Anywhere form 10-20% of our children are diagnosed with ADHD. Most of them are medicated, despite good information that different schooling methods, a cleaner environment AND diets low in refined sugars are often curative. We have to wonder why pharmaceutical treatment is so widespread. Yes, there are cases where it is best to use those drugs, but I believe they should be a last-resort.
Hugo Rodier, MD
High Fructose Consumption May Trigger Impulsivity, Aggression
A new study expands our understanding of the relationship between ADHD and sugar — specifically how an excessive intake of fructose may trigger foraging instincts that cause impulsivity and aggression.
By LILLY CONSTANCE. www.additudemag.com/adhd-and-sugar-fructose-study/
“Sugar intake has been linked to several behavioral disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) and bipolar disorder, but the nature of this association has remained unclear until recently. A new study published in the journal Human Evolution and Behavior1 proposed that hyperactivity, impulsivity, and mania come from ancient foraging instincts triggered by a high or excessive intake of fructose.
Researchers explored the role of fructose and uric acid (a fructose metabolite) in increasing the risk for certain behavioral disorders. They referenced and largely confirmed previous research that found fructose intake — largely from fruits and honey — to trigger “an evolutionary-based survival pathway that stimulates foraging behavior” as well as the storage of energy as fat, suggesting a link between metabolic syndrome and high levels of sugar intake.
Fructose lowers the energy in cells, causing a response similar to starvation. While some fructose may help animals store fat as a protective measure from starvation, researchers suggest that high intake — in excess of FDA recommendations2 — causes a “hyperactive foraging response that stimulates craving, impulsivity, risk taking, and aggression that increases the risk for ADHD, bipolar disease, and aggressive behavior,” according to the new research from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
Researchers also found evidence that high-glycemic carbohydrates and salty foods might contribute to the risk for impulsivity and aggression since they can be converted to fructose during metabolism.
These findings are significant for understanding the role that sugar consumption plays in causing and/or exacerbating symptoms of ADHD. Though added sugars should comprise less than 10% of total daily calories, the CDC found that Americans consumed around 14% of total daily calories from added sugars in 2003-2010.3
1Johnson, Richard, et al. Fructose and uric acid as drivers of a hyperactive foraging response: A clue to behavioral disorders associated with impulsivity or mania? Human Evolution and Behavior (Oct. 2020). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513820301215?via%3Dihub#
2Statement on new guidance for the declaration of added sugars on food labels for single-ingredient sugars and syrups and certain cranberry products. Food and Drug Administration (Jun. 2019). https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/statement-new-guidance-declaration-added-sugars-food-labels-single-ingredient-sugars-and-syrups-and
3Know Your Limit for Added Sugars. CDC (2019) https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/data-statistics/know-your-limit-for-added-sugars.html
Comment: read about the Gut-Brain connection below.
Antibiotic use in children younger than two is linked to allergies, asthma and other conditions
“CNN (11/16, LaMotte) reports that research indicates “children younger than two who are given antibiotics are more likely to have a number of ongoing illnesses or conditions later in life.” Investigators found that “babies and toddlers who received one dose of antibiotics were more likely to have asthma, eczema, hay fever, food allergies, celiac disease, problems with weight and obesity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder later in childhood.” Meanwhile, the study indicated that “multiple antibiotic treatments below the age of two was associated with a child having multiple conditions…with the illnesses differing due to the child’s gender, age, type of medication, dose and number of doses.” The findings were published Monday in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.”
Comment: the microbiome, 2/3 of our immune system, is often unbalanced by antibiotics. This triggers food allergies, inflammation, metabolic disorders, and if that was not enough, it disrupts the function (and structure) of every cell and organ in our body.
Health care providers say they want to continue using telehealth and that it helps them provide quality care to patients
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/covid-19…
“mHealth Intelligence (11/17, Wicklund) reports the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition, conducted “a survey of roughly 1,600 health care providers” and found “that almost 70% are motivated to use more telehealth because of the experiences they’ve had during the coronavirus pandemic – and more than half say their outlook has improved because of connected health.” More than 75% of respondents “said telehealth helped them to provide quality care for their patients.”
Comment: I am most definitely planning on continuing Telehealth. My patients love it. Besides, I look a lot better on the phone.
PPI Use Tied to Increased Risk of Severe or Fatal COVID-19
By Megan Brooks. Reuters, November 05, 2020.https://bit.ly/35Zas2S Journal of Internal Medicine.
“NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A new meta-analysis provides more evidence of an association between proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) use and increased risk for poor outcomes in patients with coronavirus infection (COVID-19).
Dr. Syed Shahzad Hasan of the University of Huddersfield, in the U.K,, and Dr. Chia Siang Kow of the International Medical University, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, analyzed five studies with a total of 37,372 patients.
A pooled analysis of three studies demonstrated a significantly increased likelihood for a severe or fatal course of COVID-19 with PPI use relative to nonuse (pooled odds ratio, 1.46; 95% confidence interval, 1.34 to 1.60), the researchers report in the Journal of Internal Medicine.
A pooled analysis of two studies also showed significantly increased odds for secondary infections with the use of PPIs in COVID-19 patients (pooled OR, 2.91; 95% CI, 1.58 to 5.36).
“The use of PPIs may lead to excessive suppression of gastric acid, and thus leading to impaired eradication of ingested pathogens, which results in the increased risk of secondary infection in patients with COVID-19,” the authors said in a joint email to Reuters Health.
“The observed increased risk of severe or fatal course of illness with the use of PPIs may also be at least partially due to the development of secondary infections, leading to a more complicated course of illness,” they noted.
Their advice: “Clinicians involved in the management of patients with COVID-19 receiving PPIs should routinely assess if PPI is appropriately indicated; if no appropriate indication, PPI should be discontinued. In patients with appropriate indications, the risk of continuing PPI should be balanced against the risk of discontinuation; otherwise, patients may also be switched to famotidine, a histamine-2 blocker, which has been associated with reduced risk of adverse outcomes in patients with COVID-19.”
“Consistently, multinational studies are showing an association, not necessarily causation, but an association” between PPI use and COVID-19, Dr. Brennan Spiegel of David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Cedars-Sinai, in Los Angeles, who wasn’t involved in the study, noted in a phone interview with Reuters Health.
“This isn’t necessarily surprising,” he noted, as these medicines have been linked to increased risk of intestinal infections. “That’s been shown many times and there’s really no controversy about that anymore and COVID is an intestinal infection. It uses the GI tract to gain a foothold in the body and anything that we do to give it better access to the intestinal system, it makes sense that things could get worse and that’s basically what we’re seeing.”
The results of this meta-analysis are consistent with a recent study (https://bit.ly/3iBIakm) by Dr. Spiegel and colleagues. In that study, people taking a PPI once a day had more than a two-fold higher risk of COVID-19, and people taking a PPI twice a day had more than a three-fold higher risk than those not taking a PPI.
“As a starting point, we might need to start thinking about reducing the high doses of PPIs that some people are on, particularly those who are at risk of a bad COVID outcome,” Dr. Spiegel said.”
Comment: PPIs like the purple pill came out when I was in medical school in the early 80s. We were told never to use them unless the patient was critically ill in the ICU. My professors understood the negative side effects of shutting off stomach acid 100%. Now these drugs are over the counter. Isn’t it obvious that curtailing proper digestion of nutrients comes at a high cost? This article tells us what we already knew: suppressing acid messes with our immune system in the microbiome. It also leads to heart attacks, depression and a host of other problems.
