Can a proper diet cure ADHD symptoms? CC by NIMH/Wikimedia Commons

Diet treatments for ADHD as an alternative to medication have raised hope as well as controversy. Researchers in the Netherlands published a study Thursday on the subject. They found that diet had an impact on some children as far as improving their ADHD condition. But attention deficit hyperactivity disorder experts question the study and say parents of ADHD kids can’t rely on diet alone to mitigate the disorder.

What was learned with the ADHD diet study

The Lancet released a study on Thursday that stated ADHD might be treated with an elimination diet. ADHD symptoms were reduced 64 percent in children in a study done by Dutch researchers that took away all food that would normally cause food allergies. In the ADHD diet, there is rice, white meat and vegetables. Over the five weeks of the study, 41 children got the diet change. It was shown that 32 of them had clear ADHD symptom improvement. In the second phase of the study, the children were fed what are assumed to be ADHD trigger foods and most of them relapsed. A control group of 50 children ate a standard healthy diet and no reduction in hyperactivity was noted.

Adding to the study from pediatricians

The results of the ADHD diet study led the researchers to suggest that an elimination diet could become part of the standard treatment regimen for ADHD. Most of the pediatricians don’t agree, though. They say that it isn’t worth trying the diet out. An ADHD diet could also make children subject to nutritional deficiencies. Because some children with allergies show ADHD-like behavior, pediatricians commenting on the study said the improvements documented were likely allergy-related. There weren’t any independent observers of the ADHD study, which means many pediatricians questioned how the methodology of the study was carried out.

Allergy connection to ADHD

Processed foods high in sugar have long been suspected as ADHD triggers, but according to the National Institute of Mental Health, no concrete evidence supports that assumption. Many think that food allergies might have a brain chemistry reaction instead of physical effects like asthma, skin rashes and diarrhea that other children get. These questions couldn’t be answered by the Dutch study or to tell you which foods to avoid, considering it was only a five week study. The individual child is taken into account when it comes to “standard” care for ADHD though.

Information from

CNN

ABC News

Business Week

If he'd been on Clonidine, perhaps the sobs would have subsided. (Photo Credit: CC BY-SA/tracy the astonishing/Flickr)

Long, frequent deployments take their toll on military families – particularly families with young children. According to Army Times, this breakdown of the family unit has caused the number of psychiatric drugs like Clonidine prescribed to children each year to skyrocket. In large part, this disturbing trend also mirrors the overall increase of psychiatric drug prescriptions to enlisted men and women.

Clonidine means Johnny doesn’t cry when daddy is gone

The National Center for Biotechnology Information indicates that Clonidine is an alpha-agonist hypotensive agent that works to decrease heart rate and relax blood vessels. Some psychiatrists prescribe Clonidine to treat such conditions as ADHD, anxiety and autism, although many others oppose the drug because of potential side effects like excess sedation and irritability.

Regardless of where medical professionals fall on the debate, it is indisputable that psychiatric medication prescriptions for military children have gone way up. Army Times indicates that in 2009, more than 300,000 prescriptions for psychiatric drugs were provided to military children. That figure is 18 percent higher than it was in 2005, and the under-18 military family population increased by less than 1 percent over that span. Antipsychotics were up 50 percent, while anti-anxiety drugs like Clonidine were up 40 percent.

Overall, active-duty forces have seen a 76 percent increase an psychiatric medications since the Afghanistan war began.

The roller coaster of deployment and re-integration

Many child psychologists say developing children require structure. Yet when mom or dad is away on deployment, then suddenly thrust back into the family during re-integration periods, the result is stress for military children, says Dr. Patricia Lester, a University of California, Los Angeles psychiatrist.

These cycles repeat over the course of a parent’s military career, an assertion that is borne out in mental health studies conducted such as the one conducted by the Rand Corp. Military children with parents who went away on longer, more frequent deployments performed significantly worse in school and required nearly 20 percent more pediatric outpatient visits. This is turn leads to increased prescriptions of drugs like Clonidine and various anti-psychotics.

Psychiatrists who spoke with Army Times expressed concern over the growing trend of psychiatric prescriptions for children, and the increase among military children suggests that perhaps military families are having a difficult time managing.

Sources

Army Times

National Center for Biotechnology Information

The Clonidine (and other meds) Song

Was it organophosphate pesticide that brought ADHD and this man together? (Photo: Flickr)

A recent Time magazine report reveals that the medical journal Pediatrics has found what they believe to be a connection between pesticide exposure and ADHD (a learning disability known as “attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder”) cases in U.S. and Canadian children. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the total numbers of ADHD diagnoses in the U.S. amount to about 4.5 million kids between the ages of 5 and 17.  In addition, the Centers have tracked an annual growth rate in ADHD diagnosis of three percent each year from 1997 to 2006. Chemical influences like pesticides used to protect produce from insects are believed to contribute heavily to this upward trend. Some scientists believe it may have an even greater impact than other environmental factors like video games, television and online personal loan advertisements that may have been linked previously to ADHD behavior.

Pesticides and ADHD: Watch the organophosphates, please

Toxic pesticides with an ADHD link are identified as organophosphates in the joint University of Montreal/Harvard University study. By observing the levels of pesticide residue in the urine samples of more than 1,100 kids aged 8 to 15, researchers found that those subjects with ADHD had the highest levels of dialkyl phosphates present. These are the byproducts of organophosphate pesticides once they’re broken down. With every tenfold increase in residue detected, the scientists found a 35 percent increase in the odds of pesticide exposure causing ADHD. However, even low levels of exposure seemed to increase the odds of pesticide-induced ADHD.

An association, not a causal link

If anything, this University of Montreal/Harvard University study opens the door for further inquiry, even if it doesn’t conclusively prove that organophosphate pesticides cause ADHD. However, it is known that organophosphate pesticides can cause damage to the nerve connections in the brain, as that is the mechanism through which the pesticide actually kills its intended target. It blocks the neurotransmitter acetylcholinesterase, which perhaps not coincidentally is the same issue going on in the brains of ADHD children. This disruption may cause hyperactive behavior and other cognitive disruptions.

Buy organic and don’t use home bug sprays

The Montreal/Harvard study didn’t focus on the specific method through which children were exposed to the pesticide, but the most obvious connection is through diet – fruits and vegetables sprayed while growing, indicates the National Academy of Sciences. Whether such studies will eventually lead to a national threshold for safe exposure levels remains to be seen. Figuring out just how much is harmful should be a top priority. In the meantime, if families can buy organic fruits and vegetables (or grown their own) and avoid using buy spray in the home, the long-term health benefits could very easily outweigh the short-term costs.

For more information on minimizing chemical exposure in one’s diet, check out the Raw Foods SOS blog. There are lots of myths about buying organic; this source may help you weed through the hype. And here’s a scary story about mercury in everyday foods (even in high-fructose corn syrup) to break out around the campfire.

(Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathan_y/ / CC BY-SA 2.0)

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