Posts tagged ADD and ADHD
Brain Tip: Vitamins and ADD/ADHD Brain Power
Studies indicate that children in grade school whose diets are supplemented with vitamins and minerals, to insure the standard recommended dietary allowances, scored higher on intelligence tests than those who took no supplements. Here are some specific vitamins and minerals that affect behavior and learning in children and adults:
Vitamin C is required by the brain to make neurotransmitters. In fact, the brain has a special vitamin c “pump,” which draws extra vitamin c out of the blood into the brain.
Vitamin B6 deficiency causes irritability and fatigue. Adequate levels of the vitamin increase the brain’s levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, increasing alertness.
Iron is also necessary for making dopamine. One small study showed ferritin levels (a measure of iron stores) to be low in 84 percent of ADD/ADHD children, compared to 18 percent of a control group. Low iron levels correlate with severe ADD/ADHD.
Zinc regulates the neurotransmitter dopamine, and may make methylphenidate more effective by improving the brain’s response to dopamine. Low levels of this mineral correlate with inattention.
More of these nutrients is not necessarily better. Studies using megavitamin therapy in children with ADD/ADHD showed no effect.
The next blog post will be about breakfast ideas for ADD/ADHD
Excerpt from the Editors of ADDitude Magazine
Brain Tip: Eat the Right Foods For ADHD
Scientists finally agree with parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) who have suspected a connection between the kinds of foods their children eat and their behavior and symptoms.
Two recent studies show a relationship between diet and ADD/ADHD symptoms. One, published in Pediatrics, concluded that pesticides, specifically organophosphates, found on fruits and vegetables may be linked to ADD/ADHD. The higher the levels of the compounds detected in a child’s urine, the more likely the chance of having ADD/ADHD. (Solution? Eat organic, suggest the study’s authors.) Another study, published in Journal of Attention Disorders, showed that a Western diet — processed meats, fast foods, high-fat dairy products, and sugary foods — doubled the risk of having an ADD/ADHD diagnosis, compared with eating a healthier diet.
Nutrition affects the ADD brain in three ways. Brain cells, like other cells in the body, need proper nutrition to carry out their functions; the myelin sheath, which covers the axons of brain cells, as insulation covers electrical wires, needs the right levels of nutrients to speed transmission of the electrical signals between brain cells; neurotransmitters — dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine — are dependent on diet for their production.
If the right nutrients aren’t accessible to the brain, its circuits misfire. The next blog post will be about Carbs and ADD/ADHD Brain Power
Excerpt from the Editors of ADDitude Magazine
This blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information on this blog is provided for educational purposes only.
Answer For An Active Mind
Last week I asked my blog followers to send me their answers to the following question and I will reply with any information that could be helpful:
“What is something you are trying to achieve in your life in which you want to know ‘why does my mind do or cannot do that?’”
I received an interesting answer (and question) from one follower (thanks for sharing):
“I’m constantly in the process of doing a lot of things at the same time. With that, I mean that I’m writing a paper, a dissertation, short stories, composing different styles of music and working out ideas for theatre. Though I think it’s great that my production is so wide, I do not particularly like the fact that it is so scattered. When I concentrate on one of these tasks, I get diverted by ideas and inspiration for all the other stuff. In the end I’m doing a bit of everything and am never really able to make big strides in one particular direction. Is that concentration deficiency or do I need to allow all of these ideas to pop up at random times without channelling them?”
Answer: While it is hard to tell from your question whether your mind has “concentration deficiency” (attention deficit), I get the impression that you may have a lot of natural mental abilities that enable you to do many things well and motivate you to seek new experiences and information. This can cause fluctuations in attention and can look like attention deficit disorder but is more the result of an active intellectual mind.
[Attention deficit disorder is a biological deficiency primarily in the brain’s fontal lobe that keeps someone from paying attention long enough on a task before moving onto the next stimulating thought or activity.]
So, what may be happening in your mind that causes unrelated thoughts to pop into your head when you are doing something? Because the neurons in our mind are assemblies that vibrate when activated (communicating with other neurons, storing/retrieving memories, etc.), the vibration in one area (while working on music) can activate another unrelated area that causes you to remember something else (your dissertation). (Parante 2010)
Memory Tool: The key is not to become distracted from what you are doing by thoughts popping into you head. If something pops into your head, write it down in a notebook and refocus on the task at hand. This gives your mind a physical tool to store an idea or thought until later without feeling like you have to deal with it at that time.
Time Box: You can also use time boxing that requires you to choose a task and predict how long you will work on it at that moment. You need to acknowledge that, if you have the urge to do something else, you will remain focused on that task for that specified time no matter what. If something else pops into your head during that task, write it down in your notebook, and return to the task until the time is up.
Use a calendar each day to schedule these time boxes in advance so you work on a variety of things important to you but commit to focusing only on them one at a time for specified time periods.
Practice these methods for your next task. Then practice them for tasks you need to accomplish throughout an entire day. Experiment and see how it goes and let me know. Remember, it is all a work in progress.
Thank you again for sharing your experience and keep us updated on your progress and your own ideas. (My answer should not be consider medical diagnosis and treatment but simply a sharing of helpful information to explore further.)
