Study shows the average child is now chronically ill - here's what you can do about it

Thursday, February 14, 2013 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

http://www.naturalnews.com/039093_children_chronic_illness_health_improvement.html

(NaturalNews) Advocates of conventional medicine often try to claim that pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines, and other modern "health" interventions are responsible for extending the average lifespan and improving overall quality of life. But a 2011 study published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics tells a much different story, revealing that today's children are becoming progressively sicker with more than half now stricken with some type of chronic illness.

The study's original aim was to assess the overall health of American children by comparing disease rates to factors like access to healthcare, race and ethnicity, state of residence, and special needs status. But in the process, researchers unintentionally exposed a shocking reality that has received little, if any, mainstream attention -- roughly half of the youth population aged 17 and younger suffers from at least one of the 20 most common chronic health conditions.

"Overall, the study reported that 43 percent of children suffer from at least one of the 20 conditions considered -- when obesity and developmental delays are not included," wrote Heidi Stevenson for Gaia Health about the revelation. Such conditions include developmental delays, allergies, learning disabilities, asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), ear infections, migraine headaches, speech problems, digestive disorders, depression, autism, and diabetes.

But when obesity or being overweight are also accounted for, this percentage jumps by more than 10 percent to 54.1 percent, illustrating a serious and ever-worsening health epidemic in America. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of obese children between the ages of six and 11 has more than tripled since 1980. Rates of asthma, food allergies, learning disabilities, autism, and many other health conditions have also risen dramatically among the younger population over the past three decades.

You can read the actual study here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21570014

Tips for raising healthy, disease-free children

A food supply that has become progressively more tainted by genetically modified organisms (GMOs), chemical toxins, and heavy metals is one possible explanation for this rise in disease rates. But another major elephant in the room is the always-evolving vaccine schedule, which has ballooned from just a handful of vaccines for only the most serious infectious diseases in the 1980s, to upwards of 30 vaccines for all sorts of health conditions today. And this increase in vaccinations directly correlates with a rise in chronic illness during the same time, which raises some valid questions about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

So if you are a parent concerned about the health of your own children, it is important to carefully evaluate each vaccine recommended by your doctor and make up your own mind about its safety and effectiveness. You can also feed your children non-GMO, organic foods only, and give them plenty of clean, fluoride-free water for maximum health. This, combined with encouraging your children to play outside more and get plenty of exercise and vitamin D from natural sunlight, is among the simplest and most effective protocols for ensuring that they grow up healthy and disease-free.

Other recommendations include supplementing your children's diets with "superfoods" like spirulina, extra-virgin coconut oil, and high-quality fish oil. These and many other nutrient-dense foods will help naturally boost your children's immune systems so they will be far less prone to chronic illness. You can also teach your children effective body-cleansing principles like raw juicing, for instance, or using an infrared sauna to sweat out the toxins. The younger you start, the better your chances of instilling life-long dietary and lifestyle habits in your children that promote health rather than destroy it.

Sources for this article include:

http://gaia-health.com

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm

http://www.cdc.gov

http://www.naturalnews.com/030481_superfoods_nutrition.html

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