What Is ADHD?

ADHD stands for Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD is a diagnosis doctors give most often to children (and sometimes to adults) when they have difficulty paying attention, are hyperactive (“hyper”), or have impulsive uncontrolled behavior.

Quick note: “Attention deficient disorder (ADD)” use to be a common diagnosis. As of the recent 5-10 years, however, the ADD label has kind of been enveloped by the “ADHD” label. Both diagnoses are often referring to the same types of symptoms: unable to pay attention, unable to sit still, and seemingly uncontrolled.

ADHD Signs & Symptoms

• Not able to sit still (even in calm settings)
• Poor ability to focus or concentrate
• Always fidgeting
• Hyperactivity
• Impatient and disruptive
• Often interrupting others

The Problem with Standard ADHD Solutions

Common recommended solutions for addressing ADHD includes medications, behavioral therapy, counseling, and/or social skills training.

The problem is, these solutions don’t actually get to the root of the issue so they never provide true long term healing. We have to remember that with every health condition, whether it’s related to our mental health, internal health, or physical health, there is always a reason why a condition is occurring.

Conditions and diseases do not just randomly occur or come out of nowhere.

This is a GREAT thing to understand because that means we can actually figure out what is causing a disease or condition! Once we figure that out, then we can easily address it.

Causes and Reversing It Naturally

If you look up on the internet “what causes ADHD?”, you will find that no one really “knows.” Because no one knows, most doctors say it is “not fully understood” and then blames “genetics.”

If genetics are the reason, why is ADHD so simple to reverse? The reason many doctors will blame “genetics” is because they truly don’t know the reason and most people accept the “it’s just genetics” answer. I don’t believe that and neither should you!

Many doctors or sources online will admit that ADHD is multi-factorial meaning there are multiple factors that can contribute and lead to a child or person experiencing ADHD — unfortunately, most doctors don’t truly know (1) what those factors are, (2) how to figure out which one is bothering your child, and (3) how to address those factors.

Here are the answers you’ve been looking for: The causes of ADHD all lead back to Gut health, Toxicities, and Acetylcholine deficiencies.

Gut Health

Our gut primarily refers to our small intestine and large intestine. Our gut is vitally important to the state of our brain health. The gut and brain are connected through a nerve that runs all the way from the brain down to the majority of our digestive organs — the vagus nerve (cranial nerve 10). Because of this nerve, we have a “brain-gut connection.” That is why we may experience brain or neurological conditions (ADHD, seizures, anxiety, depression, etc.) because of poor gut health.

The gut can become unhealthy most commonly due to infections (parasites, bacteria, fungus, viruses), inflammation (from inflammatory and destructive foods), and stress (mental, emotional, physical).

When we have any of these things occurring, we don’t absorb nutrients well (resulting in nutrient deficiencies), we don’t detox well (resulting in toxicities), and our nervous system is largely negatively impacted.

SOLUTION: Kill the infections (with herbals always, never antibiotics), detox the toxicities, avoid inflammatory foods, feed the “good” bacteria with prebiotics (click here for a list), eat anti-inflammatory foods, and get lots of good movement in. By killing infections, detoxing well, and avoiding inflammatory foods, the gut will have a chance to heal. By eating healthy prebiotics, getting plenty of movement in (walking, jogging, running, swimming, climbing, crawling), and by eating anti-inflammatory foods, you can build up a strong and resilient gut.

Read everything you need to know about gut health, gut infections, gut toxicities, inflammatory gut foods, and more HERE.

Toxicities

Toxicities are also very common to affect the gut and more importantly the brain. We’re talking about heavy metals (mercury, lead, aluminum, arsenic, etc.), mold, ammonia, and monosodium glutamate (MSG). This list is not exhaustive but by far the most common things causing toxicities.

Before we discuss sources of each of these things, it is important to realize anytime there is a nutrient deficiency, our body automatically becomes more likely to develop a toxicity since we don’t have the adequate nutrients to combat them. That is why what we eat and the quality of our food matters!!

Heavy Metals

The main sources I see of people’s heavy metal toxicities comes from nutrient deficiencies, vaccines, amalgam (silver) tooth fillings, make-up products, and poor water filters (that leak metals from the filter into the water). 

Mold

Mold is a crazy thing to encounter and can cause a myriad of crazy symptoms. It commonly grows in areas of poor lighting, high humidity, and near places of sitting water. Check your home to make sure you don’t have any water leaks from the roof, pipes, or anywhere else. Fix any leaks or water damage ASAP. Also consider having the air in your home tested for levels of mold if you suspect mold to be a problem.

Ammonia

Ammonia can come from cleaning products (bleach), yes, but most commonly it comes from nutrient deficiencies (making it hard for your body to break it down) or from parasites.

MSG & Other Artificial Sweeteners

MSG is in foods ALL OVER America. Even though it is toxic and destructive to the body, food companies and restaurants put it in their foods because it tastes so good (it is actually addictive). Check your grocery store foods for MSG. And while you’re at it, check for artificial sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, sucralose, and aspartame that are all toxic to human body.

SOLUTION: To detox heavy metals, you need a specific mineral. Common ones people need are Zinc, Selenium, Magnesium, and Lipoic acid. All mold can be broken down and detoxed easily with sufficient levels of Molybdenum, Vitamin B3, Iron, and Vitamin B2. Molybdenum and Vitamin B3 are the most common ones I find people need. If someone is needing Iron or Vitamin B2, however (and they’re not vegan), they likely have a gut infection that is feeding on their iron and vitamin B2 levels. You got to kill the infections. Read more about that here. Detox ammonia through simple vitamins and minerals. If parasites are causing them, you have to kill those with herbals. Lastly, start to look at your food ingredients for MSG and other artificial sweeteners and avoid them!

Acetylcholine Deficiency

Acetylcholine is one of the most important neurotransmitters (brain hormone) found in the brain and nervous system. The brain uses Acetylcholine to send signals quickly from brain cell to brain cell. It’s most important for focus, memory, and overall brain function. Thus, people that are deficient in acetylcholine often have problems with focus, very poor memory, and often complain of having brain fog. Acetylcholine is made from this simple reaction below.

Choline + Acetyl-CoA + Cofactors –> Acetylcholine

Anytime we have a nutrient deficiency of one of these nutrients, we won’t make enough adequate acetylcholine. Cofactors include things like manganese, vitamin B1 (thiamine), and sometimes wheat germ oil.

SOLUTION: The yolk in eggs are a great natural source of choline — eat more eggs! Consider supplementing with wheat germ oil, manganese, or B1 to make sure you have the right cofactors needed to make Acetylcholine. You likely don’t need all of them — likely just one or two. At our clinic, we use Systems Health Care, an advanced and profound technique, to easily determine which nutrients are deficient and needed to help make more acetylcholine.

Our Approach

As sprinkled throughout this article, we use a functional approach to understand what the body needs and why it is functioning the way it is. You or your child would benefit greatly from Systems Health Care (SHC). This technique allows us to find the causes of health problems and figure out exactly what is needed to address them.

Suffering from ADHD?

At Freedom Health and Wellness, we address all of these things and more through a personalized and functional approach. We help people with chronic diseases and illnesses regain their health by getting to the source of their health concerns.