Millions of children in the United States are diagnosed every year with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and until this time the primary treatment has been the use of stimulant medications such as Ritalin. A new European study shows, however, that an antioxidant plant extract called Pycnogenol from the bark of a French pine tree may reduce ADHD.
According to the study, Pycnogenol works by balancing stress hormones, which in turn lowers adrenaline and dopamine, thereby improving children’s attention and reducing hyperactivity. In a study of 57 nine-year-olds in Slovakia, 41 patients received Pycnogenol and 16 received a placebo for one month. Stress hormones were measured in the children before, during, and after the treatment. Adrenaline was reduced by about 26 percent while taking Pycnogenol, and dopamine by about 10 percent. Both rose again when Pycnogenol was discontinued.
“The findings acknowledge that children with ADHD have dramatically elevated levels of stress hormones known to increase heart rate and blood pressure, causing excitement, arousal and irritability, as compared to children without ADHD symptoms,” said one of the authors of the study, Dr. Peter Rohdewald of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Germany’s University of Munster. “The findings of this study demonstrate a significant stress hormone lowering effect for a nutritional supplement for the first time.”
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