Your children have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? In the long-term they will be no better off using dangerous drugs like Ritalin or Concerta than behavioral therapies according to a study of 600 ADHD sufferers in the UK.
ADHD medications are widely prescribed in Australia - for some reason rates of prescription are 5X the average in WA. I agree with Dr. Aitkins - parents whose children have ADHD should monitor their sugar consumption.
Update: This report from today's New York Times suggests that kids with ADHD and other behavioral disorders suffer a lag in their development not a permanent impairment. Give them help but, most of all, give them time.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
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3 comments:
Hi Harry
Food sensitivity is more than just a reaction to sugar.
Society's reliance on commercial interests to act in the best interests of people is unfortunately misguided. Manufactured foods with synthetic additives can produce negative symptoms that are then 'treated' with the products of commercially-oriented pharmacological companies.
It's now nearly 30 years since I first heard of the Feingold diet.
A whole generation of children have suffered unnecessarily.
I note that it is just over six years since this article appeared:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s412378.htm
I hope that another twenty-five don't have to pass for widespread recognition of this maltreatment.
The evidence on the Feingold diet is mixed. It seems to work in about 1 in 20 cases. The evidence is also mixed on the role of sugar - I obseve it seems to be an issue - both approaches are worth trying. There is no obvious cost.
In the case of sugar the side benefits include reduction of childhood diabetes and obesity.
Ritalin isn't for the good of the child. It's for the good of the parents or other children/teachers at their school.
It's necessary nowadays because the old solution - expulsion followed by "get a job" - has been taken off the table by most schools.
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