thinkythink

CNN.com article: "Why Can't I Concentrate?"

I love that this article about women and adhd made it into the  mainstream (cnn) press. It has some good things to offer, and a few things lacking that I'd like to point out.

Good:
"When adult ADD (or ADHD: the H is for hyperactivity) goes untreated for years, women may end up plagued by anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem."

I'd add:
A lot of women seem to end up being treated for anxiety and/or depression when their ADHD goes undiagnosed. (I used the terms ADD and ADHD interchangeably.)

Good:

"Because women are less likely than men to be classically hyperactive, their symptoms can be more subtle and easily missed. For instance, a woman with ADD may come off as chatty, peppy, or extroverted, or even as a dreamy, artistic soul."

I'd add:

Many women with ADHD lack the symptoms of hyperactivity and/or impulsivity. (There are different types of ADHD- predominantly hyperactive, combined, and predominantly inattentive.) So these womens' symptoms aren't always apparent to others at all because they aren't disruptive.

Good:

"Hormonal changes can exacerbate the effects of ADD, too. When a woman enters perimenopause, she may be even more likely to forget names or key bits of information."

I'd add:

Hormonal changes within the menstrual cycle can exacerbate effects of ADD. You don't have to wait until (peri)menopause to have hormones affect ADHD. In fact, it seems that many girls symptoms really start to show up along with hormonal changes at puberty. Many women have symptoms fluctuate at certain points during each menstrual cycle.

In summary:

Decent, basic article. Glad to see this information out there. Inattentive folks, you're vaguely represented here. Women with PMS and ADHD are a bit neglected here. It's a good start. The stories towards the end are worth reading. It's great that people are talking about women with ADHD.

BPA, Pthalates, am I nuts?

Why am I concerned about all this plastics stuff?

I try to stay low-key about all the safety concerns and toxins concerns. I have enough to take care of. I have enough issues without making up no-buy lists I don't have to. I've seen how hard it is for people who really have to avoid foods and chemicals of various sorts because they are clear causes of health problems in their lives. (sugar/diabetes or citrus/hives or various cosmetics/eczema etc)

For myself and my clients, I do try to maintain a "save yourself before you save the world" attitude. This means: if you can't get organized to get the trash out at ALL, work on waste disposal before you work on recycling that takes extra car trips. Once the house is out of public-health-hazard danger, you'll be more able to think about setting up systems that are as great for the world as can be, and more able to actually have an impact. Similarly, once you've ingested some food on a regular basis, you'll be more able to think about ingesting better food.

And then here come the plastics scares. and I'm a new parent. I'm a new parent with a long (25 year long) history of crazy hormones. Sometimes they call it "PMS and we don't know what else there is to do," sometimes they call it "hormonal dysfunction," and sometimes they call it "PMDD." More about all that later.

There are all kinds of things one can do supposedly to improve PMS symptoms, like drastically change diet, cut out caffeine, bla bla. Never mind whether these things work (I tend to think it's just assumed that they do, because I haven't seen much research that shows that less red meat and no caffeine helps PMS); they ignore the fact that my hormones can mean it's hard to get to the supermarket, let alone cook healthy food. They ignore the fact that caffeine is one of the medicines that helps me cope, and helps me distance from my physical discomfort, helps me focus, and helps me get to the gym, and well, to the store, during the 1/2 of my life I may be sick. Oh no! way to much rant on another topic.

Bisphenol-A, used in plastics since grandmother's childbearing years. A synthetic estrogen. I've been wondering about xenoestrogens and all that for some time in my pursuit of a more even-keeled hormonal life, but thought, well, we've had wicked bad pms in the family going back to at least my grandmother.
Before that might be hard to know; the women were preggo for most of their child-bearing lives. What I do know going back to my grandmother is that menopause is something to look forward to. It's when things get better. I know mine is the worst, but I figured those chemicals and stuff can't be so much of a dramatic issue because the rest of the family has it bad. Until I read the timeline for BPA and its use in polycarbonate and realized I can't know that it isn't an issue.

That along with the finding that phthalates are exreted in infants' urine... and I'm changing a couple of things. Don't get me wrong folks, I am not claiming it will change everything or that these chemicals are the root cause of all that is bad. The thing is, that timeline, made me realize, I just don't know.

So I hope my husband will pardon the apparent obsession; it's hard to track down which products contain and don't contain which chemicals, and I'm just trying to clean things up for the sake of the little one while I'm still passing this stuff on to his tiny body. And who knows, maybe it'll help me too.

Helpful Links:
The Environmental Working Group and their Cosmetics Database (also check out their report on sunscreen, baby product buying guide, etc)

www.thesoftlanding.com  - check out their shop and their blog

zrecs.blogspot.com - check out their blog, and their awesome cellphone texting service to check on products.