In the past few years I have seen several doctors for some inconvenient physical problems. One of these problems is acid reflux. If I am not careful to only eat before six or seven o'clock in the evening, I may awake at 2 am with a sensation in my throat that is literally like someone kicking me in the neck while I am sleeping. When I did not have insurance I went to one doctor who charged me $125 dollars for a visit and told me to prop up the head board on my bed and to sleep on an incline. Some time later, when I had insurance, another doctor told me he would put me on Prevasic, which was $125 dollars a package per month. I told him I wanted to get rid of it, not just treat symptoms, and he got huffy with me. He put his hands on his hips and in his best sarcastic tone said, "There are no cures!!!" As I left his office I put his prescription for Prevasic in the waste basket by the door. He can get his kick backs from someone else.
I have been taking an over the counter controller of this sort of thing for ye ars now, at $6.00 a box every two weeks or so, combined with watching the acid intake in my diet and I have been doing just fine. I went to an Asian doctor, since we know they are superior students due to the social climate they grow up in, and asked about a surgery I had heard about which fixes the muscle problem associated with acid reflux. I was told that if a condition can't be treated with drugs, surgery was just asking for more trouble.
Today's medical doctors are little more than automatons for the major drug manufacturers in America. They are taught in medical school how to diagnose problems for the main purpose of prescribing a drug. The concept of investigating an underlying cause for an illness seems lost on a medical college that relies heavily on taking a pill to solve a problem. Whatever the case, way too many medical professionals have gotten into the habit of prescribing Ritalin for children, who they believe, and perhaps that is all the requirement needed; "a belief" - have ADHD. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder can manifest in one of two ways, either in an attention problem or in a physical compulsion.
The hard thing for medical science to understand is that there may indeed be many other causes and ways to deal with the problems children have without drugging them. Unfortunately, the industry has gotten into the habit of supporting itself and like any college marketing class will tell you, if you can't find a need and fill it, creating a need will do just as well. Too much credit is given to writing prescriptions without investigating the underlying causes for behavioral problems and the result has been a nation whose demand for Ritalin has, at times, surpassed the ability for drug companies to manufacture it legally.
The comparison of Ritalin to Cocaine is only incidentally different. Ritalin only covers up symptoms and no one is really helped by its use. Yet despite this seemingly obvious lack of success in dealing with ADHD, the drug is one of the all time highest prescribed medicines. Since convenience is such a major deity in America these days, it's no wonder we have such controversial problems as abortion, poor HMO's, and the over use of drugs to mask symptoms. Drug companies don't find Ritalin overuse to be a problem and their white coated middle men don't protest the lack of medical attention for their patients that it allows. Just look in your grandmother's purse for a sample of what is behind the counter at the local drug store, she probably has up to ten different kinds of drugs she is taking….I know mine did before she died. Someone once told me when I was young that the only difference between right and wrong was getting caught. I suppose when you have a white coat and social acceptance you can eventually prescribe cocaine and heroine that other people dealing on the streets go to jail for. But I digress.
ADHD is considered to be a psychiatric diagnosis. Often times these diagnoses reflects the thoughts and feelings of the administrator rather than the reality of the child's condition. Naturally, since there is no workup or study of the child's physical make up, the child is drugged; then when the drug runs out, improper behavior returns. Labeling a child as challenged or disordered can have other effects that color his or her perception of themselves and can have long lasting detrimental effects. Penalizing a child just for being a child is not only unfair, but it is unhealthy in the way it shuts down the child for growth and development. Kids need their trip to Chucky Cheese where a kid can be a kid, and just because he runs around with boundless energy doesn't necessitate the automatic use of drugs to make him docile. All diagnosis must include a search for all causes of behavioral problems. Without a comprehensive study along the many roads that lead to problem children, a cookie cutter approach to medicin e takes over. This lack of study can spill over into a violation of constitutional rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
ADHD is the bodies' way of saying, "Hey, investigate me, something is amiss." Due to the fact that doctors are locked into drug prescribing as a medical answer to everything, their opinions cannot be given "canon" status. A parent must look into all causes for his child's behavior and they don't have to go to medical school to do so. Common underlying symptoms of ADHD are well known, and include, but are not limited to: Hypoglycemia, Allergies, Learning Differences, Hyperthyroidism, and dietary factors. The diet is the beginning and end of almost every problem. Ignoring the effects of nutrition in the workings of the human body is akin to closing your eyes to good common sense. I do my best to tell any one whom I know has a child how best to deal with a common cold. I tell them to give the child a whole pizza to eat and then put them to bed. This usually elicits a laugh from the parent and a question about some over the counter drug. But I tell them, the human body has all the tools it needs to fight a cold, it just doesn't have enough fuel. The cold virus may be self sustaining but the white blood cells that fight infection are dependant on you and your bodies' level of caloric intake. All the Niquil in the world will not get rid of a cold. It will help you sleep; it will make you feel good even when you don't have a cold….and many people use it thus. But no medicine which covers up symptoms will defeat the virus itself. For this you must allow the blood enough energy to over come and literally eat the virus - just like Pac-Man. I do this all the time whenever I have a cold and it's like a miracle cure. I have had other people try it and feel great the next day but they swear it's because they also took some drug they bought. I'm not a doctor and I put this all together from basic biology class in college. The difference is I don't take a Doctor's opinions on things as "gospel".
Often times a child's unruly behavior can stem from low blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia. The child receives an adrenaline rush due to the bodies' attempt to deal with a low level of sugar that can result in a coma. Once proper glucose levels are reached, however, the child's acting out ceases and he returns to normal. Poor nutrition and the lack of good sugars in a child's diet can usually be traced to some type of disorder. Doctors can do untold damage by ignoring the nutrition factor and a child can be permanently damaged as a result. Only after all physical and external influences have been studied should any child face therapy and medication.
Allergies and sensitivities can also cause behavioral disorders that are given the ADHD label. If a child is allergic to some type of food, the body will create chemicals in the blood stream that interfere with proper biological control. Tests must be done and either the food eliminated or the child given shots to control the effects of the allergy. All children should be monitored for cause and effect of foods and air born allergens from the earliest years. To ignore these allergens as a probable cause for ADHD symptoms is unfair and irresponsible of their parents.
Today's schooling process is created with the left brain child in mind. Those who can sit and listen and process information are given a leg up on school success over their right brain counterparts who learn differently. Many of these right brain children learn with tactile and visual senses much more quickly and thoroughly than just listening to a teacher lecture. These children can be trained to adapt their learning styles by including tactile activities, such as holding a rubber stress ball in their hands during class. This engages the learning aspect of right brain children and can equalize the experience for them. They can also be schooled in more left brain/ right brain activities that make use of both sides. Certain allergies and sensitivities can interfere with the correct messages being sent to the brain along pathways and once they are dealt with can make dramatic improvements in how any child learns. These learning differences should be investigated by parents to see if their child, who the doctor
labels ADHD, might just be learning disoriented.
Without nutrients, the body may feel well, but might not actually be in optimum health. Today's food is often 85% de-nutrified from its proper state. This can be due to the process of "rush growing" under artificial lighting, to the over use of pesticides and other chemicals meant to enhance food. The opposite result is often all too real, the food we eat is less nutritious and has more toxins than at any other time in history. It's no coincidence that cancer rates have raised dramatically since the 1950's. If the body is in a constant state of fighting off intruders and chemicals in the body, then it can hope to do no less than breakdown. Add to this the hustle and stress of everyday life and it is easy to see that in order to give the body the correct amount of nutrition to stay optimally healthy, one would have to eat non stop. Every child needs to have his body correctly fed in order for the proper behavioral, learning and sleeping states to take place. Without the proper balance of chemicals and calories to operate the body and mind, the child may be a prime candidate for more drugs and unnecessary counseling in today's wrong minded medical world.
As a conducive response to the over medication of Ritalin for today's kids, we can look at the practice of the Osteopathic Philosophy. Osteopaths take more courses than a regular MD and can do the same things a regular doctor does. The big difference between them is in the study of the autonomic nervous system and the use of the body to manipulate physical functioning. This can be done to great effect on the ADHD child as the true Osteopath takes into effect the entire bodies functioning in their practice of medicine. Osteopathic medicine is a little over 100 years old and hasn't gotten the attention it deserves due to the onset of the use of antibiotics. Once again, antibiotics like drugs, are promoted by the big drug companies. The draw back of their use is that they result in a diminished return, and more and more must be used to fight off stronger and stronger strains of a virus. At the same time the body suffers from over medication and a lack of immunity build up due to the constant drugged state. Osteopathic medicine, however; can be used to help the body in many ways drugs and antibiotics cannot.
It is highly recommended that all these possibilities be considered when dealing with a child who seems to have ADHD and through a parent's education we, as a nation, can put the money back in our own pockets that the Ritalin industry has convinced us to turn over to them. All of us will benefit, not just our kids, and we can get on with solving the problem of failing education in our schools.
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