to wonder if a lot of adult ADHD is actually neuroinflammation?

[sportio]

Before anyone has a canary I have an adult diagnosis of ADHD myself and have been both medicated and unmedicated. However the more research I do the more I keep hearing about neuroinflammation. The symptoms of neuroinflammation are very much a match for those of ADHD and modern western lifestyles are for the most part a one way ticket to neuroinflammation.

Looking at medications they often work as a kind of brute force for executive function but they do nothing to address any underlying neuroinflammation. I am not on any medication at all now due to side effects but I am finding addressing neuroinflammation things like diet, lifestyle, sleep and exercise and supplements really helpful although it is early days for me I do like the idea of tackling the root causes.

Has anyone else explored this?

Ahh ok, well that's silly obviously.

I had hell with ADHD in childhood. I’m in my 50’s. When I was talking to one psychiatrist he asked why it wasn’t picked up in childhood 🤣🤣🤣🤣 they were only just coming to terms with dyslexia! However, modern day life and instant gratification has worked against me. There are definitely things that I can do to improve my condition. For me the main one is exercise and routine.

Much of it is the basics to eat a diet of whole foods, protein, healthy fats and a wide variety of fresh veg, little to no processed foods, get enough sleep, exercise, reduce stress, omega 3 supplements, something like curcumin or saffron and to be adequately hydrated.

Isn't that a 'straw that broke the camel's back' thing? Lots of women who are capable and able to overcome the difficulties of the ADHD find that the menopause tips the balance. It makes them realise that something is making it harder than it should be.

Hmm I'm not at all against these kinds of theories but I had pretty severe ADHD as a child, ended up being kicked out of school, arrested etc and my childhood diet was pretty much UPF and sugar free.

@thatsthatsaidthemayor Absolutely the default modern lifestyle would effectively induce ADHD like symptoms in even the most neurotypical person I think and I hardly know a person who hasn't wondered if they might not have it so just imagine the compounding of issues if you do indeed have ADHD!

I think everyone could benefit from cutting out super highly processed foods regardless of ADHD. I’ve eaten really healthily all my life, exercised loads and still do, and I’ve been told by so many people that I seem like I have ADHD. I can’t have caffeine or too much dark chocolate cos it makes me even more energetic and loopy!

That still doesn't mean you didn't have neuroinflammation from some other cause. I think some of the research shows that the genetic differences in ADHD brains means you are more likely to suffer from neuroinflammation so anything you can do to reduce it will help.

Thanks OP for this, I've never heard of it. I'd be grateful is anyone could share specific knowledge of what this is and how it can be helped.

I don't think the suggestion it's lifestyle related takes away from regular ADHD, there are many different types of experiences with ADHD symptoms. Some are very obviously born with it, if you'd met my DS as a baby you could probably have diagnosed him there and then! Some people could very well develop symptoms from prolonged phone use, literally apps designed to make our attention span shorter. There's of course a lifestyle element, it's foolish to think it has no effect. At the same time, lifestyle changes can effectively manage true ADHD, my DS does high impact exercise and heavy weight every day, but a few days without this routine and he becomes extremely agitated and symptomatic.

So you would discard a possible cause and remedy because it might imply a fault in the sufferer? Do you think we should not mention the dietary causes of type 2 diabetes either?

@Morningsleepin I think we should definitely shy away from blaming sufferers especially children! However any information we can use should be seen as a tool in our arsenal not as an attempt to undermine our legitimacy!

Thank you.

I think part of the difficulty is that you need not to be at the mercy of your impulses and sensory aversions to the extent many of us are, before you can implement a lot of the lifestyle changes that might help.

I was at least 40 before I was able to get my shit together sufficiently to eat a balanced diet and get regular exercise. It is a constant battle to try to stay on top of it. And if I’m honest I’ve not noticed much difference in terms of how I feel and function.

That’s no reason to give up and live on Haribo, of course.

But if anyone has any great suggestions for how to get a PDA / ADHD child with ARFID to eat organic whole foods and saffron to reduce neuroinflammation, please do let me know. In the meantime we’ll just focus on keeping him alive on his diet of Cheerios and protein shakes until he’s physically and mentally able to tolerate a wider range of foods. 🤷‍♀️

The New Scientist magazine has a feature on inflammation and the link to mental illness and other degenerative diseases this month.

Plus digestive enzymes to break down that protein to amino acids that ultimately make the right neurotransmitters to deal with adhd 😊

best thing to do is do an OAT urine test it has specific markers for neuroinflammation

How far back do you need to go before the effects of modern living don’t count as although I have an adhd diagnosis, I can look back at all my blood relatives and see they have Adhd. My great grandfather who died in the early 20th century had several businesses and jobs and from how my grandfather and his sibling would talk about their father I wouldn’t be surprised that he had ADHD. He was born in the 1800s. Hardly modern living

Since there is still alot that is not known about these conditions - and not suggesting that the op is either right or wrong - but considering your challenge and the ops hypothesis - perhaps some people have a genetic predisposition to neuroinflamation and have been raised from childhood on the v.diet that promotes it? So it starts in childhood and some may be more susceptible than others so symptoms would be more prominent earlier.

Hopefully scientists studying these conditions are following all lines of enquiry.

Also - Perhaps all the people that we class as adhd are not all suffering the same condition - so much is still not known.

If I could get my shit together enough to do that, there would be nothing wrong with me in the first place.
it’s like when people say if only depressed people exercised, socialised, ate a balanced diet and got enough sleep they wouldn’t be so depressed.

How do you give saffron to children? In a tea? In cooking? What sort of quantity? Im interested in this.

DH was born in the 50s. He was brought up on the traditional British diet of meat, potatoes and two veg. Apart from baked beans, I doubt his mother cooked processed foods - mushrooms were unknown to her, until much later.

There were no screens in those days, except for Children’s Hour. He spent his childhood out playing football with the neighbours’ children, apart from school.

It’s as clear as the light of day, he has ADHD. I cook from scratch a low fat diet, with minimal UPFs. We don’t smoke and only drink once in a blue moon.

DD2 and DGD are both diagnosed with ADHD.

This

The thing is that ADHD causes stress, poor diet (because you go for the dopamine!), shitty sleep so the causal links you are proposing are hard to substantiate. Does ADHD cause inflammation? Or does inflammation cause ADHD? The impact of lifestyle changes will differ depending on which one it is.

I have adhd. I grew up on a good healthy diet early bedtime, all the things you said you needed to not have adhd.
I struggled through childhood and adulthood and finally got diagnosed in my 60s 9/9 in all areas of ADHD

The meds have done more for me than any healthy diet and early bedtimes ever did

Can you please quote your source? This sounds incredibly dubious.

Re the suggestion about diet and Omega-3s - various diets have been trialled for help with ADHD but none have been shown to have an effect.

It's very easy to test food supplements using a double blind randomised control trial, so if there's something in the saffron thing I would imagine it would be easy to prove.

I do think neuroinflammation plus structural/physiological brain issues are a big part of serious mental illnesses such as bipolar, schizophrenia, and also autism & adhd.

However I don't think you can blame diet etc for causing neuroinflammation
I think in time it will be discovered that it's down to either a genetic mutation or genetic variant.

Diagnoses are going up because we now have the tools & knowlege to make a proper diagnosis e.g. more than 100 years ago people with epilepsy were considered dumb or an idiot & many got locked away in asylums - it's horrible to think that, that used to happen.