The Times has just presented an article on the declining age of puberty:

Puberty Article

In the 1800’s puberty for girls and boys was around 15 and 17 years of age, respectively.

In the 1960’s, the ages were determined to be around 12 for girls and 14 for boys. These are the ages that girls first start getting their period, and the age when the voices of boys start to break and they experience a growth spurt.

The new findings are that girls are starting puberty, including breast development, at age 9 (9 years and 10 months on average, which is a full one year ealier than the last time the study was done about 15 years ago). Many boys drop out of choir in England because their voices are now breaking at around ages 11-12!

Some people say this is because of hormone-like substances in the food chain (I agree), and others simply because of a better diet.

It’s interesting to note that over 2,000 years Shakyamuni Buddha foretold, through samadhi insight, that the age of puberty for women would eventually drop to around 5 years of age for this world. He also said that in the far future the world would become so toxic and polluted that almost any item could be used to kill/harm another person, and the Gulf Oil spill illustrates how we are slowly heading in that direction. Amazing predictions from 2,000+ years ago, especially when you consider the environmental circumstances of that era.

Related posts:

1. Legalized Abortion Dropped the Crime Rate, Not Politicians