Does your child display signs of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)? Here’s what to do (instead of drugs):
This is the program recommended by The Optimal Wellness Center for kids (and adults) who suffer from ADHD:
· Increase their intake of omega-3 fat. This is the single most important nutrient for ADHD children. The best source is krill oil, which can be taken in capsule form. Other excellent sources are salmon oil, high-quality fish oil, and flax seed oil. Egg yolks, tuna, seeds and leafy green vegetables are dietary sources.
· Allow them to drink only water for a beverage, taking care to avoid fruit juices, soda, and pasteurized milk
· Restrict or eliminate all processed foods, sugars and most grains from their diet. Processed foods contain artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives, which may aggravate or cause ADHD symptoms.
ADDers Are More Likely to Have Fatty Acid Deficiencies
by Theresa Gallagher A Purdue University study showed that kids low in Omega-3 essential fatty acids are significantly more likely to be hyperactive, have learning disorders, and to display behavioral problems. Over 2,000 scientific studies have demonstrated the wide range of problems associated with Omega-3 deficiencies. The American diet is almost devoid of Omega 3's except for certain types of fish (cold-water fatty fish). In fact, researchers believe that about 60% of Americans are deficient in Omega-3 fatty acids, and about 20% have so little that test methods cannot even detect any in their blood.
Your brain is more than 60% structural fat, just as your muscles are made of protein and your bones are made of calcium. But it's not just any fat that our brains are made of. It has to be certain types of fats, and we no longer eat these types of fats like we used to. Worse, we eat the wrong kind of fats, which interfere which our body's attempt to utilize the tiny amount of Omega-3 fats that it gets.
Imagine your brain conducting some routine maintenance on your dopamine and serotonin receptors (implicated in both ADD and mood disorders). These receptors are composed of an Omega-3 fatty acid called DHA. If you don't have much DHA in your blood, man-made trans-fat molecules may be used as a construction material instead. But trans-fats (hydrogenated oils) are shaped differently than DHA: they are straight while DHA is curved.
The dopamine receptor becomes deformed and doesn't work very well. Repeat this scenario day after day, year after year, and you could wind up with problems like depression and problems concentrating. This problem is most severe for a child whose brain is still developing. A lack of highly unsaturated fats is particularly noticeable in connection with brain and nerve functioning. An adjustment in diet to one with oil and protein contents high in unsaturated fats brings the best results in children.
Now imagine a child in school learning math. The act of learning requires the brain to form new neural pathways. DHA is needed, especially for the delicate neural synapses which are composed entirely of DHA. This child, like the vast majority of U.S. children, eats almost no Omega-3 fatty acids. What does the brain do? Again, it struggles and finally uses other types of fats, which are the wrong shape. The neural network develops slowly and is defective. The child has learning and memory problems as well as behavior problems.
In a study of learning ability, rats were raised on either a diet that was deficient in Omega-3 fatty acids or one that was nutritionally complete. Initially, both groups of rats had similar numbers of synaptic vesicles. After a month-long learning program, however, the Omega-3 enriched rats had considerably more vesicles in their nerve endings and also performed markedly better on the tests. This study suggests there may be a direct connection between the amount Omega-3 fatty acids in your diet, the number of synaptic vesicles in your neurons, and your ability to learn.
Within the next 5 or 10 years the population at large will become familiar with the issue of fatty acid deficiency and the harm causes by transfats, and there will be significant changes in the way food is formulated and marketed. In response to growing public pressure and the rising number of studies implicating transfats, the FDA has announced a new rule that will require the transfat content of foods, but it won't become effective for a few years. Companies are beginning to market omega-3 foods, like tuna and eggs from chickens fed with high-omega 3 foods. Baby food companies like Gerber are talking about adding DHA to foods (meanwhile the same food still contains transfats). In Japan parents have been giving their kids DHA supplements for years to improve their grades.
Research has shown that the diets of hunter/gatherers were rich in Omega-3's. They ate a mix of meat, fruits and vegetables, with little or no grains. Green leafy vegetables, certain seeds and nuts, and wild game are rich in Omega-3's. It turns out that cows, chickens and other animals have much higher levels of Omega-3s when they are fed by "free-range" methods because they eat lots of green leafy vegetables. On the other hand, if they are fed grain, their Omega-3 levels crash. Wild game is much healthier to eat and it is much leaner than farm-raised animals.
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Don’t be mislead by false Omega-3 claims
Supermarkets are now carrying a range of products that tout their added omega-3 content as a health benefit. Everything from mayonnaise to cereal to eggs can be found with omega-3 added in. But are these products really better for your health?
The type of omega-3 typically added to food products is ALA -- and ALA does not give you the same health benefits. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is calling on the FDA to require labels with omega-3 claims to describe the type and amount of omega-3, however until then consumers will need to be wary. Some current labeling has been found to be misleading.
CSPI recommends getting omega-3 from fish oil or by eating fatty fish such as salmon. A six-ounce serving of Atlantic salmon contains over 3,000 mg of DHA and EPA -- more than 100 times the amount found in DHA-fortified yogurt, milk, or soy milk.
Jewish Medicine
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition—the “gold standard” of diagnostic criteria—9% of U.S. kids have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). That’s 2.4 million children between the ages of 8 to 14. But psychiatrists, pediatricians and researchers say that the condition, unknown when I was a child, is still underdiagnosed and undertreated – there are 1.2 million kids who still remain to be diagnosed!
A few more things the researchers tell us:
· Girls are more likely to be underdiagnosed. (Girls tend to be quieter and less physically active than boys; but heck, let’s not leave them out of the drug scene.)
· Children from poor families have the highest rates. (They also have the poorest diets – lowest in Omega 3 fats, highest in sugar and junk food. Coincidence?)
· Medications can be quite effective. (A drugged child is less trouble.)
The findings were published in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
My Comment: This is astounding to anyone who really stops to think about it. How can close to a tenth of our kids have a nervous and brain condition resulting in hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity?! How can it be thought of as “normal” and/or of having always existed but not diagnosed?! When I was in elementary and middle school, we were pretty much all calm and well-behaved. We could all follow the rules, walk in a straight line and not throw tantrums or start fights. If any of our classmates received medication at school, we never heard about it.
I believe this “trend” is going to continue until ½ of our kids are said to need medication for ADHD, just as ½ of the population now gets cancer, another “common disease” that was not prevalent when I was growing up. White parents would be wise to do some “home doctoring” just as they are doing “home schooling.” You can hardly do worse than the professionals.
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WATCH THIS VIDEO: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/147.html
Explosive news from Britain:
Govt. agency warns of food colors and chemicals that make children misbehave
4th September 2007
Parents will be alerted this week to ensure children avoid artificial additives in drinks, sweets and processed foods because of explosive evidence about the effects on behaviour. A plausible connection to tantrums, poor concentration and slow progress at school is understood to have been found in a study to be published by the Government's Food Standards Agency.
Food industry leaders have been summoned to a meeting with the FSA today for a briefing on the research and its implications. The findings, from Southampton University, raise the possibility of parents suing food manufacturers in the same way tobacco firms have been pursued by cancer victims in the U.S.
The study could also mean the industry will have to reformulate a vast array of children's products. Some supermarkets and manufacturers have pre- empted the study by announcing bans on suspect additives in sweets, cakes and soft drinks.
The FSA has cloaked the findings in secrecy but its experts are expected to tell parents the only way to avoid any risk is to cut the additives from their children's diet. Health campaigners, however, believe a more stringent legal ban is necessary.
The risk of allergic reactions, such as breathing problems and asthma, from certain additives was established more than 20 years ago. There have been similar concerns about the impact on brain development but nothing strong enough to convince Whitehall's public health experts.
The Southampton research is expected to support the fears of Sally Bunday of the Hyperactive Children's Support Group. She said the reaction to the artificial chemicals could be "horrendous in terms of mood swings with crying, screaming, inability to sleep". She added: "There can also be physical reactions such as difficulty in breathing and skin rashes".
The additives may help explain the rise in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children. Some 359,000 prescriptions for ADHD prevention drugs are issued each year, up 90-fold since the early 1990s.
Critics of food additives believe this disruptive behaviour can be cured by a return to natural food, rather than drugs. Vyvyan Howard, professor of bioimaging at Ulster University and an adviser to the FSA, called for the additives to be removed on a precautionary basis. He said: "They have no nutritional value, so why put them in? There are very tight restrictions banning these additives from foods designed for children under the age of one. But why stop there? Children's brains and nervous systems are developing beyond the age of one."
Some companies have already acted. Marks & Spencer is removing all artificial colours and flavours from 99 per cent of products by the end of the year. Asda is doing the same with 9,000 own-label items, while Sainsbury's, Tesco and the Co- op have announced similar action. Nestle Rowntree, which makes Smarties, has dropped artificial colours with the result the blue variety has been axed.
The colours, tested on groups of three-year-olds and eight-to-nine year olds by the Southampton researchers, were tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129). The team also looked at the effect of the preservative sodium benzoate (E211), which is commonly used in soft drinks.
The Food & Drink Federation, which speaks for manufacturers, said the colours and chemicals used by the industry were proven to be safe. "The use of food additives is strictly regulated under European law," it said. "They must be approved as safe by the appropriate European scientific committee before they can be used." (Ha ha, we’ve heard that before. —Carolyn)
Teach your kids to choose the purple and blue
Every food that comes in these rich royal colors naturally is healthful in the highest degree.
Intense cochineal beetroot, royal purple cabbages, and indigo blueberries are all rich in anthocyanins, a pigment with natural cancer-fighting properties. Recent studies unveiled at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston in August confirm that they are particularly good at warding off colon cancer, and that their benefits may be even farther reaching. (You can believe they are.)
Now, no one is suggesting that we ditch all the rest of the fruit and veggies, it's just that simply eating your greens won't give you all the significant health bonuses to be gained from the full rainbow of produce.
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20 things more harmful to your child than lead paint in Mattel toys.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a third recall of Mattel toys involving over 700,000 toys containing unacceptably high levels of lead paint (over .06 percent lead). Irrational parents are rushing back to retailers in droves, turning in their Mattel toys to "save their children" from the dangers of lead paint. Mattel, for its part, is being rightly blasted in the media for selling shoddy products made with toxic heavy metals.
However, Parents directly poison their children every day with products far more dangerous than Mattel toys. Mike Evans, consumer health advocate, names twenty things in this article that are far more dangerous to children than Mattel toys. It doesn't mean Mattel toys are safe, of course. They do contain unacceptably high levels of lead, and there's no question about the toxicity of lead. But children don't eat toys nearly as often as they eat some other toxic substances given to them by their parents, and even as parents are herding back into retailers to refund their toxic lead-laden toys, they're returning home and poisoning their children with many other products that are far worse.
The twenty things are detailed at http://www.newstarget.com/022014.html
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