Treating Children

It always surprises me when people ask whether I treat children. When it comes to health, children, for the most part, are just like us big people, only smaller. And some, like my son Julian, are seven-going-on-thirty. Julian has learned — on those RARE occasions when I get cranky — to suggest I go on my walk. And, when he gets cranky, to suggest dark chocolate might just be the answer. What he doesn’t yet realize is that both solutions elicit the same effect: increased serotonin, often referred to as our body chemistry’s “happy messenger.” So, it’s a tasty nibble for him and a two-mile ramble for me. Or sometimes a cocoa-y nosh for me, and twenty minutes of terrorizing the neighborhood for him. Either way, we’re both soon a lot easier to live with. Sometimes, Total Wellness means simple solutions to daily problems.

P.S. — If you do decide to try the chocolate solution, remember: 1) all things in moderation; 2) chocolate and bedtime are not good bedfellows; and 3) buy organic chocolate that’s at least 70% cacao.