Life in Canada

What’s the Result of our Monsanto Legacy?

Between 75% to 80% of the processed food [47] you consume every day has GMOs inside, and residues of Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide outside. But it’s not just processed food—fresh fruit and vegetables are next: genetically engineered sweet corn [48] is already being sold at your local grocer, with apples and a host of other “natural” produce currently in field trials.

How is it that Monsanto is allowed to manipulate our food after such a dark product history? How is it they are allowed to cause such detrimental impact to our environment and our health?
According to the Organic Consumers Association[49], “There is a direct correlation between our genetically engineered food supply and the $2 trillion the U.S. spends annually on medical care, namely an epidemic of diet-related chronic diseases.

Instead of healthy fruits, vegetables, grains, and grass-fed animal products, U.S. factory farms and food processors produce a glut of genetically engineered junk foods that generate heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer—backed by farm subsidies[50]—while organic farmers receive no such subsidies.
Monsanto’s history reflects a consistent pattern of toxic chemicals, lawsuits, and manipulated science. Is this the kind of company we want controlling our world’s food supply?

P.S. Monsanto’s not alone. Other companies in the “Big Six” include Pioneer Hi-Bred International[51] (a subsidiary of DuPont), Syngenta AG[52], Dow Agrosciences[53] (a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, BASF[54] (which is primarily a chemical company that is rapidly expanding their biotechnology division, and Bayer Cropscience[55] (a subsidiary of Bayer).

Original article on GMO Awareness

So many Canadian children are taking the drugs known as atypical antipsychotics that doctors are being asked to watch for major complications — including dramatic weight gain, tremors, and abnormal face and jaw movements.

Once reserved for schizophrenia and mania in adults, one antipsychotic alone, risperidone, was recommended by Canadian-office-based doctors for children 17 years old and younger a total of 340,670 times in 2010 — a near-doubling since 2006 — according to data provided to Postmedia News from prescription-drug tracking firm IMS Brogan.

Another antipsychotic — quetiapine — was recommended to Canadian children 160,700 times.

The increase in prescriptions for children as young as six is raising concerns that the drugs are being overused. Some experts say too little is known about the effects on a child's cognitive, social and physical development, and that the side effects may set children up for serious health problems later in life.

Overall, from 2005 to 2009, antipsychotic drug recommendations for children and youth in Canada increased 114 per cent, according to new guidelines published in this month's issue of the journal Paediatrics & Child Health on the use of second-generation atypical antipsychotics in children and youth.

The drugs — which have not been approved in Canada for use in children under 18 — are being used for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorders, irritability related to autism, mood disorders, physical or verbal aggression and other behavioural problems.

Doctors say that for many desperate families, the drugs are often the only option because of a dismal lack of access to non-drug therapy for children in crisis.

But the drugs also come with some "common and unfortunate" consequences, Canadian researchers say — including a substantial increase in fat mass and waist circumference. Doctors say the drugs can make children so ravenous that some parents have had to lock the fridge.

Researchers have shown that after a median of 10 1/2 weeks of treatment with olanzapine, children gain an average of 8.5 kilograms; their waist circumference increases an average of 8.5 centimetres. The pills can also cause increases in blood pressure, high cholesterol, triglycerides (a type of blood fat) and glucose abnormalities, with some drugs being bigger offenders than others.

"Antipsychotics cause enormous weight gains in children" with all the attendant risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and, possibly, a shortened life expectancy, said Dr. Allen Frances, professor emeritus at Duke University School of Medicine, in Durham, North Carolina. Frances is chair of the task force that developed the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, a massive catalogue of mental illness now undergoing its first major revision in 16 years.

Frances said the drugs are often prescribed "off-label" (meaning they are not Health Canada approved) by primary-care doctors "who have little time and training, without clear indications and with no proven efficacy." He said he worries that proposed changes to the DSM that would expand the diagnosis for some disorders in children while adding new ones — including temper dysregulation disorder — could lead to wider prescribing of antipsychotics to children.

The drugs have been used since the 1990s in the treatment of mental-health disorders in adults. Antipsychotics as a whole were ranked second in Canada, behind cardiovascular medications, as the most prescribed drug class in the country, with 64,853,000 prescriptions filled in 2010, according to IMS Brogan.

Experts say that as doctors have grown more comfortable using the drugs for adults, prescription has spilled over to young people.

As well, public attitudes are changing.

"People's awareness of mental-health disorders overall has improved over the last decade — there's more awareness about it," said Calgary neurologist Dr. Tamara Pringsheim, a member of the Canadian Alliance for Monitoring Effectiveness and Safety of Antipsychotics in Children guideline group.

"When you consider that one in three people will suffer from a mental-health disorder in their lifetime, this is something that happens in every family. People are looking for more help."

The alliance said that multiple randomized controlled clinical trials have looked at the efficacy of many atypical antipsychotics in pediatric mental-health disorders. For many children, though not all children, they're helpful, said Pringsheim, a clinical assistant professor in the department of clinical neurosciences and pediatrics at the University of Calgary.

"I'm not saying they're a panacea . . . I'm just saying that for children with mental health disorders and for families who are really struggling, they can offer some help."

"By no means are these medications a cure for problems," she added. However, "If you can diminish a patient's symptoms by 50 per cent, we consider that helpful."

In many places, Pringsheim said, "the only help that a family can get is medical help. They're not able to access behavioural programs to try and help with aggressive behaviour in a child. It means both the child and the clinician are stuck saying, 'Either this child is going to be in danger daily of hurting themselves and other people, or we can try a medication that may help.' "

Even then putting a child on an antipsychotic is a hard decision for parents to make. "They just hear the name 'antipsychotic' and they're afraid. But some situations become quite desperate."

In addition to weight gain, many of the drugs can cause neurological side effects that can include restlessness and a constant need to move; a decrease in facial expression or a "mask-like" face; abnormal movements of the face, mouth, lips, jaw or tongue; drug-induced tremors and abnormal muscle movements, including neck stretching and writhing.

These extra movements can be "scary and horrible," said Dr. Wendy Roberts, a developmental pediatrician at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children and professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto. "They're usually reversible, but we don't have a lot of evidence to say how many might not be reversible. It certainly behooves us to warn parents so they're not taken totally by surprise this is happening."

Pringsheim and her co-authors said doctors need to exercise a "high degree of vigilance" when prescribing the drugs to children and youth.

"I think it is your duty as a clinician," she said. "If we're vigilant, if we are watching carefully, we can avoid a number of these situations just by being proactive.

"If we catch a neurological side effect, if we catch a metabolic side effect early, it's much easier to treat them. Things haven't gone so far that it takes months to get things back to where they were."

She said she believes most doctors are being cautious in using the drugs on children.

"A psychiatrist once said to me, 'Your hand should tremble every time you write a prescription for an antipsychotic medication.'

"And I think most clinicians take that to heart. They're not writing it carelessly or flippantly. They're writing a prescription in an effort to help a child and a family that is clearly suffering."

Others say more needs to be done to ensure doctors understand the limits of the benefits.

"In older children and adolescents with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder — which thankfully are rare — there is good evidence that antipsychotic medications are appropriate and can meaningfully improve the lives of the young who receive them," said Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University.

But the drugs are more commonly given to children with ADHD and other disruptive behaviours, he said. Whether that's appropriate is less clear, according to Olfson.

Before agreeing to put their child on an antipsychotic, experts say parents should ask the doctor what specific symptoms the drug is targeting, and whether there are other options, including parent management training or parent-child interaction therapy for younger children.

I wonder if cowardly parenting has something to do with this growth?

OTTAWA — One in 10 Canadian children is living in poverty, according to a report on the status of child and family poverty released Wednesday.

With Parliament's self-imposed deadline long past, it still has far to go on the promise it made 21 years ago to eradicate child poverty by 2000.

The most recent numbers show there is a 9.1 per cent rate of child poverty in Canada, down slightly from 11.9 per cent in 1989, the year Parliament unanimously resolved to end child poverty, it says in Campaign 2000's report card, which cites data from 2008.

It’s important to remember that the reality for many Canadians living in
poverty since the recession hit here in 2008 has yet to show up in the numbers, as our national statistical agency is always two years behind in reporting Canada’s income data,” says Laurel Rothman, National Coordinator of Campaign 2000.

"This is the moment for our government leaders to demonstrate their commitment to work together and eradicate poverty during the next decade," said Laurel Rothman, national co-ordinator for Campaign 2000, a national network of 120 organizations.

Part of the plan includes ensuring continued access to equal health care for every Canadian, the report said both provincial and federal governments will have to play a part, as health-care budgets now take up an increasingly large share of public sector spending, it said.

"The federal government, which will transfer $57.7 billion to the provinces and territories for health, education and social programs in 2010-11, needs to collaborate with the provinces and territories which oversee the delivery of health-care services to Canadians," the report says, noting that the agreements that guide the way in which health and social funds are transferred are set to expire in 2013-14. "It's important to plan now to ensure that sufficient and predictable funds are made available."

While the short-term benefits of ending poverty among the 610,000 children seem obvious — fewer children with problems affecting their physical, emotional and psychological health — government must also consider the long-term effects of childhood poverty, the report said.

"The impact of dire living conditions during childhood, such as inadequate nutrition and crowded or unsafe housing, carries far into adulthood," Monique Begin, a former minister of health under prime minister Pierre Trudeau, said in a statement. "Research has clearly demonstrated that there will be significant economic savings and better health outcomes for us all if we improve the incomes of people in poverty."

Aboriginal kids and children of recent immigrants and racial minorities are at an increased risk of living in poverty, the report said, noting those children also have a greater risk of living in persistent social and economic inequality.

All parties in the House of Commons last week supported a committee report recommending the government initiates and commits to a plan that will reduce poverty, an action Rothman said is encouraging.

"This reflects an emerging consensus among all the parties that poverty must be addressed as a national priority."

NHS should use term fat instead of obese, says minister
By Nick Triggle Health reporter, BBC News
Flabby torso of an obese boy Using 'fat' may encourage people to take more personal responsibility, says Anne Milton

GPs and other health professionals should tell people they are fat rather than obese, England's public health minister says.
Anne Milton told the BBC the term fat was more likely to motivate them into losing weight. She said it was important people should take "personal responsibility" for their lifestyles.

But health experts said the word could stigmatise those who are overweight.
Ms Milton, who stressed she was speaking in a personal capacity, said: "If I look in the mirror and think I am obese I think I am less worried [than] if I think I am fat."

She said too many staff working in the NHS were worried about using the term, but suggested it could help encourage "personal responsibility".

" People don't want to be offensive. There is a lot of stigma to being a fat person”
Professor Lindsey Davies UK Faculty of Public Health

"At the end of the day, you cannot do it for them. People have to have the information," she added.

A white paper is expected to be published in the autumn, which she said would stress the combined role of the individual, state, business and society.

The comments come after Health Secretary Andrew Lansley last month attacked the "lecturing" of recent public health campaigns, such as the drive on school meals that followed Jamie Oliver's TV shows.

Professor Steve Field, of the Royal College of GPs, said he agreed with Ms Milton and already tried to use the term fat as much as he could.
"I think the term obese medicalises the state. It makes it a third person issue. I think we need to sometimes be more brutal and honest. "You can be popular by saying the things people want to hear and in the NHS we too often do that when we should be spelling things out clearly."

The history of the term obesity

* The term obesity comes from the Latin word obesus, which roughly translated means intensive eating
* Societies have long been worried about problems of excess weight with Greek philosopher Hippocrates even writing about the dangers
* But it was not until the mid 1600s that obesity started being used as a medical term and then in time directly linked to other diseases
* Between 1830 and 1850 a Belgian scientist invented the BMI index to measure obesity by dividing weight by height
* The Journal of Chronic Diseases reported in 1972 that BMI was the best way of measuring excess fat
* Over the last three decades the terms BMI and obesity have been getting more and more popular with health professionals as a result

But Professor Lindsey Davies, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, which represents public health professionals, warned against using 'fat' when dealing with patients.

"People don't want to be offensive. There is a lot of stigma to being a fat person."
She said health professionals started using the term obesity to encourage patients to think about the condition in a different way.

"Obesity is something that happens to people rather than something they are. The language you use all depends on the relationship you have with a patient.

"I would probably be more likely to say something like 'can we talk about your weight' rather than obesity, but that is a judgement you make on a patient-by-patient basis."

So says a Canadian study led by Montreal University's Linda Pagan
Mon May 3, 4:23 PM

Early exposure to television is detrimental to children's health, academic achievement and social development, warned a Canadian study published on Monday.

Researchers found that every additional hour spent watching television at 29 months, beyond US recommended guidelines, corresponded to small decreases in classroom engagement, math achievements, and time spent on physical activity in later years.

As well, it lead to increases in victimization by classmates, higher consumption of soft drinks and snacks, and more body fat by the time children reached the age of 10, according to the study.

"Common sense would suggest that television exposure replaces time that could be spent engaging in other developmentally enriching activities and tasks that foster cognitive, behavioral and motor development," the researchers said.

Past studies of adolescents' television viewing habits found this to be true. This study is the first to look at how television affects much younger children.

"Broadcasting has an educational orientation when targeting preschoolers, which might have some cognitive benefits," the researchers opined.

"Nevertheless, preschool televiewing remains a cognitively passive activity at a time when key experiences for developing attention and behavioral self-regulation are expected to occur."

Children in this "critical period," for example, learn how to process information, interact with their environment and eventually use logic to understand math and science.

Television watching had no impact on reading skills, the study noted.

The researchers asked parents to note their children's viewing habits at 29 months and 53 months of age. At 10 years, parents and teachers then reported on the 1,314 children's academic abilities, health and well-being.

The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages any television exposure during infancy and less than two hours per day beyond two years of age.

Children in the study at 29 months watched an average of 8.82 hours of television per week, rising to 14.85 hours by 53 months.

The study led by Montreal University's Linda Pagani was published in the current issue of the American Medical Association's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Children are at risk of serious diseases

March 23rd 2010 Update:
latest reports

The action of sun on skin, and of vitamin D on the body as a whole, have been shown to elevate mood as well as protect against disease. So what about the children who are growing up without a good suply of Vitamin D? How will they get through next winter with what may be the lowest levels of D ever? (taken from Telegraph UK)

Children are at risk of serious diseases caused by insufficient vitamin D that not only protects against rickets and weak bones but also reduces the risk of multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and now, it is suggested, autism, too.

Canadian children deficient in omega-3?

A study published in the March, 2009 issue of the Journal of Nutrition found that most Canadian children are deficient in Omega-3 EPA/DHA. The study found that 78 per cent of the children trialed were not receiving adequate amounts of Omega-3 EPA and DHA in their diets. Researchers from the University of Guelph in Ontario found that the median daily consumption of Omega-3 EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) was only 31.5 mg, in a sample group of four to eight year olds. In this study researchers used the suggested daily intake recommended by the Institute of Medicine which is only 90 mg of Omega-3 EPA/DHA per day. Even using this low recommendation level, the study shows that 78% of the sampled Canadian children were well below the recommended level.

The study also notes that the recommendation by the American Dietician Association and the Dieticians of Canada is 351 mg of EPA/DHA per day. Based on this recommendation 90% of the children in the study were deficient in Omega-3 EPA/DHA.

United Kingdom
Cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D) was introduced as a "welfare food" in 1942 and virtually eliminated rickets. But now rickets is returning. Doctors in Dundee recently reported four cases occurring in children whose professional parents were of South Asian origin.

Their dark skin made them more vulnerable to vitamin D deficiency because exposure to sunlight is the major source of vitamin D, and dark skin makes the vitamin much more slowly than white skin.

But rickets is just the first disease to appear when children do not obtain enough vitamin D.

Babies with rickets are three times more likely than others to develop diabetes. Elina Hypponen, a distinguished young researcher at the Institute for Child Health in London, has shown that babies in Finland who are given vitamin D are much less likely to develop diabetes.

Over the past 20 years, the number of five-year-olds in the Oxford area suffering from diabetes (type 1) has increased five-fold, while the number of 15-year-olds suffering from the disease has doubled.

"The increase in diabetes in children is too steep to be put down to genetic factors," says Professor Polly Bingley of the University of Bristol, who led the Oxford study. "It must be due to changes in our environment."

Children with diabetes type 1 require regular insulin injections to stay alive and are at high risk of long-term complications, which include heart disease, serious damage to eyes, nerves and kidneys.

"If these children had been given a vitamin D supplement, this epidemic of diabetes type 1 might have been prevented," says Dr Hypponen. "Our research shows that an alarmingly high number of people in the UK do not get enough vitamin D - in winter, nine out of 10 adults have sub-optimal levels."

Sunlight is the source of 90 per cent of our vitamin D in the UK. And insufficient exposure to sunlight provides people with insufficient vitamin D, putting them at risk, not only of diabetes but also of multiple sclerosis.

The incidence of MS has also increased substantially over the past 20 years, during which period habits have changed.

People have been warned to avoid the sun and they also tend to spend more time in cars, or indoors watching television. Scotland, with its cloudy skies, has the highest risk of MS in the world.

The risk of MS may be reduced by mothers sunbathing for short periods without sun cream (taking care not to burn), by taking vitamin D during pregnancy, or by giving infants Healthy Start vitamin drops if these were available.

As if diabetes and MS were not worrying enough, it has now been suggested that autism may be caused by insufficient vitamin D during pregnancy and/or early years.

Autistic children have difficulty in forming relationships, but they also tend to have larger heads, changes similar to those found in animals that are bred with insufficient vitamin D.

Recent increases in the incidence of autism, which now affects one in 88 children in the UK, may have been caused by advice to avoid or restrict sun exposure, says Dr John Cannell, a California psychiatrist and founder of the Vitamin D Council, a non-profit advocacy organisation.

The theory will certainly be controversial, not least because it could lend support to the suggestion that some children are harmed by the MMR vaccine.

People who are autistic have been found to be more sensitive to poisoning by heavy metals, a condition that may be more likely to occur when the body has insufficient vitamin D.

Dr Cannell suggests that mercury present in vaccines may have caused brain damage in children who were vulnerable because they had low levels of vitamin D.

Dr Richard Mills, research director of the National Autistic Society, says: "There has been speculation in the past about autism being more common in high-latitude countries that get less sunlight and a tie-up with rickets has been suggested - observations which support the theory."

Other countries such as Germany, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries, Canada and the United States all recommend a vitamin D supplement for babies from birth if breast-fed, and from weaning if bottle-fed, and for these to continue for up to four years or more.

In the interim, the DH advised mothers to use branded infant vitamins, ignoring the fact that these products are formulated with a form of vitamin D (ergocalciferol) that has a potency about quarter that of the natural vitamin D.

Mothers were led to believe they were doing the right thing, but infants given these brands obtained a completely inadequate dose of vitamin D. It has been a story of repeated bungling and incompetence that is not yet over.

ASIDE:
The current adult recommendations for vitamin D, 200–600 IU/d, are very inadequate when one considers that a 10–15 min whole-body exposure to peak summer sun will generate and release up to 20,000 IU vitamin D-3 into the circulation.

for more information:


Art

Tips for Handling Your Child's Special Education Needs

In the broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual might be said to be educational. In its technical sense education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.

It’s not easy raising a child, and when he or she is affected by a severe disorder or disease, you have a greater challenge ahead of you. You have to put in extra effort, energy and thought into your child’s development and progress, one aspect of which includes their education. Some parents of children with special needs may be tempted to overprotect by keeping them in cloistered environments and limiting their interaction with the outside world. This in my experience usually only hampers the child instead of helping them. If you’re a parent with a child who has special needs, here’s some strategies:

* Understand your child: Some children may be able to express themselves while others are limited because of their disability. Whatever the case, understand your child and know that they have a mind of their own even if they are unable to speak it. Instead of forcing your will on them, get to know what they wish to do and cater to their needs as much as possible as long as it does not cause them any harm.

* Be patient: It’s a tough task, but you need to have an enormous amount of patience with your child. You need to condition yourself to be patient through practice and experience, otherwise you and your child will be subject to a great deal of stress.

* Decide on their education: There are many options for providing education to your special needs child, so look for what is available in your area. If you plan to homeschool, you will need to do some research before you’re up to the task. Many feel that it’s better to let the professionals handle this task who are trained and more experienced. Also, your child gets to mingle with other children and interact with them on a regular basis, which is very important to his or her social development.

*Think about inclusive classrooms: Parents often want their special needs children to attend regular schools. Learn about inclusive classrooms and determine if it is a good fit for your child. Consider if your child is up to the task of being educated with general education children and if he/she can cope with the curriculum in such classrooms. Although teachers in inclusive classrooms are trained to deal with children with special needs, there may be times when your child could be bullied or teased by the other kids for not being like them. Take all these facts into consideration before you decide on an inclusive classroom for your child.


Children with special needs need all the help and support they can get from parents teachers and society, and it’s up to you to decide on the best form of education for them.

ADHD Checklist.

The child is much less likely than the other children in class to pay attention to school work and makes seemingly inexplicable mistakes.

The young person appears to have substantially more difficulty sustaining concentration when engaged in practical or play activities.

The child is described as failing to listen even when spoken to directly.

When the child is given a task which they are motivated to engage with, they do not complete it.

The child does not seem able to get hold of themselves and the set task sufficiently to be able to organize their thoughts and plan a reasonable plan of action, yet they do understand what is expected of them when questioned about the task.

Will actively avoid and clearly dislikes tasks and activities that demand sustained concentration and thought.

Teachers and parents complain that the child always manages to loose things. This becomes particularly apparent with respect to school essentials like pens, pencils etc. but they will also be mislaying items precious to them such as toys.

The child is easily distracted. When observed they appear to turn toward movement and noise. The child appears to be over alert.

Routine tasks are often forgotten, leading to frustration in those who have to manage the child, who may complain of the child deliberately avoiding routine tasks.

When observed the child appears much more restless than peers. When on the carpet for instance they may squirm from one side of the carpet to the other seemingly oblivious to what they are doing.

There is a very clear pattern of wandering around the classroom when the task demands the children are seated. They appear to be on the look out for any reason to leave their seat.

The child will take any opportunity to engage in running around or climbing this is particularly noticeable when it is an inappropriate activity and other children in the class are not engaging in these activities.

Quiet play is not something you would associate with the child.

An observer would see the child as persistently active having little need for rest periods.

The child would be described as saying things which are not thought out and as talking for the sake of it.

Answers are blurted out and hands are raised well before any of the other children in the class because the question has not been completed and the child would therefore have no real chance of knowing the answer.

Has real problems with turn taking.

Social skills are weak, using few appropriate strategies to join conversation or play beyond barging in.

The current position is not a recent phenomenon. There were strong signs of this type of behaviour pattern pre-school.