ADHD and drug companies

Unfortunately in the twenty first century illness has become one of the most profitable businesses. As a result of the billions of dollars available to the pharmaceutical companies it makes a laughing stock of our health system. The Royal Australasian College of Physicians were drafting ADHD Guidelines that suggested every kid should be treated with ADHD drugs first then asked questions later. Sounds like a good way for a pharmaceutical company to make money doesn’t it. Fortunately, the process was halted under a cloud of controversy when the US psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman whose studies are cited more than 70 times in the draft ADHD guidelines, went under U.S. Congressional investigation for his undisclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Biederman, has confessed to receiving up to US$1.6 million to research and promote specific drugs, clearly a conflict of interest.

What’s even worse was the list of associations of the various members of the committee writing the report and the drug companies gathered under the freedom of information legislation. It read like the who’s who of the drug companies. And this is the committee who was just about to develop guidelines for all ADHD kids to take drugs. It would suggest to me strong vested interests of a supposedly independent committee. Any wonder we have so little trust in the medical system.

There are many reasons for ADHD and none of them are a pharmaceutical drug shortage and there are many things we can do to alleviate this problem with kids.

Psoriasis is not a skin disorder

Psoriasis is an inflammatory disease not a skin disorder. The skin is simply a mechanism for the psoriasis to manifest and treating the skin will just worsen the problem. Unfortunately this is ignored by much of the medical profession.

We know it is not a skin disorder because it is associated with so many other inflammatory illnesses. There are literally dozens of peer reviewed scientific journals showing this. Unfortunately the research shows that a person with psoriasis is likely to die around 10 years earlier than the average person. Yep a bit scary eh. So time to take action now. Get the idea? It is not a skin disease. They are more likely to have any one or a combination of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, stroke and heart attack, ulcerative colitis and crohn’s disease, arthritis and even some cancers compared to the average person. Inflammation is the underlying cause of psoriasis and it can be treated with diet and lifestyle changes. These include not smoking and no alcohol as well as vitamin d and healthy nutrition. See my other blog on this.

Treat the illness not the skin. There is no magic bullet but there are simple solutions that require the person to change. This means an anti inflammatory diet and lifestyle.

How to put Weight On!

It is so easy to put on weight as seen in the growing epidemic of people who are overweight and obese. To understand this epidemic all you need to do is look at their diet. But then if you’re not convinced review the scientific journals and you will see exactly the same.
If you want to put on weight eat more processed foods. Yep these include all the take-aways and fast food but even more importantly it’s the breads, pasta’s, packaged breakfast foods and processed potatoes. Not only are these foods laden with extra calories and no nutrients but you will also absorb more of the calories the more the food is processed. You see calories are no longer calories. Research shows that if you feed unprocessed food to a group of mice and then process the same food and feed it to another group of mice, even though the calories are exactly the same the mice fed the unprocessed food do not put on weight while the mice fed the processed food does put on weight. They both had the same amount of calories but as soon as you cook, crush, aerate or process in any way you increase the absorption of calories. Pigs fed raw potatoes do not put on weight, if you cook the potatoes they do. As little as 50% of a raw egg is absorbed and up to 95% of a cooked egg. The more processed the food the greater the absorption of calories.

So if you want to lose weight just do the opposite. Don’t count the calories just eat more raw food and increase your exercise. The raw food will also have multiple other benefits on your health including reducing the risk of and even reversing many forms of chronic illness.

10 Steps to Getting Well (Healthier)

If you’re suffering from any chronic illness, whether diabetes, cardiovascular risk, digestive troubles or skin complaints there are some really simple steps you can take to improve your health dramatically. There is no miracle cure just some simple steps. Unfortunately people find it easier to take pharmaceutical drugs than to change their behaviour to make a real difference for the health. So here I made it simple and clear and I give everyone the power to take control of their own health, one step at a time.

1. Eat more raw foods. Just add an extra salad to your diet every day.
2. Eat less processed foods. Not only are processed foods pour in nutrients to feed your body but they are also much higher in calories to be absorbed by the body and put on weight.
3. Take a couple of fish oils each day or make sure you have some small oily fish almost every day.
4. Supplement with a super green food such as spirulina or chlorella every day. It may be “YUK” but it is really good for you .
5. Supplement with probiotis or if you have any digestive complaints supplement with some super high dose probiotics (1 trillion bacteria per serve)
6. Replace all your vegetable oils, Omega 6 oils, with olive oil (omega 9).
7. Cut down your consumption of all milks including Soya and other make-believe milks. Have pot set yogurt if you need some dairy. It has lots of live probiotics.
8. Get out into the sun for at least one-hour every day.
9. Consume plenty of water each day, no not coffee or tea and soft drinks, water.
10. Take a deep breath and smile a lot more.