Teens and multi-factorial early warnings

The good news is that the wider community, public health authorities and medics are beginning to agree that most of the health conditions we suffer from these days have multiple, additive or even synergistic causes and antagonists. That’s what makes them so complicated to deal with and prevent. Add three more layers of complexity: a person’s genetic individuality, differences in people’s environments and differences in each person’s pattern of genetic expression as a result of those environments (epigenetics), and you have a veritable minefield of healthcare options. That’s the world of the modern-day, healthcare practitioner, including those in the field of functional, integrative or lifestyle medicine. The stunning results that so many experience as a result of engaging with these and other forms of natural health practitioner are a big reason why so many of us feel so passionately about the importance of natural health and protecting its future – and that’s of course the lifeblood of ANH.

But we also need to look at the bigger picture of industrialisation and how elements of it are having impacts that are only detectable over longer time periods (multiple generations). One of the impacts we increasingly think is a key marker for disruptive trends in human health, is the ever younger age at which young girls are entering puberty. This is the subject of our main piece this week, and we invite you to look at how the science is coming together to explain the many factors that might be playing a role.

In our news for this week – the WHO calls for farmers to stop using antibiotics in healthy animals, EU Member States again fail to agree on the re-licensing of glyphosate (phew!), mumps resurges and questions are raised about waning effectiveness of the MMR vaccine and – still on that theme – we direct you to a newly released, in-depth analysis of the ‘Andrew Wakefield affair’.

In health, naturally

Rob Verkerk, PhD

Founder, executive & scientific director