Attention Deficit Disorder: A Real Problem That Needs Attention

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As you sit in a business meeting, social gathering, or family event, you find yourself having a hard time following a conversation because you are zoning out without realizing it, until someone or some environmental stimulus brings you back to reality. At work, you can’t finish the task at hand, and realize you’ve started more projects without following through on any of them. Your work space is cluttered and messy, and you realize you have underestimated the time you gave yourself to complete the task or job at hand.
During dinner conversation, you interrupt your company and obnoxiously answer someone before a question has been finished. As the people around you talk, in your head you are hearing the chatter as background noise, and find it difficult to listen. At some point in the night you start to get anxious and fidgety, finding it hard to sit and relax. After being reprimanded by your significant other for blurting out during the evening, you momentarily evaluate yourself, questioning if there is something wrong.
At times, you find yourself so hyper-focused on one task or problem that you exclude everything else around you that needs your attention. During the day you have incredible energy, and find yourself adapting to new information while still being very creative. Your co-workers, family and friends make you think you’re crazy, and accuse you of having ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder.
While most people envision an individual with ADD as a child bouncing off the walls, unable to sit in a chair, unruly, and unable to focus in a classroom, ADD and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) affect children and adults alike. The current criteria necessary for the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD state that symptoms arise in early childhood before the age of seven, and that the behaviors are seen for at least six months.
Children with ADD/ADHD may have some of the following symptoms:
Have difficulty keeping attention
Make careless mistakes
Have trouble listening and a hard time following instructions
Are forgetful and easily distracted
Dislike tasks that require mental effort
Squirm in the chair and fidget
Talk excessively and can’t sustain quiet activity
Blurt out answers before questions have been completed
Interrupt others
Run around and have difficulty remaining seated

Because everyone shows signs of these behaviors at one time or another, the guidelines for determining whether a person has ADD/ADHD are not based on a list of symptoms, nor on a Web-based quiz. This inadequate form of evaluating is only suggestive of ADD/ADHD, and can lead to a misdiagnosis, which in turn may lead to needless and perhaps harmful treatments, i.e., medication.
Is ADD/ADHD over-diagnosed or even misdiagnosed? Is a label of ADD/ADHD given because of intolerance to childhood playfulness? As a seasoned professional on this topic, and working with providers in the mental healthcare field, I have found that sometimes children are needlessly medicated by parents who are looking for some classroom advantage, whether it is additional time for testing, or other classroom accommodations in a competitive educational environment.

The Brain is the Problem:
To prevent improper treatment due to poor diagnostic criteria, it is through an appropriate neurological and biochemical evaluation that the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD is made. Current research has shown that ADD/ADHD is a true neurological dysfunction found in the brain, where there is a misfiring of nerve cells and an imbalance in brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.
Although the brain is not diseased in an individual with ADD/ADHD, there is a problem with the development of specific areas of the brain. The result is decreased processing of information within those specific areas. Now, a brief lesson on anatomy and physiology will help us understand how the specific regions of the brain function. The nerve cells or neurons of the brain are connected in dense networks that develop efficiency with each human experience. These neurons are the basic foundation of thought, behavior, cognition, and movement. The brain has four lobes on each side. If the neurons in these different lobes of the brain develop poorly, the probability of behavioral, cognitive, and academic deficits increases.
Research has shown that with ADD/ADHD there is decreased processing or functioning in the frontal lobe, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum. The frontal lobe (behind your forehead) is responsible for executive functions that include planning, organizing, problem solving, selective attention, personality, and a variety of “higher cognitive functions” including behavior and emotions. The basal ganglia (in between the two hemispheres) is the part that shuts down brain neurons in the frontal cortex from causing spontaneous outbursts. In other words, the basal ganglia is the shut-off switch for the brain. If the nerve cells in the basal ganglia are weak, the brain can’t shut down; as a result, hyperactivity develops. This is the difference between ADD and ADHD. With ADD, the basal ganglia has not yet been involved; with ADHD the basal ganglia is unable to quiet the brain down from hyperactive moments. Last but not least, the cerebellum (found at the base of the skull) seems to be the key factor. Research has shown that children with ADD/ADHD have smaller cerebellums (up to 11% smaller) than non-affected children. It is important to note that the cerebellum is responsible for the development of the rest of the brain—specifically the frontal lobe, where we get focus and attention. The cerebellum also controls the coordination of all muscle movements, including those of the eyes and the spine which provide us with a sense of balance. Without proper cerebellar development, one will have problems not only with balance and coordination, but with thoughts and behaviors as well. Therefore, anything that affects this region will affect the way the brain develops. Through birth trauma, forceps delivery, and any of a number of prenatal stressors, there may be poor development in the cerebellum and thus in the brain, leading to ADD/ADHD.
Why is ADD/ADHD more prevalent now? Believe it or not, society is becoming more sedentary. Children have stationary technology put into their laps—TV and video games for recreation, and computers for school and social communication. Emphasis is put more on academics and less on physical activity and recess. With these cultural and technological changes, there is less stimulation from the body to the brain; as a consequence, there is a higher number of individuals being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.
When the brain has a weakness, there is a high probability of attention issues. Along with this weakness, there may also be an imbalance in brain chemicals or neurotransmitters. These NT’s are the biochemicals that enable nerve cells in the brain to communicate with each other. The NT’s that are commonly imbalanced and contribute to ADD/ADHD symptoms are Dopamine, Epinephrine, Norepinephrine, GABA, PEA and Histamine. Neurotransmitters are created from protein and vitamins that come from the foods we ingest. Therefore, it is important to look at and modify the diet. When dealing with cognitive dysfunctions like ADD/ADHD, it is important to eat healthful foods and rid the diet of certain offensive foods that have been shown to affect executive function and behavior. This will set the stage for more normal brain chemistry.

Foods to eliminate:
Refined white sugars (candy), white flours, and other empty-calorie foods
Dairy – milk, cheese, yogurt
Gluten (found in flour breads)
Trans fats – anything cooked with hydrogenated vegetable oil, restaurant fried foods, cookies, crackers, cakes, margarine, and snack foods
Artificial sweeteners
Food dyes and soy

While most think ADD/ADHD is a childhood condition, it affects adults in the same manner. If not diagnosed and treated correctly in a child, the dysfunction will remain causing the symptoms of ADD/ADHD in adulthood. In adults, the symptoms must have been present since childhood and must affect one’s ability to function in daily life. These behaviors must create significant difficulty in at least two areas of life, such as home, social settings, school, or work.

We find that many people who have lived with ADD all their lives accept it as part of who they are. They have no idea that the pattern of problems may be related to a treatable disorder—more specifically, a weakness in the brain.
With the dramatic increase in the number of children affected by ADD, ADHD, Executive Function Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder, Dyslexia, Tourette’s Syndrome, and the other learning disabilities, many concerned parents struggle with how to help their children. The medical paradigm of drug intervention has been somewhat successful in relieving symptoms, but long-term changes have not been supported scientifically. Recent advances in brain research and imaging strongly support the specialty of Chiropractic Neurology, which focuses on evaluating the function of the brain and nervous system. Once an individual has been properly evaluated and diagnosed, a non-invasive, drug-free protocol should be implemented, restoring balance to the system and thereby relieving the symptoms.

Dr. Robert Zembroski is a board-certified chiropractic neurologist and the director of the Darien Center for Integrative Medicine. He has maintained a successful private practice for 15 years in Darien, CT. For more information on ADD/ADHD, visit www.darienim.com.