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According to the statistics, we are currently raising the first generation of babies who will not outlive their parents.
Despite a multi-million-dollar medical research and having handful of drugs for each and every condition imaginable, despite living in the wealthiest country in the world. We have infants who have severe asthma and are given nebulizers and steroid based drugs. We have 2-4 year old developing cancer and heart disease. My cousin’s 15 year old son recently had a series of strokes!
Respiratory and food allergies, recurrent ear and sinus infections, low immunity, poor dental health, misaligned teeth, eczema and other skin conditions are now considered to be typical components of childhood. Exercise-induced asthma is found in more than one-third of college athletes. Over the past two decades, the obesity rate for children has doubled, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. For adolescents, the picture is worse: More than three times as many are now obese.
What about mental and emotional health? In 1990, 900,000 American kids were on Ritalin. Today some estimate the total number of children on Ritalin has increased to 4 – 5 million or more per year. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has warned about a record six-fold increase in Ritalin production between 1990 & 1995. America now uses 90% of the world’s Ritalin – more than five times the rest of the world combined.
More than 500,000 children and adolescents in America are now taking antipsychotic drugs, according to a September 2009 report by the FDA. Their use is growing not only among older teenagers, when schizophrenia is believed to emerge, but also among tens of thousands of preschoolers. A Columbia University study recently found a doubling of the rate of prescribing antipsychotic drugs for privately insured 2- to 5-year-olds from 2000 to 2007. (NY Times Child’s Ordeal Shows Risks of Psychosis Drugs for Young )
In 2007 it was reported that the suicide rate for 10- to-24-year-olds increased by 8 percent, the largest single-year rise in 15 years, according to a report released in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Teen suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among young adults and adolescents 15 to 24 years of age.
We have to understand that development of all chronic diseases, including neurological, brain and mental disorders, has few things in common: tissues starvation of oxygen, metabolic imbalances, excessive excitability of nerve cells, under- or over- production of important hormones, deficiency in vital nutrients and malfunctions of the immune system. The majority of those disturbances, either directly or indirectly, could be the result of chronic hyperventilation.
Why such young kids are affected? Starting with pregnant mothers, women hyperventilate during pregnancy, and that is as dangerous for the baby as lack of nutrients, smoking or alcohol. Lack of education on healthy breathing and dangers of hyperventilation, plus deep breathing that is often taught to pregnant women, add to the problem.
Then, when a child is born, many practices in modern hospitals and neonatal care encourage over-breathing. Swaddling infants is unfortunately a lost tradition. Newborns with signs of respiratory distress are given supplemental oxygen. Later infants and young children are introduced to unnatural diets like most formulas, sugars, white breads, deep fried food, hydrogenated oils, food dyes etc. Children are overfed, overdressed, lack essential physical activity and inevitably start mouth breathing. On top of that, modern society’s stresses enter child’s mind very early and are not properly addressed.
In conclusion, below is a quote from Rosemary MacGregor RN, MS, who, working in traditional health care system, nevertheless understood the vital connection between breathing and health and tried to educate doctors and patients on the importance of breathing awareness and dangers of hyperventilation.
I am a nurse and I can honestly say we were never properly trained in this area, nor are the doctors. I have given many a talk on teaching breathing around the world and have never had a doctor not totally appreciate my information. I have read the respiratory text books doctors are trained with in medical school. It is more likely that you have unlearned very early the good breathing you were born with if you were an average kid. In the United States most children by three years old are over-breathing. Awareness is the only key we have to staying ‘as best we can’ on target with proper breathing. With awareness, we need the knowledge of what to do, and then how to change our habitual breathing response to that situation in that moment.
Rosemary MacGregor RN, MS
Buteyko therapy addresses all the root causes of chronic diseases. We, as parents, always want the best for our children. It is essential to teach them Buteyko, even if they are not sick or have what seems to be a very minor health problem.
Wishing you a healthy school year!
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Buteyko Clinic USA offers unique breathing rehabilitation programs that result in long term drug free control over asthma, allergies, COPD, rhinitis, chronic cough, snoring, sleep apnea, anxiety, panic, chronic hyperventilation syndrome and other chronic conditions. Contact us today for a free consultation.
