Diet helps children with ADHD more than medication

A recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet claims that a restrictive diet can significantly improve symptoms of attention deficit in children.

The doctor Lidy Pelsser, who led the study of ADHD Research Center in the Netherlands, argues that attention deficit is caused, in many cases, by external factors and therefore may be treated with changes factors relating to the environment in which the child lives.

ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADD) is not a disease in itself, underlines the doctor, but a sum of symptoms. Therefore, points Pelsser, how it is perceived and treated this disorder today must endure a “paradigm shift“.

According to Pelsser, although today‘s treatment for ADHD is trough medication, 64% of cases can be remarkably well treated by a systematic change in child’s diet. “It takes five weeks to figure out if the diet is to blame for ADHD and what foods cause deficiency symptoms,” explains Pelsser. The doctor suggests to parents of children with ADD to start treatment of children by applying a restricted diet. Pelsser advises parents to seek treatment through medication only if the change in the modification of diet therapy is unsuccessful. Both measures of treatment, says the doctor should be applied only under the supervision of a physician.