Neurobehavioral disorders are a severe health concern, especially for children. Unfortunately, many different causes for these conditions can make it difficult for parents to determine how best to treat them. This article will examine some of the most common causes and why you need to understand them.
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Consuming Polluted Water for a Long Time
Water pollution can cause neurobehavioral disorders. Pollutants, such as heavy metals and chemicals released into the water supply, can enter your system when you drink it or come in contact with it on your skin. These pollutants can contribute to neurobehavioral disorders because they affect your brain’s work. They also cause damage to organs and tissues that are vital for healthy functioning.
Neurobehavioral effects from water contamination are a big concern. For instance, at Camp Lejeune, various severe health problems have been linked to exposure to these dangerous substances. Military personnel, their families, and civilian workers were the most affected. These included hazardous substances such as vinyl chloride, benzene, trichloroethylene, and tetrachloroethylene (PCE or PERC). Because of this, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, and other Camp Lejeune neurobehavioral effects have risen over time due to water contamination.
If you think your water may be polluted and causing symptoms of a neurobehavioral disorder, test the water quality in your home. You can ask a local health department for help or use an inexpensive testing kit available at hardware stores or online. If your water tests for high levels of chemicals like lead or mercury, consider buying bottled drinking water until the contamination problem is solved. Talk to an expert if you have concerns about whether there’s lead in your home plumbing pipes. They can check out the situation firsthand and recommend the next steps.
An Imbalance of Hormones
Hormones are chemicals produced by the body and are essential for life. Hormones are responsible for regulating many processes in the body, including growth and development. In addition, these hormones affect how you feel, think and behave.
A hormone imbalance may cause problems with your brain and nervous system and neurobehavioral disorders. For example:
- Hypothyroidism is a condition where your thyroid gland produces too little thyroid hormone. The symptoms include fatigue, depression, and weight gain. In severe cases, it may lead to dementia or coma if not treated early enough.
- Hyperthyroidism is another condition where your thyroid gland produces too much thyroid hormone. Symptoms include restlessness and irritability.
- High cortisol levels cause Cushing syndrome in your blood from taking corticosteroids such as prednisone for several weeks or longer without medical supervision. Symptoms include weight gain around the waistline/hips area and weakness/fatigue due to muscle wasting.
- Hyperprolactinemia, with high prolactin levels, occurs when an excess amount of prolactin is produced in one’s pituitary gland. It often leads to infertility issues which can correct once proper treatment has been administered.
Exposure to Toxins
Toxins are a significant cause of neurobehavioral disorders and can come from many sources. They include chemicals, bacteria, or viruses that cause infections and radiation from the sun or X-rays.
Exposure to toxins can happen when you breathe in airborne pollutants such as dust particles in polluted air, eat contaminated food, and drink water contaminated by lead or other harmful substances. In addition, use cosmetics with chemicals that seep into your body through your skin or absorb toxic substances through cuts.
Damage to the Brain Due to Trauma
Neurobehavioral disorders can be caused by damage to the brain itself due to trauma. In the United States, over 5.3 million people have a persistent disability related to a traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury, stroke, tumors, and infections are all possible causes of neurobehavioral disorders. A traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurs when an impact on the head causes some physical damage to the brain.
Most people think only of severe cases like the ones seen in boxing or football players who have been knocked unconscious for a while. But, even a mild TBI can cause long-term effects on memory and cognition in some situations. They also cause changes in behavior and mental function, which may require treatment from a neurologist or psychiatrist. For example, brain tumors can cause headaches, fatigue, nausea, and seizures, along with behavioral changes. These include such as confusion or aggression, depending on where they’re located within your skull.
Also, infections such as meningitis can lead to seizures and coma, causing personality changes such as irritability or depression.
Nutritional Problems
You probably already know that eating a balanced diet is vital for your health, but it’s also essential to maintaining mental health. It is because several nutrients help support the development and function of the brain. These include vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids (EFAs). This section will look at each one in more detail.
- Nutrition: According to UNICEF, a nutritious diet is now out of reach for about 3.1 billion people worldwide, an increase of 112 million. That is alarming as millions of people worldwide still do not get a nutritious diet daily. A poor diet can lead to nutritional deficiencies, which can have far-reaching effects on bodies, including brains. At times these may be obvious signs such as weight gain or loss. But other times, there may only be subtle signs such as low energy levels or mood changes.
- Deficiencies in vitamins and minerals: Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause pernicious anemia, which leads to fatigue due to a lack of red blood cells carrying oxygen throughout the body. It includes the brain. Iron deficiency can result in anemia, where not enough red blood cells are available for all organs, including your brain. Therefore, oxygen gets carried through less efficiently, leading to symptoms such as lethargy and tiredness.
Genetics
Before looking at the other causes of neurobehavioral disorders, it’s important to note that genetics is the most common cause. It is because genetic diseases are passed down from parents to children through their DNA, some of which can be passed down through a mother’s egg or father’s sperm.
When discussing genetic disorders, it’s important to remember that not all are caused by genes alone. For example, genes can also play a role in determining how the bodies react when they come into contact with certain substances like alcohol or drugs. But this doesn’t mean everyone exposed to these substances will develop an addiction.
Now let’s look at some examples of what happens when people develop neurobehavioral disorders due to environmental factors like stress or chemical imbalances caused by drug use.
Knowing What Causes Neurobehavioral Disorders Can Help You Prevent Them
According to the National Library of Medicine, neurobehavioral problems in kids and adolescents are prevalent, involving 4.4% to 8.8% of all pediatric patients. Knowing what causes neurobehavioral disorders can help you prevent them and get treatment. Knowing what causes neurobehavioral disorders can also help you understand how to talk to your child about their condition.
For example, if your child has ADHD and you understand that a chemical imbalance causes it in the brain. Then, you will be better equip you to explain this to other people who don’t know why they act as they do.
