There is a theory of human disease that says we get sick when our bodies don’t agree with our environment. Seems reasonable enough, but our bodies are essentially the same as they were 500,000 years ago, and yet we don’t hunt or gather for food or otherwise live nomadic lifestyles. Rather, we live coped up in our safe homes. Well, new research suggests that returning to our primal origins - that is, getting outside among the grass and trees - can help children with ADHD.

The researchers report that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder exhibit milder symptoms when they routinely spend time outdoors. The authors, Andrea Faber Taylor, a visiting teaching associate at the University of Illinois, and Frances (Ming) Kuo, an environmental sciences and natural resources professor at the same school, looked at 400 children with ADHD. The study was published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being.

“Before the current study, we were confident that acute exposures to nature - sort of one-time doses - have short-term impacts on ADHD symptoms,” Kuo said. “The question is, if you’re getting chronic exposure, but it’s the same old stuff because it’s in your back yard or it’s the playground at your school, then does that help?”

Taylor added: “On the whole, the green settings were related to milder overall symptoms than either the ‘built outdoors’ or ‘indoors’ settings,” There is, however, another important perspective to this story.

Another study was released that analyzed data from parents of children with ADHD symptoms. Children with a high likelihood of having ADHD were also twice as likely to have been injured in the past year.

“ADHD is a disorder that’s associated with impulsive behaviors - children do things without thinking. It’s associated with inattention - they’re not really paying attention to risks in their environment. And it’s associated with executive function - planning ahead, thinking ahead and having inhibition when you need it,” study author David Schwebel, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Youth Safety Laboratory, explained. “Children with ADHD are poor at those skills, and that combination of things is leading them to take risks and behave impulsively, which leads to getting hurt.”

What’s more, when the researchers adjusted for other variables, only ADHD symptoms, out off all the behavioral conditions studies, were significantly associated with injury. Further analysis revealed that ADHD symptoms, such as impulsive actions, are more strongly associated with injury than defiant or aggressive behavior seen in conduct disorder.

Alan Delamater, professor of pediatrics and psychology at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said, “You’re supposed to look before you leap. Kids with ADHD are leaping before they look.”

While this second study linking ADHD to injury is only correlational, and thus cannot prove any cause, the results make sense given the known behavioral traits of attention-deficit children.

On the one hand, we have a study saying to put your ADHD kids outside in order to soften their symptoms. On the other hand, we have a study that reveals ADHD kids could have a higher rate of injury from playing outside. Perhaps the middle road is warranted: let your kids play outside and burn off their energy, but do so in a responsible manner and under adult supervision.