Posts Tagged ‘Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder’

Acupuncture and ADHD

Schwartz Posted in Acupuncture，Tags: , , , , , , ,
15 September 2010
2

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common behavioral conditions among children. In the United States alone, approximately 4.5 million children between the ages of 5-17 years old are diagnosed with ADHD each year. Research indicates that when treating ADHD, a multidisciplinary approach is most effective; combining behavioral therapy, exercise, dietary changes and medication. Now acupuncture can be added as one of the treatment methods that can successfully manage ADHD.

What is ADHD?

Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is a condition of the brain that makes it difficult to concentrate or control impulsive behavior.

Children with ADHD generally struggle with paying attention or concentrating. They can’t seem to follow directions and are easily bored or frustrated with tasks. They also tend to move constantly and are impulsive, not stopping to think before they act. These behaviors are generally common in children. But they occur more often than usual and are more severe in a child with ADHD. The behaviors that are common with ADHD interfere with a child’s ability to function at school and at home.

Adults with ADHD may have difficulty with time management, organizational skills, goal setting, and employment. They may also have problems with relationships, self-esteem, and addictions.

Treatment for ADHD

Treatment for ADHD is multifaceted. It consists of ADHD medications, behavioral therapy and lifestyle and dietary modifications. ADHD is best managed when families, educational and health professionals work together to meet the unique needs of the child or adult who has ADHD to help them learn to focus their attention, develop their personal strengths, minimize disruptive behavior, and become productive and successful. Acupuncture is an excellent addition to any treatment plan as it is used to help the body restore balance, treating the root of the disorder, while also diminishing the symptoms of ADHD.

What acupuncture can help with:

• Improve focus and attention
• Manage moods
• Reduce fidgeting
• Lower hyperactivity
• Augment mood management techniques
• Enhance concentration

If you would like to learn more about acupuncture in the treatment for ADHD or one of the childhood ailments listed below, please call for a consultation.

Treating Children with Acupuncture

Children respond extremely well to acupuncture treatments for many conditions. When treating children, their comfort is of the utmost importance. Treatments tend to be shorter and acupuncture points are usually stimulated gently with very thin needles or with other techniques that do not involve needles.

Needle-free acupuncture treatments may include stroking, rubbing, tapping, and pressing the acupuncture points with tools such as brushes, rollers and blunt probes.

Common childhood conditions treated with Oriental Medicine:

• Failure to thrive syndrome
• Weak constitution
• Colic, excessive night crying, temper tantrums
• Indigestion, GERD, constipation, and diarrhea
• Night terrors
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Allergies, asthma
• Cough and colds
• Eczema and hives
• Ear infections
• Bedwetting

Ginger: Tool in Global Fight Against Childhood Killer?

Could one of the most widely used herbs in cooking around the world be just the right medicine for one of the deadliest conditions children face around the world?

That’s the promise pointed at by a study published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

In this study, researchers in Taiwan looked at the role of a ginger extract in blocking the toxin that causes 210 million cases of diarrhea worldwide. The toxin is produced by enterotoxigenic E. coli, which accounts for 380,000 worldwide deaths annually. The study found that zingerone, a compound in ginger, was the likely compound responsible for blocking the toxin.

Further study is needed to confirm these findings and determine appropriate dosage, especially for infants. But this natural wonder offers a very inexpensive alternative to drug therapy and great hope to thousands of children in poor countries around the world.

Source: American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2007

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Chinese Medicine 101: the deskness of your PC and your Gut-Brain

Oscar Sierra Posted in Chinese Medicine，Tags: , , , , , , ,
22 May 2010
0
PIII-900 Guts (about to be transplanted)

Image by frigante via Flickr

I’m in the process of grading papers for a 6 wk., 36 hr. course on Chinese Medicine (CM).  The students are a cross section of ages all training to be massage therapists.  Every time I teach this course, I’m reminded of the drastic difference in Western and Eastern thinking.  We cover the basics of CM: The main Channels/Meridians, Qi, Yin, Yang, Blood, the organs, Shen, 5 Elements/Phases, etc.  They also have to learn a small handful of points on the body and their indications.  In this sense, this class is just like their anatomy and physiology, just a different system of medicine.  However, the most difficult lesson and perhaps the most important, is simply the difference in thinking.  Long after they forget the exact location of Stomach 40 or Lung 5, they’ll (hopefully) remember that there’s a different way to make sense of the world and come to conclusions.  In this paradigm, there are few, if any absolutes.  Definitions are contingent upon interrelationships.

Traditionally in Western thinking, thing A–let’s say the desk on which your computer is probably sitting, is different than thing B–your computer on which you’re reading this blog.  Within the paradigm used in CM, the characteristics of thing A, your desk, are less important than the way thing A interacts with thing B, your computer, and maybe thing C–you.  In this sense, the RAM, processor speed, and brand of your computer are taken into account, but it is just as important, if not more important, to understand the way the computer sits on the desk and interacts with you.  In fact, the very nature of thing A is somewhat contingent on the relationships it has with things B and C.  There is a computerness to your desk, and there’s a deskness to your computer.  Yin has its own set of characteristics one can list and memorize, but it is really only useful if taken into context with Yang.  Your desk is Yin because it’s solid and your computer is Yang because it lights up.  However, your desk could also be considered Yang because it’s up off the floor and holds your computer up. Your computer could also be considered Yin because it’s black, stationary, and accepts your input.
For the student accustomed to rigid definitions of what is and what isn’t, this is very difficult to grasp.  In anatomy and physiology they learn about the stomach and the brain in two distinct chapters.  The brain is not your stomach and your stomach is not your brain.  You go to the podiatrist if you have foot problems and the neurologist if you have chronic migraines.  In CM, your leg bone is connected to your …. hip boneMusic-sixteenthnote.png, your hip bone’s connected to your… back boneMusic-sixteenthnote.png… The Stomach is intimately connected to the Spleen, and the Spleen is intimately connected to mental clarity and focus.  To treat migraine headaches, it’s sometimes useful to treat a point on the foot.

Interestingly, this paradigm of interrelatedness is slowly making headway into mainstream Western Biomedicine by means of recent advances in what people call Mind-Body Medicine, Functional Medicine, or Holistic Medicine.  “Attention Deficit Disorder,” “ADD,” or what can easily be considered a mental thing, is often successfully managed with diet–a gut thing.  Chronic physical pain (body) is often managed with meditation (mind).  Menopause and hypothyroid conditions are no longer just seen as inadequacies in estrogen, progesterone, or thyroid hormone, they are seen as imbalances in complex interactions between estrogen, progesterone, thyroid hormone, TSH, iodine, cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, testosterone, stress, diet, exercise, etc.  The whole of our organs, hormones, and Meridians is greater than the sum of its parts.

For a simple & funny bit on Steven Colbert’s take on the Dr. Michael Gershon, MD gut-brain connection, check this out: http://wikiality.wikia.

Brain, computer art

Image via Wikipedia

com/Dr._Michael_Gershon

Oscar Sierra, L.Ac.

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