Nutrition and Physical and Mental Stress: Is There an Effective Supplement?

Children, which supplements to improve concentration?

Being equipped with good concentration skills helps to face life with an extra gear. Being able to ignore irrelevant stimuli indeed allows focusing on truly important information and staying engaged in a task long enough to train the skills needed to successfully complete it.

Conversely, living with concentration difficulties can lead to a cascade of negative effects that can significantly compromise quality of life. For example, the inability to concentrate can turn into stress and anxiety, inappropriate behaviors, and difficulty working in groups or following instructions.

For all these reasons, helping children develop their attention skills is important to ensure not only their present well-being but also that of the future adults they will become. But how to do it?

Nutrition also comes into play, whose positive effects can be supported by the use of specific dietary supplements. An adequate nutrient intake during childhood is indeed fundamental to promoting long-term health. It is known, for example, that an unbalanced diet can predispose children to become adults prone to excess weight. It is also known that what is eaten during childhood can influence the functioning of their central nervous system.

Nutrients allied to the brain

Highly processed foods and added sugars, which are abundant in many children’s diets, are not among the foods and nutrients that support concentration. For this reason, it is advisable not to overuse them and to promote the consumption, already at a young age, of foods more nutritionally rich.

Indeed, most nutrients allied to the brain are molecules scarcely represented in highly processed foods, particularly vitamins and minerals. Not even Omega 3, “good” fats that contribute to the formation of nerve cell membranes and regulate their function, are abundant in industrial foods that, unfortunately, many children consume more often than they should.

Why can Omega 3 help concentration?

EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), the main Omega 3s capable of producing beneficial effects for the body, are fundamental components of the brain. Here, as mentioned, they become part of nerve cell membranes, which are particularly rich in DHA.

Besides being involved in the production of new neurons, in the formation of their extensions (through which nerve messages travel) and in the formation of synapses (contact points between cells that allow the nerve impulse to pass from one to another), DHA is also crucial for an adequate brain response to stimuli it is subjected to.

By making membranes more fluid, DHA improves the function of proteins embedded within them and the transmission of nerve impulses. And, dulcis in fundo, it helps nerve cells survive and remain healthy, protecting them from oxidative stress and inflammation.

Scientific literature data are clear: DHA helps the brain function at its best potential. And since to meet the daily requirements of EPA and DHA they must be obtained from food (the human body cannot produce them with sufficiently high efficiency), the type of diet followed by children can be determinant for their cognitive abilities, including concentration skills.

The first benefits are evident already at a young age. Studies that involved children between 6 and 12 months taking fish oil (one of the best sources of EPA and DHA) found an association between Omega 3 and attention capacity during free play.

For somewhat older children, much evidence of the benefits of these fats in terms of attention capacity comes from studies conducted in the presence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

ADHD is often associated with Omega 3 deficiencies; supplementation can improve cognitive performance in children and adolescents living with this syndrome. In particular, between 6 and 12 years of age, it seems possible to improve various skills compromised by ADHD, including attention, by taking Omega 3 for a variable period from 8 to 30 weeks.

These Omega 3 benefits are thought to depend on their anti-inflammatory properties and their effects on the composition and fluidity of neuron membranes (and thus on nerve impulse transmission). In particular, DHA intake is associated with increased prefrontal cortex activation, a brain area linked to self-regulation skills, which are reduced in ADHD; conversely, a low Omega-3 Index (indicator of low Omega 3 levels) is associated with reduced cognitive self-regulation, and Omega 3 deficiencies can impair dopamine-mediated nerve transmission, a neurotransmitter with a role in attention.

Such data suggest the potential usefulness of Omega 3 supplementation to support good concentration in children. In the absence of conditions like ADHD (i.e., in so-called “typical” cognitive development), the minimum useful dose seems to be 450 mg per day.

Which vitamins and minerals?

Evidence for the benefits of vitamins and minerals on cognitive abilities also comes from studies on children with ADHD. The most encouraging results concern zinc and especially vitamin D. Almost all information about the latter points toward a reduction in symptoms associated with the syndrome.

Benefits observed from multivitamin and multimineral intake are more doubtful.

Supplements yes, but not alone

In general, resorting to supplements to support children’s concentration skills seems to be a more than sensible approach if the right ingredients are chosen. Based on currently available information, the best choice seems to fall on Omega 3 and vitamin D.

Omega 3 supplements can be particularly useful when – as unfortunately often happens with children – fish consumption does not reach recommended frequencies. However, it is worth remembering that the effectiveness of their use also depends on other factors, such as the presence of nutritional deficiencies (which must be corrected beforehand) and other non-nutritional interventions.

Regarding concentration, other potentially useful strategies to increase it include reducing stimuli that can distract the child, speaking to them using simple language and capturing their gaze, and, in case of sensory-origin attention difficulties, sensory integration therapy.

Bibliographic references:

Chang JPC et al. Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Youths with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials and Biological Studies. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018 Feb;43(3):534-545. doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.160

Roach LA et al. Effect of Omega-3 Supplementation on Self-Regulation in Typically Developing Preschool-Aged Children: Results of the Omega Kid Pilot Study—A Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Nutrients. 2021 Oct; 13(10): 3561. doi: 10.3390/nu13103561

Rosi E et al. Use of Non-Pharmacological Supplementations in Children and Adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Critical Review. Nutrients. 2020 Jun; 12(6): 1573. doi: 10.3390/nu12061573

doi: 10.3390/nu12061573

Stonehouse W. Does Consumption of LC Omega-3 PUFA Enhance Cognitive Performance in Healthy School-Aged Children and throughout Adulthood? Evidence from Clinical Trials. Nutrients. 2014 Jul; 6(7): 2730–2758. doi: 10.3390/nu6072730

van der Wurff ISM et al. Effect of Omega-3 Long Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (n-3 LCPUFA) Supplementation on Cognition in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Literature Review with a Focus on n-3 LCPUFA Blood Values and Dose of DHA and EPA. Nutrients. 2020 Oct 12;12(10):3115. doi: 10.3390/nu12103115