New Strategies for Treating Kids with ADHD

According to The New York Times, "as many as two-thirds of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, have used some form of alternative treatment" in an effort to avoid stimulant drugs. The most common of these strategies involve dietary changes. So far the results are mixed. A trial of St. John's Wart showed that this herbal supplement performed the same as its placebo. Data on sugar is similarly inconclusive. While parents often believe that sugar can exacerbate their child's symptoms, no conclusive evidence has corroborated this. There is more hope for omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and fish-oil supplements. A review published last year in Pediatric Clinics of North America concluded that a “growing body of evidence” supported the use of such supplements for children with ADHD.

Since the research for non-pharmaceutical alternatives to treat ADHD is still in its infancy, finding a physician who is willing to explore options is crucial when embarking upon this path. For a list of pediatricians who offer alternative treatments, contact the Integrative Pediatrics Council at www.integrativepeds.org.

Inspiration for Locavores

If you're at all interested in the movement to eat locally-grown food, you've no doubt heard of Barbara Kingsolver's new memoir/exposé Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which recently came out in paperback. Kingsolver touches upon poignant themes that echo arguments made by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser -- basically, that the way Americans produce and consume food is setting the stage for dire consequences. But Kingsolver goes beyond intellectual arguments that underscore the importance of health and environmental concerns and zeros in on a new consideration: taste.

After reading the first few chapters I felt as though I'd never truly tasted a stalk of asparagus since my supply most likely came to me many, many days after it was severed from the stalk. Part of me became anxious to transform my meager yard into a vegetable farm, the other felt shame in the recognition that I could never pull it off. The bottom line: that extra stop at the farmer's market that I've avoided adding to my semiweekly supermarket trips suddenly seems a small effort for such large gains.

Study Reports 75% of Women Have Disordered Eating

An online survey of over 4,000 women, conducted by Self Magazine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, shows that 65% of American women between the ages of 25 and 45 report having disordered eating behaviors and an additional 10% report symptoms consistent with eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. The study's researchers reported that the results cut across age, race, and ethnic lines.

Here are some interesting statistics gleaned by the study:

67% of women (excluding those with actual eating disorders) are trying to lose weight
53% of dieters are already at a healthy weight and are still trying to lose weight
39% of women say concerns about what they eat or weigh interfere with their happiness
37% regularly skip meals to try to lose weight
27% would be “extremely upset” if they gained just five pounds
26% cut out entire food groups
16% have dieted on 1,000 calories a day or fewer
13% smoke to lose weight
12% often eat when they’re not hungry; 49 percent sometimes do

But Is It Therapy?

On a recent trip to the local bookstore, I found myself drawn to the headlines of several popular women's magazines. After leafing through their glossy pages, I learned about all sorts of new "therapies" that are vying to take the place of psychotherapy. The first was the "fortune-telling facial" which aims to combine psychic healing, aura reading, and pore cleansing -- what a concept! The columnist, who wrote about her first-hand experience, reported that by the end of the first session her optimism and skin were both gleaming. Meanwhile, the new "Done & Divorced" course at London's Jemma-Kidd Make-up School offers a new spin on the support group. Apparently, a divorcee's make-up can be used to analyze her psyche. Do you hold onto a lipstick even when the color is obviously no longer flattering? Are the brushes and compacts clanging around in your purse a symptom of bad self-care? While the four-hour course costs about as much as four individual sessions with a psychotherapist ($400), my suspicion is that the latter option offers a far less superficial fix. So what does the popularity of these new (dare I call them) modalities say about the state of self-exploration? Are today's women less interested in delving into their issues than in covering them up?

Exercise to Fight Fatigue

It may seem counter-intuitive but anyone who has tried it knows it's true. When we're feeling lethargic and sapped, the best thing we can do is exercise. Now scientists agree. A new study published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics shows that regular, low-intensity exercise may help boost energy levels in people suffering from fatigue.

One of the most common health symptoms and a sign of a many medical problems, fatigue is a common condition that causes concern. Yet about 25% of individuals seeking medical care for this condition experience general fatigue not associated with a serious medical condition.

University of Georgia researchers decided to study whether exercise can be used to treat fatigue. One group was prescribed 20 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise three times a week for six weeks. The second group engaged in low-intensity aerobic exercise for the same time period, while a third control group did not exercise at all. In the end, both of the exercise groups had a 20 percent increase in energy levels by the end of the study, compared to the control group. However, the researchers found that more intense exercise wasn't necessarily the best way to reduce fatigue. The low-intensity group reported a 65 percent drop in feelings of fatigue, compared to a 49 percent drop in the group doing more intense exercise. While scientists can't quite explain why this phenomenon works any of us who've tried it simply know it does.

Why Are There So Few French Vegetarians?

I recently came across an interesting thread on an international online bulletin board. French omnivores -- and the Francophiles who love them -- were musing over why there seems to be so few French vegetarians. I've often wondered the same so lingered for a few days to see what theories would surface.

One Frenchman wrote about how he was raised with the idea of balance as an ideal to be followed with all aspects of life including food. He wrote, "I think vegetarianism would be seen by many French as an extreme, to be followed only if absolutely medically necessary. We are raised to believe that variety and balance are the healthiest way to go."

Another poster to the thread, an American presumably, wrote that "Anglophone culture" is really unusual in its support of non-mainstream dietary practices when compared with other cultures. He also theorized that this acceptance can perhaps be seen as an after-effect of 19th-century Protestant social reform that opposed animal cruelty. He opined that the French view animals very differently than do Americans. He writes: "The Frenchman (or -woman) has attitudes not dissimilar to that of an agricultural worker. They have grown up seeing the carcasses of whole food animals at the market; it's just another commodity." Or perhaps it's a symptom of the widening distance between Americans and their food source? Put plainly: "The American looks at a dead pig hanging in the window and sees an adorable Disney character brutally slaughtered before its time. The Frenchman sees dinner."

My experience, based on my frequent travels to France, has led me to believe that food is such an integral part of social connection that rejecting a certain type of food could be construed as being unsociable or, Mon Dieu, un-French. What we choose to eat is a way of asserting who we are and the culture -- or subculture -- with which we identify.

Food: More than the Sum of Its Parts

A recent study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine showed that selenium supplements, taken to help prevent cancer, may actually cause more harm than good. This is not unlike the study done many years ago that showed that beta-carotene supplements which were intended to ward off lung cancer actually increased its likelihood. Why is it that anytime a food correlates with wellness, scientists try to pinpoint the nutrient responsible and then repackage it as a supplement? Is it because we as a society are used to improving our health with pills?

Perhaps it's easier for us to pop a Vitamin C tablet than to peel and eat an orange. And it's definitely more profitable for the food industry to sell us supplements, tinctures, and fortified foods than to forfeit their profits to the produce section. But, in the end, can you really improve upon mother nature? For reasons that science has yet to identify (but which commonsense seems to dictate), food is more than the sum of its nutrients. You may be able to pinpoint and isolate all of the antioxidants found in a carrot but you can't beat the health benefits to be reaped when these nutrients are consumed in their original packaging.