Our adolescents are suffering.  Globally, suicide is the second leading cause of mortality in adolescents.  The rates of all mood disorders including depression and anxiety have skyrocketed since COVID.  Many factors account for this increase from changing social and environmental issues to declining physical health.  Treatment therefore requires a multi-factorial approach.  For practitioners, there are many underlying physical causes such as nutritional deficiencies that can be tested for and treated with integrative medical approaches.  Many natural treatments from herbs to targeted supplements can also help alleviate mood and physical symptoms along with supporting the body’s ability to tolerate stress.

Learning Objectives:
1.    Learn about the escalating mental health crisis with our adolescents.
2.    Understand how social, environmental, and physical causes combine to create the perfect storm for our adolescents deteriorating mental health.
3.    Understand contributing physiological causes of mood and behavioral issues such as infections, nutrient deficiencies, allergies and sensitivities, hormone imbalance, mitochondrial dysfunction, toxicity, etc.
4.    Learn what testing helps identify issues including standard blood lab evaluation to functional medicine testing including organic acid testing, specialized infection testing, genetic testing, allergies, and tests for toxins along with proper screening tools.
5.    Learn treatment options including both natural and traditional treatments including herbs, nutrients, anti-microbials, co-factors, and prescription combinations as needed.