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Better Health Update #21 - Monte Kline, Clinical Nutritionist

Attention Deficit Disorder

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), more commonly referred to these days as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is becoming a more and more common medical diagnosis. Though attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms have usually been associated with children, especially as related to school, ADHD may also be diagnosed in adults. It is estimated that 5-20% of the U. S. population experiences ADHD affecting their ability to focus and learn. ADHD is considered to be the number one childhood psychiatric disorder today, affecting more than two million children in the U. S.
Here are the typical symptoms:

Attention Deficit Symptoms

Lack of attention to details; careless mistakes
Short attention span
Not listening when directly spoken to
Not finishing tasks or following directions
Difficulty organizing tasks
Avoiding tasks which required sustained effort
Constantly misplacing and losing things
Easily distracted
Forgets daily routines

Hyperactivity Symptoms

Fidgeting; inability to sit still
Leaving seat in classroom when required to sit
Inappropriate playing, running, climbing, etc.
Inability to play quietly
Needing to be constantly alone or with someone
Doesn't fatigue easily; constantly driven
Talks excessively
Blurts out answers before questions are complete

Having six or more items that significantly impair from each of these lists constitutes a diagnosis of ADHD. One 10-year-old with ADHD summed up the symptoms this way:

"You wouldn't want to be inside my head. You'd be trampled to death."

IS IT NEW?

I've often wondered if there is more ADHD today than there was when I was in elementary school in the 1950's. It seems like there were always one or two kids in class than were hyperactive - usually the "class clown" was in this category. But in those days there was a stronger authority structure that was rarely challenged with the teacher as its respected head. Teachers exercised more control and discipline over the children and had the full support of virtually all the parents in doing so. Most of the kids were living with their two biological parents. What was right and wrong in society was crystal clear.

Then came the late 1960's and 1970's with the dilution of our cultural values and norms. Right and wrong became relative. Pop education ideas taught that children were to be gently guided rather than firmly controlled and disciplined. The institution of marriage went to Hell in a handbasket with more and more kids being raised by a single mother, having no consistent male authority figure in their lives.

Then, drug-oriented medicine came into the picture, and decided hyperactivity was a disease, and therefore it needed to be drugged. Teachers were thrilled because it's a lot easier to give a kid a pill that makes him a zombie than work through and around his hyperactivity. Teachers went from teaching the three R's to the four R's - Readin', Ritin', Ritmetic, and Ritalin.

THE RITALIN "ANSWER"

Six percent of all the school-aged children (ten percent of the boys) in America take the drug Ritalin, or other stimulant drugs. That makes the usage here five times greater than anywhere else in the world. No definitive long-term studies are available on this drug. Teachers and school officials often pressure parents to use this drug, mostly to make their lives (the teachers and school officials) easier, with precious little concern to the potential health risks to the child.

Ritalin is in the same category of stimulant drugs as cocaine, methadone, and methamphetamines. Exactly why a stimulant drug would help with hyperactivity remains somewhat of a mystery. While there are bound to be extreme cases requiring this or other hyperactivity drugs, this "rush to Ritalin" by millions is absolutely insane. Ritalin has two basic problems - (1) potential for abuse and (2) side-effects.

Is Ritalin becoming the "drug of choice" for the younger generation? It is now being illegally sold among junior high and high school students as a "cheap high." It is now considered a "gateway drug," because it's often the first drug children will experiment with before "graduating" to the more typical, illicit drugs. No parent, teacher or school official should bemoan our horrible drug problem when they have taught their kids from square one that "drugs are the answer to your problems." Until we get away from our society's overusage of medical drugs, you will do the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and other programs in vain. We all need to learn early on to deal with root causes not just treat symptoms.

Side-effects of Ritalin include: stunted growth, depression, suicidal tendencies, nervousness, seizures, and insomnia, to name a few. Concern about Ritalin abuse led to the founding of Parents Against Ritalin by Deborah Jones (Address: 225 South Brady, Claremore, OK 74017. Phone: (800) 469-5929), whose basic conviction is that Ritalin should rarely be used. James Braly, M.D., author of Dr. Braly's Food Allergy & Nutrition Revolution, states:

"Ritalin makes a normal adult behave hyperactively, but it has the paradoxical effect of calming a hyperactive child - so much so that it may turn him into a dull, unresponsive, semi-aware robot. It's not much of a trade-off."

The often inappropriate use of Ritalin is noted by Peter R. Breggen, M.D., Director of the Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology. In a May 20, 1996 letter to The New York Times Dr. Breggen notes a number of characteristics that may cause a child to be mislabeled "ADHD." He states:

"Many such children are energetic, creative and independent youngsters struggling within the constraints of an inattentive, conflicted or stressed adult environment. Thus we end up drugging our best and brightest."

CAUSES OF ADHD

In my experience over many years of working with ADD and ADHD children and adults, several main causes consistently show up. One or more of these may be involved with a given individual:

1. Refined Sugar/Flour Diet - Diet is foundational to most health problems, including this one. You can easily tell the "well-sugared" kids by their hyperactive behavior. I gather teachers especially notice this in the classroom right after Halloween. I say it again and again - Refined sugar is poison! It behaves like an addictive drug and does nothing but damage in the body. Refined flour quickly turns to sugar in the body, so it's virtually the same.

2. Food Additives - If we operate on the presupposition that there's a lot more hyperactivity in kids today than 30 or 40 years ago, we must ask why. What has changed? One thing that's changed on the physical level is consumption of a lot more synthetic food additives - colorings, flavorings, preservatives, etc. Not being food, these are toxic to the body. The Feingold Diet for hyperactive children places a major emphasis on the role of additives.

3. Food Sensitivities - In my view this is one of the biggest causes of ADHD. In our ADHD clients we invariably see many food sensitivities to common foods like dairy products, wheat, corn, etc. Reactions to these foods can produce significant changes in mood and behavior.

4. Environmental Sensitivities - Reactions to dust, mold, pollens, and the like may also be related to any kind of behavioral problem. However, generally the food sensitivities are more significant and more foundational.

5. Nutrient Deficiencies - Generally people with ADHD show lots of nutrient deficiencies. I'm particularly concerned with calcium, magnesium, B-vitamins, and essential fatty acids. A recent study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found a link between essential fatty acid deficiency and ADHD in 53 out of 100 boys studied.

6. Fluorescent Lighting - A significant amount of research has been done on the ill-effects of regular fluorescent lighting, such as is found in most school classrooms. It is a very unnatural light, disproportionately high in the yellow and red part of the spectrum and missing the beneficial, immune stimulating near ultraviolet part of the spectrum. Full spectrum fluorescent tubes, such as we use at Pacific Health Center, correct this problem.

7. Unrecognized Learning Style - Children (and adults) tend to have a predominant learning style, a way of taking in and processing information. Some are visual (eyes), while others are auditory (ears), and others are kinesthetic (hands on). Classrooms are basically oriented toward auditory and, to a lesser extent, visual learning styles. Most hyperactive kids, however, are kinesthetic. They learn through their muscles by moving and touching and taking things apart.

NATURAL APPROACHES TO ADHD

Overall, as always, only individual Electro-Dermal Testing will give us a comprehensive picture of causes and remedies. Some general approaches, however, are:

1. Strictly avoid refined sugar and flour.

2. Strictly avoid food additives.

3. Avoid carbonated beverages - High phosphate level often cause low calcium and magnesium, which may lead to seizures or hyperactivity.

4. Avoid a high meat & fat diet - These are likewise high phosphorus.

5. Vitamin/Mineral Supplementation - Get on a quality, sugar-free, vitamin mineral supplement and probably an extra chelated multi-mineral.

6. Herbal Supplements - Various herbs may be helpful, subject to individual testing. Our Mentat, Calmacin, and St. John's Wort formulas are possibilities.

7. Essential Fatty Acid Supplements - An EFA supplement may be appropriate, such as from borage oil or flaxseed oil.
8. GABA Supplement - Gamma-amino butyric acid has been shown in studies to decrease hyperactivity, and, in addition help violence, epilepsy, mental retardation, and learning disabilities.

7. Homeopathic Remedies - We have used several different homeopathic combinations related to nervous system and brain function. Serotonin-Dopamine Liquescence, Pineal Liquescence, Attention Deficit Drops, Neurocalm Drops, and others are possibilities. Individual testing is necessary on these.

8. Home Educate - I know of nothing better for a hyperactive child than home education. The method easily adjusts to the child's uniqueness and probable kinesthetic learning style. You can totally control the diet, which is essential. And you won't have teachers and school officials trying to drug your child, creating far more serious health problems. Having home educated our daughter (who was not ADHD) from first grade through high school, I know this works - she immediately became a honor student in her first classroom education-in college.

DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this publication is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose illness nor prescribe treatment. Rather, this material is designed to be used in cooperation with your nutritionally-oriented health professional to deal with your personal health problems. Should you use this information on your own, you are prescribing for yourself, which is your constitutional right, but neither the author nor publisher assume responsibility.