A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America's Children

by Beth Lambert

A Compromised Generation reveals how seemingly benign elements of American culture are making millions of children chronically ill, disabled, or dysfunctional. Children are being diagnosed with illnesses such as autism, asthma, allergies, and ADHD at a breathtaking rate. The etiology of autism continues to confound mainstream medicine, yet parents, medical researchers, and healthcare practitioners dedicated to unraveling the mystery are beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle into place. They have found that environmental factors that cause autism are the same ones causing epidemics of ADHD, juvenile diabetes, asthma, gastrointestinal disorders, and many other chronic illnesses. Although the specific pathophysiology of each individual child's illness varies, they all have the same basic underlying causes. It is a perfect storm of environmental factors including decades of pharmaceutical over-usage, toxic or nutritionally anemic diets, excessive exposure to environmental toxins, specific American habits and lifestyles, and excessive or improperly administered vaccines. A Compromised Generation provides details on how this epidemic can be reversed and how to prevent more children from becoming ill, supplying evidence that children can recover from chronic illnesses, including autism, by altering their environmental influences and by stepping outside of the traditional western medical paradigm.

Genres: Health, Parenting, Nonfiction

358 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2010

About the author

Beth Lambert is a former healthcare consultant and teacher. She attended Oxford University and graduated with honors from Williams College. She holds a M.A. in American Studies, with a concentration in American Healthcare, from Fairfield University.

Beth worked for a number of healthcare consulting firms in New York City including The Wilkerson Group, IBM Healthcare Consulting, and Easton Associates. She also worked in market research and business development for an e-health company. Her experience in the healthcare industry involved working with physicians, scientific and medical researchers, and corporate executives to assess products, business strategies, and emerging trends in pharmaceuticals, biotech, diagnostics, medical devices and healthcare delivery.

Beth also worked in secondary education and taught and coached at schools in Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York City. As an educator, Beth worked closely with students who struggled with learning disabilities. Beth has traveled extensively throughout the United States, networking and collaborating with other educators through the National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture Program.

Beth is the Executive Director of PEACE: Parents Ending Americas Childhood Epidemic, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the epidemic of chronic illness affecting children and supporting and helping parents connect with other parents and appropriate healthcare providers. In 2009, Beth launched ANSWERS for an Epidemic (www.epidemicanswers.org ), an educational website that also houses a healthcare provider directory for parents looking for practitioners that specialize in recovering children from chronic illnesses. Beth is also the mother of two young children and is passionate about preventing chronic illnesses in children.
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Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 8 chapters or so of this book while informative, are filled with "the sky is falling" type of thoughts. The information really makes you feel overwhelmed and hopeless. So
when the last chapter finally came I was anxious to learn how to overcome and how to heal. Unfortunately, all I got were a couple of bullet points about diet and limiting exposures to environmental toxins. Thanks, for nothing....if you are halfway observant you have heard that before. I guess it is a good start, we just need More in the action and game plan portion.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fascinating look at the etiology of many of the issues which plague our young children. While allopathic medicine does not offer any answers to conditions like ASD, eczema and digestive disorders, and asthma beyond medications that might mitigate the symptoms, functional and holistic practices are untangling the complicated and interconnected underlying causes of these disorders. Once a parent understands the underlying causes, it gives her options to go about healing the child instead of just treating the symptoms. I would say if you keep taking your child to a pediatrician and allergist for a chronic condition and keep getting more of the same band-aid approach, this is a great jumping off point to actually start helping your child get better on your own or with the help of an integrated physician.

Some of the interconnected pieces of the puzzle of chronic disease which are covered in the book are:
1) The digestive system, and how the health or dysbiosis of the microbiome impact over-all health and especially neurological health. (Also included are ideas on how to protect the microbiome and how to rebuild a healthy microbiome in the case of dysbiosis).
2) How environmental toxins play a part on chronic disease, and steps that can be taken to lessen the toxic burden for your child. It is important to note that even prescription medicines and OTC medicines like Tylenol can contribute to the toxic burden and impair detoxification pathways for vulnerable children by using up critical stores of glutathione, leaving the body unable to handle other toxic exposures effectively.
3) How our food system and our Standard American Diet plays a role.
4) How immune system dis-regulation can leave certain people more vulnerable to infections from pathogens.

The book is very well-researched and contains 34 pages notes and references, mostly from peer-reviewed science and medical journals.
There is a final chapter included with many reference on what we can do to prevent these issues in our children, and also to help our children who are currently suffering. This section is rather thin, but does give several resources for parents. There is no step by step plan for recovery, because each child who needs holistic treatment will respond to different interventions and need different support.

I recommend this book for all parents who have a child with a chronic illness, or all prospective and new parents who want to avoid these kinds of illness for their children. On a personal note, I wish I had read this book before I had my first child. I would have been able to avoid some of the issues that he developed in part because of his genetics but also in part because of the bad medical advice I got from his first pediatrician, which only served to compound his problems and make him much much worse. It has taken three years of effort on my part, and consultations with a Bio-Medical MD and an Integrative MD to start to re-balance his body ecology, and I still have a huge amount of work to do to get his digestive system healthy. The two approaches could not be more different. For example, son #1 began having chronic ear infections at age 6 months: Allopathic solution: antibiotics, Tylenol for the pain, then stronger antibiotics when his re-check showed the infection did not go away. Result: antibiotics destroyed the healthy microflora in his digestive system, leaving him prone to re-infection. Tylenol weakened his detoxification system, leaving him more vulnerable to environmental toxins. This vicious cycle continued for a year until he got tubes put in, but by that time, his digestive system was in terrible distress. And as the majority of our immune system in in our digestive system, he had many other problems. For my second son, I knew better than to use anti-biotics for ear infections, and both of his cleared with garlic/mullein oil by the time I went for a re-check (which never happened with my older son and only led to broad spectrum antibiotics for him). Son #1 also had terrible sleep disturbances and erratic energy levels. Pediatrician #1 blamed me for this, and her only solution was to let him CIO. Which did not work, because there was an underlying reason for his chronic night-wakings. When I fired her, pediatrician #2 had no solutions for me either. Finding this underlying reason through trial and error (it was a severe gluten intolerance) solved the problem overnight for him, and for son #2. Where allopathic medicine dismissed the possibility of food intolerances, my Integrative MD looks at this as the very first thing he wanted to test for, and the first course of action toward healing. While my allopathic pediatricians blamed my poor parenting skills for my older son's behaviors, my IMD looked at my notebook full of tests, the charts I have made, and my notes and listened to what I had already tried and what my results were and said, "You are really on the ball, aren't you?" So for parents like me who know that the run-around they are getting from their pediatrician is simply not helping their child get any better, this book offers another path, and resources to find a doctor who will guide you along this path and work with you, not against you.

[Donna Blinston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reccomended Read To Every Parent who has concerns over their childs mental health and well-being. A Compromised Generation expalins a “perfect storm” of environmental factors including decades of pharmaceutical over-usage, toxic or nutritionally anemic diets, excessive exposure to environmental toxins, specific American habits and lifestyles, and excessive or improperly administered vaccines. A Compromised Generation provides details on how this epidemic can be reversed and how to prevent more children from becoming ill, supplying evidence that children can recover from chronic illnesses, including autism, by altering their environmental influences and by stepping outside of the traditional western medical paradigm. Very Interesting.....

[Stefanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an incredibly interesting perspective on the origin and treatment of chronic childhood illnesses like ADHD, autism, celiac disease, and allergies. While I'm wary to buy in to her theory about vaccinations, I absolutely agree that gut health has incredible ramifications in the immune system and behavior of the person affected. A child who is in pain or sick will find it difficult to pay attention to anything else.

The book itself is filled with jargon, a challenging read meant for highbrow academics who don't like fun.

[Budur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a real eye opener. Whether you have a healthy child or one who suffers from autisim, ADHD, allergies, or asthma it really helps to bring a lot of things into perspective. A must read for all parents IMO.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book - not all of the science was accurate, but there were a lot of common sense suggestions.

[Annie Zimmerli-haskel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really important read. Recommend to anyone as its easy to understand and brings up issues that are relevant to all parents.