Posted on 05/24/2017 9:56:40 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
A renowned ADHD expert explains how physical activity changes your brain for the better and how exercise can act as a supplemental treatment for patients managing their symptoms with medication, therapy, and/or diet.
If you were to run into Jackson, my former patient, you would meet a compact 21-year-old in jeans and an untucked shirt, who speaks articulately about his plans for the future — a typical American college kid, if not a little smarter. What stands out about him isn’t so much where he is today, but how far he has come to get here and how he did it with an alternative ADHD treatment.
Jackson, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), runs nearly every day — three miles on days that he also lifts weights, six miles on the others. “If I don’t do it, it’s not like I feel guilty,” he says. “I feel like I’ve missed something in my day, and I want to go do it. Because I figured out that, while I’m exercising, I don’t have trouble concentrating on anything.”
Jackson was diagnosed with ADHD early on, after his third-grade teacher picked up on his disruptive behavior and inability to complete class work. He began taking Ritalin and stayed on some form of stimulant throughout his school years.
As a day student at a top-ranked private academy, he simply had more work than he could get through. At one point, I had him taking Adderall, Paxil, and clonazepam, a long-acting anxiety drug.
Jackson squeaked through with a 1.8 GPA, far too low to go to the college he hoped to attend, despite family connections. A small junior college accepted him, though, and that was just fine. The triumph of completing school, along with the comfort of having a destination the next fall, put him on top of the world. In fact, he felt so good that summer that he decided to go off his medication-all of it. (Needless to say, I wasn’t in the loop at the time.) “I noticed that a lot of small things that bothered me went away,” he reports.
The real turning point of the summer happened in Spain, on a trip with his girlfriend. Walking around shirtless on the beach, with all the “Spanish dudes,” he was inspired to do something about his Buddha belly. “I just started to run,” he says. “And I started feeling great.”
Jackson’s story appeals to me, partly because he got into exercise for his body image but stuck with it for the therapeutic effect. At first, the running didn’t make a dent in his physique (thanks to pizza and beer), but he stuck with it because it helped him focus. In his first semester at the junior college, he earned a 3.9 GPA, and, after a year, he was accepted as a transfer student at the college he had originally wanted to attend.
And, knowing that I always feel good after exercising, I have taken to exercising sporadically throughout the day (I have a rowing machine about 10 feet from my desk).
So far, it seems to be working.
I used to row 30 minutes a day all at one time (covering about 5-6,000 meters). Lately, I row 15 minutes here, 10 there, 2,500 meters here and 1,000 there. It adds up to more than 10-12,000 meters a day so far.
I seem to feel better throughout the day, but this is something new...so I will have to see how it works out over time.
As an aside, I was a hyperkinetic kid and, at times, had trouble focusing and, at other times, focused too much. School performance was sporadic until I started running everyday (in grad school). Straight A's after I started running.
Bkmrk.
His problem isn't ADHD, it's just lack of activity. Boys in school should have 5 hours of recess (physical activity) and one hour in the classroom each day. It's how they're wired.
We home-schooled rather than doing drugs.
I am convinced that a combination of the following will work:
1) run laps before starting every day.
2) get seriously into a sport or physical activity several times a week.
3) greatly reduce or eliminate processed sugar from the diet.
4) greatly reduce or eliminate caffeine from the diet.
how about 3 hrs of recess, 2 hours of building things and then ripping them apart to build again, then 1 hour of science + math?
That works, too.
I love my rowing machine but I never considered rowing for small time periods throughout the day.
Thanks for the suggestion!
I used to run 6 miles a day all at once and now I am rowing 6+ miles a day sporadically.
I am curious to see what happens.
A six mile run produces a runner's high that lasts all day. Not sure a 6+ mile row will produce any high.
I will report when the findings come in.
Let me know your experience if you try it.
As an aside, running for 6 miles is a lot easier than rowing for six miles. Rowing is more full body work.
That said, running really gets my heart rate up.
I love rowing...but it is easier piece meal than all at once.
What got me really interested in long distance daily rowing was the "Annual Meters Honor Board 2017/2018" at Concept 2. There are some rowers who row more than 20,000 meters a day.
That p!sses me off. I may be slow and old, but I need to be in that group.;-)
I got to thinking about how to make recess educational. Doing history would be so much fun, and physics, one of my faves.
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