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Nutrition and ADHD
By Dr. Paul Varnas | September 11, 2008
Various nutritional approaches may help ADHD. Nutrition remains controversial because scientific studies, by their very nature, look at a single constituent. The paradigm in medicine is to try to find a “cure”, one thing that fixes the symptom. There is an inherent flaw in this way of thinking because it assumes that any health problem has one cause. If the problem, as some research suggests, is due to a lack of serotonin, then many factors can come into play. You need protein and the amino acid tryptophan to make serotonin. You also need folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin C and other nutrients to make serotonin. Exercise helps us to produce serotonin. Essential fatty acids are necessary for the integrity of the nerve cell membranes. Many factors are involved. If someone with ADHD is not producing enough serotonin due to a lack of tryptophan, giving them folic acid in a study may not produce results. If the person is folic acid deficient, then giving B6 may not help and so on.
Serotonin is only one neurotransmitter—what if GABA is involved? Obviously, other nutrients will come into play. Sugar and the chemical reactions of the Krebs Cycle begin to matter. What if a heavy metal or a chemical toxin is interfering with those reactions?
When you think of ADHD that way, the inherent idiocy of debating whether or not B6 (or any other nutrient) should be used to treat ADHD becomes obvious. B6 fixes a B6 deficiency, not ADHD. If a patient with ADHD has a deficiency, then the nutrient will help.
There is a free MP3 file for patient education on natural health care and ADD/ADHD available at
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