NPR reported today on a new study in The Lancet in which researchers examined whether dietary intervention can improve ADHD symptoms in kids. Researchers found a significant decrease in ADHD symptoms with the specific diet. Kids in the study ate an elimination diet primarily of rice, meat, vegetables, pear and water, although I  was surprised to see they included some supplementary wheat as well.

This is not the first study of ADHD and diet. another review of 35 years of dietary research suggested kids with ADHD are sensitive to artificial food colorings and preservatives, and that this sensitivity typically co-presents with sensitivities to milk, chocolate, soy, eggs, wheat, corn, legumes and sometimes grapes, tomatoes, and orange.

I’m curious about the inclusion of wheat in the Lancet study because there’s some interesting research about gluten and ADHD. Some of this research focuses on people with celiac disease specifically, such as one study of children and adults that suggested untreated celiac disease (e.g. people with celiac disease who still eat wheat, rye and barley) can manifest ADHD-like symptoms. In another, admittedly small study of children with autism, some of whom also had ADHD symptoms, researchers removed gluten and casein (which comes from dairy) from the diet and found significant improvement of ADHD symptoms among the ADHD subset.

But gluten can’t be the whole picture, as the newer study suggests. Of course, it’s rare that only one dietary component is responsible for large-scale effects on the body, even with obesity. I’d like to see more research on the role gluten plays.

For those who may have gluten intolerance and may not know it, it’s worth leaving gluten entirely out of your diet for a minimum of three weeks and seeing whether your health improves — you may see other surprising effects, like an improvement in lactose tolerance. and maybe you’ll also find improvement in your, uh, your… Hey! Wanna go ride bikes???!!!

Okay, where was I. A friend also brought up the question of sugars and ADHD. The research on this could be better, but it’s interesting. A lot of it seems to focus on short-term changes in symptoms instead of effects of a longer-term dietary change. One study showed significant immediate response of ADHD symptoms in kids fed sugars/high-carbohydrate breakfast. another study found no significant effect of sugars or food dyes.

My guess is that sugars play a long-term role in worsening ADHD symptoms, and I’d like to see more research. I’d especially like to see fructose/high-fructose corn syrup examined in more detail, considering its unique relationship to changes in metabolism and weight (study – full text!). Also, trace mercury, which can also contribute to ADHD, has been found in HFCS (full text) .

There’s a camp among nutrition folks that, in response to this kind of research, will say just, “It’s what we know; eat a diet of whole foods and you’ll be fine!” I don’t precisely agree with this. “Whole foods” is a very vague term, for starters. it doesn’t account for changes in the nutritional value of food from, say, changes in how we feed animals or treat soil. it includes all grains, not accounting for some of the real health problems associated with gluten, or for historical changes in how societies treat grains (e.g. no longer soaking, sprouting or fermenting them).

But some of that general message is right, in that what people commonly refer to as whole foods don’t contain added sugars or dyes or preservatives. still, I’d change the message to something like: Eat whole foods from animals raised on pasture and vegetables grown without pesticides. Avoid or limit gluten grains, and treat other grains traditionally. Limit the other stuff, and do what’s right for you.

And now, go ride bikes!

~Thanks to citymama for the Creative Commons photo.

By Vibhuti AgarwalAFP/Getty ImagesThe WHO has disputed the findings of a study on malaria that put the number of Indians dying from the mosquito-borne disease each year 13 times higher than estimated by the UN health agency.

The World Health Organization has disputed the findings of a study on malaria published in Lancet Thursday. The study put the number of Indians dying from the mosquito-borne disease each year 13 times higher than the United Nations health agency’s estimate.

Research published in the prestigious British medical journal said that malaria causes 200,000 deaths in India every year. The Lancet study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute.

The World Health Organization estimates that 15,000 malarial deaths take place each year in India and 100,000 deaths worldwide.

Lancet’s research was conducted by trained field workers through interviewing family members or friends of people who had died about symptoms and if they had received any treatment for their illness before dying. This method is called verbal autopsy. Lancet said researchers from outside Indian were sent to 6,671 districts of the country to examine 122,000 premature deaths between the years 2001 and 2003.

The WHO on Thursday, however, expressed serious doubts about the number of malaria deaths identified by the Lancet research team.

“The new study uses verbal autopsy method which is suitable only for diseases with distinctive symptoms and not for malaria,” WHO’s India representative Nata Menabde said in an email statement Thursday.

The WHO says it takes into account only confirmed cases of malaria and surveys those using healthcare facilities.

Malaria symptoms include fever, flu-like illness and muscle aches. Malaria is endemic to parts of India, where many people live in mosquito-infested areas. Confirming the presence of malaria requires tests like the “Peripheral Smear for Malarial Parasite” and “Rapid Malaria Antigen”.

Lancet said the determinations made by its field researchers were reviewed by two of 130 trained doctors for all the 6,671 districts who determined whether or not the person had died from malaria.

The data concluded that 205,000 deaths before the age of 70, mainly in rural areas, were caused by malaria each year – 55,000 in early childhood, 30,000 among children ages five to 14 and 120,000 people 15 and older.

The WHO called for further review of the study.

“Malaria has symptoms common with many other diseases and cannot be correctly identified by the local population,” Dr. Menabde said, adding: “The findings of the study cannot be accepted without further validation.”