Children, what supplements to improve concentration?

Children, what supplements to improve concentration?

Being equipped with good concentration skills helps you face life with an extra edge. In fact, being able to avoid paying attention to irrelevant stimuli allows one to focus on the really important information and to stay engaged in a task long enough to train the skills necessary to complete it successfully.

Conversely, living with concentration difficulties can lead to a cascade of negative effects that can significantly impair quality of life. For example, the inability to concentrate can turn into stress and anxiety, inappropriate behavior, and difficulty working in groups or following received instructions.

For all these reasons, helping children develop their attention skills is important to ensure not only their present well-being but also that of the future adults they will be. But how to do this?

Also coming into play isnutrition, the positive effects of which can be assisted by the use of specific dietary supplements. Adequate nutrient intake during childhood is indeed crucial for promoting long-term health. It is known, for example, that an unbalanced diet can predispose children to become adults with a tendency to excess weight. And it is also known that what one eats when one is a child can also affect the functioning of their central nervous system.

Nutrients allied to the brain

Highly processed foods and the added sugars in which they are rich are not on the list of foods and nutrients allied to the concentration of young children. Therefore, it is good not to abuse them and to encourage the consumption of nutritionally richer foods from an early age.

In fact, most of the nutrients that are allied to the brain are molecules that are underrepresented in foods obtained through very stringent processing, particularly vitamins and minerals. Not even the Omega 3, "good" fats that contribute to the formation of nerve cell membranes, whose functioning they regulate, are abundant in the industrial foods that, unfortunately, so many children consume more often than they should.

Why can Omega 3s help with concentration?

EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), the main Omega 3s capable of producing beneficial effects on the body, are key components of the brain. Here, as mentioned, they become part of the membranes of nerve cells, which are particularly rich precisely in DHA.

In addition to being involved in the production of new neurons, the formation of their extensions (through which nerve messages travel) and the formation of synapses (the points of contact between cells that allow the nerve impulse to pass from one to the other), DHA is also crucial to the brain's adequate response to the stimuli to which it is subjected.

By making membranes more fluid, DHA improves the functionality of the proteins embedded within them and the transmission of nerve impulse. And, last but not least, it helps nerve cells survive and stay healthy, protecting them from oxidative stress and inflammation.

The data in the scientific literature are clear: DHA helps the brain function to its fullest potential. And since meeting the daily requirements of EPA and DHA requires taking them in with food (the human body cannot produce them efficiently enough), the type of diet followed by children can be crucial to their cognitive abilities, concentration abilities included.

Early benefits are evident at an early age. Studies involving children between 6 and 12 months of age taking fish oil (one of the best sources of EPA and DHA) found an association between Omega 3 and attention span during free play.

In the case of slightly older children, many clues about the benefits of these fats in terms of attention span come from studies conducted in the presence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD).

ADHD is often associated with Omega 3 deficiencies; supplementation can improve the cognitive performance of children and adolescents living with this syndrome. Specifically, between the ages of 6 and 12 years, it appears possible to improve several skills impaired by ADHD, including attention skills, by taking Omega 3 for between 8 and 30 weeks.

It is thought that these benefits of Omega 3s may depend on their anti-inflammatory properties and their effects on the composition and fluidity of the membranes of neurons (and thus on nerve impulse transmission). Specifically, DHA intake is associated with increasedactivation of the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with self-regulatory abilities, which in ADHD are reduced; conversely, a low Omega-3 Index (an indicator of low Omega 3 levels) is associated with reduced cognitive self-regulatory abilities, and Omega 3 deficiencies may impair dopamine-mediated nerve transmission, a neurotransmitter with its own role in attention.

Data of this kind suggest the potential usefulness of Omega 3 supplementation to promote good concentration in children. In the absence of conditions such as ADHD (thus in cases of so-called "typical" cognitive development) the minimum useful dosage appears to be 450 mg per day.

What vitamins and minerals?

Data on the benefits of vitamins and minerals for cognitive abilities also come from studies of children with ADHD. The most encouraging results concern zinc and, especially, vitamin D. Almost all information on the latter points toward a reduction in symptoms associated with the syndrome.

In contrast, the benefits observed from taking multivitamins and multiminerals are more doubtful.

Supplements yes, but not alone

In general, turning to supplements to support children's concentration skills seems to be a more than sensible approach if the right ingredients are chosen. And based on the information currently available, the best choice seems to fall on Omega 3 and vitamin D.

Omega 3 supplements can be particularly useful when-as unfortunately often happens in the case of children-the consumption of fish does not reach the recommended frequencies. However, it is worth remembering that the effectiveness of their use also depends on other factors, such as the presence of nutritional deficiencies (which must be corrected in advance) and other non-nutritional interventions.

Regarding concentration, other potentially useful strategies for increasing it include reducing stimuli that may distract the child, talking to the child using simple language and catching his or her eye, and, in cases of attention difficulties of sensory origin, sensory integration therapy.

Bibliographic references:

Chang JPC et al. Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Youths with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials and Biological Studies. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018 Feb;43(3):534-545. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.160

Roach LA et al. Effect of Omega-3 Supplementation on Self-Regulation in Typically Developing Preschool-Aged Children: Results of the Omega Kid Pilot Study-A Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Nutrients. 2021 Oct; 13(10): 3561. doi: 10.3390/nu13103561

Rosi E et al. Use of Non-Pharmacological Supplementations in Children and Adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Critical Review. Nutrients. 2020 Jun; 12(6): 1573.

doi: 10.3390/nu12061573

Stonehouse W. Does Consumption of LC Omega-3 PUFA Enhance Cognitive Performance in Healthy School-Aged Children and throughout Adulthood? Evidence from Clinical Trials. Nutrients. 2014 Jul; 6(7): 2730-2758. doi: 10.3390/nu6072730

van der Wurff ISM et al. Effect of Omega-3 Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (n-3 LCPUFA) Supplementation on Cognition in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Literature Review with a Focus on n-3 LCPUFA Blood Values and Dose of DHA and EPA. Nutrients. 2020 Oct 12;12(10):3115. doi: 10.3390/nu12103115