Young Adults, in our modern societies, are required to deal with problems which did not exist for previous generations. Environmental, Health, Economic and even Money are now major issues most young adults have to learn to deal with effectively.

Not a lot of preparation or time is given in school to prepare young people for this.

Conditions and illnesses that used to occur mostly in adults are now issues youth people must deal with.

Adolescent violence, depression, obesity, addiction and suicide are on the rise, coupled with increases in learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (AD/HD), eating disorders, Bipolar and Obsessive/ Compulsive Disorders (OCD).

That is a lot of stuff to deal with. How can we best become aware without being depressed by it all?

One way is to look around you and view your world as one more research project - one more investigation - that will lead you to a better understanding of why things are as they are and what you can do about it.

As a young person, Diet / Nutrition is an essential thing to study. Not knowing what you get from your food does not make sense. No one wants to take things into their body that they do not know about.

We will explore Nutrition in this unit. Sustainable good Nutrition at the individual, family and neighborhood level.

You can help make it better at each of those levels.

Cancer, strokes, diabetes, heart disease are now added to a growing list of childhood diseases that is considered by some to be an epidemic gone out of control.

What do adults mean when they refer to disease being epidemic?

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Academy of Sciences have found that children are uniquely susceptible to hazardous environmental toxins.

Exposure to these chemical toxins can cause or contribute to childhood diseases and disrupt learning, behavior and development.

In addition, stress has become a common word. Parents and educators feel overwhelmed, are pulled a thousand directions and work on constant overload.

Single parents, dual working scenarios, and day care raising children add to a fast lifestyle caught in a web of complexity.

Young People are reflecting this complex of social concerns, concerns about health, environment and just plain daily stress.

Did you know that?

One in five children is considered obese
AD/HD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) effects between 10% and 15% of all school children in the U.S. and is estimated to double in 3 to 4 years.

In 1987, The American Psychiatric Association (APA) voted AD/HD, the disease, into existence.

Over six million children between 6 and 18 are taking mind affecting, prescribed drugs such as Ritalin, Luvox and Prozac for treatment of behavior problems, AD/HD, learning disabilities, and depression.

The common link between the highly publicized acts of violence committed by children in the past two years (for instance, Columbine High in Colorado, Heritage High School in Georgia and Thurston High School in Oregon) has been reported to be that the students who committed these acts were on some form of psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin and Luvox.

Research into that connection between the different students will be inportant in helping us understand what happened.

Eating Disorders have the highest mortality rate in psychiatric practice (10-25% die).

Drinking water contaminated by atrazine in Iowa showed a significantly greater risk of low birth rates, premature births, and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR).

Teen Suicide: depression related suicide kills more teenagers and young adults than cancer, heart disease, AIDS, pneumonia, influenza birth defects, and stroke combined.

There is no reason, and no need, for that kind of statistic to exist. We must empower our young people to allow them to do all that they can.

Kindness, respect for one another, learning how to communicate and cooperate are things we must all practice in our daily life.
If we are to gain a deeper understanding of our Youth and the current issues relating to school violence, we must look at the environment, as well as the dinner table, the family, the neighborhood and the classroom.

Young adults are directly reflecting the crisis on the Earth. The Earth’s water is poison and no longer safe to drink without filters.

Our soil, exhausted from erosion, topsoil depletion, and billions on tons of pesticides, is void of the life and vitality needed to grow food that can nourish children’s bodies.

As we pollute our air, water and soil, we pollute our children. As we poison and deplete the soil we deprive our children of the very nutrients needed to develop strong skeletal, brain and nervous systems.

To begin drawing a parallel of Earth and children’s health, the Earth In Crisis section covers some of the most prevalent conditions affecting the Earth.