There’s a lot written about nutritional treatment for ADD ADHD. A lot of it seems to me to be wishful thinking. Here’s some science, from Dr. Farone. I’ve edited his post.
Stephen V.
Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University
More recent meta-analyses of omega-3 fatty acids suggest that they show some efficacy, about half as much as stimulant drugs. Those with a high EPA/DHA ratio seem to have the best effect.
Using a standardized measure of treatment response effect where 0 means the treatment does not work and higher numbers are better. For stimulant drugs, the effect is 0.9, for food color restrictions it is about 0.5 and for other elimination diets it is about 0.4. Because most of the food color studies focused on kids with high levels of food colorant intake, the overall effect is smaller. The effect for other elimination diets is not reliable. A key issue is that the elimination diets are not easy to implement.
To to my surprise, there are a few people for whom the color additives make a difference. Please note that one of my son in laws takes a handful of “natural” pills and swears that they help his ADD ADHD.
doug
Some “natural” substances can help!
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scott- I think everyone’s should take omega-3 in some form, with I believe a higher percentage of D than E, is generally good for a lot of things. Glad you got the book and hope it is helpful.
other than stopping smoking, I think exercise is.the very best thing anybody can do for their health,it is a good antidepressant and it helps with ADD, ADHD.
thank you for commenting.
Doug
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Hi Doug,
I have found a lot of help from Omega 3. Either supplements (fish oil pills) or in food (Duck eggs if the ducks are on good forage, Salmon, Milk if the cows are grass fed). I also suffer from depression and that is where the Omega 3 really shows itself. My wife really noticed a difference and I have gone off and on and she caught it each time. There was a study though about men taking fish oil supplements who had a greater risk of colon cancer, so I try to get it from foods more than supplements now. It is interesting, but I have started to correlate my ice cream craving with a lack of Omega 3. It is sort of an early warning before I get depressed and spacey. Ice cream (the kind I can afford) doesn’t cure it because the Omega 3 is missing from grain fed milk products, but the craving is still there.
I just got a copy of Orlov’s “The Couple’s Guide to Thriving withADHD” thanks to a link on this blog. So far it looks helpful. Thank you!
Exercise is the other thing that seems to really help me with ADD and depression. I’m still working on trying to make that one a habit…
Thanks for your blog. It is a great reminder for me to pay attention to my ADD and has been very helpful with tips and ideas and good thoughts and support.
All the best,
Scott
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