Dandelion Natural Health

08/09/2025

Could a simple vitamin deficiency be affecting your child’s ADHD?

A recent review found that children with ADHD often have significantly lower levels of vitamin B9 (folate) and B12 than other kids.

These vitamins help the brain make chemicals that control attention, focus, and mood. When levels are low, children may struggle more with inattention, impulsivity, and mood swings.

Around 30–50% of people carry a common MTHFR gene variant, which makes it harder to convert folate and B12 into the active forms the brain can use.

These active forms, called methylated B vitamins, are important for attention, focus, and mood.

Foods rich in these vitamins include leafy greens, eggs, fish, and fermented foods.

Supplements should be labelled methylfolate (5-MTHF) or methylcobalamin.

This doesn’t mean B vitamins cause ADHD, but ensuring adequate intake may help reduce some symptoms.

Simple nutritional steps could make a real difference in how your child feels and functions every day :)

(Study reference: Razavinia et al., 2024)

06/09/2025

An article I wrote about seed oils and the importance of omega balance:

You’ve probably heard that seed oils — like sunflower, soybean, corn, rapeseed, and safflower oil — are “toxic” or “inflammatory.” But the truth is more nuanced:

04/09/2025

Irritated but not surprised when this hit piece on supplements arrived in my inbox this morning… 🙄

ZOE’s latest podcast makes sweeping claims about supplements that risk misleading the public. Oversimplified soundbites undermine client care and distort what the evidence actually shows - even if they may conveniently boost sales of “diet-only” solutions, they do not reflect the nuance required in nutrition science or clinical practice.

Amongst the falsehoods, inaccuracies and exaggerations:

1. “Supplements have no benefit for healthy people.”
– This ignores contexts such as vegan diets, pregnancy, B12 deficiency and other genetic tendencies, where supplementation is essential.
(Stabler SP. Clinical practice. Vitamin B12 deficiency. N Engl J Med. 2013;368(2):149–160.)

2. “Vitamin D supplementation is unnecessary, even if lab tests show insufficiency.”
– Just wrong and I’m willing to bet all by fibromyalgia patients would beg to differ after the relief of level correction! Also contradicts international guidance on deficiency and insufficiency.
(Ross AC, Manson JE, Abrams SA, et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011;96(11):1911–1930.)

3. “Probiotics don’t work because they are not native gut bacteria.”
– Ignores substantial and emerging research demonstrating clinical benefits.
(Hill C, Guarner F, Reid G, et al. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2014;11(8):506–514.)

4. “Observational studies showing low vitamin levels in disease are always misleading (reverse causation).”
Oversimplifies nutrient–disease relationships and dismisses clinical nuance.
(Manson JE, Bassuk SS. JAMA. 2018;319(17):1814–1815.)

5. “Multivitamins offer no benefit in older adults.”
– Overgeneralises, evidence suggests benefits for prevention and risk reduction.
(Chen X, Song Z, Yin Z, et al. Nutrients. 2020;12(6):1789.)

Nutrition science deserves balanced, evidence-based discussion. Supplements, when applied judiciously, are an important tool for supporting health, particularly when tailored to the individual, sourced from high quality ingredients at therapeutic dosages, and used safely alongside any medications. Broad dismissals risk misleading the public and undermining patient care.

💚

In this episode, we debunk the vitamin supplement industry and find out whether your daily multivitamin could actually be causing more harm than good.