I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, for school and in preparation for Baby Steps, in particular, and have come across a number of statistics with regard to the health of the people in this country today. They’re sobering. The bulk of them come from the introduction to What’s Making Our Children SICK? I hope the authors won’t mind that I’m sharing virtually all of the stats. (Maybe they’ll inspire you to read the book!)
Given the nature of this list I’m including the references in the main body of the post rather than using my typical footnote tool, but you’ll still find them listed by number for ease of reading.
- 1 in 13 American children have at least one “serious food allergy” (1)
- almost 9% of American children have asthma (1)
- 10.7% of American children have eczema (in some states, it’s even higher!) (1)
- 1.6 million Americans have Crohn’s disease or colitis (10% of these are children) (1)
- about 1 in 140 Americans have celiac disease (note that isn’t all gluten issues, just celiac disease) (1)
- 6-24% of American middle & high school students experience IBS (1)
- 20% of American children are obese (1)
- 1 in 68 American children (1 in 41 boys) are diagnosed on the autism spectrum (1)
- 11% of American children are diagnosed with ADHD (1)
- almost 60% of American children experience chronic headaches (about 7% of these are migraines) (1)
- 20% of Americans “will suffer from a significant mood or anxiety problem during the course of their lifetime” (“Many more will suffer from psychosis, addiction, and other mental disorders…”) (2)
- about 600,000 people in the U.S. each year have bypass surgery (3)
- 1.3 million people in the U.S. each year have angioplasties (3)
Our nation’s health spending is radically higher than other comparable countries, and obviously what we’re doing isn’t working. According to some sources, our life expectancy is lower and our infant mortality rate higher than any of these comparable countries! (With regard to that last link, I find it interesting that Minnesota, the only state in the nation with a really comprehensive health freedom law, is one of the three states mentioned as having comparable outcomes to other advanced nations.)
(1) What’s Making Our Children SICK?, by Michelle Perro, MD & Vincanne Adams, PhD
(2) Competent Christian Counseling, by Dr. Timothy Clinton & Dr. George Ohlschlager
(3) Christian Coaching, by Gary R. Collins, PhD
