Can Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder Result from Nutritional Deficiency?

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Can Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder

 

Result from Nutritional Deficiency?

 

58 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 8 Number 2 Summer 2003

 

Fred Ottoboni, M.P.H., Ph.D., and Alice Ottoboni, Ph.D.

 

The national consensus is that the etiology of

 

ADHD) is unknown; yet a cohesive body of

 

evidence has accumulated in recent years suggesting that ADHD

 

may well be a manifestation of nutritional deficiency. A growing

 

body of evidence suggests that (ADHD) may be an unanticipated

 

manifestation of the newAmerican diet.

 

Major and unprecedented dietary changes have occurred over

 

the last century in the U.S. Per-capita use of sugar has doubled.

 

Starch consumption from grain and potatoes has risen 40 percent.

 

Egg use has dropped significantly. Use of saturated fats such as

 

lard, beef fat, dairy fat, and coconut oil has decreased, while

 

consumption of fats and oils derived from vegetable seeds such as

 

soy, safflower, and canola have grown from essentially zero to

 

about 66 pounds per person per year. This nationwide changeover

 

to vegetable fats has seriously unbalanced the essential fatty acid

 

intake of the population.

 

During the same period,ADHD, which was essentially unheard

 

of 50 years ago, increased to the point that it is now diagnosed in 5

 

percent of school children and many adults.

 

History shows that when diets change, nutritional diseases

 

can appear.

 

Beriberi appeared after a new grain milling process removed

 

the oily, vitamin-containing germ from grains, to prevent the stored

 

grain from becoming rancid. The so-called ìwhite riceî produced

 

by this process was responsible for untold deaths in Asia during the

 

18 and 19 centuries.Adeficiency of the B-vitamin thiamine was

 

found to be the specific cause of beriberi, and subsequent laws

 

requiring the addition of this vitamin to refined grain products have

 

virtually eliminated the disease.

 

Pellagra appeared about 300 years ago when corn became a

 

major food source. Because of its low price, corn largely replaced

 

meat, eggs, and milk as the primary source of calories in large

 

population groups. The cause of pellagra, a deficiency of the Bvitamin

 

niacin, was not discovered until the early part of the 20

 

century. Addition of niacin to refined grains generally ended the

 

problem, but pellagra is also easily cured by increasing the amount

 

of meat, eggs, and milk in the diet.

 

Birth defects can also be caused by nutritional deficiencies.

 

Cretinism, a condition characterized by stunted growth and mental

 

retardation, was common in the areas of the world where the diet

 

was deficient in iodine. Spina bifida, a neural-tube defect, was

 

recently recognized to result from a dietary deficiency of the Bvitamin

 

folic acid during pregnancy.

 

Dietary changes of the last century have had two major

 

nutritional impacts. First, for the average person, increased

 

consumption of sugar and starch has required more and faster

 

secretion of insulin to control the rapid rises in blood glucose

 

caused by these high-glycemic carbohydrates. Chronic use of highglycemic

 

carbohydrates is a major cause of the hypoglycemia,

 

insulin resistance, and type-2 diabetes now prevalent.

 

Second, the vegetable fats and oils that today dominate in the

 

mass market are, for all practical purposes, devoid of lipids from the

 

omega-3 essential fatty acid family, including alpha linolenic acid,

 

EPA(eicosapentaenoic acid), andDHA(docosahexaenic acid).

 

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Historical Perspective

 

The Biochemical Effects of Recent Dietary Changes

 

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This problem is worsened by the fact that the vegetable fats and

 

oils contain unusually large amounts of omega-6 linoleic acid, the

 

precursor of the omega-6 family of essential fatty acids, and its

 

important metabolite arachidonic acid (AA).

 

In short, the traditional fats and oils contained a healthy ratio of

 

omega-6 to omega-3 essential fatty acids of four to one or less, plus

 

an ample amount of omega-3 fatty acids. The new vegetable fats

 

and oils, on the other hand, are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and,

 

at the same time, contain an extremely high and unhealthy omega-6

 

to omega-3 ratio of approximately 20 to 1. Moreover, many of these

 

vegetable products contain trans-fatty acids, which are known to

 

interfere with the metabolism of the essential fatty acids.

 

Products made from the vegetable fats and oils include salad

 

and frying oils, vegetable shortening, and margarine. All are

 

derived from corn, cottonseed, peanuts, soybeans, canola,

 

safflower, or sunflower.

 

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH),

 

the federal agency responsible for research on the brain, mental

 

illnesses, and mental health, ADHD affects approximately 2

 

million American childrenñ3 to 5 percent of the school-age

 

populationñand is about four times more common in boys than in

 

girls. Over the past several decades this condition has grown to

 

become the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder of

 

childhood.

 

New findings, published in February 2002, suggest that the

 

prevalence ofADHDmay be considerably higher than the numbers

 

NIMH published. A University of North Carolina School of

 

Medicine/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

 

study of 6,099 children in 17 North Carolina rural county

 

elementary schools found that more than 15 percent of the boys and

 

5 percent of the girls had been diagnosed with ADHD, and that

 

about two-thirds of those diagnosed were taking medication for it.

 

About 9 percent of all fourth and fifth-grade children in the study

 

were taking medication to treatADHD.

 

ADHD-affected children present difficult behavioral problems

 

and perform poorly in school because of their inability to focus on

 

school tasks or to sit still during the school day. Symptoms typically

 

begin at about age 3 and include inattention, inability to

 

concentrate, failure to listen when spoken to, hyperactivity,

 

squirming, talking out of turn, impulsiveness, disruptive behavior,

 

sleep problems, and poor learning ability.

 

ADHD persists into adulthood, although adults in many cases

 

are more able to control their behavior and mask their difficulties.

 

Even so, statistics show that there is an increased incidence of

 

juvenile delinquency and adult encounters with the law among

 

people who hadADHD as a child.Worst-case outcomes ofADHD

 

are school failure and dropout, delinquency, and criminal behavior.

 

According to the 44-page NIMH booklet on ADHD, the cause

 

of the condition, once called hyperkinesis or minimal brain

 

dysfunction, is not known. It states thatADHDis not usually caused

 

by minor head injuries, infections in early childhood, too much TV,

 

poor home life, poor schools, excess sugar, food additives, or food

 

allergies. Possible links to the mother's use of cigarettes, alcohol,

 

and other drugs, or toxins such as lead in the environment have been

 

suggested but not proven. Other research suggests a genetic link,

 

based on the tendency ofADHDto run in families.

 

Many treatment methods have been tried, with the most

 

common approach being psychiatric intervention and use of5

 

To continue click link below.

 

http://www.jpands.org/vol8no2/ottoboni.pdf

 

Clinical Considerations inADHD