Are there potential long-term effects of giving children drugs like Ritalin or Adderall?
In today’s episode of the Health Quest podcast, Dr. Sal is exploring that question, discussing the topic of neurodegenerative disorders, and providing valuable insights into the impact of dietary choices and environmental factors on our brain health.
According to Dr. Sal, there is a crucial link between dietary habits and neurodegenerative disorders, including harmful effects of certain food additives and neurotoxins, such as MSG, aspartame, sucralose, diacetyl, and aluminum. These substances have been shown to contribute to a decline in mental cognition and may lead to conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Dr. Sal talks about the significance of maintaining a healthy gut microbiome and avoiding foods that disrupt gut health, discussing the role of neurotransmitters in brain function and sharing practical tips on nutrition and dietary choices.
This episode will give you a deeper understanding of the factors influencing brain health and teach you actionable strategies to support your neurological well-being.
Key takeaways:
1. Neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s are on the rise and are now being recognized as type 3 diabetes due to the impact of elevated blood sugars from consuming grains and added carbs and sugars.
2. Five neurotoxins to avoid for mental health and memory preservation are MSG, aspartame, sucralose, diacetyl (found in artificial flavorings), and aluminum, all of which have detrimental effects on brain health.
3. Factors such as antidepressants, amphetamines, barbiturates, excessive sleep medications, excessive alcohol, and certain food additives can deplete neurotransmitters and contribute to cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
4. Strategies to promote brain health include maintaining a proper diet, avoiding harmful substances, chelation therapy to draw out heavy metals, fasting, and incorporating amino acid therapy.
5. Discipline and control over dietary choices, seeking strength and guidance from God, and intentional choices regarding what we eat and how we treat our bodies are essential for maintaining good health and preventing addiction and cognitive decline.
Dr. Sal [00:00:00]:
So what are we doing to their kids? We're giving them Ritalin. We're giving them Concerta. We're giving them Adderall. All of these are toxic to the brain. They eventually deplete these neurotransmitters, and then, you know, they graduate high school and the doctor says, well, you don't need it anymore because you're not going to school. And now you just created an addiction because now their brains can't function without it. Welcome to the Health Quest Podcast, your guide to God's will for good health. Hello.
Dr. Sal [00:00:44]:
My name is doctor Sal, and I've been a practicing surgeon for health over 30 years. And my goal for each episode is that you'll be able to have your mind transformed to God's design for your good health and to also change the way you eat and the way you live for your better health. If you're new here, we release a new episode every week. And if you enjoy the content, would you please leave us a good review? Because it really helps our ratings and allows our show to reach more people so that we can in turn basically help these people improve their lives. We really thank you for your support. And on today's episode, we're gonna be talking about neurodegenerative disorders. So let's dive right on into today's health quest. So neurodegenerative disorders, and there's a whole onslaught of disorders that is involving the nervous system.
Dr. Sal [00:01:38]:
And We're going to get into dementia and Alzheimer's because we're seeing a great prevalence in these diseases. It is now being called and recognized as type 3 diabetes. Type 3 diabetes. There's a great book out by doctor David Perlmutter. He wrote the book called Grain Brain Grain Brain, in which all these grains, which elevates your blood sugars for a prolonged period of time, plus all these added carbs and sugars, raising the blood sugar. The brain operates on sugar. And what ends up happening is is the brain cells eventually become insulin resistant just like the muscle in the liver. And so it doesn't get in there.
Dr. Sal [00:02:26]:
The brain doesn't function properly. Now the other food source that can supply the brain with energy so it can function normally is ketones. So that's why these ketogenic diets are actually good for people that are having some issues with cognitive problems. But what I like to talk about right now is I like to get into the 5 neurotoxins that you should stay away from that actually contribute to a decline in mental cognition or eventually results in memory loss. The First one is MSG, monosodium glutamate. This literally kills brain cells, and it does so because It acts as an excitotoxin. An excitotoxin is any chemical that stimulates, cells. In this particular case, The excitotoxin of MSG stimulates the brain cells practically to death.
Dr. Sal [00:03:26]:
And also the glutamate that's in the monosodium glutamate combined with calcium destroys nerve cells. So MSG is a neurotoxin toxin that literally destroys brain cells. Secondly, is aspartame, which you see in NutraSweet and Equal. That's right. Now the World Health Organization is starting to show that these artificial sweeteners our carcinogenic. Well, okay, carcinogenic is one thing. You could stay away from it because it doesn't this way, it prevents cancers. But in this particular case, NutraSweet and Equal have been shown as because of result of the aspartame that's in it.
Dr. Sal [00:04:11]:
It is detrimental to neurologic tissue. It's a very potent sweetener. And on top of that, aspartame is a 100% synthetic. And some of the reaction, at 75% of the reactions that have been reported to the FDA, which the public doesn't get access to, is seizures and also death. So There's deaths that are related with these things that nobody ever talks about. And then the third thing that we should stay away from is sucralose. Suculose is the sweetener that's found in Splenda. So there you go, folks.
Dr. Sal [00:04:48]:
You got NutraSweet. You got Equal. Now you got Splenda. It's not really a sugar. It's a chlorinated artificial sweetener. Now the way they make it is is they take normal sugar or sucrose, and they add chloride ions to it. They actually add 3 chloride ions to it. And anytime you add chloride ions and you combine it with carbon, which is what sugars are made up of is carbon, it becomes a very toxic substance.
Dr. Sal [00:05:18]:
Actually, this is how they make pesticides and herbicides. So that's another thing that we need to stay away from. The 4th thing is called a chemical called diacetyl. Now where do you find this diacetyl. It's in in a number of food products, but mostly in popcorn butter. So when you're going to the theater and you order popcorn with butter, that's not real butter. That's an oil with additives to it that gives it that flavoring, and it's got diacetyl in it. In fact, diacetyl is any food product that you'll c labeled as an artificial flavor.
Dr. Sal [00:06:01]:
So anytime you're reading the labels on any food products or pop and it says artificial flavoring. It's got diacetyl in it, and that's neurotoxic. It's neurotoxic because of the fact that when it gets into your body, it does cross the blood brain barrier, and it causes the beta amyloid clumping, which you see in patients with Alzheimer's. The 5th thing is aluminum. Now we see aluminum in everything. Doctor Sam Walters, he's a researcher out of, the Mayo Clinic, and he did work for NASHVILLE for a number of years. And he wrote his master's thesis on heavy metals and their effects on Alzheimer's. And aluminum is a neurotoxin.
Dr. Sal [00:06:49]:
In the 19 seventies when we were still doing autopsies. They found that Alzheimer's patients had higher levels of aluminum in their brain than patients who didn't have Alzheimer's at all. So where are we seeing a lot of this stuff? Well, we're seeing a lot in, aluminum in the drinking water, antacids. Deodorants have aluminum in it. Of course, cans are made up of aluminum and as well as aluminum foil, cookware, and even baking Soda has aluminum in it. So these are some of the things that we try to stay away from. You know, you may have recalled, people and ask what's a good way to store foods. I I always say get the Pyrex because it's glassware.
Dr. Sal [00:07:35]:
Glass doesn't have any effect. You know, you got your plastics with your PVCs in it, your, bisphenols that's to our bodies and eventually affects our metabolism. So if we could avoid the saran wraps and the foils and get into things that are, more of the the cookware that doesn't have any of this stuff, then we'd be better off as as far as reducing Alzheimer's. Now you gotta remember Alzheimer's is affecting the United States more so than any other country in the world. There are the depleters of the neurotransmitters. Okay? The neurotransmitters are those chemicals that get transmitted from one end of a nerve ending to the beginning of another nerve ending to send the signals to then light up or spark this nerve to transmit the signal. And these neurotransmitters are depleted by taking antidepressants. So all your antidepressants out there will, especially your serotonin reuptake inhibitors will deplete them.
Dr. Sal [00:08:42]:
Amphetamines. Amphetamines are neurotoxic. It. So what are we doing to our kids? We're giving them Ritalin. We're giving them Concerta. We're giving them, Adderall. All of these are toxic to the brain. They eventually deplete these neurotransmitters, and then, you know, they graduate high school and the doctor says, well, you don't need it anymore because you're not going to school.
Dr. Sal [00:09:04]:
And now you just created an addiction because now their brains can't function without it. Barbiturates, anything that causes anxiolytics, anything that reduces anxiety. Excessive sleep medications, people that says, oh, I need to take this because I I can't sleep at night. There are other natural methods of doing it, excessive alcohol. So we have all these these these drugs and these food additives that are now causing this disruption in the neurologic system. In long term, we're now starting to see, you know, your schizophrenia's, your anxiety, your depression, but more so than that, the dementia in Alzheimer's. There are people that have had dementia and Alzheimer's for up to 7 to 10 years before they die. I mean, it's a miserable life because they literally have to be put in assisted living homes, and it's more prevalent here in the United States than any other country in the world.
Dr. Sal [00:09:59]:
So How can we start to, to treat this? Well, first of all, we need to avoid all this stuff. You know, we talked about how the the gut bacteria, not only controls our hormones, but affects our immune system. It also affects the production of these neurotransmitters. So bad foods like we talked about wheat and, you know, I keep bringing that up. Eating high fibrous foods, taking foods that have bacteria in it. You know, apple cider vinegar that has the mother, like Bragg's apple cider vinegar, kefir. If you're gonna have any kind of yogurt, stay away from yogurts that have already food in it because they add artificial flavors. They add, added sugars that are unnecessary.
Dr. Sal [00:10:43]:
If you want, just get the plain yogurt and throw your own berries and throw a little Stevia if you wanna sweeten it. So avoiding this chelation therapy, and we're gonna talk about this. Chelation therapy helps to draw out all the heavy metals in our body. Again, aluminum being one of them, it actually pulls aluminum out of the tissues, especially the heart tissues and the brain tissue as well. We had an episode where we talked about detoxing the body, getting the liver restored to try to pull out other toxins in our body, such as these food additives that we just spoke about that attribute to, to dementia and a decline in mental cognition. Fasting, intermittent fasting diet or even just fasting once a month. We talked about the high protein diet and eating healthy fats. Proteins, especially those amino acids, because that is what our neurotransmitters are made out of.
Dr. Sal [00:11:41]:
So amino acid therapy, eventually helps to build those neurotransmitters. So taking extra 5 hydroxytryptophan, which helps to build the serotonin. Taking L Tyrosine, which actually builds, dopamine, which gives us that, sensation of wellness and motivation, as well as, norepinephrine and epinephrine. So Tyrosine is a great amino acid. And One of the things that we should do is we should take at least 1500 milligrams of L Tyrosine and, 3 a 150 milligrams of 5 hydroxytryptophan. Now that's a ratio of 1 to 10. So if you're taking a 150 of the 5 hydroxytryptophan, You should be taking 1500 of the sal Tyrosine. If you wanna increase it, then you go 300 to 3000 and so forth.
Dr. Sal [00:12:37]:
One of the things that you could get over the counter is mucuna. That's a supplement that you could take over the counter. It basically acts as l dopa, which eventually turns into dopamine and taking N Acetylcysteine, which eventually our bodies convert into glutathione. Now l steam. Again, an amino acid crosses the blood brain barrier, so then the brain can turn the L Cysteine into glutathione. Glutathione is an antioxidant, and that helps to pull away all of these toxins that are also in our body too as well. We, have a high concentration of glutathione in the liver. Again, if we build that up, the liver is capable of pulling these toxins out of our body and eventually excreting it.
Dr. Sal [00:13:24]:
So that being said, again, we talked about amino acid the therapy, proper diet, things to avoid. Avoidance is a big thing. It's the ability to say no. Remember, God's d word is discipline. Satan's d word is distraction. So we think, well, I'm gonna have this one time. Well, I could cheat a little bit here and that no. No.
Dr. Sal [00:13:48]:
No. No. No. It's gotta be controlled, folks. You've got to control your animal desires. Okay? Because that goes back to the ego. The ego comes up and says to you, oh, that's okay. Don't worry about it.
Dr. Sal [00:14:01]:
You know? It's not gonna hurt you if you do it. Well, folks, it ends up happening, though. We develop these addictions to these things, and then we can't stop. And then it takes a massive amount of prayer, meditation, and discipline on our part to change our ways. And The only thing that we can ask for from god is for his strength to be able to do that. But the rest, god gave us the power of choice. We have that power to decide what we're gonna eat and what we're not gonna eat. And with that, I'd like to thank you so much for joining us and watching our show.
Dr. Sal [00:14:33]:
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a good review, and Visit our website and social media accounts to connect with us more. If you happen to have any questions about your health regarding this episode, load. My email will be in the description below, and I'll be happy to answer any of your questions. And if you would like to see any of the sources of research in this episode, We will be they will be available in the show notes in the description. Until next time. I'm doctor Sal. Have a great day, and god bless.