The Art of Healing

When Screens, Sleep, and Soil Impact Children's Health: A Conversation with Dr. Jihan

• Charlyce Davis MD Reiki Practitioner

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Dr. Charlyce welcomes pediatrician Dr. Jihan to discuss how integrative and functional medicine approaches revolutionize pediatric care. Dr. Jihan shares her personal journey into holistic medicine, which began when her infant son's severe eczema led her to discover the powerful connection between gut health, nutrition, and overall wellness.
Dr. Jihan works with clients worldwide in her online practice where you can learn more here:

Dr. Jihan


• Dr. Jihan's personal experience with her son's severe food allergies sparked her interest in integrative medicine
• Modern children are nutrient-deprived, with widespread vitamin D deficiency contributing to depression, anxiety and emotional dysregulation
• Environmental factors like glyphosate exposure through water systems can cause mysterious symptoms in children
• Excessive screen time creates dopamine addiction cycles that severely impact children's behavior and emotional regulation
• Many ADHD diagnoses may be symptoms of poor sleep, nutritional deficiencies, or excessive screen usage
• Dr. Jihan prescribes outdoor time, structured routines, and mindfulness techniques before considering medications
• For aggression issues, she investigates potential mineral imbalances, parasites, and teaches emotion regulation skills
• Children who don't learn to regulate emotions young may struggle with employment and relationships as adults

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and check the show notes for Dr. Jihan's contact information at drjihan.com, where you can learn about her consultations, courses, and podcasts.


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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Art of Healing podcast. This is Dr Charlize, and thank you, as always, for joining me for today's episode. Before we get into the episode, if you are listening on your favorite podcast app or download, I would like to request that at the end of this podcast, if you enjoyed what you heard today, if you'll leave me a rating, you can also send me a message if you have a curiosity about a certain topic or you just wish to reach out to me and then also check your show notes for ways for us to keep in touch, especially with my contact information For today's episode. I am so excited to welcome a personal friend and what I think is a dynamic, innovative and amazing pediatrician, young physician who is definitely at the head of what's coming in medicine and holistic healing, and she definitely walks the walk as she talks. The talk, I think, is how I'm trying to see it.

Speaker 1:

I would like to introduce you to Dr Noor-Jeehan Abdul-Haq. She is a board certified pediatrician who is a native of Oklahoma. She attended Carl Albert High School and then the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, where she graduated top of her class. She went on to study at Spelman College, where she graduated magna laude and earned her bachelor's degree in biochemistry. She attended Morehouse School of Medicine and she has also done training all around the world, including in the Dominican Republic, as she completed her MD degree in 2008. She is the founder and owner of Peace of Mind Pediatrics, where she provides holistic healing to pediatric patients. She not only does one-to-one visits, but she also offers training in mindfulness, which she is offering in her various platforms. She has a podcast where she provides wonderful free education to her patients in her community, and she is a mother of three beautiful children. So I'm so excited that we'll have Dr Jihan on our podcast, because she's just a wealth of resources. She's going to talk to us about how she talks to her patients, about integrating. What we know in this community is to be functional medicine, mindfulness, integrative medicine with pediatrics, with our kids, and I feel like that is the most important place to do it, to set that foundation, to raise children mindfully and peacefully, especially during this time. So we don't always feel that way. All right, let's get started.

Speaker 1:

Hello, and thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the Art of Healing podcast. I have a very special guest and this woman's very busy, so to be able to have her on the show. I'm completely honored and I'm so happy she could carve out some time with us to share her wisdom. So, listeners, let me introduce Dr Jihan.

Speaker 1:

So Dr Jihan is, this woman's a renegade. She's an engineer, she is a mother, she is a practicing pediatrician. I believe she's superwoman. I don't know if she has a cape. I think she has like a bat signal that she shines because I don't know how she does everything she does. Has like a bat signal that she shines because I don't know how she does everything she does. So, dr Jihan, I'm so happy that she had time to be on with us and I really wanted to share her knowledge. She's full of knowledge about raising children, especially in today's times when the world is so tumultuous and, to me, doesn't look very kid friendly. So she shares a lot of this on her Instagram. She shares a lot of this with her community. So I'm so grateful, dr Jihan, that you could be with us today. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. I appreciate it so.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to share with our audience what inspired you to incorporate integrative and functional medicine into your practice, because you're already busy enough. So what got you going with wanting to go further and do more and provide more loving care for your patients? What inspired that?

Speaker 2:

I think I've always had an interest in integrative medicine. My father actually is a physician and worked the Indian health service system and so early on, like we did learn a little bit about like some Native American healing practices and things like that, and so I've always had an interest and so and we use a lot of natural remedies and things growing up. So it's always been in there. But my son my youngest he had severe food allergies even though I was breastfeeding. So at three months old his eczema was so bad he will call it eczema quite then but it was so bad that he would bleed or he would rub his face on people's shirts and they'd leave blood on them. And it's very embarrassing, right Walking around with this kid who's just has this horrible rash. And then I was finally able to find someone who would test him and found the foods he was sensitive to and that I removed those from my diet. So I was dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free and egg-free for almost two years and I was very sleep-deprived because it was hard to feed him because you know, and so he really did rely a lot on my breast milk and he didn't sleep very well because he was an itchy baby. And even after we figured out the foods, it took a while to try to get him just back to where he should be. So that's where I actually found an integrative medicine practitioner here locally and we started to do some gut healing and as we started to do that he wasn't as itchy, he started to sleep a little bit better and I was able to get a little bit of relief. But then I also realized how great I felt being gluten-free and dairy-free, and so it made me kind of start going down that road of why do I feel so much better? What's in our foods? What are you know? What's kind of going on?

Speaker 2:

And so I started to go to different summits and different things and just learning about integrative medicine and I didn't really have the time to do the full integrative medicine three-year fellowship or anything like that. And so I was fortunate to find there's an academy of pediatric integrated medicine. They offered a one-year fellowship, which is a brief it's a mini fellowship, right so you didn't leave with a full certification, but I took that and was able to learn a lot. And then I do a lot of psych work and a lot of my patients come from hospitals with tons of medicines and I just felt like we were kind of failing these kids because we were just giving them medicines and then they were developing other things and I just felt like we just aren't getting to the root of what the problem is. And so I started taking a lot of functional medicine courses on psychiatry. That's actually where I started to get into. Functional medicine was through psychiatry. It's just completely changed the way that I practice and in my approach to health and wellness.

Speaker 1:

I don't think I knew that part of your story about your son being affected. Breastfeeding is the way to go, but so your son ended up manifesting symptoms.

Speaker 2:

I'm like, oh my gosh, because it was affecting you and you know, I'll be honest with you, he wouldn't take a lick of formula no, I'm not going to act like I didn't try, because when I was like how can I do all of that, like, no, I'm not going to act like I didn't try because when I was like how can I do all of?

Speaker 1:

that Like, yeah, I'm going to eat.

Speaker 2:

I have some restrictions to my diet, just anyhow, you know, and so, but he wouldn't take. We tried everything, he wouldn't take any of it.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh. Okay, so you're with your because already you practice pediatrics and you see a lot of children and then, in your pursuit to help them get to the root cause, you started approaching it from the mental health aspect and I know that the mental health coaching is a part of your practice as mental health I mean well, because you are, you practice, you practice pretty much psychiatric care and pediatrics essentially, but you have that mental health coaching with the kids. Can you share some drops of wisdom, because you shared a lot with me, but some drops of wisdom with how you approach some of these kids.

Speaker 2:

Well, I try to, you know. So this is my online practice, drjihancom, and what I try to do with that is really approach each child individually, because I think that previously we would say, oh, you do this, so this is the treatment. So, for the coaching clients, those are people obviously not in my state, so I'm not able to do medications or give concrete medical advice, but rather recommendations. But when I work with these families, we're looking at the whole social environment, right, what's happening in the home, what's their sleep, how much exercise are they getting? What are they eating, and then giving recommendations just on that. Right, starting with that, and then we may end up needing some recommendations for labs that they may want to ask to get, and or supplements, because what I have found is that our children are nutrient deprived and it's because of what we're eating, so what you and I grew up eating is just very different.

Speaker 2:

So our children? They don't go outside, so they're all vitamin D deficient and that vitamin D deficiency is leading to increased depression and anxiety and other behavioral outbursts, emotional dysregulation, right Just off of that. Then many are also anemic because they're not eating those foods anymore. They're eating highly processed foods and they're not taking vitamins or anything to supplement that. So when you put anemia on it, you also get mood disorders and other things in that situation and also lack of focus. So some of these children they're like, oh, they got ADHD. I'm like, do they have ADHD? Or do they have poor sleep? They're vitamin D deficient, they're anemic, et cetera Some other things you know. Obviously I learned through my training or certain other deficiencies even lead to aggression. When you look at the copper zinc ratios, you know, and so.

Speaker 2:

I implemented some of those things. I'm realizing our children are exposed to toxins, right. So, depending on where you live, your water may have more of something than someone else, or you may eat something all the time that increases some of those toxic levels just because of the nature of how our food is produced and where we live especially in Oklahoma, there's a lot of farmland, different things. So some of my patients are exposed to glycophosphate regularly just because it's coming into their water system right From the farm and door. So even though you know the parents may try to do other things, they don't realize the child is directly affected, even playing in the outside in the yard. You mean well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I have wondered about that. Now you're saying the things I've been asking but I was afraid to ask about. Maybe it wasn't my business?

Speaker 2:

I don't know, but they come in with these weird rashes, increase other symptoms, chronic hives, things like that, these right yard if you can't roll around the yard. You know. I asked a lot of those questions, some of the parents who've made some of those changes. The child symptoms have gone away. Now could it just be coincidence? It might be, but I I don't know. I mean, if you spray toxins in a yard, I just don't see how they don't affect.

Speaker 1:

How it affects your beard. Chuck, oh my gosh. So for, because we and I practice with adults. So, of course, hearing your take on this is a pediatrician's gold to me, because I don't. This is not anything I get a luxury of, so with the, what I'm hearing is like increased rates of ADHD and depression and aggression. And so what I'm hearing and what I'm taught is that it just happens, it just happens. But you're saying that it doesn't just happen, that something changed. It's a change like in our food supply, something fundamental.

Speaker 2:

So that's definitely a role. Our food is definitely a role, but the other biggest thing is social media and computer usage and tablets. That's the biggest issue. When I talk, I literally detox. I use the term detox when I detox children from their devices and their dopamine surges. Right, because it's instant gratification and people have to understand that if all day long you're getting gratified, then of course you want to stay on that thing. It makes you feel really good. It's just like a kid who wants to eat candy all day. It's the same increase in our dopamine right.

Speaker 2:

If we detox off of it, you often will see a better child, a child who is able to regulate their emotions a little bit better. And I mean, I see so many people for evaluations for behavior problems and all I do is take away tablets. I tell people I make money off of tablets. So just taking away the tablets and the phones, so a detox, then it helps you regulate that a little bit better. You know we don't want to create, but you're like, but I was about to win, so like. We have a rule, like in my house, where it's like and I'm like, I think it's about time for you to get off, and they say okay, well, this game will end in two minutes. Can I have two more minutes? Yes, you may. Okay, when that's over, you're done. Even if you're going to the playoffs in NBA 2K, I don't care, you can go to the playoffs tomorrow, right? You have to learn that regulation, because the real life doesn't work like this.

Speaker 1:

So I don't have kids myself, but my nephew had come to stay with me when he's 13. When he came to our house, the first thing he asked me was for screen time limits. I scratched my head and I just generated a number. I was like ah, two hours, and so he followed it. So I poked around. Later he told me, and he told me that my time allotment was generous, so he assumed it was on vacation. That was a generous time allotment. I was like cool aunt score, no idea, and that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

I love that. Other people you know I encourage them to do this all the time. Right, and we just didn't have these things growing up. We did not Like. I shared today with a child she's 15 and she was like oh, I cannot sleep. What time do you get off your phone, can you imagine at 15, and she was like oh, I cannot sleep.

Speaker 1:

What time do you get off your phone? Can you imagine, at 15, at that age, in that stage of hormonal development, your body is demanding sleep. You must sleep, yes, and she can't sleep. Oh, what is that? I can't even because you know it's well. Of course, you know better than me, but you know the brain's developing no-transcript.

Speaker 2:

I don't think people really got. They really haven't gotten back and I actually see a lot of families now homeschool, which is fine. I was homeschooled, but when I tell you, we were outside every day, we had all the activities you know, know so, but now they're like in the house all day.

Speaker 1:

They might go outside three days a week yeah, so imagine so, so at the home, and I'm not so with homeschooling, because they're they're doing all their education at home. But from what you're saying, that we're going to lose that socialization part because we're not in a school setting, and then we're OK, and then we're running Some of them do co-ops right, oh, ok, then you'll get that socialization.

Speaker 2:

But I keep seeing families that don't.

Speaker 1:

They only just stay at home, Only stay at home, so we're losing the socializing and then the going outside. So you have to be very mindful. Sounds like very, very purposeful about getting around that.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and so for my clients and patients, I prescribe exercise and I prescribe time outdoors, and I, you know those are things that are part of your prescription. So what time are you going to go outside Time are you going? You know we're going to break these things down, so that's not just a oh, she said, to go outside. No, no, no. What time each day are you going? You know we're gonna break these things down, so that's not just oh, she said, to go outside. No, no, no. What time each day are you going to go outside?

Speaker 2:

and what are you going to do outside? Do you have a dog? Do you want to jump rope? I mean whatever? Like being very intentional, and so for, like, homeschool families, I have them put it into their daily schedule. So, whatever their class need, to put that into their schedule as well. Okay, okay, oh, that's smart Okay.

Speaker 1:

So you have your practice and then you have your coaching practice. You touch on some of this, but what are the strategies that you are employing with your children, with your patients or clients, especially pertaining to aggression and anger, that you are employing with your children, with your patients or clients, especially pertaining to aggression and anger, because you mentioned that to me a few weeks ago about the anger component and it was mind-blowing. So do you mind sharing some more with that, because especially anger is such an uncomfortable emotion. And then with kids, and then, to be frank, if the children are of color, it's getting dangerous. So can you share with us some about like that approach, approaching aggression and anger, because you had shared me some deep wisdom about what that could mean in a kid.

Speaker 2:

Right. So I like to see what the root cause may be, and for some children I kind of alluded to it a little bit before it's an imbalance of minerals and things like that Funny story they used to put lithium in our 7-Up back in the day. I know that.

Speaker 1:

To calm us. How recently was that Sorry?

Speaker 2:

I think they took it out in the 80s. I believe I think they took it out in the 80s. I believe I think they took it out in the 80s. I want to I need to double check that, but it's very interesting to learn and so there are people like doing research on that. But it was. It was used to kind of calm us down, so funny, like what other things might have been around. But I think that when you kind of can look at what is triggering the anger, what might be triggering the aggression, and like, for instance, yesterday I had a little girl she is the cutest little girl and she's real petite and small Right, and she will destroy her whole classroom. She's only six. She'll destroy the whole classroom and I'm like when you look at it you're like there's no way she could do that. And then they show me the video.

Speaker 1:

And I'm like, oh, this is like anger episodes that this is happening, or Okay.

Speaker 2:

And what part of what triggers it is not getting her way. So of course, we're working very hard with the family to also not always give her her way, right, because we have to put that restriction in everywhere she is so that she doesn't flip out because the school can't give you your way, right. So that's one of the things that we've been working on. But the other thing is just respect for adults, right? Some of these kids want to test them because they may see somebody else do it, or it's their only opportunity because they watched it on a YouTube video. They pranking people, all kinds of stuff, right? These kids love pranking people because they love watching these prank videos.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's horrible.

Speaker 2:

Didn't know this, okay, oh yeah, and they often end poorly. And so you know little things like that. But also, how, I mean, are you getting sleep? Because you can't regulate your emotions when you don't sleep well, when you're tired and cranky, right. And then we're also focusing on what can you do before you react, you know. So that's where deep breathing comes in mindfulness, other things that we're adding into the picture, even little kids, teaching them little breath, things that they can do or ways that they can, you know, help, you know, stimulate that vagus nerve, other things to help, hopefully, calm themselves. And so those are some of the things that we talk.

Speaker 2:

I talk to parents a lot about. I also use supplements. I try to use supplements. First. I use some Chinese herbs, different things.

Speaker 2:

Very rarely do I actually have to use medications. I may have two, maybe, who have to use medications right now, which is very minimal considering the number of children I have who have really bad anger issues. But I've even done detoxes on some of these kids. Not everybody needs a detox, but some children do or a parasitic cleanse I know that sounds so weird, right, I was always like parasite.

Speaker 2:

What are y'all talking about? Until all these kids started acting a fool at the new moon and I was like Just tell me, yeah, right. And then when I just did some basic labs to see if they're anemic, their eosinophils are high I'm like, okay, maybe there is something to this, right. So one of my patients I saw him actually this week. He's so much better after we've done that parasitic cleanse. But I don't recommend people just doing these things because you can cause harm, especially to children. You have to be under the guidance of somebody who knows what they're doing, because every time you remove something it's also taking good stuff too. So you have to know how to replenish, how to do all these things, and not just you know whatever you saw on TikTok and just buy it. Kids are not little adults.

Speaker 1:

Speaking of the guidance we've got folks that are part of the community from all over the world. Do you want to share with us about your website, drjihancom, and if you are accepting clients and what kind of resources are available to work with you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I am accepting a few clients right now in terms of resources. I actually do integrative medicine for other things too. I love doing it for asthma, food allergies obviously because that was my son gut health issues, autism, different things, and so I do a lot of mental health, but I also do a lot of work with those things, and so they can just put in a request on my website for consultations, et cetera. I do charge for consultations because all of my time is very valuable, but they're very reasonably priced. Some people say too low, and then people can purchase sessions with me where we really just kind of get to the root.

Speaker 2:

For my online clients, I have a very long list of information that I obtained from them so that I can better understand, even from birth, what has happened with this child, so that I can better make a plan and help them to be able to, you know, ask their practitioner for more advice and or, you know, use some of the recommendations that might be there. So we try to go back to where we used to be. So we try to go back to where we used to be, and the reality is that people have been healing themselves and societies for centuries, and medications often are important and needed, but they're not typically the first line that we need to use and there are so many other things that we can try first before we necessarily have to go to those things.

Speaker 1:

And and I'll say for my son people are amazed when they see him, because he doesn't even have eczema. Yeah yeah, I figured you totally resolved it once you did, because that was a lot while you're breastfeeding.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but I mean then the gut, when we healed his gut. Now sometimes he still has some gut issues, but it's because he'll he'll sneak some stuff that I'm like I think you're still sensitive to, probably with his friends, exactly, and so then we have to kind of go back right. But when we do that, then he does much better. But, just like with any parents, it's hard to convince your kids to get on board, and we don't want to force them because sometimes they won't do anything, and so we have to be strategic in that approach. And so I actually will soon be working with a functional medicine coach who is trained to better help ease people into these plans and follow up with them to make sure that they're doing what they need to do, because sometimes, you know, I have a lot of time. Like what?

Speaker 1:

So for the listeners in your show notes, I will make sure to send you Dr Jihan's contact as far as her website. What is the best way to learn more about you just so they hear it while they're listening to the podcast and the best way to reach you and to learn about your courses, blog and podcast?

Speaker 2:

So all of that's on drjihancom actually. So the podcast is there, the inquiries, a lot about me, and I have a video actually explaining what made me want to get into integrative medicine and kind of how I approach patients. I'm on Instagram as Dr Jihan underscore MD muscle on Facebook, dr Jihan. I'm on TikTok too. I don't even know my handle, I think it's just Dr Jihan.

Speaker 1:

I think it's Dr Jihan, because I watch your TikToks too.

Speaker 2:

Dr Jihan, I try to respond, you know, but I don't spend a ton of time on it. But the goal is just to try to hopefully share more information, debunk myths and things and just kind of, you know, make sure people understand that. You know, if we take the time out to make children healthier, then we will see a different trajectory of their lives Right. Then we will see a different trajectory of their lives right, Not just their physical health, their mental health, their future careers, their opportunities to be employed. Because I use this analogy If you don't learn how to regulate your emotions when you're young or a teenager, what happens when you get your first job and your boss tells you to go do something that you don't want to do? Not going to end well, and that's what, unfortunately, what I'm seeing in my young adult patients, because I see up to 21 in my practice and so many of them are not employed or go from job to job to job to job because they haven't learned that.

Speaker 1:

So now we're actually working on learning these skills as a young adult, so it was just such a pleasure to have you and your wisdom on. You know, when I'm creating this podcast, one of my goals was to share as much of what I can't offer, and you brought just a huge a ton of information concerning the most important part of us, which is our children. So I'm I'm so grateful from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for being a guest on the podcast. Thank you so much. Listeners, when you check your show notes, I will make sure that you have every way to find Dr Jihan and if you are in a place where you cannot get to your show notes, if you sign up for my email list, I will be emailing out all of her details her contact information. She has courses you can enroll in and how to learn to work with her if you're not locally. Thank you so much, dr.

Speaker 1:

Jihan Thank you so much, dr Jihan. Thank you so much, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

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Dr. Charlyce

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