ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and is most commonly diagnosed in children who are in their early years at school.
The most obvious signs of ADHD are:
- Inability to pay attention
- Hyperactive behavior
- Impulsive behavior
- Difficulty in concentrating
Between 3 and 5% of children in the United States (around 2 million kids) are thought to have ADHD, and more boys suffer than girls. That equates to at least one child in every class of 25 to 30 children, although many more are labeled as having ADHD who may simply be badly behaved. For this reason, proper diagnosis is recommended so that children are not needlessly treated and perhaps medicated for a condition they do not have.
Research is ongoing into the causes of ADHD, and current thinking suggests it is down to an overactive nervous system, combined with the brain’s failure to properly filter out unnecessary sights, sounds, thoughts and emotions. Chiropractors are not in the business of directly treating ADHD, but they are able to help rectify certain elements that may be stressing the nervous system, such as:
- Removing spinal subluxations that interfere with the nervous system
- Offering dietary advice to eliminate common trigger foods
- Testing for allergens that may stress the nervous system
- Suggesting ways to eliminate or reduce problem chemicals in the home
Conventional medicine tends to treat ADHD with a chemical called methylphenidate, commonly known as Ritalin. Although this is a stimulant that acts to speed up the nervous system, its net effect is to calm the sufferer, possibly because it activates the filtering out process in the brain. The problem is that Ritalin does nothing to cure ADHD; it only hides the symptoms. And when Ritalin is taken for an extended period, it can actually damage the brain’s proper functioning.
It is therefore important to look at less drastic options if your child has ADHD, and one of these is chiropractic treatment to de-stress the nervous system.