Vitamins for Children Can Raise Their IQs
Chances are your children or grandchildren are back in school after the summer break. So I thought it was a good time to highlight the fact that the right vitamins for children can improve their mental performance fact, hundreds of studies underscore the importance of nutrition in cognitive development.
Stephen Schoenthaler, Ph.D., a professor at California State University at Stanislaus, has been researching this topic for years. In one study, Dr. Schoenthaler and his colleagues tested the IQs of 245 schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 12 in Phoenix, Ariz. They then enlisted teachers to distribute either a vitamin and mineral supplement or a placebo to these children on a daily basis.
At the study's conclusion, IQ tests were again administered, and the students who had been taking the vitamins and supplements for children had an average 2.5 point gain in IQ. The truly impressive finding of this study, however, was that the children who were poorly nourished at the study's onset gained at least 15 IQ points!
The researchers also noted that test scores were closely linked with school performance, and suggested that parents “of school children whose academic performance is substandard would be well advised to seek a nutritionally oriented physician for assessment of their children's nutritional status.”