THERE are many “scatterbrains” around. I am not referring to politicians who just cannot stop trying to be spanners in the wheels. They go by another name. By scatterbrains, I am referring to those children and adults, even parents and grandparents,who cannot bring anything they start to fruition or to a reasonable conclusion.Their lives are jumpy or jerky.They cannot concentrate or focus on anything for enough time to make reason or meaning of it before the loop or hook up to another and make another huge mess of it before they move on and on and on again, in the end becoming rolling stones which gather no moss. Medicine classifies such people, young or old, as suffering from ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER (ADD). If they are boisterous in addition to this malaise, they are said to suffer from ATTENTION DEFICIT AND HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD).
Surprisingly, food medicines can help to solve this malaise, which has disabled many people and made them unable to “gather” themselves, as we say.
This is an interesting field in which many researchers have brought enlightenment. Is it not interesting that certain foods, which many parents give their children, believing they are feeding them well, actually impair certain cells in their brains which make them to hate learning and schooling? In this election season in Nigeria, appeal after appeal have gone out to “area boys”, urging them to delink themselves from politicians who use them to disrupt the electoral process.They are even told pointedly that the children of politicians are abroad, making meaning of their lives, while they are killing themselves out here for peanuts that would fetch their principals fortunes, they and their households cannot exhaust in many generations. But did not a flood of these appeals fall on deaf ears? Food medicine research suggest to us some reasons if this always happens.Why, patiently, we monitor the lives of children who dropped out of school on account of learning problems in the brain, it is possible to discover criminal bent, which flowers and fruits in adulthood. A common thread (nutritional damage and/or nutritional deficiencies) link both poles of life together,say some researchers.When in several studies, many criminals who were always back in jail were given those nutritional substances in which their brains were previously deficient, psychiatrists and psychologists found they could successfully rehabilitate about 80 percent of former criminals. I do not think this lesson has been well learned and incorporated into the Nigerian psychiatry practice. For all psychiatrists, I speak with lend to undervalue the role of nutrition in the healing process of their practice and give far too much play to drugs which some of their patients are forced to take throughout life. Isn’t it suprising that where, overseas, patients replace these drugs with the right diets, they bounce back to normalcy after overcoming the initial shocks of psychiatry drug withdrawal, and never have to return to the psychiatrist. Before we address this question further, let us further see, a picture of ADD or ADHD in the home, at school or in adult life.
ADD/ADHD at home
At home, the signs or signals are too clear, but many parents fail to catch them.They always assume, for example, that restlessness is a feature or hallmark of all children.Yes, it is true that children do not and cannot “sit in one place”. They are energetic and adventurous and need, through motion, to develop their muscles and bones. Indeed, parents become uneasy when a child is not flowing along like their peers. But what do we make of a child who sits awkwardly all the time, such as sitting at a dining table with his legs not right down in front of him, but strewn diagonally on the seat beside them? What of that child who is prone to damaging almost every gadget at home? What of that who does not make his or her bed, fails to wash dishes after meals, flings objects, screams without need, disarrange places, enjoys noise making, loud music and wear dirty clothes.They may be intelligent, but they exhibit poor social skills and are, in simple words, anti-social.
But before I come to them, I would like to say that several studies suggest that this problem is caused by a heavy sugar diet, colourings and preservatives in food, among other sundry possibilities.This diet impairs the function of brain cells, which are involved with the learning process.Thus, while a child or adult so impaired may be intelligent, they have no interest in learning, having been destabilised in this regard.The medical profession attempts to correct this disturbance not naturally with healthy diet but with drugs,the star of which is called RITALIN, which, often, is too powerful for the children or adults who use them, may cause appetite crisis, developmental problems, such as stunting and even drug dependence.
Ritalin
According to the PILL BOOK, the editor-in-chief of which is HAROLD M. SILVERMAN(Maria Wasilik and Judith I. Brown are consultant): “Ritalin… prescribed for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children. Also prescribed for psychological, educational or social disorders, narcolepsy and mild depression of the elderly. Methylphenidate is also used to treat cancer, to help stroke victims recover and with variable success with treating hiccups after anesthesia…it should be used only after a complete evaluation of the child, not only on the presence of one or more behavioural characteristics. Common symptoms of ADHD are short attention span, easy distractibility, emotional instability, impulsiveness and moderate-to-severe hyperactivity. Children who suffer from ADHD will find it difficult to learn. Many professionals feel that methylphenidate offers only a temporary solution because it does not permanently change behaviour patterns. It must be used with other special psychological measures. Stimulants like methylphenidate are not for children whose symptoms are related to environmental factors or to primary psychiatric conditions, including psychosis. Methylphenidate should not be used to treat a primary stress reaction…chronic or abusive use of methylphenidate can lead to drug dependence or addiction.This drug can also cause severe psychotic episodes.Take methylphenidate with caution if you have glaucoma or other visual problems, high blood pressure, a seizure disorder, if you are extremely tense or agitated, or if you are allergic to this drug…possible side effects (for adults are) nervousness or inability to sleep which your doctor generally controls by reducing or eliminating the afternoon or evening dose. Rare: skin rash,itching,fever, symptoms similar to rhythm, headache, drowsiness, changes in blood pressure or pulse, chest pain, stomach pain, psychotic reactions…effects on components of the blood and loss of some scalp hair …child, most common: appetite loss, especially during prolonged therapy, sleeping difficulties and abnormal heart rhythm…”
ADHD in the classroom
There are many ADHD children in Nigerian schools.Trained teachers recognise them, but there is so little they can do to help them, according to some of them I spoke with. First, parents are upset when they are told their children are abnormal in behaviour. They believe it is the teacher’s job to correct any behavioural problem in children they teach.They do not understand that healing requires dietary changes and food supplements and, perhaps, special education under teachers who are specially educated to teach such children. If the teacher presses too hard out of concern for the child, the parents may take their case to the proprietor, if the school is a private school. School owners are too scared to sit such parents down and tell them the bitter home truth. For there may not be enough children in the class to justify the wage bill and parents easily move their children to another school where, erroneously, they believe a better deal would await them and their children. In public schools, it is rare before parents and disturbed children obtain help or support. And, for children who overdo, the chances are that they would be pumped with ritalin. Their parents probably have never heard of this drug,which has been the subject of bitter debates in the united states and Europe for decades now. It is in the light of this that I wonder if these children will not be better helped by dietary supplements, which have been known to protect the brain, improve brain health and function, support interest in learning and help to improve academic and social behaviours. Among these herbs are gotu kola, the brain and nerve energiser and longevity herb, magnesium therapy, primrose oil, black currant or borage oil, phosphatidyl serine, calcium,vitamin B complex and other vitamins.
Back to healthy kids
Mary Anne Shearer and Charlotte Meschede say: “Charlotte my co author,was faced with the option of treating her son with ritalin some years ago. Like so many parents she had been relatively unaware of the drug and it was only when it was recommended for her son that she sat up and started some personal investigation.This is what she has to say about her experience:
‘’I must mention that virtually everyone who recommended Ritalin for my own son when he was in grades 1 and 2, including doctors and teachers, assured me that Ritalin has no side effects. However, as soon as I did even the most preliminary research into the drug, it became apparent that this was not the case.The mere fact that it is a controlled substance, a schedule 7 drug, caused both my husband and myself great concern. My research did not stop there. I knew of several parents whose children had been prescribed Ritalin some 15 to 20 years earlier. In the one instance, the particular child (now an adult in his 30s), had only reached a height of five (feet) six (inches) whereas his two older brothers were 6’4″ and 6’3″ tall. His mother and father were 5’10” and 6’4″ tall.
‘’In another family, the child given Ritalin had also not reached his potential height as his father and mother were 6’4″ tall and 5’11”. At 27, this particular young man was found dead of a heroine overdose. One of the more common anecdotes that keeps surfacing is the high percentage of drug abusers among adults who were prescribed Ritalin as children. For me, this was proof enough that drug therapy was not the answer. It was the conviction that led me to discover other solutions, dietary modifications being the first among them.”
The authors of HEALTHY KIDS would appear to agree with some medical authorities that junk food is behind ADD and ADHD,which may fruit as criminal tendencies when they grow up.
“A well known paediatrician once wrote: ‘’If school authorities want to stop discipline problems and vandalism in the classroom, they should close all tuck shops within a kilometre of the school. More and more these days, we hear of children who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and/or Hyperactivity.Why is this problem escalating? Earlier in this chapter, we saw how additives and refined carbohydrates like sugar have been found to cause learning difficulties and behavioural problems. Candies are practically a symbol of our culture.They come in so many colours, shapes and flavours and are freely available wherever we go, just waiting to be picked up by eager children and adults.When a child is bombarded with such tantalising displays, logical explanations about the health risks of these products fall on deaf ears.Children respond to emotion and not logic. And so it becomes the difficult and unpopular task of the parents to enforce healthy eating habits at home.”
Once again, I suggest that all parents who are bringing up children have a copy of this book at home. The authors have been in it and successfully emerged from it all.Their experiences are priceless.They teach you how to deal with children who do not wish to give up junk food which may damage their lives.They also give you references about other books which would be of help as well.
When a Nigerian parent reads this book, he or she may become more alive in the environment which surrounds the school which his or her child attends. From the school gate all the way down home are purveyors of all kinds of foods and drinks and snacks which children enjoy. Many of them are sugared white flour foods, such as doughnuts, meatpies, egg rolls, fish pies, pork, sugared zobo drinks, ice cream etc.They are laden with damaging chemical additives and preservatives.That is why the authors, having been mothers of ADD and ADHD children, support the idea that the school environment be cleared of this stuff.
The second part of this series will, among other features, lead us to the experiences of a mother whose ADHD child was placed on Ritalin. But before then, ask the teacher of your child if he or she exhibits in the classroom any of the following traits which teachers often observe in ADD/ADHD children…
ADD/ADHD at school
They appear to have no respect for books.Their handwriting betrays emotional highs and dips: Concentration on class work is not constant. For example, a child in primary school may know the process of simple addition in arithmetic. If given five sums to solve, using the same process, he or she may solve the first two correctly but flounder in the others.This betrays a straying of the mind, short attention spans, irritability at being asked to sit behind a desk,working longer than he or she has the capacity for. Such children enjoy disturbing other children. Under the desk,they may pinch their neighbours with fingernails or with lead pencils.They tear the books of other children, dare them to fights. They change seats or seek to occupy more space than they should where they share seats.They are willing to do their home work but fail to do it well, unless they are assisted by their parents or private home teachers.While a class is in progress,these children like to play with objects and disturb attentive children. They do anything other than learning.