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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Exercise, food and other supports
The reflex to correct any number under the reference range is worth resisting. Levels can be tested where there is a reason to test them. Eating a great deal of turkey on the strength of a folk belief about sleepiness has nothing behind it, and tryptophan supplements have had their own safety questions raised over the years.
So that you may not exceed in the balance (Quran 55:8). Correcting past the point of good is its own way of losing the measure.
الرحمن
أَلَّا تَطۡغَوۡاْ فِي ٱلۡمِيزَانِ
so that you may not exceed in the balance
Qur’an 55:8read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
For comparison, look at what a tested nutrient product actually delivers. In a double blind trial in adults with ADHD, a broad vitamin and mineral formula gave modest improvement over placebo, more clearly on clinician ratings than on the adults' own. That is the size of a positive result in this area, and nothing of the sort exists for tryptophan.
Rucklidge JJ, Frampton CM, Gorman B, Boggis A. (2014). Vitamin-mineral treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults: double-blind randomised placebo-controlled trial.. The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A number below average is not automatically a problem, and moving it is not automatically a benefit.
Protocols that spin a child in a chair or tip them backwards and forwards to train balance do not improve ADHD. What they mainly produce is a dizzy child.
If you are thinking about a weighted blanket or vest for a child, let an occupational therapist set the weight. It is a specific number for a specific body, not something to guess at in a shop.
When omega levels are low, everything about ADHD tends to get louder: attention, mood swings, holding things in mind. Low omega does not cause ADHD, but it can be sitting on top of it.