A Compromised Generation reveals how seemingly benign elements of American culture are making millions of children chronically ill, disabled, or dysfunctional. Children are being diagnosed with illnesses such as autism, asthma, allergies, and ADHD at a breathtaking rate. The etiology of autism continues to confound mainstream medicine, yet parents, medical researchers, and healthcare practitioners dedicated to unraveling the mystery are beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle into place. They have found that environmental factors that cause autism are the same ones causing epidemics of ADHD, juvenile diabetes, asthma, gastrointestinal disorders, and many other chronic illnesses. Although the specific pathophysiology of each individual child's illness varies, they all have the same basic underlying causes. It is a perfect storm of environmental factors including decades of pharmaceutical over-usage, toxic or nutritionally anemic diets, excessive exposure to environmental toxins, specific American habits and lifestyles, and excessive or improperly administered vaccines. A Compromised Generation provides details on how this epidemic can be reversed and how to prevent more children from becoming ill, supplying evidence that children can recover from chronic illnesses, including autism, by altering their environmental influences and by stepping outside of the traditional western medical paradigm.
Acknowledgements xi
Foreword xiii
Introduction 1
Healthy Kids, Sick Kids 2
Note from the Author 12
1 Sick Kids 13
The Alarming Statistics 13
The Economic Impact of Chronic Disease in Children 25
Is the Epidemic of Chronic Childhood Illness Real? 27
What Is Making Our Children Sick? 32
2 The Etiology of Chronic Illness in American Children 41
The Etiology of Chronic Childhood Illness 47
Root Causes: The Perfect Storm 49
The Pathway to Disease: From Physiological Dysfunction to Symptom Presentation 65
3 Why Our Children? Why Now? 113
America's Problem 113
The Environmental Factors Responsible for Chronic Illness in America's Children 118
4 Factor 1 - Medication Overusage 125
Pharmaceutical Nation 125
Antibiotics 126
NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) 131
Other Pharmaceutical Agents 134
The Pharmaceutical Industry Rises 136
5 Factor 2 - Environmental Toxins/Pollution 141
Canaries in a Silent Spring-The Impact of Environmental Toxins 141
A Different Kind of Pollution: Electropollution 150
6 Factor 3 - Diet and Nutrition 155
You Are What You Eat: Diet Matters 155
How Americans Eat Today 160
How Diet Contributes to Gut Dysbiosis and Immune Dysregulation 165
Toxins in Our Food 166
Soybeans and Other Genetically Modified Organisms 169
7 Factor 4 - Habits and Lifestyles 173
American Habits and Lifestyles 173
Birth and Infant Feeding 177
The Role of Stress 183
8 Factor 5 - Immunizations and the Immunocompromised 189
A Brief Overview of the Great Vaccine Debate 191
More than Just Mercury: Evidence Indicating that Vaccinations May Play a Role in Chronic Childhood Illnesses 208
Does the American Childhood Immunization Program Cause Chronic Illness? 215
The Connection Between Vaccination, Gut Dysbiosis, and Immune Dysregulation 219
Détente: Moving Away from Conspiracies and Toward Solutions 231
9 Healing the Children 239
The Recovered 240
10 What We Can Do to Reverse This Trend 259
A New Focus for Children's Health 259
How to Protect Our Children 261
Prepregnancy and Pregnancy Planning 262
How to Help Children with Chronic Illnesses Now 288
Conclusion 295
Notes 309
Index 345
About the Author 359
Overview
A Compromised Generation reveals how seemingly benign elements of American culture are making millions of children chronically ill, disabled, or dysfunctional. Children are being diagnosed with illnesses such as autism, asthma, allergies, and ADHD at a breathtaking rate. The etiology of autism continues to confound mainstream medicine, yet parents, medical researchers, and healthcare practitioners dedicated to unraveling the mystery are beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle into place. They have found that ...