chris liethiser

Can Exercise Replace Ritalin as a Treatment for ADHD?
In a study designed and supervised by Dr. Michael S. Wendt at the State University of New York at
Buffalo, exercise significantly improved the behavior of ADHD children between 5-12 years of age.
Subjects involved in this study were subjected to 40 minutes of exercise five out of seven days per
week. Respiration rates were monitored during the sessions to insure that children were exercising
at a pre-designed zone of oxygen consumption for at least half of each exercise session.

Contemporary research revealed that neuro-chemical changes occur in the body when respiration rates
exceed 50% of the body’s total capacity for oxygen consumption. As a result, exercising above this
threshold may promote changes in brain chemistry. Wendt felt that these neuro-chemical changes could
have a direct impact on the behavior of ADHD children because the disorder stems from a breakdown of
neurological functions in the brain.

Based on national statistics, children in this age bracket generally live a sedentary lifestyle.
Research indicates that American children have become increasingly less active over the last ten
years. Children seldom become active enough to exceed 50% of their total rate of oxygen consumption.
It may be no wonder that over the last ten years, the identification rate of psychosomatic disorders
in children has dramatically increased.

The results of this study showed a significant improvement in behavior when pre and post test
comparisons were made over the six-week duration of the study. Wendt said that changes in behavior
were generally noticeable between two and four weeks into the exercise program. The greatest gains
were made in the oppositional category of behaviors, which are largely responsible for conflict
problems with children.

Wendt indicated that this might be an alternative for parents who do not wish to use medication as a
means of modifying behavior. The side effects of a good exercise program are far less invasive than
the side effects of exposing children to long-term doses of medication.

An added benefit to an exercise program for children is it may produce a chemically enriched
environment that promotes brain growth. The latest research in fitness and exercise implies that an
active lifestyle can have a positive effect on brain growth and development. If this is true then
keeping your child involved in exercise can be beneficial, especially if it takes place over a
number of years.

It is time to change our conventional practice of medication coupled with repeatedly assigning
children “Time-outs.” It’s time to get America’s children back into action. Change that “Time-out”
to a “Time-in.” Time to exercise!

For more information you may email Dr. Wendt at mike_wendt@juno.com.


---
Most people are *****waists. Exercise is good for you.
-EMMA 'GRANDMA' GATEWOOD, at age 67 first woman to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail (1955), 1887-1973

cam

Chris LIEthiser <nospam@nospam.con> writes:

It's been well known for many decades that exercise improves most
kinds of mental disorder. The studies showing this are far too
numerous to cite.

This has also been very well known for many decades.

Not just children. It has been very well known for many decades that a
whole host of ills, not just mental disorders, and not just in
children, respond very well to physical exercise. It's also well known
to be the case that in some cases increased exercise will solve a
medical problem better and without drug side effects than giving a pill.

The reason why doctors prescribe pills isn't because there's an evil
conspiracy to stop people exercising and giving them drugs instead,
it's because countless research studies have shown that for the vast
majority of people it's a complete waste of time trying to get them to
take more exercise. They'd much *prefer* to take a pill than get up
off their butts and exert themselves. And you're not going to get
overweight couch potatoes who drive themselves and their kids
everywhere to start encouraging their kids to take more exercise.

If the solution to the problem of helping ADHD kids do without their
pills is a complete turn around of the whole national culture of the
US, reversing the trends of at least the last 50 years, how much
chance do you think that has? How much success has recommending
exercise had in combatting the obesity epidemic? The hunger of the
populace for a pill that fixes the problem instead of their own effort
and self-discipline is shown by the great popularity of the sundry
semi-legal and illegal drug-based slimming regimes over the years. Get
thinner by eating less and taking some exercise? What a truly
frightful idea! Give me some slimming drugs!

And when you go to the gyms and sport centres to look at the people
who *do* work out to improve strength and fitness, what do you find?
There's a drug problem, with some people taking illegal drugs with
known very dangerous side effects in order to get stronger faster
than they could with just exercise.

It's abundantly clear that the problem isn't anyone pushing pills on a
reluctant population. For much of the population the problem is that
doctors are too reluctant to give them the drugs they want, the drugs
that will make them slimmer, more muscular, more vivacious, happier,
etc.. That's why there's such a trade in illegal drugs, and not just
the "recreational" drugs like cocaine, but the whole spectrum of
prescription drugs that folk smuggle in from Mexico, off-shore
suppliers, etc. because their doctors won't give them what they want.

Compared to most of the drug abuse, misuse, and misprescription that
goes on, Ritalin is pretty benign. Of course it has problems and side
effects, but they're less than has caffeine, and one of America's
largest and proudest national companies makes most of its profits
selling caffeine to kids.

Worrying about Ritalin in the face of what is going on is rather like
hoping to lessen pedestrian fatalities by making sure paving slabs in
the sidewalks aren't cracked.
--
Chris Malcolm cam@inf.ed.ac.uk +44 (0)131 650 3085 DoD #205
School of Informatics, Edinburgh University, 5 Forrest Hill,
Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK. [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/ ]

j.clarke

On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 11:48:31 +0000 (UTC)

For me, I wasn't able to maintain the focus necessary to sustain an
exercise program until I started taking Ritalin.

This is frustrating to watch sometimes. I have some friends who have a
16-year old daughter who wants to start a systematic exercise program of
some sort. Her parents sabotage her at every turn either by not being
supportive or by worrying about the wrong things. It's not that they're
bad parents--they're wonderful, concerned, caring parents--but they seem
to have read about all the negative effects of exercise and none of the
positive ones and seem to see this desire of hers as a bad thing to be discouraged.

Well, actually, exercise is trendy and fashionable and a lot of people
do it--there's a gym or a health club cropping up on every corner and
exercise equipment in the US is a very large business. But a lot of
people don't do it, don't know what exercise to do, or just plain don't
have the time.

Diet is also big business, with several companies selling nutrition
plans or foods intended to help one lose weight (this is distinct from
diet pills). There are for example lines of frozen foods called
"Healthy Choice" and "Lean Cuisine" that simply have smaller portions
and in the case of "Healthy Choice" attention paid to fat, cholesterol,
sodium, etc. The trouble is that they are rather dreadful. There are
also organizations that charge a monthly fee and provide all foods for
that month, or that charge a fee plus the foods. I've not experimented
with these.

There are even national organizations ("Weight Watchers" for example)
that are intended to help people lose weight and improve their
condition.

I read an interesting statistic the other day. Of those who
through-walk the Appalachian Trail, most of the men gain back all the
weight they lose in a year or so, most of the women keep it off. And I
would be hesitant to call anyone who had through-walked the Appalachian
Trail a "couch potato"--it's 2160 miles with a heavy pack mostly in
mountainous terrain. By the way, this has become increasingly
popular--more people through-hiked in 1999 alone than in the entire
time-period from 1936 to 1980--that may have gone down a bit now with
concern over the West Nile virus.


Some do this. Most don't. The ones who use steroids are typically the
competitive bodybuilders, who aren't interesting in being strong so much
as in being big. Most fitness centers do not appeal to competitive
bodybuilders--they're more interesting in getting as many people through
a nautilus circuit in a day as possible, where the bodybuilders need to
be able to do repeated sets and tie up the equipment longer than is
compatible with the business model. Bodybuilding gyms are specialized
institutions in their own right.

Or what they need. A friend of mine has a condition which causes
chronic pain. Sometimes she can function, other times she can't. Her
physician is reluctant to prescribe for her anything really
effective--every time she goes to France she comes back with as much of
the medication she needs (which is apparently over-the-counter in
France) as she can legally bring into the country. But she can't afford
to go to France twice a year so she suffers most of the time. And
before you say "drug addict" she's a charge nurse in a mental
hospital--if she was addicted she could take all she wanted.


Well, actually it's selling sugar to both kids and adults--the caffeine
is incidental. And the real target market is young adults--many parents
restrict their children's intake of carbonated beverages so kids are not
a reliable market--there's a popular notion in the US that caffeine is
not good for kids--it's thought to "stunt their growth"--so parents tend
to keep their kids away from coffee, tea, colas, or anything else with
caffeine, and since the kids don't want to grow up to be shrimps they
tend to cooperate.

What does get marketed to kids is "fast food"--McDonalds and the
like--Sarah Michelle Gellar (aka "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") got her
start in the TV industry as a child in a McDonalds commercial IIRC. And
that's a lot more insidious than caffeinated sugar water.

This is true.

--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

lamb

Yeah but the problem is , no one can keep the weight off and most quit
any exercise regimen. Thats why theres that strange seeming paradox on
the surface - people seem to be obsessed with thinness and exercise in
modern times but keep getting fatter nad fatter. The ideal in popular
culture is held up to us - be thin and lean and buff. So we are
saturated with such images which sells all sorts of products from
dieting to exercise gear and healthclub memberships - but that ideal
is mostly in the 10-15% of the people we see at the beach , the hip
crowd and the media stars. Most of the rest are couch potatoes who
intermittently struggle , attempt to get in shape.

The rest they say are in an impossible battle. The success rate for
dieters is dismal. Thats why theres a never ending market for health
clubs and diet programs and books. People want to believe and they
try and try and try , over decades to lose the weight , only to put
it back on again. I saw some researchers on a recent news show about
the obesity epidemic they say is sweeping the industrialized world and
increasingly China. He said the stats were so dismal , he regards it
as impossible to lose weight and that a pill might be the only answer
in the future. They were discussing research about a hormone that
drastically seemed to curb hunger in mice which they were researching
for humans.

Health clubs too. One of the cliches about health clubs is their
business model actually depends on people signing long term contracts
and then just quitting after a few tries.

Ive known several people who signed such contracts and stopped going
after a month or two.