ADD, ADHD & Sugar

Despite the reported side effects of psychosis, mania, and hallucinations, over 4 million children in the U.S. are using prescriptions of ADD and ADHD medications.

An Atlanta, Georgia school principal has taken on an alternative approach.  What did he do in his school . . . banned all sugar.  After overcoming his own health problems with diet and exercise, Principal Butler requires physical exercise in his school and they have enforced a policy of no sugar.  Instead, the lunch room serves healthy lunches and snacks.

According to Butler, after adopting this simple policy in his school, just in the first year standardized test scores improved 15% and discipline problems decreased by 23%.  As an added benefit, student health has improved dramatically and obesity is virtually non-existent in his school.

Principal Butler also notes, “In nine years we have saved $425,000.  We’ve done that not by cutting back, but by having more fruits and vegetables.”

Hopefully, in time, all schools will follow the practical lead being taken by this Atlanta school.  But until that happens, we can all develop similar policies in our own homes. If you want to see changes in your kids, start with yourself – be the example that you want to see in them!

Roots of Illness

A study released by the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at the childhood roots of disease.  The researchers expressed that everything that happens to us from conception to early childhood and on through life has a profound effect on adult health!  They concluded that adult disease is often the result of two sources: accumulation of unhealthy stressors over the years or from adversities during sensitive developmental periods in childhood.  In both cases, they often found a delay of years or even decades before disease was expressed later in life.  They found that autism and even cardiovascular disease later in life can be linked to poor prenatal nutrition before we were born!  They believe that chronic stressors over time accumulate and change both the function and the structure of the brain in order to adapt to an abundance of physical, chemical and emotional stress.

What’s the message here?  If you’ve followed this column, you’ve heard about the term epigenetics which is rapidly replacing the former model of traditional genetics.  This research is the essence of epigenetics – meaning that it is not the DNA that we inherit from our parents that determines our future health or disease.  Rather, it is the environment that we are exposed to over time including childhood years and even prior to birth that will unfold the expression of our genes either for health or disease.  This is why I always teach that everything we do, everything we eat or drink, and everything we think is either moving us closer to wellness or closer to disease.  This study merely proves that we need to think of health in these terms for the future of our children as well.  The good news is that a great deal of research shows it’s never too late to improve health by making better choices but hopefully you also understand that it may be even more important to teach and support our children on the importance of healthy diet, exercise and positive thinking.

Chocolate

Here’s one I didn’t see coming!  A study at The Johns Hopkins was focused on blood platelets and blood clots. The study participants, some of whom were fond of eating chocolate, were given a list of foods to avoid including chocolate.  Some of them couldn’t resist and ended up eating chocolate during the study anyway.

Amazingly, their indulgence led the researchers to an important discovery which is believed to be the first of its kind.  The researchers now believe just a few squares of chocolate a day can reduce the risk of heart attack death in some men and women by almost 50%.  It turns out that the chocolate (similar to aspirin) decreases the tendency of platelets to clot in narrow blood vessels. The lead researcher cautions that her work is not intended as a prescription to gobble up chocolate candy, containing large amounts of sugar, butter and cream.  But as little as 2 tablespoons a day of dark chocolate - the purest form, made from the dried extract of roasted cocoa beans - may be just what the doctor ordered.

I did some research and the key to this is that the chocolate must be unadulterated and pure.  We’re talking about the bitterer, dark chocolate.  Remember the real cacao is a vegetable (or legume).  And this bean, unprocessed and without sugar, can be a stronger antioxidant than raspberries, blueberries, or even the acai berry that has received so much attention lately.  As a snack, try a couple pieces of dark chocolate with a few raw almonds and some dried cranberries.  The antioxidant combination could help reduce the risk of various illnesses.

Sleep

According to an article I read from the medical journal The Lancet reporting that too little sleep can accelerate aging and contribute to the incidence of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, memory loss, and obesity.  These are the very conditions that have risen to epidemic levels in our society.  Scientists found that sleep debt resulted in hormone imbalances of insulin and cortisol levels that are critical for proper energy, metabolism and balanced blood sugar.  In addition to these, thyroid stimulating hormone was also decreased contributing to lower energy and weight gain.  The researchers concluded that consistent lack of sleep can be as detrimental as severe stress and they found that as little as one week of sleep deprivation can affect the hormone balances.

Admittedly, sleep is a necessary health element that I often neglect and I find many of my clients neglect as well.  Numerous other studies have been done showing how lack of sleep contributes to decreased brain function, but this is the first study I’ve seen that looked at these crucial hormone levels.  Most experts agree that 7 hours of sleep is the bare minimum, but that many people could benefit from as many as 9 hours every night and that 10 pm is the ideal bedtime.  For us night owls, the only good news from this study is that it appears that the hormone imbalance from sleep debt can be made up with a few nights of sleep recovery.  Sleep well! 

Maintaining Balance

Since chiropractic is about restoring proper alignment and motion to the spine to remove pressure and tension off the nervous system, once you’re aligned or adjusted, why do you go back out of alignment?  This is one of the best questions I’m frequently asked and the answer is not only the key to success with your chiropractic care, but success with health in general.  Just like everything else in the body, the spine and nervous system are dynamic and in a state of constant adaptation.  I’ve written in the past that we are designed for health.  This is not 100% true.  We are designed to maintain a state of balance or homeostasis and health is related to your ability to maintain that homeostasis. Maintaining homeostasis is directly related to the ability to adapt to your individual level of physical, chemical and emotional stress.

In terms of spinal alignment, the physical conditions that may get you out of balance can be traumas, repetitive activities at work, poor posture or something as simple as a poor mattress or chair.  Many times what prevents people from “holding” their adjustments especially as we age is a lack of muscle tone and stability.  This is why spinal exercises are such an important part of your care.  Chemically, different toxins can insult and imbalance the body.  We are what we eat.  A great deal of research has proven that people will not hold their adjustments or maintain other aspects of homeostasis when they are acidic.  When you are acidic, you become more easily inflamed.  To reduce acidity, minerals are required which means you must eat the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables.  Emotional stress can often be the biggest one.  Feelings such as worry, guilt, anger, and frustration put us in a state of stress physiology which alters the function of our organs, hormones, muscles, and joints.  Replacing these feelings with positive thoughts and practicing stress reduction is critical. 

Understanding these guidelines of homeostasis and health are relatively simple.  Making change and putting them into practice can sometimes be a challenge.  Your doctors should act as a coach to help guide you, but applying these principles is up to you.  If you’re interested in more information on making lifestyle changes for better health, call our office to attend a free Better Results Faster Orientation where all the details are provided.

DNA & Positive Thoughts

For those of you who are regular followers of this article, I hope that you’ve grasped the concept that health exists on a continuum and that everything you do; everything you eat, drink, or breath are all either moving you toward health and away from dis-ease or moving you toward dis-ease and away from health.  I found an outstanding article that suggests that one of the biggest factors on this continuum is our own thoughts.

The article identified several research studies that show how we think can actually change the behavior of our DNA.  In one study performed by the military, DNA from white blood cells was taken from people, placed in a vial and moved to be monitored in another room.  The people were subjected to different emotional stimuli while their DNA was monitored.  As the donors were stimulated, they found that their DNA exhibited similar electrical responses at precisely the same time in the other room.

In a similar study done by the Institute of Heartmath, 28 scientists took DNA from other people and were taught to generate strong emotions in the presence of the DNA samples.  When the scientists generated feelings of joy, love, and gratitude, the DNA relaxed, unwound, and lengthened.  While they generated feelings of anger, fear, and frustration, the DNA tightened, shortened and shut off many of its codes.  The researchers applied this discovery to HIV-positive patients and discovered that when the AIDS patients generated feelings of joy, love, and gratitude their immune systems became 300,000 times more resistant to the virus than when they were not feeling this way.  Put simply, our thoughts affect our physiology and can have as great an impact on our health and wellness as any other factor.  Think about what you think about!

What makes this oil so special?

I’ve discussed the importance of fish oil in the past.  But I recently learned more and wanted to share.  Fish oil is a great source of omega 3 fatty acids that have been proven to do all the following: improve the heart, normalize cholesterol and blood sugar levels, improve memory and concentration while decreasing mood swings and depression, reduce arthritis and joint pain, improve brain and liver function, and support immune function and decrease general aging.  Sounds like pretty great stuff!  You should know that not all fish oils are created equal.  Some lower quality oils are tainted with PCB’s, mercury and other heavy metals.  The biggest complaint of taking some lower quality oils is the “fishy burps.”  While these are unpleasant for the victim (and all those around him), they also are a sign of a rancid oil.  Fish oil does have the tendency to perish and oxidize quickly.  Rancid oil will give off free radicals which are very damaging to the body and undermine the benefits of taking the product in the first place.

What about skipping the oil and just eating more fish?  While this strategy used to be sound, today most fish is tainted with mercury and other toxins.  Unless you’re getting isolated sources of wild Alaskan salmon, many say it’s not even safe to eat fish more than 2 times per week.  Most other fish sources are farm-raised unnaturally and fed on grains.  These sources still contain the toxins and lack much of the omega 3 content that you’re wanting from fish to begin with. 

These omega 3 fatty acids are truly essential because they cannot be produced in the body and must come from outside sources.  Other dietary sources include flax seed, walnuts, most green vegetables, some beans and seeds and other meat sources that were raised “free-range” on grasses.  While it can be accomplished with diet, this is one situation where I find it easier to simply take the pill!