Throughout the world, many countries in some form of lockdown have seen a drastic drop in premature birth as well as SIDS. Denmark reported a 90% decrease in premature births, a 73% drop in Ireland, and a near 50% decrease in Canada. America, Australia, and the Netherlands have also reported reductions in SIDS and premature deaths.

During the 11-week period following the emergency declaration (through May 30) there were 1465 fewer deaths in US children compared to 2019 (5923 vs 7388). The difference is statistically highly significant.

-Striking Decline of Premature Births and SIDS During COVID

Related: Circumcision Linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Doctors have not come to a conclusion as to why premature births and SIDS rates have dropped so much, but they have one theory.

One theory is that pregnant women may have been under less stress than before lockdown. Staying at home may have allowed some pregnant women the opportunity to get more rest and prioritize prenatal care.

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This seems highly unlikely. Many of the women who are susceptible to premature births and SIDS are women who work lower-income jobs (service industry, or retail jobs, for example) many of these women worked through lockdown and may have been under more stress. Women who were more likely to have time off, and to prioritize prenatal care were likely already doing so before lockdown.

Natural health practitioners tend to feel that conventional medical intervention often does more harm than good. One possibility that seems a likely contributor, but is unlikely to be addressed by the mainstream media, is the drop in vaccines, both prenatal and infant. Childhood vaccine rates have dropped since the beginning of the lockdown. In California childhood vaccine rates decreased 40% weeks after the lockdown began. Most non-emergency medical appointments were canceled during lockdown.

With childhood vaccines dropping it is unconfirmed but not unlikely that maternal vaccines have dropped as well. Some studies have suggested that maternal vaccines can increase the risk of premature birth, with one study saying maternal vaccines could raise premature births on average 14%.

Data has suggested that infant vaccinations could be increasing SIDS rates. America has the highest vaccination rates and the highest SIDS rates of any other comparable developed country. For comparison, Japan has banned vaccines for children under the age of two and has virtually eliminated SIDS. A 2011 study noted that out of 34 nations, those that require the most vaccines have higher infant mortality rates, compared to those who require the fewest vaccines that had the lowest infant mortality rates.

Currently, there is not enough data on recent vaccination rates to draw solid conclusions as to what has caused the sudden drop in SIDS and premature births. However, as is often the case, it is likely a combination of many different causes.

New Jersey has become the first state to mandate climate change education in its kindergarten through 12th-grade curriculum. The state will implement that requirement in September of 2021. New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy partnered with 130 educators and led the push to incorporate climate change into the state’s education standards.

The adoption of these standards is much more than an added educational requirement; it is a symbol of a partnership between generations…Decades of short-sighted decision-making has fueled this crisis and now we must do all we can to help our children solve it. This generation of students will feel the effects of climate change more than any other, and it is critical that every student is provided an opportunity to study and understand the climate crisis through a comprehensive, interdisciplinary lens.”

Tammy Murphy, First Lady of New Jersey

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Climate change education is woefully unaddressed in the United States. Despite the effects climate change has on people worldwide, a 2019 NPR/Ipsos poll found that only 42% of teachers are teaching climate change. The demand is there, with 4 in 5 teachers and parents saying that students need to be taught this information. Climate change is here and continuing to escalate. States will do their students a grave disservice if they fail to adequately confront this issue.

Sources:

• New Jersey Is Now the 1st US State to Require Schools to Teach Climate Change – Global Citizen
• Most Teachers Don’t Teach Climate Change; 4 In 5 Parents Wish They Did – NPR

A recent study done by the UK has linked certain antibiotics, taken during pregnancy, to a higher risk of birth defects. The study shows that women given antibiotics in the macrolide class, compared to those given penicillin, were 55% more likely to give birth to babies with major birth defects. Antibiotics in the macrolide class include erythromycin, clarithromycin, and azithromycin. These antibiotics are most often given to women who are allergic to penicillin, to treat bacterial infections. 

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Macrolides are frequently prescribed in pregnancy, and our findings suggest it would be better to avoid macrolides during pregnancy if alternative antibiotics can be used”

-Study leader Heng Fan of University College London.

The study was conducted on 104,605 children born as early as 1990, up to 2016 whose mothers took penicillin or macrolides while pregnant. Additionally, the study consisted of two negative control groups of mothers who were prescribed macrolides or penicillin before pregnancy and 53,000 children who were siblings of children in the study.

Along with birth defects, researchers also looked for connections between antibiotics and cerebral palsy, epilepsy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism but found no links.”

Common antibiotics tied to miscarriages may also lead to birth defects

A total of 186 children born throughout the study, whose mothers took macrolides, had major birth defects, (28 out of every 1000 babies) The birth defects documented included defects to the brain and nervous system, heart, lungs, digestive tract, urinary tract, or genitals. The majority of the women in the study were given penicillin and among these women 1,666 babies were born with major birth defects, 18 per 1,000 babies. 

It should be noted that this study does not examine the overall health of each mother before or during pregnancy. Additionally, the study does not draw attention to the changes in prenatal care from 1990 to 2016 and it is unclear rather more birth defects occurred earlier in the study or later.

Related: How to Detoxify From Antibiotics and Other Chemical Antimicrobials

Sources:

• Common Antibiotics tied to miscarriages may also lead to birth defects-Reuters
• Associations between macrolide antibiotics prescribing during pregnancy and adverse child outcomes in the UK: population based cohort study -BMJ

Pressure-treated wood is rot and insect resistant. It’s typically used for decks, mailbox posts, light posts, playgrounds, utility polls, picnic tables, home building foundations, and much more. Pressure-treating wood saturates wood under pressure with a chemical preservative. Wood that is pressure-treated can last many years when in contact with concrete and dirt where other wood would begin to rot. (image credit)

If you’re like me, you’ve wished you could use reclaimed pressure treated lumber for a garden bed to grow food in. I had heard that pressure-treated lumber was too toxic to be near food but there were two discarded utility poles in my neighborhood that I wanted to use in my urban farm. So I did some research, and I found out that I definitely do not want to use those utility poles! But I also found out that pressure-treated wood produced more recently is probably perfectly safe to use.

Until the early 2000s, pressure-treated wood was typically treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA), which is an extremely toxic chemical. Arsenic is easily absorbed into the body but it does not exit the body nearly as easily. Those utility poles I wanted were made this way. You shouldn’t even touch utility poles.

If pressure-treated wood has a greenish tint to it, as utility poles often do, then it has been pressure-treated with CCA. Utility poles are still usually treated with CCA.

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In 2002, after growing concern due to studies and questions raised about CCA toxicity, the EPA pushed lumber manufacturers to find a non-arsenic based formula to treat lumber. In late 2003, CCA manufacturers voluntarily ended the use of CCA in residential wood products. Manufacturers switched to using copper and chromium-based chemical preservatives. The two main types of treatment for residential construction today are copper quat (ACQ) and copper azole (CA).

ACQ is said to have very little relative risk. Research was done to determine how much of the chemical a person could conceivably touch and then put in their mouth. Results showed that ACQ-treated wood is non-toxic to skin as well as any normal oral exposure. Other studies have shown that copper can leach from the wood but we need more research on this to know if it has a toxic effect on the environment. ACQ wood has problems with corrosion so be careful to choose screws and other metal fasteners, wisely.

Copper azole treatments contain copper, boric acid, and tebuconazole (type B does not contain boric acid). CA is a water-based preservative that can be cleaned and painted.

Copper Azole and Alkaline copper quaternary treatments both contain a fungicide. The copper deters insects and the fungicide prevents soil rotting the lumber.  

Is ACQ and CA Pressure Treated Lumber Safe?

Safer, for sure. Manufacturers are confident, of course, that these treatments pose no health or environmental problems. I think that the risks with CA and ACQ pressure-treated wood are minimal. Research is ongoing. What I can say is that I would much rather eat food from my own garden grown with ACQ or CA pressure-treated wood over anything I’d get in the grocery store. But I really like to use reclaimed wood. In fact, most of the wood I use is reclaimed, and I’m guessing at least half of the treated lumber I get is more than 20 years old.

If you want to grow the healthiest, best organic food possible it’s probably not a good idea to use any kind of pressure-treated lumber.

If you just found out that your raised garden bed was made with arsenic-treated wood, if rebuilding is not an option, know that plants will not absorb arsenic when they have enough phosphorous.

Sources:

• Pressure Treated Lumber WHAT SAFETY SHOULD BE TELLING YOU before use! – Terry Penney
• Pressure Treated Wood Safety Tips – The Spruce Crafts
• Toxicity Concerns about Raised Bed Construction Materials – Iowa State University
• Using Pressure Treated Wood For Raised Gardens… Is It Safe For Growing Food? – The Natural Handyman

The health, food, and education systems in the United States are failing young people. According to a new study from JAMA Pediatrics, an estimated 18 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 18 are prediabetic, while 24 percent of young adults aged 19-34 were estimated to be prediabetic. Young people with obesity were more likely to be prediabetic. That’s not great news for Americans, as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts that 47% of the United States population will be obese by 2030.

A Big Bundle

Diabetes is a serious yet manageable health condition that costs the United States healthcare system an estimated 327 billion dollars in the year 2017. According to Dr. Linda J. Andes, a mathematical statistician with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and one of the lead authors of this study,

The average medical expenditures for people with diagnosed diabetes were about $16,752 per year. After adjusting for age group and sex, average medical expenditures among people with diagnosed diabetes were about 2.3 times higher than expenditures for people without diabetes…”

This study should be greeted with a call for greater education and awareness. Dr, Andes continues…

We hope that this research expands the pool of available research on prediabetes in adolescents and young adults.  Monitoring the number of young adults and adolescents with prediabetes and varying levels of glucose tolerance can help determine the future risk of type 2 diabetes in youth. We also hope that this news sounds an alarm for young people, parents and clinicians – and that those who may be at risk or living with prediabetes are encouraged to take the necessary steps needed to prevent or delay progression to type 2 diabetes.

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Pushing Backwards

Instead, this news will likely be greeted with a chorus of “get your ass off the couch and eat better.” Unfortunately, that outdated and patronizing advice ignores the difficulties faced by young people today. Food that isn’t sprayed with large amounts of agricultural chemicals, chosen for its shelf life rather than taste, and processed in a way that kills the little nutrition not bred out of it comes at a premium. If you want good quality, tasty food, you’re going to have to pay for it.

There’s also the issue of nutrition education. Nutrition science is always evolving as science is better able to measure more and more variables in food. But that still doesn’t mean consumers will be getting all of that info. Coca-Cola finances in-house research institutes like the “Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness,” designed to promote the hydration benefits of their products while conveniently ignoring the health damage caused by sugary drinks. Nutrition and dietetics conferences are frequently sponsored by corporations with a vested interest in the least healthy option, like McDonald’s, Hershey’s, and Kraft Foods. This year’s Food and Nutrition Conference Expo’s sponsors included PepsiCo, Big G Cereals (the manufacturer of Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Cocoa Puffs), and SPLENDA^® Sweeteners. This is not to say all studies have been bought, but it is difficult, sometimes confusing, and incredibly time-consuming to sift through all the noise and find truly helpful health information.

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This doesn’t even touch on the issue of the weight fluctuations that can occur with prescription medication, especially antidepressants and mood stabilizers. Even if you have the education needed to chose well and can afford quality food, you’re still at a massive disadvantage. Studies have found that the offspring of generations of mice fed a poor, low-fiber diet lose a high percentage of gut bacteria diversity, and they are unable to get it back. Though human studies haven’t been conducted, it’s not a stretch to think the same phenomenon is happening in people. At the end of all of this, the most basic act of care-taking we can perform (eating) can feel like yet another part-time job. No wonder more Americans are dying sooner.

The Bad Snowball

It’s highly likely that some of those prediabetic twelve-year-olds who have been diagnosed with prediabetes are being raised by some of those 34-year-olds with the same condition, or its next evolution stage, diabetes. The percentages of young people diagnosed with prediabetes are lower than the nearly 34 percent of Americans adults with prediabetes. Children and young adults may catch up sooner than expected, especially if the American way of life, eating, and addressing health continues the path it is currently on.

Sources:

• Prevalence of Prediabetes – CDC.gov
• Prevalence of Prediabetes Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States, 2005-2016 – JAMA Pediatric
• Your poor diet might hurt your grandchildren’s guts – Science Mag
• I Went to the Nutritionists’ Annual Confab. It Was Catered by McDonald’s. – Mother Jones
• How Coca-Cola Disguised Its Influence on Science about Sugar and Health – Union of Concerned Scientists
• The U.S. is the most obese nation in the world, just ahead of Mexico – MarketWatch

The majority of toddlers and babies eat too much added sugar. A recent study shows that 98% of toddlers and two-thirds of babies are consuming added sugars every day. The American Heart Association recommends that children under the age of 2 not have access to any added sugars. The lead author of the study, Dr. Kirsten Herrick, states that added sugars have negative effects on health, causing cavities, asthma, obesity, elevated blood pressure, and altered lipid profiles. She also states:

 Whether these associations exist for even younger children hasn’t been studied,” she added. “The aim of this study was to focus on one aspect of diet — added sugars [and] consumption among US infants and toddlers — that could inform the dietary guidelines.” 

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Infants in the study of ages 6-11 months were commonly given added sugars from yogurt, baby snacks, and sweet baked goods. Children 12-23 months consumed fruit juice, candy, and sweet baked goods. Yogurt was the greatest source of sugar for infants, and fruit drinks supplied the highest level of added sugars for toddlers. Formula and breastmilk were not counted towards sugar intake.  There was no difference found between gender, family income, or level of household education, but there was a difference in consumption by race. The average infant consumed a teaspoon of added sugars, while toddlers on average consumed 6 teaspoons. Non-Hispanic Asian toddlers were shown to consume the least amount of added sugars with an average of 3.7 teaspoons a day while non-Hispanic black toddlers reported consuming the most added sugars with an average of 8.2 teaspoons a day. 

Overall, sugar consumption among toddlers and infants has dropped the last 5 years. This is a beneficial thing, as sugar consumption at such a young age plays a large role in developing taste buds and eating patterns throughout life. 

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It’s easier to break something than it is to fix it…and the way we take care of ourselves is broken. It’s broken to the point that a new study published in Pediatrics, the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, states that more obese children and young adults should consider weight-loss surgery as a treatment. After doing a followup with patients up to twelve years after weight loss surgery, study authors found that patients’ Body Mass Index (BMI) decreased an average of 29 percent and instances of diabetes and high blood pressure significantly dropped.

Why Weight Loss Surgery?

According to the Centers for Disease Control, obesity affects 13.7 million children between the ages of 2 and 19 in the U.S. Data shows that almost one in five children in the United States is obese. Obesity is the number one chronic illness in U.S. children, and it can lead to serious health problems later in life like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and cancer.

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It’s impossible to attribute the obesity epidemic to one factor, though there are likely culprits. In the United States, portion sizes are out of control. Look no further than fast food, something that more than 1 in 3 Americans eats on a given day. A McDonald’s hamburger in 1955 topped out at 3.7 ounces. Today, a Quarter Pounder Deluxe is 9.2 ounces. Kids are being served more, so they’re eating more.

But at the same time, they’re also eating less. Nearly two-thirds of global calories come from four crops: wheat, corn, soy, and rice. In addition to the lack of diversity, most of those crops end up in highly processed foods. These are the foods that are widely available, from gas stations to grocery stores. Children eating a western diet are eating more highly processed, nutritionally deficient food than they have at any time in the past.

Weight Loss Surgery as an Option

Reducing obesity requires a multi-pronged strategy: get educated, stop eating unhealthy food, and start eating vegetables. But broccoli is not an inherently crave-able food. It’s especially unappealing to a palate used to an endless supply of processed cereals, nuggets, and gummy fruit snacks. Children are not known for their ability to choose long-term benefits over immediate gratification.

From that viewpoint, weight-loss surgery is a viable option for childhood obesity. The most commonly performed weight-loss surgeries performed on children and adolescents are gastric bypass surgery and adjustable gastric band surgery. These surgeries are generally successful, as most estimates find that 80 percent of patients experience an improved quality of life.

Related: Stop Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet

Widening the Gap

Bariatric surgery can make a difference in the lives of obese children, but it doesn’t address how the child got to that point in the first place. It also ignores the growing portion of the population that cannot afford to pay for a $20,000 surgery. It is likely that the majority of children who would benefit from this surgery are not going to be able to afford it or the maintenance that follows it, yet lower-income kids are more likely to be overweight or obese. According to the CDC, “the prevalence of obesity decreased with increasing level of education of the household head among children and adolescents aged 2-19 years.” The children that can afford weight-loss surgery are less likely to need it because their parents will likely be better informed, they will have better access to education and healthy food, and they will have healthcare coverage. Surgery is one way to lose weight, but it doesn’t address why losing weight was needed in the first place.

Sources:

• More Obese Children Should Get Weight-Loss Surgery, Doctors Say – Live Science
• More severely obese kids should get surgery, MD group says – AP
• Pediatric Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery: Evidence, Barriers, and Best Practices – Pediatrics
• Childhood Obesity Facts – CDC
• More than 1 in 3 adults eat fast food on a given day, CDC survey finds – USA Today
• Childhood and Adolescent Obesity – ASMBS