Recently I quit Propecia (yes I am losing my hair) when I found a site listing large numbers of side effects and more importantly when I tried a higher dose version off-label (Proscar) to fight the increased hair loss on ADHD drugs (mostly Wellbutrin I think, but I am on Adderall too) and it felt like it increased my ADHD/Depression.

Then I found some very disturbing information about Aspartame that I was ingesting/absorbing through years of Gum Chewing. Not sure what it was causing, but I think headaches was true. (only quit recently)

I am sure some of the holistic people are wondering who is writing this considering one of my earliest threads was about an anti-med faction floating around and scaring people, but I've always been pro-science and pro-reality and numerous philosophies, profit and special interests obscure good science.

Maybe at least part of the increase in diagnosis of ADHD is because of chemical exposure from womb on that affects our developing brains:
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=77373

That doesn't mean there isn't a genetic component, but our chemical environment may very likely be inducing, creating or magnifying the ADHD problem and occurrence in the population.

We may very well be exposed to chemicals all the time that make our symptoms worse and not know it. Personally I would love to have a chemical free or chemical low environment, but it seems really hard in today's world. The water alone can't be trusted...or the bottles they come in.(pseudo-estrogens)

I am very interested in this link and I wish there was more research done on it.

My father and I both have Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and ADHD (his undiagnosed mind you).

Apparently the SPECT brain scans of people with MCS are similar to those of people with ADHD. The same parts of the brain are affected. That's about as far as my understanding goes.

http://www.ourlittleplace.com/spect.html
http://www.healthcallsus.net/hh_adhd.html

I wouldn't dream of considering prescription meds without first eliminating food additives, purifying one's water, eliminating as many fragrances and chemicals as possible from one's environment, eating organic, cutting out caffeine, sugar, alcohol... (although I do understand that some struggle with addictions and meds might help with these). This is no cure, but I think it's wise to do as many things as possible in the right direction.

It is clear that the diet of modern man is significantly different from that for which homo sapiens is optimised.

Remember that evolution works very slowly. There is very little difference between ourselves and our ancestors from 30.000 years ago. Yet we eat very different things.

Being omnivores, our bodies and digestive systems are designed to deal with some variation, but that adaptability only goes so far. I very much doubt it includes ingesting exotic chemicals.

Having seen the dramatic effect of tartrazine (in orange drinks) on an AD/HDer I am quite anti additives.

I'm positive our diet is a factor in increasing negative symptoms. I was raised in an era when diet was much more utilitarian and chemicals in food very scarse. We had no fat children in my class and behaviour was exemplary. Contrast that with schoolrooms of today. Just about every class has at least one hyperkinetic and others with sundry behavioural troubles that cannot all be traced to more liberal parenting.

Diets are now incredibly processed and the spectrum of foods eaten in affluent western cultures much reduced. Tripe anyone? Veg seems to be a foreign land to a lot of kids now.

I'm pretty sure that the high incidence of AD/HD in children is caused by diet. Micro nutrients are less eaten and the more harmful fats and colourants more plentiful. I'd bet the background number of AD/HD kids that grow up to be AD/HD adults has not changed - the increase in numbers must be down to external factors. Some may well be impulsive and hyper due to poor parenting but I'm thinking the majority of the excess is down to chemical influence.

Has anyone any links to eastern diets and AD/HD? I'm particularly intrigued by high salt diets as eaten by the likes of Japan, which unfortunately is not an AD/HD friendly country AFAIK.

To date, things like diet, video games/technology, fast pace of life,etc., haven't been shown to impact ADHD.

However, the real impact appears to be on comorbidity ( co-occuring conditions).

Psychosocial Adversity & Social Disruption are 2 names synonymous with the impact of divorce, financial stressors, domestic violence, chemical dependency,abuse,etc.

hope that helps

tc

mctavish23

(Robert)

I'm positive our diet is a factor in increasing negative symptoms. I was raised in an era when diet was much more utilitarian and chemicals in food very scarse. We had no fat children in my class and behaviour was exemplary. Contrast that with schoolrooms of today. Just about every class has at least one hyperkinetic and others with sundry behavioural troubles that cannot all be traced to more liberal parenting.I started school in 1957 and still have the report card to prove how hyperkinetic I was. We ate foods in season or those that could be stored in a root cellar. My father was a product of Scotland and for the first decade of my life, I ate Oatmeal for breakfast, winter and summer. Schools bought cases of little brown bottles of codliver oil capsules to sell cheaply to families. Ten Lost Years by Barry Broadfoot tells the story of the Great Depression in Canada. In those years, access to cod liver oil meant the difference between health and malnutrition for children.

No one stayed at school for lunch. We had a 90 minute lunch break and walked home and back during the noon hour, even in the bitter cold of winter. I once showed my kids the route I walked from age 6 to 10 and even I was surprised that a little kid walked that distance four times a day. Thank God I did. I spent way too much time in the corner or the cloakroom even with the walking.

An old high school chum is making the journey to visit me and guess what we are looking forward to? Yup, those long walks and those long talks.