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| | | From: Rene (Original Message) | Sent: 4/13/2005 11:51 PM |
ADHD without Drugs Attention Paid
You've probably noticed that attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) has been "re-branded" in the mainstream medical marketplace. Yep - it's not just for kids anymore. If we're to believe drugs at all. And even more rare is a study that dares imply that a nutritional deficiency might actually play a role in attention deficit. Against all odds, however, I found such a study. And while its design and methods are refreshingly drug-free, the dietary conclusion requires a closer look. Bring on the kids The study itself is simple enough. Knowing that iron deficiency may trigger abnormal neurotransmission, researchers at the European Pediatric Hospital in Paris, France, evaluated the
deficiency of this mineral in two groups of adolescents.
As reported in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, blood samples from more than 50 kids between the ages of 4 and 14 years - all diagnosed with ADHD - were examined to determine ferritin levels. (Ferritin is a protein that stores iron.) The researchers also examined blood samples from a control group of nearly 30 kids with no symptoms of ADHD.
The French team reported three striking results:
* The ADHD group had a lower average ferritin level compared to the control group.
* Almost 85 percent of the ADHD kids had abnormal ferritin levels, compared to less than 20 percent of the control subjects. * The most severe ADHD symptoms were observed in kids with low ferritin levels.
In their conclusion, the researchers write that low iron stores may contribute to ADHD, and children with ADHD might benefit from iron supplementation. The plus and the minus I knew that HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., would find this study interesting. In the e-Alert "How to Dismantle an '89 Ford" (6/3/02), Dr. Spreen wrote at some length about the ways nutrition directly affects kids' behavior, particularly in regard to ADHD.
After looking over the French research, Dr. Spreen told me he thought the results were dependable, and described the study
as "very helpful." But he added: "Then again, there's some reading between the lines that I would suggest..."
Dr. Spreen: "Unfortunately, it can be a bit more difficult than just giving iron in such a situation. One of the rubs comes in when you try to evaluate whether the problem is actually iron or could these kids be generally nutritionally deficient? No levels of any other nutrients were taken, so we have no idea at all if the problem is really iron or a plethora of nutrients. (My personal experience leads me to believe that such kids are generally trashed, nutritionally, besides just iron, which is all that ferritin measures.)" The bigger picture "Okay, so let's say the problem is iron...alone. Most of the solutions tend to be inorganic iron in supplement form (or, heaven forbid, by injection). First, it tends to be poorly
absorbed, and second, such agents are well known to generate the formation of free radicals, molecules that damage cell membranes throughout the body. That's why our bodies insulate us from our own iron by placing it within a heme ring (hemoglobin). We need the stuff for oxygen transfer, but we also need to be protected from it.
That's why I recommend organic iron, as in calves liver (good luck getting THAT down a kid), or desiccated liver tablets.
"So the problem is STILL iron. Remember that, free radicals or not, it's possible that the iron may not be absorbed well. I've had several patients who took iron (including painful injections) for laboratory-confirmed anemia (low iron levels) and still remained anemic!
When I threw in high levels of vitamin B-12 and folic acid (higher than the silly RDA), even if they were not clinically low in these nutrients, their iron levels normalized. That's why I 've learned to take a more 'shotgun' approach, even if I think I know what the actual problem is.
"Ah, but it gets better (or, maybe, worse): I don't think correcting iron alone will do it (with or without B-12, folic acid, and maybe even digestive enzymes). If food
allergies are not dealt with, if sugar and refined white flour are not massively lowered, if artificial additives are not eliminated (colors, flavors, MSG, preservatives,
etc.), the changes from supplements could still fail to work properly.
"I FIRMLY believe ADHD is fixable...without drugs of any kind in the VAST majority of cases."
If you have a child, a grandchild or a friend who may have been diagnosed with ADHD, I strongly recommend Dr. Spreen's nutritional tips for addressing this problem.
To read about them in more detail, you can easily use key words to search for "How to Dismantle an '89 Ford" in the HSI e- Alert archives on our web site: www.hsibaltimore.com To Your Good Health,
Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute
Sources:
"Iron Deficiency in Children With Attention- Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder" Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Vol. 158, No. 12, December 2004, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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| | | From: Rene | Sent: 4/14/2005 12:10 AM |
Treating ADHD - Dietary Issues
Long-Distance Connection
In looking for effective ways to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) without medication, researchers often focus on dietary issues (see Daily Health News , October 4, 2004). These issues have centered primarily on food additives, in particular artificial colorings, flavorings and preservatives. So I was surprised when a reader queried me about a possible connection between ADHD and celiac disease, which is an inability to digest gluten (a protein found in wheat and several other grains). It was hard to find an expert in this area, but I did -- Aristo Vojdani, PhD, MT, CEO of the Immunosciences Lab, Inc., a microbiology and immunology research facility in Beverly Hills, California. Dr. Vojdani said that his company did indeed have research concerning celiac and ADHD. Indirect Connection - Celiac Dr. Vojdani stressed immediately that there is no direct connection between celiac and ADHD. However, he says that there is indirect evidence that having antibodies against gluten, as happens in celiac, could make some neurological disorders, including ADHD, worse. The explanation about how this happens is somewhat complex -- in fact, you may find it takes you back to your high school biology classes... If a person suffers from celiac disease, his/her body sees gluten and its related proteins as intruders and makes antibodies against them. This has critical implications for the gastrointestinal (GI) tract because the antibodies make it virtually impossible for the GI tract to digest anything with gluten in it. Symptoms include diarrhea, bloating and flatulence... and the body becomes unable to absorb nutrients. ADHD also can be associated with gluten sensitivity. With gluten sensitivity, your body makes antibodies only against gluten, not its related enzymes. Being gluten sensitive means that you don't do well with gluten in your diet, but it doesn't have the broader health consequences of being unable to absorb nutrients that celiac disease does. You may have mild problems of indigestion, bloating, gas and nausea... or you may have no symptoms at all. More to the point for us, however, is that, according to Dr. Vojdani's research, the antibodies against gluten impact the function of the brain. What happens in the brain -- very roughly speaking -- is this. Both celiac sufferers and those who are gluten sensitive can't digest the gluten peptide (peptides are very short proteins made up of an amino acid chain). Gluten peptides escape from the GI tract and get into the blood. Antibodies then form to fight these intruders. In spite of the antibodies, some of the gluten peptides manage to cross into the brain. Once there, they bind to receptors known as opioid receptors, which are primarily responsible for sensing positive pleasure-like stimuli. Like in a child's game of musical chairs, since the gluten peptides already have claimed a place on the receptors, when the opioid peptoids try to bind, there isn't any room. It is as if the gluten peptides have elbowed them out of line. The result is neurological impairment, which manifests in autism, ADHD or migraines. Dr. Vojdani's work has focused largely on autism, but he says that there is reason to think that the inability to digest gluten peptide exacerbates symptoms in some people with ADHD, and also some migraine sufferers. His lab has found that about one-third of the autistic children have gluten sensitivity and he surmises that this would be true of about the same percentage of those with ADHD. Now What? Testing For those with ADHD, Dr. Vojdani suggests having a blood test to determine the presence or absence of the antibodies to gluten. This is a simple test, he says, and it will tell you if gluten sensitivity is an issue. If antibodies are present, you should eliminate gluten completely from the diet. (See Daily Health News , October 4, 2004 for exactly what this entails... another good source for information is www.celiac.com.) Dr. Vojdani says that while a gluten-restricted diet will have almost an immediate effect on ADHD symptoms for some people, more typically it will take three or so months to determine if the diet is helping. This is just the beginning of findings associating poor digestion with autoimmune diseases. Stay tuned for more. |
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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, one simple cause: poor nutrition and food additives New research is appearing now that's showing the link between the consumption of food additives by children -- especially food colorings -- and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Well-informed parents have long realized that the consumption of food additives causes hyperactivity in their children, but most conventional doctors have dismissed the idea as pure bunk. Of course, far too many doctors dismiss the idea that food choice has any relationship to health in the first place, so the view from conventional medicine doesn't carry much weight. The real story here, however, is not that food additives and artificial colorings cause ADHD, but that there are several other dietary substances that heavily influence a child's mental state and day-to-day behavior. Let's face it -- the human brain is a flesh and blood organ, and it is strongly influenced by blood chemistry, which is, in turn, dictated almost entirely by diet. What you eat, in other words, determines what your blood composition looks like, and what your blood composition looks like determines the way your brain functions. Of course there are other factors such as physical exercise and environmental influences, but the largest factor of all is dietary. So when you eat processed foods containing additives and artificial colors, you are introducing toxic chemicals into your bloodstream. Those chemicals find their way into the brain and alter brain function, and in the case of children who have been diagnosed with ADHD, it alters their behavior to make them restless or to have a shortened attention span. It can also cause children and adults alike to display other problems derived from their mental state. But it isn't just food additives -- it's also refined carbohydrates. People who eat large quantities of white bread (or food containing refined white flour) also suffer from mental disorders. These can include depression, aggression and violent behavior, and learning disabilities. Consuming refined carbohydrates also causes people to have brain fog -- that is, they can't concentrate for very long, and they don't feel like they have clarity of mind. Drinking soft drinks also causes the same effect, because it is essentially the same macronutrient that's poisoning your body: refined sugars. As it turns out, these refined sugars also cause behavioral disorders by depleting the body of nutrients that are critical for neurological health. These nutrients include the B vitamins and several notable minerals, including magnesium and zinc. When the human body is deficient in these vitamins and minerals, it will, of course, exhibit both mental and physical disorders. The problem in all of this is that rather than recognizing the true cause of these mental and physical disorders in our children and in our adult population, conventional medicine labels it a disease. Therefore, the treatment becomes a drug rather than changing your diet, and that's where things get crazy, because now we're dosing up tens of millions of our children on Ritalin when the true answer to their behavioral problems or lack of focus is to immediately remove soft drinks, cookies, and sugary breakfast cereals from their diets. If you feed your children foods that enhance their health -- that is, unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and superfoods -- then they won't exhibit these behavioral problems. In fact, the solution to all this is surprisingly simple -- we need to change the diets of our children. We need to take vending machines out of our public school systems. We need to reformulate school lunch programs so that they are feeding our children foods that promote learning and mental health. We also need to educate parents about how to feed their children right so that they aren't so easily influenced by foods that their children want to eat. And finally, we need to ban all advertising and marketing of unhealthy products to children. It should be illegal, in a civilized society, for companies that manufacture products that cause obesity and ADHD to promote those products to children, because it only creates a cycle of disease and chronic illness that brings society down, and the long-term effect of all of this is, of course, skyrocketing health care costs. Once again, the answer to all of this is simply to change the foods and drinks that we feed our nation's children. The answer is certainly not to be dosing our children with powerful narcotics such as Ritalin, because right now in this country we are raising a generation of brain-numbed children through our public school system and through the reckless, widespread pharmaceutical prescribing habits of many doctors and psychiatrists.
www.NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published August 19 2004 All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. Newstarget.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NewsTarget.com/terms.shtml |
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