Friday, August 06, 2004 by: Mike Adams, NaturalNews EditorKey concepts: Anti-psychotic drugs, Ritalin and Adhd
Researchers from the Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt have found that anti-psychotic medications are being prescribed at an alarming rate for Tennessee children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. The use of anti-psychotic drugs has more than doubled since 1996, and today children are not only being dosed with Ritalin -- a powerful narcotic drug -- but now anti-psychotic drugs to mask other symptoms related to behavioral disorders.
Every time I write about this subject, I can't help but be outraged at the fact that we are a nation dosing our children with powerful narcotics in order to alter their brain chemistry rather than teaching them how to avoid the foods that cause these behavioral disorders in the first place. We don't teach our children how to eat right, nor do we teach our parents how to teach good dietary habits to their own children. Instead, we turn our children into literal druggies by forcing them onto extremely dangerous narcotic and anti-psychotic drugs.
In this nation, there appears to be a drug for every problem out there, including undesirable behavior on the part of children. In reality, ADHD is not a behavioral disorder, nor is it some sort of mysterious chemical imbalance in the brain. It is simply the natural effect of pursuing a diet that is very high in refined carbohydrates and very low in optimum nutrition.
This dietary pattern almost perfectly describes the pattern pursued by virtually all children in the United States. They load up on high-sugar breakfast cereals, soft drinks, candy bars, sweets, cookies, and desserts, and then, just in case they don't have enough sugar in their system already, when they go to school they get rewarded with more candy and desserts, and they even have the opportunity to purchase soft drinks and candy bars from vending machines that are actually supported and promoted by the school bureaucrats.
So on one hand, we have public schools deriving funding from the sale of soft drinks and candy that promote ADHD in children, and then on the other hand, instead of addressing this problem at its source, we have a fast-expanding collection of mental health professionals who are increasingly putting children on powerful narcotic drugs in order to mask the symptoms caused by the widespread consumption of sugars and processed foods.
The victims in all of this are, of course, the children themselves, who end up being unable to learn as well as they normally could, since their brains have been dulled by multiple prescription drugs -- and who end up going through the public school system with increased risk for obesity, diabetes and other diseases promoted by the consumption of food ingredients like white flour or refined white sugar.
And people wonder why we have such high rates of obesity, diabetes, and drug dependency in our adult population. It's not mystery -- just look at the children we're raising in this country. We're raising yet another generation of drug-addicted, chronically diseased, overweight, brain-numbed zombies -- and proudly declaring it "public education."
About the author: Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, Pilates and organic gardening.
Researchers from the Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt have found that anti-psychotic medications are being prescribed at an alarming rate for Tennessee children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. The use of anti-psychotic drugs has more than doubled since 1996, and today children are not only being dosed with Ritalin -- a powerful narcotic drug -- but now anti-psychotic drugs to mask other symptoms related to behavioral disorders.
Every time I write about this subject, I can't help but be outraged at the fact that we are a nation dosing our children with powerful narcotics in order to alter their brain chemistry rather than teaching them how to avoid the foods that cause these behavioral disorders in the first place. We don't teach our children how to eat right, nor do we teach our parents how to teach good dietary habits to their own children. Instead, we turn our children into literal druggies by forcing them onto extremely dangerous narcotic and anti-psychotic drugs.
In this nation, there appears to be a drug for every problem out there, including undesirable behavior on the part of children. In reality, ADHD is not a behavioral disorder, nor is it some sort of mysterious chemical imbalance in the brain. It is simply the natural effect of pursuing a diet that is very high in refined carbohydrates and very low in optimum nutrition.
This dietary pattern almost perfectly describes the pattern pursued by virtually all children in the United States. They load up on high-sugar breakfast cereals, soft drinks, candy bars, sweets, cookies, and desserts, and then, just in case they don't have enough sugar in their system already, when they go to school they get rewarded with more candy and desserts, and they even have the opportunity to purchase soft drinks and candy bars from vending machines that are actually supported and promoted by the school bureaucrats.
So on one hand, we have public schools deriving funding from the sale of soft drinks and candy that promote ADHD in children, and then on the other hand, instead of addressing this problem at its source, we have a fast-expanding collection of mental health professionals who are increasingly putting children on powerful narcotic drugs in order to mask the symptoms caused by the widespread consumption of sugars and processed foods.
The victims in all of this are, of course, the children themselves, who end up being unable to learn as well as they normally could, since their brains have been dulled by multiple prescription drugs -- and who end up going through the public school system with increased risk for obesity, diabetes and other diseases promoted by the consumption of food ingredients like white flour or refined white sugar.
And people wonder why we have such high rates of obesity, diabetes, and drug dependency in our adult population. It's not mystery -- just look at the children we're raising in this country. We're raising yet another generation of drug-addicted, chronically diseased, overweight, brain-numbed zombies -- and proudly declaring it "public education."
About the author: Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, Pilates and organic gardening.
