In spite of all the talk about mercury and phasing it out from vaccines, it is still being used legally as a preservative in many vaccines and other medications, some of which are available over the counter.
To find a complete list of medications containing mercury see http://www.fda.gov/cder/fdama/mercury300.htm
The food industry bombards our children with wonderful bright colors, exciting characters, and products that are actually quite addictive. Everywhere you look these days you see horrible excuses for food, marketed directly to our children. There are shocking pink and electric blue drinks (can you imagine how much dye shocking pink takes?). There is oatmeal in easy-to-use individual packets containing treasures or dinosaurs that actually pop up when you add water and heat it. (Be very wary of the nutrition labeling on these products. One says 6 grams of sugar per serving, but the serving size is only 1/3 of an individual bag. That is a whopping 18 grams of sugar per packet, not to mention the added flavors, colors, and other chemical additives).
The garbage contained in boxes of cereal for kids is astonishing. We wonder why seemingly typical children have behavioral issues. Look at the way we start their day: breakfasts that include toaster pastries, cinnamon rolls, and chocolate chip waffles, just to name a few. Even many of the natural organic cereals (which at least don’t have partially hydrogenated oils, artificial flavorings and colorings) are loaded with evaporated organic cane juice (a fancy name for SUGAR). And in all reality we, as parents struggling to make a healthy diet, are at a disadvantage. So, I guess it is time to fight back.
Let’s be honest, the packaging of most health foods leaves a lot to be desired in the minds of young children. Especially when in the other aisles there is a cool cheetah wearing shades on a brightly colored bag of snack chips. And let’s be real: does the oatmeal that you sweetened yourself with just a little honey and cinnamon stand a chance against bright-colored dinosaur magic?
Quite simply, the answer is “yes.” As a responsible parent you are the expert on your child, not the advertising departments of these food companies. Be your own marketer. Promote the healthy food you make for your family. Take that box of plain oatmeal and some small baggies. Hit the Dollar Store and invest in stickers of your child’s favorite characters. Also pick up some tiny toys, maybe a pack of assorted dinosaur figures. Decorate the bags differently so there is plenty of variety to choose from. Then measure out one serving of oats, cinnamon, raisins (or any other dried fruit they like – remember, you are the expert!) and maybe a sweetener like Xylitol (a naturally sweet substance that can be used exactly like sugar, but is not digestible and actually has the added benefit of being a natural antibacterial) into each bag. Throw in a toy dinosaur – you know, the prize-in-the-cereal-box way of thinking – to make it even more exciting.
The great thing about having all-in-one individual bags is that your child can select the bag they want, pour it in their own bowl, retrieve their prize, measure the water with a measuring cup, and then let you microwave it for them. If your child is on a gluten-free diet, try this idea with Cream of Buckwheat cereal. In order to balance out this fun bowl of carbohydrates, make sure to include protein. Add a side of all-natural nitrate-free bacon or sausage, or an egg.
Use your imagination and creativity to fight back. They are your children. When health problems arise later, the Big Food industry won’t be there to help, and it will all be up to you.
There are many different types of seizures, and many diagnoses that go with them. Different seizure disorders can have different causes, ranging from high fevers to trauma, infection, and chemical intoxication. In some cases the precise cause may be elusive, but most seizure disorders have one thing in common: they can be managed entirely by diet.
If you think this is just another one of my controversial statements, think again! The diet in question, known as the ketogenic diet, was developed in the early decades of the 20th century under the aus pices of the American Medical Association. It has continued to be researched to the present day in such meccas of mainstream medicine as Johns Hopkins Hospital. A history and a detailed description of the diet can be found in the book “The Ketogenic Diet: a Treatment for Epilepsy” by John Freeman, MD.
A parent’s report in the foreword to this book is quite revealing: “After thousands of epileptic seizures, an incredible of array of drugs, dozens of blood draws, eight hospitalizations, a mountain of EEGs, MRIs, CAT scans, PET scans, and one fruitless brain surgery, Charlie’s seizures were unchecked, his development delayed, and he had a prognosis of continued seizures and progressive retardation. Since we started the diet Charlie has been virtually seizure-free, completely drug-free, and a terrific little boy ever since.” So what is the ketogenic diet, and how can it be so effective? The major feature of this diet is that it severely restricts sugar and all other carbohydrates until the body’s metabolism switches from burning sugar for energy to burning fat. When this happens, benign compounds known as ketone bodies are produced. They circulate in blood and can be measured in urine with so-called ketone sticks. Positive readings on ketone sticks indicate that the diet is being implemented correctly, and so the diet itself has come to be known as ketogenic or ketone-inducing.
Our brains require relatively enormous amounts of energy. In fact, the adult human brain represents only 2% of total body mass but accounts for 15% of total energy needs of the body (Guyton, 8th edition, p. 684). The brain will always burn sugar for energy, as long as it’s available; but when it runs out, the brain adjusts easily and very efficiently to burning ketones.
Although there would seem to be a benefit to the brain from burning ketones, this benefit is not nderstood and we don’t know exactly how this diet works to control seizures. Another and perhaps overlooked aspect of this diet is that it completely eliminates sugar and severely restricts all carbohydrates. I have observed consistent behavioral and attention-related improvements with only moderate reductions in sugar and carbohydrate intake. Could it be that the complete elimination of these items has even greater brain-healing benefits for these severe cases?
Not only is this diet effective, it is completely safe. Studies have found consistently that children, even infants, on this diet develop normally. A recent study looked at the safety of the diet in infants as young as 3 months old without finding evidence of any detriment in terms of general health or growth and development (Pediatrics, 2002; 109 (5): 780). While it is known that protein and fat are essential to human life, we apparently do just fine without carbohydrates.
So why haven’t you heard about this diet from your neurologist? The answer to this question may lie primarily with a medical bias towards drugs and surgery. According to medical standards of care, the diet should only be considered in severe cases when drug therapy fails. Although I disagree with this policy, it does provide further evidence of the diet’s effectiveness.
From what I hear, in everyday practice the diet is rarely mentioned, even when drugs don’t work. In one case, when the mother of one of my patients asked her child’s neurologist about the diet, she was told with a smile that “yes, the diet could work in theory but it’s just too difficult to follow.” The neurologist’s recommendation in that case was experimental brain surgery.
In reality, the medical textbook description of the ketogenic diet makes it unnecessarily complicated and difficult to implement. A simpler version of this diet is the Atkins diet. The Atkins diet is also ketone-inducing, plus it has the added benefit that most people have a basic familiarity with it and there are books in every bookstore telling us how to follow it. Could it be just as effective?
This is exactly what a recent study performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital found. Researchers concluded that the Atkins diet is a “well-tolerated alternative to the ketogenic diet for treating medically-resistant epilepsy” (Epilepsia 44 Suppl. 9: 282 (Abst. 2. 310), 2003).
Now, you may be thinking that the Atkins diet is for weight loss and your child would wither away on it. However, it has been shown that carbohydrate-restricted diets have a “weight-optimizing” effect and it is just as likely for underweight people to gain weight on these diets as it is for overweight individuals to lose weight. For a more comprehensive discussion of the weight-optimizing effects of low-carbohydrate diets, see “Life without Bread” by Wolfgang Lutz, MD.
When implementing the Atkins diet, it is important to make healthy choices, avoiding man-made fats like margarine and the low-carb “fake” foods that are now becoming prevalent in restaurants and on grocery store shelves.
If, like many of us these days, you have a problem with wheat and other grains containing gluten, and if you feel better when you avoid them, the problem may have started with a course of antibiotics.
In a recent article in The Lancet (Vol 361, 2003: 2152-4) published as a “medical hypothesis,” researchers studied the proteins on the cell surface of the yeast Candida albicans. They found that many of these proteins have striking similarities to gluten, a protein in wheat and some other grains.
Antibiotics are known to lead to an overgrowth of yeast, including Candida albicans. This overgrowth, in turn, leads to an immune response directed against the yeast. But since the yeast protein is so similar to gluten, the immune system could easily become confused and start attacking wheat thereby causing a variety of health conditions that can only resolve when gluten is avoided.
There is yet another study that shows a positive therapeutic relationship between diet or dietary supplements and ADHD. Supplements contain nutrients that are – or at least should be – found in our everyday diet. Therefore, if supplements can somehow help lessen the severity of or even correct ADHD, this proves that there is a causal link between food and attention deficit/hyperactivity.
In a study I reviewed a few months ago, some children were given Ritalin and others a long list of vitamins and other nutrients. This was a shotgun approach whereby children taking the supplements were given everything under the sun instead of specifically what they needed. Nevertheless it worked, and the study found similar improvements in both groups (1).
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