An overlooked yet obvious cause of ADHD (part 2)
In the last Daily Dose, I recapped in detail, and at some length, my feelings about the REAL causes of the largely made-up "disease" of ADHD. I did this so that you'd understand where I'm coming from when I give you the details of some new study findings reported in the mainstream media. In my opinion, this research sheds some very ironic light on the problem. Here's what I mean…
Modern psychiatrists (and clueless parents) are quick to point a finger at phantom chemical imbalances to explain why their perfectly normal kids are "hyperactive" or "attention-challenged." But as you now know from part 1 of this essay, I am quick to point my finger at the Big-Pharma-driven medical establishment, the self-help industry and the cultural castration of American parenting for these rampant diagnoses.
However, as you're about to discover, there's a third possible causal factor that I've only barely touched on in the past - mostly because I didn't want to de-emphasize the role bad parenting and allopathic medicine have played in the ADHD boom. It's the number one enemy to children today on multiple medical fronts…
SUGAR. According to Reuters, some recent Norwegian research shows a clear, linear link between hyperactivity among teens and their consumption of sugared soft drinks.
The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, focused on more than 5,000 15- and 16-year-olds of both sexes. Those who drank the greatest number of sugary sodas each day reported the worst symptoms of hyperactivity (especially if they skipped breakfast) - and vice versa. Also, those who gulped the most soft drinks displayed the most behavioral and mental problems…
Hmmm. Teenage hyperactivity, mental distress, and behavioral issues. Sounds a lot like a certain over-diagnosed childhood disease here in America, doesn't it?
Of course, I've alluded before that sugar consumption and ADHD may be linked. But now that there's a large-scale study linking the key symptoms of the disease directly to sugar consumption via soft drinks, I feel like there's now just cause to point a third finger of blame (the first two are aimed at parents and doctors) squarely at sweets.
Every year, kids are exposed to more and more commercials for soda pop and candy. And judging by juvenile obesity rates, more and more of them every year are unable to resist these siren songs that spur them to gorge on sweets. Add into this mix the modern American de-emphasis on Phys-Ed and sports - things that give kids healthy outlets to burn off both their sugar and their excess energy - and you've got a recipe for hopped-up teens and pre-teens with neither the ability (because they're so fat) or the channels to blow off their sugar buzzes…
Which makes them bounce off walls at home and drive their already shackled-by-the-PC-system parents to medicate them for ADHD!
So what can you do to help protect your kids and grandkids?
If anyone - a teacher, a pediatrician, a guidance counselor, or even another parent or grandparent - suggests that they have or display symptoms of ADHD, get them off sugar for six months before you even begin to entertain the notion that it may be true. If true chemical ADHD exists at all, it's very rare, in my opinion.
At any rate, it's a far cry from the multitudes of diagnoses that have zoomed upward over the last 15 years in virtual lock step with both obesity rates AND the expansion of soft drink advertising beyond simple TV spots and billboards - to movie previews, i-Pod downloads, "extreme" sporting event sponsorships, and on and on and on…
Of course, I probably don't need to tell you that getting any child you know to kick the "sugar monkey" off his back is a good thing - whether they're being sized up for a Ritalin prescription or not!
Giving you the hard truth about the "soft-drink disease,"
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. |
