The Documenting Hope Project: Grassroots Initiative Tackles New Childhood Epidemics by Beth Lambert One of the greatest paradoxes of our times is that the most affluent, resourced and medically advanced societies in the world also have the highest rates of chronic childhood illness. Obesity and diabetes, autism and neurodevelopmental delays, and digestive and allergic diseases were rare just a generation ago. Today those illnesses are impacting our children in epidemic numbers, and the social, economic and human costs are staggering. Our children are the “canaries in the coal mine” of national health. For their sakes, we must take action now. “The Fierce Urgency of Now” Some startling statistics: Rates of autism have risen over the last few decades from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 50 children. Autism costs the United States $126 billion per year. Asthma affects 1 in 8 children, and as many as 1 in 6 African American children. Asthma costs the United States $56 billion per…
asthma
Our Favorite Recovery Books
You can purchase items from Amazon Smile and designate us as your beneficiary – we’ll get 0.5% of all purchases. We’d love to be your charity of choice! If you feel inspired to give outright, you can make a tax-deductible donation here. To make it easy for you, we thought we’d share our favorite books about health and healing: “Is This Your Child: Discovering and Treating Unrecognized Allergies in Children and Adults” by Doris Rapp, M.D. “Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders” by Kenneth Bock and Cameron Strauth “A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America’s Children” by Beth Lambert and Victoria Kobliner “Outsmarting Autism: The Ultimate Guide to Management, Healing and Prevention” by Patricia S. Lemer “Almost Autism: Recovering Children from Sensory Processing Disorder, A Reference for Parents and Practitioners” by Maria Rickert Hong, CHHC, AADP “Envisioning a Bright Future: Interventions That Work for Children and Adults…
Change: Notice It, Adapt to It, Anticipate It, Go with It!
By Patricia S. Lemer, M.S. Bus., NCC Everything changes: winter to spring, summer to fall, youth to adolescence, health to illness. We expect, accept and adapt naturally to the irreversible cycles of the seasons and to aging. Changes from health to illness and illness to health are not so predictable and irreversible. We can benefit from fine-tuning our responses to these changes. How people deal with change is the basis for a profound, little book, “Who Moved My Cheese?”, given to me by my dear friend Diana Henry, OTR. Cheese, a metaphor for what we want in life, is elusive. As I read the book, I saw how its wisdom can help us attain our “cheese” — good health and function for our kids. Change Happens; Notice It Health changes appear first in those subtle differences in skin, digestion and behavior. Do those little bumps persist? Is elimination less regular? Are sleep patterns disturbed? In many children these early warning…
Vision Therapy for Neurodevelopmental Disorders
by Maria Rickert Hong, Certified Holistic Health Counselor, AADP I am fortunate to have Dr. Randy Schulman, MS, OD, FCOVD, as my sons’ behavioral optometrist. Dr. Schulman wrote the chapters on the role of vision therapy and optometry in Patty Lemer’s book, “Envisioning a Bright Future: Interventions that Work for Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders“, which I reviewed earlier. Patty was the one who recommended Dr. Schulman to me, and she practices in my area. Patty has always talked about the importance of vision therapy for people with autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder (SPD), learning disabilities and other neurological disorders. Now I know why. In fact, Patty’s book was published by the Optometric Extension Program Foundation, which should give you a clue as to the importance of vision in neurodevelopmental disorders. Vision Problems a Cause of Many ASD Symptoms I was astounded to learn that vision problems are a CAUSE of, not a by-product of, many ASD symptoms. …
Announcing the Documenting Hope Project
14 children, 18 months, 1 goal: RECOVERY The Documenting Hope Project is a documentary brought to you by Epidemic Answers. In this film, we will be documenting the potential recovery of 14 children from autism, ADHD, asthma, atopic dermatitis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, mood disorders and type 2 diabetes as they work with integrative health practitioners for 18 months. These children will be receiving free medical services, healthy food and supplements during the duration of the project. The Documenting Hope Project was born of one simple gutsy observation: In spite of what most parents are told, many of these children can get better. We have the tools. And by demonstrating how they get better and how to protect their health we have the opportunity to create a better, safer, healthier and more sustainable future . . . for all of us. Our “big idea” is to create a successful, grassroots, crowd-sourced model for improved health outcomes for children affected by chronic…
Light, Water, and Air Quality: Improve Their Balance to Enhance Health
By Patricia S. Lemer, MS.Bus., NCC, Chairman of the Board, Epidemic Answers Some simple improvements can help those with allergies, asthma and developmental problems: light, water and air. When these are in balance, life flourishes; when balance is upset, so is development. Since ancient times, Eastern philosophy has viewed the healer as a gardener who facilitates nature in making the body days grow. This holistic approach is in marked contrast to that of western doctors who view the body as a machine and themselves as chemists and engineers who replace or repair faulty components. Just as a plant depends on light, water and air, so does the human body. Both are dynamic, self-regulating systems that transform light and water into tissues. A healthy organism can be resilient against adversity. Plants can withstand drought, storms, and plagues; appropriately growing children can tolerate foods, pollution and animal dander. Recently, a friend consulted me: “My son is bringing home his girlfriend, and she…
Epidemic Answers’ Collaboration with Developmental Delay Resources
WEST SIMSBURY, Conn., June 25, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — Epidemic Answers, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization at www.epidemicanswers.org dedicated to educating the public about the epidemics of chronic illness and helping parents find healing solutions, is joining forces with Developmental Delay Resources (www.devdelay.org), the only educational resource for families dealing with developmental delays that integrates the full spectrum of treatments and therapeutic modalities from diet interventions to biomedical protocols, physical therapies and everything in between. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130625/CG37989) Epidemic Answers (EA) and Developmental Delay Resources (DDR) are combining efforts to raise awareness about the record number of children being diagnosed with chronic health conditions and developmental delays. The rates of autism are now 1 in 50 children and 1 in 31 boys. The rate of asthma is 1 in 8 children, and the rate of ADHD is 1 in 10 children. Both EA and DDR are dedicated to educating parents about the environmental factors that contribute to these conditions. Beyond that, both organizations…
The “R” Word: Sensory Processing Disorder Recovery
You may or may not know my personal recovery story. I have recovered my 2 sons, now ages 5 and 7, from sensory processing disorder (SPD), asthma, allergies, acid reflux and eczema with a biomedical approach, which means correcting nutritional and hormonal deficiencies, removing toxicities and correcting gut dysbiosis. Most people don’t know that sensory processing disorder recovery is possible, but my sons have recovered from it. I’m still working on failure to thrive, mitochondrial dysfunction, hypothyroidism and persistent eczema in my older son. In addition, they both had developmental delays, and my older son had severe hypotonia as a baby. I have recovered from immune dysregulation, in which I had shingles twice, the worst case of poison-ivy ever, bronchitis (which I’d never had before), constant sinus infections and constant colds that would last 3-4 weeks at a time. My older son had immune dysregulation, too, when he was younger: he would go to preschool, get sick and be out…
Asthma and Dairy
My older son got sick a lot, especially after he started preschool when he was 3. He would go to preschool for a week then be out the whole next week because he was sick; the preschool didn’t want kids coming in who were sneezing and coughing. Constant Sickness Turned to Asthma When he was 4 years old, he had a severe asthmatic episode after we went to Los Angeles to visit my husband’s family. We woke up the first morning after we landed in LA to discover that the whole valley where his parents lived was engulfed in smoke from forest fires in the San Gabriel Mountains. They stayed on fire the entire week we were there, and, although we didn’t go out in the smoke too much, we couldn’t help but breathe in some of it in. When we came back home, he had a severe asthmatic attack, which he had never had before. It was so bad…
1 in 68 Children with Autism: This Should Be All Over the News Media!
by Beth Lambert The statistics are frightening enough on their own. 1 in 68 children has autism (and this number is growing!). In some communities (e.g., Somali immigrants in Minnesota), the statistics are even higher. 1 in 8 children has asthma. 1 in 10 children has ADHD. 1 in 6 children has a learning disorder. 1 in 80 children has celiac disease (a hugely underdiagnosed condition) But what is even more frightening is that it seems like no one is even paying attention to the fact that millions of children in this country are sick. Millions. Some have diagnoses, some do not, but they are all affected. Why isn’t this all over the evening news? How is it that the news media can follow Lindsey Lohan’s every misstep but seems to be missing one of the greatest health epidemics of our time? From time to time, you do hear about autism in the news media, but no one seems to…