Time to talk about, wait, what am I having for dinner? I should probably go clean up the living room, but oh look, there’s a quarter on the floor!
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) explained in a neurophysiological way, is a frontal lobe disorder of our brain. This is the lobe or section of the brain that is in control of our personality, emotional drive, happiness/depression, planning, attention and impulse control as well as many other traits and actions. There are many theories and strong possibilities of what might cause one to have ADHD and it’s likely a multifactorial/potential issue. What is shown and known quantitatively is that those that have ADHD tend to have smaller and less active aspects of the frontal lobe. As we grow from children to adolescents and onward as we age, some people “grow out of” ADHD as the brain ultimately develops. But what if it doesn’t? Or what if a child or adult starts “randomly” getting ADHD symptoms? Well, let's touch upon a few of those possibilities, predominantly in the case of TBI or traumatic brain injuries. The frontal lobe is one of the most common areas to be affected post TBI in people of all ages, but the exact symptoms that occur is specific to which aspects of the brain are damaged. In the case of a frontal lobe disorder causing ADHD, one could also expect to see short or long term changes with mental sluggishness, poor impulse control (having no verbal filter), poor social behavior/judgement, which are also all commonly associated with ADHD. This could also be a “chicken or the egg” story in terms of those with ADHD are more prone to risky behavior, but recent research has begun to suggest that head trauma in many cases could be the initiator. A large study was recently done on over 62,000 children between the ages of 2 and 10 who were registered in the National Health Service of the UK. 7% of them (roughly 4,000) had a brain injury before the age of 2 years. In the 5-8 year follow up, the previously injured group were 2 to 4x more likely to have been diagnosed with ADHD with the ratio depending on if the injury was considered mild, moderate, or severe. Further studies are suggesting that these numbers will increase even more profoundly into adulthood. Several other studies have shown that children with ADHD are more prone to serious concussions post brain injury. This could be a significant correlation as those of any population or more likely to have worse concussion symptoms after the first case of head trauma. As with most medical conditions, there could and likely are several variables that could play a factor in contributing to obtaining ADHD. Some of those suspected are maternal alcohol, illicit drug, and cigarette use, exposure to toxins, hypoxia, and zinc deficiency. If head trauma is suspected to be a cause of ADHD, or if a concussion with any symptomology occurs, like most injuries, a fast treatment response appears to be the best answer. Just like when we injure any part of our body such as the knee or ankle, our brain tends to get inflammation built up around it and can contribute to both causing and retaining the symptoms. Supplementation via krill oil, Alpha-GPC, and vagus nerve stimulation (singing, gargling, cold showers, to name a few) can help decrease the inflammation as well as rebuild the damaged aspects of the brain. Using other therapies such as neurofeedback like is used at Functionised Integrative Therapeutics is also a strong tactic to help with post brain injuries and learning/social disorders alike.
WE HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM!!!!!
ADD/ADHD - is one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders of childhood. There is about 10% of the kids between 4-17 years of age that have been diagnosed in the United States. These numbers are startling. For these children the dysfunction is, in part, biochemical. The individual with ADD/ADHD is distracted, forgetful, inattentive, distracted, hyperactive, and disorganized. This is a condition that is dysfunctional and biochemical. Some of the most common signs and symptoms are hyperactivity, forgetfulness, inattention, disorganization, and being distracted. WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES FOR THOSE WITH ADD/ADHD? There can be a diminished quality of life for those with ADD/ADHD and their families, increased economic costs, and increased risk for long-term academic underachievement. FACTORS INFLUECNING THE RISK FOR ADD/ADHD We must look at stress, infections, allergens, gut dysfunction, heavy metal toxic overload – mercury and lead and aluminum, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and nutritional insufficiencies. The Western Diet can play a role as it is high in red and processed meats and refined carbohydrates that affect the gut flora and can lead to a leaky gut. Milk protein, gluten, food dyes, food coloring, preservatives, and sugar play a role. The aforementioned factors lead to inflammation that may result in ADD/ADHD. The question is have we been poisoned - ‘The chemical revolution of the past 50 years has altered nearly every aspect of our lives. Many of the products we rely upon every day – from plastic bags to computers – would not exist without synthetic chemicals. Most of us believe the chemicals in consumer products have been tested and approved by some government agency. In fact, until they are proven harmful, most chemicals are presumed safe. PBS – Trade Secrets. This toxic burden starts during pregnancy - in a study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), researchers at two major labs found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in the umbilical cord blood from 10 babies born in August and September of 2004 in U.S. hospitals. Tests revealed a total of 287 chemicals in the group. The umbilical cord blood of these 10 children harbored pesticides, consumer product ingredients, and wastes from burning coal, gasoline, and garbage. Metals are of particular interest. Chronic, low level exposure to toxic metals is an increasing global problem. The overt expression of toxic effects may not appear until later in life. The sulfhydryl-reactive metals (mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic) are particularly insidious and can affect a vast array of biochemical and nutritional processes. These metals create OXIDATIVE STRESS and these effects are compounded by the fact that they also inhibit antioxidative enzymes and deplete intracellular glutathione! Cysteine Metabolism and Metal Toxicity by David Quig, Ph.D. NOW THE GOOD NEWS – THERE IS HELP!!!!! LAB TESTING Food sensitivity testing can detect diet induced inflammation. Vitamin and mineral panels can detect deficiencies. Wheat Zoomer testing can detect a leaky gut or intestinal permeability as those with ADD/ADHD may experience an unhealthy gut. WHAT CAN WE DO?
biofeedback for adhd
There are a number of treatments used for the symptoms of ADHD that do not involve drug therapy.
Biofeedback is a technique that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological responses for the purpose of improving health and performance. Biofeedback instruments are used to feedback information about physiological processes, allowing individuals to increase awareness of these processes and to gain voluntary control over mind and body. Biofeedback instruments measure muscle activity, skin temperature, electrodermal activity (sweat gland activity), respiration, heart rate, heart rate variability,blood pressure, brain electrical activity, and blood flow. Research shows that biofeedback, alone and incombination with other behavioral therapies, is effective for treating a variety of medical andpsychological disorders, including attentional disorders. Biofeedback therapies teach the individual to take a more active role in maintaining personal health and higher level mind-body health. Neurofeedback is a specialty field within biofeedback, which is devoted to training people to gain control over electro-physiological processes in the human brain. Clinical training with EEG biofeedback allows individuals to modify brain patterns, which can optimize brain activity. Neurofeedback practice is growing rapidly with the widest acceptance for applications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disabilities, seizures, depression, acquired brain injuries, substance abuse, and anxiety. Both biofeedback and neurofeedback are holistic therapies, based on the recognition that changes in the mind and emotions affect the body and changes in the body also influence the mind and emotions. Biofeedback and neurofeedback emphasize training individuals to self-regulate, gain awareness, increase control over their bodies, brains, and nervous systems, and improve flexibility in physiologic responding. Several studies show that neurofeedback or EEG biofeedback training led to significant improvement in attentiveness, impulse control, and response variability. Another study relating stimulant medication to EEG biofeedback training reported 16 of 24 patients taking medications were able to lower their dose or discontinue medication totally after 30 sessions of EEG biofeedback (Alhambra, Fowler, & Alhambra, 1995). Another study showed one hundred children with ADHD receiving Ritalin and EEG biofeedback, only those who had EEG biofeedback sustained these improvements without Ritalin. Heart rate variability is another training modality used to help with the symptoms of ADHD. A positive correlation between heart rate variability changes and improvement of symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was found. Multiple studies have consistently shown differences between ADHD children and non-ADHD children in that the ADHD children have a surplus of slow-wave activity, mostly in the delta and theta bands, and deficiencies in the alpha and beta bands. The differences are primarily in the frontal and central areas with theta activity being more abundant and beta activity less abundant; therefore, the theta-beta ratio is consistently and diagnostically larger in ADHD than non-ADHD children. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are specific attention disorders that usually involve slowed frontal brain wave activity and hypo-perfusion of cerebral blood flow in the frontal regions, particularly during reading tasks. It is not uncommon for those with ADD or ADHD to have other disorders such as anxiety, depression and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) as well. People with attentional problems such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have particular difficulty shifting their pre-frontal lobes into gear during cognitive tasks. However, high levels of stimulation as provided with audiovisual entrainment (AVE) has been shown to improve attention and reduce hyperactivity. This may explain why those with ADD do so well with video games and action sports. Unless the activity is exciting to the individual and raises their arousal levels, the pre-frontal and frontal lobes quickly lose their attentiveness and activation. AVE, biofeedback, neurofeedback, and heart rate variability training are all well researched non-medicinal options to help manage the symptoms of ADHD.
No line of treatment is ever absolute and even with all the research that has been put into both TBI and ADHD over the last decade, the information that we know is still in its infancy. However, there are increasingly more options that could help assist many of these complications. For more information and to schedule an evaluation, go to www.functionised.com or call 848-444-9032 to schedule an appointment today
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