Let's say you have a three-year-old boy. His teachers and paediatrician keep telling you that he can't sit still, his mind wanders and he distracts the other children in his class. The next thing that follows is a hard push (under the guise of an insistent recommendation from you know who) to put your child on Ritalin... To make matters worse, you suspect that this same recommendation is made to dozens of children in your son's school. The hard-sell steps in when you're told that your child will fall behind as a result of his behavioural problems... and that's how they get you. They tell you your child is going to fail. The other children will go on without him. They put that fear in you... and just the thought of it breaks your heart.

It’s only been in the last decade that mainstream medicine has started to realise curcumin’s potential to fight inflammation, reverse free radical damage, prevent Alzheimer’s disease and even help to repair stroke damage... A 2007 study showed that curcumin has the ability to prevent breast cancer tumour growth by restoring the normal mechanism by which cells die. In doing so, it prevents cancer from spreading (metastasis) through the blood stream and lymphatic system.

Folate (Folic acid supplements) may help prevent one of the most feared of all health conditions: stroke. According to a recent survey by US health charity March of Dimes, most women of child-bearing age are not taking supplements of folic acid (the synthetic form of folate, a B vitamin). When women have an adequate intake of folate, risk of birth defects drops off sharply. But the March of Dimes survey reveals that only one in three child-bearing age women take the recommended 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid supplements daily. The reason most women offered for not taking a supplement: They forgot.

Let's face it in this day and age we all are concerned about our heart health at some point... Writing in the November 2005 issue of the journal Stroke, researchers noted that higher doses of vitamin B-12 and other treatments to lower homocysteine might be needed for some stroke patients in order to avoid further strokes and heart attacks.

This year alone, 125,000 people in the UK will suffer a stroke and 60,000 of them will die as a result. About half of the people who suffer a stroke have raised cholesterol the other half have normal or even low cholesterol. Scientists now understand that arterial plaque actually results from an inflammatory disorder of the blood vessels.

In a recent Swedish study, involving 92 children suffering from ADHD, half the children were given the super omega-3 supplement containing a high dose (500mg) of pure ethyl-EPA each day; the other group received a placebo. After just five weeks, teachers noted remarkable improvements in the behaviour of the children who were taking the EPA supplement, especially with regards to attention problems.

While Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a relentless and usually fatal illness, cases like this offer hope and, better still, mounting research is revealing that natural treatments may be effective in helping to prolong patients' lives and in enhancing their quality of life...

Ask most parents to list the top three most challenging behavioural disorders a parent may have to face and they will say Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Dyspraxia, which is characterised by a pronounced clumsiness, and dyslexia - where problems in reading and recognising letters can make school learning a nightmare - may also both make it on to the list.

The latest research shows that progress has been made in suggesting a link between the “sunshine vitamin” and a gene that increases the risk of the incurable neurological condition, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), an inflammatory disease of the nervous system. The news comes from a study that researched how vitamin D interacts with the genes that make certain people more likely to develop MS.

Researchers from Singapore have revealed that drinking at least 23 cups of black tea a month, or about three-quarters of a cup a day, may lower your risk of developing Parkinson's disease by a whopping 71 per cent. Parkinson's disease is a degenerative condition affecting movement and balance.