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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Exercise, food and other supports
There is a case worth carrying around for this. A liver transplant patient kept rejecting the organ, and it turned out he was quietly taking echinacea, which stirs up the very immune system the transplant needed damped down. He stopped, and the rejections stopped. He was not hiding anything: he simply did not think of a herb as a drug.
From their bellies comes a drink of different colours in which there is healing for people (Quran 16:69). If something ordinary can carry real healing, it can carry real effect in the other direction too.
النحل
ثُمَّ كُلِي مِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ فَٱسۡلُكِي سُبُلَ رَبِّكِ ذُلُلࣰ اۚ يَخۡرُجُ مِنۢ بُطُونِهَا شَرَابࣱ مُّخۡتَلِفٌ أَلۡوَٰنُهُۥ فِيهِ شِفَآءࣱ لِّلنَّاسِۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَأٓيَةࣰ لِّقَوۡمࣲ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
Then feed on all kinds of fruit and follow the ways made easy for you by your Lord.’ From their bellies comes a drink of different colours in which there is healing for people. There truly is a sign in this for those who think
Qur’an 16:69read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
There is a serious literature on nutrients acting on the brain rather than simply passing through, including an account of how vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids may influence serotonin synthesis and executive function in ADHD. That paper offers a mechanism rather than trial results, which is exactly the point here. These substances are active enough to be worth asking about.
Patrick RP, Ames BN. (2015). Vitamin D and the omega-3 fatty acids control serotonin synthesis and action, part 2: relevance for ADHD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and impulsive behavior.. FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Anything with a real biological effect can pull against a treatment, whether or not the person counts it as medicine.
Play therapy and insight based psychotherapy do not treat ADHD. There is no buried, unexpressed feeling driving it that talking will let out.
Vitamin C cannot really be stockpiled, since the excess leaves in your urine. A, D, E and K are stored in fat, so a large daily dose keeps adding to itself.
Neurofeedback rests on a tidy idea: in ADHD the slower theta rhythm shows up when the faster beta rhythm should be running, so the training rewards you for shifting the balance. Knowing the idea is worth a few minutes, because it is what the brochure is built on.