If your child is challenged with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, chances are you have both doctors and educators demanding you put your child on medication. Take heart. There are natural ways to help your child.

First and foremost, diet plays a crucial and primary role in managing your child’s health and symptoms. Diet management is simple, but overarching. Your child needs the healthiest possible diet, but then again, don’t all of us?

Diet

The healthiest possible diet consists of 80% raw, fresh, organic produce – more vegetables than fruit. This means salads, chopped up veggies to snack on, carrot slaw, coleslaw, kale salad, spinach salad, apple salad, fruit salads, smoothies and more. Whole foods are both nourishing and healing. If you eat meat, be sure it is organic. If you eat dairy, choose goat or sheep milk and cheese. Be sure to include healthy fats in the diet like coconut oil, avocados, and flax seed oil or a high quality, beneficial fatty acid supplement. Make sure your child’s diet is high in B vitamins or supplement B complex. Of course choose a whole food vitamin if you are supplementing – never synthetic.

If your current diet resembles the American Standard Diet, you’ll be focusing more on what not to eat that what to eat. To begin with, eliminate all artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives. No BHA, BHT, MSG, trans fats, GMOs, high fructose corn syrup (or any corn syrup), and seriously limit or eliminate all sugars except raw honey. Never, under any circumstances, feed your child artificial sweeteners. It wouldn’t be a bad idea (at least in the beginning) to eliminate gluten as well. After several weeks on a really clean diet, you could add it back in and monitor results.

If your child has any known food allergies, completely eliminate offending foods.

Detox

Children with ADHD often have issues with heavy metals and other substances they need to detox. For children, it is best to work with a knowledgeable health care provider who practices chelation therapy and detoxification protocols.

The proper diet (as mentioned above) provides on-going detoxification the natural way. Make sure your child’s diet includes fresh garlic, onions, and cilantro – all of which aid in detoxification and chelation.

Sleep

Adequate, quality sleep is essential for ADHD challenged children to maintain impulse control and focus. Do you know how many hours your child requires? Do bedtimes in your home allow for this much sleep, including wind down time to fall asleep?

• Age 3-5 years: 11-13 hours
• Age 6-13 years: 9-11 hours
• Teenagers 14 and up: 8-10 hours

If your child has difficulty sleeping, again, this is another area where B vitamin supplementation may help.

Exercise and Earthing

Hyperactive children need to run and play. The more they exercise, the better they sleep and the more control they have over their bodies and their attention.

While skateboards, roller skates, bikes, trampolines, and the like will all be great aids for these kids, don’t forget that lack of impulse control leads to risky behaviors. Increased supervision may be required.

Encourage contact with the ground. Barefoot in the grass, laying in the grass, connecting with the earth – however it is done can help. (see below).

Unconditional Love and Positive Regard

Identify and celebrate your child’s strengths and unique abilities. Your child needs to develop a healthy self-esteem and there is little to no chance this will happen through the school system.

Throughout this child’s formative years, the message from most of the adults in his or her life will be one of disappointment, disapproval, and possibly disbelief ADHD is real.

Your unconditional love, respect, and appreciation will provide the emotional foundation your child needs to develop a healthy sense of self.

Conclusion

ADHD is caused by poor functioning of the frontal lobes of the brain. Everything that can be done to improve gut health, hormonal balance, and overall health, will help control symptoms. Grounding or Earthing may help as well.

Recommended Supplements:

• Vitamin B Complex

Further Reading:

• 80% Raw Food Diet
• Mental Health, Physical Health & B Vitamins – Nature’s Valium
• Bouncing Off the Walls
• Nutrition needs For Your Children
• 5 Simple Ways to Encourage Your Kids to Eat More Fruits & Veggies
• Artificial Food Dyes and Kids: Not a Good Mix

Sources:

• Children and Sleep – National Sleep Foundation

Whether you consider yourself to be urban, rural or somewhere in between, keeping chickens offers a wide array of benefits. As it turns out, chickens are not just fluffy and fun, they are good for you! With nutritional benefits of free range eggs, garden benefits of pest control and fertilizer, and health benefits addressing a variety of issues and disorders, it’s no wonder backyard poultry has gained popularity and led to city ordinances allowing urban flocks. With the rise of the locovore movement, there are more resources out there than ever before with information on how to keep and care for chickens, and plenty of support for getting started. These fine feathered friends are not just a fad, they are an asset to holistic health and sustainable living.

Fight Factory Farming with Farm Fresh Eggs

It can be challenging to make sense of labels on supermarket eggs these days. When terms like “free range,” “cage free,” and “naturally raised” can mean all kinds of different things, it’s important to know what you’re really eating. In factory farming, hens never see the outdoors. They are treated inhumanely, they are fed the cheapest possible diet filled with additives, and they produce eggs that are lower in nutrients.

There are many loopholes that allow farms to use the title “free range” when their hens are anything but. When you raise hens in your back yard, you know exactly where your eggs came from, and you stop supporting factory farming with your grocery dollars. True free-range eggs contain higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids, beta carotene, Vitamin E, and Vitamin A. They are also lower in saturated fat and cholesterol than conventional, store-bought eggs. Really, there is no comparison.

Natural Pest Patrol for the Garden

Rather than using harmful chemicals and pesticides in your yard and garden, use chickens instead. Chickens are known to reduce or eliminate populations of grasshoppers, termites, fire ants, slugs, fleas, scorpions, and even rodents by cleaning up food sources that might attract them. They eat various beetle pests like the Colorado potato beetle that can do a lot of damage. Beneficial nematodes and earthworms live far enough below the soil surface to escape chicken scratching, while the unwanted surface pests are eliminated. Chickens can also do a lot of damage to newly planted gardens with their foraging and dust baths, so it is a good idea to let them range around the outside of the garden or in garden rows with chicken wire protecting the beds.

Chickens are Master Recyclers!

Table scraps, unwanted weeds, and garden clippings can all be cleaned up and broken down into soil nutrients by your chickens. While you can’t feed them everything (coffee grounds, avocado, raw potato, and onions are on the “no” list), you can give your chickens most of your table scraps to supplement their food every day and keep that waste out of the landfill. Whatever scraps you can’t feed your chickens still make a great addition to the compost pile. Chickens are master recyclers because the nutrients in whatever scraps and weeds the chickens eat end up being recycled into an extremely valuable substance for the garden… manure!

Chickens Are an Excellent Source of Organic Fertilizer

Poultry manure contains all the essential nutrients for plant growth and offers a rich source of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous in the garden. Because of the high nitrogen level and nutrient balance, chicken manure is considered the best type of manure for garden use.

Chickens fully digest weed seeds, so you won’t have to worry about those weed clippings sprouting back up as you would from horse or steer manure. Having a free source of organic fertilizer that doesn’t have to be packaged or transported is not only valuable to the home gardener, it is an environmentally friendly alternative to chemical fertilizers and good for the earth. Every time you clean the coop, the resulting byproduct is a fresh pile of manure that can be recycled in your backyard ecosystem.

Since chicken manure is so high in nitrogen and tends to be “hot”, you will want to either compost, make a compost tea, or till your manure into the soil at the end of the gardening season.

Chickens Reduce Stress

Watching chickens lowers stress levels. Studies have shown that tending chickens releases oxytocin, a stress lowering hormone. Not only that, it reduces blood pressure and decreases feelings of loneliness, which further contribute to decreased stress. There is an excellent book by Clea Danaan, Zen and the Art of Raising Chickens: The Way of the Hen, that delves into the backyard chicken movement and the simple, Zen nature of chickens’ existence. Her book discusses how chicken watching increases our mindfulness skills. Caring for chickens gets us outside regularly, and watching their methodical scratching and foraging around the yard slows us down and grounds us in the present, providing a meditative experience that can be difficult to achieve in our busy day-to-day lives, particularly in urban settings.

Chickens as Therapy

Chickens are now being used as therapy animals for people of all ages to address a wide variety of issues including dementia, Alzheimer’s, psychiatric illness, depression, and autism. Their calming effect helps with symptoms like anxiety, emotional distress and social frustration. There is also some good information supporting the role chickens can play for addicts in recovery.

Organizations are starting to bring chickens to nursing homes to use as therapy animals for memory loss patients. Agitation is a major issue for people with dementia, and holding a chicken has been shown to calm them down.

Short attention span is another issue, where watching chickens forage, take dirt baths, and roam around for short periods of time is a mentally engaging activity that can be dropped and picked back up again later as the chickens will still be doing the same thing.

Chickens have also been shown to reduce loneliness and depression for the elderly. For children on the autism spectrum, chickens have been registered as emotional support animals for their soothing effect. Not only that, they have been shown to increase social skills and play skills, enhance conversation abilities, and promote self-care and independent living skills through daily chores.

Not long after my own son was diagnosed with autism by the local school district, we began keeping chickens as backyard pets and he immediately bonded with them. At a time when social interactions were a challenge, he identified with the chickens as his friends, and would spend time with them out in the yard as a self-soothing activity.

Getting Started with Chickens

If you’ve decided chickens are for you, you can start by reading up on websites like Back Yard Chickens, Fresh Eggs Daily, and The Chicken Chick, or books like Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow, Keep Chickens! by Barbara Kilarski, and Chick Days by Jenna Woginrich. You may have a friend with their own backyard flock, and you could ask them to show you the ropes. Chicken keepers are usually happy to give a tour of their set up and talk about their chickens (trust me, chicken keepers LOVE to talk about their chickens).

Next it is important to check your local city ordinances or neighborhood regulations to make sure backyard chickens are allowed and to find out the limit. Most cities allow 3-6 hens and no roosters. When you’re ready to get set up, you can visit your local feed store for chicks and supplies. Once you get chickens, your life and garden will be richer for it, and you will reap the rewards of delicious, fresh eggs!

Sources:

• Meet Real Free Range Eggs – Mother Earth News
• Gardening with Chickens for Fantastic Natural Pest Control – Mother Earth News
• The Health Benefits of Pets – NIH
• Autism and Therapy Chickens – Autism Daily Newscast
• Local Mother Fights to Keep her Autistic Son’s Therapy Chickens – Fox 59
• Chickens Provide a New Form of Animal Therapy for Memory Loss Patients – Boston Globe
• No Spring Chickens, Hens Help Heal Elderly – Modern Farmer
• I Love My Chickens – Discovering my Own Personal Recovery – Psychology Today

It seems like every week we hear about another drug recall, and many people shrug it off as a common occurrence. While some recalls affect very few people, the drug Vioxx was recalled after five years on the market when it was found to double the risk of a heart attack. Unfortunately, more than 38,000 deaths were reported before the connection was made. (1) Recalls are becoming more common, and the numbers are staggering. More than 2,000 drugs were recalled between January 2013 and July 2014, almost as many recalls as the previous nine years combined.

Why Are Drugs Recalled?

Drugs may be recalled for a wide variety of reasons such as mislabeling (incomplete or incorrect directions or the wrong product), poor packaging, contamination, or adverse reactions. (2) The majority of the recalls in 2013 and 2014 were defined as Class II, which is “…use of, or exposure to, a violative product that may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences.” (3) In other words, the drugs were contaminated in some way before they hit the consumer market.

What’s Being Done to Help Prevent Recalls?

While many may suspect that drug contamination is nothing new, the 2012 outbreak of fungal meningitis, which resulted in over 60 deaths, spurred a revamping of the FDA oversight on drug production and compounding facilities. Many compounding pharmacies were found to have possible microbial contamination, and several manufacturing facilities were caught violating current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) as defined by the FDA. (3) When you figure one compounding pharmacy or manufacturer usually produces a dozen or more drugs in the same facility, it becomes obvious why the recalls are issued.

In the 10 years before the meningitis outbreak, the FDA inspected nearly 200 compounding facilities and found violations of safety conditions in roughly one-third of the businesses. (4) In comparison, after the crackdown, inspections of almost 150 facilities resulted in violations at nearly 90 percent of the businesses.

What Can You Do to Avoid Being a Recall Victim?

While there’s no way to be sure your medicine is safe before a recall is issued, you can be proactive by signing up for email notification of all FDA recalls. (5) If you are notified that a drug you’re taking or a medical device you use has been recalled, don’t panic. Call your doctor immediately and ask what procedure is in place to ensure your health is protected. If the recall is for a dietary supplement, food, or cosmetics, you should return the item to the place of purchase for a refund.  If you believe your health has been compromised due to a recalled product, you should see your medical provider as soon as possible for any necessary testing.

You can also be proactive in keeping the FDA on its toes when it comes to inspections of pharmacy compounding facilities and drug manufacturing plants. Contact your local congressman and request they keep the pressure on drug manufacturers to produce the drugs we use in a safe and violation-free environment.

Sources:

(1)  The Deadly Cost of Product Recalls – Results You Deserve

(2) What is a drug recall? – Web M.D.  

(3) Number of Drug Recalls Surges – RAPS

(4)  Compounding Pharmacy Recalls – U.S.A. Today

The vaccine discussion just got more complicated as California governor Jerry Brown signed SB 277. Just one day after lawmakers sent him the bill, Brown signed it into law, eliminating all personal and religious exemptions for vaccines for California’s schoolchildren.

It defies common sense. It negates basic human rights. But Governor Brown has chosen to take away the right to exempt children from vaccinations for religious and personal (philosophical ) reasons for anyone who wants their child to attend school.

Even though California is only the third state to eliminate these vaccine exemptions, they are the largest and most public. Since the initial proposal of the bill by Democratic state senator Richard Pan, protests and petitions against it have been rampant, and opponents say that they are planning to use every avenue available to them to have the law repealed.

This new bill is a change from Governor Brown’s previous stand on the issue when he left religious exemptions intact but required parents to speak to a health professional before obtaining an exemption. With 67% of California’s adults in favor of the bill and increased pressure from the vaccine and pharmaceutical lobbyists, this bill is not a measured and thoughtful response. It is a frantic scramble after a very public, but very overblown, health scare. Unfortunately, many lawmakers have not fully considered the consequences of their decision.

Opponents of the legislation claim it restricts parents’ rights to chose their children’s care. Opponents vowed to challenge the law immediately.

“We need to wait until someone actually gets thrown out of school until we can challenge it,” an action that will not occur until after the bill takes effect in 2016, said Christina Hildebrand, founder of the group A Voice For Choice. “But we will likely have a referendum on it.” – Sacramento Bee

California is not the only state that denies exemptions. Currently Mississippi and West Virginia also deny exemptions.

SB 277 Questions

When does the law take effect?

On January of 2016 schools will “…ensure kids entering kindergarten and seventh grade are vaccinated in July 2016, ahead of the 2016-17 school year.” – Sacramento Bee
Required Vaccines

• Diphtheria
• Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib meningitis),
• Measles, mumps
• Pertussis (whooping cough)
• Poliomyelitis
• Rubella (German measles)
• Tetanus
• Hepatitis B
• Chickenpox

Can children keep personal belief exemptions they already have?

If a child is currently exempted (or gains an exemption before the law goes into effect in 2016), that exemption remains in effect until the child enters the seventh grade. No child can enter kindergarten or the seventh grade without vaccinations unless they obtain a medical exemption. Any unvaccinated child with an exemption who enters the seventh grade before the law goes into effect will not have to be vaccinated.

Are medical exceptions allowed?

Medical exemptions are allowed at a doctors discretion. The doctor can take earlier responses to a vaccine into account as well as family history, including reactions of siblings.

Conclusion

Parents are forced to vaccinate their children if they want their child to attend school. The mounting evidence of corruption and careless abandonment of all ethical and moral standards of the pharmaceutical companies who make vaccines is appalling. They recommend an outrageous number of vaccines for our children in the name of preventative medicine while lying about the risks involved. Children are dying all over the world and other countries are refusing our vaccines due to death and injury, but here in America we keep hearing the mantra, “Vaccines are safe and effective.”

Big Pharma is running the show, honing the message, and pulling the strings. They own the media. Mainstream news is afraid to speak out due to the real threat of loss of revenue. Government is just a puppet, pulled along and pushed around by propaganda and our representatives are shamefully bought off with dirty money. How many more children will be neurologically damaged or killed while their parents feel they have no choice but to comply?

Wake up America. Something is very, very wrong when corporations rule the nation, not the people.
We must learn more about the very real dangers of vaccinations and why they are so much more dangerous now for the current generation. To learn more about the flu shot and the MMR, check out the sources below.

Detoxification is essential after vaccination. Learn more with how to detoxify from vaccinations. To learn more about states’ vaccine exemptions, click here.

Further Reading:

• How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children
• Doctors Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research
• Scientists Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research
• Influenza Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness of the Flu Shot
• The MMR Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview Of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness
• How Plumbing, Not Vaccines, Eradicated Disease
• Autism and Vaccines: CDC Whistleblower Exposes Vaccine Dangers, Lies, and Cover-ups

California is the third state to remove all personal exemptions for vaccinations in schools with the passing and signing of SB 277. At the time of this writing, California and the other two states that you see below in black also have no personal exemption choices for public schools. States in the gray color have religious vaccine exemption legislation at the time of this article’s last update. Lavender colored states allow for both personal and religious exemptions.

Be sure to check out How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children, and also learn more about the MMR Vaccine and the Flu Shot. 

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Further Reading:

• Doctors Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research
• Scientists Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research
• How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children
• Influenza Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness of the Flu Shot
• The MMR Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview Of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness
• How Plumbing, Not Vaccines, Eradicated Disease
• Autism and Vaccines: CDC Whistleblower Exposes Vaccine Dangers, Lies, and Cover-ups