Monday, March 21, 2011

Do Learning Difficulties In Children Respond To Omega 3 Supplementation?

Learning difficulties amongst children seem to be on the rise. Whether it's autism or ADD, or dyspraxia or ADHD or dyslexia or any one of a number of other learning difficulties, the incidence of these problems seems to be on the rise. So why could Omega 3 supplementation have anything to do with the solution?
It's a good question. Omega 3 essential fatty acids and in particular DHA and EPA are found primarily in seafoods and in particular in oily fish. A century or more ago seafood was high in our list of important and much consumed foods. Virtually everyone ate fish at some stage during the week.
And because they ate fish regularly, and because fish, and in particular oily fish, is extremely high in the essential fatty acids, our forebears got an adequate amount of the essential fatty acids in their diet.
However fish has now been supplanted in our diets with such foods as burgers and coke. And as a result most of us if not all of us are nutritionally deficient in a range of the important nutrients, and this has a range of implications for all of us.
Study after study has shown that increasing our intake of the essential fatty acids, most commonly by taking quality Omega 3 fish oil supplements, will help prevent a wide range of health conditions, including reducing our risk of dying.
A study undertaken in the UK on more than 100 children with learning difficulties has shown that increasing the amount of the Omega 3 essential fatty acids in the diet of these children helped a percentage of them, though not all, to function better and to achieve more at school.
All of these children were selected on the basis that they had average ability but were performing badly at school. They were given Omega 3 supplements every day for 6 months and tested on their performance amongst other things.
Of course you cannot conclude from this study that giving Omega 3 supplements to your children will cure their learning difficulties, there is certainly much more to it than that. However it does seem that adding more Omega 3 essential fatty acids to their diet, commonly by way of Omega 3 supplementation, is one tactic that ought be considered by parents and medical professionals.
And there is solid scientific evidence to support the conclusion that our children will perform better with adequate amounts of essential fatty acids and their diet. The omega 3 fats, and in particular DHA, make up a large percentage of the brain and a higher supply of DHA during the early years has been shown to improve cognitive performance.
So if you're a parent of a child with learning difficulties, along with consulting the appropriate medical professionals, it may well also be worth considering Omega 3 supplementation. It's not just learning difficulties that may benefit, is a wide range of other health benefits from adding more of the essential fatty acids to the diet, both to yourself and your children.
And the best way to do this is by taking high quality Omega3 capsules, though not all fish oil supplements are high quality

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