Many doctors misdiagnose trauma as ADHD in some children

The number of children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United States has risen from 6 percent to 10 percent in the last 20 years. While childhood brain development disorders are on the rise overall — increasingly evidenced as a result of brain inflammation — newer research suggests some children exhibiting symptoms of trauma and family dysfunction are being misdiagnosed with ADHD.

In a quest to understand why ADHD diagnoses were highest among low income children who lived in stressful, violent areas, researchers set out to determine if their ADHD symptoms were a product of their environments.

Experiences such as chronic stress, abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and violence can change a child’s behavior. Research shows that many children diagnosed with ADHD also deal with poverty, divorce, violence, and substance abuse in the family. The more adverse effects a child experiences, the more likely they are to be diagnosed with ADHD.

Children whose trauma manifests as ADHD also tend to be less responsive to conventional ADHD medications and therapies.

Many of these children’s parents were also diagnosed with ADHD and grew up in similar environments.

Symptoms of childhood trauma that can be mistaken for ADHD include:

• Inattention
• Inability to focus
• Impulsivity due to acute stress
• Hyperactivity
• Difficulty controlling their behavior
• Rapidly shift from one mood to another
• Dissociative states, which can be misinterpreted as being distracted

A survey study of more than 65,000 children found that children diagnosed with ADHD had significantly higher levels of poverty, divorce, violence, and family substance abuse. Children who had experienced four or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were three times more likely to be medicated for ADHD.

Assessing chronic childhood stress

Scientists measure the effects of childhood stress on health in the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. This consists of a short quiz that assesses the link between childhood traumas and disease risk.

The higher the score the more likely a person is to suffer from chronic illness as an adult. This study on ADHD and trauma also shows children who score high on the quiz are more likely to be diagnosed and treated for ADHD.

ADHD and other brain-based disorders also linked with brain inflammation

Of course, not all cases of ADHD are a result of childhood trauma. Researchers are increasingly linking childhood brain development disorders such as ADHD with brain inflammation, or neuroinflammation.

Ninety percent of the cells in the brain are microglia cells, the brain’s immune cells. Once considered to function only as glue that holds neurons together, researchers discovered glial cells serve many important functions.

They dispose of dead neurons, beta amyloid plaque, and other debris in the brain that could interfere with healthy neuronal function. They also facilitate healthy neuron metabolism and neuron synapses.

In children, microglia help ensure proper brain development. They do this by pruning developing communication pathways in the brain to be efficient and high-functioning.

When glial cells are pulled away from supporting healthy neuron function into supporting brain inflammation, the developing brain is more likely to develop and grow improperly and with an increased risk of dysfunction.

Many children are born with neuroinflammation, which is passed on to them in the womb from their mothers. Mothers with unmanaged autoimmunity, chronic inflammatory disorders, and brain inflammation are more likely to pass on these immune dysfunctions to their children.

Things that can cause brain inflammation

Factors that cause brain inflammation include:

• Diabetes and high blood sugar
• Poor circulation, lack of exercise, chronic stress, heart failure, respiratory issues, anemia
• Previous head trauma
• Neurological autoimmunity
• Eating gluten when you are gluten intolerant
• Poor brain antioxidant status
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Environmental pollutants
• Systemic inflammation
• Inflammatory bowel conditions
• Leaky blood-brain barrier

Managing brain inflammation

In addition to addressing dietary and lifestyle factors and chronic health conditions, compounds that dampen brain inflammation include:

• Apigenin
• Luteolin
• Baicalein
• Resveratrol
• Turmeric
• Glutathione

Ask my office about the best nutraceuticals to help dampen brain inflammation, as well guidance on functional neurology rehabilitation techniques to manage ADHD and brain development disorders.

Exercise shown to significantly benefit psychiatric patients

A recent study showed that exercise showed more benefits than pharmaceutical drugs and psychotherapy for patients in psychiatric care facilities. It helped reduce anxiety, depression, anger, and physical agitation while fostering a more integrated sense of self. The study asserts that exercise can reduce the time spent in psychiatric facilities and the dependence on prescription drugs.

Psychiatric in-patient facilities are often crowded, and patients frequently experience distress and discomfort in them. This often serves only to exacerbate their symptoms. As such, psychotropic medications are the first response for patients entering into this system, followed by psychotherapy.

A researcher at the University of Vermont decided to see what would happen if patients were prescribed daily exercise as well. Of the roughly 6,000 psychiatric hospitals in the United States, only a handful offer gym facilities.

Researchers built a gym that could accommodate about 100 patients at the medical center’s in-patient psychiatric hospital.

They then led patients through regular one-hour exercise programs as well as nutritional counseling.

About 95 percent of patients reported the exercise improved their mood, while more than 60 percent said exercising made them either happy or very happy, as opposed to the sadness they originally felt. The majority of patients also reported feeling improved physical well-being.

The researchers stated the exercise had greater benefit for patients in psychotic states for whom psychotherapy can be unproductive.

Other studies have shown positive benefits of regular exercise on more acute psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. For instance, one study found regular aerobic exercise improved symptoms and lowered depression in about three-quarters of participants with schizophrenia.

Regular exercise is also shown to help people with schizophrenia improve their working memory, attention span, ability to understand social situations, and overall brain function. In general, regular exercise targeted the cognitive deficits that many people with schizophrenia struggle with and improved those.

Aerobic exercise has also been shown to help people with bipolar disorder have less severe manic episodes, sleep better, and reduce symptoms of depression. However, exercise can also exacerbate manic symptoms in some cases.

Numerous studies also show the benefits of exercise for depression and anxiety.

Why exercise improves mental disorder symptoms

Although an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle are imperative for managing symptoms associated with mental disorders, exercise must not be overlooked. This is because of the many benefits exercise gives to the brain.

For example, exercise boosts a compound called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF supports the brain’s neurons in their daily functions as well as helping the brain repair damage and stave off neurodegenerative disease.

Exercise also boost endorphins, our self-generated opioid chemicals that produce euphoria and improve mood and well-being.

Both BDNF and endorphins help relieve depression and anxiety, make us feel better about ourselves, and reduce inflammation the brain and body — inflammation in the brain is a common factor underlying many cases of depression.

The best exercise to release BDNF and endorphins is high-intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT is a form of exercise in which you work out as hard as you can to reach your maximum heart rate, allow yourself to recover, and then do it again. This type of workout can give you great results in durations of under an hour — many HIIT workouts are only 20 or 30 minutes.

Improve your health by lowering brain inflammation

HIIT’s anti-inflammatory benefits also mean you are preventing Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, and other diseases of brain degeneration. Brain inflammation is a very common problem today and found to be a common underlying factor in depression. Poor diets, inflammatory foods, chronic stress, environmental toxins, head injuries, and sedentary lifestyles are some of the factors that can cause brain inflammation.

Common symptoms of brain inflammation include brain fog, fatigue, memory loss, decline in cognition, slow thinking, anxiety, and depression.

Unlike the body’s immune system, the brain’s immune system does not have an off-switch, so brain inflammation can burn through your brain for years or decades. Eventually it can trigger more serious neurological issues.

Ask my office how functional neurology and functional medicine can improve mental and mood disorders and help you lower the risk of neurodegenerative diseases.

Four reasons why eye contact can over st imulate the brain

If someone doesn’t look you in the eye during a conversation, they may come across as rude, aloof, or suspicious. Though avoiding eye contact can convey those things — or shyness — some people avoid eye contact simply to avoid short-circuiting their dysregulated neurology.

There are several reasons people avoid eye contact that have nothing to do with being arrogant or rude.

Eye contact avoidance and autism

For instance, avoiding eye contact is especially common in people on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Researchers at Harvard Medical School discovered neurological reasons why eye contact is stressful for people with autism. Eye contact over stimulates the subcortical system, an area in the brain responsible for reading emotions in other people’s faces.

The subcortical system is the layer just beneath the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain that plays a role in consciousness and thought.

Direct and sustained eye contact and looking at facial expressions activate the subcortical system. This response is what allows newborns to instinctually respond to human faces. But for the ASD individual, eye contact over activates the subcortical system, causing extreme stress and discomfort.

The scientists hypothesize this is a consequence of an imbalance between brain networks that activate and inhibit activity in the brain, thus leading to over activation and agitation.

As a result, the “social brain” is not able to appropriately develop. Other studies have shown this trait can be identified in infancy.

Forcing these individuals to maintain eye contact can be neurologically inappropriate and stress-inducing.

Gentle, gradual habituation to eye contact over time, however, has the potential to gently strengthen and relax the overactive subcortical region.

Eye contact triggers fear response in people with PTSD

People with autism aren’t the only ones who struggle with neurological imbalances.

People who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (CPTSD) have also been shown to become agitated by eye contact.

A 2019 study of women with PTSD from childhood abuse found that their brains associated eye contact with threat. Their brains also had to compensate with heightened emotional regulation compared to the brains of the control group.

A 2018 study performed brain scans on subjects with PTSD and a control group during eye contact with a video simulation. In the control group, eye contact activated the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in decision making, personality, and social behavior. The prefrontal cortex also helps a person assess the nature of the person they’re looking at.

However, in the PTSD group, the simulated eye contact did not activate the prefrontal cortex but instead the periaqueductal gray, an area associated with pain, fear, and anxiety. This area of the brain is also associated with submissive and passive defense responses to PTSD such as disassociation and depersonalization.

Eye contact difficult for people with social anxiety

Avoiding eye contact is also common in people with social anxiety as it raises their anxiety levels. Avoidance of eye contact is associated with shame, embarrassment, and self-consciousness, things people with heightened anxiety suffer from.

Thinking and concentrating can be more difficult while making eye contact

Sometimes we all need to break eye contact to put our thoughts into coherent sentences. This tendency may be more pronounced in people who aren’t natural orators.

Research shows you’re able to speak more thoughtfully when looking away from a person. A Japanese study found participants struggled to find the right verbs for a language task when making eye contact with faces on a screen. The scientists asserted that eye contact drains our cognitive resources needed for other tasks — the more complicated your story (or lie?), the more difficult it will be for you maintain eye contact.

Is your brain inflamed? How to know and what to do

Do you have any of the symptoms of brain inflammation, also called neuroinflammation, listed below? Brain inflammation doesn’t hurt like an inflamed ankle would. Instead it causes various symptoms, depending on the person, including:

• Brain fog
• Unclear thoughts
• Low brain endurance
• Slow and varied mental speeds
• Loss of brain function after trauma
• Brain fatigue and poor mental focus after meals
• Brain fatigue promoted by systemic inflammation
• Brain fatigue promoted by chemicals, scents, and pollutants

The brain can become inflamed like the rest of the body, although the brain has its own immune system. It’s important to take brain inflammation seriously because it can rapidly degenerate the brain, raising the risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other brain degenerative diseases. In fact, scientists have discovered that brain aging is more related to the brain’s immune cells than the neurons, as previously thought.

Learning how to spot and dampen brain inflammation can help you enjoy better brain function, slow the aging process, and lower your risk of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

What causes brain inflammation

Brain inflammation can be caused by inflammation in the body, such as from chronic joint pain, infections, leaky gut or gut inflammation, or an unmanaged autoimmune condition. Inflammation in the body releases immune cells called cytokines that activate inflammation in the brain.

This is now being cited as a primary cause in many cases of chronic depression, such as in cases where people don’t respond to antidepressants. This is because the medications do not address brain inflammation.

The brain’s immune system

At the root of brain inflammation are microglia cells, the brain’s immune cells. They were once considered simply to be glue that held neurons together, but newer research shows how important to brain function they are. In fact, they outnumber neurons ten to one.

When the brain is healthy the microglia dispose of dead neurons, beta amyloid plaque, and other debris that interfere with healthy communication between neurons. They also facilitate healthy neuron metabolism and neuron synapses.

However, when something triggers inflammation in the brain, the glia cells switch into attack mode.

This hinders communication between neurons so they fire more slowly, creating symptoms such as brain fog, slower mental speed, slower recall, and slower reflexes.

Brain inflammation also shuts down energy production in the neurons, so brain endurance drops, making it harder to read, work, or concentrate for any length of time. This also leads to depression.

In the long run, chronic neuroinflammation results in neuron death and brain degenerative disorders.

Factors that cause brain inflammation

Many things can cause brain inflammation. If you have symptoms of brain inflammation, you want to address any of these factors to restore health to your brain.

• Diabetes and high blood sugar
• Poor circulation, lack of exercise, chronic stress, heart failure, respiratory issues, anemia
• Previous head trauma
• Neurological autoimmunity
• Eating gluten when you are gluten intolerant
• Poor brain antioxidant status
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Environmental pollutants
• Systemic inflammation
• Inflammatory bowel conditions
• Leaky blood-brain barrier

The blood-brain barrier and brain inflammation

One of the biggest risks to triggering brain inflammation is a leaky blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is a thin lining that surrounds the brain and is designed to allow only nano-sized particles in or out as needed.

However, like the gut, it can become damaged and “leaky,” allowing foreign invaders in to trigger the microglia. Although the blood-brain barrier degrades easily, it can also regenerate through dietary and lifestyle modifications similar to how you can repair leaky gut. For instance, high stress degrades the blood-brain barrier, but normalizing stress can allow it to repair. Simply stabilizing your blood sugar and stress levels, removing inflammatory foods, addressing chronic health issues, and taking powerful antioxidants can help restore the blood-brain barrier.

Factors that can break down the blood-brain barrier

• Chronic stress
• Alcohol
• Elevated blood sugar and diabetes
• Chronic environmental toxic exposure
• Elevated homocysteine from B vitamin deficiency
• Poor diet and antioxidant status
• Systemic inflammation

Taming brain inflammation

Brain inflammation can be caused by a food intolerance, lack of sleep, gut infections, hypothyroidism, extreme stress, autoimmunity, systemic inflammation, and other factors. If you start to feel your “head clear” when addressing brain inflammation, that’s a sign you’re on the right track. Although various botanical flavonoids can address brain inflammation, you still need to address the underlying cause of inflammation.

Compounds that have been shown to help dampen brain inflammation in addition to addressing underlying cases are:

• Apigenin
• Luteolin
• Baicalein
• Resveratrol
• Rutin
• Catechin
• Curcumin

Dose depends on the degree of brain inflammation. Ask my office for high-quality, extremely bioavailable forms of nutraceuticals that help dampen brain inflammation, as well for guidance on how to address underlying causes.

The body makes best drugs for depression and memory

We all want to feel good, and many people turn to outside sources to produce those feelings. Those sources can include alcohol, prescription medications (anti-depressants or anti-anxiety drugs), illegal drugs, food, and other sources that ultimately rob of us health.

However, it only takes a little bit of work to produce our own feel-good chemicals, such as endorphins. Endorphins not only make us feel better, they’re also very beneficial to the body and the brain and usually work in conjunction with other beneficial chemicals our bodies make.

Endorphins are important to immunity and neurology and some studies suggest chronic conditions are in part a result of low endorphins. Low endorphins are linked with alcohol fetal exposure, alcoholism, drug abuse, anxiety, depression, and chronic psychological stress.

How endorphins help the brain

Endorphins are neurotransmitters that facilitate communication between neurons. They also interact with opioid receptors in the brain in a similar way to morphine or codeine to reduce our perception of pain.

But they also do so much more. The most beloved benefit of endorphins is they produce feelings of euphoria. This is the “high” people get from exercise.

They regulate appetite hormones and sex hormones and enhance immunity. They also help with fibromyalgia, headaches, and chronic headaches.

Best of all, endorphins have been shown to help reduce depression.

Here are some ways to boost your endorphin levels:

• Strenuous exercise. High intensity interval training (HIIT) is a great way to boost endorphins and other chemicals that help your brain, including brain derived neurotrophic factor and nitric oxide. The beauty of HIIT is that it can be adapted to your fitness level.
• Acupuncture or massage therapy
• Sex
• Meditation
• Laughter
• Healthy socialization
• Play

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and brain health

Another weapon against depression you already have in your arsenal is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF is an anti-inflammatory brain chemical that promotes growth of new neurons. It plays a major role in memory formation and storage, and has also been shown to play a role in relieving depression.

The most well-known way to boost BDNF is through high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Even just a few minutes a day of HIIT can boost BDNF levels, meaning you don’t have to be a hardcore athlete to reap the benefits of this brain chemical.

Whereas a post-exercise endorphin rush gives you immediate and obvious results, the key to promoting BDNF levels is consistent exercise that gets your heart rate up — best brain results from BDNF occur a few months after consistent exercise. Shoot for an exercise program that you can do every day and keep going lifelong.

Below are a few ways endorphins, BDNF, and other chemicals the body naturally makes can improve your brain health:

• Prevention of cognitive decline
• Protects you from neurodegeneration that causes disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
• Reduces stress and anxiety
• Alleviates depression
• Boosts intelligence
• Improves learning and memory
• Improves creative thinking
• Grows new neurons in the hippocampus, the seat of learning and memory in the brain
• Prevents addiction
• Increases pain threshold
• Improves attention
• Reduces inflammation
• Improves brain plasticity, the ability of the brain to learn new things

Endorphins and BDNF are just a couple of factors to consider when you are looking to manage depression, anxiety, fatigue, memory loss, brain fog, and other brain-based symptoms.

Other things to consider include gluten sensitivity, food intolerances, chemical intolerances, quality of diet, leaky gut, inflammation, nutritional status, brain health, and more.

For more information about managing your depression, memory loss, and other brain-based symptoms, contact my office.