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Show Transcript
Parents Are Hard To Raise® S03 Episode 129 Transcript

[00:00:00] The world’s becoming a dangerous place for us women. Lipstick Bodyguard looks just like an innocent little lipstick but it will instantly drop any attacker to his knees so you can get away unharmed. Lipstick Bodyguard fear no evil. Get yours today only at LipstickBodyguard.com.


[00:00:37] This week on Parents Are Hard To Raise health and wellness expert, Dr. Felice Gersh, is back with more great advice to keep our aging parents and us living our lives to the fullest.


[00:00:50] Join 180 million monthly subscribers who can now listen to Parents Are Hard To Raise on Spotify.


Diane Berardi [00:01:08] Welcome to Parents Are Hard To Raise… Helping families grow old together without losing their minds. I’m elder care expert, Diane Berardi.


[00:01:17] Longtime listeners will recognize my next guest. Mostly because she’s among my favorite guests medical experts. Dr. Felice Gersh is a true pioneer in her field. A rare combination of an award winning physician, double board certified both in OBGYN an integrative medicine, and a tireless champion of women’s health. She holds degrees from Princeton University, the University of Southern California School of Medicine and the University of Arizona School of Medicine. Dr. Gersh serves as medical director of the integrative medical group of Irvine California. She also writes and speaks internationally on integrative medicine and women’s health. You can hear her weekly broadcast, A Healthy Perspective on care on KR L.A. radio AM 870 in Los Angeles.


[00:02:08] Felice, welcome back to Parents Are Hard To Raise.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:02:11] Oh, it’s great to be back.


Diane Berardi [00:02:13] We’re so happy to have you and you’re always an amazing wealth of cutting edge information. So tell us, what you have for us this week?


Felice Gersh, MD [00:02:22] Oh it’s an amazing therapy that is just not utilized anywhere near enough. It’s called The Sun. Our beautiful sun is really medicine and it’s it’s so sad as people get old even you know of course young people often don’t get out. They wake up in the dark, they turn on a fluorescent type of a light bulb and then they spend their day indoors. You hardly get to be outside and now we know that there’s tremendous medical health benefits from being exposed to sunlight.


Diane Berardi [00:02:59] Wow. I love the sun. I always feel better in the sun.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:03:04] Exactly. And it’s so unfortunate that, I know well-meaning dermatologists all over the country have said, avoid the sun. And if you do go out make sure you cover up every bit of skin…


Diane Berardi [00:03:17] Yes! [laughing].


Felice Gersh, MD [00:03:17] Wear sunglasses and put on sunscreen everywhere you possibly can. And we now know that there are actually children that are developing rickets which is amazing. That’s severe deprivation deficiency of vitamin D. And they’re actually of soft bones because their parents are trying to do the right thing.


[00:03:39] But now we know that we need to expose our eyes, that we have special receptors for light in our eyes, that actually help to set our circadian master clock that sits atop the optic nerve in our brain. And that when sunlight hits our skin it’s like magic. And it really now has been found to be related to a whole host of medical issues that can be either ameliorated or even prevented by having sunlight.


Diane Berardi [00:04:09] Really? I know because that’s all you hear. You know stay out of the sun…stay out of the sun.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:04:15] So I’m saying go out and see the sun. But don’t get a burn. So we’re not advocating that I go out and you know get toasted. But the the data, and I can go through with just a few of things. We can start with just mood, because you said right off the top you said I feel better…


Diane Berardi [00:04:35] Yes.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:04:36] When I’m out in the sun. And there is so much published data on the sun and the sunlight actually improving mood. And it’s not just the people who live in the very dark climate, the dark parts of the world, you know where the sun doesn’t rise until the middle of the day.


Diane Berardi [00:04:53] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:04:54] And that’s seasonal affective disorder. That particular group is known, like for example, people who live in the northern part of Europe like in Sweden and Norway, where they see the beautiful lights at night in the winter but they don’t see any sunlight.


Diane Berardi [00:05:09] Right. Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:05:10] That they have a very, very high incidence of Seasonal Affective Disorder because they just don’t get enough sunlight. And that is actually not related to vitamin D that’s a whole different ball of wax. And that’s actually the Sun going into the receptors in our eye actually helps our, like I mentioned, our circadian rhythm. It actually helps to produce the “feel good” neurotransmitter serotonin.


Diane Berardi [00:05:38] Okay.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:05:39] So we actually we get sunlight, and this is of course not just in that area of the world, but all over it, because people are living in the dark. You know they because they close their blinds or they wear sunglasses every time they go out.


Diane Berardi [00:05:52] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:05:52] And they actually don’t get the sun going into their eyes. So we don’t want to always wear sunglasses. We want to have at least 15- 30 minutes every day of just bright light going into our eyes.


[00:06:06] I don’t mean like you staring at the sun. [laughing]
[00:06:07] Right. [laughing]


Felice Gersh, MD [00:06:08] We’re not we’re not trying to destroy our Optic Nerve, either. But we want to just be outside and let the sunlight naturally come into our eyes. Just by doing things, by walking outside and that is amazing. By increasing our serotonin. And serotonin is the precursor of melatonin.


[00:06:27] So I’m sure you’ve had this experience. I know I have. When you go out and you spend the day at the beach, you know in the sun, or you’re going out, like here I’m in Disneyland or you go out you know you you go off to Jones Beach or something. Right?


Diane Berardi [00:06:40] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:06:41] And at the end of the day you just want to fall asleep.


Diane Berardi [00:06:43] Yes.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:06:44] You haven’t done anything particularly exertional but you just, and you sleep like a baby.


Diane Berardi [00:06:49] Yes.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:06:49] That’s because you made all that serotonin during the day and at night is converted into melatonin. And you get wonderful, restorative sleep.


[00:07:00] So when you get out in the sun you’ll sleep so much better at night. And look what happens to elderly people. They have mood disorders, right?


[00:07:09] They have sleep disorders and most of them really don’t get out much in the sun.


Diane Berardi [00:07:14] No. You’re right.


[00:07:15] Yeah. And the family and the caregivers they don’t realize what they’re doing.


[00:07:19] You know by keeping them indoors and not really getting them out in the sun. Or if they do go out they put on a giant hat and sunglasses. [laughing].


Diane Berardi [00:07:28] We cover them up! [laughing]


Felice Gersh, MD [00:07:29] I know. Exactly [laughing]
[00:07:31] I took a walk this morning and I took it you know by the beach and some people are so covered up.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:07:39] Yeah.


Diane Berardi [00:07:40] Yes. They have these hats on that look like they’re on the desert or you know in Saudi Arabia.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:07:45] Right, right. They’re covered up completely.


Diane Berardi [00:07:48] Completely. And I’m thinking, Oh my gosh!


[00:07:50] But there’s not even any… Their eyes or… Everything is covered. [laughing]


Felice Gersh, MD [00:07:55] It’s very sad.


[00:07:56] And then the other like link. Serotonin is also linked to cognition.


[00:08:02] Oh my goodness. So…


[00:08:04] Actually going to be smarter if we get out in the sun. And it lowers dementia. It actually is significantly beneficial for cognitive health.


Diane Berardi [00:08:16] Wow. And we don’t. We don’t bring our parents. We don’t have them come out. Come sit outside. We just don’t do that.


[00:08:25] Well hopefully this is the day it’s going to start for everyone. For yourselves, for your kids, for your parents, you know. And then when you walk around you’re going to be like me. Like I always say, Get that soda out of your hands! You know I want to say that. I have to restrain myself.


[00:08:40] And now I want to say, “Take off that hat.!” You know, c’mon. [laughing] “Put away that sunblock.” It’s not really good anyway it’s full of toxins.


[00:08:50] So… You know, be reasonable. You know, right? And recognize for example, we all have different ethnic backgrounds and different types of skin. So the amount of time that you can spend in the sun is variable depending on on your skin type. So if you have very dark skin in order to actually burn you would need to be out a lot longer than somebody who is extremely fair skin. So you know you have to use judgment. That’s why you can’t like say, I can’t give a prescription like.. “You, whoever you are out there, you know, you can be out in the sun for this many minutes.” But if you start to turn a little bit pink it’s time to cover up.


Diane Berardi [00:09:28] Right. Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:09:28] Just a little bit of pink color and it’s time to stop. And so we know that there’s light going into the brain creating serotonin it’s going to make you happier, sleep better and smarter.


[00:09:42] It’s actually going to also lower your blood pressure, when you get out in the sun, in a very good way. Now it does make you hypotensive, that you pass out.


Diane Berardi [00:09:50] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:09:51] It makes you have normalized blood pressure. Because it actually, when the sunlight hits your skin, it actually increases the production of a very critical, sort of a transmitter. It’s made out of gas. It’s called nitric oxide. And nitric oxide causes blood vessels to stay healthy and dilated rather than constricted, which is obviously you don’t want your blood vessels all constricted all the time.


Diane Berardi [00:10:16] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:10:16] So, going out and getting sun on your skin is actually a treatment for hypertension. How wonderful is that?


Diane Berardi [00:10:23] Yeah. I had no idea.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:10:25] Yeah. And nitric oxide actually helps with the health of the heart. So it’s actually good for heart health. So that’s like… It’s amazing. It truly is medicine. And we have forgotten all about it. We evolved on planet Earth to be out in the sun. And we just have become you know covered up, indoor creatures. And look our health has suffered.


[00:10:49] And it actually also increases energy and stamina. So when people go out in the sun on a regular basis they actually have more energy.


[00:10:58] And let’s think about all the elderly people in our lives and all the problems they have. They almost all of them have hypertension.


Diane Berardi [00:11:05] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:11:05] By age 75, 85 percent of women have hypertension. Blood pressure is high and they need to be on medications all of which have some associated problem. So you know.


[00:11:20] And just think, maybe some of that many people are on three or four drugs or a blood pressure they don’t even realize it because they put all the drugs in one pill, the “polypill” they think they’re taking one thing, they’re actually taking three or four.


[00:11:33] But just getting out in the sun is going to help with their energy and elderly people have low energy. It’s going to help with their mood, which is such a problem. Their cognitive function goes down and you know just everything. There’s sleep, which is so problematic. So it’s amazing. And there’s even more to talk about because sunlight is just magic.


Diane Berardi [00:11:59] Yes. And you know it’s true. Every Sunday I try to just sit outside you know in the sun with a book and just try to clear my head and just relax. And then I always sleep really well. And I always say, Oh the sun must make me very tired.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:12:17] Well it makes you make all that delicious melatonin that you need.


[00:12:23] And so many people are taking melatonin.


Diane Berardi [00:12:25] Right. As a supplement.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:12:26] And I’m not against that per say but let’s try. You know I’m all about trying to enable the body to do what it’s naturally designed to do, to optimize health. And even taking herbs and vitamins and that’s a hormone. You know if you have to you have to. But… Why don’t we try everything first to have the body get everything the way it’s naturally designed. Like get your nutrients, as much as possible, by eating incredibly healthy food you know.


Diane Berardi [00:12:55] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:12:56] You know get all the different things that you need by getting outside, getting the melatonin, the serotonin and so forth. So it’s it’s really such amazing medicine.


[00:13:07] And it’s been really interesting as well, because people talk about all the incidence of skin cancer is increasing. And actually you know skin cancer is the number one cancer. It’s the most common cancer. Fortunately most types of skin cancer are not fatal. The really serious one that is a killer is is the melanomas. But the thing that’s so shocking is that the incidence in the increased use of sunscreens correlates with the increased incidence of malignant melanomas.


Diane Berardi [00:13:42] Wow!


Felice Gersh, MD [00:13:42] You would think, Oh my goodness we probably have all these skin cancers because we’re out in the sun. Actually we have a lot of skin cancers because we’re not in the sun. Melanomas often happen in areas that never ever see the sun.


Diane Berardi [00:13:56] Oh my gosh. We’re going to continue talking with Dr. Felice Gersh.


[00:14:00] But first, if you’re a woman or there’s a woman in your life there’s something you absolutely need to know.


[00:14:06] I want to tell you about my friend Katie. Katie is a nurse and she was attacked on her way home from work. She was totally taken by surprise. And although Katie is only 5 feet tall and 106 pounds she was easily able to drop her 6 foot 4, 250-pound attacker to his knees and get away unharmed.


Katie wasn’t just lucky that day. She was prepared.


In her pocketbook, a harmless looking lipstick, which really contained a powerful man stopping aerosol propellant.


It’s not like it was in our grandmother’s day. Today just going to and from work or to the mall can have tragic consequences. The FBI says a violent crime is committed every 15 seconds in the United States. And a forcible rape happens every five minutes. And chances are when something happens, no one will be around to help.


It looks just like a lipstick. So no one will suspect a thing. Which is important since experts say, getting the jump on your attacker is all about the element of surprise.


Inside this innocent looking lipstick is the same powerful stuff used by police and the military to disarm even the most powerful, armed aggressor. In fact, National Park rangers used the very same formula that’s inside this little lipstick to stop two-thousand pound vicious grizzly bears dead in their tracks. It’s like carrying a personal bodyguard with you in your purse or your pocket.


Darkness brings danger. Murderers and rapists use darkness to their advantage. We all know what it’s like to be walking at night and hear footsteps coming at us from behind. Who’s there? If it’s somebody bad, will you be protected? Your life may depend on it.


My friend Katie’s close call needs to be a wake up call for all of us. Myself included. Pick up a Lipstick Bodyguard and keep it with you always.


Announcer [00:16:01] You’re listening to Parents Are Hard To Raise. Now thanks to you, The number one eldercare talk show on planet Earth. Listen to this and other episodes on demand using the iHeart Radio app. iPhone users can listen on Apple podcasts and Android users on Google podcasts.


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[00:17:20] So Felice, you were talking about sunscreen.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:17:24] Right. That what happens is when the sun hits the skin it’s like magical processes occur. And we know that the sun is is very critical for the production in our bodies of vitamin D, which is like a pre hormone and it’s a very potent like antioxidant it’s involved in bone health which we can talk about because we certainly know that we need healthy bones. But it’s involved in just about everything relating to the immune system.


[00:17:52] Well malignant melanoma of course is a cancer and you need to have a healthy immune system to not get a cancer. Well Vitamin D, low levels of vitamin D, when people don’t get out in the sun, has been associated with increased risk of a whole host of cancers. And having adequate vitamin D in the body has been associated with reduced incidence of colon cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer.


[00:18:21] So, I know and… And so when people stay out of the sun they say, I’m not going to get skin cancer like melanoma. They don’t realize that they’re actually impairing their immune systems.


[00:18:33] And in addition, when you hit the skin with that beautiful sunlight it makes other antioxidants as well. It’s not just Vitamin D it’s way more complex. You get a whole host of these wonderful antioxidants that circulate through the body by helping to prevent oxidative stress free radicals that can lead to DNA breakage and cancer. So sunlight is anti-cancer and that’s why we get more melanomas when we’re out of the sun.


[00:19:03] But we don’t want get burned. But we have to be… We’ve gone from one extreme to the other, and we have to get back to where the science is. And that is that you do need to get sunlight to have a healthy immune system. That you make all these antioxidants along with vitamin D.


[00:19:20] And bones now are suffering tremendously as well. Because most people do know you need vitamin D for healthy bones, you need calcium and magnesium and you need proper protein and so forth. And of course exercise. Well, you need it all. You need it all. You can’t like, well like, we’ll make this incredible recipe but we’ll leave out just one critical ingredient.


[00:19:40] It doesn’t it matter. Well it does matter.


[00:19:41] And if you don’t get enough vitamin D then you’re not going to have healthy bones. And even like young people, they’re checking. Oh, I have osteopenia. Yeah. You’re you’re like 40. You’re not supposed to have osteopenia. You just never, you didn’t lose bone, you’re not in menopause. You are you’re not elderly. You just didn’t make enough. And so we really, really need to get our children out in the sun and stop covering them with sunblock, but just preventing burns.


[00:20:09] So it’s all that using good due diligence and using your commonsense about you know getting too much out. We know in terms of the immune system, that when people, and this is particularly women, but men also but fewer you know in terms of percentages, multiple sclerosis.


[00:20:28] Though multiple sclerosis has been heavily associated with low levels of vitamin D. And they’ve actually shown that there’s more incidents in northern climates where they don’t get enough sun.


[00:20:39] And now it doesn’t matter where you live. Because you could live where I am in sunny Southern California but you don’t go out outside. [laughing] You know, or when you go, you’re totally covered up any way.


[00:20:48] And now people in their work often are in cubicles and elderly people are in homes or assisted living facilities where they don’t really get a lot of sun.


[00:20:59] And it’s really amazing. There were actually studies that after surgery if you take the patient and you put them on the side of the hospital, where you have a good sized windows and you get the sun light. So the sunny side of the hospital. They need less pain medication.


[00:21:18] It’s been proven. You have less pain. Look how many elderly people suffer from chronic pain. Yes sunlight is magic for pain. And now they of course they have devices you can go out and buy devices or pay to have devices used on you with light you know the light emitting diode devices L.E.D lights. And they come, and you can pay money that be under the lights. Well, you can also go out in the sun.


[00:21:44] [laughing]
[00:21:44] But you know but they actually now have studies showing that you can use light emitting devices to reduce pain and inflammation because of course pain and inflammation are really one and the same thing.


[00:21:57] So just think what we could do for our elderly beloved relatives. Get them out in the sun. They’ll recover faster if they have surgery. They’ll have less pain. She’ll be happier. Les depression. Sleep better. They’ll think straighter.


[00:22:12] And also they found that after someone has a heart attack if they’re in a sunny part of the hospital, they get out and they have maybe a sunroom or something like that. Some hospitals now have sunrooms.


[00:22:23] Yes.


[00:22:24] They’re usually empty or it used as storage.


Diane Berardi [00:22:26] Right. You’re right. No that’s true.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:22:27] But if they get out in that sunny area they actually recover faster from a heart attack.


Diane Berardi [00:22:32] Wow. And something simple and natural as the sun. Just going outside.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:22:40] It is. And we were talking a little bit on the break about New York City. A lot of people live in very populous areas with big buildings. And there actually is a term for people who live in those big urban areas. It’s called Global Dimming. And it’s people who live in big cities where the buildings are blocking the sun right.


[00:23:01] And in creating this sort of greyness they actually have a reduced exposure to the sun. So you really have to make an effort to find open spaces. Like in New York you know get to Central Park. Where there are areas where there aren’t as many big buildings or if you can do an excursion out to Long Island or to the Jersey Shore or something.


Diane Berardi [00:23:20] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:23:20] You know to get or wherever you live go to where there’s some open space where there aren’t just big buildings blocking the sun. I mean because global dimming is causing global badness you know in the mood and all aspects of health.


[00:23:36] So and think about children who live in areas where they you know even when they go outside there the sun is blocked by the big buildings.


Diane Berardi [00:23:43] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:23:43] So we have to think about these things when we do urban planning of course you know like don’t make it so that the sun can’t get to the street.


Diane Berardi [00:23:52] Right. Exactly. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I know,.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:23:56] It’s amazing.


Diane Berardi [00:23:56] It is amazing. You know and that’s interesting because my mom tends to… She just sits in the dark. She just wants to be in the dark. She just you know, and I’m thinking, wow…


Felice Gersh, MD [00:24:11] You know there are people that they eat junk food and it’s all they crave. You know sometimes the body just gets into a bad rut.


Diane Berardi [00:24:18] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:24:19] You just have to just put someone in a wheelchair and just get out. So I have a mother in law. She’s amazing. She’s over a hundred.


Diane Berardi [00:24:27] Oh my Gosh!


Felice Gersh, MD [00:24:28] She’s heading towards… I know! It’s really, isn’t that amazing.


Diane Berardi [00:24:31] Yes.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:24:31] She is. And we take her out to restaurants every weekend. And my husband takes her out every weekend. And we have a beautiful lake here where I live in Irvine. It’s pretty. It’s a man made, but It’s really pretty. We have all these ducks. And he takes her on it. She can’t walk all around it. She can walk but not that far. So, she’s in a wheelchair and he will tour all around in the sunlight. You know and without the hat and without the sunglasses, and just wheels her around and looks at the ducks. And it’s out in the bright sun. It’s like a half an hour. So, and then puts on the hat again and puts on the sunglasses again. But I’ll tell you it just is so mood lifting and it’s just it’s just amazing. I mean of course she’s unique. How many people get to be over 100?


Diane Berardi [00:25:20] That’s wonderful.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:25:21] She has one tiny dose of a blood pressure pill. That’s it. And but we do try to get her out my. Who lived to 98. He took a walk out in the sun every day of his life.


[00:25:33] Oh my Gosh.


[00:25:36] He took his constitutional walk out in the sun and he didn’t really know why it was good for him. He just knew it felt good.


Diane Berardi [00:25:43] I was going to say, he felt better.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:25:44] Always. Always. He didn’t feel good if he missed his daily walk out in the sun or if it was a rainy day or something and he couldn’t do it. He was like, Oh. Gives you the blues you know.


Diane Berardi [00:25:53] Sure. Yeah.


[00:25:56] And so it’s so, so important you know for so many aspects of health.


[00:26:01] And if people have certain skin conditions that can actually be helpful. People who have psoriasis or acne, if they get a little bit of sun it actually improves. It reduces the inflammatory state of the skin and it actually can help clear the skin. So we just have to recognize that there’s just magic in our sun and we have to use it that way as is true medicine.


[00:26:24] We now talk about we’re going back to where we were from 2000 years ago with Hippocrates, that food is medicine.


Diane Berardi [00:26:31] Yeah.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:26:31] Now we have to actually spread the word that sunlight is medicine.


Diane Berardi [00:26:38] Oh my gosh, such a basic thing. I remember being a kid, we were always outside. You know, playing in the sun and I don’t remember… We didn’t put sunscreen on all the time.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:26:48] Well I can tell you that when I was a kid we didn’t have sunscreen. [laughing]
[00:26:52] And then I remember they came out with the first one which I think was like Coppertone Eight. You know number eight or something. You know now they have one hundred. Right? for sunscreen.


Diane Berardi [00:27:04] Right. I remember…


Felice Gersh, MD [00:27:06] Not one bit can get it.


Diane Berardi [00:27:07] Yeah. I remember my sister with baby oil. [laughing]


Felice Gersh, MD [00:27:13] Oh well you know what I’ll tell you…   When I was a kid, having a tan was considered like, like, “the thing.”


Diane Berardi [00:27:20] Yes. Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:27:21] Oh my gosh. If you had a tan you were “Somebody.” So I would go out in my backyard with a sun reflector. [laughing] Don’t ask. [laughing] I know.


[00:27:30] Do not do that! [laughing] You do not follow that habit. Yeah. Because I wanted to accelerate the process. I got a few really nasty burns, which I’ve lived to regret, but so that is not the way to do it. [laughing].


Diane Berardi [00:27:43] Right. Yeah. [laughing].


Felice Gersh, MD [00:27:45] There’s the right way, and there is no wrong way. [laughing]
[00:27:46] But now look at kids.


[00:27:48] They come home from school and they go on social media.


Diane Berardi [00:27:50] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:27:51] They’re in playing on their computers.


Diane Berardi [00:27:52] Yup. Exactly.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:27:53] So, all you parents out there who have their elderly parents. They may have grandkids or their own kids. Right? They need to get out in the sun. Kids are not out playing enough. You know the parents are so afraid of everything now and we have to let kids go out and play. When I was a kid. I would just go home and then my mom, you know no cell phones, she didn’t know where I was. [laughing]


Diane Berardi [00:28:13] Right.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:28:14] She didn’t like worry. She’d just say OK. Go out and play. Come home by dinner.


Diane Berardi [00:28:18] Right. And that’s what we did.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:28:19] And I’d go off on my bike. I know, it was a different world. And we would go and we would just play, and we play kickball in the street, and we just would you know just explore and be outside. And you know now, the incidence of autoimmune disease in kids is just astronomical, of course at all ages.


[00:28:39] And we know that there is a correlation as I said with the immune system and sunlight. And not getting enough sun can actually increase your risk of so many immune related problems, not just cancers, but autoimmune. Like we said, multiple sclerosis. That’s on the tip of the iceberg.


Diane Berardi [00:28:55] Yeah.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:28:55] So we need to just realize that it’s just part of who we are. If we took animals and stuck them in a dark cave for their whole lives we would think that was cruelty to animals. Let’s not do that to ourselves.


Diane Berardi [00:29:09] You’re right. Oh my gosh. Felice thank you so much.


Felice Gersh, MD [00:29:13] My pleasure.


Diane Berardi [00:29:13] And how can we reach you? How can our listeners reach you?


Felice Gersh, MD [00:29:18] Well I have a medical practice, a brick and mortar practice, in Irvine California. I do see people from all over the country and the world. And my Web site is IntegrativeMGI.com.


Diane Berardi [00:29:33] Thank you so much.


[00:29:34] And Parents Are Hard To Raise family… I love getting your e-mails and questions, so please keep sending them. You can reach me at Diane at Parents Are Hard To Raise dot org or just click the green button on our home page.


[00:29:45] Parents Are Hard To Raise is a CounterThink media production. The music used in this broadcast was managed by Cosmo Music, New York, New York. Our New York producer is Joshua Green. Our broadcast engineer is Well Gambino. And from our London studios, the melodic voice of our announcer, Miss Dolly D.


[00:30:01] We love our parents but they sure are hard to raise.


[00:30:06] Thank you so much for listening.


[00:30:07] Till next time… May you forget everything you don’t want to remember and remember everything you don’t want to forget.


[00:30:13] Now I want everyone to go out and sit in the sun. [laughing]
[00:30:17] See you again next week!


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