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Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs

npr.org

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Re: Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs

#3

Post by Dn_Ab »

The article title is a bit misleading. It looks like they done a blind search on foods the children ate and by process of elimination found foods whose removal caused the reduction of ADHD like symptoms from 64% of kids in their sample. The Two signal paragraphs are:

Pelsser compares ADHD to eczema. "The skin is affected, but a lot of people get eczema because of a latex allergy or because they are eating a pineapple or strawberries." According to Pelsser, 64 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD are actually experiencing a hypersensitivity to food. Researchers determined that by starting kids on a very elaborate diet, then restricting it over a few weeks' time.

...

"In all children, we should start with diet research," she says. If a child's behavior doesn't change, then drugs may still be necessary. "But now we are giving them all drugs, and I think that's a huge mistake," she says.

My questions as someone ignorant of this area are 64% seems a confident generalization, theres no real physiological basis with respect to neurochemistry given for what causes these er mental allergies, what foods or absence thereof created the best results, is this scalable - it seems very trial&error so susceptible to misapplication and corner cutting and

I don't know how to read the following statement:

>Also, Pelsser warns, altering your child's diet without a doctor's supervision is inadvisable.

Re: Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs

#4

Post by Zak »

altering your child's diet without a doctor's supervision is inadvisable.

WTF? I'm sure this is just a CYA, but the idea that most people need the advice of a medical professional to make dietary decisions is absurd. Sure, be careful about any radical fad diets, but adding or eliminating certain foods is quite safe. People do that all the time due to price fluctuations, availability and changing tastes with no ill effects.

Re: Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs

#5

Post by juiceandjuice »

Some doctors attribute ADHD, particularly the inattentive sort, to actually be a manifestation of general allergic reactions which really just makes people tired, and triggers symptoms that would classify a person as having ADHD according to the DSM (Remember, the DSM generally makes no distinctions as to what causes a condition, it only diagnoses it.) They often try to treat the allergies first, which is generally a good start.

I have both ADHD and a mild latex allergy. Ironically, the latex allergy makes eating almost any fruit shitty ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome#Cross_rea... )

However, my diet has definitely kept clear of most of these foods when possible for a long time now (although I really do love avocados), and even did the fatty fish thing for a while, but symptoms haven't changed for me.

Re: Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs

#8

Post by Mz »

My kids are more ASD rather than ADHD but dietary changes and nutritional supplements and generally treating previously unrecognized health issues did a lot for them. While I was really, really sick, I got asked at times if I was (or accused of being) ASD or ADHD. I have no reason to believe I am either, though if I am feverish, in pain, throwing up, heavily medicated and so forth, my attention span and social skills are definitely impaired. Getting healthier has done a lot for my "social skills" (which I actually have, I just sometimes am too screwed up to effectively execute) and attention span/ability to focus.

Re: Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs

#9

Post by tokenadult »

squarepeg wrote: post #2

Full study here: http://www.adhdenvoeding.nl/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/P...

Thanks. The press release information in the NPR report submitted as the link here hardly begins to describe the study design. The link to the study suggests which issues in study design

http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html

to look at to see just how generalizable these results may be. With the sample size and length of study described here, I'd look for a lot more replication over populations from more countries studied over longer periods before reaching the same conclusion as the NPR story.

Re: Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs

#10

Post by tygorius »

Zak wrote: post #4

altering your child's diet without a doctor's supervision is inadvisable. WTF? I'm sure this is just a CYA, but the idea that most people need the advice of a medical professional to make dietary decisions is absurd. Sure, be careful about any radical fad diets, but adding or eliminating certain foods is quite safe. People do that all the time due to price fluctuations, availability and changing tastes with no ill ef…

Yeah, I raised an eyebrow on that point as well. Funny how the doctor can state authoritatively that 64% of kids' ADHD symptoms can be traced to diet, but there are no specific details on what the relevant diet elements are. It's as if she wants to protect children by keeping parents ignorant.
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