Dr. Kathi Kemper

[swmom]

Is anyone familiar with Dr. Kathi Kemper? She's a pediatrician who has written, among other books,
The Holistic Pediatrician. Recommends a lot of different supplements for various conditions and illnesses, including ADHD.

[catatonic]

I don't know a whole lot about her, although her book "The Holistic Pediatrician" was recommended to me by a friend. (Haven't gotten around to that one yet.) This is just a personal bias, but I am not a fan of acupuncture, particularly on children, and I know that she recommends this for a number of things. That's why my friend mentioned the book - she was on a rip about the acupuncture thing. I do think it's great that a physician is so responsive to alternative treatments, particularly one who teaches at Harvard Med. Her book deals with alternative approaches to 25 pediatric conditions, including ADHD, but I haven't been able to summon the energy to pay $15 for a copy since our library doesn't have it. Do you know any details about what she recommends for ADHD?

[swmom]

cat -

Re: her recommendations for ADHD...the chapter is 18 pgs. long but here are the things I found most interesting...

*Her recommendations are primarily for the H in ADHD, the hyperactivity.

*Also, keep in mind that this book was written 8 years ago, and her recommendations might be a little different now that additional research has been conducted in several areas.

*Contrary to popular belief, sugar does not cause hyperactivity. "Sugar and other carbohydrates exert a calming effect."

*At the time this book was written, she was not a fan of the Feingold diet. "The main benefit of restrictive diets seems to be in the powerful placebo effect of making an entire family change its eating habits."

*For biochemical treatment of ADHD, she is a fan of medications, certain herbs, certain nutriitional supplements. Big fan of Ritalin. Also a big fan of the double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial, which means you, your child, your doctor and your pharmacist participate in a 3-wk. trial of the medication before you actually use it, i.e. one week the child is given a placebo pill, another week, a low dose of Ritalin, another week a higher dose of Ritalin. You, your child and your physician don't know which week you're on what. Only the pharmacist knows. Then, you and the child's teacher monitor symptoms throughout each week to determine what is working for the child and to see if Ritalin made a difference. She insists all of her patients go through this process before she prescribes medication. She also likes Dexedrine and Adderall.
She's not a fan of Cylert, or Clonidine. She's wary of
antidepressants because of their side effects. She
cites the fact that five children have died as a result of cardiac side effects when taking antidepressant meds for hyperactivity.

RE: herbs. "In addition to valerian, hops, passionflower, chamomile, kava kava, and lemon balm have been recommended as calming herbs for hyperactive children." Citing the fact that haven't been any studies proving the effectiveness of these sedating herbs on ADHD, she doesn't recommend them.
She doesn't recommned ginkgo, pine bark extract, spirulina(blue-green algae), evening primose oil. She,
however, is a big fan of using coffee to treat ADHD, if the child is already taking Ritalin.

RE: nutritional supplements. She's not a fan of the megavitamins. "Children treated with megavitamins
tended to have worse behavior, and over 40% developed signs of liver toxicity." Re: fish oil, at the time she wrote this book, "there are no studies suggesting that it is useful in treating ADHD." So, she doesn't recommend using omega 3. She likes melatonin as a aid for sleep in ADHD children, unless they have epilepsy. It helps with sleep but has no impact on daytime ADHD symptoms.

*For lifestyle treatment of ADHD, she's into nutrition. Highly recommends foods with a low glycemic index.
"High glycemic foods result in a roller coaster for blood sugar and a number of hormones , causing fluctuations in the ability to concentrate." She does say, too, that rare children do have reproducible reactions(irritability, restlessness and sleep disturbances)when challenged with the yellow dye tartrazine. She highly recommends
lots of exercise for hyperactive kids, especially the martial arts. She recommends the following to
establish a healthy home environment: reduce lead exposure, minimize clutter to minimize distractions, using calm colors and simple lines help reduce overstimulation, limit TV, big proponent of music therapy. Calm, slow tempo music has a positive effect on ADHD children.

Re: mind-body therapies. Structured schedule, stepbystep instructions, positive rewards for desired behavior, tutoring, biofeedback and relaxation training, professional counseling are all helpful.

*Bioenergetic therapies: acupuncture, homeopathy.
She doesn't recommend acupuncture, although she does cite reports of dramatic improvement in some cases. Not enough studies yet. Re: homeopathy, she regards it as safe and worth exploring but isn't to the point where she can recommend it because there aren't enough studies yet.

Again, keep in mind that she wrote this 8 years ago. I'd be interested in seeing her current recommendations!

[catatonic]

swmom -
If they took my blood pressure now, I'd probably have to be installed in the cardiac ICU!!!!! I'm glad I kept my $15 in my pocket.

-- I'm no fan of biochemical approaches unless the child has become a danger to himself or others, and my personal experience has been that the Feingold diet works very, very well. Placebo effect? Maybe during the first week or two, but when months and then years go by...hard to believe the placebo effect would linger long after the novelty has worn off.

-- I like her double-blind method of assigning medication. I like it a lot! (As well as her avoidance of anti-depressants...they are incredibly dangerous.) I wish she'd toss some more natural treatments like GABA or B6 or Tyrosine into the mix rather than relying so heavily on pharmaceuticals.

-- my personal experience with "calming herbs" (specifically passion flower, valerian, kava kava) have been that they have a reverse effect on my Challenge Boy. While my teenager, who has difficulty falling asleep, konks right out when given a passion flower/valerian tea blend, my ADHD boy hypers out and stays up half the night. This is true of a number of supposedly "calming" compounds.

-- megavitamin therapy is NOT the same thing as using nutritional supplements. Megavitamins are huge doses and I agree that the evidence is that it doesn't help. Nutritional supplements, on the other hand, are not used in dangerous amounts, and they are VERY VERY helpful to us in reducing my boy's ADHD symptoms.

-- on Omega-3 and fish oil...well, Kemper is obviously full of it on that one -- although, as you say, her opinion may have changed in the past several years. Hope so. I'd like to hear ohmama's thoughts on the "fact" that Omega-3 is useless in treating ADHD.

Kemper mentions studies on tartrazine (artificial food color - yellow). Something to keep in mind...those studies found noticeable behavioral impact at doses of 30mg or less. One tablespoon of green catsup contains 150mg, and a piece of frosted cake and a can of orange soda combined typically contain 300mg artificial color. If 30mg produces measurable effects, what do you guess 300mg might do? Or a pack of Skittles, with their 11 different artificial colors?

The mind-body therapies sound very sensible. Have you tried biofeedback? I've been looking into it because the research is quite promising, but haven't found anyone who's actually used it. (Probably, like me, they find the expense and time difficult to deal with.)

[swmom]

cat -

Didn't mean to get your blood pressure up. I hesitated to share some of the things I did because I knew that many who post here would disagree wholeheartedly. However, I decided to do it anyway just to answer your question, putting her recommendations in quotes and trying to make it clear that this book was written 8 years ago. I suspect after all the research that's been done in the last 8 years that she'd change her tune on several of these recommendations. Especially the omega 3.

It seemed to me that Kemper, like my own pediatrician, will NOT make any recommendations - especially regarding natural supplements - without plenty of the right kind of research to back it up. No matter what. Even if a million people say it works wonders. I 'spose it gets back to being held liable if it doesn't work or causes some life threatening problem. And that's very frustrating, especially to those of us who feel desparate for things that will help our kids.

It is also frustrating how quickly medical doctors tend to
believe that positive reports from parents are nothing more than the placebo effect. I had asked our neurologist one of the last times we were there about some therapy - I believe it was biofeedback. She made a copy of an article that had been written about the placebo effect and told me to read it. Jeez...

[catatonic]

I know what you mean about doctors. Our pediatrician is the same way. One time we went in, one of the things he asked me was whether we were interested in trying the bedwetting medication he'd mentioned on the previous visit. I told him that my boy hadn't wet the bed since Day 8 on the Feingold Diet. His reply: "Oh, he outgrew it." Yeah, right. As long as he avoids artificial colors and corn syrup, he outgrew it.

Have you tried some of Dr. Kemper's recommendations? If so, what's worked for you and what hasn't?

Go right ahead and get my blood pressure up any time you want...it isn't hard to do and I often enjoy the experience.

[swmom]

I have not tried any of her suggestions yet. The reason I wanted the book in the first place was to find out more about her. My pediatrician referred us to her
because we kept asking and asking about using this supplement and that supplement and they honestly couldn't help us. She's at Bowman Gray now, which is about an hour's drive from us. I would love nothing more than to get off Strattera and treat my daughter
with natural supplements. But - I do not want to do it without supervision from a doctor who specializes in doing this for ADHD. I was hoping that Kemper would be that person.

In 2 weeks, we're going to a psychologist for some more testing. After that, I'll know if we have other things going on besides ADHD. I believe that we do.
Once I know exactly what we have going on, then I can find a doctor who can help us treat her. The Strattera has been helpful with her attention span, helping with her memory, enabling her to focus for longer periods of time. On it, she making straight As, got on the honor roll for the first time. Without it, she'd still be making Bs and Cs. She still has some mood issues, not severe, but it might be related to depression. She is also very
anxious, especially in social situations. The Strattera has not helped there. So, we've still got all these things to resolve, then we'll be in a better position to try supplements. Trying them without a doctor really scares me.