Childhood Asthma & Allergy Epidemic on the Rise Worldwide
Thursday, October 12th, 2006A recent study of 56 countries in the leading British journal Lancet found that the rate of allergies, asthma, and related conditions is large and growing, especially in younger children.
For example, in Britain, asthma occurs in nearly 21% of children, hay fever in 10%, and eczema in 16%, each up significantly from 1991.
And the numbers don’t look any better in the U.S.
What’s causing these increases? From the Lancet study:
Experts say a host of factors including air pollution, diet, lifestyle and exposure to bacteria in early life are likely to be linked to the rise in asthma and other allergies, but the reasons are likely to vary from place to place.
These factors may well play a role.
It’s interesting, though, that all of these conditions (asthma, allergies, hay fever, eczema, etc.) are immune-related, and yet there is little discussion of the potential role of the greatly expanded vaccination schedule over the last 15 years in the increasing rate of these illnesses. Could this be a factor, too? Could the vaccines (and/or the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal used in some of them) be upsetting the ability of the immune system to develop correctly and remain in proper balance?
It’s worth researching — certainly more than it has been to-date.
