After the cot death epidemic that began in the 1960s the air of clean green New Zealand became increasingly harder to breath.
Today New Zealand has the second highest rates of asthma in the the world – right behind the UK.
During the 1970s, 80s and 90s health professionals tracked an exponential rise in childhood asthma and allergies which eventually plateaued to be followed by a similarly meteoric rise in potentially deadly food allergies among children.
If the research linking selenium deficiency in the womb to respiratory defects in infants is indeed correct, could that also be behind our asthma rates?
That’s the fifth chapter of Just Cause and Effect – Selenium Deficiency in New Zealand – if you only read one book this year, this should be it.
