ADD / ADHD Regimen
Summary: Follow the The Zone Diet and The Water Cure as well as possible. Ensure adequate consumption of protein, good oils, plus fresh fruits and vegetables. Avoid aspartame, food dyes, and processed food as much as possible. Use a good multivitamin, multimineral, and most importantly, an essential fatty acid supplement.
The Water Cure should be followed as well as possible to mineralize the body. Using Real Salt is imperative in this case.
The Zone Diet is the best diet for improving mental acuity plus controlling hyperactivity, which is often caused by blood sugar problems. If it cannot be followed strictly, at least try to boost consumption of protein and good oils and limit starches and sugars as much as possible. Avoid hydrogenated oils and trans fats. For breakfast, try to eat an egg or two each day. If this is not possible, use a choline and inositol supplement as directed.
For a multivitamin, look for one that contains a good amount of B vitamins (at least 25mg potency for teens and adults) as well as betaine (also known as DMG). Now True Balance is a good choice for a capsule supplement. If a chewable multivitamin must be used, one of the best is Twinlab Animal Friends. Take one with breakfast and one with lunch or early afternoon. Do not take multivitamins in the evening. See the Multivitamin section for more information.
Take a multimineral in the evening after dinner or before bed. The calcium and magnesium in the multimineral are more important in some cases than the multivitamin. There are many described in the Multimineral section but two good ones for this purpose are Now Bone Strength or Jarrow Mineral Balance. For chewables, look for Nature's Plus Nutri-Cal Hearts. See the Multimineral section for more information.
Next, ensure adequate consumption of essential fatty acids (EFAs). These can be as important to mental focus and overall brain function as vitamins and minerals. Enzymatic Therapy Eskimo-3 comes in very small gelcaps and is a souce of omega 3 oils in the EPA form. Jarrow Omega Balance contains both omega 3 and omega 6 oils and may be a better choice if the diet is so poor that not even adequate undamaged omega 6 oils are not consumed. If gelcaps cannot be swallowed, even the small Eskimo-3's, consider a liquid fish oil such as Carlson's Fish Oil or flax oil such as Barlean's. There is a new omega 3 EFA supplement that comes in small packets called Coromega. It comes in lemon-lime, orange, and orange-chocolate flavors and is sweetened with stevia. It has much less of a fishy taste than even the highly rated lemon flavored Carlson's Fish Oil and is appropriate for adults, too. See the EFA Supplement section for more information.
For an adult or teen, use 3g or more of vitamin C per day. A good choice for this purpose is Alacer Emergen-C. It is effervescent packets of vitamin C (1g per packet) with a lot of B12 and small amounts of other vitamins and minerals. The regular tastes good, like lemon lime soda, when mixed in 2-4 oz of water (instead of the 8 recommended). High dose vitamin C like this can cause increased elimination. If this is not welcome during the day, use half doses of the Emergen-C at a time, or consider using high dose vitamin C before bed (but not the Emergen-C product which contains vitamin B12 and will interfere with sleep. Nutribiotics Hypo-Aller C is a vitamin C powder that contains 350mg each of magnesium and calcium per teaspoon, and no B12. Like Emergen-C, it is mixed in water to let bubble before consuming. It does not taste like sweet soda like Emergen-C. A teaspoon provides about 3g of vitamin C. See the Vitamin C section for more information.
If this does not greatly improve the problem within one month, add Siberian ginseng and cat's claw to the regimen. They are both widely available in capsule form in health food stores.
Maybe Attention Deficit Isn't the Real Problem Between 1990 and 1996, prescriptions for methylpenidate, know as Ritalin, increased more than 60 percent, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. Back in my newspaper days, I often would catch reporters describing their editors as having the attention span of a gnat. When I began work in TV, several producers quietly pointed out correspondents and senior producers who were known to have the attention span of a sand fly. But to my knowledge, none of those allegedly afflicted were required to take a drug to reverse their attention deficit. This came to mind when I was in the thick of dissecting the scientific literature on Ritalin, a drug reputed to calm hyperactivity and help people pay attention to things. Its use is extremely popular these days for schoolchildren who, for example, have trouble sitting still, or difficulty keeping track of what they are being taught. Overprescribed or Underprescribed? In reviewing the data, I came across a study from Virginia showing that up to 10 percent of children in second through fifth grades are on medication to fight such problems, after being diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Being the compassionate type, I naturally wondered whether tests would show that at least 10 percentor even more of reporters and producers in newsrooms where I have worked also should have been on Ritalin or other brain drugs. And should the scientific diagnostic drive extend into the professions, perhaps tests would show that many more psychiatrists, pediatricians and teachers have the attention span of a gnat or sand fly and need to be advised of the fact. Maybe many doctors have ADHD without the benefit of Ritalin and therefore lack the attention span or patience to consider other factors that may contribute to the behavior and demeanor of their young patients ? such as how and where the children live, what they eat, whether they are loved, and the consequences of being taught in schools with curricula too underdeveloped to meet modern childhood needs. The Real Epidemic Am I being unkind to the Ritalin pushers? Yes, and I want to be. This Ritalin sham must stop! It is far out of control. While there are some children ? and some editors and producers ? who obviously need major help in adjusting to our zany world, there is far too much drugging going on. The drugging is the real epidemic, not ADHD. (A note to psychiatrists: Please read this paragraph carefully, with close attention, so you won't waste time writing me nasty e-mails about tragic cases of truly uncontrollable children. I readily admit there are such cases.) I am most concerned that the science on ADHD and related so-called illnesses is not very compelling. Sure, studies are popping up all the time now, but most are preliminary. Looking for Evidence Consider the latest, most publicized entry ? imaging the brain to detect biochemical differences, a tool some claim could lead to a test for ADHD. Watch out, because psychiatrists who may have the attention span of a gnat are already proclaiming this foray into brain imaging as a triumph in biological psychiatry. It is nothing of the kind. We know too little of the brain and its amazing interconnected elements to be so foolishly brash. We also know too little of what much brain imaging really means, and we are lacking gold standards for such testing. What we essentially have here is an epidemic of dumb doctoring and child abuse bordering on the criminal, sitting on a limited view of human behavioral variability. Granted, there are children at the extreme end of the continuum who need a variety of assistance ? not necessarily drug-focused help. Meanwhile, there are probably millions of kids unnecessarily on drugs, obtained not from pushers in schoolyards but from pushers with medical degrees. The Easy Way Out Rather than stare social problems straight in the face and try to determine why certain children are anxious, depressed, irritable or noisy troublemakers, the tendency in this culture is to try to drug the problems away. What if the problem is simply that some of these kids have minds, and spirits, of their own? Dr. Mercola's Comment: Don't you just love Nicholas Regush? I think he is the best traditional reporter out there. It takes quite a bit of courage to write what he does in traditional circles. Fortunately, there is a relatively simple complementary to Ritalin and it involves the rigid grain and sugar restriction that is discussed in the diet plan under Read This First at www.mercola.com. It is very unusual where this does not produce profound improvements in children afflicted with ADHD. |
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Rife Frequencies, Annotations, and Comments Attention_Deficit_Disorder (Probably important to avoid preservatives, aspartame, dyes, and other potential toxins. Try Shigella, Chlamydia pneum., and General antiseptic) TrueRife - Selected frequency sets in F100 format with comments ADD #54 minutes |