Healthy Kids - Nutrients improve children's mood, skin and allergy

Pine bark extract improved ADHD

In what may be the first study of its kind to use pine bark extract, doctors tested boys and girls, average age 10, for signs of inattention and impulsivity. In this study, 17 boys and three girls took a placebo or pine bark extract for four weeks, paused for two weeks, then switched placebo and pine bark groups. The daily pine bark dose was 25 mg for kids under 110 pounds, and 50 mg for those 110 pounds or more.

Parents and teachers evaluated symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) before and after each phase. While the placebo phase did not improve, signs of inattention and hyperactivity decreased significantly during the pine bark phases. On pine bark, in a target-response test, children were less likely to overreact by pressing a button when no visual target was present; meaning they were less impulsive.

Reference: Phytotherapy Research; 2021, 1002/ptr.7036

Probiotics reduce dermatitis and allergy

Babies with eczema and food allergy can progress to asthma later in life. In this study, 101 infants, average age nine months, with atopic dermatitis (AD) and allergy to cow’s milk took a placebo or a daily probiotic combination with one-billion colony-forming units.

After three months, both groups showed improvement in AD symptoms, with children taking probiotics 2.56 times more likely to have improved by the end of the study.

Discussing the findings, doctors said they chose children aged nine months because probiotics are likely to be most effective during the time when the gut microbiome is developing and the immune system is programmed for the future, a process typically complete by age three.

Reference: Nutrients; 2021, nu13041169