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ADHD and Health

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A quick note to share with you this important article on Vitamin B12 in The New York Times.

I lived for many decades not knowing I had borderline pernicious anemia. Finally, a smart physician directed me to supplement B12 with injections. So every week (or when I remember), I stab myself with the required ccs of the red stuff.

But you needn’t have such an obvious condition to question if your B12 stores are all they should be, especially if you eat a mostly vegetarian diet, you take an antacid, or your meals are haphazard.

Other signs of B12 deficiency include muscle weakness,  fatigue, shakiness, unsteady gait, incontinence, low blood pressure, depression and other mood disorders, and cognitive problems like poor memory. Remember that the nervous system (including brain cells) relies on an adequate supply of key vitamins and minerals. Moreover, some medications will increase your need for these nutrients. Read the rest of this entry »

A quick note to let you know that my book, Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?, is available as a download from Amazon.com for Kindle devices and Kindle applications for iPads, iPhones, PCs, and so forth.  Just click on the book title above to go directly to the product page.

Please tell your friends in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom that the Kindle is available on Amazon.com in those countries. (This is the English version.)

Thank you for spreading the word.

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We’ve all heard claims about fish oil “curing” ADHD, but what does the latest research show? Mixed results, at best, though further study is warranted.

Make no mistake:  The human brain needs essential fatty acids to function properly; so does the rest of the body. But the question is this: Does fish oil supplementation actually diminish ADHD symptoms?

Following the last post on diet and ADHD, David Rabiner, Ph.D., explains the latest research on ADHD and fish oil, below.  (To subscribe to his free newsletter, Attention Research Update, click here.) Reprinted here with Dr. Rabiner’s permission. Cartoon reproduced under paid license from Cartoon Stock.

New findings: Does fatty acid supplementation help children with ADHD

Although medication treatment benefits an estimated 70 to 90% of children with ADHD, effective alternative treatments are needed for several reasons. First, even for children who respond well to medication, difficulties that need to be addressed often remain. Second, some children experience side effects that preclude the ongoing use of meds. Finally, most studies of stimulant medication treatment are relatively short-term, and data showing that stimulant medication improves long-term outcomes remain scarce. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve seen the headlines and read the stories regarding a recent study on ADHD and diet.  But what is the real story behind the research? You’ll find out below. But first, a brief examination of the situation.

Increasingly, even legitimate news outlets lift stories verbatim from the press release, without bothering to ask important questions of experts not associated with the study or explaining the limitations of the study and its relative importance.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I asked Australian writer Matthew Bush to contribute a guest column on his experiences with sleep and ADHD (below), I expected a well-written and engaging piece. What I didn’t expect was a happy ending, too, and perhaps a blueprint to help others.

ADHD’s potential challenges to sleep include the behavioral (putting off sleep because anything is more interesting than lying in the dark waiting for nothing to happen) and the physiological (Restless Legs Syndrome, Sleep Apnea, dysregulated circadian rhythm, etc.). Here is a post from my other blog on ADHD and sleep. Look to the latest issue of CHADD’s Attention Magazine for my article on the topic, a prelude to a short upcoming book: The ADHD Roller Coaster Guide to Sleep. Now to Matt’s guest column!

Sleep, Finally.

By Matthew Bush

I was the 11 year old ninja master.

I had to be awake for school in six hours.

The creaking kitchen floorboards raised the hair on the back of my neck. The house was dark. I could hear snoring.Good. Dad was a heavy sleeper and that meant mum had her earplugs in. Still, there was risk.

The adrenaline pacified me. I inhaled slowly, my pulse pounded through the swell of blood in my ears. I opened the cabinet door slowly and clicked the torch on. I was on a mission.

If I was successful, I’d take my bounty back to my room and quietly self-medicate with caffeine and carbohydrates. Then I’d curl up on my beanbag and read.

My official bedtime was 8:30. I was allowed to read for half an hour, then my dad would tell me to go to sleep. I rarely did. Eventually, my lamp and torch batteries got confiscated. That just added another objective to my mission dossier. Read the rest of this entry »

“When the average ADHDer gets hit with the news that their life partner—and frequently, the point of stability in the marriage—is ill or terminally ill, more than the relationship has been threatened. Not only are we facing the loss of someone we love—and when an ADHDer loves, it goes deep—our whole stability is threatened.”

So began an e-mail from my friend Tricia, written in response to my request for advice for James, a reader of this blog. He had written to ask me how to best help care for his ill partner without letting his ADHD symptoms thwart his best intentions.  I quickly responded with my best off-the-cuff advice, but then I turned to a real expert: Tricia.

James’ was a timely e-mail, because even though Tricia’s beloved husband had just passed away, she was already turning her thoughts to this important topic:  How to help prepare the adult with ADHD who suddenly becomes the caregiver to an ill partner, a charge that can involve immense organizational skills, dealing with physicians’s sometimes prickly egos, hospital rules, conflicting advice from specialists and, oh, all the things that the partner used to do, such as bill-paying and other logistics?  Not to mention dealing with personal grief reactions and a frightfully shortening window of time together. Read the rest of this entry »

Know some geeks who can’t sleep?  Please share this post with them. It might help.

Our monthly Adult ADHD Salon in Palo Alto ran late Wednesday night, as usual. (Call me a nerd, but this group is the social highlight of my month; we have fascinating conversations and it’s always great to cheer progress reports.)  So, I was a little fuzzy-headed the next morning when I read this story in our local paper: “The Quantified Self: Taking quantum leap in self-examination.”

It caught my attention, because one immense challenge with ADHD is self-monitoring. This can be a real liability when you are trying to figure out how you landed in certain circumstances, how you come across to others,  or even what you ate for breakfast and if you’re following through on a routine you’ve set for yourself.

Leave it to Silicon Valley’s geeks then (including the ones who might have ADHD but don’t know it) to come up with an entire self-monitoring movement where, as the story explains: Read the rest of this entry »

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Maybe we so often associate ADHD challenges with schoolwork, paperwork, and housework that we don’t often think of ADHD putting a kink in, um, bedroom fun. Or, that activity that we assume most people can do “in their sleep”: sleep.

Ah, but what you don’t know can hurt you. It can hurt your love life. And it can hurt your ability to get to bed on time, go to sleep, and stay asleep, not to mention leaving you prone to gasping for air (sleep apnea) or dancing the cucharacha with your restless legs all night.

I invite you to visit my blog on ADHD and Relationships to learn a bit more on those two subjects and, best of all, read the many insightful comments from readers that follow. (While you’re there, please sign up to follow this monthly blog so you’ll be notified of new posts.) I guarantee you’ll find some kindred spirits.

1. ADHD and Sex: No Shame, No Blame

“Gina, sex is difficult for people with ADHD; it’s tough to stay focused!” says a female Facebook friend, responding to my query on this topic. Read the rest of this entry »

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New study on ADHD and adults
New study on ADHD and adults

To watch a short interview on NBC’s The Today Show with preeminent ADHD research scientist Dr. Russell Barkley, click on the link above. He introduces the studies examining long-term outcomes of children diagnosed with ADHD. For details on this groundbreaking research by Dr. Barkley and colleague Dr. Mariellen Fischer, read ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says. (Click on the title to learn more about it on Amazon.com.)

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Live a few decades not knowing that you have ADHD, and chances are you’re lugging around not onlyDr.  Charles Parker 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 »

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