Monthly Archives: October 2008

This study is clear indication that video games are not doing us any favors.

Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2006 Oct 24;5:16. A cross-sectional analysis of video games and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms in adolescents. Chan PA, Rabinowitz T.

Department of Internal Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.

BACKGROUND: Excessive use of the Internet has been associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but the relationship between video games and ADHD symptoms in adolescents is unknown.

METHOD: A survey of adolescents and parents (n = 72 adolescents, 72 parents) was performed assessing daily time spent on the Internet, television, console video games, and Internet video games, and their association with academic and social functioning. Subjects were high school students in the ninth and tenth grade. Students were administered a modified Young’s Internet Addiction Scale (YIAS) and asked questions about exercise, grades, work, and school detentions. Parents were asked to complete the Conners’ Parent Rating Scale (CPRS) and answer questions regarding medical/psychiatric conditions in their child.

RESULTS: There was a significant association between time spent playing games for more than one hour a day and YIAS (p < 0.001), overall grade point average (p < or = 0.019), and the “Inattention” and “ADHD” components of the CPRS (p < or = 0.001 and p < or = 0.020, respectively). No significant association was found between body mass index (BMI), exercise, number of detentions, or the “Oppositional” and “Hyperactivity” components of CPRS and video game use.

CONCLUSION: Adolescents who play more than one hour of console or Internet video games may have more or more intense symptoms of ADHD or inattention than those who do not. Given the possible negative effects these conditions may have on scholastic performance, the added consequences of more time spent on video games may also place these individuals at increased risk for problems in school.

Less is better.

In an article by Stephen Daniells of NutraIngredients.com he reports that in an extensive review of the scientific literature (Cochrane Systematic Review) that St. John’s Wort was found to be as effective as standard antidepressants with significantly fewer side effects.  This is also my personal clinical experience.  But natural treatments are not always without side effects and need to be thoughtfully used.

Extracts of St. John’s wort are effective in reducing the symptoms of major depression, according to a new review in the prestigious Cochrane Systematic Review.

The review, by scientists from the Centre for Complementary Medicine at the Technical University of Munich and the University Medical Center Freiburg, also supports earlier research that showed the plant extract is effective against mild to moderate depressive disorders. “Overall, we found that the St. John’s wort extracts tested in the trials were superior to placebos and as effective as standard antidepressants, with fewer side effects,” said lead researcher, Klaus Linde. Extracts of the plant Hypericum perforatum, commonly known as St. John’s wort, have already been shown to help in patients with minor depression but in patients with more severe depression, the efficacy has been disputed.

The new review pulled together 29 trials involving 5,489 patients with symptoms of major depression. Eighteen trials included a placebo and 17 involved comparisons with synthetic standard antidepressants. All the trials used the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression to assess the severity of depression. In the nine largest trials of the 18 placebo-controlled trials, the researchers report that hypericum extracts were 28 per cent more effective, while the response rate was 87 per cent higher in the patients receiving the St John’s wort extract in the nine smaller trials. When compared to the standard antidepressants, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the researchers found no difference in efficacy. However, the drop out rate by patients receiving St John’s wort was 76 per cent lower than amongst patients receiving tri- or tetracyclic antidepressants, and 47 per cent lower than amongst patients receiving SSRIs.

“The available evidence suggests that the hypericum extracts tested in the included trials a) are superior to placebo in patients with major depression; b) are similarly effective as standard antidepressants; c) and have fewer side effects than standard antidepressants,” wrote the researchers.

Muddying the waters Linde and his co-workers report that the overall picture is complicated by more favourable results being report in trials conducted in German speaking countries. The herbal has a long tradition of use in these countries, they said, and it is often prescribed by doctors. Despite the positive results, the researchers caution against generalisations about the plant’s efficacy. “Using a St. Johns wort extract might be justified, but products on the market vary considerably, so these results only apply to the preparations tested,” said Linde.

The little yellow flower and health claims Earlier this summer, UK botanicals manufacturer Bioforce was granted the right to make a claim that St John’s wort can help “low mood” and “mild anxiety”, after winning a Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD) registration. But the claim cannot claim to treat depression. The UK manufacturer first sought to make a mood-based claim for a St John’s Wort product in 1995, but was rebuffed by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for failing to meet the body’s “standards of evidence”.

Source: Cochrane Systematic Review 

In this blog, I want to share a comment from Samantha.  It is unbelievable, but yet so totally believable.  You must read the labels of the foods you buy!

“I would really like Dr. Amen to see this comment so he can inform others.  I was just reviewing the Brain and Behavior Course and remembered that I just saw the Target brand vitamins for CHILDREN has aspartame in it.   I know well enough to look at every label before consuming something myself or allowing my children to eat it. There are thousands of other parents feeding their children aspartame with a vitamin!  I work with children and helped along so many families with your information.  Keep up the incredible work!”

Whenever I go to the store or fast food restaurants I see unbelievable combinations of toxins, dyes, sugars in the foods we are offered.  Chicken breast, for example, from McDonald’s has the following ingredients:  ”Chicken breast filets with rib meat, water, seasoning (salt, sugar, food starch-modified, maltodextrin, spices, dextrose, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed [corn gluten, soy, wheat gluten] proteins, garlic powder, paprika, chicken fat, chicken broth, natural flavors (plant and animal source), caramel color, polysorbate 80, xanthan gum, onion powder, extractives of paprika), modified potato starch, and sodium phosphates.  What is chicken breast doing with sugar and gluten?

Most popular chewing gum has aspartame.  The insanity continues to grow unless we demand healthy food.  You are what you eat.  Know what you are eating.