Save U.S. Jobs & protect your family’s health!

Well over 50 yrs. ago I knew a lady who would not buy Christmas gifts if they were from China.  Her daughter will recognize her in the following.  Did you see Diane Sawyer’s special report?  They removed ALL items from a typical, middle class family’s home that were NOT made in the USA.

There was hardly anything left besides the kitchen sink. Literally.  During the special they showed truckloads of items – USA made – being brought in to replace everything and talked about how to find these items and the difference in price etc.  It was interesting that Diane said if every American spent just $64 more than normal on USA made items this year, it would create something like 200,000 new jobs!

I was buying food the other day at Walmart and on the label of some products it said “from China.” For example the “Our Family” brand of the mandarin oranges says right on the can “from China.”  I was shocked, so for a few more cents I bought the Liberty Gold brand or the Dole since it’s from California.

Are we Americans as dumb as we appear – or – is it that we just do not think.  The Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior and even toxic products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets.

70% of Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended.  Why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges?  DO IT YOURSELF, AMERICA !!

Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says ‘Made in China ‘ or ‘PRC’ (and that now includes Hong Kong ), simply choose another product, or none at all.  You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, and you will be equally amazed at what you can do without.

Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter?  If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some American farmer.  Easter is just an example.  The point is do not wait for the government to act.  Just go ahead and assume control on your own.

THINK ABOUT THIS: If 200 million Americans each refuse to buy just $20 of Chinese goods, that’s a billion-dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor, fast!  With only one month of trading losses, it will hit the Chinese for 1/12th of the total, or 8%, of their American exports.  Then they might have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it.  START NOW!

Send this to everybody you know.  Let’s show them that we are Americans and NOBODY can take us for granted.  If we can’t live without cheap Chinese goods for one month out of our lives, WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET!

Pass it on, America  . . .

Feel free to re-publish this article, as long as you include a link back to my website in the publication.

For additional articles on Health Issues go to: http://www.dennisfwatson.com

Prescription drug deaths skyrocket 68% over five years as Americans swallow more pills

NewsTarget.com printable article originally published February 22, 2007 http://.newstarget.com/z021635.html

“Prescription drug deaths skyrocket 68 percent over five years as Americans swallow more pills.”  by M.T. Whitney

Poisoning from prescription drugs has risen to become the second-largest cause of unintentional deaths in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers found that deaths from prescription drugs rose from 4.4 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 7.1 per 100,000 in 2004.  This increase represents a jump from 11,000 people to almost 20,000 in the span of five years.  Among the 20,000 that died, more than 8,500 – double the number from 1999 – were from “other and unspecified drugs.”

Psychotherapeutic drugs, like antidepressants and sedatives, nearly doubled from 671 deaths to 1,300.  Age-wise, the biggest jump was among people aged 15 to 24, which the CDC report says relates to recreational prescription drug use and a jump in cocaine use.

However, all other age groups except the elderly over-75 group saw increases of more than 35 percent on a per 100,000 scale in prescription drug deaths – including a nearly 90 percent jump for the late Baby Boomer generation (ages 45 to 54) and more than 90 percent for people aged 55 to 64.  Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate and outspoken critic of pharmaceutical companies, said that the drug industry is freely killing Americans.

“The entire drug industry, including the monopolistic drug giants and their FDA co-conspirator, has clearly become the single greatest threat to the health and safety of the American people,” Adams said.  And yet the FDA continues to push more drugs onto more Americans than ever before, all while pretending these drugs are safe and effective when, in reality, they are neither.  Today’s pharmaceutical industry is a massive fraud being perpetrated against the American people, propped up by illegal trade practices, monopolistic behavior and outright criminal behavior on the part of the FDA.”

One caveat of the report is that the data used did not allow suicides to be separated from other drug deaths, meaning there may be inherent errors because it was impossible to tell after death the intent or reason for a person’s death from prescription drugs.

“Some of these deaths might have been suicides, although not classified as such, and some deaths categorized as suicides or of undetermined intent might have been unintentional and therefore not analyzed in this study.  The extent of this error is not known,” the report states.

However, statistics from the web site www.suicide.org state that in 2001, nearly 5,200 deaths came from self-poisoning, which includes not only abusing prescription drugs but also overdosing on over-the-counter drugs and ingesting lethal chemicals.

Feel free to re-publish this article, as long as you include a link back to my website in the publication.

For additional articles on Health Issues go to: http://www.dennisfwatson.com

4 Congressmen are hijacking our Farm Bill in Secret

The Republican-manufactured budget crisis of this past summer — remember? — resulted in a “solution” that’s hijacking what little representative democratic process we have left.  Equally sad is that the so-called supercommittee — charged with creating an outline for reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years — may preclude full discussion of the farm bill.

It’s the farm bill that largely shapes food and agriculture policy, and — though much of it finances good programs — ultimately supports the cynical, profit-at-any-cost food system that drives obesity, astronomical health care costs, ethanol-driven agriculture and more, creating further deficits while punishing the environment.

To read the full article go to: http://ow.ly/7oEug  For other articles on health and food issues go to my blog

Seventy-five percent of women suffer from headaches, mood swings, bloating, and other period problems, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

“Seventy-five percent of women suffer from headaches, mood swings, bloating, and other period problems that threaten their relationships, work life, and well-being.”  It’s a statement that most of us unconsciously accept without a second thought.  But it doesn’t have to be this way  . . .

It’s true that the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), period, like mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety, fluid retention, bloating, breast tenderness, sugar cravings, headaches, and sleep disturbances, affect 75 percent of women.  And in 20 percent of those women, the symptoms are so severe that they need medical treatment.  About eight percent have such extreme symptoms that the problem has been given a new name: premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).

But just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you have to live with these symptoms.  The real fact is that suffering related to menstrual cycles is unnecessary — and not caused by bad luck, but by bad habits, environmental toxins, and stress.

To read the full report copy this link into your web browser:  http://www.foodmatters.tv/_webapp_492117/Eliminate_Suffering_From_PMS_In_5_Simple_Steps

Feel free to re-publish this article, as long as you include a link back to my website in the publication.

For additional articles on Health Issues go to:  http://www.dennisfwatson.com

Let thy food be thy medicine

Only the most distracted of observers could ignore the multitude of “lifestyle” ailments besetting people in industrialized worlds today, with America ranking high on the health calamity list.   As wonder drugs bring dangerous side effects, new drugs are created to moderate new symptoms.  Meanwhile, words from thousands of years ago are echoing across oceans  . . .

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” said Hippocrates (460 B.C. – 377 B.C.), the Father of Medicine.

Perhaps the wry chronicle below shows more truth than jest!

• 2000 B.C. – Here, eat this root.
• 1000 A.D. – That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
• 1850 A.D. – That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
• 1940 A.D. – That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
• 1985 A.D. – That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.
• 2000 A.D. – That antibiotic is unhealthy. Here, eat this root.
• ~Author unknown but saluted

Indeed, merely growing older is a precursor to various and sundry health concerns.  The alternative is dying young, so perhaps we would be well advised to nourish, protect and preserve our bodies and our health!

The tens of millions of Baby Boomers of the world are leading the quest for safe and effective anti-aging approaches  . . .  demanding ways to maintain health and youthful good looks, to solve current problems and to prevent failing health from intruding on their lifestyles.  They are on a quest for healthy food.

Thanks to the Internet and some growing grass roots movement around the world, millions are realizing that food, proper and wholesome food, might truly be the best medicine of all for sustaining or restoring health. Even the mainstream media has propelled this movement.

In late 2004, Dr. Nicholas Perricone appeared on The Oprah Winfrey show to promote his book “The Perricone Promise: Look Younger-Live Longer in Three Easy Steps” in which he lists the Ten Super Foods to Rejuvenate the Body. He rated the Açai Berry as #1, calling it one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world.  It was the only fruit that made his list – worthy of note in light of the flurry of single-fruit health juices that have appeared in recent years.

Also in 2004, NBC Today’s Matt Lauer hosted a road show from the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil, reporting that locals now call the legendary Açai Berry the “Viagra of the Amazon.”

The path taking us back to the realization that food has much to do with our health, has not come easily.  Identified trends of the past show a very slow march toward where we are today in the 21st Century.

• Pre-1970: Correcting malnutrition and infections
• 1970′s: Decade of vitamins and minerals and cardiovascular disease.
• 1980′s: Decade of anti-oxidants
• 1990′s: Decade of herbs and genes.
• 2000′s: Decade of phytonutrients and inflammation.

Phytonutrients and Inflamation

Two of today’s wellness experts zero in on inflammation:

“At best chronic debilitating diseases (heart disease, cancer, arthritis, obesity, diabetes, asthma, Alzheimer’s, and allergies) destroy our quality of life; at worst they are painful, debilitating, and fatal … It is clear, the root cause of diseases is unbridled inflammation.”

~Chilton FH. Inflammation Nation. (2005)

“Inflammation affects us all – especially today, when so many of us are grappling with the health implications of aging plus an explosion of inflammation-related health problems such as obesity and asthma.  Shouldn’t inflammation control be a major part of your overall personal health plan?”

~Meggs, WJ. The Inflammation Cure. (2004)

“The most powerful concept in disease prevention and treatment today is inflammation. Inflammation may well turn out to be the elusive Holy Grail of medicine – the single phenomenon that holds the key to sickness and health.”

~Meggs, WJ. The Inflammation Cure. (2004)

The Wellness Revolution is gaining more traction by the day, fueled by the Boomers (10,000 per day reaching the Big 50).  From the cereal aisle to the butter bin at the supermarket, manufacturers are rolling out designer foods aimed at specific health concerns.  Medical and scientific experts the world over now concur that inflammation is at the core of essentially all the chronic, debilitating diseases that modern man suffers.  Healthy food is the answer!

Feel free to re-publish this article, as long as you include a link back to my website in the publication.

For additional articles on Health Issues go to: http://www.dennisfwatson.com

Danger – GM Sweet Corn, Coming to Your Plate

For the first time, Monsanto is marketing a genetically-modified (GM) corn that will be sold directly to consumers.

This is NOT commodity corn that will be processed into oil or fed to animals. These ears of sweet corn will go directly to grocery aisles, possibly in cans or frozen packs, where it will be impossible to tell them apart from pure varieties.

The new GM sweet corn is engineered to kill insects with Bt toxins and to resist heavy spraying with Roundup herbicide. Already, Roundup resistant crops have resulted in an epidemic of over 21 types of resistant superweeds. Even more alarming, recent studies have linked Roundup with birth defects in animals, and Bt toxins from GM foods have been found in the bloodstreams of pregnant mothers and their unborn babies. The results are clear: producing GM sweet-corn for direct human consumption will have untold environmental and health tolls.

Let’s nip this in the bud now. Trader Joe’s has already indicated they will not carry GM sweet corn.  Tell the rest of the top grocery chains to follow suit.  To go to the “Fresh” website click on the link below.  http://action.freshthemovie.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8462

Can’t find Fresh Organic Food in your area? The links below should help.

Welcome to the organic food Farm Locator!

The organic food Farm Locator is still a great place to locate a farm in your area-but it will soon be a great place for farmers and businesses to match-make with each other. We’re adding restaurants, retail stores, institutional buyers and other food businesses interested in purchasing produce from local farmers. http://search.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/

Welcome to Organic Highways, The Organic / Healthy Restaurant Directory

Are you traveling to a new city – and want to plan your meals? Does your weight-loss diet require whole grain foods? Do you want to avoid msg and artificial flavorings and preservatives when you eat out? Find organic food restaurants that meet your needs using our search feature: http://www.organichighways.com/

Fresh Local Organic Food Directly from the Farm.

Buy, Sell and Find Local Food. Need a little more organic, grass-fed, heirloom or free-range in your life? Local Dirt is your place to find and buy fresh, local food directly from the family farm. http://www.localdirt.com/

Sources of Sustainably Grown Organic Food in Your Area

The best organic food is what’s grown closest to you. Use our website to find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies. Want to support this great web site? Shop in our catalog for things you can’t find locally! http://www.localharvest.org/

Feel free to re-publish this organic food article, as long as you include a link back to my website in the publication.

For additional articles on organic food and Health Issues go to: http://www.dennisfwatson.com

Danger – GM Sweet Corn, Coming to Your Plate

For the first time, Monsanto is marketing a genetically-modified (GM) corn that will be sold directly to consumers.

This is NOT commodity corn that will be processed into oil or fed to animals. These ears of sweet corn will go directly to grocery aisles, possibly in cans or frozen packs, where it will be impossible to tell them apart from pure varieties.

The new GM sweet corn is engineered to kill insects with Bt toxins and to resist heavy spraying with Roundup herbicide. Already, Roundup resistant crops have resulted in an epidemic of over 21 types of resistant superweeds. Even more alarming, recent studies have linked Roundup with birth defects in animals, and Bt toxins from GM foods have been found in the bloodstreams of pregnant mothers and their unborn babies. The results are clear: producing GM sweet-corn for direct human consumption will have untold environmental and health tolls.

Let’s nip this in the bud now. Trader Joe’s has already indicated they will not carry GM sweet corn.  Tell the rest of the top grocery chains to follow suit.  To go to the “Fresh” website click on the link http://action.freshthemovie.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8462

Can’t find Fresh Organic Food in your area?  The links below should help.

Welcome to the organic food Farm Locator!

The organic food Farm Locator is still a great place to locate a farm in your area-but it will soon be a great place for farmers and businesses to match-make with each other. We’re adding restaurants, retail stores, institutional buyers and other food businesses interested in purchasing produce from local farmers.  http://search.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/

Welcome to Organic Highways, The Organic / Healthy Restaurant Directory

Are you traveling to a new city – and want to plan your meals?  Does your weight-loss diet require whole grain foods?  Do you want to avoid msg and artificial flavorings and preservatives when you eat out?  Find organic food restaurants that meet your needs using our search feature:  http://www.organichighways.com/

Fresh Local Food Directly from the Farm. 

Buy, Sell and Find Local Organic Food.  Need a little more organic, grass-fed, heirloom or free-range in your life? Local Dirt is your place to find and buy fresh, local food directly from the family farm.  http://www.localdirt.com/

Sources of Sustainably Grown Food in Your Area

The best organic food is what’s grown closest to you. Use our website to find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies. Want to support this great web site? Shop in our catalog for things you can’t find locally!  http://www.localharvest.org/

Feel free to re-publish this organic food article, as long as you include a link back to my website in the publication.

For additional articles on organic food and Health Issues go to: http://www.dennisfwatson.com

Autism – Dr.  Alex Schuss on Autism

It is the opinion of some scientists working at the University of Arkansas School of Medical Sciences in Little Rock that autistic children share a chronic flaw in the body’s natural defenses against oxygen free radicals that can severely damage developing brain cells.  In an article written by Robert Lee Hotz in April 2005, it was reported that:

“Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock found that a single breakdown in the body’s metabolism might underlie many of the puzzling symptoms of autism, a complex developmental disability with a spectrum of behaviors.   “This is a very promising thing to look at because it gets at the actual metabolic processes in the brain,” said UCLA neurologist George Bartzokis, who did not participate in the research.  “The brain is especially vulnerable to damage from free radicals,”  Those with autism typically have difficulty communicating and interacting with other people.  It strikes some in infancy.  Other children may develop normally for several years before failing into a private word where normal social interaction and behavior become impossible.  The new findings also may help shed light on the condition’s range in severity because maturing neurons and synapses are especially vulnerable to this biomolecular bombardment.

Autism could therefore cause different symptoms and degrees of severity in children depending on when the disorder is triggered.  Normally, the body shields itself from such damage with a chemical produced by every cell called glutathione, which neutralizes oxygen free radicals.  It binds to them, altering their electron balance and sees them safety expelled from the body.  By analyzing blood samples from 95 autistic children and 75 healthy ones, researchers led by biochemist S.Jill James at the University of Arkansas determined that levels of this protective antioxidant were abnormally low in many autistic children.  They presented their work at the Experimental Biology 2005 conference in San Diego.  The finding is suggestive, several experts said, because glutathione also is crucial for neutralizing toxic heavy metals such as mercury, which is found in food, the air and, at one time, a vaccine preservative called thimerosal.

“When gluathione is less available, then it is easier for things to get out of balance and the free radicals can cause damage,” James said.  “One interpretation of this finding is that children with autism would be less able to detoxify and eliminate these heavy metals.”  The researchers cautioned that they do not know whether this metabolic flaw precedes the disorder or is one of its symptoms.  Indeed, no one knows what causes autism, which has increased in prevalence 10-fold during the last 15 years.  So far, there is no medical test that can identify it reliably.  Most experts agree that autism most probably gives the interaction of many genes that together predispose a child to the condition, combined with some outside factor that triggers the disorder.  No one has identified any genes for autism, nor is there any consensus on what environmental factor is involved,  “We have added now the fact that there may also be a metabolic component that reflects both the underlying genetics and the environment,” James said.”

Through years of contact with Dr. Rimland I managed to keep up on some of the research he was involved with on autism.  On August 18, 2006, it was reported that researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that children with autism showed signs of abnormal blood-vessel function and damaging levels of oxidative stress compared to healthy children.  This further suggested a link between autism and abnormal blood-vessel function and oxidative stress.

The children with autism possessed levels of biochemicals that indicate the presence of constricted blood vessels via endothelium (the cells that line vessels ) with a higher tendency to form clots (through cells called platelet).  By exploring the relationship between oxidative stress and blood-vessel function in autistic patients, they hoped to find what causes autism and an avenue for helping those with autism.

Of particular interest, and reported in August of 2006 was research led by Domenico Pratico, MD, an Associate Professor of Pharmacology, who published their findings in the August 2006 issue of the Archives of Neurology.

Urinary samples of autistic children who were similar in age and healthy controls provided by the Pfeiffer Treatment Center, where patients were diagnosed with autism disorder and evaluated.  Patients were excluded from analysis if they had ever received antioxidant treatments or medicine with any known antioxidant effect; if they suffered from chronic illnesses, such as depression, psychosis, or inflammatory disorders; and/or if they were sick at the time of the sample collection. These strict criteria resulted in the small sample size in this preliminary study: 26 children with autism and 12 healthy controls.

Pratico’s team measured isoprostane, a biomarker for oxidative stress; thromboxane, an index of platelet activation; and prostacyclin, a measure of blood vessel activation in the samples.  His group reported that, “This study represents the first observation that the rates of thromboxane and prostacyclin synthesis are both not only significantly increased in autism, but are closely correlated with the rate of oxidative stress.” Compared with controls, children with autism had significantly higher urinary levels of isoprostane, thromboxone, and prostacyclin.

Oxidative stress is the result of an excessive formation of chemically unstable byproducts, called free radicals, within the cell.  Under normal conditions, the cell is able to destroy the free radicals.  However, when excessive free radicals accumulate, these molecules mount an attack against the cell in search of chemical stability.  During oxidative stress, it is as if the free radicals have only one leg.  These free radicals are searching for the second leg in order to keep from failing.  Unfortunately, the ability of the excessive free radicals to reestablish their chemical equilibrium comes always with a price for the organ – irreversible cellular and organ damage. Free radicals can damage cell membranes, proteins, and genes by oxidation – the same chemical reaction that causes iron to rust.

Pratico and colleagues measured levels of isoprostane, the chemical byproduct of free radicals that attack fat cells and found that patents with autism possess nearly double the level of oxidative stress than that measured in healthy controls.

The samples from autistic patients also revealed a biochemical imbalance in the patients’ blood vessels, resulting in high levels of thromboxane – an indicator of platelet activity – and prostacyclin, an indicator of constricting endothelial cells.  During normal function, thromboxane and prostacyclin work together to maintain the integrity of vessels. In response to different kinds of stress, platelets release thromboxane, which causes vessels to contract.  The endothelium responds to elevated levels of thromboxane by releasing prostacyclin.  This event counterbalances the effect on vessels, inducing dilation of the vessel and, in turn, more blood flow.

What causes autism is a complex neurological disorder and oxidative imbalance is one feature of the autistic syndrome.  Several lines of evidence support the hypothesis that oxidative imbalance may also play a role in this disease: autism is characterized by an impaired antioxidant defense system, higher free-radical production, and improvement of behavioral symptoms after taking antioxidants.

“In general, it is known that abnormalities in blood vessels can clinically reflected by an abnormal blood flow,” says Pratico.” In this regard, it is interesting that earlier neuroiniaging studies of autistic children have demonstrated a reduced amount of blood reaching the brain.  Shedding more light on the relationship of oxidative stress and blood-vessel health to the pathology of autism could lead to improvements in therapy.”

So based on the case history, it would suggest – and that’s all I can say – suggest – that Monavie juice is reducing oxidative stress and possibly improving blood vessel function.

For additional articles on Health Issues go to: http://www.dennisfwatson.com

Fatty acids may be key to unlock autism

Written by Eben Harrel
Childhood autism may be linked to a deficiency of fatty acids found  in oily fish, Scottish researchers said.

A pilot study at the University of Stirling found that, alto what causes autism is unknown, children with  autism had cells that broke down fatty acids more rapidly than normal cells.  A further study has been commissioned to research what autism advocates call a “crucial piece of the puzzle” for a condition with no known scientific explanation.

Autism rates in Scotland have risen dramatically in the past ten years, a trend mirrored across the developed world.  In Scotland, an estimated 50,000 people, nearly 7,000 of them children, suffer from autism.  The condition, which causes a range of social and developmental problems, has baffled scientists searching for a cause and cure.  But now they think fish fats may be crucial to understanding what causes autism.  Brain cell membranes are composed primarily of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, substances found in oily fish such as mackerel and salmon.

A study of about 20 autistic children last year revealed that cell membranes in their blood metabolized, or processed, fatty acids at a faster rate than other children.  The discovery led to speculation that a fatty acid deficiency may be partially responsible for the onset of autism.  A further study of 50 children will attempt to confirm the results.  “We have already seen a connection between omega levels and schizophrenia and dyslexia,” said Dr. Gordon Bell of the university.  If cell function in the brain is changed, the behavior of the brain will change as well.

“In exactly what way we don’t know, but if our hypothesis proves accurate, it could be a first step to uncovering some of the mysteries of autism.”  Dr. Bell compared cell membranes to a “brick wall” of fatty acids.  Bricks fall out, but as long as they are replaced, then the wall holds strong.  Problems occur when bricks fall out faster than they can be replaced.  If the scientists confirm, this is what causes autism, they may conclude that the answer is to replenish “bricks” of fatty acids at a greater rate; in short, eat more fish.

John McDonald, chief executive of the Scottish Society for Autism, welcomed the new research as an aid to families struggling to understand the condition.  “There’s so much information we don’t have,” he said.  “This particular piece of research will just add another piece to the jigsaw.  The good news is that there are lots of really high-quality people around trying to help what causes autism.”

For additional articles on Health Issues go to: http://www.dennisfwatson.com

ADHD – Drugs Are Not the Answer

Research has shown that treating children who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with drugs is not effective in the long-term. After three years of treatment, drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta work no better than therapy.  Long-term use of the drugs can also stunt children’s growth, and the benefits of the drugs have been exaggerated.  An influential 1999 study seemed to find that medication worked better than behavioral therapy for ADHD after one year of use. This finding caused a vast increase in prescriptions.

But now, after longer-term analysis, the report’s coauthor, Professor William Pelham of the University of Buffalo, has stated, “I think that we exaggerated the beneficial impact of medication in the first study. We had thought that children medicated longer would have better outcomes. That didn’t happen to be the case. There’s no indication that medication is better than nothing in the long run.”

Pelham said that medication had “no beneficial effects” and that in fact, the drugs had a negative impact in terms of growth rate.  The National Institute for Clinical Excellence in England is currently revising their treatment guidelines for ADHD to include strategies that will likely involve training for parents as well as “behavioral interventions.”  “The important thing is that we have an approach which doesn’t focus just on one type of treatment,” Dr. Tim Kendall, chair for the working group, said.

Sources:
BBC News November 12, 2007 Department of Health Statement
BBC News November 12, 2007

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

The number of children being harmed, perhaps for life, by unnecessary drugging is truly heartbreaking. Especially when there are so many simple, safe, and healthy options. Many are reluctant to adopt unproven alternatives, but the great news is that scientific
proof supports these non-drug, non-invasive alternatives.  Even if Ritalin, the primary drug used for ADHD, were proven effective, would you really want to give your child a drug that is very similar to cocaine?

More Scientific Proof Food is the Answer – Not Drugs

For example, research by the University of Adelaide in Australia confirmed that fish oil improves the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) without any of the side effects of drugs like Ritalin and Concerta — and more effectively at that!

•    They gave 130 children, between the ages of seven and 12 with ADHD, daily fish oil capsules. The children’s behavior improved dramatically within three months. They also found that:
•    After seven months, the children were not as restless and showed improvements at school.
•    Improvements in concentration and attention improved by one-third
•    After 15 weeks, 30-40 percent of the children taking fish oil had improvements
•    After 30 weeks, 40-50 percent improved
•    Children taking placebo capsules were later switched to fish oil and subsequently also experienced improved behavior

Improvements were still being seen after the study ended, which suggests that fish oils may have long-term effects.

What’s the Real Price of ADHD Drugs?

ADHD drugs are known to carry serious side effects, including:

•    Permanent brain damage
•    Changes in personality, depression, and/or hallucinations
•    Cardio toxicity, and liver damage
•    Heart attack and stroke
•    Cancer
•    Sudden death, and suicide
•    So, why – if these alternatives work – treat millions of children with drugs that are more powerful stimulants than cocaine?

Money! Huge Profits!

And, as you may already have noticed, more and more adults are now “diagnosed” with ADD/ADHD. And why not? As Matthew Emmens, chief executive of Shire Pharmaceuticals (a British manufacturer of Adderall) stated in a 2005 article, “The adult market is three times the size of the 1.14 billion-a-year children’s market and is ripe and moving in the right direction.” This should be a telling statement for anyone under the illusion that these drugs are created for the betterment of society.

But can it really be said that a community of drugged adolescents and adults is a good thing? Using brain imaging, scientists have found that, in pill form, Ritalin occupies more of the neural transporters responsible for the ‘high’ experienced by addicts than smoked or injected cocaine… We’re essentially creating a generation of legalized drug users.

Strattera, the only ADHD drug approved for use in adults, was found to cause serious liver damage. In 2005, Eli Lilly agreed to put a “black box” warning label on the drug, listing the following signs and symptoms that might indicate potential liver problems:

•    Pruritus (Itchy skin)
•    Jaundice
•    Dark urine
•    Upper right-sided abdominal tenderness
•    Unexplained “flu-like” symptoms

Does Anyone Know What Causes ADHD?

Most would answer no, we don’t. However, we do know the food choices of most children are beyond poor. How could you possibly expect a child to have normal behavior if he is fed refined grains, sugars, processed foods loaded with chemicals, and juices and sodas instead of pure water? Add to that 90 percent fewer vegetables than what is required for health, along with an overabundance of omega-6 fats and a virtual lack of omega-3 fats.

If you are a cook, you will immediately recognize that this is a recipe for disaster. You simply cannot have a healthy functioning brain in a child that is not given the proper ingredients to develop optimal brain function.

This is not rocket science, folks. But it is easy to understand why there is so much confusion regarding this issue when the drug companies spend BILLIONS of dollars to confuse you with direct-to-consumer ads on TV, in addition to brainwashing physicians to stick to the belief system that drugs, not foods, are the answer for children with behavior problems.

Five Powerful Tools to Virtually Eliminate ADHD!

•    Eliminate most grains and sugars from your/your child’s diet
•    Replace soft drinks, fruit juices and pasteurized milk with clean water
•    Increase omega-3 fats by taking an effective form of omega-3 oil like krill oil or fish oil
•    Minimize your use of nearly all vegetable oils — they are loaded with omega-6 fats, which distort the powerful omega-6:3 ratio
•    Avoid all processed foods, especially those containing artificial colors, flavors and preservatives

Additional helpful techniques:

•    Spend more time in nature
•    Sensory therapy and energy psychology tools, such as the Emotional Freedom Technique

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