Painfully Out Of Focus: Attention Deficit Disorder Part 1 of 2

   With the school year approaching, once again, so many of our children are going to face the struggle of trying to fit into the routine of the classroom and to achieve some measure of success while their physical mechanisms are totally unconditioned to functioning within such an environment.

     Attention Deficit Disorder is a term coined only in 1980, but since that time, it has become North America’s number one childhood “psychological disorder. The “experts” in the medical field believe that three to five percent of all North American children suffer from ADD in one form or another. One hundred years ago before food additives, chemical pollution, prescription drugs, refined sugar products, processed foods, and television and computer games were in integral part of our lifestyle, ADD did not exist.

     There are several different classifications of the disorder, generally broken down under the categories of, with or without hyperactive behavior. A contributing cause of these disorders points to toxicity and/or deficiency of essential nutrients within the body.

     In the cases of hyperactivity, emotional stress, the consumption of food additives, excess sugar and food allergies seem to contribute to the imbalance.  With interrupted focus or short term attention/retention span, stress, nutritional deficiencies and repeated antibiotic use is more common.

     How does ADD affect our children? Once again, depending upon the cause it may manifest as:

• Lack of concentration
• A tendency to disturb other children and the classroom in general
• Mood swings and tantrums
• Extreme distractibility
• Forgetfulness and absentmindedness (daydreaming)
• Inability to finish tasks
• Difficulty in managing time
• Clumsiness
• Sleep disturbances (including insomnia and bed-wetting)
• Failure in school despite average or above average intelligence

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Irene Maltzan received her training and certification to practice Health Counseling at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which is the only nutrition school integrating all the different dietary theories—combining the knowledge of traditional philosophies with modern concepts like the USDA food pyramid, the glycemic index, the Zone and raw foods. Go to www.youtube.com and check out Healthy Cooking with Irene Maltzan. Please send your email address to wellness.tree@yahoo.com to find out more about the Wellness Tree programs for healthy living.