Before the lunches, the germs, and the schedules hit — this is the month to rebuild what summer wore down.

By the last week of July, I could usually tell which kids in my practice had a summer of cookouts, road trips, and ice cream at 9pm — not because anything was wrong with them, but because their guts were telling on them. Looser stools, more complaints of a "funny stomach," a little more irritability than usual. None of that is alarming. It's what happens when routine disappears for eight weeks. But August was always the month I started paying attention, because September doesn't wait for anyone to catch up.

In my years of practice, I came to think of the gut as the organ that absorbs the whole family's summer — the travel food, the irregular meals, the treats that felt harmless one at a time and added up. It's also the system most connected to mood, focus, and how well a child (or a parent) handles the stress of a new schedule. A gut that's still catching up from July doesn't handle a 6am alarm and a cafeteria lunch tray very gracefully.

This is why I think of August as a reset window, not a diet or a detox. It's the few weeks where you can rebuild before the demands of the school year start compounding — new teachers, shared classrooms full of new germs, homework stress, earlier bedtimes that never quite stick. Rebuilding the gut now is rebuilding the foundation everything else in September leans on.

I want to be clear about something, because I think it gets lost in a lot of back-to-school messaging: this isn't just a kids' project. Parents run on the same depleted gut all summer — different food, different sleep, more stress managing everyone else's schedule. If you're resetting your child's routine, it's worth resetting your own gut alongside them. In my experience, the families who do best in September are the ones where the adults didn't skip themselves.

None of this requires perfection. It requires attention — to what's been missing since June, and a plan to rebuild it deliberately rather than hoping it sorts itself out once school starts. Below are the areas I focus on with my own patients and family this time of year, physical steps that also support the mental and emotional load of the transition. That's the whole point of thinking in four dimensions — physical, mental, emotional, spiritual — instead of just one.

In good health,

I've spent a lot of Julys watching families pour outdoors — and watching the same families come home drained. Not from too much activity. From the particular kind of depletion that hot, active months bring. Brain fog on a 90-degree afternoon. That sluggish feeling after a long day in the sun. The mental static that settles in when the body's working harder than usual just to keep cool.

There's a connection here that doesn't get talked about enough: your brain, your cardiovascular system, and your body's inflammatory response are all one axis. When summer heat and activity put demand on that axis, mental sharpness is often the first thing to fade.

In my practice, I saw this pattern year after year — active families, healthy people, who'd come in during July and August describing a kind of mental haze they couldn't quite pin down. Not sick. Not depressed. Just… dulled. What I came to understand is that the brain and the cardiovascular system don't operate in separate compartments. When one is under strain, the other feels it. And inflammation — even low-grade, the kind you don't notice — can be the quiet middleman that slows both down.

That's why I chose this month's Community Plan the way I did. One product, thoughtfully formulated, that addresses all three pieces at once.

What I've learned over decades is that you don't need a drawer full of supplements to make a difference. Sometimes one well-chosen product — backed by solid ingredients and good research — is all it takes to give your brain and body what they need to meet a demanding season.

I hope this one serves you well this July.

In good health,

Seven everyday foundations to help your family stay strong, protected, and thriving through peak summer.

July is the month the sun means business. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we wait all year for these long, bright days — and when they arrive, families pour outdoors. Hikes, lakes, barbecues, camps, road trips. It's the season we dream about during the gray months.

But as a retired pediatrician, July also brings a question I've heard in exam rooms for decades: how do I keep my family healthy through all this sun and activity?

The answer I've come to trust isn't just about sunscreen and hydration — though those matter. It's about giving the body the raw materials it relies on to support and maintain itself from the inside. Your skin, your cardiovascular system, your stress response, your gut — they're all connected, and they all work harder in summer. Supporting those foundations is one of the most practical things a family can do.

July is also UV Safety Awareness Month, and that makes this the right time to think about protection from the inside out. Sunscreen handles the outside. The nutrients your body needs to stay resilient — antioxidants, omega-3s, skin-support botanicals, the minerals that keep you hydrated — those come from what you put in.

What I've come to believe after decades of practice — and parenting — is that real wellness isn't about perfection or doing all the things. It's about giving your body steady, reliable support, season by season, and trusting it to meet you halfway.

DeeDee and I often come back to the idea that wellness has four dimensions — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Supplements support the physical. The rest comes from showing up, being present, and loving the people in your life ferociously. That part, I suspect, summer already does for you.

Wishing you a healthy, sun-soaked, resilient July.

In good health,