July 2009

Live a few decades not knowing that you have ADHD, and chances are you’re lugging around not only emotional baggage but also physical baggage — sleep debt, adrenal exhaustion, off-kilter hormones, allergies, and more. Yet, in our specialist-dominated healthcare “system,” finding a physician who can assemble all the puzzle pieces is a challenge.

When’s the last time your personal physician, not to mention ADHD-treating psychiatrist, closely scrutinized lab results for your complete blood panel, adrenal function, or hormones and could properly answer your questions about, say, potential gluten sensitivity? Yet, if you’re suffering from any of these allied health challenges, your brain function could be suffering in ways that will never be sufficiently addressed by psychotropic medications alone.

A few years ago, I scoured the Internet for a “big picture” physician who was sharing information (on a blog or website) not only about ADHD and its commonly co-occurring conditions but also the many other biomarkers that affect brain health. Fortunately, I found CorePsychBlog , written by physician, author, neuroscientist, and psychiatric consultant Dr. Charles Parker (pictured, above right). (Regular readers of this blog have seen Dr. Parker’s comments. For the record, he and I have never met and have no business association.) Pick your media preference: written posts, radio shows, or videos. CorePsychBlog is packed with information. So packed that I’ve picked out a few highlights to get you started (in a follow-up post, I’ll share links to some of Dr. Parker’s highly informative videos): Read the rest of this entry »