Natural Way Health Blog

Can supplements boost academic performance?

Can supplements boost academic performance?

Academic performance is an area of child health where nutrition has a major role. A study of primary school children has confirmed that supplements of the Omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish and flax seed oils) could take them from bottom of the class to the top in just two school terms.

The results of The Durham Trial state that more than 40% of children could benefit from essential fatty acid (EFA) supplements. The study, which involved a dozen primary schools, concludes that children given these ‘brain food’ supplements register dramatic improvements in reading age and numeracy.

Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial for normal brain development, but these EFAs are seriously lacking in modern diets and deficiencies are thought to be common.

Dr Madeleine Portwood, a psychologist with Durham education authority who led the research told the Sunday Times newspaper that: “We had nine-year olds go from a reading age of eight up to 13.”

The Food Standards Agency recommends salmon, trout and mackerel for people looking to increase their intake of fish oils. It warned recently, however, that some fish can contain high levels of toxic chemicals such as mercury and dioxin. Omega-3s can also be obtained from Flax Seed Oil, which children may find more palatable.

Viridian Nutrition has developed a pleasant-tasting 100% organic Omega-3 oil from pressed seeds, viridiKid Organic Omega-3 Oil is additive-free and naturally flavoured with organic vanilla and orange.

Swine Flu – long term effects

At Natural Way Health we are very careful not to ‘make claims’ about what are effectively foods and herbal supplements but there are many who do make claims and the unwelcome and unjustified criticism can be quite drastic. Some dramatic things may be happening in the USA around the whole subject of the food supplement industry and although we are not seeing similar things in the UK yet – similar things have happened in Denmark only last year. Food supplements do not cure or heal swine flu but they do support a healthy immune system. However, the FDA and the WHO are inconsistent in some ways and if only they applied the same standards to the pharmaceutical industry as they are aggressively applying to the food supplement industry we might have a better healthier population. Consider:

• swine flu vaccines. We know they have had very limited testing and their efficacy over the short and long term has yet to be proven. We may look back at this time in our history and ask, with hindsight, did we really need to vaccinate all those children?
• Olive Leaf Extract or Garlic and other compounds have been used for hundreds of years to promote good immune health? Should we use them first?

One of the most effective means of maintaining a strong immune system is to eat foods raw and juicing is a great way to make eating fruit and vegetables easy.

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Plant Extracts

There is a huge surge in the interest in standardised plant extracts as food supplements. One of the biggest questions people often ask is why are they standardised? The simple reason being that just extracting the essence of a plant does not bring the sort of quality that both regulators are requiring and customers are demanding.

For example in a recent study into Ginkgo Biloba over 100 samples from different suppliers were tested for the active ingredient against the label amount and it produced a worrying picture. Some had 400% more than was stated on the label and sadly some had none. Now you might think that 400% is good value but in fact 400% might be harmful and it might be a waste of money.

So check out your supplements to see if they are standardised – if not caveat emptor – or buyer beware.