LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

ADHD

Study of methylphenidate & lithium in adults with ADHD – (11-14-02)

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Study of methylphenidate & lithium in adults with ADHD

A recent lecture by a near brilliant PhD in biochemistry brought this topic to mind. This study found lithium as effective as methylphenidate (Ritalin) for ADHD. Keep in mind that, although lithium has some negative associations with it, safe forms requiring much lower dosages are currently available. Interestingly, although this article showed equal effectiveness, a PubMed search revealed no further or previous studies on lithium therapy and thousands on methylphenidate….Guess which one is patentable….?

Entrez-PubMed

Read entire article here

Childhood ADHD / Behavioral Problems? This Might Be a Cause

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Some days your child seems fine. Other days a truckload of Valium couldn’t calm him or her down. You hate the label of ADHD. Could something else be wrong?

I was recently in a situation around a bunch a 1st graders.  One of the children seemed particularly zoned out and someone mentioned that he must be medicated today.  I don’t think it gets much sadder than that.  I’m sure that there are children who may truly be classified as uncontrollable and disruptive, but this number cannot possibly be as high as the number of children we are medicating.

I personally believe that there are two aspects to childhood behaviors as they relate to ADHD and anxiety.  The first aspect is exposures in the womb.  There is mounting evidence on how much exposures in the womb play a role in the risk of a child being diagnosed with anxiety disorder or ADHD later on in childhood.  Some of these exposures include:

  1. Iodine deficiency in the mother leading to thyroid imbalance in the child.
  2. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from rapidly grilled foods during pregnancy have been linked to ADHD and anxiety.

The second aspect has to do with the child’s lifestyle and family environment once he or she is born.  The first aspect, exposures in the womb, no one can go back and change.  This aspect, however, is readily under a parent’s control.

While I’m sure there are many other aspects to helping your child’s brain, these are a few I have covered in past blog posts:

  1. Higher intakes of unsaturated fats (olive oil, avacodos, nuts, wild caught fish).
  2. Iron supplementation was found to help ADHD symptoms in this case study.
  3. Omega 3 fatty acid supplementation.

This is a brain we are talking about.  And a developing one at that.  This developing brain needs EVERY ounce of nutrition we can give it, while at the same time not abusing the brain with unneeded chemicals, pesticides and stress (including parental stress).

Stress, of course, can relate to sleep.

This particular study demonstrates just how massively important sleep is to your child’s delicate brain.  Researchers looked at a group of 7-11 year old children and set up two scenarios.  One hour of sleep restriction (using normal weekday sleep duration as a baseline) and one hour of sleep extension.  The teachers then rated the children on their behavior the next day.  Here’s what they found:

  1. A mere 27 minutes of extra sleep was associated with improvement emotional ability and restless-impulsive behavior scores as well as a reduction in daytime sleepiness. (Tweet this)
  2. On the flip side, 54 minutes of sleep restriction showed deterioration on these same measures.

Consider these facts when deciding on your child’s bedtime and wake time.  Do they wake up later on the weekends then they do during the week?  It is possible they are not getting the extra sleep his or her brain really needs.  So maybe your child does not need meds.  Maybe just 27 minutes more of sleep could work miracles.

Do you use “catch up” sleep on the weekends for yourself or your children to make up for less sleep time during the week?

UNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS HELP ADHD RELATED SYMPTOMS – (05-16-02)

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Highly unsaturated fatty acids and ADHD-related symptoms

It is so wonderful to see research done into natural therapeutics for ADHD considering that this avenue is rarely addressed prior to pharmaceutical intervention.

This study shows an effect on performance with supplementation of HUFAs. Seeing the diets of many of these children with behavioral disorders, it is not a stretch that at least some of them may be deficient in essential fatty acids. Think of how wonderful it would be to raise a generation of children who are taught that lifestyle factors are the first line of treatment for health problems instead of reaching for the medicine cabinet…

Read entire article here

IODINE DEFICIENCY LEADS TO DEFICIT AND HYPERACTIVITY IN OFFSPRING – (12-15-04)

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ATTENTION DEFICIT AND HYPERACTIVITY DISORDERS IN THE OFFSPRING OF MOTHERS EXPOSED TO MILD-MODERATE IODINE DEFICIENCY: A POSSIBLE NOVEL IODINE DEFICIENCY DISORDER IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

The answer to the origin of ADD/ADHD as well as autism will most likely result in a multi-factorial equation. One thing is for sure–we are doing something different to our kids that is negatively affecting their health and increasing their risk for chronic diseases.

In this study, the concept that kids with ADD/ADHD may have developed a resistance to thyroid hormone as a result of iodine deficiency in the mom is proposed. Iron deficiency, vaccines, antibiotic overuse, poor nutritional quality diets and toxin exposure are all on the list as well. Most likely the answer lies in a mixture of all of these factors.

Read entire article here

EFFECTIVENESS OF IRON SUPPLEMENTATION – (12-06-05)

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Effectiveness of Iron Supplementation in a Young Child With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

While this is only one case study, it does suggest that there are nutritional factors that may play a role in the manifestation of ADD/ADHD. Big surprise there, huh? So then I guess the next question would be what could the iron be doing? Most likely it will allow increased oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, resulting in tissues like the brain, getting more oxygen. More oxygen will mean reduced oxidative stress and better neuronal function.

Read entire article here

Omega 3 vs. ADHD

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Multiple recent studies have confirmed that childhood disorders like autism and ADD / ADHD are on the rise and have been for some time.  It seems clear to me that this is the end result of exposure to environmental chemicals in the womb and less than optimal maternal nutrition, or some combination thereof.  Chemicals known to affect brain development are almost everywhere, prescription prenatals are of shockingly low quality and our country’s collective diet is horrendous.

If this is true, it unfortunately means that the child’s brain may be susceptible due to factors involved in the womb.  We likely cannot change this predisposition.  If this predisposition meets an triggering factor (immunization, nutrient deficiency, more toxin exposure, processed foods and chemicals, etc…) something is likely to happen, and the end result could be autism, ADD / ADHD, type 1 diabetes or even childhood cancers.

I have come across many studies over the years espousing the benefits of certain natural compounds like probiotics and fish oils.  At times, the long list of conditions that have shown to benefit can make someone near giddy with excitement.  However, once you come down you realize that many of these conditions would likely not exist in the first place had we not removed healthy fats from our diet and blast our normal, protective bacterial flora to smithereens with antibiotics at the slightest hint of a sniffle.

With that being said, this particular study looked at the potential benefit of the essential fatty acids EPA and DHA on ADHD behaviors in children and found an improvement in several parameters with the supplementation.

Rather, it wasn’t actually the supplementation that demonstrated the positive effect, but rather the DHA levels in the red blood cells of the children.  This can be an important distinction and may relate to factors such as compliance with supplementation (better compliance for longer periods of time will raise DHA levels better) and the availability of other, less healthy fats in the diet.

Couple this with an unprocessed diet free of chemical additives, sugars and food dyes and it is likely you will begin to see positive changes in a young child’s brain and behavior.  What is there to lose by trying?

ARE EVERYDAY SUBSTANCES HARMING OUR CHILDRENS’ BRAINS?

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ARE EVERYDAY SUBSTANCES HARMING OUR CHILDRENS’ BRAINS?  By now, this article is probably not new.  It hit the popular press almost 2 wks before it was released online.  This is good, but highly unusual.  Basically, our children are being diagnosed with disorders at unprecedented rates.  Autism, ADHD, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety.  These are all scary diagnoses for an adult.  For a child they should be unheard of.

We really need to look at what we are doing to our children that is DAMAGING their brain.  And what are we NOT doing to protect their brain??  This is not a game.  As a parent, are you giving your 2, 3 or 7 year old soda?  Artificial sweeteners?  Artificial colors?  This is about stepping outside of the box that everyone has been put into with processed foods, fast food meals and constant bombardment of electronic input.

This particular study found almost DOUBLE the risk of an ADHD diagnosis for those kids with the highest levels of organophosphates (pesticide) in their blood.  I know that here in AZ there was much discourse over the potential loss of KidsCare insurance for children due to budget cuts.  There was outrage.

But seriously—just how much care should children need!!???  My little 4 1/2 yr old has been to the doctor’s twice since birth.  He needs NO “medical” intervention.  This is how it should be.  Parents–what are YOU exposing your children to??