A casual community for people with ADHD
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I've noticed a drop in efficacy when I have a period of time where I'm anemic. I'm basically having to take iron supplements non-stop for that reason...
Nice to hear from someone else with a similar experience, and I hope that improving the anemia leads to an improvement in ADHD symptoms too!
This is just personal experience but an iron supplement on its own didn't help me much. The "blood builder" combination supplements were much better for my anemia
My personal experience is that there's a direct correlation between my physical health and effectiveness of my ADHD medication.
My hypothesis is that since it's about my brain capability to register and prioritise stimuli, the busier said brain is (with other body issues) the less likely it is too perform executive functions. This might be the general case, but since we start from the unfavorable position, it might be more debilitating for us.
(I've no idea why I'm using such a fancy language rn. Apologies)
Call your pharmacist. They're an expert in the field, and it is their job to give you advice on your medications. You've already paid for this service, even as an American.
Iron usually makes medication less effective.
That does not include ADHD meds.
From article:
Iron tablets may cause other medicines you are taking to not work as well. Some of these include tetracycline, penicillin, ciprofloxacin, and medicines used for Parkinson's disease and seizures.
It doesn't seem to say it doesn't affect ADHD meds, just gave a list of known interactions.
My takeaway: since it's known to interact with some meds, it could have an effect on others.
You're increasing available O2, which usually means an improvement in metabolism (reduction, at least, and perhaps increased cellular function), so it's hard to say how it would impact a given med without understanding how it's metabolized.
I would think any condition would improve if you increase O2 availability for someone who has anemia. Hell, increasing O2 seems to help anyone generally, part of why exercise is recommended for almost any condition.
I think the big picture is huge and not entirely known. One angle: A cause of ADHD is a bad gut biome. This may also affect the bioavailability of micronutrients, thus leading the deficiencies. Compensating for that by taking more, with supplements, could help with additional symptoms.
Long before I had a diagnosis or meds, I had some good runs, few years even, and even back then, I saw the link to certain foods. When fixing multiple problems at the same time, the effect was enormous.
Some caffeine, but well distributed, as a poor man's stimulant, combined with drinking a lot, very specific foods ... I think it was a mix of "medication", hydration, gut biome (low sugar, probiotic foods) and fixing multiple deficiencies at the same time. When that extra energy results in more physical activity, additional amplification happens.
So yes, I believe that multi-vector attacks on your health problems work in synergy, better than the sum of their parts.
As for iron specifically, a lot can be done wrong. What I recall: Best in the morning before first coffee / tee and some time in-between, with Vitamin C. Personally, I can't stomach it, so I got to ignore that rule and just take it with the biggest meal.
A cause of ADHD is a bad gut biome.
Yeah yeah, and autism is caused by sugar and vaccines fuck off.
Did I miss something? The gut-AU/HD link was established as legit enough to continue research for a while now, its just that idiot ex-doctor saw the language being used and ran with it to make money off of telling people that the old MMR vaccine may lead to some fake ass desease that caused autism.
Gut biome is pretty important and relevant to internal medicine throughout. I've not heard anyone say for certain that all ADHD cases are caused by bad gut health, but neither did the comment you are strawmanning.
I should not be entertaining bait, but here goes:
Gut biome is important to many things with our bodies. I agree.
But to say that a lifelong neurological affliction is caused by a "bad gut biome" is disinformation, at best.
It's a slippery fucking slope once someone claims "x causes y" with no absolute conclusion. Once a scientific study comes out saying that "ADHD is caused by xyz", I'll take that into consideration.
Sick as fuck of people claiming that my neurological disorder can be CURED by keto or diet or some shit. We can live make healthier choices in order to make managing ADHD easier, but, no, it's never been proven to be caused by fucking gut biome or whatever. If it's proven otherwise in the future, I'll accept that. Fine. Cool.
But for now? No. Find me an actual fucking cure, and then I'll stop being angry about shitty disinformation.
I think we agree on like, 99% of stuff.
I just think we have several medical diagnosises that are actually 2 of more issues/causes that share enough similarites to be called the same thing. Like ADHD for example, some cases that fall well within the requirements of ADHD have been linked to parental substance use during pregnancy, but not all those who suffer from ADHD do so because of parental drug use.
Its been my understanding that there are multiple possible causes behind what we call autism, and that autism has been correlative with poor gut health in a portion of those cases. Obviously, gut health isnt "in control" of whether or not a person has autism. I've read a few things, however, that have suggested a link between gut microbiome and the severity of certain cases of autism, and might affect risk of related conditions.
I have no clue if its true, and I'd certainly never claim anything can be done to cure autism, ADHD, etc just by food/pill etc. I'm AuDH myself, 100% vaccinated, and pro-science all the way though, So I promise wasn't baiting.