We see a lot of kids with ADHD; usually the initial visit goes something like this: a frazzled parent comes into my office with an energetic and rambunctious kid (or kids) in tow. We sit and try to discuss the child’s health history while the parent tries in vain to keep the kids calm and collected in my office. Soon the kids are spinning around in their chairs, pulling things off the shelves and generally doing a very thorough job of investigating (and making a mess of!) my office. We may do some preliminary testing and get the child started on a program including the appropriate supplementation and some kind of dietary program that usually involves removing potentially allergenic or hyper-stimulating foods.
After a couple weeks, we check in with mom and find out how it’s going. Inevitably, if they can even remotely follow our recommendations, they see improvement. For those that eventually incorporate the necessary changes, they often see marked improvements in behavior, focus, concentration, memory and sleep. A recent study published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet supports our clinical findings that there is a connection between what children eat and their ADHD-like behaviors in many cases.
The experiment focused on about 100 children from the ages of 4 to 8 years old with a diagnosis of ADHD. One group of these children spent five weeks on an ‘elimination diet’, meaning that they eliminated many of the foods that are most likely to cause an allergic or hypersensitivity reaction. The researchers found that 64% of the children who participated in this diet group showed significant improvement in their ADHD symptoms (as observed by their parents and teachers). 64% – that’s an incredibly high percentage of kids that saw improvement just related to dietary change alone.
However, it begs the question – what about the other 36% of kids that didn’t respond. In looking at the study, many of them weren’t compliant with the dietary recommendations. This is to be expected – it can be hard for parents to constantly patrol/control what their children eat. However, we address this by providing the parents constant support in the form of food ideas, recipes, checklists, one-on-one consultations, phone in visits and numerous other support strategies to make it as easy as possible for them to make the necessary changes. We also go much further than addressing just the dietary imbalances that can lead to ADHD by addressing other underlying nutritional imbalances that can be corrected through directed supplementation.
ADHD can often be corrected or significantly improved through dietary, lifestyle and/or nutritional intervention. We’ve seen it – we’ve helped hundreds of kids achieve the focus, concentration and peace that can only be achieved by correcting the underlying imbalances each person has.
What dietary, lifestyle or nutritional changes have you found beneficial for ADHD?