Yet More Evidence that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is not Just in the Head.
There is more and more evidence that many if not most illnesses affect the entire body. This has always been one of the tenets of Integrated Medicine: that a problem in a particular organ reflects an imbalance in the whole body. And by body we do not only mean the physical frame, but also the person’s subtle systems and relationships from their individual cells to their Higher Self: from cell to soul.
There was yet more evidence for this from research (NR78) presented on Monday at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in San Diego, California. Investigators from Gaziantep University Sahinbey Research Hospital in Turkey looked at twenty adults with ADHD and measured the levels of the oxidant, nitric oxide, and superoxide dismutase, one of the key anti-oxidant enzymes, in their blood.
They had remarkably high levels of nitric oxide and low levels of the enzyme superoxide dismutase, suggesting an oxidative imbalance in ADHD.
If confirmed, this would be an intriguing result that could open up all kinds of possibilities for our understanding of ADHD, its diagnosis and treatment. But first it has to be checked by other researchers. Measuring nitric oxide and superoxide dismutase levels are notoriously difficult, and the number of people in the trial was small. But this is one of those pieces of research that makes your antennae go up.
I shall send out some messages to see if anyone else is working on the problem.
Dr. Richard G. Petty, MD is a world-renowned authority on the brain, and his revolutionary work on human energy systems has been acclaimed around the globe.
He is also an accredited specialist in internal and metabolic medicine, endocrinology, psychiatry, acupuncture and homeopathy. He has been an innovator and leader of the human potential movement for over thirty years and is also an active researcher, teacher, writer, professional speaker and broadcaster. He is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking and best selling CD series Healing, Meaning and Purpose. He has taught in over 45 countries and 48 states in the last ten years, but spends as much time as possible on his horse farm in Georgia.
