Brain Anti-oxidants for ADHD Inattentive and the ORAC Food Scale

Brain Anti-oxidants for ADHD Inattentive and the ORAC Food Scale

A study just published has shown that salivary protein thiol level can be used to identify children with ADHD. Salivary protein thiol levels are good indicators of the antioxidant status of the brain. Increased brain protein thiols signal a poor antioxidant brain status.


I have written several posts on brain oxidant level as a possible cause or contributor to the symptoms of Inattentive ADHD. I have also written several posts of why diet is so important for improving ADHD Inattentive symptoms.


I know that you know what antioxidants are but as a brief reminder, antioxidants are micronutrients that are typically found in foods that protect the tissues in our bodies from harm. These micronutrients do this by blocking chemical reactions that cause oxidation.

Oxygen can 'rust' or corrodes our brain tissue similarly to the way oxygen rusts metal. This oxidation harms the brain because it causes the chemicals inside our brains to not work as they should. Damage caused by oxidative stress has been known to be the cause of many illnesses. ADHD is one of the many conditions that may be the result of a poor brain antioxidant status.

The National Institutes of Health has developed a score for foods that are good antioxidants. They call this score the ORAC score. The way it works is that each fruit, vegetable and spice has a certain score based on well each food raises the level of blood antioxidant levels. Brightly colored foods such as blueberries and raspberries and some types of apples, and beans have very high antioxidant ORAC scores. Your can find the ORAC food scale here.

Researchers have found that increasing daily intake of micronutrients to between 3,000 and 5,000 ORAC units seems significant increase the blood, brain and tissue antioxidant capacity. It is probably a good idea to increase our antioxidant intake to these recommended levels so as to minimize the symptoms of Inattentive ADHD.
Neurochem Res. 2011 Oct 1.
Altered Biochemical Parameters in Saliva of Pediatric Attention Deficit HyperactivityDisorder.
Archana E, Pai P, Prabhu BK, Shenoy RP, Prabhu K, Rao A.