Thanks for visiting.

I don’t know about a link between sleep and cholesterol, but I do know that many people with untreated ADHD have trouble sleeping.

There are also issues with obesity for some people with ADHD. One study showed that stimulant medication helped them lose weight after all other “diet” attempts had failed.

A friend of mine had a gastric-bypass before learning that she had ADHD. I was shocked (but not surprised) that the surgeons didn’t screen her for ADHD.

I’ve written other posts about ADHD and sleep and obesity, both on this blog and at http://www.youmeadd.org You might want to check them out.

best,
g

I am convinced my husband is an adult with ADHD. I stumbled across this via Google because my husband also has high cholesterol despite having gastric bypass surgery. Mine is very low but I sleep very well.

Is there also a link between sleep and cholesterol? Because I am convinced not getting enough sleep and the stress is going to give him a heart attack. I am very concerned about his health.

I am going to read more into statins.

Jeff, do you think real-life doctors are too busy or most really don’t know the questions to ask? My personal physician has stopped taking insurance so the bean counters don’t dictate the way she practices medicine, and I pay out of pocket to see her. Health reform…where do we begin…

I haven’t seen a recent study on tonsillectomy vis a vis ADHD/ sleep apnea, but one that was widely cited from a year or two ago did not convince me that the surgeons have this one right, as least as far as their claim: That tonsillectomy can essentially “cure” ADHD.

I think the study I recall had an n of 10, and the follow up consisted of about 6 months. Given no independent verification, I’m prone to suspect that the parents (who perhaps wanted to avoid ADHD medication) and the surgeons (who perhaps wanted to claim new territory in the growth industry that is ADHD) did a little wishful thinking.

Moreover, in my experience, kids with ADHD are more prone to having allergies. Once the allergies and ADHD are addressed, the tonsils often recede. The same is true for many people with ADHD I know who have had the various “soft palate” and other 16th-Century-sounding surgeries recommended by the sleep experts. They might get better sleep, but their ADHD remains.

But what do I know? I’m just a layperson observer. Maybe you even wrote a post about that at http://www.corepsychblog.com

Our primary brain cells that are responsible for everything our brain does, including paying attention and everything else that goes into things like ADD, need cholesterol for their basic building blocks. There has long been a debate about whether very low levels of LDL cholesterol increase the risk of suicide, and whether cholesterol lowering with statins could cause that. More recently there has been an appreciation that statins can affect your think, which led to one physician stating that “Statins make people stupid” and led to another physician writing a whole book called “Lipitor thief of memory”. Since sexual function is controlled by the brain we shouldnt be surprised that this recent study showed that statins can affect this, and since ADD is a brain based disorder we should not be surprised that it affects this too. Granted I am not saying never take statins. In men with heart disease they reduce risk of death, in men with risk factors or women with heart disease they reduce risk of heart attack, but in women without risk factors they do little. However many men with “risk factors” would probably be better off without them. Use diet and exercise to reduce risk factors rather than taking statins.

I can confirm, from my own watch on the passing ADHD scene, that sleep apnea is clearly related to ADHD, and just heard this week an interesting piece on NPR about sleep apnea and ADHD in children, with an evocative story about a child with enlarged tonsils changing dramatically in ability to concentrate with a tonsillectomy.

As you well know, ‘ADHD’ is just the tip of the iceberg, and reductionistic, simplistic thinking simply doesn’t cover the majority of presentations.

You are so correct about the observation that medicine is indeed caught up with the one trick pony in the complexity of brain function and ADHD. Everyone seem bent on simply staying with description, and even after good evidence for >20 years, avoiding the interesting findings with brain function. So many are treating appearances and missing brain function, basic medical process, and neurophysiology.

- Also wanted to further compliment you on your thoughtful. encouraging review of the Bremner’s Brain Imaging Handbook over at Amazon – it’s one that I haven’t seen and will look forward to hooking up with Dr Bremner – it appears we are much on the same path – I look forward to that meeting.

BTW, and FYI – will be interviewing Dr Russell Jaffe next week on CorePsych Radio. Russ is an MD, PhD and a molecular cellular physiologist… who fully understands ADHD brain function, neuroimmunity, and how to specifically measure for contributory antigens.

Thanks,
Chuck