Cancer in kids is on the rise — what's the cause?

Cancer in kids is on the rise — what's the cause?
© Getty Images

Yesterday was the International Childhood Cancer Day. No statistic can ever translate the devastation that comes with the sentence, “Ma’am, your child has cancer.” The news of a child’s cancer is like a cyclone wreaking havoc on an entire family; unfortunately, more and more families are actually hearing it.

Although more than 80 percent of children with cancer in the U.S. now survive five years or more, the incidence of childhood cancer has been steadily increasing by an average 0.6 percent per year since 1975 to become the number one  cause of death by disease in children. 

According to the American Childhood Cancer Organization, “This year alone, more than 1,250 children under the age of 15 will die from childhood cancer.”


What’s wrong with our kids? What is making them sick in the first place? 

Well documented lifestyle-related risk factors, such as being overweight, and habits like smoking and drinking alcohol are known to play a major role in many types of adult cancer, but are not officially associated with childhood cancers, since they usually take many years to influence cancer risk.

However, recent research has uncovered a possible overlap between cancer and autism (another increasing threat to our children: nowadays, one in 68 American children are autistic, 30 percent more than in 2012).  

According to researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, cancer and autism could be superficially different deviations in development and function, that at a deeper level derive from common mechanisms regarding signaling pathways related to metabolic alterations.

Could all those children diagnosed with cancer and autism be victims of the increased toxicity that starts poisoning us even before birth?

A study spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood from babies.

Tests revealed as many as 287 chemicals in umbilical cord blood, 180 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals. And as soon as we begin eating and drinking as young children, additional sources of pollution find their way into our bodies.

In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned Bisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical commonly used for decades in plastic products from being used in the manufacturing of all baby bottles and spill-proof drinking cups. 

Unfortunately, many consumer products are still manufactured with BPA.

Even low levels of BPA affect the hormones that control the development of the brain, the reproductive system, and the immune system.

The National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency found that the BPA levels in humans are typically higher than the levels causing adverse effects in animal studies.

What is the future holding for our children?

There is no more prophetic depiction of this state of affairs than what Dr. Ghislaine Lanctot wrote in the introduction for the 2002 re-edition of her book, “The Medical Mafia,” “Food is irradiated, milk pasteurized, genes modified, water is contaminated, and the air is poisoned.

Children receive 35 vaccines before entering the school system. Whole families are drugged; the father on Viagra, the mother on Prozac, and the children on Ritalin.  

According to the American Cancer Society, “the reasons for DNA changes that cause most childhood cancers are not known.”

Supporting and rejuvenating the functioning of the body’s own systems on a daily basis through potent and complete whole-food formulas is the necessary next step to protect our health.

There is a significant difference between natural and synthetic vitamins: Natural vitamins come with various bioflavonoids, those cofactors thought to increase the bioavailability of vitamins by 30 percent.

Finally, the obvious last step should be to incorporate supplements that help fight the onslaught of increasingly common viruses, such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), human papilloma virus (HPV), hepatitis B and C viruses, human herpes virus and HIV. All are capable of causing the development of cancers.

Other supplements may support a healthy level of white blood cells and platelets, which remain at the core of our immunity. Some studies show that some specific RNA fragments will just do that.

It will take lawmakers, scientists, industry and advocates worldwide to come together to create a new and better environment; yet how many children around the world have to die before we get the message that they need a better, cleaner place to live and thrive?

Sylvie Beljanski is the founder and vice president of The Beljanski Foundation, which does research on natural compounds in order to help fight cancer. She is also the author of Winning the War on Cancer: The Epic Journey Towards a Natural Cure.