In our technological age, the problem of consuming too much mass media is an increasing problem. How can a parent best monitor this activity, evaluate what is appropriate and set limits? This is a difficult question, given the uniqueness of each child and the vast array of media and technology available. Perhaps a good place to start is with the most common media children have access to: video games and television.

Obesity and lack of overall fitness are at epidemic proportions in the United States. This trend is increasingly including children whose lives have become more sedentary in our technological society. Some parents realize the need for more exercise in their children's lives, but are wary of physical activities and sports of a competitive nature. They want to find alternatives that will help their children develop more fitness, as well as obtain other benefits. Many adults have seen the benefits of practicing yoga as yoga continues to become more mainstream in western culture. Parents who take yoga themselves naturally want to see their children derive the same benefits. Yoga classes for kids as young as three are springing up all over the country. 

 One day, several years ago, Karen, a friend of mine, came to me with an upsetting story. Her three-year old daughter had taken her by the hand, walked with her into the bathroom, and pointed at the toilet. Then she pretended to stick her finger down her throat and made a retching sound. “Look, Mommy”, she said proudly.

More and more variables are coming into contact with our children and adversely affecting their healthy development. One of these critical issues facing many children and adolescents today is anxiety and stress. Most stress faced by children is natural and to be expected, refining and defining the growing youth and is a part of the learning process that will define the child. While children will naturally have some stressful events as a matter of course and are able to adapt to them with relative ease, other events may greatly threaten their sense of well-being, and can be of greater concern.

There is a growing concern today that can potentially affect all of our children. All one need do is look at the data. The percentage of overweight children in the United States is growing at a rate that should alarm everyone, especially health care practitioners. Children are simply spending to little time exercising and more time in front of the TVs, computers, or video-game consoles. As today's busy families have fewer free moments to prepare nutritious, home-cooked meals; day in and day out, fast food is sadly becoming a staple in most families.

I would like to address something that concerns me as a practitioner. I want to discuss the rising autism epidemic in this country. While autism is considered a multi-factorial disease, mercury is implicated as a possible causative factor. The Autism Research Institute is finding that mercury detoxification is a successful treatment for autistic symptoms and is working hard to develop protocols for practitioners. I applaud their efforts. My concern for children and people impacted by biotoxins and toxic metals has lead me to clearly define the metal detoxification protocols I use in my private practice.

We live in an era where many people are afraid to get sick, to have a cold. We don’t have the time to rest. Often, acute infections such as colds are designed to allow the body to discharge and rest, to allow us down time that we so much need. The modern solution for this “problem” is vaccines. While some vaccines are truly life saving, many are used for convenience without enough data about their long term safety.  Here in California, a troubling decision to temporarily rescind a law that bans the use of thimerosal in flu vaccine puts pregnant women and children under the age of three at an unnecessary health risk! It seems that there are insufficient quantities of flu vaccines free of mercury containing Thimerosal and as such our state in the interest of saving lives has decided to allow the risk of such mercury laden vaccines to be injected into the most fragile and delicate members of our society. This is especially timely given that the topic I had selected for this month as mercury and the developing embryo.