ADHD and Food: The Connection Is Tenuous, Judith Warner, Time, JG Millichap, Pediatrics 2012.01.13 -- methanol from smoking or aspartame becomes formaldehyde in brain cells of the fetus via ADH enzyme, Prof. Woodrow C. Monte (Nutrition, retired) Arizona State University: Murray 2012.01.15

ADHD and Food: The Connection Is Tenuous, Judith Warner, Time, JG Millichap, Pediatrics 2012.01.13 -- methanol from smoking or aspartame becomes formaldehyde in brain cells of the fetus via ADH enzyme, Prof. Woodrow C. Monte (Nutrition, retired) Arizona State University: Murray 2012.01.15
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2012/01/adhd-and-food-connection-is-tenuous.html
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1634



www.whilesciencesleeps.com 
While Science Sleeps: A Sweetener Kills
Prof. Woodrow C. Monte (Nutrition, retired) Arizona State University
the 740 references are available free online as full text pdfs

http://www.whilesciencesleeps.com/While%20Science%20Sleeps%20-%20Chapter%2012%20(ref).pdf

Chapter 12

"Autism and other Birth Defects

Another long-term neurological malfunction has recently been linked to methanol exposure during pregnancy.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood psychiatric disorder that affects between 3% and 5% of school aged children.
The majority of scientific studies identify maternal smoking during pregnancy as a risk factor for ADHD behaviors.
In fact, the risk for a diagnosis of ADHD in those individuals whose mothers smoked during pregnancy is a highly statistically significant two-fold increase.(572)
A liter of diet soda sweetened with aspartame provides to the maternal bloodstream an equal amount of methanol as does smoking a pack of cigarettes.
Aspartame in artificially sweetened soft drinks has now been shown to statistically increase a woman's risk of preterm delivery -- one of the major pregnancy complications and a leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality.(617)"

(572) Indredavik M, Brubakk A, Romundstad P, Vik T.
Prenatal smoking exposure and psychiatric symptoms in adolescence.
Acta Paediatr 2007;96(3):377-82.

(617) Halldorsson T, Strøm M, Petersen S, Olsen S.
Intake of artificially sweetened soft drinks and risk of preterm delivery: a prospective cohort study of 59,334 Danish pregnant women.
Am J Clin Nutr Doi:10.3945/Ajcn.2009.28968 2010.


http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/13/adhd-and-diet-the-connection-is-tenuous/?xid=gonewsedit

http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/13/adhd-and-diet-the-connection-is-tenuous/

CHILDREN
ADHD and Food: The Connection Is Tenuous
All we can say for sure about controlling a child's diet to treat ADHD is that it makes the parents feel better
By JUDITH WARNER  @judithwarner January 13, 2012

Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/13/adhd-and-diet-the-connection-is-tenuous/#ixzz1jYFsTjbA

“The Diet Factor in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,” the much-cited study released by the journal Pediatrics this week, did not make much of a case for using dietary change to treat Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
But it did make an interesting case for using food control to treat parents’ angst about their kids’ ADHD.

The study’s authors, J. Gordon Millichap, a neurologist, and Michelle M. Yee, a nurse-practitioner, who both specialize in ADHD at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, carried out a critical review of all the research literature dating back to 1976 listed by PubMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s database of articles from scientific journals, relating to the use of diet and dietary supplements in treating ADHD.
They found that fish oil, in the right doses and combinations (still to be determined), might help with the cognitive and behavioral impairments associated with the disorder (though it’s still unproven.)
They found that it’s helpful to remove additives and preservatives from the diet of the kids (“a small subgroup”) who are sensitive to them.
Ditto for allergens for children who have food allergies.

(MORE: Warner: Getting Distracted from the Real Issues of ADHD)

They found iron supplements and zinc to be interesting ideas.
Sugar and aspartame?
More or less benign.

Most promisingly, Millichap and Yee reported an association between ADHD and children who ate a Western diet high in saturated fat, refined sugars and sodium, and lacking omega-3 fatty acids, fiber and folate.
They did not say why this association occurred, however, except to acknowledge that the direction of causality between bad food and bad behavior (or bad concentration, or self-regulation or any of the other problems associated with ADHD) could go either way.

“The relationship between a Western dietary pattern and ADHD may be mediated by other factors, such as poor family functioning and emotional distress, leading to a craving for fat-rich snack foods,” they wrote.
 In other words, the stress of having ADHD or being in a family riddled with ADHD, could lead to overindulgence in unhealthy foods.

The only clear result from this exploration of the role of diet in ADHD was uncertainty, except when it came to parent behavior.
Regarding that, the authors noted that, no matter what they reported, parents were going to do what they wanted to do.
Take the longtime one-size-fits-all villain, sugar: “In practice, the link between sugar and hyperactive behavior is so universal in the opinion of parents of children with ADHD that no controlled study or physician counsel is likely to change this perception,” they wrote.

As we all know, cutting sugar can’t hurt.
And, ironically, the authors suggested, for non-dietary reasons, it might even help.
That’s because of the Hawthorne Effect -- a well-known research phenomenon whereby children (or adults) experience improvement in an area precisely because that area has been singled out for observation.
“The specific type of therapy or discipline may be less important than the attention provided by the treatment,” they explained.

(MORE: Warner: Overmedicating Foster Kids: The Cost of Skimping on Care)

The relationship between parents’ feelings and expectations and their perceptions of their children’s ADHD has been proven before. In the National Institute of Mental Health’s Collaborative Multisite Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD, or MTA study, the largest study of comparative ADHD treatments conducted to date, parents reported being most satisfied with their children’s progress when their kids were treated with behavioral therapy without medication -- despite the fact that behavioral therapy alone was nowhere nearly as effective as medication plus therapy (or medication alone) in reducing core ADHD symptoms.
Therapy improved the parent-child interaction, which made everyone feel (and no doubt, behave) better.
I would venture to say that not giving medication may have made parents feel a whole lot better about themselves, which, coupled with the special training they received, may have made them parent more competently, too -- and thus see better results in their kids.

A major problem with testing dietary remedies for ADHD is that factoring out the placebo effect is extremely difficult:
you can’t fake giving a kid a certain food, the way you can give a sugar pill instead of Ritalin.
But maybe, for kids whose symptoms are very mild and not particularly impairing, this doesn’t matter.
If dietary change produces positive alterations in the behavior, cognition and, in particular, self-judgment of parents, it may be a boon for children with ADHD as well.

Warner, a former contributing columnist for the New York Times, is the author, most recently, of We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication. The views expressed are solely her own.

Read other related stories about this:

ADHD: Diet Might Matter, But Less Than You Think USA Today

Is There an ADHD Diet? WedMD

Related Topics: ADHD, Diet, eating habits, fish oil, Hawthorne Effect, Millichap and Yee, MTA study, western diet, Children, Health & Science, Life & Style, Medicine, Psychology

Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/13/adhd-and-diet-the-connection-is-tenuous/#ixzz1jYGEODdH

http://www.judithwarneronline.com/jwarner-perfect-overview.htm

judith@judithwarneronline.com,

Judith Warner is best known for her 2005 New York Times best-seller,
Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety,
and New York Times column, "Domestic Disturbances."

She remains a frequent contributor to the New York Times op-ed page,
and writes for The New York Times Magazine and other publications.

A former special correspondent for Newsweek in Paris,
she hosted "The Judith Warner Show" on XM satellite radio from 2005 to 2007,
and wrote the 1993 bestseller Hillary Clinton: The Inside Story,
as well as several other books.

She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and children.


Pediatrics. 2012 Jan 9. [Epub ahead of print]
The Diet Factor in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Millichap JG, J. Gordon Millichap, MD, FRCP  gmillichap@childrensmemorial.org,
Yee MM.
Source
Division of Neurology, Children's Memorial Hospital, and Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois.

Abstract

This article is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of dietary methods for treatment of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when pharmacotherapy has proven unsatisfactory or unacceptable.
Results of recent research and controlled studies, based on a PubMed search, are emphasized and compared with earlier reports.
The recent increase of interest in this form of therapy for ADHD, and especially in the use of omega supplements, significance of iron deficiency, and the avoidance of the "Western pattern" diet, make the discussion timely.
Diets to reduce symptoms associated with ADHD include sugar-restricted, additive/preservative-free, oligoantigenic/elimination, and fatty acid supplements. Omega-3 supplement is the latest dietary treatment with positive reports of efficacy, and interest in the additive-free diet of the 1970s is occasionally revived.
A provocative report draws attention to the ADHD-associated "Western-style" diet, high in fat and refined sugars, and the ADHD-free "healthy" diet, containing fiber, folate, and omega-3 fatty acids.
The literature on diets and ADHD, listed by PubMed, is reviewed with emphasis on recent controlled studies.
Recommendations for the use of diets are based on current opinion of published reports and our practice experience.
Indications for dietary therapy include
medication failure,
parental or patient preference,
iron deficiency,
and, when appropriate, change from an ADHD-linked Western diet to an ADHD-free healthy diet.
Foods associated with ADHD to be avoided and those not linked with ADHD and preferred are listed.In practice, additive-free and oligoantigenic/elimination diets are time-consuming and disruptive to the household;
they are indicated only in selected patients.
Iron and zinc are supplemented in patients with known deficiencies;
they may also enhance the effectiveness of stimulant therapy.
In patients failing to respond or with parents opposed to medication,
omega-3 supplements may warrant a trial.
A greater attention to the education of parents and children in a healthy dietary pattern, omitting items shown to predispose to ADHD, is perhaps the most promising and practical complementary or alternative treatment of ADHD.
PMID: 22232312

Key Words:
additive-free attention behavior diet elimination hyperactivity iron ketogenic oligoantigenic omega-3 pediatrics sucrose zinc
Abbreviations:
ADHD —
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
EFA —
essential fatty acids
EPD —
enzyme-potentiated desensitization
IGg —
immunoglobulin G
LC —
long chain
PUFA —
polyunsaturated fatty acids
Accepted October 5, 2011.
Published online January 9, 2012
(doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2199)


"Environmental factors are prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal in origin.
Pregnancy- and birth-related risk factors include maternal smoking and alcohol ingestion, prematurity, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and thyroid deficiency. Childhood illnesses associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder include virus infections, meningitis, encephalitis, head injury, epilepsy, toxins, and drugs. More controversial factors discussed are diet-related sensitivities and iron deficiency. "


Pediatrics. 2008 Feb;121(2):e358-65.
Etiologic classification of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Millichap JG.
Source
FRCP, Division of Neurology, Children's Memorial Hospital, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL 60614, USA. gmillichap@childrensmemorial.org

Abstract

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a neurobiological syndrome with an estimated prevalence among children and adolescents of 5%.
It is a highly heritable disorder, but acquired factors in etiology are sometimes uncovered that may be amenable to preventive measures or specific therapy.
Early reports have described symptoms similar to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder that followed brain trauma or viral encephalitis, and recent MRI studies have demonstrated brain volumetric changes that may be involved in the pathophysiology of the syndrome.
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic Statistical Manual, introduced in 1968, emphasizes symptomatic criteria in diagnosis.
Here, an overview of environmental factors in the etiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is presented to encourage more emphasis and research on organic causal factors, preventive intervention, and specific therapies.
An organic theory and the genetic and biochemical basis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are briefly reviewed, and an etiologic classification is suggested. Environmental factors are prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal in origin.
Pregnancy- and birth-related risk factors include maternal smoking and alcohol ingestion, prematurity, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and thyroid deficiency. Childhood illnesses associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder include virus infections, meningitis, encephalitis, head injury, epilepsy, toxins, and drugs. More controversial factors discussed are diet-related sensitivities and iron deficiency.
Early prenatal recognition, prevention, and treatment of environmental etiologies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder may reduce physician reliance on symptomatic modification with medication, a frequent reason for parental concern.
PMID: 18245408 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Free full text

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/121/2/e358.long

27 Thapar A, Fowler T, Rice F, et al.   thapar@cf.ac.uk,
Maternal smoking during pregnancy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms in offspring.
Am J Psychiatry. 2003;160(11) :1985 - 1989
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/194/1/62.long

28 Linnet KM, Daisgaard S, Obel C, et al.   kmlinnet@ki.au.dk, co@alm.au.dk,
Maternal lifestyle factors in pregnancy risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and associated behaviors: review of the current evidence.
Am J Psychiatry. 2003;160 (6):1028 - 1040 Abstract/FREE Full Text
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?volume=160&page=1028

29 Braun JM, Kahn RS, Froelich T, Auinger P, Lanphear BP.   jbraun@hsph.harvard.edu,  Peggy.Auinger@ctcc.rochester.edu,  bruce.lanphear@cchmc.org,  bruce.lamphear@cchmc.org
Exposures to environmental toxicants and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in U.S. children.
Environ Health Perspect. 2006;114(12) :1904 - 1909
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1764142/?tool=pubmed

30 Aronson M, Hagberg B, Gillberg C.    hagberg@pediat.gu.se,
Attention deficits and autistic spectrum problems in children exposed to alcohol during gestation: a follow-up study.
Dev Med Child Neurol. 1997;39 (9):583 - 587 MedlineWeb of Science

31 Mick E, Biederman J, Faraone SV, Sayer J, Kleinman S.   jbiederman@partners.org,
Case-control study of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and maternal smoking, alcohol use, and drug use during pregnancy.
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2002;41 (4):378 - 385 CrossRefMedlineWeb of Science

32 Knopik VS, Heath AC, Jacob T, et al.   Valerie_Knopik@brown.edu,
Maternal alcohol use disorder and offspring ADHD: disentangling genetic and environmental effects using a children-of-twins design.
Psychol Med. 2006;36(10) :1461 - 1471


Michele M. Yee, APM
Childrens Memorial Hospital
Provider Business Mailing Address:
2300 N CHILDRENS PLZ # 51
CHICAGO, IL 60614-3363
Phone Number: 773-880-4352


new book, concise opus "While Science Sleeps" life saving facts re
aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde) -- 740 full text references are
free online -- Woodrow "Woody" C. Monte, retired Prof. of Nutrition,
Arizona State University: Rich Murray 2012.01.03
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-book-concise-opus-while-science.html
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1631


Martini: Monte: Murray 2012.01.08 Fwd: Open Letter to EFSA - More FDA
Hidden Studies showing aspartame causes birth defects: Parliament
informed
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2012/01/martini-monte-murray-20120108-fwd-open.html
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1632


all diseases of civilization (not just aspartame) -- WC Monte paradigm
re harm to veins, tissues, and DNA via formaldehyde made in spots from
methanol: heart, strokes, cancers, Alzheimers, diabetes, arthritis,
lungs, eyes, lupus, MS, birth defects, autism, liver, kidney, thyroid,
skin  -- easily prevented --  read his site and book "While Science
Sleeps" with 740 free full text references: Rich Murray 2012.01.13
http://rmforall.blogspot.com/2012/01/all-diseases-of-civilization-not-just.html
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1633


"Of course, everyone has the fundamental priority to find and quickly
share evidence for healthy and safe diet, drink, and environment."

Rich Murray,
MA Boston University Graduate School 1967 psychology,
BS MIT 1964 history and physics,
254-A Donax Avenue, Imperial Beach, CA 91932
rmforall@gmail.com
                     505-819-7388    
Skype audio, video rich.murray11

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