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Why so many more burnouts declared today than before? Perhaps we just have more awareness. Perhaps our jobs are indeed more stressful.

These may be important factors, but I don't think they explains this phenomenon alone. We see a huge increase in diverse kinds mental problems (ADHD, Alzheimer, depression). I think the "Broken Brain" hypothesis by Dr. Hyman quite plausible.

http://drhyman.com/blog/2017/1...

He claims that important factors for the decline of our mental health are diet and exposure to toxins, besides stress.

To start with: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...
"Thirty years of official health advice urging people to adopt low-fat diets and to lower their cholesterol is having "disastrous health consequences," a leading obesity charity warned yesterday. "Eating fat does not make you fat," argues a new report by the National Obesity Forum (NOF) and the Public Health Collaboration, as they demanded a major overhaul of official dietary guidelines. ... Promoting low-fat foods is perhaps the biggest mistake in modern medical history... The report says the low-fat and low-cholesterol message, which has been official policy in the UK since 1983, was based on "flawed science" and had resulted in an increased consumption of junk food and carbohydrates. The document also accuses major public health bodies of colluding with the food industry, said the misplaced focus meant Britain was failing to address an obesity crisis which is costing the NHS £6 billion a year."

See also, for more details: http://drhyman.com/blog/2016/0...

The history is even more complex. A more diverse "basic seven" was replaced by a "basic four" food groups including through industry industry lobbying, especially by the dairy industry, where "milk" and "meat" became half of the groups and the dairy industry supplying printed materials for schools:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Note that most people on the planet are lactose intolerant and pushing milk on many children even in the USA via school lunch programs and dairy industry advertising is causing them health issues. Dairy may have been a better food decades ago before so much recent alteration like the widespread use of growth hormones and antibiotics. Animal fats tend to have other risks associated with them, like too much protein and a concentration of carcinogens moving up the food chain. That said, dairy products can make sense in moderation for some people and dairy farming can be a good use of some grazing land.

They key point is that the idea of a diverse diet including a lot of fresh vegetables was being narrowed to what could be most profitably sold by big agribusiness, which for decades was mostly about dairy, meat, and processed grains.

Related: http://www.macleans.ca/society...

Also related: http://ezinearticles.com/?What...

And:
https://www.alternet.org/story...
"In December 1999, the PCRM filed suit against the USDA, claiming the department unfairly promotes the special interests of the meat and dairy industries through its official dietary guidelines and the Food Pyramid. Six of the eleven members assigned to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee were demonstrated to have financial ties to meat, dairy, and egg interests. Prior to the suit, which the PCRM won in December 2000, the USDA had refused to disclose such conflicts of interest to the general public."

From lobbying, food subsidies in the USA are completely inverted compared to the (not that great) food pyramid which explains why a salad costs more than a big mac:
https://web.archive.org/web/20...
"The Farm Bill, a massive piece of federal legislation making its way through Congress, governs what children are fed in schools and what food assistance programs can distribute to recipients. The bill provides billions of dollars in subsi

From the blurb on his site: "In this New York Times bestseller, The End of Diabetes, Dr. Fuhrman, offers a scientifically proven, practical program to reverse type 2 diabetes without drugs as well as how to prevent it. Having type 1 or type 2 diabetes does not have to doom you to a shorter life span or its complications like high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney failure or blindness. Most type 2 diabetics get off their medications and become 100 percent free of diabetes by following guidelines clearly outlined in the books. By following these same steps, most type 1 diabetics can cut their insulin in half and maintain excellent health and quality of life into old age."

For so many things, as with this good yet limited study, mainstream medicine inches glacially slowly towards reversing bad ideas (e.g. fat makes you fat -- where it is really more that sugar makes you fat) that quickly took hold decades ago with next-to-no evidence (usually to some manufacturing company's profit). Even this latest study put people on a liquid diet instead of just asking them to eat more vegetables.

The big medical problem in a capitalist society is that staying healthy or becoming well is usually not very profitable to third parties. For example, insurance companies make a profit as a percent of revenue, so the sicker the general public is, the bigger the pie they are taking their cut from. The big profits are in treatment and palliation, not prevention and cure.

That said, it does take time, knowledge, and some careful shopping to eat well -- and that is continually undermined by others around you eating poorly and creating situations where poor food choices are on offer (including within families). And people under stress tend to gain weight as their body prepares for expected lean times ahead -- so there are multiple factors (like discussed in "Blue Zones"),

Dr. Mark Hyman has a lot of good stuff in this area too, like his book "The Blood Sugar Solution".
http://drhyman.com/blog/2014/1...

Also related: "The Pleasure Trap" by Douglas Lisle, Ph.D. and Alan Goldhamer , D.C.
http://web.archive.org/web/201...
"Tragically, most people are totally unaware that they are only a few weeks of discipline away from being able to comfortably maintain healthful dietary habits -- and to keep away from the products that can result in the destruction of their health. Instead, most people think that if they were to eat more healthfully, they would be condemned to a life of greatly reduced gustatory pleasure -- thinking that the process of Phase IV will last forever. In our new book, The Pleasure Trap, we explain this extraordinarily deceptive and problematic situation -- and how to master this hidden force that undermines health and happiness."

Some ideas by me on making software to help with health sensemaking:
https://web.archive.org/web/20...

Dr Hyman's "The Blood Sugar Solution" book mentioned earlier (in a Dr. Fuhrman comment):
http://bloodsugarsolution.com/

One of several books he wrote:
https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Hy...

A review on his very latest book"Eat Fat, Get Thin: Why the Fat We Eat Is the Key to Sustained Weight Loss and Vibrant Health":
https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Fat...
"I was a member of Dr. Hyman's beta test group for this book and my results were miraculous. I was an insulin dependent type 2 diabetic with high blood pressure. I have been off all of my medications and have lost about 50 pounds. I have no more heartburn, no more stiff joints and feel like I am 30 years younger. It is truly an amazing book. Words are not enough to express my gratitude to Dr. Hyman for giving me back a healthy life."

His bio:
http://drhyman.com/about-2/abo...

He is director of the Cleveland Clinic for Functional Medicine:
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/...

A related medical practice in MA (great video overview there of the big picture):
http://www.ultrawellnesscenter...

A movie he is in about the societal problem:
http://fedupmovie.com/#/page/h...

Good luck! One thing Dr. Hyman points out is that it helps to get well as part of a community -- it is tough to go it alone. If you can find a buddy or support group to make the health shift with, you are twice as likely to succeed.

No, I don't, actually. This is all based on advise I took from a doctor after being diagnosed with NAFLD. The simplified message they gave me was "eat less sugar." But I looked it up and found things like this:

http://www.webmd.com/heart-dis...

And this:

http://drhyman.com/blog/2014/0...

And of course, an NIH whitepaper that I can't find at the moment.

Anyways, knowing what I already knew about calories, and the fact that I was already consuming fewer calories than my basal metabolic rate, meant I had to shift my calorie consumption away from carbs and more towards protein/fat. And, it was the correct move.

http://www.rebellesociety.com/...
http://www.wildcrafted.com.au/...
http://www.optimumhealthnatura...
"Putting chemicals on your skin is actually far worse than ingesting them. During the process of eating, the enzymes in your saliva and stomach help break these chemicals down and flush them out of your body. But when you slather these chemical concoctions onto your skin, they are deposited directly in your internal organs and body fat. And unlike things ingested orally, there is no "gate keeping" liver there to protect you from these chemicals entering into your body through your skin."

That's a rule of thumb, obviously -- everything has its limits...

Makes me wonder though if there could be any link between disposable diaper chemicals absorbed through the skin and autism or other early childhood issues?

Although, on autism specifically, see also:
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/0...
https://www.vitamindcouncil.or...

"Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent"
http://www.amazon.com/Our-Babi...
"New parents are faced with innumerable decisions to make regarding the best way to care for their baby, and, naturally, they often turn for guidance to friends and family members who have already raised children. But as scientists are discovering, much of the trusted advice that has been passed down through generations needs to be carefully reexamined.
A thought-provoking combination of practical parenting information and scientific analysis, Our Babies, Ourselves is the first book to explore why we raise our children the way we do--and to suggest that we reconsider our culture's traditional views on parenting.
In this ground-breaking book, anthropologist Meredith Small reveals her remarkable findings in the new science of ethnopediatrics. Professor Small joins pediatricians, child-development researchers, and anthropologists across the country who are studying to what extent the way we parent our infants is based on biological needs and to what extent it is based on culture--and how sometimes what is culturally dictated may not be what's best for babies.
Should an infant be encouraged to sleep alone? Is breast-feeding better than bottle-feeding, or is that just a myth of the nineties? How much time should pass before a mother picks up her crying infant? And how important is it really to a baby's development to talk and sing to him or her?
These are but a few of the important questions Small addresses, and the answers not only are surprising but may even change the way we raise our children."

John Holt and Pat Farenga are worth reading too, about "unschooling" as essentially "give your kids all the freedom you can stand, especially in following their own educational interests".
http://www.johnholtgws.com/pat...

Although, I personally feel the more extreme form of "radical unschooling" as some (not all) practice it is like the libertarianism of parenting, emphasizing freedom over all other virtues... Kids are indeed "learning all the time" but the quality of what they are learning can matter too. Also, "supernormal stimuli" of certain media and certain foods may need to be avoided or limited for health reasons because to help kids avoid or recover from "the pleasure trap".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
http://www.drfuhrman.com/libra...

Also related on Myers-Briggs for both parent and child to look at various matchups:
http://www.motherstyles.com/

And:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

That page talks a lot about Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive and Neglectful styles. But the page goes into more types than that (including "attachment" parenting which may be close to the human historical norm within hunter/gatherer tribes where it sounds like a crying baby was rare).

By the way, kids can be much more a discipline problem when fed junk, not fed enough fruits and vegetables, lacking in sunlight, lacking in good gut bacteria, lacking in exercise, overstressed by an early focus on academics instead of play, saturated by violent and sexualized media, and so on. See also:
https://www.drfuhrman.com/chil...
https://www.vitamindcouncil.or...
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/0...
http://www.chrismercogliano.co...

Less of some types of carbs, yes, but more other stuff too: https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr...
"Excess weight interferes with insulin's functions, and is the primary risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. Therefore the most effective treatment for type 2 diabetes is significant weight loss. However, the primary mode of treatment by physicians today is glucose-lowering medication. These medications give a false sense of security, providing implicit permission to continue the same disease-causing diet and lifestyle that allowed diabetes to develop in the first place. Many of these medications promote weight gain -- making the patient more diabetic; most importantly, these medications do not prevent diabetes from progressing and causing complications. ...
The key to diabetes reversal is superior nutrition and exercise. It may take a little extra effort, but avoiding the tragic complications of diabetes and a premature death is well worth it. My diabetes-reversal diet is vegetable-based with a high nutrient to calorie ratio, containing lots of greens and beans, other non-starchy vegetables, (such as mushrooms, eggplant, tomatoes and onions), raw nuts and seeds, and limited fresh fruit with no sweeteners or white flour products. When diabetics eat in this style, they lose their excess weight -- the cause of their diabetes -- quickly and easily, reducing or eliminating their need for medications and they also flood the body with disease-protective and healing micronutrients and phytochemicals that aid the body's recovery and self-repair mechanism."

For Type II diabetics, such a diet with weight loss brings the body's ability to respond to glucose in line with the remaining capacity to make it as needed. Exercise that builds more muscles and that is done when sugar is spiking can also help in managing glucose levels.

For Type I diabetics however, where the body can't produce much glucose at all if any, this improved diet/exercise is not enough, even if it can improve the situation some what as far as reducing complications. For Type I diabetics, this sort of breakthrough with stem cells, if it works, would be truly amazing.

Sometimes type I diabetics are really misdiagnosed type II, and vice versa, so there is a small level of confusion here where sometimes diet works when you would not expect etc..

BTW, vitamin D deficiency (from lack of natural sunlight) may be involved with the autoimmune response that could cause type I diabetes or perhaps make type II worse.

More from Furhman:
https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr...
http://www.amazon.com/The-End-...

More from others:
http://www.rawfor30days.com/
http://www.fatsickandnearlydea...
https://www.drmcdougall.com/he...
http://articles.mercola.com/si...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea...
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/0...

The deeper issue is that our brains and microbiomes are adapted for a scarcity of refined carbs, and we struggle with the abundance of cheap ones:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/libra...
"Scientific evidence suggests that the re-sensitization of taste nerves takes between 30 and 90 days of consistent exposure to less stimulating foods. This means

http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/1...
"The mitochondrial dysfunction identified in the JAMA study I've been talking about is ultimately only one downstream symptom of many upstream causes. Other researchers have found systemic inflammation,(ix) brain inflammation,(x) gut inflammation,(xi) elevated levels of toxins and metals, gluten and casein antibodies,(xii) nutrient deficiencies including omega-3 fats,(xiii) vitamin D,(xiv) zinc, and magnesium, and collections of metabolic dysfunction related to quirky genes that make it difficult to perform chemical reactions essential for health in the body such as methylation and sulfation.(xv)
    The take home message here is that the answer to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders will not be found in one of these factors, but in all of them taken together in varying degrees in each individual. There is no such thing as "autism." Rather there are "autisms"--different patterns of biological dysfunction unique to each child that result in multiple insults to the brain that all manifest with symptoms we call autism."

Also:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org...
http://www.dailycal.org/2014/0...
"To further validate their theories, the researchers cited a study involving Somali mothers, who naturally absorb less sunlight due to their dark skin pigmentation. When they moved north to Stockholm, a less-sunny region, they were found to be 4.5 times more likely to have autistic children, compared to the the country's lighter-skinned natives."

Also may help:
https://www.drfuhrman.com/chil...

Good luck!

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org...
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org...
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/1...
https://www.drfuhrman.com/chil...

That said, there are other factors besides sunlight and poor diet (esp. junk food additives etc.) as well as other odd factors like too much vitamin A relative to vitamin D in supplements. Society was more formally structured (with "manners") decades ago, which made it easier to navigate for people on the autistic spectrum. Kids were allowed to be kids a lot more. Mothers spent more time with young kids (including working from home together on farms) rather than farming young kids out to day care and preschool all day. And so on.
http://www.thewaronkids.com/
http://www.chrismercogliano.co...

which have helped with her own ASD kid (whether vaccines played a role or not): http://www.generationrescue.or...
"5. Explore an Allergen Free Diet
Improvement has been seen with the removal of certain allergens such as gluten, casein, or soy from the diet. Explore a variety of special diets, including the gluten-free, casein-free diet and other allergen free diets through the following resources:
Explore the the gluten-free, casein-free diet
Body ecology diet
Elimination diet
Rotation diet
Other allergen free diet
6. Consider Supplementation with multi-vitamins and other beneficial nutritional support
Multi-vitamins and multi-minerals
Probiotics
Digestive enzymes
Fish oils
MB12
Natural detoxifiers
Anti-virals
Anti-fungals
Anti-yeasts"

See also:
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/1...
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org...

I agree with your point about conflict of interest, which I mention in other replies. Does look like US military personnel get little choice about orders to be vaccinated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
http://thinktwice.com/military...

http://www.bluezones.com/programs/blue-zones-communities/albert-lea-mn/
http://www.bluezones.com/live-happier/thrive-centers/
"Our team of experts Dan Burden, Dr. Brian Wansink, and Dr. Leslie Lytle, empowered the community to make a few small lifestyle and environmental changes. Citizens improved in four areas: eating better, becoming more active, connecting with one another and finding a greater sense of purpose, and reaped the positive benefits of revitalizing their bodies, their spirits and their town.
The community made a variety of changes including adding workplace wellness policies, revised restaurant menu and vending machine offerings, community gardens, walking clubs, walking school buses and new hiking trails.
Community Successes
* Life expectancy increased an average of 3.1 years
* Participants lost a collective 12,000 pounds
* An average 21% drop in absenteeism by key employers
* City employees showed a 40% decrease in health care costs"

Yes, people are up against tough odds. But isn't the point of a "health care" as opposed to "sick care" system to help people succeed in implementing known effective solutions towards greater health?

Related resources on diabetes reversal with various slightly different approaches -- McDougal may be easier for many than Fuhrman as far as diet -- and medically suprvised fastign may work for others:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_hot_diabetes.html
http://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/Diabetes.aspx
http://www.rawfor30days.com/
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/20/5-steps-to-reversing-type-2-diabetes-and-insulin-resistance/
http://drbass.com/disease-cure.html
http://www.healthpromoting.com/condition/diabetes

All have similarities. By reducing foods with high glycemic loads, in the diet, while also reducing a person's body fat, and also improving the nutrient density of the food so the human body works better in general, and also getting adequate vitamin D and exercise which also help improve bodily functioning, most Type 2 diabetics can reach the point where they do not need supplemental insulin or other drugs because their needs for insulin have fallen to what their bodies can manage without aid.

But yes, it can be hard. Maybe the biggest part of the issue is that doctors are trained to write permission slips for unhealthy behavior (called prescriptions) instead of being trained in how to help patients change their lifestyle. How many hours of training does the typical MD have in lifestyle discussions? Especially in the ten minutes at most a typical doctor will spend with a typical patient. More than ten minutes, and a doctor's partners will yell at him or her.

And where is the sick care system's profit in curing diabetes? There is so much money to be made in glucose test strips, drug prescription renewals, insulin pump operations, amputations, and so on. There is a fundamental conflict of interest here.

Meanwhile, when a patient does not make the change, the doctor can just blame the subsequent health problems on genetics and the patient's lack of willpower to follow whatever advice was haphazardly given. Convenient for the well-paid doctor.

Contrast with the advice from the True North Health Center which includes training on how to cook healthier ood (as do other like McDougal's approach):
http://www.healthpromoting.com/
http://www.drfuhrm

VItamin D deficiency, lack of phytonutrients, lack of iodine, lack of omega-3s, excessive preformed vitamin A, lack of early breastfeeding, lack of exercise to move lymph around, artificial ingredients in food, food allergies or lactose intolerance, environmental toxins including heavy metals, and so on could all contribute to weakened immune systems and a build up of toxins in the body leading to mental dysfunction (relative to a historic normal). Examples:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/autism/
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/12/09/breakthrough-discovery-on-the-causes-of-autism/
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/adhd-dr-fuhrmans-antiadhd-plan.html

In that mess of possibilities, some small quantity of mercury, aluminum, and other toxins from vaccines is possibly just one more drop in the bucket. Ideally, the bucket is constantly getting emptied by the body (including through the immune system and other cleaning systems) so it does not overflow and lead to things like mitochondrial dysfunction.

But some stuff, like vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy and the first few years, is structural about how the brain is wired.

Many people have reported success making thing somewhat better with the above approaches to addressing autism (beyond behavioral approaches as well, like training to read facial expressions better). The oft-vilified on Slashdot Jenny McCarthy's "Generation Rescue" website has some success stories of improvements via better diet and other interventions:
http://www.generationrescue.org/recovery/stories-of-recovery/

Whatever one thinks of the vaccine connection, eating better generally is unlikely to hurt. Although I'd look to someone like Dr. Fuhrman or Dr. Hyman for better general dietary advice than just "gluten/casein free', even as food allergies may be a piece of the puzzle for some kids labelled autistic.

I agree though that parents and guardians of autism spectrum children may often feel desperate, and that is, as you say, a risk for getting preyed on in some way (whether by alternatives or the mainstream).

Good luck with your grandson! Hopefully he can learn to make the most of his unique strengths and connections as "Positive psychology".

Today's schools have become so different from those of a generation ago, making all this even harder. Watch out for "the war on kids", especially the push in many schools to drug boys for wanting to be outside in the sunshine running around playing:
http://www.thewaronkids.com/

but I don't think there is some big conspiracy to block it or actual cures. I think the much simpler solution is that curing most diseases is much harder than curing it. And drug companies do come out with things like antibiotics that do in fact cure disease.

With all due respect, like most people inside and outside the medical community, you've been fed a line of complete bullshit.

I've got karma to burn so here goes (this is just scratching the surface):

Cancer-Gate: How to Win the Losing Cancer War by Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.

Harvard Medical Students Rebel Against Big Pharma Ties

"More Marketing Than Science" - An Anonymous Confession About Deceptive Marketing Published in the British Medical Journal

Big pharma loves the (non-stop) war on cancer

The Nature of the Pharmaceutical Industry

Big Pharmaâ(TM)s War on Health

The drugs donâ(TM)t work: a modern medical scandal ~ Ben Goldacre

Money, Politics, and Health Care: A Disease-Creation Economy â" Part I by Mark Hyman, MD

Corruption in Drug Research and in Medicine

A.M.A. and the Drug Cartel

The Disease Economy

25 Shocking Facts That Prove That The Entire U.S. Health Care Industry Has Become One Giant Money Making Scam

Scientific Sleight of Hand: Two Ways Big Pharma Lies to You

People & Power - Drug Money

The 6 Types of Pills Big Pharma Wants You Hooked On for Life

Should We Stop Trying To Cure Cancer?

Top Ten Reasons To Avoid Your Doctor

Doctored - The Movie

The Cure For Cancer Suppressed

Lots of stuff (good and bad) is posted there (along with discussion of good points and bad points). Ignore it all if you want. Other links:
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/new-harvard-paper-on-autism.shtml
    http://drhyman.com/why-current-thinking-about-autism-is-completely-wrong-470/