A Natural Cures Approach to ADD and ADHD
19 Feb 2009
I get inquiries on a daily basis from parents with children who have been diagnosed as “ADD” or “ADHD”. Their medical doctors often want to drug the kids, and it just does not sit right with the parents. Good for them!
My approach to ADD and ADHD is similar to the way I help people resolve any health challenge. Simply put, my patients learn how to stop doing things that are known to cause illness and start doing things that are known to promote health. Once that happens, their bodies have an opportunity to turn the tide: symptoms recede, diseases disappear, and health appears in its place.
There are “condition-specific” refinements of the above approach, but you get the idea. Although the body is complex, the underlying causes of illness are simple enough, and so are the remedies for them. I cover this approach extensively on my natural cures web site, especially in the Four Step Natural Cure Plan that I use to help seriously ill people to recover their health. I encourage people who are not seriously ill to follow these natural cure tips so they can optimize their health. They apply to children as well as adults.
However, with children, getting them to comply with good health practices is not always straightforward. They really want their cookies and candies and all the rest of it. It can turn into quite a struggle to get them to eat a healthy diet, as any parent knows only too well.
If you have a child with ADD or ADHD, the stakes are more immediately visible in this struggle than they are for other parents. That is because, in my opinion, the number one cause of ADD and ADHD is the consumption of neuro-toxins inserted into our diet by the food processing industry. Preservatives, additives, dyes, aromas, flavor enhancers, and especially sugar and sugar substitutes like aspartame, can all contribute to mental, emotional, and behavioral challenges.
In addition to teaching parents about my own natural cures approach to wellness and radiant health, I recommend parents to the feingold.org web site, which provides a lot of specific, valuable information about ADD and ADHD. It let’s you know where it is okay to compromise with your child’s desire for fast food and a diet “just like all the other kids”, and where it is advisable to hold out for healthier options. So it is a really helpful resource and I wanted to share it with you.
Dr. James Chappell
