don't ignore this area of nutrition 🥝
Here's everything you need to know about gut health and ADHD. We don't think about this area of our diet much, but it's pretty important...
Firstly, apologies for being late. I wrote the last post three weeks ago, and well… this is a weekly newsletter.
We’ve all been there, my defences fell, and the symptoms beat me - but now I'm back in control. It took re-evaluating all my physical factors and attacking each one. Things didn't just fix themselves overnight, I felt helpless (I know you get me), but I’ve noticed that things tend to work out if I trust the process and follow the MEDS acronym.
I also arrived at three other suspects for my sudden defeat:
Dopaminergic blunting
Gut health
Medication tolerance
I suspect that all three affected me to an extent, but I’m especially concerned about the second one. I feel like not many people pay attention to gut health and my vendetta has me hyperfocused, so let’s talk about it.
💡 ADHD Friendly Summary
Many studies have shown that improving your gut health can help improve your mood, cognition and sleep quality.
Researchers have found links between gut health and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Links between ADHD and gut health are still in preliminary stages of research. (There is some promising stuff though!)
You can improve your gut health through diet changes, supplementation, and by keeping your sleep and exercise in check. (See bottom of the post for more info)
Gut-Brain Connection
Several studies have found that gut health has links to mood, behaviour and even neurodevelopment disorders. The whole gut-brain thing was controversial for a while, but now it looks most researchers accept it. The whole idea comes from the fact that our gut has its own nervous system: the enteric nervous system (ENS).
The ENS is sometimes called our "second brain", which I don’t feel good about since our first brains are already so scattered 👀. But it turns out that it deserves that name, the ENS can operate autonomously of our central nervous system, and it communicates through the use of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin.
Yeah, dopamine and serotonin, the same two neurotransmitters that are responsible for our reward systems. That’s pretty relevant since ADHD is associated with deficits in reward processing and issues with dopamine transmission. As you’d guess, gut health is becoming a hot topic in the area of ADHD research.
💡 Key Fact: More than 90% of your body's serotonin and about 50% of your body's dopamine lies in your gut! An unhealthy gut can affect your neurotransmitters negatively.
Microbiome and Gut Health
Your gut microbiome refers to the bacteria that live inside your digestive system (yes, bacteria can be good!).
Recent studies have shown that our microbiome can play an essential part in the development and function of the gut-brain connection. Some researchers have even started to reframe the gut-brain axis as the microbiota-gut-brain axis (MGB).
Now, these findings are great because it provides us with a clear direction for improving our gut health, which is by improving our microbiome (see techniques at the end).
💡 Key Fact: One recent study found that 6-weeks of using a probiotic mixture resulted in significant improvements in mood, reductions in fatigue and improvements in sleep quality.
(it’s not a big leap to guess that gut health could also affect our ADHD symptoms)
Gut Health and ADHD
We’ve started to see some studies that show links between the MGB Axis and other disorders like autism, depression and anxiety.
What we know
Some of the preliminary research on ADHD and gut health has also shown promising results. One study (n=96) looked at the microbiomes of people with ADHD, and they found increases in a genus of bacteria called Bifidobacterium.
The increase was linked to an increase in another enzyme called cyclohexadienyl dehydrate (try saying that 3 times fast). That enzyme happens to be involved in the production of phenylalanine, which is a precursor to dopamine (🔔 ding, ding ding!)
💡 Key Fact: Researchers have found preliminary associations between increases in Bifidobacterium and decreased responses to reward anticipation (a hallmark of ADHD).
Improving Symptoms
Unfortunately, the research around Bifidobacterium is still shaky and even contradictory at times, but there’s growing interest in this link. Researchers at the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago recently ran a 10-week randomised control trial with micronutrient supplementation in children with ADHD. They noted that there was an association between reductions in certain types of bacteria and reductions in the severity of symptoms on the ADHD-IV Rating Scale.
The research seems to be in early stages since they mainly talk about actinobacteria, which is a class of bacteria that’s way too broad for any actionable intel. They do say that their findings provide support for micronutrients being used as a safe method to control the amount of Bifidobacterium in our microbiome.
Based on my research into this area, I couldn't find definitive answers for links between gut health and ADHD symptoms. The lack of research is mainly because this field is still growing and the links between gut health and other neurodevelopmental disorders are still developing. I suspect we'll have some concrete studies on ADHD soon - I'll update you once we do.
5 Ways to Improve Gut Health
Right now, I’m tackling my gut health with: exercise, sleep, kiwifruit, bananas, greek yogurt, one-a-day probiotics and magnesium supplements.
So now you know gut health is important. It’s time to find out if you have an unhealthy gut, and then check out these five ways to improve your gut health.
Talk to your doctor
Your doctor knows your medical history and your diet needs. They'll be able to give you initial advice on what you can do to improve your gut health.
If things don’t work out with your doctor, but you still suspect your gut is off, start researching! (Or reply to this post with your issue and I’ll help)
Probiotic & Prebiotic supplementation
Research has suggested that taking pre- and probiotics can help develop a healthy gut.
Learn more about prebiotics and probiotics from ADHD Coach, Erin Snyders.
Eat less sugar and artificial sweeteners
There have been many studies that show high sugar diets can negatively affect the gut microbiome. The contents of this post should have convinced you that this could affect your behaviour negatively.
Again, consult a doctor first. Your relationship with insulin is going to be different from mine.
Reduce Stress
Regular Exercise and Sleep (You should be doing this anyway)
Change your diet
Many experts claim that elimination and restrictive diets can help with gut-healing.
This type of change can be tough, and it might not always be the right choice. Please talk to your doctor before taking any drastic measures.
Kelsey Kinney, an expert dietitian, offers information on these diets in her article: "Why I don't take a diet-first approach to healing gut issues"
🗒 Note: If you’re like me then you’ll forget to monitor your changes.
You should track any changes to your diet and symptoms in a journal or an app like Bearable or MyFitnessPal.
Got 10 seconds to spare? I’d love to hear your feedback on this article and tell me what you want to see next week! (Just reply to this post, it helps a lot!)
Cheers,
Beat ADHD
Twitter: @Beat_ADHD
Instagram: @BeatADHD
Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, and I'm not offering any medical advice. I research strategies that I use to fight my ADHD symptoms every single day. Beat ADHD is a newsletter where I share the techniques that I use to win some of the battles in my war against ADHD.
I've loved every article on this blog! I'm kind of nervous about point number 3, at the start of your post - 'Medication Tolerance'.
Until I was diagnosed at 31, late last year, I would describe my smpytoms and issues as quite a bit more extreme than the average person with ADHD. However, combining the years of coping strategies that I'd developed (which had been boosted by a diagnosis of Asperger's early last year as well) with medication in the last month of 2020 was a sudden and immediate game-changer for me.
Pretty much from day one my susceptibility to distractions plummeted, my motivation for my projects and to-do-lists skyrocketed and my ability to focus for long periods shot up. I'm on my fourth week of the medication now and even found briefly 'pausing' my productive routine for Xmas, followed by a quick 'unpausing' incredibly easy - when in the past this could have caused weeks or months before I was 'back on it'.
I'm hoping that these effects will be permanent but I'm worried at the prospect of becoming tolerant to the medication! Any advice about this?