Why Choose ELM Pediatrics?
ELM is the right choice if you’re looking for:
✔️ A chance to explore therapeutic lifestyle interventions before starting medications for yourself or your child.
✔️ A doctor who takes the time to understand your full story.
✔️ Longer, more personalized visits with your physician.
✔️ A treatment plan tailored specifically to your needs.
✔️ Clear answers about your metabolic health and a path to lasting balance. ✔️ Expert guidance to navigate general pediatric endocrine conditions.
At ELM, we go beyond prescriptions—we partner with you to build a foundation for lifelong health.
The Six Pillars of Health
Nutrition
At the core of nutrition as medicine is the idea that a whole food, plant-forward eating pattern can support health and prevent chronic disease. Identifying the best eating pattern for you and your family is based on your culture and values. The ultimate goal is to encourage nutrient-dense foods (vegetables, herbs/spices, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts/seeds) and limit calorie-dense and nutrient-poor foods (sugar-sweetened beverages, desserts, fried food, refined grains, etc.). Outside of general nutrition guidelines, there are also disease-specific recommendations which we would discuss at your visit. The foundational elements are detailed below:
5 servings of vegetables and/or fruits per day
Legumes (beans, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, tamarind, alfalfa)
Whole grains and pulses (seeds of legumes)
Nuts and seeds
High fiber and antioxidant foods
Low in saturated fat, added sugar, added salt
Restorative Sleep
The average US adult sleeps 6 hrs and 57 min per night, 20% of adults sleep < 6 hrs per night, and 37% of young adults sleep less than 7 hrs per night. Adequate sleep quantity and quality are necessary for optimal physical, mental, and emotional health. Inadequate or poor sleep is associated with increased cortisol and blood glucose levels, decreased growth hormone levels, and disturbance of the gut microbiome— which can all negatively affect metabolic health. Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep with age differences in the pediatric population:
Newborns– 16 hrs
2 yrs–12.5 hrs
10 yrs–10.5 hrs
Teens- 9.5 hrs
*See my blog for more information.
Physical Activity
The evidence shows that any increase in physical activity from baseline is associated with improved health, with the most benefit seen at 150 min of moderate to vigorous activity per week in adults. An additional goal is to decrease sitting time to no more than 50-60 min without a 5-minute break. For children, the recommendations are age-related:
Age 3-5 years– active unstructured play throughout the day.
Age 6-17 years– 60 minutes per day of moderate-vigorous activity with 60 min, 3 times a week of resistance training (tug of war, climbing, etc.)
Age 18-64 years– 150-300 min/week of moderate or 75-150 min/week of vigorous activity, resistance training 2-3 times per week, flexibility exercises 2-3 times per week.
Stress Management
Emotional health can affect physical health and vice versa. Modifiable factors that can worsen emotional health are stress, poor nutrition, a sedentary lifestyle, comorbid conditions, lack of social connectedness, and more. In addition, chronic stress can also cause impaired immune function, inflammation, increased appetite, weight gain, abdominal fat, insulin resistance, and elevated blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides. Learning tools to manage the pathologic stress response can potentially lower the adverse effects of stress, prevent the return of stress symptoms, and improve both physical and mental health.
Social Connections
Every encounter at ELM will be based on identifying strengths rather than weaknesses. Better health is associated with positive emotions, optimism, life satisfaction, purpose, and social support. The ways to foster these habits of emotional well-being include finding and improving signature strengths, gratefulness, slowing down and appreciating and savoring those special moments, acts of kindness, and connecting with others regularly in person.
Avoiding Risky Substances
Lifestyle medicine in adults stresses the importance of avoiding alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, and other substances. Although we will screen for these in an age-appropriate manner, we will also explore the effects of toxic environmental exposures such as endocrine disruptors and obesogens and provide education about how they affect metabolic health.
*See my blog for more information.