Hyperactivity/ ADHD

Book of Children

Learning & Behavior

Diet and ADHD

Management of Hypersensitive Children

Nutritional Rescue Advice to Parents

Case Studies 

Children's Health Problems

Tonsils & Lymph Nodes

Ear Nose & Throat

Digestive Problems

Eczema & Hives

Asthma

Headaches

Food Allergy

Milk Allergy

Learning Problems

Hyperactivity

Bladder & Kidney Problems

Leg Pains

Hyperactivity is a descriptive term that refers to restless, distractible children who have a knack for disrupting order at home and at school. They have poor impulse control, often display abrupt mood swings, have inappropriate anger, and sometimes are violent. Their schoolwork suffers from inattention, disorganization, poor memory, and behavior disruptive of an otherwise orderly classroom. They have average or above-average intelligence. Hyperactive behavior and attention deficits are often connected so that the term attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has become popular.

Food chemistry and food allergy play and important role in causing learning and behavioral problems in children. Whenever children are sick or influenced by food and/or airborne chemicals, their brain function is compromised and symptoms include disturbances of sensing, feeling, remembering and acting. Their learning is impaired and their behavior may be disturbed. The intention of compassionate biological management is to restore orderly, normal functioning of the child by careful revision of environmental conditions and food intake .

ADHD may improve as children age, but many children are permanently handicapped by a combination of poor achievement, low self-esteem, antisocial behavior, and persisting problems of disorganized psychic energy. It is likely that juvenile delinquency and, later, criminal adaptations are linked to the ADHD complex.

Several theories have been advanced to explain ADHD. The theory of "minimal brain damage or dysfunction" had many advocates. The child is viewed as having a fixed disability, manifesting a structural problem of brain, acquired during prenatal development or at birth. Language disability or dyslexia has also been attributed to a fixed circuitry problem in the brain that impairs encoding and decoding of language symbols. These brain-damage theories ignore the living, dynamic properties of the brain; they seem to view the brain as a simple appliance or computer that comes hardwired to behave in a certain way. But what about the daily input of molecular substances to the brain? Can improper food-body-brain interactions, sustained by habitual food choices, produce the patterns of dysfunction commonly observed?

Several dietary theories have been put forward to explain behavioral and learning abnormalities, especially hyperactivity. Feingold blamed salicylates and food dyes for ADHD. Careful reviews of his low-salicylate diet showed that a minority of hyperactive children benefited from food dye and salicylate exclusion diets. A "panel of experts" concluded that the salicylate elimination diet should not be universally applied to hyperactive children, but that "dietary management" may be warranted in selected children. Unfortunately, many commentators on the food-behavior connection have generalized extravagantly from this conclusion - some state that "diet has nothing to do with hyperactivity", a reckless interpolation from the Feingold diet review.

"Sugar" is often blamed for hyperactivity. Parents often observe that children's' behavior deteriorates after eating sugar-containing foods, such as chocolate chip cookies, cake, jello, kool-aid, pop, strawberry ice cream, or chocolate bars. They often blame sugar and do not think of other ingredients in the food as potential problems. The sugar-hyperactivity connection illustrates a mistake of attribution, blaming the results of the complex interaction of many food ingredients with the body on only one of the ingredients. When sugar (glucose and sucrose) alone is given to children, they tend to be sedated, with unchanged or even decreased physical activity.

Another popular sugar hypothesis suggests that hypoglycemia is responsible for irritability, fatigue, depression, and learning difficulties. Again, this hypothesis has not been substantiated and is too simplistic to be an adequate explanation of diverse forms of dysfunction. High sugar intake is never desirable for children, nor adults. The move to artificial sweeteners is also not desirable. The goal is moderation of total sugar intake. The high protein diets prescribed for alleged "hypoglycemia" are definitely not desirable for children.

Other food ingredients have been named as the culprits in children's behavioral problems. The aromatic substances and "amines" in fruits, for example, are neuroactive chemicals that produce behavioral changes when given alone. Nutmeg is known to contain hallucinogenic substances, and cinnamon often triggers hyperactivity and/or headaches. Several naturally occurring polyphenolic compounds have been studied for their effects on behavior. Gallic acid, for example, suppresses food intake in animals. In rat studies, obese rats were more sensitive to appetite suppression by gallic acid than their lean litter mates. Gardner advanced the hypothesis that the whole range of aromatic compounds in the food supply are chemically active and also allergenic.

Psychopharmacology & Hyperactivity

The most researched neurochemical approach to hyperactivity is based on a drug-neurotransmitter model of brain function. The dopamine system is involved in reward-seeking behavior, sexual behavior, control of movement, regulation of pituitary-hormone secretion, and memory functions. A model of schizophrenia postulates increased or unregulated dopamine circuits and drugs which block dopamine activity reduce the schizophrenic syndrome. An interesting neurochemical relationship between hyperactivity and schizophrenia has been postulated, where the two conditions seem to have opposite features.

ADHD may be attributed to dopamine deficiency. Dopamine synthesis slowly increases as children grow and may not reach full capacity until late teens. This is one of the built-in maturation lags which prevents some children from assuming adult-like behavior in their early life. Dopamine in young animals exerts a protective influence against hyperactivity. Since schizophrenia is associated with increased dopaminergic activity and is improved by dopamine-blocking agents, there is a reciprocal relationship between psychosis and hyperactivity. A neurochemical relationship might look like:

                        >>    increasing dopamine

Attention Deficit    ---------- -----> SCHIZOPHRENIA

(decreased focal attention)          (increased focal attention)

  Hyperkinetic  <--------------- STEREOTYPY

                            <<  decreasing dopamine

Nutritional strategies may attempt to modify the amino acid profile of the diet to encourage dopamine synthesis by augmenting intake of phenylalanine and tyrosine and supplying extra cofactor, Vitamin.B6 (pyridoxine). A more direct drug approach is to utilize molecules that stimulate dopamine circuits or act as dopamine agonists - options have included pemoline, L-dopa, bromocriptine, amantadine, and lergotrile.

Ritalin and amphetamines increase dopaminergic activity and decrease hyperactivity while they increase stereotypy. Ritalin has become the "drug of choice" for children with ADHD. Ritalin therapy poses many risks, some obvious and others concealed. Any child treated with Ritalin is moved from the hyperactivity end of the spectrum toward a schizophrenia-like state.

The most obvious Ritalin effect is appetite suppression and retarded growth. Some parents complain that their Ritalin-treated child acts like a "zombie". They describe emotional blunting and detachment from family and friends, a mild schizophrenic attribute. Children on higher doses and chronic use may manifest paranoid features - withdrawal, anger, restless, suspicious behavior.

Adults who abuse amphetamines regularly develop a psychotic state with paranoid features. Ritalin may also produce disruption of movement control in a few unlucky children. Facial and head tics may appear, and, in the Tourette's syndrome progress to peculiar grunting and respiratory tics, associated with compulsive behaviors, manifesting stereotypy. No drug which works on the dopamine system is free of long term toxicity on the motor system.

Studies on the effects of long term Ritalin use show the mixed results expected from a symptomatic drug therapy which does nothing to remove the underlying cause of the disorder. In all drug-related studies of ADHD, there is no consideration of dietary variables, nor any thought that the learning and behavior problems are just symptoms of a more pervasive illness. The reviewers of drug studies discover that ADHD continues through adolescence into adult experience. The names for the disorder change as patients age and accumulate social and interpersonal problems.  Many years ago, Weiss, for example, concluded that:

"1.Most studies show that about one to two thirds of the subjects continue to evidence symptoms of the syndrome...

"2. Most studies indicate that hyperactives have lower self-esteem and rate themselves and are rated higher by others on various indicators of pathology...

"3. In all studies, it is evident that for a significant minority, hyperactivity in childhood leads to adult antisocial personality disorders..."

Hechtman reviewed the outcome of children treated with Ritalin. She stated: "Thus, stimulant treatment in childhood does not seem to secure a positive adolescent outcome for the hyperactive. However, studies that have combined stimulants with other multimodal interventions... do suggest more positive outcomes."

I propose a multimodal therapy which repairs the attention deficit disorder with effective, diet revision therapy; repairs academic deficits by appropriate remedial education; repairs lost self-esteem by family and child counseling; and maintains normal functioning by supporting the family effort to sustain proper diet, learning and social opportunities. A brief review of these concepts follows.

Many physicians have described diet revision treatment for children's' behavioral and learning problems. Egger remarked: "A role for food allergy in the hyperkinetic syndrome has been postulated since early this century."  ADHD can be seen as a symptom of a food-driven hypersensitivity disease. Many children with ADHD will have symptoms and signs of delayed pattern food allergy. We are not talking about common allergy, diagnosed by skin tests. We are talking about delayed patterns of food allergy that cannot be detected by tests.

The Physical Symptoms

The most common symptoms are allergic shiners (dark circles under the eyes) and stuffy nose. ADHD kids tend to have histories of nose congestion, recurrent middle-ear infections, and sleep disturbances, starting in infancy. Some have more specific allergic problems such as eczema, hives, and asthma but most have non-specific symptoms that do not fit the familiar patterns of allergy. Digestive disturbances are common but may be episodic with long normal periods - bouts of gas, distention, pain lead the list - some children have bouts of diarrhea others tend to be constipated. Some have headaches and many have leg pains often at night. Often parents will state that the child has recurring colds or flus and are prescribed antibiotics too frequently.

Eating Behaviors

Often, the early ADHD child will show curious and difficult eating behaviors. Preschool infants with food problems tend to become fussy or picky eaters with strong food preferences and refusal to eat many healthy foods. These children may frustrate their mothers into accepting their idiosyncratic eating patterns. Children with food allergy typically become eating specialists - compulsively eating a small number of "favorite" foods and refusing the rest. Vegetable foods are the first foods refused, often in favor of compulsive eating of fruit juices, dairy or wheat products. 

When you see a four year girl in her pink dress with bows in her hair, allergic shiners and stuffy nose, screaming and writhing in the aisle of the supermarket because her mother will not let her keep the bag of candy she just snitched from the shelf, you can make the diagnosis of food allergy - ADHD and predict years of difficulty for this child and her parents unless they are successful in controlling her food supply. Their success is doubtful for many reasons - even if they are highly motivated and well informed, the little girl in the pink dress will not comply willingly and will show every behavior of a committed food addict for years to come.

The Problems at School

The school profile of children with delayed pattern food allergies, involves a typical set of learning and behavioral problems. Teachers observe inattention, fluctuating performance, restlessness, distractibility, or aggressive behaviors, or remark on the quiet, withdrawn, disinterested nature of the child. Often the child is criticized for laziness or attention seeking, or the parents are blamed for undisciplined behavior. Psychological evaluation often reveals average to above-average intelligence with attention deficits. Some will appear clumsy, with awkward handwriting that varies from day to day, often appearing disorganized or tremulous. The more seriously afflicted children will fail to learn properly and will require assessment for learning disability and some form of remediation. If the behavioral aberrance is marked, they may be referred to school psychologists or psychiatrists. Difficulties in learning language skills top the list of learning problems and the diagnosis of dyslexia is often made. The irritable, restless child is considered "hyperactive" and may be disruptive in the classroom.

These children display quick mood shifts, tearfulness, aggressive behavior, and may, on occasion, be antisocial and violent. The symptoms of depression and hyperactivity may co-exist, alternate, or appear separately. Disruptive behavior in the classroom may be associated with refusal to follow instructions, trouble with classmates, and aggressive, sometimes violent behavior in the school yard. The failure-complex has life-long implications, as the child's personality forms around the dysfunctional patterns. With persisting illness and failure, low self esteem, social maladaptation, and antisocial behaviors develop and may be the presenting problems. Unpleasant, oppositional behavior in the younger child grows into delinquent patterns in early adolescence, and, later, antisocial or criminal behavior, if uncorrected.

Proper Diet Revision

ADHD symptoms may remit surprisingly and dramatically when food selection is changed. The details of a successful food plan vary from individual to individual. The most globally successful diet revision in all these illnesses involves complete revision of the problematic diet.

• Selective "elimination diets" tend not to work.
• There are no tests for this type of food allergy.
• The proper technique of diet revision therapy is designed to solve simultaneous problems in the child's food supply.

Consideration is given to

• minimizing exposure to food additives,
• choosing nourishing, primary, low allergenic foods as dietary staples,
• assuring nutrient adequacy by careful monitoring of the child's food intake.

Egger et al, demonstrated the benefits of diet revision in symptomatic, hyperactive children. Their summary is noteworthy:

"The hyperkinetic syndrome is a poorly defined but seriously handicapping behavior disorder, probably of multiple etiology. Various forms of treatment, especially behavior modification and stimulant medication, have been reported to be effective. It has also been suggested that food colorants and preservatives sometimes cause the hyperkinetic syndrome, presumably by evoking an idiosyncratic response to their pharmacologically active constituents. However, results of double-blind, controlled trials to test this hypothesis have largely been negative, though individual patients may respond consistently to particular substances. A role for food allergy has also been postulated, but this has not been tested by appropriate trials. During a double-blind, controlled trial that showed that any combination of foods could cause migraine in children, we noted that many of the responders had also been overactive and that their overactivity usually improved with food avoidance, in some instances with avoidance of foods other than those causing migraine. We have therefore treated overactive children with an oligoantigenic diet (one containing few varieties of foods); in those who responded, we identified provoking foods by reintroducing foods sequentially, then undertook a randomized, crossover, placebo-controlled trial of the effect of reintroduction of these foods on the development of overactivity and associated symptoms.

"The sequential reintroduction of foods enabled us to identify the foods that adversely affected a child's behavior. The hypothesis that combinations of any foods can alter behavior (based on allergy theory) has been supported in double-blind, controlled trials, not only in the hyperkinetic syndrome but also in migraine. By contrast, trials based on the idiosyncrasy hypothesis (tyramine in migraine and salicylates, colorants, and preservatives in behavior disorders) have produced largely negative results. All the same, colorants (tartrazine) and preservatives (benzoates) were the commonest substances that provoked abnormal behavior in our patients, although no patient in this series reacted to them alone. The foods to which these patients also reacted were not chemically related to tartrazine or benzoates, which can be antigenic and, unlike salicylates, have no established pharmacological activity. Feingold recommended avoiding natural salicylates as well as drugs and food additives which contained them or chemically similar substances; such foods include peaches and cucumber, which were very low in our list of symptom-producing foods. The results of this study are not inconsistent with the largely negative results of double-blind controlled trials of the effect of preservatives and colorants in hyperactive children, since we found that no child reacted to preservatives and colorants alone. Moreover, in at least two of the previous trials, the placebo and excipient was chocolate, which caused symptoms in 59% of our patients.

"We prefer the hypothesis of allergy, but allergy and idiosyncrasy could co-exist and be interrelated in a complex manner. We have found that patients with migraine no longer responded to such non-specific stimuli as exercise, heat, or trauma to the head if they avoided the foods to which they responded adversely. Such an effect could be expected with foods that had pharmacological actions but there is no evidence of this and no evidence that aniline dyes or benzoate have any pharmacological effects. More research is needed to explain why these substances, also important in some other allergic diseases, such as angioedema and eczema, are so prominent in this syndrome. However, they are particularly readily avoidable, since they have no nutritional value, and our findings strengthen the case for excluding them where possible from factory-processed foods and drugs..."

Brief Note on Delayed Pattern Food Allergy

In this section we are discussing delayed food allergy, not the more obvious immediate food allergic reactions. Delayed patterns of food allergy are not so obvious and generally go unrecognized. Allergy skin tests do not show this problem nor do blood tests for antibodies  such as RAST or ELIZA.  Delayed patterns of food allergy are responsible for causing specific diseases such as asthma and eczema and also common but ill-defined illness patterns in children. 

The Alpha Nutrition Program is proposed to help solve learning and behavior problems in children. The Alpha Nutrition tends to solve food allergy problems, generates healthy eating practices, and encourages a return to adaptive self-regulation. In families, this is only possible if everyone cooperates and everyone succeeds at getting better. A tall order. A healthy mind requires correct, coherent, consistent molecular input to the brain. 

It is always necessary, therefore, to correct nutritional problems by complete diet revision using the the Alpha Nutrition Program. A children's rescue starter pack combines this program with the Book of Children in printed or eBook format with a 500 Gram jar of Alpha ENF, our complete nutrition, food replacement formula.