Cause of childhood obesity, asthma, allergy, diabetes, and autism epidemic?
By speakeasy
@speakeasy (4171)
United States
February 14, 2010 3:08pm CST
We hear about it every day. It is on the television, in the news, and in our childrens classrooms.
There is an epidemic of childhood obesity and we need to reduce or eliminate junk food, soda, and cup cakes.
We need to be extra careful because so many children now have serious food allergies or asthma; so, no snacks containing peanuts, gluten, eggs, etc. and our homes must be spotless and have not pets because some child might have an asthma attack.
Type II diabetes used to be rare in children; but, now it is becoming common.
Autism (including Aspergers) is reaching epidemic proportions and more children are being diagnosed every day; but, no one is sure what the cause is.
And then, there are all the other problems that are becoming more and more common in children - ADD/ADHD, bipolar, OCD, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on and on; but, no one knows why we are having this huge increase in cases. Lots of theories; but, no answers.
Well, here is something that they have recently discovered that might give us a clue as to the cause. Newborn babies are being born who already have chemical contamination from HUNDREDS of different chemicals - many of which have already been proven harmful!
It is not a very big leap to think that perhaps the different chemical combinations and concentrations might be the cause of these children developing these medical conditions. Since the concentration and mixture of chemicals would vary from one baby to another, that would explain why one child has asthma and another child becomes autistic. It would also explain why children in the same family all develop the same disorder even without family history of the disorder.
Think I am making this up - here is a link you should check out - http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=2128
If we can figure out the cause of these problems we can start to find a way to treat children already affected AND we can work on ways to prevent these health problems from continuing to be epidemics in the future.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@carblover (51)
•
14 Feb 10
Junk food, aka processed with preservatives, is certainly linked to obesity, allergies, and diabetes. If not scientifically, we see in actuality every day when we see a morbidly obese child. Who knows the comprehensive effects of preservatives on the vulnerable growing body of a child? I remember newstories of young girls experiencing premature menstruation from consuming milk from hormone-injected cows. Are we going to wait until diabetes and obesity becomes an epidemic before we realize that the culprit is manufactured foods?
In reference to what you said about autism, it's still not determined if source of food is a contributing factor. It's posssible that genetics or heritage is more influential. It doesn't explain why boys are more likely to be diagnosed with autism.
1 person likes this
@drakesuyat (1063)
• Philippines
15 Feb 10
i think prevention all starts with good pregnancy. everything starts in the womb. they are what you feed them. we really cant avoid all these diseases around especially with the presence of junk foods but if they have a better immune system, everything can be perfectly handled inside us. those manufacturing plants have been contributing to every new disease that would come out as well. while they say that they only do business and for sure wouldn't mind health issues. there were no diseases like these before, and we dont have those much junk foods neither big manufacturing plants as well. look at how those old people stay healthy up to now.
@GardenGerty (169603)
• United States
14 Feb 10
Yes, you are right, we have many more chemicals in our lives and bodies than we used to. My kids were pretty healthy, I could not afford a lot of junk. My daughter still had some allergies to dust in the air, both household and as a result of the wheat harvest. Where it showed itself most was watery itchy eyes and some sinus problems. Like me, she is trying to do most of her cleaning with safer products, and when you have to watch your money, you buy healthier food instead of junk.Scary things that you find out about are things like some of the new trendy purses and bags are contaminated with lead. Mom carries them, absorbs the lead, kiddos hang on the purse or bag and put the hands in their mouth, lead contamination there. Lots of illnesses, behaviors, and syndromes are related to lead poisoning. It is ongoing. Interesting discussion.
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
15 Feb 10
Lead does still cause problems all around the world. Lead has been around a long time and is still used in a lot of different products.
But, we can test and do test for lead. Many of the chemicals that are showing up in our bodies and our childrens bodies did not even exist a generation or two ago. There are no common tests to see how much or even how many of these chemicals we have in our bodies.
We inhale them or absorb them though our skin or drink contaminated water (that is not being tested for this wide spectrum of chemicals) or eat plants and animals that had already absorbed them. And, since many of these chemicals were never meant for human consumption there has been no testing to find out how they may affect us.
@Hatley (163772)
• Garden Grove, California
14 Feb 10
hi speakeasy oh my thank you for the heads u p on this information.
this is so scary as I read down through it to find our newborn babies
cord blood shows traces of all these bad chemicals. now they must work'at getting them out of the air, the water and the food supplies,then work
at finding cures for what damage all that chemical crap has done to our
kids and probably to ourselves as well. your suppositions might soon be proven if they will just run a bunch of tests.then as you say we can work on preventing these health problems from becoming epidemics in the future days to come.
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
15 Feb 10
My son has a mild form of autism (Aspergers) and he was born one year after my husband and I moved away from an area where we had lived for 4 years that had several chemical plants. Neither my husband or I have any family history of autism; so, it is not genetic.
This makes me wonder if the contamination we got while we lived there caused my son's autism, the allergy problems I developed the third year we lived there (no family history of allergies), and my husbands type II diabetes (again no family history).
