Defending Kids Against Disease:
The ABCs of Defense
by Brian Gill

As a parent, you sometimes feel like you are preparing your child for battle when you send him or her off to school each morning. Germs, greasy school lunches, gym class, and English and Math are but a few of the obstacles that face your child each day. As a health-conscious parent, you're concerned about your child's well-being and performance at school. You can play an active role in protecting and nurturing your son or daughter at school without showing up there yourself. Nature's Sunshine offers key products to help boost your child's lines of defense.

Protect and Populate with the Friendly Probiotic, L. Reuteri
The common cold is responsible for an estimated 38 million lost school days a year. In fact, most children have up to eight colds a year, so chances are that your child can be exposed to a lot of germs at school. Many factors, including a poor diet, can affect the amount of friendly flora in your child's intestinal system. These flora are essential to good health, digestion, nutrient absorption and immune strength.

Lactobacillus reuteri is a particularly hardy strain that helps to strengthen the body's natural defenses and maintain equilibrium in the gastrointestinal tract as it populates friendly flora in the gut. In the presence of these friendly microbes, intestinal defenses are strengthened and bodies are fortified for optimal health. L. Reuteri is "mom's choice" among probiotics because it does not require refrigeration and is easy for kids to take anytime, anywhere. L. Reuteri is suitable for children of all ages.

Tip: Proper and frequent hand washing is a great way to protect against germs.

Charge Junior's Nutritional Supply with Chewable Multivitamins
Despite a nationwide plea from parents for more nutritious school lunches, school cafeteria food or take-out from the nearby fast food joint still leaves a lot to be desired&literally! Our kids may not know it, and probably would never admit it, but their bodies crave proper nutrition. Vitamins, minerals and other nutrients feed individual cells. Without proper nutrition, kids simply cannot function and perform at optimal levels.

Herbasaurs Chewable Vitamins and Minerals provides important vitamin and mineral nourishment to meet the needs of your growing child. Not only do Herbasaurs Children's Chewables taste good, they also contain 12 essential vitamins and seven essential minerals, including iron, that children use to grow strong, healthy bodies. They contain no sucrose, starch, preservatives, artificial colors or artificial flavors.

Help Your Child Hit the Books with Focus Attention
The ability to focus on the subject at hand is crucial to your child's academic success. A perfect complement to a healthful diet and proper vitamin and mineral supplementation, Focus Attention provides nutrients (like Ginkgo biloba and DMAE) that are essential for maintaining brain-stimulation levels while supporting blood circulation and neurotransmitters in the brain. This special formulation also helps protect the body from exposure to environmental toxins or stressors. Focus Attention encourages restful, balanced mental activity, and it's available in capsules and a great-tasting powder drink mix.

Build Strong Bones for the Playground with Liquid Calcium
Whether in gym class or recess, your child can benefit greatly from regular exercise and activity. You can help ensure that he or she has strong bones and bone tissue for play. Contrary to popular belief, bones are not solid. They are porous and dependent upon proper nutrition and the availability of certain vitamins and minerals to remain strong. Furthermore, the body must be able to absorb those nutrients in order to use them to build strong bones. Proper attention to bone health is especially important in children and teens, as they experience their major growth in these formative years.

Easily absorbed Liquid Calcium from Nature's Sunshine helps support bone health and replenish minerals and nutrients the body needs, like calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, zinc and manganese. Liquid Calcium is specially formulated with liposomes to increase the minerals' bioavailability. In addition to supporting bone health and the structural integrity of bone tissues, Liquid Calcium also helps to maintain balanced pH levels in the body. Calcium, a naturally alkaline substance, helps to offset the primarily acid-forming foods, meats, cheese and sugar, ever present in our kids' diets. Great-tasting Nature's Sunshine Liquid Calcium is a great choice for your child.