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Healing the Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America’s Children
Today at least 1 in 2 American children has a diagnosed chronic health condition. The statistics are frightening. Asthma affects 1 in 8 kids; 1 in 3 children are obese or overweight; ADHD impacts at least 1 in 10 school children; autism spectrum disorders now affect 1 in 40 children. We have seen an exponential increase in sickness over previous generations when most children were generally healthy, and chronic illness was concentrated in adults. This epidemic of childhood illness is taking place as we head into an unprecedented crisis of planetary degradation: global warming, polluted air, undrinkable water. With no sign of abating, these trends portend a bleak future for our kids. About 10 years ago I began hearing about families whose children had serious chronic health conditions. Often multiple generations of the family were sick. They told me that after making drastic changes in their lifestyles, everyone’s health improved. Following are some of the remarkable stories I heard:
I yearned to learn more. Would it be possible to document a family’s changes from sickness to health? Is it realistic to think that apraxia or autism could disappear? The more I researched, the more I learned that not only was healing possible, it was happening all over the country. Yet no one seemed to be talking about this kind of healing in a meaningful way. In 2012, I co-founded Epidemic Answers, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to reestablishing vibrant health in our children. Two years later, the Documenting Hope Project, a special research project of Epidemic Answers was born. My goal was to demonstrate scientifically that healing could happen, and to document this experience on film. I assembled a team of top physicians, scientists, children’s health advocates and natural health experts to design a series of research studies that could clearly demonstrate how daily lifestyle choices have a direct impact upon health. The Documenting Hope Project aims to use science and media to revolutionize how parents, physicians, and policy makers think about children’s health as well as the health of our planet. The central focus of the Documenting Hope Project is two groundbreaking scientific studies:
While we have a vast body of anecdotal evidence indicating that individuals with chronic conditions can fully recover, no prospective research documents this possibility. The idea that childhood illnesses like autism, asthma, ADHD and autoimmune diseases are life sentences has actually never been proven or rigorously tested. It is just a belief system held in conventional medical circles and perpetuated in the media. This perception, exacerbated by a prevailing belief in genetic determinism has allowed medicine to slide into complacency where large numbers of sick children are just accepted as the “new normal.” This prevents us from giving our children the kind of care that can restore their health and full functioning. The Documenting Hope Project intends not only to question the prevailing belief system about health but to demonstrate how it is flawed. We will be filming the participants in the longitudinal study so that the stories of their recovery from chronic illness can be broadcast far and wide, inspiring others to take charge of their children’s health. Our relationship to the environment does have a direct and immediate impact on our health. Our sick children are trying to wake us up to this inconvenient truth. As modern industrial nations are being consumed by a tsunami of chronically ill children, it is an economic necessity, a moral imperative and our ethical responsibility to find a way out of this situation. I believe we can stop the escalating epidemics of chronic childhood illness and redefine the human relationship with the planet by clearly and scientifically demonstrating that human health is directly correlated with the conditions of our surroundings. By proving that serious chronic illnesses can be reversed by optimizing the things that interact with our bodies on a daily basis, we have the opportunity to profoundly impact the future of our children and life on this planet.
Beth Lambert is the author of A Compromised Generation – The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America’s Children and the founder and Executive Director of Epidemic Answers, a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to reestablishing vibrant health in our children. She is the creator and Executive Producer of The Documenting Hope Project, a multi-year prospective research study and media project that examines the cumulative impact of environmental stressors on health and their mitigation through personalized and systems-based treatment approaches. To learn more please visit: documentinghope.com, epidemicanswers.org. |
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