Balancing nutrients for behavior/mental problems

[Guest guest]

Friday, 5 December 2003 16:14

Balancing nutrients for behavior/mental problems

 

 

http://www.suntimes.com/special_sections/ritalin/cst-nws-ritalt21.html

 

For some, a question of balancing nutrients

BY MARK SKERTIC STAFF REPORTER

 

Twice a day, Alexandria Horel swallows a handful of pills that alter her

behavior.

 

They help her pay attention, sit quietly at school, make it through a family

meal without jumping in and out of her seat.

 

Alexandria is not taking Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall or any of the other

popular stimulants used by millions of American children each day to treat

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Rather, she downs specially

prepared capsules packed with vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

 

" They keep me in balance,'' the eighth-grader explained.

 

Without the pills, she and her doctor say, she's the kind of student who

can't sit still at school, wants to keep talking no matter what and just

can't focus on the work in front of her.

 

Alexandria is a patient at the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in west suburban

Naperville. Located in a nondescript office park near Interstate 88, the

center has gained a national reputation for treating ADHD, depression,

schizophrenia and other disorders by looking for chemical imbalances in the

body.

 

" When a child has attention deficit disorder, you can give them Ritalin--a

medication, a stimulant,'' said William Walsh, a research biochemist and the

center's founder. " You can do that, but we think it's better to treat the

root cause.''

 

For Alexandria, that meant determining if her internal chemistry was out of

whack. Among her problems, the center's doctors concluded, was a zinc

deficiency, which can prevent the brain's neural transmitters from working

properly. The problem may have been there from birth. As a baby, Alexandria

never really napped, her mother, Melinda Horel, recalled. Instead, she was

the kind of baby who, when put into her crib, cried or sang until exhausted

and only then fell asleep--and only briefly.

 

Things didn't change as Alexandria got older.

 

" In school, she was not able to pay attention, she would blurt things out,''

her mother said. " She would get up, be very demonstrative. She never sat

through a meal. It was exhausting. Frustrating.''

 

They tried Ritalin and then Dexedrine, both strong stimulants, but quickly

abandoned them. Alexandria just seemed to get more hyper.

 

Then Alexandria's family took her to Pfeiffer.

 

Hair, blood and urine samples were taken, and a complete family medical

history was compiled. Sometimes patients lack essential fatty acids or have

too much copper, Walsh explained. Their bodies might be low in some vitamins

and have too much of others. When biochemistry is out of balance, he said,

the brain's ability to send and receive information is impaired.

 

Alexandria's test results were compared with a massive biochemical database

the center has built to see whether her body chemistry was off. Supplements,

which are prepared at the center's pharmacy, were prescribed.

 

The Pfeiffer Center claims an 85 percent success rate, but Walsh adds an

important caveat: during the screening process, those who are unlikely to be

helped by the treatment are turned away. " There are disorders we're not very

successful with--Tourette's, obsessive/compulsive disorders, Down

syndrome,'' he said.

 

If he tried to treat those patients, he said, he would be wasting their time

and money.

 

Success has come in treating problems such as ADHD, autism and

schizophrenia, he said.

 

But not all doctors are persuaded. Dr. Julian Haber, author of ADHD: The

Great Misdiagnosis , is among those skeptical of claims that medical

problems can be reversed with diet and nutritional supplements.

 

" This is nothing new--if it worked so well more people would be doing it,''

said Haber, a developmental/behavioral pediatrician in Texas.

 

Before they can be accepted as effective, the treatments used by the

Pfeiffer Center need to be rigorously tested under accepted research

guidelines, he said.

 

" You can't just go by testimonials, " Haber said, comparing them to the

testimonials made in advertisements a century ago extolling the virtues of

wonder drugs. Without studies to back up claims, Haber said, " it's just the

wonders of sassafras, the wonders of snake oil.''

 

Walsh said he's proud of the center's success and the effect it has had. A

former Argonne National Laboratory researcher, he began to chart the

connections between body chemistry and behavior while working, as a

volunteer, with state prison inmates in the 1970s. In 1982, he founded the

Health Research Institute. In those early days, he worked closely with Dr.

Carl Pfeiffer, a biochemical therapist and founder of the Princeton Bio

Center in New Jersey. Pfeiffer died in 1988. When the Naperville treatment

center opened the following year, it carried his name.

 

Walsh, who goes by the title of senior scientist, is trained in chemical

engineering. He leads a team of doctors and nurses.

 

Treatment at the Pfeiffer Center doesn't guarantee that drugs won't be

necessary, Walsh emphasized.

 

" Our goal is not to get rid of medications--some children need them,'' he

said.

 

Joyce Tokarz of Mokena, for example, watches every day as her 12-year-old

daughter Amy take a combination of Pfeiffer-prepared pills, including amino

acids, calcium, magnesium, zinc and other supplements. But Amy also takes a

daily dose of Adderall.

 

" It's a strong item, it's like speed, and I don't want her to get

addicted,'' Tokarz said. " I want her to eventually be off all drugs

completely.''

 

Amy was 41/2 when she was adopted by the Tokarz family. She had

developmental problems from the start, but they became more of a problem as

she moved forward in school.

 

" She can be sitting, doing her homework, and she'll just stop, walk away

from it and do something else,'' Tokarz said.

 

But the combination of a better diet, the supplement pills from Pfeiffer and

Adderall seems to be helping, she added.

 

" This is the first year where she's learning and comprehending,'' Tokarz

said. " It's sticking with her now. She's picking it up faster because she's

able to comprehend now.''

 

" Better screening for chemical imbalances combined with more traditional

approaches is a better way of finding the answers patients need to live

healthy lives,'' said Robert deVito, professor emeritus at Loyola

University's Stritch School of Medicine and Pfeiffer's senior consulting

psychiatrist.

 

" Looking at vitamins, minerals, amino acids--that's just another way to help

people,'' deVito said.