Hi, naturally healthy people!

I have been aware for some time of the link between ADHD  and food additives. Another potential contributing factor to ADHD (attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder) appears to be iron deficiency. My colleague John Briffa, who keeps his ear to the ground for nutritional – related evidence, has pointed out a recent study, supporting the use of iron supplementation in children with ADHD who have reduced ferritin (iron stores) in the blood.

Previous evidence has suggested that iron deficinency is common in ADHD, and that iron supplementation may help this, but the newer study has a placebo arm and so gives us better evidence of the effect above placebo.

1. Konofal E, et al. Effects of Iron Supplementation on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Children. Pediatr Neurol, 2007;38(1): 20-26

So – it is worth adding iron for a three month period in ADHD, although if you want your GP to prescirbe he or she will wish to do a full blood count and ferritin blood test.

I have also received information about a local event in Eastbourne for those interested in making a helathy lifestyle plan for the new year – see the continuation link for more information!

Meanwhile, have a great week in the run-up to Christmas!

Love & light,

Alison Grimston, Holistic Doctor and Healer

A Warm Welcome …to Eastbourne

• Have you recently moved to Eastbourne?

• Would you like a healthy New Year 2008 lifestyle plan?

• Would you like to meet new people?

We are delighted once again to extend a warm welcome to those new (and of course not so new) to the area. In our state of the art Culinary Arts Studio at the University of Brighton Darley Road, Eastbourne, we invite you to join us for an “Eastbourne Newcomers” nutritious and tasty welcome!

In association with Lucy Ann-Prideaux from Simply Nutrition (www.simplynutritiononline.com) Lucy-Ann with her great passion for food and nutrition, coupled with an expansive knowledge of nutritional science, will talk about her… TOP 7 LIFESTYLE CHANGES for YOU for 2008 …together with key food and dietary tips and advice, to help you get the very most out of the year ahead! This evening will provide a perfect opportunity to meet some like-minded new people, make new friends, or contacts over a glass of wine, or fresh juice, as well as enjoy delicious complimentary canapés from VegOut Sussex. We guarantee you a fun, informative, friendly and healthy evening!

This evening will take place on Monday February 4th from 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm at the Culinary Arts Studio, University of Brighton, Darley Road, Eastbourne BN20 7UR To book your ticket please contact Gilly Nicol on 01323 649127/ 07957 604386 Tickets £15:00 each

Reading the September 1st British Medical Journal on my return from holiday I was pleased to see both an editorial and a research paper focussing on prescribing antibiotics in primary care. 

A study in Australian children showed that, 2 months after being prescribed antibiotics for a respiratory infection, they were twice as likely to have antibiotic resistant bacteria in their throats than a control group.

The editorial cautions the use of antibiotics in upper respiratory infections that will often get better without, and urges us to use antibiotics as carefully as we should oil – as a non- sustainable resource. The bacteria will always evolve ways of getting over whatever antibiotics we come up with, which is why the drug companies are working faster and faster to come up with new drugs more rapidly.

My own approach, as ever in general practice, is to look at each case individually. However, I know that I would hesitate to use antiobitcs in my own children if they had a sore throat or otitis media, unless it looked very purulent and they were very unwell. I usually give the parent an opportunity to return if the child is not improving, or a prescription to get made up in 24-48 hrs if symptoms are worsening.  If there are no signs of a chest infection (as opposed to bronchitis, which is an upper airway infection that does not need antibiotics), then antibiotics are not needed for a chesty cough, either.

Experience is key, along with education of patients and their families. One particularly useful aid to this is the patient leaflets that I give out in surgery, which come from the http://www.patient.co.uk site – do look! There is excellent information about the use of antibiotics.

Sore throats can be a bit different of course. If there is strong evidence of tonsillitis (although a study previously showed that a clinician cannot distinguish this accurately from glandular fever, a viral infection that does NOT need antibiotics), with pain, pyrexia, a pusy discharge on enlarged red tonsils, and tender enlarged cervical lymph nodes, then antibiotics are useful. However, if antibiotics are used, a further study showed that a full 10 day course of penicillin V is needed to eradicate Streptococcus from the throat. This goes against our trend in other infections to shorten the duration of a course of antibiotics. Now if only I can find those two references…

So you can see how complicated evidence based medicine is, how it is a full time job keeping up with it, and how we have to do our best to come up with a workable way forward with these things.

I am convinced of one thing since I started my healing journey – it is vitally important to let the body’s own immune system work wherever possible, and not step in with antibiotics until and unless necessary. And I was amazed when a homeopathic doctor friend of mine told me that he managed all of his own children’s otitis media with homeopathic remedies! It had never entered my head before that this would be possible. There is so much to learn in medical school that the complementary therapies fall by the wayside.

I was amazed when reading the British Medical Journal recently (28th July 2007) that other organisatios share my concerns about medications and their effects on health.

I believe that the ideal way forward is of integrated medicine – integrating the best of modern medicine, including surgery and pharmaceuticals, with a holistic approach to the person/ patient, with them addressing their own mind, body and spirit, including the use of complementary therapies.

Apparently "Pharmageddon" is the prospect of a world with the use of medicine and pharmaceuticals producing more harm than good. The following two websites are worth a look:

Social Audit

Health Action International

And there will be a conference on the topic next year.

Don’t get me wrong – there are huge benefits afforded by modern medicines – but they are not the be-all and end-all!

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