Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Exercise, food and other supports
Omega supplementation for ADHD began with encouraging results, including a Swedish study where about a quarter of inattentive children seemed to improve. Blinded, placebo controlled work did not reproduce it, and a Cochrane meta-analysis found no effect.
The manufacturers themselves largely moved on to other conditions, which tells you something. None of this makes omegas worthless, and levels do run low in this group. It does mean the honest expectation is small or nothing at all, and that anyone promising a transformation is selling you something.
Qur’an and Sunnah
God has chosen him over you, and has given him great knowledge and stature (Quran 2:247), said to people who wanted to judge by wealth instead. The grounds you judge on decide what you end up believing.
وَقَالَ لَهُمۡ نَبِيُّهُمۡ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَدۡ بَعَثَ لَكُمۡ طَالُوتَ مَلِكࣰ اۚ قَالُوٓاْ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لَهُ ٱلۡمُلۡكُ عَلَيۡنَا وَنَحۡنُ أَحَقُّ بِٱلۡمُلۡكِ مِنۡهُ وَلَمۡ يُؤۡتَ سَعَةࣰ مِّنَ ٱلۡمَالِۚ قَالَ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ ٱصۡطَفَىٰهُ عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَزَادَهُۥ بَسۡطَةࣰ فِي ٱلۡعِلۡمِ وَٱلۡجِسۡمِۖ وَٱللَّهُ يُؤۡتِي مُلۡكَهُۥ مَن يَشَآءُۚ وَٱللَّهُ وَٰسِعٌ عَلِيمࣱ
Their prophet said to them, ‘God has now appointed Talut to be your king,’ but they said, ‘How can he be king over us when we have a greater right to rule than he? He does not even have great wealth.’ He said, ‘God has chosen him over you, and has given him great knowledge and stature. God grants His authority to whoever He pleases: God is magnanimous, all knowing.’
Qur’an 2:247read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
Part of the original enthusiasm rested on observational work, where children with lower omega-3 in cheek cell samples showed poorer learning and behaviour. An association like that cannot say which way the arrow runs, and children who eat differently differ in plenty of other ways. It was a fair reason to run trials, and the trials are the part that settles it.
Kirby A, Woodward A, Jackson S, Wang Y, Crawford MA. (2010). Childrens' learning and behaviour and the association with cheek cell polyunsaturated fatty acid levels.. Research in developmental disabilities doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Symptoms wobble on their own and hopeful adults do the rating, so an open study can show a gain that was never there.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
When a parent is set on something that will not hold, one honest story often lands better than a pile of studies. A family finished the better part of a year of neurofeedback and watched their child slide back to where he started within weeks.
Kava, valerian, St John's wort, ginkgo, ginseng and the proprietary blends have not shown benefit for ADHD in trials that matched the amount in every capsule and kept both the person handing them out and the person rating behaviour unaware of who got what.
Food colouring is the one narrow exception in this area. Large studies suggest it may mildly wind up some very young children, so a trial removal in a preschooler is a reasonable thing to do.