Marc Joseph Nutrition - Blog

In a recent study (free full text) published in the Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers found that children exposed to tobacco smoke while their mothers were pregnant and who were born to mothers who had high blood lead levels, were 2.5 and 4.1 times, respectively, as likely to develop ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

If these factors are indeed causally linked to ADHD, they may account for as many as 270,000 (tobacco) and 290,000 (lead) excess cases of ADHD in U.S. children.

Tobacco exposure is straightforward to reduce — don’t smoke and avoid being exposed to second-hand cigarette smoke.

Tips for reducing lead exposure include:

• Drink filtered water.
• Have your home or apartment tested for lead if it was built prior to 1978 (the year lead paint was banned for consumer use).
• Avoid remodeling or renovation of a residence where lead paint may have been used during the period of time before, during, after pregnancy.
• Only have such renovations done professionally, with proper safety precautions and cleanup, and if you have an alternate place to stay while they are being done.
• Follow a healthy diet with adequate calcium and iron, which will help to reduce the absorption of lead.

Other suggestions for reducing lead exposure are here.

If you suspect that you may have been exposed to lead and are concerned about the effects it may have on a planned/current child or yourself, there are approaches that one can take to safely reduce the body burden.

And for those individuals affected by ADD/ADHD, there are also nutritional and other steps that can be taken to reduce symptoms.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 23rd, 2006 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Chelation, ADD/ADHD, Lead. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.