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):
Metabolic Moments and Nutrition in Evidence: “If your metabolic body is rusty or broken, your brain drifts downstream in the swill,” says Dr. Parker. “Not a pretty sight on the short term, devastating over the years.” Learn about insulin resistance, adrenal fatigue, estrogen dominance, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), fibroids, endometriosis, and more.
Getting the ADHD Meds Right: “If we start with the right diagnosis, and recognize complexity of the spectrum of ADD, we will be much more capable of finding the right solution,” says Dr. Parker, introducing the first in a three-episode series regarding right diagnosis, right meds, wrong meds, and metabolic issues that encourage a failure of treatment.
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Tags: ADHD and gluten sensitivity, ADHD and hormones, ADHD and metabolic issues, ADHD and thyroid, ADHD medications, corepsychblog, Dr. Charles Parker, Gina Pera
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Gina,
Early this morning up to find your kind piece on my mission over at CorePsych [actually mine is very close to your objective over here] – and am so appreciative of your taking the time to send this note to your crew. It’s been most reassuring out on my perch to listen to your exceptional voice, your keen insights, and your engaging sense of humor about matters that are so regularly misunderstood out on the ADHD road to recovery.Confusion often prevails where common sense and the evolution of mind science appear to have taken a vacation.
Most of all I appreciate your fresh, uncomplicated take on matters that may at first appear just too complex – and, even though we have never met, it seems like we have been friends for many years. In speaking with Russell Barkley at a recent meeting I quickly discovered you have that effect on many of your colleagues – and I thought it was just me
Thanks so much – look forward to our evolving conversations!
Chuck -
Hi Gina and Dr. Parker,
Gina referred me to Dr. Parker’s blog a couple years ago. As if it’s not hard enough to have ADHD and to deal with (mis)managed care in trying to get ADHD treatment, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to find one physician who could “connect the dots” between my low thyroid, heart arhythmia, itchy skin and more. Reading Dr. Parker’s CorePsychBlog validated many of my concerns and motivated me to keep looking for answers. Thanks to both of you!
David
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Go Gina Go!!!
Thanks so much for digging until you found a doctor who is writing and blogging about ADHD and its traveling companions. I have long struggled with this issue with close to no help from my doctors.
I have done my own research and tentatively begun to solve my own physical problems with ADHD, thyroid insufficiency, allergies, asthma, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. All those conditions are related, who knew? Certainly not my esteemed docs.
Glenna
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I’m confused as I come across this post and have found nothing with Dr. Parker that clarifies. Are you (him) saying that ADHD can be the cause of the other conditions, or the other way around? I have been diagnosed with gluten sensitivity, metabolic syndrome, low thyroid, and estrogen dominance, and adrenal exhaustion (extreme fatigue). 2 of my children have been diagnosed with ADHD, therefore I’m wondering if it came from me–but I don’t fit the classic symptoms of ADHD more than just mildly. Nothing seems to be working to help the other conditions (progesterone cream, compounded thyroid meds, no carb/sugar diet) and I’m wondering if a stimulant will help.
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Hi Danelle,
I understand your confusion. We humans are complex creatures, and the brain is the most complex part of us!
I have an ongoing bone-problem in my foot, and I cannot find two specialists who can agree on what to do next. The orthopedic surgeon has one idea. The Podiatric Surgeron has another. The physical therapist still another opinion. And on and on. With none of them seeming to even “talk the same language.”
If it’s this bad with a simple, mechanistic problem, think about the brain =- and all the possible conditions that can affect brain problems. Shew!
If you have two children with ADHD, chances are good that if the biological father doesn’t have it, you do. If the physician who prescribed the progesterone, the thyroid medication, the diets, etc. doesn’t know about ADHD, it won’t even come up as a possibility.
But yes, living a few decades with untreated ADHD can also create “side effects” in hormone and thyroid function (from the stress, from the lack of sleep, from the erratic diet, from lack of exercise). So, it’s a big complicated ball of wax!
Some people find that only after starting on a good regimen of ADHD medication can they start untangling the rest of these issues. So, maybe it’s time for you to pursue an evaluation for ADHD and try treatment for that. Especially if nothing else has worked. (Then again, there is no reason to think that a no carb diet will work for ADHD, and can even make symptoms worse. Perhaps this is something you decided upon yourself and not with the help of a physician.)
Good luck,
Gina
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Wow, thanks for the response. I will forward this to my MD who happens to be a holistic doctor. She recommended the no-carb diet (as did several others) due to metabolic syndrome. I gain a lot of weight when eating refined carbs and even fruits. Thanks again!
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