Natural Alternatives: Vitamin C and Niacinamide for Treating ADHD

Parent writes in to say that vitamin C and niacinamide were very helpful in treating hyperactivity in her son with ADHD.

Natural Alternatives for ADHD

Gail from Canada writes:

"I hope you don't mind me e-mailing you about your son as I too had a son with the same problem. He is now 29 and doing very well. Here is what I did.

I was the president of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities here in British Columbia and when my son was just starting school (in grade one) my family  doctor suggested that I put Darrin on Ritalin (which is the drug used here for hyperactive kids).   Instead, I went to every lecture through the Health and University system that I could and came to the conclusion that drugs didn't help. It broke my heart to see these kids (who were on the drugs) up on a stage trying to do the different tests that were put to them. So I looked for a different solution. It was through two learning assistant teachers that I found a solution:

1. I took Darrin off of all food colouring and of course sugar and this helped somewhat.
2. Then I took him to a  doctor in Victoria that specialized in hyperactive kids. This is where the breakthrough occurred.

Dr. Hoffer put Darrin on Vitamin C and Niacinamide (a form of B3). He started out on 500 mg - 3 times a day of each. And then we slowly increased the amount to 1000mg - 3 times a day of each. Before this took place, Darrin was not only hyperactive but also had a reading disability. I thought he could read but he was getting other kids to read to him and then he was memorizing the pages. Nothing wrong with the kids brain.

Well after taking the vitamins for a couple of weeks, he settled right down and to my surprise he started reading. By the time that all this took place, he was in grade four and a lot of damage had been done to his self-esteem. You know the old story of how they think they are dumb. Well, let me tell you, that Darrin completed grade one, two, three and half of grade four that year. We were all elated.

I remember back to when I was in school and there would be maybe 5 or 6 children with learning disabilities and now there are so many. You have to ask yourself - why? If they can't find anything physical i.e. ears - eyes - brain, then what is causing it? As one specialist from New York described it, it is like having measles on the brain and it needs scratching. And I found that the vitamins got rid of the itch.

If you would like more info from the doctor here, I could send his mailing address. But please try this with your son. These vitamins are non-toxic and will pass through the body - the body will only keep what it needs."

Editor's Note: We have recently been advised of some concerns regarding Vitamin C and adverse effects at high doses. We have taken some extracts about this from cspinet.org

"The current Daily Value is 60 mg, but some vitamin-C experts think that intakes should be at least 100 mg or, more likely, 200 mg.

If you eat the eight to ten servings of fruits and vegetables a day that we recommend, you should get at least 200 mg. So far there is no Upper Tolerable Intake Level (UL) for vitamin C. It should be 1,000 mg a day, some argue, because more than that may raise the risk of kidney stones."

Please remember, we do not endorse any treatments and strongly advise you to check with your doctor before using, stopping or changing treatment.