COPD and coughing up into the sink, and ADHD.

Coughing up into the sink and ADHD symptoms.
My mum has or had COPD. She would get up and wait for the coughing to start, if it had not already started, and after a period of damaging coughing fits, where clumps of alveoli, and other fleshy mucosal material would join sticking together and thus further destroying any future hope of a recovery, would be brought up into her throat and dropped into the sink, with a sigh of relief, signifying that hopefully the coughing would stop. As each coughing fit seemed to get worse over time, it was fortuitous at this time to be embarking on a science course and also fortuitous in that I had just finished three books. One on mega dosing on vitamins called the Orthomolecular approach to medicine, and the second book with almost 180 odd pages on why vitamin C was good for treating all sorts of conditions if taken in large enough doses, and the third book on the potential hopeful nutritional component for helping to fix or alleviate ADHD related symptoms. As my science course continued, so did my mum's condition, and my ability to get enough distinctions (grade A), was being called into question with the results of the already taken 5 or 6 assignments not producing the desired grades, throwing my future degree course, in nutrition or dietetics, into jeopardy.

Too much work.
This was getting serious for both of us. I needed to do something, and fast. The next thing that happened was the kick needed for the 'something' to happen. I had received an assignment on organic chemistry and was expected to have it finished just before Christmas 2020. This proved critical, because I felt sure to only get another pass (grade c or d) instead of the distinctions needed.

I was failing.
The features and problems of my inability to achieve distinctions were not the normal 'I don't understand' or the other 'I have not got time' or the other 'My brain isn't working' or the other 'Not answering the question properly' or for that matter not even 'I don't care!', but in fact were down to an inability to sit down for any length of time and stay focussed long enough to read and write something useful towards the answers being asked in the assignment, for any more than the equivalent one day a week.

So out of pure panick.
This ofcourse had something to do with my nature, but I really wanted to sit down and do this. I knew if things were going to change, that I would need to instigate that change my self. The question was what change? So out of pure panick I decided to put the knowledge from the three books that I had just read to use.

Life saving vitamin C.
I started with vitamin c, and decided to follow the advice to the letter. It was clear from the book that 3g or more of vitamin c would be the minimum requirement. The reason for this was that vitamin c is a cofactor in many chemical processes in the body. Also that the body will use up vitamin c in accordance to, and in a special order starting with dealing with what life threatening condition should be dealt with first. So there are some basic functions necessary for life and the immediacy of them working properly would use up what it needed first. Then the second most important life threatening function pending, that needed vitamin c, would be dealt with next. Now I do not claim to know how the body works, but this guy in the book seemed to have noticed that vitamin c curative capabilities seemed to be dose dependent. Meaning not enough vitamin c might not reach your problem or condition you were hoping to see a change in.

What has vitamin C got to do with anything.
Now it turns out that the second highest concentrations of vitamin c in the human body is the brain. Only some gland somewhere has more. It turns out this gland is the thyroid gland. So I didn't want lack of vitamin c to be a factor in my better future performance any more. I have had enough of struggling. Especially if it was just because of a lack of something so cheap and non toxic as vitamin c everything said give it a go and I thought I have nothing to lose by trying.

I was desperate.
Well after a week had passed, I looked back and thought to myself. Something is better, but I don't know what. So encouraged I also added some B vitamins to my new regime in the hope that something else might happen. I was desperate. So I put the ideas from all three books into practice again with my own improved version of what collectively they might of been saying to me if they were to give me advice, without fear of being sued, because no book on its' own would dare say do what I was about to do.

Vitamin B1,anorexics and dementia.
So because vit B1 (thiamine) was mentioned in the ADHD book, and because the Orthomolecular book had mentioned that B1 is important supplement with too much alcohol consumption and its' apparent relationship to MS (multiple sclerosis) and my own research where I found out that B1 is present at extremely low levels in anorexics and dementia patients (where one third of dementia suffers die from starvation). Also that B1 is known as the brains conductor in controlling where and how nutrients are distributed. I thought I'll start there.

Vitamins and a nap might do it.
Well 500mg of B1 didn't do much. However taking 1g did! But it was not reliable. It did work and my concentration did improve and I could concentrate for more days that week. However it didn't last. I noticed the improvement, but also noticed edginess to my performance that week. So I added B2 on this particular day and I took 500mg of B2 and 1g of B1 and this was after having tried to study all morning, and had just given up. So after taking both of these supplements, I lay down and drifted off to sleep for about 35 minutes. Now taking a nap was a common necessity for me, so this I had done many times, but without the vitamin combo.

My success started to dwindle.
Upon waking I didn't feel any better or more capable, however desperate times needed me to try and study again despite this. To my utter amazement I discovered that concentration came easily and I kept it up for hours. I think three hours. This was unprecedented for me, and I was encouraged to continue that combo for a while. B vitamins are cofactors for each other, so as time passed after having made this progress it was met again by some resistance and my success started to dwindle.

Our brain is one third lecithin.
I started to realise, that I needed to find the next supplement. This recent combo had revealed I was also lacking in something else. Well I discovered that our brain is made up of one third lecithin by dry weight. So I figured this might be the next supplement that was needed, but as a precaution I would take more of the usual B vitamins that often come together in a B complex tablet. Whilst I waited for the B complex to arrive, I started on the lecithin and instantly noticed that I could sit and study for longer again only this time with even more focus.

Studied 10 days straight.
This resulted in my first ever consistent study period that lasted for 10 days straight, and along with the other B vitamins I have been able to sustain my new capabilities right through my course and have now achieved the requisite distinctions necessary for my degree. So what happened to my mum?

No coughing into the sink anymore.
Well she saw me ranting on about my new found abilities and was naturally curious. Especially when I told her that I found out that vitamin c is directly responsible for the manufacture of collagen, which in itself is what Alveoli is made out of. We have some 340,000,000 Alveoli in our lungs. So I recommended she try the vitamin c. She did. And this is 5 months later since she started taking just 2 to 3g a day, and now she has not coughed up any phlegm for 3 weeks, and before that, she had only coughed occasionally. She feels much much better, and her breathing has improved so much that I cannot remember the last time she said 'hold on I need to catch my breath'. It is now a further 3 months down the road and still no coughing into the sink.

Vitamins have never killed anyone, not yet at least.
Now of course this is not a cure. Hope can be a dangerous thing. All I'm suggesting is that if ones' conditions has a nutritional component, and then why not investigate it yourself. However, it may not have a nutritional component, so it might not work or help. Although it is only money, and vitamin c and vitamin B have never killed anyone in the world ever! Now compare that with the medical professions record and it is easy to see that vitamins could and possibly should be our first investigation when it comes to chronic diseases. Again this is just my anecdotal opinion and should not replace any professional medical advice.

Hello Mark what is your recomendation for me or my child, we both have what I think is ADHD. However it has not been diagnosed?

Thanks for asking.

What is the ADHD diet?
An answer might be:

The ADHD Diet! Where to begin. This is a very emotive subject for me and if you are like me and find this subject difficult to understand and have been at the end of criticism aimed at your condition that resembles ADHD then we are aligned in some way. You may have already felt like something is wrong with this criticism or this label because something is amiss. Although we ourselves know that we act slightly different to most others around us, this differs slightly with everyone that we meet and, therefore does not constitute good reason to give us a blanket label or indictment.

That said there are some similar behaviours that others may see in individuals and when compared may come across as the same condition. However, I am not sure that shyness or lack of confidence or being unable to sit still for very long constitute a negative label. When said, (I paraphrase), just because a child of 5 years of age cannot sit still at his or her desk for 20 minutes or 5 hours, when all he or she wants is to go out and play in the school playground, this he said in his mind just shows normal behaviour for a 5-year-old. Who would want to drug a child of 5 years of age so that they can sit at a desk for 20 minutes? Also in this video clip he mentions how playing rough and tumble for boys is particularly important for prefrontal cortex development. Which if it is not fully developed shows ongoing inhibited growth. Which Ritalin targets.

Jordon Peterson’s statement came just after I had read 8 books on ADHD. So, I was a little perplexed at first. However, as a health and nutrition and science student I decided to give it some due consideration since I had and have become an avid fan of J.P!

J.D. my ex had joined an ADHD face book page that contained pages and pages of bereaved partners who had ADHD spouses. It also contained pages and pages of parents of ADHD children. I was awash with very traumatised spouses and parents' very personal accounts of the loneliness or sheer pandemonium and all the associated stress that comes with abandonment or living with someone who has scant regard for others.

I could not ignore all these comments, even if some of them were an opportunity for some individuals to vent, having themselves just stumbled across the sight/page in question. So, keeping in mind some if not all these comments, and all the books I had read. I started to try and reconcile J.P. statement of ADHD does not exist with the countless statements from these real people living real lives plagued by something resembling real ADHD consequences!

Having been accused of having ADHD, and having a history of past relationships, both personal and business, that match very closely with some of the comments from this ADHD Facebook page. I felt somewhat at odds with J.P. (Jordon Peterson) still! However, I was lucky enough to stumble across a few books and websites and YouTube videos that started to shed light on certain behavioural distinctive traits and their causes. For example, in Australia there is a petitioning the government to realise the link between sulphur dioxide; cadmium; lead and mercury that when mined near a village produce a rise in incidences of ADHD like symptoms.

On the side of external influences affecting mental performance it would amiss for me not to mention my own discoveries surrounding SO2 (sulphur dioxide) a preservative; sulphites; sodium metabisulphite; monosodium glutamate more preservatives, because I noticed that during my studies when the pressure was on to produce an assignment that if I eat a takeaway, which one might do if under time pressure, that my brain, being sensitive, would proceed to not function. Further research revealed that these preservatives are not only carcinogenic but are also neuro toxins.

Another part of the puzzle was unveiled to me when I discovered that veterans that were captured by the enemy in Korea and subject to malnutrition for the entirety of their incarceration as POW suffered massive weight loss and physical and mental stress too. Which upon their return was partly dealt with by them getting lots of rest and good food. A socioeconomic looked at some of the details of survival rates amongst some of these returning veterans and with the survivors that decided to take supplements their average age of death was approximately 80 years old. Of the ones that did not take supplements the average age of death was around 65 years of age. This in my opinion and the opinion of the author suggests, that if someone has suffered a major stressful incident in their lifetime, this may alter their capacity to absorb nutrition or put a chronic dependency on nutrition going forward.

There are many websites dedicated to how nutrition may help ADHD sufferers, however, some focus on a particular time during a child's development suggesting that good nutrition at the right time may prevent ADHD. Although this may be partially true, this does not really help all those who now have ADHD! So further websites and YouTube videos have also stated that good nutrition now, even though one may have ADHD, may alleviate the ADHD symptoms. However, again this does not really solve the problem of those whose relationship with their spouse is about to crumble or even maybe the children about to be sent to a special school for disruptive pupils or because of their lack of attention. So here my criticism is with the idea that supplements may not help cure. No one is allowed to use the phrase cure. Because, it is our bodies that do the curing. However, it is my contention that a dependency on nutrition may have developed from past trauma.

Upon reading a book on orthomolecular medicine, I thought that maybe if one was to consider ADHD a condition that resulted from a very stressful incident in one's younger life, like the POWs, for example, or when a young person suffers major stress at a time when they may need the nutrients for the brain to use during learning, whatever the reason for the stress, due to anything , like parents’ divorce, major illness, a death in the family etc, then it follows that a life dependency may have been unwittingly established on extra high amounts of nutrition. Not just to deal with the symptoms, but in sufficient amounts fix the ADHD.

The question was how to find out? And what would the supplementation look like? So, since I had just finished 176 pages on vit C. Called I decided to start there. Luckily for me I was doing my Access Course to Higher Education, and had already completed the first third of the course so had a good base to compare against, so I was in a very good environment to see whether any changes might occur after beginning supplementation. The reason I chose vit C was because, the brain is where the second highest concentration of vit C resides. Second only to the thyroid gland that holds 3 times as much by weight.

After beginning to supplement on vit C, I immediately noticed increased clarity, I also felt less ill. However, vit C is a dose dependent supplement. This means if one takes a small amount first and does not see any results this does not mean that doubling the does will also see no results. What this dose dependent statement means is that taking 3g a day might not work or show anything at all, but taking 6g a day may! Similarly, some individuals may need more, it was often sighted in the vit C book that taking 1g after each meal is the minimum. I personally took 3g after each meal. I did this because, the list of reasons why you may need more vit C included leaking mercury from teeth fillings, any stress, poor diet, dieting (because this naturally limits nutrition intake), past trauma, any visit to an ICT (intensive care treatment) unit, being a premature baby, having had antibiotics in your first two years of life, drinking alcohol every day or nearly every day, doing lots of physical exercise, suntanning, (as there is a considerable concentration of vit C discovered at the back of the eye), getting on a bit (above 40 years of age, because our absorption rates from our food may begin to drop), any symptoms of foggy brain, any exposure to heavy metals (like lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, copper etc.), smoking, brain injury, premature signs of aging, greying of the hair (since vit C has been found plentiful in the roots of our hair), COPD ( chronic o pulmonary disease), and any virus of bacterial disease, and any viral disease! The reason for this need, is because, we as humans cannot produce vit C at all. We must eat it. Gorillas can make some 8g a day, and billy goats, when sick, produce some 100g of vit C a day. Therefore, it might be worth considering in our modern hectic lives taking a few grams of vit C a day especially if it will not do any harm but may potentially make a world of difference.

The next thing I added to my supplementation was the B vitamins. There are several B vits. If one were to weigh our brains, one third, by dry weight, of our brain would be made from lecithin. However, after hearing this I found out there are at least two types of lecithin on the market, apart from what comes from organ meats, and these are soy and sunflower. Given the choice I would go for sunflower lecithin because, has been implicated in affecting hormone imbalance. This is a B vit or at least acts like one. So I take a few grams of this a day. The brain's conductor would be B1, and the brains mental health would be B3. So, I took these in abundance. That is up to 1g at each meal of B1, often just 500mg, and up to the equivalent of 3g at each meal of lecithin and up to 1g at each meal of B3. And much less of the rest of the B's, so some B12, B5, B6, Biotin, folic acid, B2, etc. The results took me from only being able to study one day a week to being able to study every day if needed. The quality of my study also improved this could be seen in my results at college. I went from having real difficulty in keeping up and struggling to find time to increase my grade, thus achieving passes and merits to having all the time I needed and achieving merits up to distinctions. These changes are often seen anyway, but this assumes, that all one lacked was the knowledge. However, in my case it was both the knowledge and the time dedication. The latter of which increased at least 5-fold.

Whenever I mention the above about my getting better results, there are two typical responses. First that it may have been a placebo affect or two, that obviously vitamins cannot do this so therefore, you just must of worked really hard. As for the first point, the placebo effect, it is well known that the placebo affect only lasts for two weeks. Any ongoing benefits from the tablet, must therefore, be coming from the tablet. This is why any pharmaceutical trials are double blind and last longer than two weeks. My increased ability to study for long periods with increased focus continued and still does. The second point was that it was all down to me. On this point I have sat a few courses in the past and failed in the exam. I do not want to mention them all here, however, I feel like going back to them now and doing them all again, just to prove that now I can pass them. We will see about this in the future.

Let’s get back to my ADHD symptoms and have they got less? After doing a Jordan Peterson in the past, before taking all these vitamins, it was discovered that my conscientiousness was low, (this is something closely associated with ADHD), compared to the average, and my tidiness was practically non-existent, (another trait of ADHD), compared to the average participant. This is a paid for test high lighting 16 personality traits. Results from each participant are put together to produce an average of all participants so far. Your results are compared to the average and shown in your results. It is therefore possible to determine whether you are less then or more conscientious than the average participant, and this applies to the other 15 traits tested for. So, it looks like I need to retake the test and compare my results, because I took the test way before I started on these supplements, and I am still taking the supplements. Results pending here.

At this stage it is my opinion, that mega supplements have helped with my ADHD symptoms, even eradicating the ADHD symptoms altogether. I would even go so far as to say that maybe the supplementation has fixed my condition. Of course, remaining on vitamin supplementation cannot be seen as a cure, this is because I now have a life dependency on them, a crutch so to speak, that my brain will always rely on to function properly. However, we already have a similar dependency on air; food; and social interaction of some kind for our ongoing welfare! So, I am very excited to see if my feeling/assertion is true, and it seems the bonus of extra attention and concentration may have played a major role in my final qualifications from college. I am now geared for the next step in experimenting on myself.

The next thing would be, can I get these supplements from my food? The first thing to note is that mega supplementation is a therapeutic intervention fixing a drastic even chronic dietary requirement so far not meet by any eating habits up to this point in the persons' life. With vitamin B3 the best source is found in and a 3 oz or approx 100g of which only gives just over 70mg of niacin (B3). Which is more than 100 times less then I need on most days.

Why is it that evolution has given us this large brain, but an inadequate supply of nutrients to feed it naturally? It is true to say that our brains have a very large percentage demand overall on whatever we eat. For example, as of our total nutritional and energy demands. Whereas a full-grown adults' needs drop to just approximately 25%. However, this contrasts markedly when you consider that the brain only weighs 2% of our entire body weight. The demands of the brain are indeed high and our nutritional intake without supplements in these stressful times does seem a little inadequate. One thing that evolution is keen on is survival of the species. As long as the species reproduce then what else is there to do? Youth seems to bring with it a compensatory element. So almost regardless of ongoing nutritional support after adolescents it seems it is enough for the survival of the species. Even epigenetics has gone some way to verify this. During the mothers that gave birth during the starvation period, gave birth to children with an altered DNA, which gave them a propensity to better survival odds in the face of a continued starvation environment. It would seem evolution favours the young.

The need for nutrients only seems critically important if you want to remain active; vital; healthy and productive and potentially pain free into

It turns out that our brains can live in survival stasis. This means if under threat from a real or imagined source it can move into and just tick along until better times come along. The trouble with our brain's ability to do this is that we have all done this all too often already. It has become a normal regularly occurring act on the part of our brain for years. It is probably why so many of us now actually intentionally seek out this state. Like adrenalin junkies or for some of us there are many mediums available to us to aid us in our quest too. TV, radio, certain foods and drinks etc. It is my assertion that lack nutrition plays a role in this alternating between the sleeping\ wakeful state that is so appealing to so many of us by contributing to the fight or flight syndrome that detaches us from reality. The brain is finely balanced, and it is amazing to see just how easily it can be made unconscious or zoned out. Also, there are many papers suggesting that diet already plays a significant role in behaviour. Any of us that have had too much coffee or alcohol and for that matter anything else, have all benefitted from the ease at which our brain states can be manipulated.

Doing stuff to our brains that move it in and out of reality and into a sleeping or wakeful state is a nice way to get through the day. Joy/pleasure/happiness or lack of mental or physical pain is quite a good result for most of us. This susceptibility of the brain to be easily altered has its' advantages especially during times of crisis were sticking to the moment in hand is more mindful and more easily dealt with then any of the future/past alternatives. However, to the degree that our opinion correctly reflects the actual situation may also be as easily altered. I will try and appreciate how the social structure and nutritional composition may have an equal influence on our current perspectives too.

Just a little interlude here. I was sitting in the library doing some study when sitting nearby I noticed someone with special needs getting a personal one to one tuition on some subject that I could not discern. However, what struck me was the student seemed unusually tired. I mean bordering on passing out. Her eyelids were blinking very slowly like someone does just before bed when tiredness is overtaking them. The tutor was persisting with the lesson when rock bottom was reached, and the tutor asked the student to sit up straight and pay attention. This was because the student was about to fall asleep! I have no idea what the student had eaten at lunch time. However, I have heard of a term called food coma. I think this refers to the commonly held belief that what we eat at lunch time can impact on our digestion and glucose levels and have a knock-on effect after lunch. Well in this case I would call it food induced sleep attack! It was painful to watch. However, as we all know, food comas do not last forever. What followed was remarkable, the student started to recover from lunch and began to pay attention, naturally sat up, became focussed and finished the days exercises in very little time. This seemed to me to be a glucose problem. However, I would not be surprised to find out that with a little research it could equally be found that a nutritional problem could be revealed?

In conclusion, I would say that avoiding sugar, heavy metals, and preservatives and taking lots of vitamin C; B1; B3; and lecithin or choline (same thing) will go a long way in shoring up any missed opportunities during childhood in the past or any present or past trauma and therefore future proof your brain. But if after doing all that has been suggested above you find a gradual decline again then that will most likely be your needing to supplement, but to a much lesser degree, with all the other supplements too. Such as omega 3; all the other B’s; E; A; D3; magnesium; manganese; boron; K2; selenium; and if you want to see the complete list of what I take. Click here to see what Mark takes nearly every day.