• Jeffrey’s Take: The Declining Health of Millennials - Jeffrey Smith
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According to a November 6th report in Bloomberg, spiking health problems in U.S. Millennials may make them poorer. This was the conclusion by Bloomberg of a report from Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Are we surprised that people are getting sicker in the United States? No. In fact, we think that the people who’ve grown up with exposure to GMOs and Roundup in the food supply will be sicker and those that are older, who got exposed later in life, will be less sick. It may be that this is what this is showing as well.

The Millenials who were born between 1981 and 1996 – 1996 is when GMOs were largely introduced into soy and corn and then it started to increase from there. Now if they were born in 1996, they started being exposed immediately to GMOs and Roundup. That means throughout their entire childhood they were being ravaged by some of the problems that we know are associated. From Roundup alone, it could mean that they’re damaging their gut bacteria, having trouble absorbing minerals, blocking the shikimate pathway  – which is used by the gut bacteria to produce the precursors of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin.

It might be causing cancer because of genotoxicity is one of the problems from Roundup. They might have problems with energy and fatigue because of the mitochondrial damage, and all sorts of inflammatory problems for many reasons, including leaky gut. I mean, the list goes on and on.

So what did the report find? It found that the Millenials are suffering from conditions like depression, hypertension, high cholesterol – other studies show diabetes, and these are not a surprise to us. In fact, we think that there’s a very strong relationship between these, and other diseases, and GMOs and Roundup. You know, Bloomberg talks about the economic impacts, which are serious. Healthcare costs in the United States are already high and we’re on track to make nearly 20% of the gross domestic product in the coming years.

They say that for the Millenials, it could increase $4,500 in annual income expenses just because of the health and that their death rates are much higher than the Generation X that came before them.  It could increase the death rates by more than 40% compared to Generation X.

So what do we know about these particular diseases depression, hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes that are talked about in this report? Well, we know all of them were described in our survey of 3,256 people as getting better to some degree when they switch to non-GMO and organic foods. For mood problems like anxiety and depression, 51% reported improvements. Cardiovascular problems including high blood pressure, about 20%. Diabetes, 10.6%. Now, each of these disorders is also correlated with the increased use of GMOs – soy and corn in the U.S. or the amount of Roundup sprayed on those genetically engineered acreages.

The correlations are pretty high. For anxiety, the r-value is .95. It would be a 1 if it was a perfectly aligned slope. For deaths from hypertension, it’s .96, and .95 for diabetes. Now, these correlations – it really doesn’t matter. I mean you look at the slope and you look at the charts, it’s breathtaking. It looks like one is driving the other. Now,  when we talk about correlation it doesn’t mean causation just from the chart.

But when you have plausible reasons why GMOs and Roundup could be causing the problems; when you have people getting better from these diseases and disorders when they get off of the GMOs and Roundup as reported by them, as reported by physicians, and reported by veterinarians for pets and livestock. When you have laboratory animals suffering from these conditions, or their precursors, when they’re force-fed GMOs or Roundup. Then we have a strong case.

So I would say that the Blue Cross Blue Shield study which was reported by Bloomberg, can blame the tough economy – as one of the contributions to the role in millennial health. Sure a tough economy can cause depression, but I don’t think that’s what’s causing this huge spike. I would propose that we look at GMOs and Roundup and that we don’t wait for Blue Cross Blue Shield to make that conclusion.

We who are listening here, who are getting our newsletter at the Institute for Responsible Technology, can take the steps on our own to switch to organic and protect ourselves and enjoy the improvements in our health. While you’re at it, please share those improvements with others.

I don’t think we should be waiting for Bloomberg to make the announcement so that the rest of the population will come forward. I’m afraid that the mainstream media has largely been biased and manipulated by the big corporations, including Monsanto – Bayer.

I think it’s time for us to be more bold in stating, “Eating organic will improve health.” Tell the Millenials, tell Generation X, tell everyone that you know.

Safe eating.