An upcoming food addiction lecture in Pittsfield will help a local family in need of a service dog for their young daughter.
“What she suffers from is what’s called schizencephaly,” said Mary Ott.”It’s a brain cleft and she has that on one side of her brain. With that she has seizures, hemiparesis and she’s blind in her right eye.”
Mary Ott’s seven year-old daughter, Giana, or Gia, has been battling every day after being born with the brain disorder.
“They told us that she wasn’t going to possibly even walk, but she does that,” Ott said. “She’s doing great for the most part.”
Over the past two years, the Otts, who live in Pittsfield, have been raising money to buy and train a service dog for Gia. The family has less than $3,000 to go to meet their $13,000 goal. While Gia is in need of a helping paw, the family is receiving a helping hand from Mary Ott’s coworkers at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox.
“As soon as they found out that her condition is progressing the way it is, they volunteered to help in any way they could,” said Ott.
The Center’s founder, Dr. Mark Hyman, will present a lecture on food addiction in America and how it relates to the health of our nation.
“We will have a conversation and I’ll share some of the ideas that are really at the forefront of science,” Hyman said. “How do we change the way we eat to create health? How do we change what’s happening in our schools and in our workplaces?”
Hyman has studied functional medicine for more than 20 years and has written several New York Times bestselling books on how diet can relate to chronic disease. Hyman, who has become a friend and health aide to President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, says Americans’ sugar and flour consumption are leading factors in poor health.
“It’s driving epidemics of diabetes and what I call “diabesity” which is pre-diabetes to Type 2 diabetes,” he said. “In fact one in four teenagers has pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes and this something most of us have no idea about.”
Hyman and President Clinton will be featured in a documentary called Fed Up about childhood obesity and sugar addiction that comes out in May. To truly address the issue, Hyman says it’s going to take social realization and a change in how we think about food addiction and the obese.
“Instead of blaming the victim and saying it’s just about willpower, just eat less and exercise more which isn’t really working we have to understand that there is a biological addiction going on,” Hyman said. “The food that we’re eating is driving behavior that causes this epidemic and that makes us unable to use willpower to control it. So it’s really about the science of creating health and how we can use science, not willpower to fix the problem.”
All of the lecture’s proceeds will go toward buying a service dog for Gia from an organization called 4 Paws for Ability. Ott says her husband Richard has become a stay-at-home dad to take care of Gia.
“The biggest opportunity with the seizure dog is its going to give Giana a lot more independence,” Ott said. “She has a lot of her seizure activity at night so she has to constantly or most of the time be in our room. So it gives her the independence to be in her room at all times and to be able to go outside. She’ll be able to take showers without having to be supervised. The dog will be able to shut off the shower for her, alert us if she’s having a seizure and get things when she’s not able to.”
Ott says once the money is raised, it will take nine months to a year to train the dog. Then Gia, her parents and the family’s puppy Spot will travel to Ohio for 10 days to become acclimated with the service dog. Ott says the family will need to raise more money for the trip. Ott says Gia’s two older siblings, Anthony and Christina, look out for Gia in school, while the family’s youngest daughter Gabriella looks up to Gia as a role model.
“Giana is the strongest little girl I know,” she said. “She goes through so much. She goes through so many tests and she never complains. She just keeps saying ‘I can do this’ and she’s very strong-willed.”
The lecture is at 7 p.m. April 29th at Berkshire Community College.
Click here to for tickets or to learn more about the event.
Click here to learn more about Gia and the fundraising efforts.
