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Comment by rustybelt | Hacker News Reader

Thousands of words and no mention of diet. I was diagnosed ADHD in 5th grade, tried just about every medication out there, and never landed on a workable long-term solution until I modified my diet. Medication always had mixed results. Many allowed me to focus and better control impulses, but the emotional crash at the end of the day was too much. Others caused insomnia or palpitations. Cutting sugar and limiting carbs, however has been transformational. I won't say it's right for everyone, but everyone with ADHD should at least try cleaning up their diet. It's a no lose option.

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> but everyone with ADHD should at least try cleaning up their diet. It's a no lose option.

It is extremely difficult for someone with ADHD to change their diet. It's difficult even for neurotypical people. I know that it and exercise are obviously beneficial, but from experience there's a "loss" in that trying and failing consistently to improve my lifestyle really takes its toll on my motivation and self-esteem. Not to say that I'm not still trying... but it's hard.

My trick is to cook a roast and just eat roast beef and frozen vegetables for a few days. Very little effort required, and once ketosis kicks in and the brain fog lifts you have the clarity to make more sustainable diet changes.

I'll do this when I find myself slipping, too.

> once ketosis kicks in and the brain fog lifts

No such effect exists for me. Plus, it would require following through on going shopping so I have roast beef and frozen veggies in the house (or remember to take them with me to work). That's not happening in an unmedicated state. I'm lucky if I can put together a remotely healthy meal while unmedicated.

I usually do it over a weekend because I always forget to pack a lunch, too. As an aside, my tip for that issue is to go to the grocery store on your lunch break and stock up on healthy foods you can keep at work to make lunch there. Anyway, my suggestion was to try cleaning up your diet to see if it works. It sounds like you've already done that without positive results. Diet clearly isn't the solution for you. It was for me. Btw, I'm 37. I was on Adderall as recently as 2014. It took years of struggling to find something that works for me.

I'm a recreational weightlifter/bodybuilder and I agree that diet makes a huge difference. But, I am concerned about all the talk of cutting something out, like with keto. We should be talking about balance and increasing nutrients that are lacking instead.

In my case, I got some rather severe digestive issues similar to IBS that turned out to be similar to what vegetarians get after several years if they don't watch their nutrients and vitamins. I spent 2 years battling it without knowing what was causing it. After days of conversations with some very smart friends, one of them suggested a connection between tryptophan and serotonin (which is made from it in the gut).

Long story short, I started eating pork again (mainly bacon) after avoiding it for 20 years due to ethical concerns, and my digestive issues cleared up in a matter of days. My acne went away and my mood stabilized almost overnight. It was one of the most miraculous things I've experienced in many years. I also added psyllium husk fiber with meals 1-3 times a day and have maintained proper digestive function for several months now.

Some things that really help me are zinc gluconate for immune function and recovery from exercise 1-7 times per week (too much will make you feel bad, a headache in my case), omega 3 capsules and glucosamine/chondroitin (which is for joint health but the mechanism likely happens through the gut as well). I also eat 2-4 whole eggs per day based on how hard I'm hitting the gym. My feeling is that the lack of fat in our diet from the 1980s till today has really wrecked most people's metabolisms and they are simultaneously frantically starving, fat from eating too much, and chronically malnourished.

Nor coffee or other "normalized" liquid stimulants. The coffee sweet-spot-of-productivity is so difficult to attain, or even find. Is it even worth experimenting with if other avenues have failed?

It would be interesting to hear the author's thoughts on this, and on alcohol.

EDIT: ...and on exercise.

For me, to have a meaningful effect on ADHD, I have to drink so much coffee (or other caffeinated beverages) that I have heart palpitations.

That's one of the advantages of the prescribed stimulants; they're effective at doses that have no physical side effects.

I've been using caffeine as stimulant since early teens, to try and help with focus, but it's been really hard to avoid over-stimulating.

Likewise, diet made a huge difference for me. I really like eating once in the evening and sticking to a super-low carb diet. I'm sure it's different for everyone, but for me it's a miraculous contrast to eating carby breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

When I eat regular meals I'm _constantly_ hungry and my focus goes to total shit. I tend to have to manage my weight because even when I expressly try not to, I eat too much. It's weird. I also eat worse food. It seems to be a vicious cycle.

I was diagnosed with ADHD 10 years ago. Tried a few drugs, and while it definitely helped with the ADHD symptoms, the other side effects that affected my daily life were too much.

I switched my diet from a high carb to high protein, high fat. Instead of a bagel for breakfast, I'll eat a couple eggs, a breakfast meat, and every once in a while a piece of toast. Tons of whole fresh fruit all day. Lunch is similar: think a chipotle style meal with a base of protein and rice and some light veggies. More fruit and raw vegetables and nuts for snacks. Dinner is the same thing - protein base but fewer carbs and more veggies. I'll have some candy in the evening from time to time.

I also started lifting weights 3x a week. I love it cause it's the most efficient way for me to exercise - I spend 60-120 minutes in the gym three times and work my whole body. Heavy squats, deadlifts and presses - strengthens the back and hips, makes sitting in a chair much easier, and is a really great vector for activating that hyperfocus we love so much. I read a book called Starting Strength that basically gave me all the info I needed to get started.

Since starting this routine about 8 or 9 years ago, I find I'm sleeping better, my focus is way better, I'm much more pleasant to be around socially, I'm way less impulsive and interruptive, I make fewer stupid rash decisions, and I'm generally in a better, chipper mood a lot more.

Edit: Might add: I drink coffee like it's going out of style and don't find that caffeine really affects my focus all that much - more my energy levels. They're similar but on different axes.

I'm going to go talk to a psych this year if I can stop putting it off but one thing I started on a whim a last year was take iron supplements. Apparently my mother (diagnosed ADHD in her 60s) had iron deficiency so maybe I do too.

After just a day or two I experienced very unusual (for me) clarity. I googled and apparently it can help ADHD symptoms.

I definitely ate enough meat and various other things, so I'm not sure what the supplements did or if they're a placebo. Perhaps I just process iron poorly and need a big hit at once.

I agree. I stopped Ritalin and changed my diet and other 'ways of life'. I can't say it's as good as using Ritalin but I have found a middle way I can work with. had been using drugs for 10 years but felt I should be able to do without. After all that time I feel I understand my own worth a bit more and have enough self-knowledge to get by as I do right now.

I was diagnosed with ADHD around the 3rd grade (2 separate psychiatrists diagnosed me) and have never heard about diets as working above all others. Are there any studies or information about this route or is it perhaps changing your eating behavior allowed you to do those same things with other parts of your life?

There are some studies about certain nutrients being beneficial in the treatment of ADHD.

For example: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23495677

This particular study found that phospholipid improves ADHD symptoms in children (4-14 yo).

There's some ongoing research about the neurotransmitters related to ADHD: https://psychcentral.com/lib/neurotransmitters-involved-in-a...

However, I don't know if any comprehensive studies have been conducted about the effects of diet to ADHD, it could be tricky to study that.

I don't know about studies but here's an anecdote. I've experimented with many potential factors for my ADHD over many years, and the strongest and cleanest correlation I've found is: More carbs and sugar => More brain fog.

The book Healing ADHD by Dr Amen reccomends diet, and exercise based treatment, as well as stimulants and coaching. It's been a long time since I've read it, but at the time I used some of the techniques, and they worked really well. I should probably read it again.

Evidence for dietary intervention is too weak to recommend it in general: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_and_attention_deficit_hyp...

That said, it's always possible that an intervention works well in a subgroup of high-responders (this can be true even if the particular intervention is a placebo, not that that's necessarily the explanation here), so everyone saying it works for them should probably keep it up.

The problem for me with changing my diet is that (a) it takes sustained concentration to change habits, and (b) it takes real planning and scheduling to do something like keto. Guess what I'm bad at, since I have ADHD?

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