As we have discussed previously in this four-part series on allergies, allergies are nothing more than the body's over amped response to something normally benign that it now, for whatever reason, sees as a foreign invader.
Allergens can be either airborne or ingested and can cause an assortment of other, related health issues.
Never has this been a bigger issue than currently and never has this caused more controversy than in the case of children and attention deficit disorder.
This article will examine attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the theory that common food allergens and how they may be contributing to an over diagnosis in children of ADD and ADHD.
In order for something to be considered a disorder, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), it must affect no more than six percent of the population.
The Washington Post reported in 2007 that nine percent of America's children were now ADHD and that 1.
2 million more were undiagnosed.
One would do well to question the numbers and the reason for the sudden explosion of cases.
One of two conclusions can be achieved.
Either we really do have an epidemic on our hands, making it necessary to ascertain the root cause or we are misdiagnosing children.
Though it may be tough to believe that we are misdiagnosing children with something as important as ADHD, a label that will stay with them for their entire school careers and probably cause them to be sedated with what has become an overabundance of drugs, the problem is fairly common.
The reason for misdiagnosis is simple.
The process is anything but scientific.
Most frequently, teachers are given forms by either a pediatrician or by a psychologist.
More often than not, the crux of the diagnosis is based on the reports by the teachers.
One would do well to question the medical expertise of teachers.
In reality, there is no definitive test for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Interestingly, it is known that, in 75 percent of cases, children with ADHD have "blood sugar abnormalities" (Hershoff, 2000).
As we discussed in Allergies, Part 2: Acne and the Allergy, excess sugar can lead to medical problems and systemic infection of bad flora like Candida.
There is also a sizable amount of research out there suggesting that such conditions can lead to leaky gut and the body's overreaction to external stimuli as foreign invaders in a hyper response to allergens.
Poor organization, difficulty concentrating, perceptual motor impairment may indeed be symptoms of ADHD, but they are also symptoms of a body's response to a food allergen.
Parents will often swear that certain foods make their children "crazy.
" This goes beyond red dye and sugar.
Children often react violently to various other foods or additives as well, like peanuts, canola, gluten, wheat, monosodium glutamate (aka MSG), which happens to be an excitotoxin.
The larger problem is that it is often difficult to isolate certain ingredients and eliminate them from our children's diets.
This becomes even more problematic when children are school aged and at the mercy of school lunches.
In an era that is too quick to jump to legalized speed like Ritalin, we need to take a hard look at the real roots to the sudden explosion of ADD and ADHD cases.
More often than not, we find that what was easily dismissed as ADHD was an allergy to a common food additive that, when eliminated from a child's diet resulted in the amazing and miraculous cure of that's child's ADHD.
Hershoff, A.
(2000).
Homeopathic Remedies.
New York: Penguin Putnam.