Will ADD Save the World?

September 4, 2009

I just ran across an interview in 4 parts done by Dr Thom Hartmann with Dr Richard Silberstein. Both are Neuroscientist that study ADD and ADHD. Dr Hartmann now mostly does talk radio and writes some very good books on ADD/ADHD, one of the best being Healing ADD : Simple Exercises That Will Change Your Daily Life

In this interview they posit the thought that since Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison were classic ADHD individuals, had they been on  Ritalin we would not have a United States or the electric light bulb. This is due to the way that Ritalin affects the brain, while it may help attention in a few situation it stops the ability to bring together complex relationships as ideas.

During the interview they bring forward something that is just emerging, that fish oils have been found to be more effective than Ritalin without the side effects of destroying the personality and reasoning. A study in Australia  found 40-50 percent improvement in behavior over a control group in teenage kids.

Video 1/4:

Video 2/4

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It will only be when the American education system wakes up and realizes that active learning will benefit all kids, will we will see significant decreases in problems within our schools and not just from the ADHD kids.

Posted in ADD/ADHD