Author: Erin Fisher

My sweet daughter Abby came into this world a feisty child. She’s still feisty, and if I can help it, will always be. It’s one of her best qualities. But a spirited child that is burdened by their environment and completely overwhelmed with life cannot be their true selves. I’ve been feeling prompted to share her story of healing and transformation because there is no better feeling in the world than seeing your child happy and thriving. And she is, against all odds. Is she perfect? Absolutely not. Is her ADHD cured? No. But she is no longer angry and defiant all the time. She is a very happy, empathetic girl. She does pretty well in school and is finally able to establish and maintain healthy relationships with other children.

When I recommend supplements to people for their children that are struggling I do so with a heavy heart. I want so badly to help others transform their children and for them to be able to see their child happy and thriving. It took me 7 and a half years to get to Abby to a good place. A place where she didn’t wake up mad and freak out over the tiniest thing. A place where I wasn’t walking on eggshells waiting for her to explode in a fit of frustration because she couldn’t handle the world around her. If it were just that it would have been bearable. But there are few things worse than seeing your child suffer at school because no one wanted to play with them. I was heartbroken for years and constantly waiting on baited breath for a phone call about something that she’d done at school to get herself in trouble. The hardest part of it was knowing that she couldn’t help it to a certain extent, and knowing that she was suffering.

Being a human on this earth is hard enough. Trying to get yourself through life is hard enough. Taking on the pain and struggles of a child makes it all the more difficult. My heart goes out to all of the wonderful parents in this world who fight tooth and nail for their child to simply have a chance at a normal life. I grieve for these heroes who go through the worst kind pain every day–the pain of seeing their child suffering. Most people would do anything for their children. The problem is, most don’t know WHAT to do. Many of us desperately seek one cure after the other for diagnoses that are poorly understood by mainstream medicine. The problem with mainstream medicine is pharmaceutical treatment is often the primary treatment method. This unfortunately leads to more diagnoses and more pharmaceuticals.

When Abby was 3 I was prompted to drastically change her diet. We started the Feingold diet, and this is when I started seeing improvement. Now, this is where the targeted treatment began. We were targeting certain aspects of her environment that were aggravating her. For really sensitive kids,  environmental triggers are enough to send them over the edge. Chemicals in food and in the home affect them more because of their compromised ability to detox. She slowly began to become less frustrated and irritable.

So what is the Feingold diet?
The diet eliminates artificial flavors/colors/preservatives, but a big component is also eliminating high-salicylate produce. Salicylates are natural pesticides in plants.

I know what you’re thinking—fruit and vegetables are supposed to be healthy, and now this wack job is telling me that I should cut some out? I hear ya. It’s really frustrating trying to navigate all the information out there and this one seems totally counterintuitive. Here are the details:

Dr Feingold was a leading allergist in the 70’s who discovered that avoiding artificial flavors/colors/preservatives not only helped clear his patients asthma and eczema, it also had a drastic effect on behavior (specifically ADHD). He also noticed that aspirin (acetylsicylic acid), a salicylate compound, caused the same allergic and behavioral reactions as the dyes and preservatives. So he added high-salicylate items to his elimination list.

This diet made such a huge difference in my daughter’s behavior that I became a quick believer in the method. She had a higher stress tolerance, she could play longer by herself, she was less irritable, and the list goes on.
A lot of fruit is still allowed: pears, kiwis, melon, pomegranates, bananas, mangos, and many others. Cherries, berries, apples, and oranges are the main offenders here along with a few vegetables like tomatoes (I know it’s technically a fruit 😄) peppers, and cucumbers. There are a few herbs like wintergreen and cloves that are excluded.

I tell everyone that will listen that diet is the first place to start with behavior or ADHD issues. And that’s because it has such a drastic impact on these sensitive kids.I highly recommend the book “Why Can’t My Child Behave?” by Jane Hersey if you want to learn more. 

We’ve all been there– you’re in an ice cream shop and a child points to that flavor–the flavor that’s so fluorescent it probably glows in the dark. It’s got a name like ‘cotton candy explosion!’ or something of the like. It’s the flavor all the kids want–the one that turns your entire mouth and lips a dark blue color with an aftertaste that’s reminiscent of hairspray. It’s a childhood rite of passage to be able to get the most outrageous, brightest dessert that you can find. One that my child will never have.

As I watched the Chef’s Table tonight on Netflix about the amazing woman who started Milk Bar (her business is built on desserts inspired by junk food) I started feeling nostalgic about the junk food I ate when I was a kid. And then I felt sad. Sad because I have to say no to my daughter every time she inevitable points to the cotton candy explosion flavor with big eyes and asks if she can get “that one”. She doesn’t eat anything fluorescent (or nostalgic). Why? Because she turns into a different person when she eats them.  In fact even when we give her dye-free, chemical free treats she gets pretty hyper. But we’ve somehow managed to fool her into thinking that a 1/8 cup of ice cream or ten natural m & m’s are standard sized servings! So did I ban dyes because I wanted to be the perfect mother, or because I was obsessed with nutrition? Absolutely not. I did it because I wanted her AND ME to have at least a shot at a normal life and without this diet she didn’t. She just didn’t…

I remember taking her to the zoo when she was two. She didn’t want to be carried and she didn’t want to walk. So she just layed on the ground screaming. Then she’d go to the next exhibit and do the same thing. Animals? What animals? She didn’t care about the animals! She didn’t have the focus or desire to even look at them. I distinctly remember getting candy from one of those coin machines in order to appease her and make her happy. Of course it did the exact opposite. We had come with my parents. My dad had taken a few hours off work to meet us at the zoo in the middle of the day. But he didn’t stay long. I didn’t blame him, I wouldn’t have either. I remember thinking I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t handle this force of nature. I was barely hanging on by a thread so how was I supposed to manage HER? Well the will to survive is a steady force. I say steady because we don’t really have a choice. We take our curve balls, no matter how devastating, because we certainly can’t avoid them. We can try to minimize the damage but we can’t avoid them. So I kept on…trying to survive. 

There is a misconception that moms who ban junk food from their children are overachieving neurotics. The truth of it is that these women have probably been to hell and back. I say hell because it’s the worst place I can think of and there is nothing worse than seeing your child suffer day in and day out. What, you are probably asking yourself, does any of this have to do with fluorescent ice cream? Well a lot of these kids’ bodies just can’t process these chemicals. This comes out in behavior and focus. The artificial junk is affecting their body’s ability to function the way it’s supposed to. What was supposed to be “fun” turns into “why can’t my child behave?” Well let’s  start with the food…

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Anyone who has ever taken an antidepressant has inevitably googled “Why do antidepressants make me tired?” or “Antidepressants and weight gain”. Because yes, they DO seem to cause these side effects, yet every website I’ve read says they don’t know why! It is suggested that they make you eat more and this might be why but I don’t buy that. I knew there had to be an underlying mechanism that at least contributed to these side effects. This is a hard pill to swallow (pun intended) when you are facing debilitating anxiety or depression. After all, who doesn’t become MORE depressed when they gain weight or lose their ability to get out of bed?  I myself have tapered myself to a miniscule dose (and have since gotten off completely) but have noticed that just the med being in my system affects my ability to lose weight. Lately my fatigue has been horrendous. And its almost ALWAYS cyclical– it comes after my period. So I knew it must be hormone related. So I set off on a quest to find answers with two things at my disposal– the internet and the Natural Grocers down the street (all the good supplements there).

At first I suspected low estrogen, but when those supplements failed to bring about big results I remembered something. Years ago I went to a naturopath and had my hormone levels checked. The only thing I remember her commenting on as being abnormal was that I showed low testosterone. Testosterone? Yes? It’s not just a mans hormone ladies. We need it for the health of our reproductive systems but we also need it for bone growth, fat, protein, and carbohydrate metabolism, and to build lean muscle mass. It also helps with breaking down fat for energy! So low testosterone can cause low metabolism, less muscle mass, low energy, and insufficient breakdown of food! In case you didn’t realize yet, this is a big deal! Digesting our food is critical for obtaining nutrients, amino acids, minerals, fatty acids, and having energy. And we all know low metabolism is bad.

So what does testosterone have to do with antidepressants? In 2017 a study was done to asses the effects of different antidepressant medications on the endocrine system. All six (most common ssris were used here) had endocrine disrupting effects on the body, meaning they disrupted the synthesis of sex hormones and major steroids in the body (Hansen, et al., 2017). Another study showed that testosterone levels in rats were much lower in those who were given antidepressants in comparison to a control group (Erdemir, et al., 2014).

So what can be done about this? I always suggest taking herbs and nutrients to naturally support hormone levels as opposed to using actual hormones. The nice thing about doing it that way is it won’t likely have as pronounced impact, where it can potentially throw other things off. Also, though testing is wonderful, doing a DUTCH test to asses what all of your hormones are doing can be pretty expensive. And good luck getting a regular OBGYN to run hormone testing…

So here are my favorite ways to increase testosterone naturally:

Testojack 100: This is a supplement from NOW brand that includes: b-6, magnesium aspartate, zinc, tribulus terrestris, and eurecoma longifolia. NOTE–I have not tried the other versions of Testojack (200, 300) and have no idea how they fare. Stick to 100.

Weight training

Plenty of protein: Lack of protein has been shown to affect the body’s ability to make testosterone.

Ashwaganda

Something to consider is that if you have low testosterone, other hormones may also be low. Problems with hormone synthesis tend to affect more than just one hormone. Others to consider are estrogen and progesterone (both tremendously important).

Citations

Erdemir, F., Atilgan, D., Firat, F., Markoc, F., Parlaktas, B. S., & Sogut, E. (2014). The effect of Sertraline, Paroxetine, Fluoxetine and Escitalopram on testicular tissue and oxidative stress parameters in rats. International brazilian journal of urology, 40: 100-8. doi:10.1590/S1677-5538.IBJU.2014.01.15

Hansen, C. H., Larsen, L. W., Sørensen, A. M., Halling-Sørensen, B., & Styrishave, B. (2017). The six most widely used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors decrease androgens and increase estrogens in the H295R cell line. Toxicology in vitro : an international journal published in association with BIBRA, 41, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tiv.2017.02.001

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