ADHD and modern life

For past couple of years I have been making blueberry smoothies. I wasn't to shocked to find out that frozen blue berries from the US have a larger amount of pesticides than fresh strawberries. I was shocked to find out that these pesticides contain chemical compounds that increases my child's chance of having ADHD by twice as much. I found some articles from MSNBC, Maclean's magazine and USA Today.

There is also the well publicized claim from Gwenith Paltrow about shampoo and the connection to ADHD.  Scientist were quick to denounce her claims, but those same scientist posted that there are no environmental causes for cancer. I don't know what they have been reading. 

My concern is that my little guy is now in the school system and several symptoms for ADHD are similar to how he and all his active, healthy friends act on a regular basis. In fact when I was in elementary school we all had some of the below symptoms.  I do remember going to the principals office more than once but he never offered me a pill.

A person with ADHD may have some or all of the following symptoms:

• difficulty paying attention to details and tendency to make careless mistakes in school or other activities; producing work that is often messy and careless
• easily distracted by irrelevant stimuli and frequently interrupting ongoing tasks to attend to trivial noises or events that are usually ignored by others
• inability to sustain attention on tasks or activities
• difficulty finishing schoolwork or paperwork or performing tasks that require concentration
• frequent shifts from one uncompleted activity to another
• procrastination
• disorganized work habits
• forgetfulness in daily activities (for example, missing appointments, forgetting to bring lunch)
• failure to complete tasks such as homework or chores
• frequent shifts in conversation, not listening to others, not keeping one's mind on conversations, and not following details or rules of activities in social situations

Hyperactivity symptoms may be apparent in very young preschoolers and are nearly always present before the age of seven. Symptoms include:

• fidgeting, squirming when seated
• getting up frequently to walk or run around
• running or climbing excessively when it's inappropriate (in teens this may appear as restlessness)
• having difficulty playing quietly or engaging in quiet leisure activities
• being always on the go
• often talking excessively

As I research a little more I find out that over 4 million children in the US have been diagnosed with this so called mental disorder. 25% are miss diagnosed because they are the youngest one in the grade. If I do some simple math I can figure out that if we all ate organic, 50% of children could be taken taken off of amphetamines which is what is prescribed as a cure. If we stopped using chemical shampoos or eating artificial dyes, preservatives, and refined sugars we could save another 25%. Out of 4 million children 3 million would be saved from being drugged into submission.Off course this may seem a little optimistic compared to the scientist that are being paid by the mega chemical companies.

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