Anybody heard of Attention?

[LaurieL]

I read an article about something called Attention! It is by MRM - it says it helps with improved cognitive function and in cases of behavioral and learning difficulties because it provides an intelligent alternative to more complicated interventions. Says it has DHA and DMAE plus folic acid,b6, and b12. Is this a bunch of bunk? Something worth trying and adding it in with the other stuff? Thanks.

[rosyred45]

I didn't have any luck looking things up yet, but I'm trying.....I did find the last page of the internet ;D It told me to outside and play :oSearch using attention, adn that came up as a site

Sorry, had to put that last part in there. I think I may have heard of it, but don't know a whole lot about it.
Sorry, I'll keep looking though

[catatonic]

In terms of its ingredients, this appears to be a pretty well formulated supplement...EFA's, amino acids, cholinergics, minerals, anti-oxidants...they are all likely to be helpful.

The problem I have is that most of these ingredients are provided in sub-therapeutic doses. In other words, there's not enough of most of the important substances.

For example, the marine oil provides 250mg DHA. That's only half the amount clinical research has demonstrated is effective in improving ADHD symptoms. 480mg DHA daily, and that much or more EPA is what the research shows you need to take. (There are actually entire books devoted to the subject of essential fatty acid supplementation. "The LCP Solution" by Jacqueline Stordy is among the best and easiest to read.) One of the recommendations you'll find Stordy makes is to provide adequate Vitamin E along with your DHA/EPA to assist in its metabolism and protect against potentially harmful breakdown products as the DHA/EPA are metabolized. 15IU is not enough. 100IU both morning and evening is good. Some people feel 200IU both morning and evening is a more appropriate dose. But Laura Stevens (who wrote "12 Effective Ways to Help Your ADD/ADHD Child") told me to use the 100IU, so that's what I do.

Tyrosine, for some children, will noticeably improve their attentiveness. (It may stop working after several weeks, though. That issue is being researched further. It also appears to work better given together with GABA.) Tyrosine helps build the neurotransmitter dopamine, mainly. The therapeutic dose typically studied range from a low of 7g per day. That's 7,000mg. There's some evidence it helps at levels far lower, in the 750mg area, but the 20mg in Attention is really inadequate.

DMAE is also a logical choice for an ADHD supplement. It used to be given to ADHD children in the form of the prescription drug Deanol, but was dropped from research protocols because its availability in supplement form meant drug companies couldn't make a profit off it. Research on DMAE (which unfortunately is old research from the '70's) compared DMAE to Ritalin and found that both worked about the same for children with ADD. The doses studied were betwen 300 and 500mg. Attention contains 100mg, again probably a sub-therapeutic dose.

Magnesium is also noticeably low, at 50mg. Magnesium supplementation ought to be at 3mg per pound of body weight, or 6mg per pound of body weight if there is a deficiency that needs to be corrected. That's 300mg elemental magnesium for a 50 pound child.

Vitamin B6 is tremendously helpful to a large percentage of ADHD children. Unfortunately, there's an equally large percentage who will have a negative reaction to it. No real way to know which way your child will go without experimenting. This is not a negative aspect of this formulation, simply something you would need to be aware of.

It's entirely possible your child would respond to even these low levels of nutritional supplements. But it's also possible you wouldn't see any effect because the amounts are simply too low. At $20 for a month's supply, it's not an unreasonable amount to spend to try it out, but if you don't see results, you might want to consider purchasing separate Omega-3, minerals and amino acids in order to provide increased quantities.

[LaurieL]

Thanks for the great answer. I kind of thought it was really small amounts of everything. So I just need to keep doing the omega and add mag.