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The food colouring trials are the standard example. Around 150 children each received drinks containing a preservative plus one of two dye mixes, or a placebo, with the order varied and everyone blinded. Hyperactivity rose in the general population of children tested, which is not the same as saying dyes cause ADHD. Holding that distinction is what keeps you from either dismissing the finding or inflating it.
They are those who are neither wasteful nor niggardly when they spend, but keep to a just balance (Quran 25:67). A just balance is what is wanted with evidence too, neither swallowing a claim whole nor waving it away.
الفرقان
وَٱلَّذِينَ إِذَآ أَنفَقُواْ لَمۡ يُسۡرِفُواْ وَلَمۡ يَقۡتُرُواْ وَكَانَ بَيۡنَ ذَٰلِكَ قَوَامࣰ ا
They are those who are neither wasteful nor niggardly when they spend, but keep to a just balance
Qur’an 25:67read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
The same design standard runs through the nutrition literature. An early meta-analysis of double blind placebo controlled trials found a significant antidepressant effect of omega-3 while flagging substantial variation between the trials pooled. Both halves of that sentence matter. Blinding makes a result worth taking seriously, and variation between trials is a reason to hold the size of it loosely.
Lin PY, Su KP. (2007). A meta-analytic review of double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of antidepressant efficacy of omega-3 fatty acids.. The Journal of clinical psychiatry doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
When each person acts as their own comparison and nobody knows what they were given, a result is much harder to explain away.
Water, sleep, food and digestion are not the boring preamble to the real work. When those are running badly, everything else you try has less to work with.
Irritable bowel symptoms turn up more often in people with ADHD, and they tend to track stress. If your stomach is at its worst in the weeks when everything else is at its worst, that is information rather than coincidence.
People often turn to herbal remedies hoping to avoid side effects. Plants are chemistry too, and some of them interact with prescribed medication in ways that matter.