Top 5 Child Disorders That Start With The Letter "A"
Jarek Esarco
Over ⅓ of all children suffer from one or more disorders that start with the letter “A”. Those disorders are Autism, Allergies, ADHD, Asthma and Anxiety.
Current research has Autism effecting 2.78 percent of the pediatric population or 1 in 36. Allergies effect 4 percent or 1 in 25. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) effects 10 percent or 1 in 10. Asthma also effects 10 percent or 1 in 10. And lastly, Anxiety effects 25 percent or 1 in 4 of the pediatric population.
There has been a steady increase in all these disorders in the last 15-20 years. Why the increase? Why these conditions?
The quick and easy answer would be to blame genetics. But that is only half the truth. While genetics play a part, the epigenetic factors influencing our genes are just as much a contributor to the problem, if not more.
What is epigenetics? Quoting Dr. Bruce Lipton, PhD:
“Epigenetics is the science of how environmental signals select, modify and regulate gene activity…the activity of our genes is constantly being modified in response to life experiences.”
To use an analogy, genetics are similar to the predetermined hardware of a computer and epigenetics are like downloadable software programs that initiate or terminate certain elements of the hardware.
Epigenetic factors include nutrition, emotions, physical activity, environmental changes, and many other lifestyle choices. And this is where I (and many others) speculate the increase in these disorders is stemming from.
Quoting Dr. Francis Collins, MD, PhD, former Director of the Human Genome Project and former director of the National Institutes of Health:
"...genes alone do not tell the whole story. Recent increases in chronic diseases like diabetes, childhood asthma, obesity or autism cannot be due to major shifts in the human gene pool as those changes take much more time to occur. They must be due to changes in the environment, including diet and physical activity, which may produce disease in genetically predisposed persons."
We are changing the environment in a negative way. We are changing our diet in a negative way. We are changing our physical activity in a negative way. We are changing our life experiences in a negative way. It is not one specific factor but a combination of negative influences contributing to the stark rise in these childhood disorders.
The epigenetic changes are negative because we are not adapting to the influences in a beneficial manner. If we do not adapt properly, we can’t reach balance or homeostasis. If we don’t reach homeostasis, we can’t achieve health. And the absence of health is disease. The more we stray away from adaptation, the more we tilt into disease.
How does Chiropractic fit into this discussion? Chiropractic does not change the negative epigenetic factors directly. Chiropractic addresses the adaptive quality of the human being. Chiropractic is unique in its approach. Quoting Dr. BJ Palmer, DC:
“While other professions are concerned with changing the environment to suit the weakened body, Chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to suit the environment.”
Chiropractic is concerned with the Nerve System and its management of health. Chiropractic helps correct nerve disruptions found in the spine. These are called vertebral subluxations. Vertebral subluxations prevent the Nerve System from working at its best.
If the Nerve System can’t work at its best, it can’t adapt to its potential. This means homeostasis struggles to balance. The expression of health is altered.
If the Nerve System is working at its best, it can adapt better, reach homeostasis better and strive for health at a greater potential.
This does not mean we continue changing the environment for the worse and then try and adjust the body after the fact. That is like trying to catch a snowflake in an avalanche. We need to be more proactive in our approach.
My aim in this article is not to dive deep into each negative factor and how it effects these conditions. All I want to do is shine a small light on the fact that detrimental epigenetic influences are at play in these childhood disorders. How we as a society go about modifying these factors will take a cultural shift in health and all things adjacent to health. The more we nurture our nature for the better, the better our health will be.
Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP is a pediatric, family wellness and upper cervical specific Chiropractor. He is an active member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA). Dr. Jarek has postgraduate certification in Pediatric Chiropractic through the ICPA. Dr. Jarek also has postgraduate certification in the HIO Specific Brain Stem technique through The TIC Institute. Dr. Jarek is happily married to his wife Regina. They live in Youngstown, Ohio with their daughter Ruby.