Whole 30 for Adult ADHD

[sbwplan66]

Hi All,

I am a newbie to this program, as it was recently recommended by my naturopathic doctor as a method to assist with ADHD management/cognitive enhancement.  So I am looking for posts, tips, tricks, or experiences people have had in this area.  Any suggestions/thoughts are helpful.

Thanks!

 sbwplan66

[ladyshanny]

Hi @sbwplan66 - this topic has actually been discussed quite a bit here on the forum. Have a google but here are some links to previous discussions (some about kids and some about adults):

 

 

 

 

[Sprague]

Hello, 

I am just starting the planning stage of the whole30 my wife and I will be doing together. We both have ADHD. My wife's career is much more demanding and stressful than mine so she has been receiving treatment and managing it with medication since she was in law school over a decade ago. The thought of managing her responsibilities day to day without medication is daunting to her. She has depended on Adderall for so long and at her job making mistakes could potentially ruin people's lives.

My question is will her medicine interfere with the effectiveness or clarity of results of the program? Is starting the program on Adderall with hopes of phasing it out a viable option? Or should she transition her treatment to drug free before starting the 30?

Thank you for any advice or insight.

[ShannonM816]

@Sprague she should continue her medication for as long as she and her doctor think she should stay on it. There is nothing wrong with taking medication that is needed. Maybe at some point she'll feel she wants to try to get off of it, but that is something she should consult with her doctor about, and if she never feels she wants to get off of it, that is absolutely fine.

If as she goes through whole30 she feels that the diet is affecting how her medication is affecting her, she should talk to her doctor about that to see if it is reasonable to change the dosage or try a different medication. 

Whatever she does, any changes in medication should be done in consultation with her doctor, because those changes can have side effects.

[CaseyD]

I'll give you my husband's experience.
He takes Adderall for ADHD and has done a Whole30. He stayed on his medication the entire Whole30 because he did not intend to stop it or stay paleo. He was humoring me. ;-) 
I did notice he had significant improvements when he did the Whole30. He was happier and had massive improvements in executive functioning and handling stress/mood shifts. Truly, he was a different person. He didn't experience his medication becoming a problem with this way of eating, but I don't know what would have happened if he had stopped taking it. He does take days off of it and I noticed that I couldn't tell when those days were anymore. So maybe that says something. 

I've also seen massive improvements with our daughter who has ADHD eating this way, but my daughter has even more dramatic results when her carbs are lower, so that is something to consider tweaking after your Whole30 if either of you feel the need to. For her, a Larabar can send her into a hyperactivity sensory seeking adventure - she's that sensitive.