Dallin from the Hardy Nutritionals science team shares an update on new research published on Daily Essential Nutrients, our clinical micronutrient supplement for mood and mental health.

At the end of 2017, a landmark study was published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry entitled "Vitamin mineral treatment improves aggression and emotional regulation in children with ADHD, a fully-blinded randomized placebo-controlled trial".

The vitamin mineral treatment referred to in that title was Hardy Nutritionals Daily Essential Nutrients, which was given to children ages 7 to 13 years over the course of 10 weeks at a dose of 10 to 12 capsules per day in comparison with a placebo.  The conclusions from that study were as follows, to quote the researchers:

"Micronutrients improved overall function, reduced impairment and improved inattention, emotional regulation and aggression."

So those are the three main improvements:

-Improved overall function
-Reduced impairment and improved attention
-Improvements to emotional regulation and aggression

The researchers further stated, "The low rate of adverse effects and the benefits reported across multiple areas of functioning indicate the micronutrients may be a favorable option for some children, particularly those with both ADHD and emotional dysregulation." 

It appears from this study, as well as from our experience, that the Daily Essential Nutrients can help children with ADHD immensely.

During that study, researchers gathered blood samples and fecal samples from study participants. This is commonly done in clinical trials and the idea is, that should significant positive clinical outcomes be found (such as was the case in this study), then the researchers can apply for funding to analyze the blood and the stools of the participants and that might give mechanistic clues as to how and why the treatment worked. The stool sample analysis was published in June of 2019 in a nature journal titled "Scientific Reports" as a follow-up study entitled "Human gut microbiome changes during a 10 week Randomised Control Trial for micronutrient supplementation in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder".

The researchers stated, "We found that micronutrient treatment did not drive large-scale changes in composition or structure of the microbiome." This means that taking Daily Essential Nutrients did not dramatically disrupt the bowel. However there were significant differences between the stool samples of the kids that received Daily Essential Nutrients and those that receive placebo.

Although the overall composition of the gut microbiome did not dramatically change, the relative population of certain species in the gut microbiome was shifted in these children with ADHD. In this case, the Bifidobacterium species were reduced in relative abundance to the other species of the gut microbiome. There are other published studies that also correlate bifidobacteria populations with ADHD symptomatology, so this is consistent with other ADHD research.

The Daily Essential Nutrients were shown to decrease the relative population of bifida species. 

It's clear that bifida species correlate with ADHD symptomotology. Researchers state that these findings suggest that micronutrient administration (specifically Daily Essential Nutrients) could be used as a safe therapeutic method to modulate bifidobacterium abundance which could have potential implications for modulating and regulating ADHD behavior.  Add that to the double-blind study which showed improved overall function and reduced impairment as well as improvements to emotional regulation and aggression, and a case can be made for using Daily Essential Nutrients micronutrients for pediatric ADHD.

The other significant finding Dallin highlights in this video has to do with community richness and species diversity in the gut. The follow-up study results say that "micronutrient treatment may support a more diverse microbiome or aid in protecting against random fluctuations".  The whole concept of a more diverse microbiome is supported in these findings.

The children who received Daily Essential Nutrients had a more diverse microbiome, a greater diversity of species present than the children who received placebo over ten weeks. And it is fairly well known in the scientific community in regards to the gut microbiome that greater diversity is generally better for human health. The idea is that the more diverse the microbiome is, the more capable the human is to adapt and respond to changes and stresses in the environment.

The fact that the children taking Daily Essential Nutrients had a more diverse and rich microbiome means that they're more likely to be capable of adapting and responding to stresses and changes in their environment. 

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.