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Fast Fact
The mean age for a girl's first period is 12.75 years.
Precocious puberty is defined as the onset of true puberty before 8 years of age in girls or 9 years of age in boys. (Boepple, et al. Endocrinology, Surgery, and Technology, Vol 1, 1996)
Isolated breast development that doesn't progress to the rest of puberty is called premature thelarche, and is a different, benign condition.
Precocious puberty is 10 times more common in girls than in boys. Sexual development may begin at any age. Pregnancy has been reported as early as 5 1/2 years old.
The Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society recommends evaluating for an underlying medical condition in Caucasian-American girls who have development of breast and/or pubic hair before age seven and in African-American girls before age six (Kaplowitz and Oberfield, Pediatrics 1999 Oct;104(4 Pt 1):936-41). These medical conditions include tumors, cysts, thyroid problems, McCune-Albright syndrome, or external sources of estrogen. Doing studies to look into these possible causes is especially important in girls younger than 6, and in all boys.
The earlier before age 12 a girl starts her period, the higher her lifetime risk for breast cancer (probably from the prolonged estrogen exposure). The highest average risk for breast cancer is in non-Hispanic white women, where it is 1 in 8, or 12.5%. In all girls who start their periods before the age of 12, taken together, the risk is 16.25%.
As a girl reaches maturity, she needs to be made aware of controllable risk factors for breast cancer, such as use of estrogen-containing birth control pills (10 years of use would raise her risk to about 22%), first pregnancy after age 30 (if she did this also, it would raise the risk to about 35%), high-fat diet, alcohol use, fertility drugs, pesticides, and radiation exposure. Each of these factors multiplies her accumulated risk.
Corn fattens up America's beef cattle, accounting for 90% of U.S. feed grains61. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) fattens up America's human population. More land (more than 80 million acres) is planted in corn than any other crop. More pesticides62 and more chemical fertilizer63 are used to grow corn in the US than any other crop. Most of the corn, almost 50 million acres of it, is GM corn64. Less than 0.016% of corn production is organic65. If we change corn production, we change agriculture.
Off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico is a dead zone about the size of New Jersey where aquatic life cannot survive. It doubled in size between 1985 and 1999. According to the Congressional Research Service, the main cause of this dead zone is fertilizer runoff - from corn production - that ends up first in the Mississippi River, and then dumps into the Gulf. It's a powerful picture of the cost of industrial corn production66.
Changing this tenth item on the prescription is the toughest one, only intended for those most committed to change. To adopt organic corn means looking at every ingredient label. If there is corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, corn sweetener, dextrose, glucose, cornstarch, modified cornstarch, vegetable starch, corn solids, or corn oil - choose organic. It means skipping most sodas and many baked goods. More than 4000 US products contain corn as an ingredient67. And this doesn't count all the corn used in livestock production. To select organic corn means selecting organic meat, poultry and dairy.
The industrial production of conventional corn has a devastating impact on the American landscape: our soil, our air, our livestock, and our waters. Switching from conventional to organic corn is extremely difficult, but it could do wonders for the health of your family. And no other change would improve the health of so many acres of cropland.
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