BeCALM'd and ATTEND experiences!

[kjsubz]

I am yet to try either BeCALM'D or ATTEND (both natural supplements for my son who has ADHD. But hearing what some others have to say has raised a big question on using a forum like this in a statistical way. The companies claim that 60-70% of the people who have tried their product have been dramatically helped in reversing ADHD symptoms. Anyone who has been helped is unlikely to check out a forum like this as he/she has already found a solution. I would suspect that most people who have negative things to say about these natural supplements must belong to the other 30-40% on whom it doesn't work. And people for whom it did not work are likely to join forums like this so they can continue their process of unraveling the mystery.

There is a great polarization in feedback. The ones for whom it worked (and I doubt placebo effects last longer than a month; if they did, I hope my son is one of them) typically claim it was a "miracle" and the ones for whom it hasn't worked will likely dismiss it as "scam". Also sampling errors are very common in a forum kind of setting.

Bottom line, TRY IT FOR YOURSELF and see. Even if there are double blind studies, nothing works for 100% of the people. One only hopes that scams don't last for very long. If a product has been around for over five years, it's worth trying. And if it doesn't it need not be a scam. You could be the minority of people for whom an otherwise effective product does not work.

I invite comments from the experts. What's your sense?

Subra Maniun
Bangalore (India)

[catatonic]

Subra, I hope you'll find these products work for you. They're not ones I would use, and here's why:

BeCalm'd -- While magnesium is one of the truly outstanding treatment choices for ADHD, it is present in sub-therapeutic quantities. VERY sub-therapeutic. Not enough to do much good. 5-HTP can increase brain serotonin levels, but you need to take FAR more than is included in this product...about 50 to 100 times more. B6 can also be a good choice for some, but according to clinical research, it'll make as many children's symptoms WORSEN as will improve. It's also a sub-therapeutic dose. The only thing actually present in sufficient quantity to make much of an impact is phenylalanine, and I would never take anything that includes phenylalanine. IT's too closely related to the excitotoxins, particularly aspartame. We follow the Feingold diet for ADHD very strictly, and aspartame is banned by the diet because of its neurotoxicity. Phenylalanine is a breakdown product of aspartame and when consumed in too great a quantity causes neuronal death. Glutamine may or may not help, it may be worth a try (as a separate supplement), but you'd need to take about twice as much as BeCalm'd includes. So I give this one a pass. I'd rather use magnesium separately, try glutamine separately, test the B6 separately, and in the process spend a whole lot less money than I would on BeCalm'd.

Attend is a homeopathic remedy -- actually a "mixed" remedy, since some of it's ingredients are present in macro quantities. I haven't found that homeopathic remedies are generally successful, and I don't believe the macro ingredients are strong enough to achieve therapeutic effects.

If you try these, I wish you success, and hope that you will post your results so that we can all learn from them. This is just my pesonal opinion on their possible effectiveness, and other people may have very different perspectives.

I don't know that I would agree that just because something has been around a while, that it's not a scam. With BeCalm'd in particular, I'd say their remarkably aggressive marketing is responsible for the longevity. But it won't harm you, it's not prohibitively expensive, so it's a low risk experiment that you just might get lucky with.