Dr Chan is back

Hello, everyone.

I've been out for sometime and have interesting information to assist ADD people. Part of the reason is technical because I couldn't return to my blog 'cause someone seemed to have hijacked the site. I hope I can make it work again, technologically speaking. My email is and was addmdchan@yahoo.com. However, I have to use a gmail account to get in now. Thus, the reference email address is about cars. Good to be back.

Dr. Chan

Divorce and the ADD child

So many times in today's society, one or both parents decide that the partnership (i.e. marriage) can not continue further due to "irreconcilable differences." Consequently, divorce is the next course of action.

What happen to the welfare of the child??? How does that affect the child's development in the present, near future and as adults? The fighting parties may not be cognizant of the child's emotional traumas.

Here is a typical scenario and the potential solutions.

Jon is a 8 year old going through a divorce. He is on Concerta Monday through Friday with the weekends off. Ritalin is use for breakthrough task management when mother feels he is out of control and acting cranky.

Since the parents are separated living in separate households, mother takes care of Jon's weekdays, while father has him weekends.

Mother wants medication. Father don't want medication. Mother has custody responsibility, while father has no legal custody over medication issues.

How would be best handle the situation?

First, continue with medication so as to be sure Jon completes school work on a timely manner. Anything assistance and encouragement to help Jon complete school work increases his self-esteem and confidence to tackle larger projects in the future.

The behavioral issues from no medication will have to be monitored closely and redirected to better suited to societal parameters. If he is misbehaving, there must be clear negative reinforcements. These may include not allowing to the Saturday movies, no sport participation, being "grounded", etc. until the behavior is understood and corrective measures implemented. Ask Jon what would be the punishment to fit the "crime." Jon will tell you. Stick with his suggestions.

Second, what if the father doesn't want medication for Jon. How are we going to address that delicate issue? What are the alternatives to pharmaceutical medications?

A channel of communications must be established between mother and father. Both must set aside their ego and personal agenda so that medicate or not medicate would be address collectively. Easier said than done! It is a tough job to communicate with the other spouse when so much anger, frustration and emotions are at the surface.

There are many avenues to non pharmaceutical approach. However, it is labor intensive for all involved parties. Furthermore, it takes much commitment to make it work. I will illustrate them for you in a systematic way.

Once you decide the non-medical technique, you substitute other non-traditional allopathic mainstream medical approaches.


(1) Add daily supplements to the diet. These include Vitamins, antioxidants, trace minerals, omega-3 fatty acid supplements,

(2) Detoxify the physiology to enhance absorption.

(3) Change eating habits and avoid "fast foods".

(4) Behavior modification consistently to change some the bad habits to good habits. Both parents and Jon must perform this. If done this way, there is synery. If not, it is counter productive.

There are still other ways to deal with this situation.

Next week I will go into details each of the above components with links for further explanation.

Diabetes and ADD/ADHD part 5 of 5 (Body Symbology - Changes On A Personal Level)

This is the final post of theDiabetes and ADD/ADHD series. Now that we understand a bit about the functionality of the organ pancreas, what is expected of us to change on a personal level to maintain our sugar level?

This may sound peculiar at first, but keep an open mind and work at it consistently and regularly.




I will continue to edit some of the previous posts throughout the summer. Therefore, my postings will be less in numbers until the fall. Please stay tune.

Diabetes and ADD/ADHD part 4 of 5 (Body Symbology - Function)

This segment of diabetes and ADD/ADHD deals with the significance of the organ. What does the organ pancreas represent symbolically?

The pancreas is an endocrine gland. The function of this endocrine gland is to regulate sugar.

I will continue tommorrow.... thanks for the patience.

Diabetes and ADD/ADHD part 3 of 5 (Pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological agents)

This is the third part of the diabetes series. I will discuss some of the traditional management protocols of hypoglycemic agents, insulin, and other non-pharmaceutical intervention/supplements.

Hypoglycemic agents are divided in classess. They are
(I am out of town and will complete this section within the next few days when I return home. Sorry about the delay)



The purpose of hypoglycemic agents is to enhance the pancreas to secrete insulin.
(I will post them when I return home.)


Insulin is divided into animal extraction insuling or synthetic insulin. Either version is effective. In today’s formularies, the predominant insulin is recombinant variety (i.e. synthetic). In other countries, the bovine (beef) and pig extract insulin may be more prevalent. It’s not a matter which is better, it’s a matter of what form of insulin will your body assimilate effectively.


There are varies supplements available that’s are hypoglycemic agents. This means that the herbal supplements help bring down blood sugar level. Level 90 and _____ are supplements capable to longer blood sugar. One of theingredient is chromium picolinate.

These help transfer the glucose molecule from the blood side into the cellular side where glucose molecules can be utilized to manufacture energy in the forlm of ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate) in the mitochondria. The more effective the glucose transfer into the cellular side, the better the balance of blood glucose level. Therefore, a better controlled and healthier diabetic.

Symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, “blah” feelings, anxiousness, poor appetite or feelings of hunger, anger related issues, "panic attacks", etc. are associated with poorly maintain blood glucose level. Once blood glucose levels are maintain within a certain acceptable range, the diabetic person’s sense of well being will be improved.

Diabetes and ADD/ADHD part 2 of 5 (pathology)

In continuing our series on diabetes, this posting is about the pathology of diabetes. Here is a short review. The beta cells of the pancreas produces insulin. When there is infecetion (viral, bacteria, secondary to trauma, etc), physical injury, blood related injury (anoxia), chemical, environmental, iatrogenic (injury caused by health professions such as doctors' "oops"...), secondary to metastatic disease (such as cancer spreading to the pancreas) and idiopathic (i.e. "we just don't know...).

The degree of injury, infection, or from metastic cancer causes the beta cells of the pancreas to function at certain capacity. That capacity determines what course of management is appropriate.

If the injury is mild and the beta cells can produce sufficient insulin to marginally maintain adequate control of blood glucose, then insulin is not needed. Maybe diet and exercise is sufficient.

When the injury is a little more severe, pharmacological agents may be necessary. Usually hypoglycemic agents are tried first. If not able to control blood sugar, a combination of hypoglycemic agent and insulin is necessary.

If more severe, insulin is the main pharmacologic agent used to control blood sugar.

With more advancing technology, an insulin pump may be suitable for certain patients. This is essentially a minature computer hook up to a person's body to constantly monitoring the blood sugar, If the blood sugar is high, a "shot" of insulin is injected to balance out the excess blood sugar.

The pathology is very simplistic for my readers. However, in future postings, I will go into more details for those who wish to learn more of the technical aspect of the pathology of diabetes.

The next posting will discuss some of the treatment plans (pharmacological and a little about non-pharmacological) for diabetes. So please stay tune...

Diabetes and ADD/ADHD part 1 of 5 (physiology)

Diabetes mellitus, commonly called “sugar diabetes” is a fairly common disease of modern civilization. It is prevalent in industrialized society such as our and less common is less developed countries.

Here’s an overview of what to expect in the next five weeks. We start off with an understanding of normal physiology. The normal physiology overtime with uncontrolled blood sugar becomes pathology of diabetes. It is the pathology of the disease that’s relevant to the ADD/ADHD person.

The triad of the ADD/ADHD symptoms includes the ease of distractibility, impulsivity, and restlessness/hyperactivity that contribute to the difficulty in proper management of the ADD/ADHD diabetics.

After the clinical discovery of diabetes, the person would need to make life-changing habits to modulate the clinical course of diabetes. This includes non-pharmacological and pharmacological intervention. In addition, modification of diet will be necessary to maintain a reasonable blood glucose level. Furthermore, herbal non-pharmacological supplements are recommended as the initial trial.

If resistant, then pharmacological intervention is suggested. This could be hypoglycemic agents or insulin.

Lastly, the final posting will be body symbology of diabetes. What is the symbolic meaning of having diabetes? How can one change one’s (subconscious and conscious) behavior to improve the disease?

I will address those issues in subsequent postings.

So, let’s begin part one, normal physiology. The beta cells of the pancrease produce insulin. The alpha cell of the pancreas has an antagonistic function to the beta cells, that is, it produces glucagons, which acts just the opposite of beta cells. Glucagon breaks down glycogen stored in the liver cells when the body needs glucose as fuel.

The pancreatic beta cells produce insulin in response to elevated blood glucose level. This occurs usually after a meal. The insulin is necessary for active transport within the membrane of the cells to transport glucose from the outside into the inside of the cells where it is the energy source.

Once inside the cell, the glucose molecule goes into the Krebs cycle to generate ATP (Adenosine Tri-Phosphate) within the mitochondria of the cell. This is where the majority of cellular energy is produce.

Within the Krebs cycle are important biochemical reactions whereby vitamins such as folic acid, B-12, vitamin C, etc are necessary for the biochemical process to move forward. Without these vitamins, the breakdown of glucose into energy is hindered. Therefore, it is quite important to have enough of the appropriate vitamins to make the biochemical process go smoothly.

there's more to come...