This is according to the Journal of American Medical Association (July 21, 1999). The same issue also states that childhood cancer is up 35% from 1972 - 1999.
Children are more vulnerable to environmental illnesses than the general population, as their immune systems have not fully developed. They therefore have to be protected more. Present laws for air and water pollution and pesticide contents in our food do not take this into account.
There is also a virtual epidemic of children with attentive disorders, and thus are using various drugs to keep them quiet. Meanwhile the underlying problems go unnoticed. A lifetime of practice by pediatrician Dr. Doris Rapp, MD, has shown that allergies are sometimes the underlying problem. If your child has ADD or ADHD, I will urge you to look at Dr. Rapp's website and get her book "Is this your child?" and her video, where she shows that treatable allergies can be the cause of the child's wild mood swings and inattentiveness. The video shows several cases where they expose a child to allergens, and then see how the child's demeanor changes dramatically.
After reading this, and seeing the behavioral changes in the children on the video, one wonders how many juvenile delinquents are really "just" very sick from allergies?
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