If you or a family member or a  friend have been struggling with this for years, or if ADD/ADHD is new in your life, check out this article from Master Herbalist Brigitte Mars. In Natural Remedies for ADHD (Alternatives to Ritalin and Aderol), she discusses ten environmental, nutritional and herbal strategies to combat attention disorders. Among her suggestions:

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from nurspractitionerschools.org

Autism and its lesser-known relatives in the autism spectrum of disorders has found itself on the receiving end of a generous amount of attention lately. Affecting around 3.4 out of every 1,000 children between the ages of 3 and 10 every year, the controversies surrounding autism usually involve the mysteries behind the staggering rise of diagnoses over the past five years as well as its heavily disputed origins. Not surprisingly, a number of myths and misconceptions drown out the realities of individuals and families who confront autism on a daily basis. A proper understanding of what constitutes and how to work with and against autism and autism spectrum disorders allows patients to seek the necessary treatment and move on to live happy, productive, and stable existences.

1. Autism is a form of mental retardation.

Individuals with autism and autism spectrum disorders actually harbor average to above average intelligence. The conditions are considered neurodevelopmental in origin, and diagnostic criteria include communication issues, difficulty in social situations, and repetitive behavior patterns. At no point does mental retardation ever factor into an autism diagnosis – any possible cases where both conditions are present have nothing to do with one another. Some patients with autism perform excellently in some academic areas and very poorly in others, which some mistake as full mental retardation. (continue reading…)

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My daughter, Emily, was ten when she started having problems. She would be unwell, but we were not really sure what was wrong with her. She would then pick up and go back to school. She went from two years of full attendance at school to fairly poor attendance. Over the next couple of years she moved up to high school and things got steadily worse until she was struggling to walk even a few minutes down the road. Fortunately our doctor was very supportive; however some of the school staff seemed to think (and possibly still do) that there was nothing wrong with her and she was putting it on and I was silly to believe her.

The doctor said that there was nothing he could do but gave some guidelines, the main one being to do as much as she could, no more and no less – not very easy! We tried various complementary therapies. We worked on geopathic stress, electromagnetic radiation, diet, homeopathy and so on. Getting advice on the geopathic stress and the electromagnetic radiation seemed to be the most useful. (continue reading…)

Nearly 200 nurses in Sweden have reported severe side effects after receiving the H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine. The fevers, shivering and headaches are severe enough that these health professionals themselves have gone to the hospital. The Swedish vaccine implicated in these incidents, Pandemrix, contains adjuvents including squalene that are illegal in vaccines sold in the United States, though the squalene and other additives are used in parts of Europe.

In the United States, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System has recorded 687 adverse events from the shot and nasal spray versions of the vaccine. That number might be higher, but according to surveys and polls by academic research groups and the CDC have shown that many people who want the H1N1 vaccine have been unable to get the vaccinated due to supply shortages. VAERS accepts reports online, though a technical issue with their reporting website’s security certificate may deter people from submitting reports electronically. VAERS also accepts reports by postal mail or fax, which would further delay inclusion of those events in the reports. (continue reading…)

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On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Maternal & Child Health Bureau of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) released a new report on the prevalence of autism and autism-spectrum disorders in the United States. The results of the HRSA phone poll indicates that autism and ASD are more widespread than previously thought. The last estimates put the autism rate at roughly 1 in 150, but the new study indicates that the rate is 1 in 91 children. In boys, autism was even more common, with a parental-reported rate of 1 in 58 boys. Autism was slightly more prevalent in older children than in those born around the turn of the millennium.

This new study shows a drastic jump in the officially recognized rate of autism in the U.S.; however, it brings the estimate of American autism cases in line with the prevalence of autism seen worldwide. Other countries that have rigorously studied their own autism rates have all converged at a rate of about 1% of children with autism or ASD. (continue reading…)