3 New Year’s Resolutions to Transform Family Health: Call the Right Doctor First, Eliminate Toxins, and Reclaim Tech Time
Episode 66 — Experience Miracles Podcast | Host: Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP — Pediatric Chiropractor & Founder of PX Docs | Published: January 3, 2025 | Duration: 45 min
Key Takeaways
- Changing who you call first for your family’s healthcare — choosing a Neurologically-Focused Chiropractor over a conventional pediatrician as your primary provider — is the single highest-impact shift a family can make for long-term health.
- The conventional medical system is built around acute crisis intervention; it has no effective tools for chronic disease, root cause resolution, or nervous system regulation, which are the areas where most children’s health struggles actually live.
- Chemicals and toxins — including pesticides, seed oils, microplastics, and heavy metals — are a primary driver of chronic childhood illness. Eliminating them is not about perfection; it’s about progressively replacing toxic products and foods with natural alternatives.
- Technology is the “fourth T” in the pediatric health stress model (alongside traumas, toxins, and thoughts). The most effective strategy for reducing screen time is replacing it with scheduled, active, phone-free family activities — not simply restricting devices.
- Progress beats perfection. Families who make gradual, sustainable changes across these three areas build genuine resilience and adaptability in their children, rather than chasing an impossible standard.
What Are the 3 Most Impactful Health Resolutions Families Can Make?
The three resolutions that will most transform your family’s health are not typical wellness advice. They are structural shifts — changes to who you trust with your healthcare, what you allow into your home, and how your family spends its time. Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP, draws from 20 years of clinical practice and personal family experience to identify the changes that actually move the needle, rather than a long list that won’t survive past January.
The first and most significant resolution is changing the order in which you call on different types of healthcare providers. Most families have been conditioned to call a conventional pediatrician first — not because those doctors are experts in health and healing, but because the system is built to work that way. Shifting that first call to a Neurologically-Focused Chiropractor means getting an expert whose entire training is in the Autonomic Nervous System, root cause resolution, and natural, drug-free care — the exact areas where most chronic childhood health struggles originate.
The second and third resolutions address two of the most pervasive sources of stress on children’s nervous systems: environmental chemicals and digital technology. Both require the same underlying strategy — don’t just eliminate the harmful thing, actively replace it with something that builds health. When families understand why these resolutions matter and have a concrete plan for each, sustainable change becomes possible.
The Story Behind the List: What Dr. Elbert Taught a Young Dr. Tony [00:00:00 – 00:09:00]
Dr. Tony Ebel: As an undergraduate, I took a job in a chiropractic office. My first chiropractic mentor, Dr. Rick Elbert, had been in practice long before Pilates, yoga, cold plunges, or infrared saunas. Patients would constantly ask him the same question: “What else can I do to get better?” His answer never changed.
Dr. Elbert gave every patient three things. First: prioritize rest. We now know sleep is perhaps the most foundational thing this world needs. Second: just go walk. Not a gym program, not fancy equipment — just move. Walking is worth its weight in gold.
His third piece of advice was the one that always created a reaction. He told patients: unless it’s a true emergency, avoid your medical doctor and the medical system at all costs. The reasoning was direct — the more often you go there, the more medications you get. The more medications you get, the more side effects, the more health struggles, and the more dependent you become on their system.
That third piece of advice opened extraordinary conversations. Even back then, working as a chiropractic technician, I could identify which patients truly bought into this different paradigm — a fundamentally different way of thinking about health. That’s where these three resolutions come from.
Resolution #1: Change Who You Call First [00:09:00 – 00:27:00]
Dr. Tony Ebel: The number one thing you can do to radically transform your family’s health is to do an entire 180 with the priority order of which doctor you call first and trust most with your family’s healthcare.
The key word is first. There will absolutely be true medical emergencies in our family’s lives. Three years ago, my daughter Elena broke her foot sledding. We needed an x-ray and an MRI. That’s what urgent care and orthopedic medicine are for. True emergencies exist, and the medical system excels at acute crisis intervention. That’s their expertise.
But most situations aren’t emergencies. The reason most of us call the pediatrician first is not because we expect them to be experts in health and wellness. We’ve just been conditioned to. The system is built that way because the more often we need them, the more they can implement their paradigm — their fear, their anxiety, their medications.
“Once you truly understand how health, healing, and recovery work, you would want to save medications — antibiotics, corticosteroids, inhalers, over-the-counter and prescription medications — as a last resort. Why would we turn to a chemically created laboratory substance full of side effects as our first intervention?”
If your first call is into the conventional pediatric system, you’ll be met with fear. The medical system operates first on damage control. It’s built around how quickly they can give a diagnosis and how quickly they can give a medication. Conventional pediatricians have no training in Nervous System regulation, stress management, nutrition, or natural lifestyle. Even if you got one to have a long conversation with you, you won’t get much out of it — it’s simply not what they’re trained in.
We don’t eliminate medical doctors from our team. We don’t reject their necessity. I’m useless when it comes to sepsis, real infections, and serious trauma. But for rebuilding health, addressing chronic disease, or getting to root causes — they have no solution. No medication resolves root cause.
The final reason the conventional system makes a poor first call is the model itself. Have you noticed there are fewer and fewer small, independent family practices? Even orthopedists, PTs, OTs, and autism centers in our community are being bought up by massive corporate hospital enterprises. That doctor now works for a system with spreadsheets, stats, and business data behind it. That is the business of illness. If the conventional medical system were to promote actual natural health and address root causes, you wouldn’t need their products — and their products are their profits.
Why Nervous System-Focused Care Changes Everything [00:16:00 – 00:27:00]
Dr. Tony Ebel: When you make a different call — when you call your Neurologically-Focused Chiropractor first — you get an entirely holistic, whole-body nervous system approach.
The Autonomic Nervous System controls everything. The gut. The immune system. Social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive function. Brain fog — you clear it by improving the nervous system. Concentration and energy — you restore it by improving the nervous system. Sleep problems? Nervous system. Constipation despite 87 diet changes and supplements? Nervous system.
“You want a doctor to be the most trusted cornerstone of your team — the one whose expertise is the most expansive and the most detailed, and that taps into every other system. That would be a nervous system-focused, holistic approach.”
A Neurologically-Focused Chiropractor will evaluate for Subluxation, assess nervous system function directly, and provide care that promotes the body’s innate ability to regulate and heal. Beyond the adjustment itself, the best chiropractic offices are built around education, empowerment, and partnership. They take time to listen, they focus on root causes, and they work with you over time — not just in crisis.
We’ve also built something else inside PX Docs offices: community. A tribe of like-minded, holistic, root-cause, empowered families. We want to raise a generation of kids who know that God designed them to be healthy. Their genetics are not programmed for ADHD, anxiety, and asthma. They are programmed for a vibrant, resilient, adaptable life. That starts with philosophy and perspective — and with who you trust first.
Resolution #2: Eliminate Toxins and Chemicals [00:27:00 – 00:35:00]
Dr. Tony Ebel: Number two on this list is to eliminate ALL chemicals and toxins from your family’s life and lifestyle. I capitalized and bolded that word “all” for a reason.
I spent the last six weeks with my whole team — writers, podcast producers, providers, and CAs — building a comprehensive resource on this. Here’s the bottom line: kids and chemicals don’t mix. Chemicals are toxic and harmful to children’s nervous systems, immune systems, and guts. The little ones and the big ones. They’re everywhere.
Children should not have chemicals inhaled into their system — so we check household and airway exposures. Ingested — that means food and anything that enters the body. And yes, injected as well.
When you start learning about toxins — pesticides, plastics, microplastics, seed oils, heavy metals, flame retardants — it’s simultaneously exciting and exhausting. Exciting because it explains so much. No wonder we have so much ADHD, so much autism, so much asthma, allergies, and autoimmune issues. But it can also feel overwhelming, because once you open the hood, you learn one thing: they’re everywhere.
“Kids and chemicals don’t mix. You can really summarize the whole thing that way.”
We wrote a thorough, practical, step-by-step article on this at pxdocs.com. Search for “environmental toxins,” “toxic load theory,” or “The Perfect Storm.” We specifically connected it to the work of Documenting Hope and Beth Lambert’s toxic load theory research. This isn’t a list of things to feel bad about — it’s a practical plan you can implement one category at a time.
How our family approaches it: we slow down to speed up. We research where we eat, what products we use for soaps, cleaners, detergents, snacks, and what we cook with. We plan ahead so we’re not making reactive choices under time pressure.
The exciting part of this resolution is what replaces the toxins. Natural, wholesome, organic food — the way God designed it to be. Non-toxic cleaners. Simple ingredients you can actually pronounce. When you move away from harmful things, you have to replace them with something. What you replace them with is what builds health.
Resolution #3: Manage Technology — The Fourth T [00:35:00 – 00:42:00]
Dr. Tony Ebel: In chiropractic, we’ve always talked about The Three Ts — traumas, toxins, and thoughts. Physical trauma, chemical and toxic trauma, and emotional trauma. There is now a fourth T that is everywhere in our family’s lives.
The fourth T is technology — iPhones, Netflix, iPads, laptops. We’re all addicted to it. If we’re addicted to it, our kids are addicted to it.
It would be easy to say “unplug, reduce screen time” and leave it there. But I know how real family life works. I’m recording this after a full week of Christmas break with my kids. You can’t just say “turn it off” without answering the real question: what fills that void?
The strategy within the strategy is replacement. Our family has phones at 14, no social media until 16, and significant usage restrictions even then. But the biggest difference came not from restriction, but from scheduling active alternatives.
We go on walks — phones aren’t allowed. At dinner, phones aren’t allowed in the kitchen. At restaurants, phones aren’t at the table. On vacation, we fill the schedule with activities: bike rides, boat rides, escape rooms, volunteering at church, pickleball, volleyball, bowling. Two hours in an escape room is two hours without phones and two hours together.
“The real shift is when you reduce or eliminate the negative thing, you have an opportunity to replace it with something positive. That’s the lesson throughout this whole episode.”
If you want your family off devices, you need a schedule and you need activities. Sitting around without a plan doesn’t work — especially with teenagers. Being intentional about what fills that time is what makes this resolution sustainable.
Progress Over Perfection [00:42:00 – 00:45:00]
Dr. Tony Ebel: Take a deep breath. You are doing amazing. If you’ve made one change, that’s incredible. If you’ve made a thousand changes and feel like there are a thousand more to go, take it one step at a time.
One of the side effects of the natural health movement — which I am the biggest advocate of — is that it sometimes causes anxiety. We try to be so dialed in, so precise, that perfection starts to feel required. Perfection isn’t attainable. I promise you some meals on vacation will have questionable ingredients, and my kids will be fine. They’re resilient and adaptable because 80 to 90 percent of the time we’re dialed in. That 10 to 20 percent? We’ve got the flexibility. So does your family.
The original tagline of our practice was “building health from within.” Naturally. Innately. Tapping into the resources of health and wellness that God put in our kids and our families. Over time, it’s a process and a journey. The pursuit of more health doesn’t have to feel like judgment. Approach it with as much positivity and forward-looking attitude as possible — and you’ll not only get more from it, you’ll avoid the side effects of stress and anxiety while doing it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I stop calling the pediatrician first for my child’s health?
The conventional pediatric system is expert in acute crisis intervention — broken bones, severe infections, sepsis. For everything else, it has no tools for root cause resolution, nervous system regulation, or chronic disease reversal. Calling a Neurologically-Focused Chiropractor first means getting a doctor whose entire expertise is the Autonomic Nervous System — which controls the gut, immune system, sleep, focus, behavior, and more. The goal is not to eliminate medical doctors from your team, but to change who you call first.
What toxins should I focus on eliminating from my family’s life?
Dr. Tony Ebel identifies the major categories as pesticides, seed oils, microplastics, heavy metals, and flame retardants — found in food, household cleaners, personal care products, and the air inside your home. The practical approach is to tackle one category at a time: start with food, then cleaners, then personal care products. The detailed, step-by-step guide is available at pxdocs.com — search “environmental toxins” or “toxic load theory.”
How do I actually get my kids off their phones and devices?
The most effective strategy is active replacement, not just restriction. When your family unplugs, you need a scheduled activity to fill that time — walks, sports, escape rooms, volunteering, dinners where phones aren’t allowed at the table. Dr. Tony Ebel’s family uses a phone-at-14, no-social-media-until-16 policy, combined with consistent phone-free zones (dinner, restaurants, vacations). The restriction alone doesn’t work; the replacement activity is what makes it sustainable.
What is the “fourth T” in the Perfect Storm framework?
The Three Ts in Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care are traumas (physical), toxins (chemical), and thoughts (emotional stress). Dr. Tony Ebel identifies technology as the fourth T — a pervasive source of chronic nervous system dysregulation for both children and parents. Excessive screen time contributes to disrupted sleep, reduced physical activity, weakened family connection, and heightened Sympathetic Dominance in children’s nervous systems.
What happens to my child’s health if I reduce their toxin exposure?
Children’s Nervous Systems, immune systems, and guts are highly sensitive to chemical exposures from food, cleaners, and the environment. Reducing that toxic load removes a major driver of chronic conditions including ADHD, autism, asthma, allergies, and autoimmune issues — all of which Dr. Tony Ebel links to The Perfect Storm of compounding stressors on the developing nervous system. Replacing processed, chemical-laden foods with clean, organic alternatives actively supports nervous system regulation and healing.
How do I find a Neurologically-Focused Chiropractor for my child?
The PX Docs directory lists trained, certified Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care providers across the country. Use the search tool to find an office near you that specializes in pediatric nervous system care.
Find a PX Docs Office Near You — PX Docs Directory
Resources & Related Content
- The Perfect Storm — Root Cause of Childhood Chronic Illness — Dr. Tony Ebel’s core framework for understanding childhood health challenges
- Environmental Toxins & Toxic Load Theory — The in-depth, step-by-step article mentioned in this episode (search “environmental toxins” or “toxic load theory” at pxdocs.com)
- Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care for Children — Overview of the PX Docs clinical approach
- ADHD Resources for Parents — Condition page covering root causes and drug-free approaches
- Autism Resources for Parents — Condition page covering nervous system-based care
- Find a PX Docs Office Near You — PX Docs Directory
- Next Episode: Wound Up & Worn Out: Overcoming Adrenal Burnout in Families – PX Docs