ADHD treated with Zinc and Fish Oil?

I'm 22 and I have ADHD. I got off Ritalin when I was 16. The side effects got to be too much. I was just doing a a little research and found out that Fish Oil and Zinc apparently have a possitive effect on people with ADHD. I was just wondering what the proper dosage would be. A natural remedy sounds preferable to medication.

You say high doses. I just got some fish oil at my local supermarket with 180mg of EPA and 120MG of DHA per capsule. How many of these should I take daily.

Self medicating, like trial and error could have horrific results...see a specialist or two first...

This is a good one. I have ADD and all I do is try and eat healthy with lots of fresh fruit and veggies. Good luck.
Uh, what was the question again? :)

There are other medications - including straterra which is a non controlled non narcotic medication that you can get refills on. Zinc and Fish Oil are kind of dubious as far as their efficacy for ADHD. The idea is that anything which the body needs - including choline and various fatty acids may be depleted in people with ADHD and these may be the cause.

There is only one proven non-drug solution to ADHD that will work for you, and worked for me. That is vigorous daily exercise. I am not talking about jogging. I'm talking about getting out there and running 10 miles at a stretch as fast as you can. It does not make you more tired then you would normally be. It has similar effects as ritalin - curbs energy, makes you lose weight, aids circulation to your brain.

I have had ADHD my whole life and it is actually more of a gift than a difficulty. If I get interested in something, I can focus on it with such intensity that I don't hear or know of anything else going on at all.

Exercise would be the answer - aerobic exercise the best is running. If you can't do that then biking.

The best foods really are fresh fruits and vegetables.They are the best recommended foods for people who have ADHD.Avoid eating preserve foods.So just eat fresh ...fresh...fres...

Definitely. Essential fatty acid whether it is fish oil, omega or flaxseed oil is a must for ADHD. Many women are finding that if they take EFA's during pregnancy and breast feeding and then supplementing their kids with it they are having positive benefits of their kids being smarter, better cognitive and motor skills and less ADHD.
Don't take more than the bottle says especially with zinc

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ome...
http://www.meg-3.com/lifestage/Seniors.p...

Also eat healthy natural foods.

Aside from being good for you, quite a few studies have reported improved mood with essential fatty acids (fish oil). Look at the work of Andrew Stoll from Harvard. You will need to take several GRAMS a day. Probably about 1 tablespoon of a quality oil. It is cheaper to buy liquid than capsules. Zinc AND magnesium are known to help some people with ADHD, too. Both are also perfectly safe in reasonable amounts.

For those who poo-poo the relationship between vitamins/minerals and behavior and diet and behavior... wake up.

Recently, the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) released a statement where they said they may have been WRONG all those years when they ignored parents who reported their ADHD kids improved when they removed food dyes and sodium benzoate from their diets. The Lancet published a pretty good study in 9/2007 that showed some kids seem to react differently to those chemicals. Try avoiding those, too.

Bottom line: taking fish oil and zinc aren't going to harm you. Taking up to 30 mgs/day of zinc is fine. Up to 300 mgs magnesium is fine (you might find it gives you diarrhea. if so, reduce the dose).

I wish you success.

i have heard if you take very high doses of fish oil it is very effective

Yes, fish oil and zinc are part of the solution for adhd. What it boils down to is this: if your body doesn't have the right raw materials for healthy cell function and nerve transmission, you aren't going to be able to focus properly.

Avoiding omega-6's in favor of omega-3 oils, such as the ones in fish oil, is key. It is very hard to NOT get enough omega-6's...they are essential, but we get way too much in our diets. Get the cleanest, healthiest fish oil you can, tested for mercury and pcb's. Eat fish from www.vitalchoice.com, not from the store. Enjoy walnuts. Add flaxseeds to smoothies, and put some in a grinder to grind over your meals. Eat plenty of greens (also great in smoothies with fruits).

Make sure you digestive system is working properly. Many people who use the Body Ecology Diet find they improve in mental clarity and sometimes children with autism diagnoses experience wonderful developmental gains.

Don't discount mental training. Look at www.thinkrightnow.com. They have inexpensive audio and software programs that have helped people with conditions that supposedly required medication, enabling people to go off of their medications and live normal lives.

If your diet changes seem to be ineffective either all or part of the time, look into the possibility that you may need a professional: HRI / Pfeiffer Treatment Center is an outpatient clinic dedicated to assisting children and adults with biochemical imbalances through nutrient therapy. Their emphasis is on ADD/ADHD, autism,and more.
www.hriptc.org/ -
One of the most exciting research in this area has shown that some people's symptoms are dramatically cleared up by one of two specific diets. Even more interesting is that some people, especially women, may cycle each month and need one diet during one part of the month and another diet in another part of the month. Rarely, people cycle through individual days. Biobalancing by Rudolf Wiley presents a case study of a child with attention issues who is greatly helped by varying the type of food he eats through the day according to his needs. Wiley found that a simple venous pH test (to the hundredths place) clearly indicated which diet was needed, and when. So if eating more fish oil and zinc don't help, please don't give up. You might simply need a more sophisticated approach to your situation.

Glad you're looking into healthier options!

The behavior of children in a recent study vastly improved when they were given 6 capsules of fish oil per day, even more than children being prescribed Ritalin. Restlessness and school performance improved significantly from omega-3 supplementation and concentration improved by 33%! Even after 30 weeks of taking fish oil supplements, the children continued to show increasing improvements, suggesting that taking fish oil even longer would have had even greater benefits.

This is great news because fish oil doesn鈥檛 have any of the negative side effects that Ritalin does, including insomnia, suicidal thoughts, personality changes and heart disease. Ritalin has even been cited as the cause of strokes and heart attacks that have killed several children. Hopefully this fish oil news will serve to reverse the ongoing medicated-children epidemic, as there are 330,000 new prescriptions for ADHD drugs every year!