Salicylates? ADHD?

llaurenmarie wrote: »

I have an appointment this month with someone who's "not a GP". But this GP has helped me in the past with medicine, "life" just happened and I haven't been focused or able to pay for mental health treatment until now.

I am just trying to remain open to natural things to help lessen the symptoms, in addition to medicine. It's taken me this long because I never wanted to admit I needed medicine and now it just seems like it's bigger than me.

By all means remain open. and examine your diet. I kept Feingold(or a variation) through HS, and found it immensely helpful. I also discovered that after HS/puberty, things that were trigger foods(apple/orange juice) no longer set me off.

llaurenmarie wrote: »

pinuplove wrote: »

No idea on salicylates, but caffeine is actually recommended and recognized as helpful now to help with mild ADHD symptoms. That alone would make me ignore the rest of the list and seek more up-to-date treatment.

I understand how caffeine is helpful to ADHD but it is also counteractive to someone with anxiety.

What is the list aimed at? ADHD or anxiety? I've never seen them lumped into one medical condition, although I recognize they can be comorbid.

stanmann571 wrote: »

pinuplove wrote: »

llaurenmarie wrote: »

pinuplove wrote: »

No idea on salicylates, but caffeine is actually recommended and recognized as helpful now to help with mild ADHD symptoms. That alone would make me ignore the rest of the list and seek more up-to-date treatment.

I understand how caffeine is helpful to ADHD but it is also counteractive to someone with anxiety.

What is the list aimed at? ADHD or anxiety? I've never seen them lumped into one medical condition, although I recognize they can be comorbid.

The list shouldn't be separated from Feingold's book, because it explains in greater depth the methodologies and weaknesses of the list and makes it clear that it's not necessarily beneficial or even effective for every patient.

That makes more sense, thank you.

stanmann571 wrote: »

Dump the doctor, and find one that's not a GP to help manage your symptoms. the list is well out of date(it was 20 years old in the 70s, and is of primary benefit in dealing with male children with ADHD under the age of 15. If your picture is you. You don't fit the target audience.

If you actually have ADHD, stimulant treatment is the most common and most effective way of managing it.

Caffeine is a stimulant.

That may have been a touch harsh, regardless, the Feingold diet is not appropriate for an adult female. You will deal with different triggers and causes.

This. Stimulants have been the main treatment since the 1990's.

I am coming from the 'having experience,' at least when it comes to mental health and dietary measures that impact it. This applies to myself, and both my children, too, so I'm just going to throw some things out there.

1. From the standpoint of diet potentially impact mental health - OMG, yes. Diet can have a HUGE impact on mental health, but is largely ignored by the medical profession (according to a couple of my doctors, most of them are taught currently in school that 'food is almost never a cause of physical problems,' and so will almost never recommend elimination diets unless you have something that requires it obviously, like diabetes). So the fact that your doctor is promoting food as something that can have an impact? Good on him.

The list being out of date...eh, that's not so good. But at least the doc is willing to think about it, you know?

2. When it comes to food impacting mental health, sometimes it's because you HAVE a condition that makes you react to food.

For example: People with mild food allergies frequently suffer from memory trouble, brain fog, and/or fatigue (and sometimes mild gut issues), even if their allergy is not severe enough to cause hives/itching. Most doctors - and sadly even some allergists - will not suspect you have allergies UNLESS you have hives. But the allergy prick tests are often not as accurate for foods you don't have a skin reaction to, either.

And if you get a blood test for allergies, many allergists will often recommend 'not worrying' about any foods that you don't have a 'high level' reaction to. However, for myself and many allergic folks I speak to, we have felt SO MUCH BETTER going off of the lower level allergy foods. Like, unbelievably better. Had good memory and focus for what felt like the first time in YEARS. I would seriously recommend considering it, honestly.

Another example: celiac disease. This is a gut disorder, requires a dietary change as treatment (but don't do the change until AFTER getting tested, as the test looks for accumulated and active damage biomarkers to eating gluten). Many doctors are aware of gut symptoms to look for: stomach pain, bloating, bowel trouble. Some look for skinny people or short people. However, over a third of folks don't have this and have OTHER symptoms that are actually a result of nutrient deficiencies. And most doctors don't know what those are, or don't think about them - but mental symptoms are on that list, 'cause the brain needs enough nutrients to keep working, like anything else.

Another issue with this - many doctors will test for just a couple nutrients and assume that if THEY are fine, the rest would be too. But with celiac disease, which nutrients are low depends on where the damage IS, so some nutrients can sometimes be low, but are never tested or difficult to test for so you never find out and never consider getting tested for the disease.

- and food intolerances, too. Doctors know, pretty much NOTHING about food intolerances. Not kidding around: nothing. GI doctors know about lactose intolerance, because that involves an enzyme in the gut. Same with fructose malabsorption/intolerance. Doctors only LAST YEAR proved that gluten intolerance existed, but it's not an enzyme but rather the body reacting with an immune response to gluten, in a way that is NOT celiac disease nor an allergic response. that's the extent of what they know so far - literally don't even know how it works yet.

Every other type of intolerance, we don't even know what's happening. ALL the tests on it are speculative on what they are GUESSING is happening (which is why many doctors don't accept intolerance tests as valid). The thing is - intolerances are kind of a 'lost' problem in human health. Decades ago, if you have a reaction to food, an allergist helped you with it. But when IgE was discovered, allergists started ONLY treating patients who had an IgE response. Except a LOT of people have reactions to foods and chemicals that do not involve IgE...and no specialty ever popped up to pick them up, to study it, to take care of the people the allergists avoided now. So there is very, very little research on the topic, unfortunately, and elimination diets about the only thing that you can use to see if there is a problem. :-(

- and oddly, some diseases are impacted by food, as well, like lyme disease, or parasitical infections like giardiasis that respond to diet changes.

So basically...there's a lot of physical changes that can be affected by diet. And I have seen SUCH a huge difference for so many people, I'm honestly to the point that I think doctors should recommend their patients try an elimination diet for a few weeks, on principle, just to see how they feel on it. Because for me...I was sick for 20 years before one, freaking diet change altered my whole life. Hope other people never have to go through that, you know?

3. re: salicylates. If you wish to avoid them, this is a good site to check out that's kept pretty updated: http://salicylatesensitivity.com.