ADHD is prevalent these days, wreaking havoc on personal lives, families, and kids in school. There are drugs on the market to deal with it, and lots of different natural remedies for ADHD, but what if there was a way to deal with it from the root — from the inside out—by considering gut health and ADHD — or even probiotics and ADHD?

Energy, excitement, and bursts of activity are surely normal (and entertaining!) aspects of being a kid that any parent is happy to see. But in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), these traits can show up more intensely:

ADHD Symptoms

out-of- control hyperactivity
constant disruption of those around them
impulsivity
having trouble focusing
difficulty shifting between tasks

and more

Unlike typical bouts of wandering attention, ADHD is a medical disorder that researchers believe is the result of a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain. It can affect many aspects of a person’s life, including learning, connecting with others, organizational skills, and time management.

As a parent, this can be disheartening when you begin to peel back the layers to discover that a medical disorder may be at the root of your child’s focus and behavior troubles. But if you feel your child might have ADHD—or if they have already been diagnosed—don’t worry. You are not alone (LOTS of parents struggle with this), and you have more options than you might think.

Obviously, as parents we will do whatever is possible to set our kiddos up for independent, healthy, and fulfilling lives.  So the question becomes: what’s the best option for achieving this when approaching ADHD?

If you’re like most parents, psychiatric medications like Ritalin might seem an obvious choice to improve your child’s school and family life (because let’s face it: an ADHD diagnosis can impact everyone involved).

After all, these drugs help ADHD children by increasing neurotransmitters norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin in the central nervous system.

But guess what else also does that?

Gut bacteria!

Yes, the same neurotransmitters that are given a boost by ADHD drugs are actually naturally created in our guts by trillions of microorganisms that live there (a.k.a. our microbiome) and then delivered to the brain.

This all literally all begins in the gut, and this is important to understand when looking at ADHD.

The Gut-Brain Relationship

Our little ones’ brain health and the gut are more connected than most parents realize.

In fact, making sure the gut microbiome is healthy and teeming with a diversity of friendly flora may have a big impact on the chemical balance in children’s brains, along with their overall health and development.

You see, those bacteria in the gut can communicate with the brain directly. They do this by sending messages via the vagus nerve, which runs from our brainstem all the way to our abdomen.

Gut microbes are crucial for the creation and regulation of neurotransmitters needed by the brain to produce healthy signals throughout the body—the same neurotransmitters that drugs like Ritalin are designed to increase in ADHD children.

But most of that serotonin isn’t being made in the brain—about 80-90% of it is made in the GI tract!

This is why we need that healthy balance of bacteria in our little one’s belly: to promote a healthy balance of chemicals in the brain.

Gut Health and ADHD Symptoms

Gut bacteria support nearly every facet of health and are part of the inner ecosystem of microbes that develop in each of us, beginning in the womb.

That’s why healthy gut flora are important for so many functions in the body, including optimal mental and emotional function (the creation of neurotransmitters and proper chemical balance in the brain), which is crucial for children with ADHD.

For the gut microbiome to be healthy, it requires an abundance of the good bacteria, also known as probiotics. About 85% of gut microbes should be a variety of probiotics in order to optimize important functions in the body and brain.

This is easier said than done, since so many things work against us (and our children) when it comes to the good flora we need to keep us healthy and thriving.

Here’s a quick list of things that can wipe out the good guys…

10 Things that Damage Good Gut Health

1. Processed and Sugary foods

Processed foods are often full of GMO oils that can destroy the gut. Plus these foods are full of refined carbs and sugars that lead to gut issues including candida and leaky gut.

2. Preservatives, Pesticides, Emulsifiers, Dyes, Artificial Fragrances

There is so much wrong with all of these. Just avoid them as much as possible.

3. Prolonged Stress

Stress has many bad effects on the body and the brain, with impaired gut health being one of them.

 

5. Widespread Presence of and Overuse of Antibiotics

Antibiotics kill life.  That is what their name means. They destroy not only the “bad guys”, but also the “good guys” in the gut.  That’s why you often have gut issues after taking an antibiotic and need to restore the balance.

6. Toxins in the Environment and Home

Besides those listed above, there are other pollutants to consider like flame retardants, chemicals in cleaning compounds, air pollution that comes in from the outdoors or from appliances.

7. Limited time outdoors (limited exposure to soil and animals)

Exposure to animals and soil is a good thing as it exposes us to small amounts of soil based organisms that can be beneficial to the gut.

8. Over-sanitizing (ex. antibacterial soaps)

 

 

Stress has many bad effects on the body and the brain, with impaired gut health being one of them.

 

4. Certain medications

Besides antibiotics, other meds also affect the gut–birth control pills being one offender.

5. Widespread Presence of and Overuse of Antibiotics

Antibiotics kill life.  That is what their name means. They destroy not only the “bad guys”, but also the “good guys” in the gut.  That’s why you often have gut issues after taking an antibiotic and need to restore the balance.

6. Toxins in the Environment and Home

Besides those listed above, there are other pollutants to consider like flame retardants, chemicals in cleaning compounds, air pollution that comes in from the outdoors or from appliances.

7. Limited time outdoors (limited exposure to soil and animals)

Exposure to animals and soil is a good thing as it exposes us to small amounts of soil based organisms that can be beneficial to the gut.

8. Over-sanitizing (ex. antibacterial soaps)

Antibacterial soaps have been linked to the destruction of good bacteria (Source).

9. Cesarean birth vs. vaginal birth

When babies are born via C-section, they miss out on the benefits of mom’s gut flora that lines the vaginal cavity.

10. Not being breastfed

Breastmilk contains beneficial bacteria along with so many other things that benefit baby’s well being.

Probiotics and ADHD — How to Restore Your

Child’s Gut Health

Ideally, we should expose our children to healthy bacteria as early as possible (even prenatally through maternal probiotic supplementation) and avoid practices that damage our friendly flora. This will give kids healthy connections between gut and proper brain chemical balance.

But since many factors in our modern environment can negatively affect the microbiome, one of the best ways to ensure our kids are continually exposed to strong probiotic colonies is through high-quality probiotic supplements.In one promising study, probiotics combined with other nutritional supplements were shown to be just as effective at improving symptoms of ADHD as Ritalin (1).  This makes sense because as we’ve already discussed, the neurotransmitters needed for healthy brain balance are produced in the gut!

In another fascinating trial, researchers gave 75 infants either probiotics or placebo for the first six months of life, and then followed them for thirteen years. At the end of the study, none of the kids in the probiotic group had developed ADHD, compared to 17% of kids in the placebo group (2).

10 Steps to Balance the Gut and Improve

Mental Function

If we’re not actively stocking our guts with good gut bacteria, the scales will likely tip and the bad guys will soon outnumber the good guys. Thankfully, you can help your children fortify and improve their gut health.

First, Replenish Your Child’s Gut and Encourage Focus

1. Take a high-quality multi-strain probiotic formula to balance gut bacteria and promote a healthy digestive system. The best probiotics can withstand stomach acids and enable the bacteria reach the gut alive to perform their health-enhancing duties. Otherwise, the stomach’s acidic environment might make the probiotic totally useless, which is a huge waste of money.

We’ve tried a bunch of probiotics over the years, but my youngest loves this probiotic, and I love the care that has gone into their products. I’ve corresponded with the company’s owner and am highly impressed with her knowledge base and attention to detail.

One thing to note is that if you or your child has histamine intolerance, you might wish to read this post on low-histamine probiotics when choosing what probiotic to take.

2Eat probiotic-rich foods such as non-dairy yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso soup, pickles, tempeh, and kombucha tea.