ADHD drugs like Ritalin shown to be even riskier than we thought
Arrhythmias, high blood pressure, heart attacks, stroke, and heart failure.
They’re the kind of problems you’d expect to hear about at a cardiologist’s office.
But they’re showing up at pediatricians’ offices instead.
A team of international researchers has found that ADHD meds like Ritalin — the same drugs being handed out to kids who aren’t even potty trained yet — could cause serious heart problems.
It’s a frightening and shocking new investigation that you need to hear about before a child you love is put in serious danger.
How many more horror stories are we going to have to hear about ADHD drugs before doctors wake up and smell the coffee?
Over the past few years I’ve told you how they’re linked to weak and brittle bones, heart disease, depression, seizures and “sudden death.”
Now, this new study fills in some of the missing puzzle pieces as to exactly why they’re so dangerous for our kids.
Researchers from Australia, Canada and South Korea decided to take a serious look at these drugs — specifically Ritalin, Concerta, Quillivant XR, QuilliChew ER and Metadate CD — all meds in the class called methylphenidates.
They crunched the records for thousands of children taking them in South Korea (yes, these drugs are now being handed out like candy all over the world) looking for unusual heart problems.
And here’s what they found.
- The risk of a child having an arrhythmia increased by 61 percent during the first two months of taking one of these drugs.
- The risk of having a heart attack also increased after the first week on these meds and remained elevated for several months.
- Any child with a congenital heart condition (something that can be totally unknown to parents) has a much “more pronounced” risk of suffering heart problems on drugs such as Ritalin.
And suffering a heart attack isn’t the only danger from these meds.
Last year I told you how government officials were getting ready to put “stronger” warnings on ADHD drugs about the increased risk of suicide they carry.
Only those officials weren’t from the FDA, but from Canada. Our good old FDA is still hemming and hawing over that idea. In fact, 10 years ago an agency advisory panel stated it didn’t think additional warnings about suicides were necessary!
As I’ve been telling you, the FDA is going full-steam ahead in approving even more ADHD drugs — including a candy-flavored one that I warned you about just last week.
Of course I could go on all day long about how risky these meds are. But the truth is, many well-meaning parents feel pressured into giving them to their children by pediatricians and school officials.
One mom told me that she thought her child wouldn’t be allowed in the classroom if he didn’t take Ritalin every day!
But nothing could be farther from the truth.
No doctor, school nurse or principal has the right to force a parent to give ADHD drugs to their child. And it’s certainly not a requirement to attend school!
If you’ve been told that your child or grandchild has ADHD, before you set foot in a doctor’s office to even discuss one of these meds, you should read this eAlert about Dr. Allan Spreen’s protocol for treating these kinds of problems.
And treating them without drugs.
Sources:
“ADHD drug may cause irregular heartbeat” June 3, 2016, Newsmax, newsmax.com
