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Canaries in the Coal Mine


Recently, I started a course on advancing my knowledge in Pediatric health. An expression I learned that particularly caught my attention referred to children today as the "canaries in the coal mine". I took a moment to breath that one in and realized how true this is.


Scientific data has time and time again proven that diet and environmental exposures are the PRIMARY causes to the chronic health problems that our children (and us) are experiencing today. These statistics I have read so many times but I'll share them with you in case you haven't read these just to get my point across. Mind you, these statistics are specific to the US but I really don't see them being much different here in Canada. The reality is that the stats are unbelievably high!

  • Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease affecting children which has increased from 3.6% to 9.4% between 1980 to 2008. Asthma is clearly an immune and inflammatory problem.

  • Allergies has increased by 18% between 1997 to 2007 in children under the age of 18 years old. Again, allergies are an immune and inflammatory condition.

  • Cancer is sadly the leading cause of death among children in the US between birth - 15 years old. There are actually 10,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed yearly in this age group. This too is due to immune and inflammatory problems as well as environmental toxins.

  • 1 in 3 children are overweight or obese. Obesity rates have doubled among children between ages 6 - 11 years old and has MORE than tripled among children between 12 - 19 years old. Part of obesity is strongly related to inflammation, toxins and nutrition.

  • Until about 15 years ago, did you know that type 2 diabetes was actually considered only an adult disease? In 2014-2015 alone, according to the American Diabetes Association, there were 18,200 cases of type 1 diabetes which is an autoimmune condition and 5,800 with type 2 diabetes in children under the age of 18 diagnosed! These are autoimmune, immune, and inflammatory conditions that can be tied to our diet, environment and our lifestyles.

  • Mental health problems in children are at an all time high! SURPRISE! This too is also strongly connected to inflammation as well as toxins and nutrition. 1 in 10 children between ages 5 - 16, are suffering from some type of diagnosed mental health disorder whether this be anxiety, depression, ADHD, etc. Mental health conditions are frequently over-diagnosed but reality is there are a lot of children who struggle with undiagnosed anxiety, depression and have a hard time dealing with life in general.

  • According to Autism Speaks, 1 in 54 children are on the Autism spectrum.

  • Now lets talk about girl's for a moment - Early puberty is becoming scary common! This issue is strongly related to the immune system and environmental exposures to toxins and environmental endocrine disruptors (these are things that mimic girl's estrogen). Early puberty increases a girl's susceptibility to immunological issues. Here is a great breakdown of examples of endocrine disruptors for your knowledge: https://www.ewg.org/research/dirty-dozen-list-endocrine-disruptors

  • Not to mention on top of all of these things: it also is becoming the 'norm' for children to have 8 - 10 colds per year, up to 20 rounds of antibiotics by age 18, common conditions such as eczema is almost thought of as a normal part of childhood (which it is not), and lastly autoimmune conditions that used to be rare such as type 1 Diabetes and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis are well on the rise!

So giving you all these statistics and numbers and saying that our children are like 'canaries in the coal mine' is an expression that Aviva Romm felt fit perfectly and I would agree. Our children are becoming more susceptible to health problems due to their diet, environmental toxins, or medications than even us adults are! In a way, our children are the ones showing signs and symptoms really early. I think this is something we really need to pay attention to, not just for future generations but for our planet and our own health!


-K


Resources:

Aviva Romm - Rx for Super-Charged Immunity


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