Part 1 of the round-table discussion on “American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion.” Speakers Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mikhaila Peterson Fuller share insights on chronic illness, corporate influence, and the need for patient-centred health reforms.
American Health Nutrition A Second Opinion – Senate Roundtable, 23 Sep 2024: https://vimeo.com/1018782955/fd45027f3f
Welcome to a special edition of The Daily News. At the end of September 2024, US Senator Ron Johnson held a round table titled “American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion.” It brought together health experts and advocates to address deep-rooted problems in US healthcare and food systems. It provided a rare chance for voices outside the mainstream to discuss how corporate influence and inadequate preventative care are harming public health.
This week, The Daily News is going to cover a few of the speakers every day from this watershed event. This event is of interest, not just in the US but also in Canada, where many have similar concerns about rising chronic illnesses.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known environmental and children’s health advocate, was the first to speak. He shared some troubling statistics that highlight the current state of national health in the United States. Two-thirds of American adults and children suffer from chronic health issues. Fifty years ago, that number was 1%.
“When my uncle was president, about 1% of the children in this country had chronic disease. Today, that number may be as high as 60%. In America, 74% of Americans are now overweight or obese, including 50% of our children. 120 years ago, when somebody was obese, they were sent to the circus. There were case reports written about them. Obesity was virtually unknown. Today, almost 50% of teens in the United States are overweight or obese. In Japan, the childhood obesity rate is 3%. Half of Americans have pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes, and when I was 10 years old and my uncle was president, a typical pediatrician would see one case of type 2 juvenile diabetes during his 40 or 50-year career. Today, one out of every three children who walk through his office door is diabetic or pre-diabetic.”
Kennedy argued that corporate influence in healthcare is keeping Americans sick for profit. He asserted that regulatory agencies are funded by pharmaceutical companies.
“Good news is that we can change all this, and we can change it very, very, very quickly. And it starts with taking a sledgehammer to corruption. There’s the conflicts in our regulatory agency and in this building. These conflicts have transformed our regulatory agencies into predators against the American people, and particularly our children. 80% of NIH grants go to people who have conflicts of interest, and these scientists are allowed to collect royalties of $150,000 a year on the products that they develop at NIH and then farm out to the pharmaceutical industry. The FDA, the USDA, and CDC are all controlled by giant for-profit corporations. Their function is no longer to improve and protect the health of Americans. Their function is to advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry and the food industry that has transformed them into sock puppets for the industry they’re supposed to regulate.”
Kennedy called for a complete overhaul to reduce corporate control and safeguard public health.
Next, Michaela Peterson Fuller, a podcast host and the co-founder and CEO of Peterson Academy, shared her personal story.
“When I was two, I started to limp, and at seven, I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in 37 joints. At age eight, I was put on injectable immunosuppressants. At 12, I was diagnosed with severe depression and put on antidepressants. At 14, I was diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia, which is a fancy definition for chronic fatigue, and I could barely get out of bed for years. My hip and ankle were replaced when I was 17 from the arthritis that wasn’t managed by the medications I was on, and I spent a year on Oxycontin, limping around what felt like broken bones, trying to stay hopeful and not kill myself. I went to university for biomedical science when it became apparent that nobody in the medical system could help me, and the life-saving treatments I was on weren’t saving my life.”
Fuller described her painful journey with autoimmune and mental health issues and how the medical system had failed her. The cocktail of drugs she was prescribed throughout her youth only made her symptoms worse. Eventually, through the elimination of processed foods, she was able to put her symptoms into remission.
“And willing to do anything to not be sick, I tried—this sounds ridiculous—but I tried eating only meat, and by that I mean beef, salt, and water only, knowing beef was the one food that didn’t contribute to my arthritis and depression. Eating only meat put my symptoms into remission again in six weeks. I’ve only been eating beef and lamb for seven years now in order to keep my symptoms in remission. I’m not on any medication. I have no symptoms of disease. I’m in complete remission. After spending 16 years being medicated with multiple joints replaced, I spent seven years trying to get the medical community to take this seriously and conduct some studies. The plant-free ketogenic diet I’m on, which is what it is, has gone viral on TikTok, with over 500,000 people following it on social media.”
In her speech, she pushed for more research on diet-based treatments, noting that many doctors dismissed her approach. Fuller argued that patients need alternative treatments that target root causes instead of just symptoms.
So that’s just the beginning of the eye-opening perspectives shared at the round table. Tomorrow, we’ll hear from more influential speakers who continue to challenge the current health and nutrition systems and offer alternative solutions. Stay with us as we delve further into this important conversation.
