What’s the Fuss About ADHD?

This diagnosis seems to be more and more common in this day and age but how did we get here and what’s next?

As of 2011 6.4 million or 11% of 4-17-year-olds have been diagnosed with this disorder. That is an insane amount and that number keeps growing. If you are reading this I am assuming that you are either struggling with it, have a child struggling with it, or know someone who is.

6.4 million is a giant number! How did we get to this point?

Sure there is a genetic component, no doubt about that but what’s bizarre is a lot of kids or people with ADHD don’t necessarily have parents with it. So there must be another component to this. When we give workshops talking about this a question we ask is “Is today’s environment more or less toxic than 50-100 years ago?”

Obviously, everyone answers what you’re thinking….more toxic! So someone with a genetic predisposition kinda scooted under the rug whereas today the environment almost amplifies it!

A Brain Disorder?

Research has been starting to come forward that the brain of people with ADHD is a little bit different than those who don’t have the disorder. What needs to be taken into consideration is the brain isn’t developed in a vacuum. All of the information that the brain receives helps develop it.

It has been shown that we take in 11 trillion bits of information every single second! That is a ton but obviously, we aren’t conscious of it all. What if we were maybe conscious of too much or not enough of that information? That could certainly start to look like ADHD, anxiety, and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

It is more than just a brain disorder, but rather a nervous system disorder. Messages going to and from the brain aren’t being transmitted as properly as they should. The term dysafferentation really describes this. It is almost like a traffic jam of information going to the brain. When this is going on a lot of the messages don’t get to the brain as they should causing the brain not to respond properly.

There’s Hope!

A lot of people think this is something that can’t be helped or that the brain can’t change. What’s really cool is that research is starting to show that the brain can change. Imagine you swing a golf club like a baseball bat 5000 times then try and hit a golf ball. It isn’t going to go as well because you just taught yourself to swing incorrectly! That is a super basic example but the same holds true when we are talking about ADHD.

How can we make the messages get back to the brain how they are supposed to? We need to make sure the nervous system is working how it is supposed to. At The Specific Chiropractic Centers we work with the nervous system everyday making sure it is working correctly. If it isn’t working correctly we provide a very specific adjustment then retest the nervous system making sure we did our job and the body is doing its job.

If you think this is something you, your child, or someone you know could benefit from don’t hesitate to reach out to us 262-361-3160.

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