The delivery of the MAHA Commission Report in true Warp Speed time is a stark and welcome change to the previous decades of avoidance and lack of any real communication regarding the documented decline in our children’s health.
Let me begin a breakdown of the Commission’s Report: Let’s start with who comprised the committee. Two women out of 14 members? Where are the MAHA moms and professionals who created the framework for this to happen?
The foundation of the 4 tenets of what is driving the deterioration in our children’s health include poor diet, aggregation of environmental chemicals, lack of activity and stress, and overmedication. Good start, but not enough. There was NO mention of GMOs and their associated pesticides. Really? We’ve aggregated thousands of studies showing harm. Yes, ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are greatly responsible, but if we are talking about root causes, we must analyze the source of the UPFs.
Regarding chemicals, the framework doesn’t need to be continually evaluated regarding synergistic activity, and they’ve already been shown to cause harm. This is a linguistic soft landing.
The report then proceeds to give an overall health grade based on the CDC’s report on chronic diseases in children, covering obesity, diabetes, neurodevelopmental disorders, cancer rates, mental health challenges, atopic disorders, and autoimmune diseases.
The analysis does a deeper dive into what is driving the increase in childhood chronic disease: UPF’s, exposures to environmental chemicals such as pesticides, micro plastics, dioxins, pervasive technology use and social media (no mention of EMFs/5G) and the subsequent overmedication to manage the above mentioned tsunami of diseases.
Various causative factors were identified such as corporate capture – the food industry funds its own research outspending the government leading to food industry-aligned prejudice. Even the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee members had financial ties to the food and pharmaceutical industry. The chemical manufacturing industry as well as Big Pharma were big spenders in the lobbying of our legislators.
While there was a deep dive into the history and composition of UPFs, hacked dietary guidelines, a nod to our lack of support for organic farmers (my words), and distorted nutrition research, again, there was no mention of GMOs which in themselves cause harm and have contributed to the gross rise in pesticide overuse due to weed resistance.
Based on the lack of inclusion of the manipulation of our food supply with genetic engineering, this report is incomplete.
The report delved into the federal support of mono-cropping and the ‘special crops’ such as fruits and vegetables. SNAP, School breakfast and lunch programs, and WIC received an honorable mention. However, it failed to mention that WIC does not offer organic options, leaving low-income children with increased exposure to infant formulas and foods that contain high levels of pesticide residues.
Indeed, children are exposed to an ever-increasing array of chemicals that are responsible for the decline in health. However, AI technology is not needed to develop better tools to evaluate the environmental exposures. We already have the tools and tests in the hands of integrative health practitioners, which have provided information to practitioners regarding toxic loads in our children.
A thorough analysis of behavioral factors, social media, and other environmental stressors such as family dynamics and socioeconomics, as well as lack of exposure to nature, were brought into the picture.
Geoengineering? Not a word.
The overmedicalization was brought into the conversation – remember, these are the only tools in the conventional medical toolbox – there was no mention of integrative medicine alternatives that have been very successful in treating children and must be brought into the framework.
I must commend the commission on actually discussing the role of vaccine reactions and the demise in our children’s health.
The ‘Next Steps’ section is out of step. Ten initiatives were provided focusing on such issues as more testing, AI-powered surveillance, GRAS reform, nutrition trials, and precision toxicology. To the MAHA Commission, here are my 10 real life scenarios from the front line that could bring immediate change to improve our children’s lives today, not in 5-10 years.
We don’t need more studies. We need the following:
- Improve trust in scientific agencies by expanding the science to include integrative medicines that have been proven to work in the clinic setting and supported in the literature.
- Offer alternatives to drugs for families, such as nutraceuticals, herbal medicine, and homeopathy.
- Reeducate the medical establishment that autism is a treatable and preventable disorder.
- Teach young practitioners how to hone their clinical skills based on the art of medicine and not AI-powered tools.
- Reevaluate GMO foods and remove them off the market since they are GRAS and have been shown to cause harm even without their associated pesticides.
- Employ nutrition trials that use organic foods versus conventionally grown foods.
- Teach lifestyle medicine in medical schools.
- Expand the pharmacopeia of prescription medications to include homeopathics, herbal medicine, and nutraceuticals.
- Expand insurance coverage for testing that includes environmental toxicants, an array of toxic metals, Lyme disease, nutrient markers, and nutrigenomics.
- Begin the education of practitioners in genomics and how we can support our children via understanding their genetics, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and epigenetics.
