A new report from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission assesses the nation’s declining health among its youth and “seeks to unpack the potential dietary, behavioral, medical, and environmental drivers behind this crisis.”
According to the report, the drivers behind the children’s health crisis are poor diet, environmental chemicals, lack of physical activity, chronic stress, and overmedicalization. “America will begin reversing the childhood chronic disease crisis during this administration by getting to the truth of why we are getting sick and spurring pro-growth policies and innovation to reverse these trends,” the report says.
“Today’s children are the sickest generation in American history in terms of chronic disease and these preventable trends continue to worsen each year, posing a threat to our nation’s health, economy, and military readiness,” the document declares.
More than 40% of the estimated 73 million children in the country have at least one chronic health condition, the commission explains, while more than 75% of America’s youth are “ineligible for military service- primarily due to obesity, poor physical fitness, and/or mental health challenges.”
The report lists 10 areas of research to address the health crisis. They are:
- Addressing the Replication Crisis
- Post-Marketing Surveillance
- Real-World Data Platform
- AI-Powered Surveillance
- GRAS Oversight Reform
- Nutrition Trials
- Large-Scale Lifestyle Interventions
- Drug Safety Research
- Alternative Testing Models
- Precision Technology
A strategy for making the nation’s children healthy again is due in August 2025.
President Donald Trump established the MAHA Commission in February, specifically tasked with assessing children’s health.
Discussing the forthcoming Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy, Trump’s order states the material will “address appropriately restructuring the Federal Government’s response to the childhood chronic disease crisis, including by ending Federal practices that exacerbate the health crisis or unsuccessfully attempt to address it, and by adding powerful new solutions that will end childhood chronic disease.”
