Vitamin/Mineral supplements

I know Dr. Amen recommends a multi-vitamin for ADD. He cites some work supporting this recommendation with attention. I have been giving my son a multi-vitamin since reading that a year or so ago (we had stopped vitamins at my house after my youngest—then two—climbed up on the counter to get to the vitamins on the top shelf of the cupboard!). I don’t know how much difference it has made—too many variables to really know—but I thought it couldn’t hurt anyway.

Beth

Check out the NIMH website. You’ll see that there is little objective support for the effectiveness of vitamin supplements in treating ADHD. The most promising of these not very promising strategies is essential fatty acid supplementation. Some limited research suggests it may help some ADHD sufferers but the jury is still out on whether it is broadly useful in ADHD. A well-nourished child will always be better off, and there is nothing wrong with a multi-vitamin in most cases, but some supplements can cause problems in certain kids, even if most kids would not have a problem. Call your pediatrician before you give you kid any supplement.

You might try and find European sites on the effectiveness (or not) of vitamins. This country has been very slow on really giving vitamins (and herbs) proper testing because although it is a multimillion dollar business in comparison to big drug companies it is very little. There is no money in the testing. NIH does not have unlimited resources.

For example the testing of vitamin C for the common cold hasn’t been very good. Mostly the doses used are really way too low to do anything anyway (something like maybe what you’d get from drinking OJ), when it takes megadoses. Linus Pauling wrote a lot about this and though he was a genius and had two Nobel prizes (one in chemistry) there was a lot of “well the guy can’t be right about everything” or “he’s gotten to be something of a crack pot”.

On European webpages I found double blind tests for things like herbs for menopause, something you just won’t see in the US.

I’m not saying whether it works or not, just that you should take a look at European research.

—des

Des — take those websites with a HUGE grain of salt. True believers will simply invent data wholesale.

Those of us here who have been in the reading wars know all about the dishonest arguments, appeals to emotion, personal attacks, and fake “research” (either the opposite of what was really said, or totally invented) that is brought out in the discussions; well, the health field is, if anything, even worse.

I happen to personally believe in vitamins and diet control — as a sufferer from severe celiac disease which was mistreated for decades, I have a lot of knowledge and experience and a good test subject in myself. I have been prescribed vitamin supplements by the regular medical establishment as part of my treatment, and I have read that I probably should be taking more B supplements, if I could find some that didn’t contain other allergens. I am on a very strictly limited diet as part of my treatment from the standard medical establishment. So I’m not an anti-vitamin/diet crusader! But caution is definitely in order.

People make insanely overblown claims with little or no basis in fact, and you have to be extremely careful. Some of these supplements are dangerous — for example, even Vitamin A is necessary to your body in small/normal doses, but can kill you in overdoses; other herbal supplements have been linked to deaths and other problems.

Before you try any supplement, (a) check with a knowledgeable doctor — alas, your local family doctor/pediatrician may or may not be informed about these things — I have had to explain allergies to a number of people including my endrocrinologist — so your first step is to find a doctor who is informed and doesn’t have his own axe to grind; and then (b) use both internet and library and find out about the particular chemical not only from the supporters point of view but also from the standard medical point of view — if it is known to have killed people or caused neurological damage, you want to know that.

Beware the placebo effect — you often feel better just because you are taking *something*. You need an outside evaluation from someone who doesn’t know what times you are on the supplement and what times you are not, if you really want to know it is making a change..

Oh yeah, about the dangers of large doses of some vitamins. This is oft quoted, but most of the vitamins used to enhance the immune system or improve behavior or memory are water soluble like C and B complex.

I think most MDs are very prejudiced against some of these things and are likely to say that it is hogwash.

I am sure there are people doing nothing but posting bad nos and so on. There IS serious research in Europe on herbs. Whether I found that or no well not so sure. Let’s just say I double checked or even triple checked everything. The US has not done real serious research on most of this. Maybe an effect of humungous drug companies that make $$$ bucks.

As for the placebo effect this is a factor. This is also true of diet or even prescription drugs (even though in studies these are quite easy to rule out). I am pretty much a believer in Vit C and it’s effect in preventing the common cold (or some strains there of). Not much so on the ‘cure’ aspect.

I think if you are lucky you could contact a competent nutritionist. I just have no faith in alopathic medicine to know anything about it or care.

There are some people claiming that vits and/or diet have an effect on the behavior of some groups of dd kids. Not sure it has ever been validated, but I would not believe that US doctors would be the ones who would know.

BTW, there are worthwhile herb/vitamin databases that will tell you side effects and drug interactions. You would want to know this info.

BTW, I don’t consider myself a vitamin diet freak or anything. I tend to take a small no. of supplements but I am not just all crazed to take everything out there.

—des