I think the more we are learning about all diseases the more it is becoming more likely that environment plays a huge role in the greater incidences of all these diseases. Genetics can only account for so much especially as we are exposed to so many toxins on a daily basis - even ones that we don't currently think are a problem.
Interesting article suggesting a correlation between exposure to diesel fumes while in utero and autism:
Back in the 1970s, kids played outside a lot more. They were more active and more INTERactive with their friends and peers. Their brains could properly develop and grow and form vital patterns that they CAN'T develop over certain ages. Now they come home from school, plug into a game console, grab a bag of Cheetos and a half-gallon of Pepsi and sit there for the night in a dimly-lit room.
Back in the 70s, one parent could afford to stay at home and care for young children and give direct and special attention to help young minds develop and grow. Now wages, adjusted for inflation, are about 35% of what they were in the 70s... so both parents have to work and they don't make as much as one parent did in the 70s. So kids are carted off to daycare where they spend many of their most crucial mentally formative years being herded around like cattle. The ones who aren't handed off to a sibling or an elderly parent.
Back in the 70s, kids drank milk, ate apples and peanut butter and real cheese. Now kids drink sugar/water/HFCS drinks, eat microwaved "snacks" made of fat and sodium and sugar and chemicals that I can't even pronounce, gelatinous cheese-like spreads and Red Bull.
Back in the 70s, families spent more time together interacting and helping children mature mentally and develop not only motor skills but language and social skills. When was the last time you saw a family in their back yard playing baseball? When was the last time the average family could afford a house with a back yard?
Back in the 70s, kids had record players that had speakers and required them to put a needle on a record and they would sing along with songs... together. Listening to music was a social activity. Now they plug into an electronic box with headphones and don't interact with the world at all. Even ADULTS have lost the ability to read, reason, interact socially and spend a few minutes alone without flying into a panic if they can't get to their smart phone to post on Facebook or Twitter.
Back in the 70s, we didn't have GMO foods by a mega corporation that now legally poisons us and our children. Now.... we do.
I can't be the only one who thinks that MAYBE that has something to do with it?
Also back in the 70's and earlier women having kids in their 30's was a lot more uncommon. Women having kids in their 40's was pretty much unheard of. With the changes in society neither of these things is now uncommon. And my wife's doctor has told us when we were figuring out how many kids to have that being older when pregnant increases the odds for all kinds of health risks.
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Interesting article suggesting a correlation between exposure to diesel fumes while in utero and autism:
http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2013/06/post_66.html#incart_m-rpt-2
Also back in the 70's and earlier women having kids in their 30's was a lot more uncommon. Women having kids in their 40's was pretty much unheard of. With the changes in society neither of these things is now uncommon. And my wife's doctor has told us when we were figuring out how many kids to have that being older when pregnant increases the odds for all kinds of health risks.