Learning how to respect yourself

When summer comes and it’s not raining, a few 40-something men go out to the neighboring courtyard facing my windows, sit down at a table, drink beer and vodka, smoke, eat chips, and play cards. They sit there until the early morning hours. There is nobody there only at dawn. At first I thought these people had just been released from prison. Then I figured they were unemployed, and then disabled pensioners. What’s the difference? The problem, though, is that 6— to 12-year-old boys are always playing there and mingling with these men, and the young boys may soon become inured to this kind of “manly” behavior.

While we can only guess what will become of these children, who watch this scene day after day, Ivan MALOMUZH, medical officer at Kyiv’s Obolon Draft Board, can already say with certainty what their physical condition will be like at 18, when they have their army medical checkup. The physician told The Day about his years-long experience and the way children, especially boys, should be brought up to be healthy.

“About 20 years ago, 7 out of 10 conscripts performed military service. Now we see the reverse: 7 out of 10 do not serve because of severe health problems. When boys are first registered at our board at the age of 16, they already have between two to five ailments. Many children are handicapped. In most cases, boys suffer from cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases, 84 percent have such impairments of the locomotor system as scoliosis and flat feet. Add pathological conditions of the eyes (children are spending too much time on the computer), and the thyroid and endocrine systems. There are also a lot of young men with nervous disorders; there is even an upward trend in mental deviations among children.

“Today it is very common to see children suffering from both obesity and physical exhaustion. Sometimes a young man comes to us, who is 170 cm tall but weighs 100 kg. You can also see boys who are 180 cm tall but weigh a mere 50 kg, about 30 kg below the norm.

“Physical exhaustion results from malnutrition. For example, a family with three to four members may have only one or two people that have jobs, so the family lacks money for a normal, well-balanced diet. When you ask the boy what he usually eats, he will say: macaroni for breakfast, macaroni for lunch, and whatever is available for dinner. I say to the boys, ‘You’d better cook some groats,’ and they reply, ‘It takes too much time to cook groats, but macaroni is ready as soon as you drop it into the water.’ It is also a big problem that a lot of children smoke and often drink alcoholic spritzers.

“They do no physical work — very few boys in Kyiv have the required level of physical exertion. This causes locomotor disorders: children are staying outdoors less and less and are more glued to the television. Incidentally, each district in Kyiv has its own pathology. For instance, Obolon has a high incidence of locomotor diseases.”

Have parents and schools given up on children?

“The point is to teach children to adopt a healthy lifestyle when they are between four and six years old. Parents are often too busy to care for their children. So they should be taught even at the kindergarten level to value their health. Children’s physical activities should be increased, and nurses and teachers should be familiar with their immediate duties and be able to assign a set of physical exercises aimed at properly developing a child’s body. It would be good if kindergartens had swimming pools. If, before the age of six, a child is informed in clear and easy-to-grasp terms about what to eat, how to do morning exercises and cold-water treatment, they will develop a healthy way of lifestyle before they are eight. It is more difficult to explain this after the age of 8 or 9 and even more difficult if the child is between the ages of 12 and 14. At 16 boys won’t listen to anybody and do not understand themselves.

“School meals are also a problem. They must be well-balanced, that is, they must have the correct proportion of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Unfortunately, the food offered at our schools has a lot of fats and carbohydrates but lack proteins. Even the food that children bring from home consists mainly of sweets and high-fat products. Children should mostly consume proteins and drink good, non-carbonated water. Pupils in the higher grades also consume gin, rum and Coke, beer, and cigarettes. That’s no way to be healthy.”

Do you explain all this to conscripts when they come to you? Is it possible to put this across to them?

“No, we are on different wavelengths. They say, ‘You just do the talking, that’s your job. We know what to do.’ These kinds of youths will have a checkup twice a year until they are 25, and they will not be drafted.”

Have you come across any new diseases in the aftermath of Chornobyl?

“In Japan, children who suffered from the aftereffects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were called ‘Hibakusha.’ Maybe we also have these kinds of young people because the children who were born in 1986-88 have the ‘Philadelphia-type’ chromosome. It is not difficult for geneticists to spot it.

“We already have a disease called secondary immunodeficiency. This may be provoked by environmental changes: for example, people who live in the Chornobyl area have secondary immunodeficiency. The same applies to people who live in large cities: there are many children in Kyiv who suffer from this ailment. Just take the air we breathe. It has lead, which may adversely affect a child’s height, and CO2-type nitric compounds — known carcinogens, plus chlorinated water and other environmental problems. Remember that the human body forms one atypical, i.e., abnormal, cell every seven seconds. So if a person has secondary immunodeficiency, their immune system is unable to combat these atypical cells and this person develops an oncological pathology. It is possible to cure secondary immunodeficiency if you remove the child from the contaminated area (if it is the Chornobyl zone) and give him pollution-free food, immune-building therapy, and unpolluted water.”

Does this apply to Ukraine as a whole?

“Almost every individual needs full-scale or preventive treatment. Figuratively speaking, all our health problems rest on three pillars: iodine, selenium, and folic acid deficiencies. If you give a child sea products and Iodomarin, the percentage of iodine in his body will naturally rise. If you give them selenium (a strong antioxidant), as well as vitamins A, C, and E and bioflavonoids, these supplements will also improve his health. But above all, people need folic acid. Even pregnant women should take it. Because our bodies are oversaturated with the salts of heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium, they should be forced out. It is easier to solve the water problem: purify artesian well water by means of a filter or buy bottled water.

“Every individual must consume sorbents, pectins, and functional preparations called phytoconcentrates. One of the most widespread sorbents is Enterosgel. You can also take activated carbon, but Enterosgel has a wider selective range. Smekta is also good. I should emphasize that there is a very good natural sorbent — sunflower seed husks — but it should be a raw sunflower grown without any chemical fertilizers. You can take 1-2 teaspoonfuls a day after grinding it in a coffee mill.

“Pectins are also effective in flushing out toxins. They are most often found in apples and the flesh of pumpkins and watermelons. Every day you should eat two or three apples of any variety and cook some pumpkin. It is useful to eat walnut seeds. Don’t forget salo (fatback), the most popular national food, because it contains important fatty acids. Apart from sorbents and pectins, there are phytoconcentrates, also called functional preparations. They help renew the functions of affected organs. They should be taken for one or two months to treat gastrointestinal, respiratory, hepatic, and cardiovascular diseases. They should be given to children. Don’t forget about Spirulina, which is an excellent source of proteins that children need. A child should eat one g and an adult, three to four g a day of this supplement.

“As for iodine, it is common knowledge that it comes from sea products, laminaria (kelp), and fresh parsley. These products, especially greens, should be taken every day. Fresh quail eggs are also very beneficial for people living in areas with abnormal radiation levels. But be careful: they should be not more than three days old. You can’t force every child to swallow a raw egg: in that case, make an omelet. Naturally, you can also use beneficial supplements in a simpler way by purchasing them at a drugstore — they are not so expensive.”

Our kindergartens and schools obviously have to change their approaches to teaching children the laws for healthy living. Do you have any proposals for the government?

“About 10 years ago there was a program called ‘Schoolchild’ in Ukraine, which set out all the conditions and duties of Ukrainian educational institutions for encouraging a healthy lifestyle among schoolchildren. When Oleksandr Omelchenko was mayor of Kyiv, the city was implementing the program ‘Ecology: Child, Future.’ By all accounts, it is now defunct. This is why we, together with the Institute of Human Ecology, are going to suggest that the Kyiv administration set up ecology-related health centers in every raion, which will employ experts in dietetic therapy and physiotherapy exercises. This wide-ranging program will embrace school and day care facilities. As usual, the main problem is money, but we hope that relevant agencies meet us halfway because this work should be done immediately. Otherwise, we may literally lose an entire generation.”