and other natural approaches, including mindfulness and mind-body approaches. 

This protocol can be used in children, teens, and adults to literally erase the impact of stress and allow the body to reset. By doing this, it solves issues with mood, sleep, focus, and energy, and also allows the other systems in the body to reset. That means the digestion, immune system, nervous system and hormones all return to an optimal state, eliminating associated health issues. I see amazing changes in my patient’s health, including the resolution of migraines, digestive issues, skin rashes, as well as anxiety and depression. 

To learn more, and to find out your Stress Type©, you can find it all in my most recent book: Master Your Stress Reset Your Health. 

If you or a teen in your life is wanting to address their health from a holistic perspective, please know that so much can be done to help. It’s important to work with a practitioner who has been trained in naturopathic or functional medicine approaches. 

If you are interested in meeting with me, you can set up a one-on-one appointment here. I can meet with you by phone or zoom from wherever you are (virtual appointments are available). Once we meet, I will create a strategic plan based on your health needs, including sessions with the health coach on my team to help guide you to implement my proprietary C.A.R.E. and Stress Mastery programs. 

Congratulations to Abdullah, Zain, and Emaad for their new best-selling book, The Teen Health Revolution and for the amazing work they are doing to transform the health of teens around the world. 

Thank you for joining us here at How Humans Heal. If you don’t already subscribe, I welcome you to subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode. We’re glad you’re here!  

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