When 3-year-old Shepherd Strauss got sick, his parents turned to doctors and drugs. But they couldn’t anticipate that what would help him feel better didn’t come with a prescription.
I assumed that Shepherd would warm to his soccer lessons the next time around. He and Beau still donned their jerseys at bedtime and talked each night about “soccer school” at the dinner table. But the following Saturday, Shepherd burst into tears the moment he started to run.
That week we saw our pediatrician, who referred us to an orthopedist. When no injury showed up on the X-ray, the doctor said that arthritis was most likely the issue. Arthritis in a 3-year-old? It sounded more odd than alarming at first, but over the next few weeks, we watched Shepherd spend more and more time on the couch. His stiff-legged walk became more pronounced, though he claimed that he was just walking like a penguin. Then he started having trouble getting out of bed.
via www.nytimes.com
This article in last week's NY Times Magazine reflects my current belief that modern dietary elements may well trigger autoimmune disease. Autoimmune problems have become epidemic. Could grain and other dietary elements be contributing? Could their elimination make us better? Does our profligate use of antibiotics result in an unrecognizable microbiome that turns against us? Food for thought.
