Yet%20Another%20Study%20Supports%203%20Steps%20To%20Conquering%20ADD.mp3
Yet Another Study Supports %223 Steps To Conquering ADD%22Yet Another Study Supports the teachings inside “3 Steps To Conquering ADD”…
Jon Bennett. Hello, Jon Bennett here with “3 Steps to Conquering ADD-ADHD”. Today I’m sharing a brand new study that just came out from a doctor who posted her findings in the Lancet, which is a very prestigious medical journal.
I’m going to post the article and a link to some of the audio here on this blog post. But I just wanted to make the point that this is yet another study that confirms the teachings inside “3 Steps to Conquering ADD-ADHD”.
My book has been out for about eight years. It’s a worldwide best seller across the world. We continue to revise it. We’re working on the seventh edition right now. It’s going to be a big major overhaul. It probably won’t be out until later this year, but this is a current theme that happens.
I don’t know, at least, once a year a new study by a prominent researcher or doctor comes out and says, “Hey, we’re barking up the wrong tree with the drug first type of approach.” It’s interesting but most of the time these studies make no effect on how we handle ADD-ADHD, especially here in America where we are in a myriad of a medical spider web where everybody is looking out for the number one thing, which is profits.
You’ve got the drug companies, big drug companies, the insurance companies, and everything is locked into a system where it’s very difficult for anybody to actually conceive trying to use a natural approach before we just medicate right off the bat.
I’d like to play a little clip of the audio for you. Then I’ll wrap it up so here you go.
Man: Dutch researcher, Lidy Pelsser, says as many as two thirds of those kids may not need medicine at all. It’s a conclusion she recently published in the British medical journal, Lancet. Pelsser, who runs the ADHD research center in the Netherlands, argues that in many cases behaviors usually associated with ADHD can be controlled by changes in diet.
Lidy Pelsser: ADHD, it’s just a couple of symptoms. It’s not a disease. We should look for the cause of it. Like an eczema the skin is affected, but a lot of people get eczema because of a latex allergy or because they are eating a pineapple or strawberries.
I think there is a paradigm shift needed if a child is diagnosed ADHD. We should say, OK, we have got those symptoms. Now, let’s start looking for the cause.
Man: The majority of children who are diagnosed ADHD are given medication. But you believe that this research suggests that many of those children may not need it. They may simply need to alter their diets.
Lidy: Well, what we know now is that in 64 percent of children with ADHD, ADHD is caused by food. It’s a hypersensitivity reaction. So then, there is 36 percent left. In those children we could start research for dyslexia, for highly talented or, maybe, children who are not so talented but who have to do too much in school and just don’t manage it to do it.
They are getting distracted and they start fidgeting, too.
Jon: That’s just a short audio clip from the interview with NPR. I’ve got links to the entire study here on the blog post. But I just wanted to point out that this is not a new concept. There are similar studies dating much further back than my book or anything else. I’m just a messenger. I just want everyone to know that the first course of action does not have to be drugs.
Many people just make that mistake. They blindly follow their doctor’s advice. They think it’s truly a condition, a disease that requires medication, and that’s simply not true.
Enjoy the study, and I’ll see you soon.
Transcript: [spoiler]
GUY RAZ, host:
ADHD – or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – is said to affect up to 10 percent of American children, and almost 3 million of those kids take medication to control it.
But Dutch researcher Lidy Pelsser says as many as two-thirds of those kids may not need medicine at all. It’s a conclusion she recently published in the British medical journal Lancet. And Pelsser, who runs the ADHD Research Centre in the Netherlands, argues that in many cases, behaviors usually associated with ADHD can be controlled by changes in diet.
Dr. LIDY PELSSER (ADHD Research Centre): ADHD, it’s just a couple of symptoms; it’s not a disease. We should look for the cause of it. Like in eczema, the skin is affected. But a lot of people get eczema because of a latex allergy, or because they are eating a pineapple or strawberries.
And I think there is a paradigm shift needed. If a child is diagnosed ADHD, we should say OK, we have got those symptoms; now, let’s start looking for the cause.
RAZ: The majority of children who are diagnosed ADHD are given medication, but you believe that this research suggests that many of those children may not need it, that they may simply need to alter their diets.
Dr. PELSSER: Well, what we know now is that in 64 percent of children with ADHD, ADHD is caused by food. It’s a hypersensitivity reaction to food. So then, there is 36 percent left. In those children, we could start – research for dyslexia, for highly talented, or maybe children who are not so talented and who have to do too much in school and just don’t manage to do it, and they are getting distracted, too, and they start fidgeting, too.
RAZ: Now, you’re not saying that some children with ADHD should not be given medication, right? I mean, you’re saying that even…
Dr. PELSSER: No.
RAZ: …with your research, some kids will still need medication.
Dr. PELSSER: Yes. I think in all children, we should start with a diet research. And if that is not successful, if behavior doesn’t – changes, well then we do need drugs. Of course, we do need them. But now, we are giving them all drugs, and I think that’s a huge mistake.
RAZ: Explain how you tested the children. What did you feed them, for example?
Dr. PELSSER: In fact, we started with a very elaborate diet. And after two weeks, we made an inventory of the problems. If the problems still were there, we started to restrict the diet until we came to that few food diet – with only rice, turkey, pear and lettuce – and water.
RAZ: And we can know – or you say that your research shows that it only takes about five weeks to determine whether…
Dr. PELSSER: Yes, five weeks of diet. Parents should not start a diet for a year or so. It’s only five weeks to find out whether diet is the cause.
RAZ: Right.
Dr. PELSSER: And if it isn’t, that child can have drugs, of course. And if it is the diet, then we start to find out which foods are causing the problems.
RAZ: Right. But how would a parent listening now go about trying this? I mean, what should they do? You know, should they go talk to the doctors?
Dr. PELSSER: Well, we have got the good news that food is the main cause of ADHD. We’ve got the bad news that we have to train physicians to monitor this procedure because it cannot be done by a physician who is not trained.
RAZ: Now, did you hear from any of the schoolteachers of these kids, or even the physicians who describe changes in behavior?
Dr. PELSSER: Well, in fact, they were flabbergasted. After the diet, they were just normal children with normal behavior. They were no more easily distracted. They were no more forgetful. There were no more temper tantrums. Some teachers saying that they never thought it would work – it was so strange that a diet would change the behavior of a child as thoroughly as they saw it. It was a miracle, a teacher said.
RAZ: That’s Lidy Pessler. She’s from the ADHD Research Center in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. She led a study that links diet to ADHD. It was published in the latest issue of the journal Lancet.
Dr. Pessler, thank you so much.
Ms. PESSLER: I was glad to join you.
[/spoiler]
Official Summary of Study:
Background
The effects of a restricted elimination diet in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have mainly been investigated in selected subgroups of patients. We aimed to investigate whether there is a connection between diet and behaviour in an unselected group of children.
Methods
The Impact of Nutrition on Children with ADHD (INCA) study was a randomised controlled trial that consisted of an open-label phase with masked measurements followed by a double-blind crossover phase. Patients in the Netherlands and Belgium were enrolled via announcements in medical health centres and through media announcements. Randomisation in both phases was individually done by random sampling. In the open-label phase (first phase), children aged 4—8 years who were diagnosed with ADHD were randomly assigned to 5 weeks of a restricted elimination diet (diet group) or to instructions for a healthy diet (control group). Thereafter, the clinical responders (those with an improvement of at least 40% on the ADHD rating scale [ARS]) from the diet group proceeded with a 4-week double-blind crossover food challenge phase (second phase), in which high-IgG or low-IgG foods (classified on the basis of every child’s individual IgG blood test results) were added to the diet. During the first phase, only the assessing paediatrician was masked to group allocation.
During the second phase (challenge phase), all persons involved were masked to challenge allocation. Primary endpoints were the change in ARS score between baseline and the end of the first phase (masked paediatrician) and between the end of the first phase and the second phase (double-blind), and the abbreviated Conners’ scale (ACS) score (unmasked) between the same timepoints. Secondary endpoints included food-specific IgG levels at baseline related to the behaviour of the diet group responders after IgG-based food challenges. The primary analyses were intention to treat for the first phase and per protocol for the second phase. INCA is registered as an International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial, number ISRCTN 76063113.
Findings
Between Nov 4, 2008, and Sept 29, 2009, 100 children were enrolled and randomly assigned to the control group (n=50) or the diet group (n=50). Between baseline and the end of the first phase, the difference between the diet group and the control group in the mean ARS total score was 23·7 (95% CI 18·6—28·8; p<0·0001) according to the masked ratings. The difference between groups in the mean ACS score between the same timepoints was 11·8 (95% CI 9·2—14·5; p<0·0001). The ARS total score increased in clinical responders after the challenge by 20·8 (95% CI 14·3—27·3; p<0·0001) and the ACS score increased by 11·6 (7·7—15·4; p<0·0001). In the challenge phase, after challenges with either high-IgG or low-IgG foods, relapse of ADHD symptoms occurred in 19 of 30 (63%) children, independent of the IgG blood levels. There were no harms or adverse events reported in both phases.
Interpretation
A strictly supervised restricted elimination diet is a valuable instrument to assess whether ADHD is induced by food. The prescription of diets on the basis of IgG blood tests should be discouraged.
Funding
Foundation of Child and Behaviour, Foundation Nuts Ohra, Foundation for Children’s Welfare Stamps Netherlands, and the KF Hein Foundation.
