Daily Essential Nutrients Improves Aggression, Emotional Regulation and Attention in Children with ADHD: a Fully Blinded, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Many parents feel desperate for relief and yet are reluctant to medicate their children for the mood instability, irritability, aggression, and lack of focus that are so often a part of living with ADHD. To make matters worse, it can be difficult to find proven, effective alternatives.

Exciting new independent university research now confirms: that clinical micronutrients are a safe and effective alternative to psychiatric medications for children with ADHD.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder estimated to affect 5% of all children (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

ADHD conveys a risk for school failure, occupational problems, substance addiction, incarceration and ongoing psychiatric problems in adulthood, despite receiving conventional treatments. Pharmacological (drug) treatments can reduce symptoms, but can be unsatisfactory due to side effects, failure to prevent or alter long-term prognosis and discontinuance due to patient and family preferences. (Rucklidge et al., 2017)

If you are a parent of a child who suffers from ADHD, you know the life-altering facts all too well.

The good news is that children with ADHD and their families may be able to enjoy a much better quality of life...naturally.

Researchers from the University of Otago, the University of Canterbury, the Canterbury District Health Board and Oregon Health & Science University have been working hard to systematically evaluate Daily Essential Nutrients as a treatment for childhood ADHD. Their findings were published on Oct. 2, 2017, in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

The researchers commented, “This is the first fully blinded randomized controlled trial of medication-free children with ADHD assigned to either micronutrients or placebo…” Half of the ninety three study participants (aged from 7 – 12 years) were randomly assigned Daily Essential Nutrients and the other half were assigned placebo [micronutrient look-alike pills but with no active ingredients] for 10 weeks.” Study participants in the micronutrient group took an average of 11.8 capsules of Daily Essential Nutrients per day.

Here are the key findings from the research:

• Micronutrients significantly reduced impairment and improved overall function.
  
  • Clinician ratings identified that “...47% of those on micronutrients [were] ‘much’ to ‘very much’ improved versus 28% on placebo.” (Overall Clinician Global Assessment Improvement, p=0.029)  The study authors reported: “Many parents commented that...their child was calmer, more able to be reasoned with, and happier.”
    
    
• Micronutrients significantly improved inattention.
  • Researchers found that “Inattentive symptoms appeared to be improved more than hyperactive-impulsive symptoms… 32% of those on micronutrients versus 9% of those on placebo showed a substantial change (30% drop) in inattentive symptoms.” (Clinician ADHD - attention sub-scale, p=0.005)
    
    
• Micronutrients dramatically improved emotional regulation and aggression.
  • Researchers found that “Twice as many of the children who entered the trial with severe mood dysregulation, and were randomized to micronutrients, showed a clinically significant improvement in emotional dysregulation compared with placebo (41% vs. 20%)… These measures tapped into behaviours including hot tempers, fights with other children, explosive angry outbursts, and moods changing rapidly for no reason. These improvements on emotional control were consistent across the three raters (clinician, parent and teacher).”  (Parent Conduct Problems ratings, p=0.015; Teacher Emotional Control ratings, p=0.009) 
  • Researchers acknowledged that “Management of emotional dysregulation presents a considerable therapeutic challenge for parents, teachers and clinicians…” and were very encouraged by what the study results meant for the lives of the children involved, concluding that “These improvements bode well for improving life outcomes.”
    
    
• Daily Essential Nutrients was safe: there were no differences in side effects between the micronutrient and placebo group.
  • Researchers concluded the study by commenting, “In addition to conferring the symptom improvements, the micronutrients were safe and well-tolerated over the course of the 10-week trial and as such, they may have an important role in the treatment of childhood ADHD, particularly in cases where conventional stimulant medication is not viable, either due to ineffectiveness, poor tolerability or parental preference.
    
    

Clearly, Daily Essential Nutrients is not your average multivitamin-mineral supplement from the corner store.

A video article on stuff.co.nz features one of the study participants, Isaiah​ Godfrey, who at the age of 9 was unable to tie his shoelaces or brush his teeth. He had been expelled from six preschools and several other schools because of his severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Now 13, Isaiah can jump off 10 steps on his skateboard and has caught up on six years of schooling in just two years. His mother, Erica Godfrey, credits micronutrients for his "amazing progress".  Before trying micronutrients, his mother commented that Isaiah had tried "all types of ADHD medication you can get" and they made his anxiety worse.

"He became zombified enough to sit in school but the exuberant little boy I knew was gone." After Isaiah’s remarkable response to Daily Essential Nutrients, Mrs. Godfrey sums up the benefits as follows: "It's absolutely saved our lives as a family." 

_{[Photo credit Joseph Johnson/Stuff.co.nz]}

Another study participant, Theo, who was 11 years old at the time of the study, discusses his response to Daily Essential Nutrients in this video article. The article describes how since participating in the University of Canterbury study, Theo has continued to take Daily Essential Nutrients and is now sleeping better, connecting more with his peers, and capable of improved concentration at school.  

The impact Daily Essential Nutrients is having in research circles and, more importantly, in the everyday lives of individuals is gathering attention. It even has some reporters speculating that micronutrients may be "the answer to the mental health crisis" plaguing most developed nations, including New Zealand, where this study was conducted.  

Randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind studies are the gold standard of scientific rigor, and across multiple disorders and different supplement formulas, micronutrient therapy is being proving to be effective and reliable. The study authors commented that “There are now a number of double-blind randomized controlled trials (RCT) supporting the positive effect of broad-spectrum micronutrients for the treatment of symptoms associated with clinical conditions, including autism, ADHD, conduct disorder and depression.” And the results of this study were not biased by selecting for kids that were more likely to respond. The authors emphasized that “A strength of this study was that participants [were] typical of children seen in clinical practice.”

Best of all, life should only get better for the children who participated in the ten week study, as long as they continue to take Daily Essential Nutrients. As the researchers pointed out, while the study showed impressive results, “the full effect of nutrients likely requires more than 10 weeks.”

Additional double-blind studies have been published since this article was written. See them here.

Learn more at Try.GetHardy.com.

Source: Vitamin-mineral treatment improves aggression and emotional regulation in children with ADHD: a fully blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2017 Oct 2. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12817. [Epub ahead of print] Rucklidge JJ, Eggleston MJF, Johnstone JM, Darling K, Frampton CM.

About Hardy Nutritionals®

Hardy Nutritionals® multivitamin-mineral products are powered by our proprietary NutraTek™ mineral delivery technology, which combines each mineral with specialized organic molecules—just like nature—to optimize absorption and distribution to body cells. Our flagship supplement, Daily Essential Nutrients, is widely considered to be the most research-backed micronutrient treatment.