Chiropractic Shows Promise in Treating ADHD
ADHD and ADD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder, are the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorders in children, especially boys, and are characterized by lack of focus, distraction, or difficult-to-control energy. Most pediatricians prescribe drugs like Ritalin to control these behaviors, but abuse and misuse of the drug have caused emergency room visits to increase drastically within the last generation.
These misunderstood children are given drugs to calm them down, and it can result in merely masking the symptoms while the underlying issue is still there. As a behavioral disorder, it results from a nervous system imbalance, since the nervous system controls brain function and all other systems. Chiropractic therapy, however, could be a healthy alternative to drugs since it targets the spine, which is closely connected to the nervous system.
Very little research has been done so far to conclude or suggest any significant changes made in behavioral health in children through chiropractic assessment. However there have been cases in which children diagnosed with ADHD at a very early age have gone through chiropractic therapy and were then removed from prescription drugs because symptoms of the disorder were no longer evident.
More research needs to be done to extract more evidence, but chiropractic itself aims to target whole-body health, including mental state of being, and behavioral disorders could be affected by chiropractic. While there are very few specialized pediatric chiropractors, the field deserves a closer examination by doctors and parents as a potential alternative to high-risk drugs that are more often used in children and do nothing to solve the root cause of the problem itself.
Chiropractic care could be a solution to the root cause of ADD, ADHD and other behavioral problems in children as well as adults by aligning and regulating the nervous system, putting other systems back into balance with long-lasting treatment.
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