A lot and at the same time nothing is believed to be capable of dietary supplements. What about ADHD, for example? Does vitamin D help against the neurological symptoms – or is there no way out?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can be very stressful for children and those around them. There are various pharmacological treatment options that work better for some and less well for others. But they only improve the symptoms instead of addressing the underlying neurological mechanisms and can also have side effects.
Nutritional supplements – an easy way out of a difficult situation?
So it’s no wonder that other ways are being sought to help affected children. Possibly through an adequate supply of Vitamins and minerals: That puts an American Study by Jeanette M. Johnstone and colleagues, who provided children with ADHD ages 6 to 12 with micronutrients or placebo for 8 weeks.
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The children should take six to nine tablets a day. In the end, according to the (blinded) doctors’ assessment, 54 percent of the treated group and 18 percent of the placebo group had improved symptoms. The situation was different when it came to the parents’ assessment: there was no significant difference between the groups. However, this is probably due to the strong placebo effect – from the parents’ point of view, the symptoms had improved significantly in both groups. It follows that such studies should be reported with caution, says Ulrich Brennecke, chairman of the non-profit association ADxS: “Parents naturally want to help their children and often have high hopes for relatively simple solutions.”
Nutrient deficiencies: Another stress
Brennecke is not surprised that the micronutrients improved the symptoms from a medical point of view; also earlier ones studies already pointed in this direction. In particular, taking vitamin D could alleviate attention deficit disorders, and the ADxS has more than 20 other vitamins and minerals scientific investigations collected.
However, there is one important caveat, as the study admits Vitamin D shows: The dietary supplements only help children who have a deficiency. “ADHD has mainly genetic causes,” explains Brennecke. “Vitamin deficiency only has a small influence on how severe the symptoms are.” If the children experience additional stress, for example due to a nutrient deficiency, this can definitely aggravate the symptoms – and vice versa, improve them again when the deficiency is remedied. To ‘cure’ the disease with vitamins and minerals alone is therefore utopian, after all only one of many factors is taken out of the equation.
Deficiency due to unhealthy diet
In fact, various studiesthat children with ADHD are often poorly supplied with vitamins and minerals. Taiwanese researchers studied the eating habits of over 200 elementary school children. That result: Children with ADHD were more likely to eat foods with a lot of sugar or fat and less often vegetables, fruit and high-protein food. As a result, the researchers also found a poorer supply of the necessary nutrients.
However, it is unclear whether ADHD is responsible for the unhealthy diet or vice versa, or whether both support each other in a kind of vicious circle.
However, giving children several tablets a day with a complete mix of vitamins, minerals and other substances, as in the Johnstone study, is neither necessary nor sensible, nor is it sustainable over a longer period of time. Ulrich Brennecke’s conclusion: “It is more helpful when diagnosing ADHD to examine the blood for defects and then take targeted countermeasures. Nevertheless, dietary supplements or vitamins will at best support the treatment and will by no means eliminate all symptoms.”
Image source: Magnus Olin, unsplash