Louis Theroux's BBC2 programme: America's Medicated Kids

I watched Louis Theroux's BBC2 programme about "America's Medicated Kids" on the i-Player last night. You too could watch it here: iplayer: America's Medicated Kids.

I was shocked by it. Shocked at the insouciance with which the parents in the film sought prescription drug solutions to what appeared to be mildly problematic or really pretty normal behaviour in their children. I believe children should be protected from drugs, especially psychotropic drugs. As Professor Eric Wilkes said to me years ago, "The brain is not infinitely elastic." To interfere with the workings of a young child's brain before it has even reached maturity seems to me the height of folly and full of danger.

ADHD is one of a type of illness invented by drug companies in order to sell their drugs to treat the invented illnesses. Two of the drugs mentioned in the programme were Ritalin and Concerta. Neither of these drugs is of benefit to hyperactive children. See Drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta are of no benefit.

On the other hand we constantly hear of food additives causing behaviour problems and hyperactivity in children and, happily, hear also of great improvements in behaviour and attention span when such children change to additive-free and more nutritious food. Protecting children from the physical, mental and spiritual harms that psychiatric drugs cause, and protecting them from entering the dystopian world of psychobabble and self-analysis, and wasting their precious childhood with all this nonsense instead of living the normal, carefree life of a child, is what loving parents should be doing, in my opinion.

Some doctors are making the absurd claim that Ritalin could help with Britain's obesity crisis.

In this Telegraph article we read that doctors are making the absurd claim that Ritalin could help with Britain's obesity crisis. - Ritalin is one of the controversial psychotropic drugs that have harmed so many children unfortunate enough to have had them prescribed as treatment for ADHD, a putative illness used as a 'diagnosis' by some psychiatrists with strong connections with the drug industry and the drug industry's money. See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2008/06/for-years-harvard-child-psychiatrist.html and http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2009/03/read-about-senator-chuck-grassley-of.html

The Telegraph article says: "Doctors behind the latest findings claim a chemical imbalance in the brain caused by undiagnosed ADHD prevents severely obese patients from having the willpower to lose weight."

This is a nonsensical, completely false claim. - Obesity is not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain; it is caused by fluid retention, in turn caused by sodium retention, frequently itself caused as a side-effect of some other powerful prescription drug! - Obese people have more than enough health problems to cope with, without foolish doctors prescribing them pharmaceutical junk that will harm them further.

Obesity is easily, safely and swiftly reduced by giving up dieting completely, since it is harmful and does not work, and instead concentrating on cutting down on salt/sodium and salty food in order to reduce the fluid retention.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Up to one in 11 children in Britain may suffer from an attention deficit disorder, government advisers will claim this week.

One in 11 children may have ADHD
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"The guidance by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) is expected to say that up to 9 per cent of children and 2 per cent of adults fall within broad definitions of ADHD. It will recommend that the stimulant Ritalin be prescribed to all children and adults with a severe form of the condition and to all moderate cases which do not respond to talking therapies or parenting classes.

Prof Philip Asherson, one of the experts who produced the guidance, due out on Wednesday, said they tried to avoid following the model of ADHD care in the United States, where medication is the norm and routinely used to tackle minor behavioural and educational problems.

He said: "We worked very hard to avoid the approach in the US, where one in 10 children are being treated with stimulants. The guidance makes it clear that medication is the right approach in some cases but that it should not be used for everyone and certainly not to tackle minor educational problems."

"Dr Sami Timimi, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Lincolnshire, who does not believe ADHD is a valid diagnosis, said Nice had produced no evidence that the condition existed, or that medication worked, despite coming to conclusions supporting its use."

The psychologist Oliver James accused psychiatrists of medicalising a problem that was caused by upbringing. He said: "Psychiatrists invented this category to medicalise when in fact it is a social problem linked to low incomes and parenting difficulties." He said the best approach to children with ADHD-like symptoms was to give them more attention and affection."

"Latest figures show almost 500,000 prescriptions for stimulants for under-16s last year, more than double the 200,000 issued in 2003. The Department of Health said the figures reflected the number of prescriptions, which could include repeat orders for the same child."

I consider it irresponsible, reprehensible, unscientific and downright dangerous to be prescribing psychotropic drugs to children. If indeed it is reasonably considered that intervention is necessary to improve children's behaviour I would favour improving a child's nutrition, especially by the avoidance of fast food, ready meals, salty junk snacks and diet pretend 'food', and also Oliver James's suggestion of more attention and affection. - And I don't mean attention from medics! - Behaviour problems are categorically not caused by the brain being short of Ritalin!

Drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta are 'of no benefit' to hyperactive children. Big Pharma has conned doctors and the NHS yet again...)o:

Drugs 'of no benefit' to hyperactive children

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Drugs given to thousands of hyperactive children have no long-term benefits and could in fact be stunting their development, a major study has said.

The study of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) found that, while powerful drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta resulted in short-term behavioural improvements, after three years those benefits had disappeared.

Children who took the drugs for the full three years were also found to have stunted growth, according to the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA).

The MTA has followed 600 children in the United States with ADHD since the 1990s and has just published its latest findings. Prof William Pelham, co-author, from the University of Buffalo, said: "They weren't growing as much as other kids both in terms of their height and their weight.

"There were no beneficial effects - none. In the short run medication will help the child behave better, in the long run it won't.

"That information should be made very clear to parents.""

I believe children need to be protected from drugs which act on the brain/mind. I believe that optimising their nutrition with good healthy meals low in salt/sodium and avoiding dodgy, unnatural food additives would help children to become more attentive.