The Facts About Fish Oil

The Facts About Fish Oil
How this common supplement can improve your mental focus.

Exercise and consume omega-3s.

John Ratey, M.D.

Can this common supplement sharpen your child’s focus? Countless studies have centered on the potential benefits of nutritional supplements as treatment for ADHD. Vitamins, minerals, and even some odd-sounding plant compounds — vinpocetine, a derivative of the periwinkle plant, and yerba mate, derived from evergreen trees in South America — have been studied for their ability to boost mental focus. But so far only one supplement seems to have some evidence supporting its use for ADHD: omega-3 fatty acids.

Found mainly in cold-water, fatty fish, such as sardines, tuna, and salmon, omega-3s are believed to be important in brain and nerve cell function. The body cannot make omega-3 fatty acids by itself, and because the American diet is heavy on beef and chicken — not fish — most people don’t consume enough of them to derive benefits.

“I tell my patients that there are two things they need to do for their health: Exercise and consume omega-3s,” says John Ratey, M.D., associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and coauthor of Driven to Distraction (Touchstone).


While omega-3 fatty acids seem to improve anyone’s mental focus, the compounds may be especially helpful to those with ADHD. One study, published in 2003 in Nutritional Neuroscience, showed that omega-3s tended to break down more readily in the bodies of patients with ADHD. Another study, published in 2004 in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, suggested that children with ADHD were more likely to have low blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids than children with no symptoms of the condition. Although both studies were small, the results led scientists to surmise that increasing omega-3s can help control symptoms.

Edward Hallowell, M.D., founder of the Hallowell Center for ADHD in Massachusetts, recommends that all of his patients take omega-3 supplements and notes that “it seems to help most with mental focus, not hyperactivity or impulsivity.” Ratey advises that it may take up to six weeks for patients to begin seeing benefits.

The Facts About Fish Oil
How this common supplement can improve your mental focus.
by ADDitude Editors

Source : www.additudemag.com by John Ratey, M.D.

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