Smarter Child with Multi-vitamins & minerals Supplementation

Adequate levels of vitamins and minerals are essential for optimal neural functioning. A high proportion of individuals, including children, suffer from deficiencies in one or more vitamins or minerals.
A recent UK-based study investigated whether daily supplementation with vitamins/minerals could modulate cognitive performance and mood in healthy children. In this investigation, eighty-one healthy children aged from 8 to 14 years underwent laboratory assessments of their cognitive performance and mood on the first and last days of 12 weeks' supplementation with a commercially available vitamins/mineral product. The assesment was done at pre-dose, 1h and 3h post-dose. Interim assessments were also completed at home after 4 and 8 weeks at 3 h post-dose. Each assessment comprised completion of a cognitive battery, which included tasks assessing mood and the speed and accuracy of attention and aspects of memory (secondary, semantic and spatial working memory).

The vitamin/mineral group performed more accurately on two attention tasks: 'Arrows' choice reaction time task at 4 and 8 weeks; and 'Arrow Flankers' choice reaction time task at 4, 8 and 12 weeks. Picture Recognition errors showed significant decrement at 12 weeks.

While mood was not modulated in any interpretable manner, the author believe that these results suggest that vitamin/mineral supplementation has the potential to improve brain function in healthy children, and warrant further investigation.

British Journal of Nutrition. 100(5):1086-96, 2008 Nov

Childhood overweight and obesity are still a concern

A recent Australian survey indicates that childhood overweight and obesity are still a concern. In 2007 The Australian National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey assessed the food and nutrient intake, physical activity levels, and the weight, height and waist circumference among randomly selected children aged 2–16 years. Key findings from the survey released recently indicate that:

• 72 per cent of children surveyed were at a healthy weight; 17 per cent of boys and girls were classified as overweight; 6 per cent were obese; and 5 per cent were found to be underweight.
• The children surveyed demonstrated a low level of observance of the Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia.

Poor dietary habit is still a great concern for our children, especially for the 14-16 year olds.

• The proportion of children meeting the guidelines for fruit intake (1–3 serves per day) and vegetable intake (2–4 serves per day) declined with age.
• 61% of 4–8 year olds consumed adequate fruit (excluding juice), compared to only 1% of 14–16 year old boys and girls
• Only 22% of 4–8 year old children and 5% of 14–16 year olds met the dietary guidelines for vegetable intake.
• Saturated fat intake contributed approximately 13–14% of the children’s energy intake, higher than what is recommended in the Dietary Guidelines (saturated fat should contribute less than 10% of total energy intake).
• Some micronutrient intakes such as calcium, sodium and magnesium are likely to be problematic, particularly for the 14–16 year olds who were the least likely to meet the recommended intake.

Approximately 69% of boys and girls aged 9–16 surveyed accumulated at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on most of the days surveyed. The average time spent doing moderate to vigorous physical activity decreased with age. Only 33% of the children aged 9–16 years met the recommendations for screen time in the National Physical Activity Guidelines (no more than two hours of non-educational screen time each day).

Result from this latest survey reinforced the value of establishing healthy eating and regular exercise patterns for children’s health and wellbeing. The foundations for optimal health begin at early age from childhood, and progress day by day. Establishing sound nutritional foundation and tackling overweight and obesity, is without any doubt, very important for every stages in life.

Gastroenterology. 2008 Oct;135(4):1163-7.

Homocystinuria / Dr. Kilmer McCully‏

In the early 1970”s, Dr. Kilmer McCully, who was a pathologist at Harvard, reviewed two autopsies of young boys who had died of a heart attack. This was very concerning since one of the boys was 7 and the other was only 3 years old. He observed that their arteries were as hardened as an 85 year old man’s arteries that had severe atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). These boys had a congenital disease known as homocystinuria. They did not have the ability to break down homocysteine into more benign products. Their homocysteine levels were extremely high. Most of these children never see their teenage years because they die prematurely from a heart attack or stroke.

This led Dr. Kilmer McCully to postulate that maybe normal individuals who may have slightly elevated homocysteine levels over a lifetime might be at greater risk themselves of having a premature heart attack or stroke. Several clinical trials over the years have shown that Dr. McCully was right. Elevated homocysteine levels, which can cause a tremendous amount of inflammation in our arteries, are an independent risk factor for developing a heart attack or stroke.

RAY D. STRAND, M.D.

Specialist in Nutritional Medicine

School's DIY trial supports omega 3 / NZ Herald

It's not overly scientific, and the sample is small, but early results are in on New Zealand's first classroom-based experiment on the benefits of omega 3.

And those initial results are good, Wellsford School principal Paul Whitaker said yesterday. Mr Whitaker came up with the idea of giving some of his students omega 3 after watching a BBC documentary that involved a similar experiment.

He contacted North Shore (Auckland) -based natural health products company Good Health, who agreed to supply the school with omega 3 tablets, and began the experiment on September 10.

Twenty-one of the school's students, aged between 11 and 13, took omega 3 tablets once a day for the first month, and are continuing to take them twice a day for the following two months.
Another student group of the same size and roughly the same demographic makeup are serving as the control group - not taking the tablets but engaging in the same lessons.

The two groups are to be tested on a range of disciplines, undergoing a series of basic timed addition, subtraction, division and multiplication tests. They will also sit nationally approved spelling and reading tests.

The first of the tests, focused on writing, was completed yesterday.

The control group's writing had stayed at the level it should have. But the children taking omega 3 had shown a definite improvement in writing and general focus, Mr Whitaker said.
That followed his expectations that the children taking omega 3 would have higher motivation, more concentration and improved overall basic skills.

Mr Whitaker said the students were excited about the trial, and the school had the full support of the children's parents.

Good Health chief executive Paul O'Brien said he hoped the trial would prompt more formal trials in New Zealand to test if omega 3 did genuinely improve the wellbeing of children.
Results suggested it did, he said.

"Ironically, omega 3 was routinely dispensed years ago in the form of the dreaded teaspoon of cod liver oil."

CHEWING THE FAT
* Omega 3 is an unsaturated fatty acid.
* It's commonly found in oily fish including salmon, anchovies and sardines.
* Vegetable sources include pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and walnuts.
* Studies suggest a diet rich in omega 3 can reduce the risk of heart disease.
* It may also cut the risk of prostate and skin cancer and improve behaviour in antisocial teenagers.
* Omega 3 has "qualified health claim" status with the US Food and Drug Administration.

Tuesday Nov 11, 2008 - By Craig Borley