Potential Nutritional Treatment for ADD/ADHD

Dr. David Rabin­er’s Atten­tion Research Update drew my atten­tion to a recent spate of research arti­cles on the poten­tial of omega‑3 fat­ty acid dietary sup­ple­men­ta­tion to help treat ADD/ADHD. Stim­u­lant med­ica­tion for chil­dren with ADD/ADHD has been the pre­dom­i­nant treat­ment for years. Thus far, it has been quite suc­cess­ful, but we have yet to see the long term effects of chron­ic med­ica­tion. Giv­en that, it is worth at least inves­ti­gat­ing alter­na­tive ther­a­pies that can be used either in place of or in con­junc­tion with tra­di­tion­al phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and behav­ioral treat­ment. As one of the four pil­lars of brain health, nutri­tion has a sig­nif­i­cant impact on both phys­i­cal struc­tures in the body and behav­ior. Nutri­tion­al research though is often dif­fi­cult to con­duct. It is uneth­i­cal to with­hold essen­tial nutri­ents from peo­ple and nutri­ents work syn­er­gis­ti­cal­ly, which makes it dif­fi­cult to dis­cern the effect of one nutri­ent ver­sus another.

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Brain Health and Alzheimer’s disease

from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions. Does a brain fit­ness pro­gram pre­vent Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er forms of demen­tia? Stud­ies have shown men­tal­ly active peo­ple have low­er rates and lat­er onset of symp­toms for Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er forms of demen­tia. These dis­eases involve a num­ber of vari­ables like fam­i­ly his­to­ry, phys­i­cal fit­ness, nutri­tion, and brain fit­ness. Peo­ple who remain intel­lec­tu­al­ly active and engage in hob­bies reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s dis­ease by one third.

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Nutritional Supplements and Brain Fitness

Well, the idea that you can just pop a pill to improve your mem­o­ry and atten­tion lost some ground today. The Asso­ci­at­ed Press released an arti­cle on DHEA, a steroid pre­cur­sor to testos­terone and estro­gen used to improve ath­let­ic per­for­mance, increase sex dri­ve, and reduce fat as well as fight dia­betes and heart dis­ease. The…

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