Healing Attention Deficit Disorder

Green Tea, Classical Music and Walks In Nature

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Summary: The author explores how dopamine fluctuations, resulting from swinging blood sugars, impacts her ADHD-like symptoms. She links insulin levels to dopamine regulation, noting sugar’s role in affecting mood and motivation. To heal her ADHD symptoms naturally, the author adopts green tea for dopamine, classical music for focus, and nature walks for exercise and emotional balance.

I’m having one of those diabetes days… As I’m sitting here trying to write this, my blood sugars keep dropping. Oh, but wait… They’re up, they’re in range! Oh nope, they’re not. Down again. Yep, yep, got them up… Oh no, I haven’t! Ah, made it! At last, I’m back on point…!! So, anyways… Back to Healing ADD!

As I discussed in my last blog post, I believe that I’ve got Inattentive ADD (although I’ve not been officially diagnosed with it). Dr. Amen discusses in his book ‘Healing ADD’ how ‘dopamine is generally considered the neurotransmitter involved in Inattentive ADD’ (Amen, 2013 p. 104).

What Is Dopamine?

The classic introduction to Dopamine usually includes a spiel about how it is a neurotransmitter, how it works in the brain to enable a person to focus and how it gives a person motivation, desire and drive to achieve a task. Even this preliminary information is still useful to me. Taking Dr Amen’s view that dopamine is involved in ADD, it is easy for me to understand why my motivation is erratic at best and completely absent at worst.

The Other Side Of Dopamine

Knowing that dopamine is impacting my motivation towards healing is all well and good but, for me, that isn’t the full picture. As I already discussed in my post on Candace Pert’s neuroscientific work, there is no clear distinction between the ‘neurotransmitters’ of the brain (which Dopamine is classed as) and the ‘hormones’ of the body. Instead, our body consists of peptides that link communication and action between the nervous, endocrine and immune systems. Indeed, researchers now seem to be garnering support for Candace Pert’s theory…

The Link Between Insulin And Dopamine

I was interested to find a preliminary study conducted in 2007 by a group of researchers at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center that identified insulin as having an important role in the dopamine pathways in the brain

This study showed that, when insulin levels are low in the brain (which occurs when a diabetic has high blood sugar levels), the dopamine pathways in the brain is unable to produce normal levels of dopamine. I would therefore anticipate that, when a diabetic has higher than non-diabetic blood sugar levels (which occurs for most diabetics after every carbohydrate-based meal), dopamine is suppressed and ADD symptoms are likely to be present.

So, as a diabetic with unnaturally oscillating blood sugars, it’s a double whammy. If my blood sugars are out of whack, my dopamine levels are too and my motivation goes down the plughole. So then trying to get motivated to get my sugars back in range is all that bit harder! So how do I square this circle??

Sugar And ADD

I believe that, the majority of time, my dopamine must be depleted. I spend more of my time lacking in enthusiasm and energy, rather than hyperactive and overzealous (although that does occasionally happen too!). Something I also contend with on a daily basis is my cravings for sugar. I crave sugar all the time! And now I understand how these two facts are related…

Sugar provides an exogenous method for increasing dopamine levels in my system. When I eat something sugary, my brain lights up with increased dopamine levels and I get back in my groove. So every time I reach for a piece of chocolate, a slice of cake or some other sugar-rich food, I am finding a way to increase my depleted dopamine levels. But each additional sugar feeding also leads to weight gain. Indeed, it has been found that obese people have a five to ten times increased rate of ADHD than the general population.

As if that isn’t bad enough, each time I eat sugar, I am increasing dopamine levels in my system artificially, by outside means. Therefore, my brain is learning that it needs to make less dopamine endogenously because the sugar will be along soon to increase dopamine again. And so the vicious cycle begins… Dopamine levels are low in my brain, my system waits for the sugar, I eat the sugar, my brain learns it doesn’t need to manufacture its own and therefore makes even less!

How Can I Heal My ADD Naturally?

If I can find a way to naturally increase my dopamine levels, then my ADD is (or at least its symptoms are) likely to reduce or disappear. Having just discussed the benefits of removing sugar (something I did successfully during my Whole30 challenge), eliminating sugar in my diet seems like an obvious first step. But my intuition is saying no to this.

I have eaten a low-carbohydrate diet for periods of my life with success but the longest I have ever achieved was seven months. Then, Christmas came along and the deprivation I felt at not being able to eat the foods I loved was too great. Every time I have tried to eat low-carb since then, the same thing always happens.

In order to achieve great healing, both physically and emotionally, I personally need to do something that does not feel so punitive or restrictive to me. Please don’t misunderstand me… I know of several diabetics that are hugely successful long-term with low-carbohydrate eating and it brings great quality to their lives. I have great respect for their way of life. But I also believe that healing is a very individual journey and you have to respond to what feels right for you as an individual. I know that I need an alternative to low-carbing.

Initial Steps To Healing My ADD

I have a tonne of ideas about where to start with healing my ADD. But, if I’ve picked anything at all up from my reading in this area, I really think, for now (and ever after!), I need to start small. My usual plan is to go in with everything at the same time and then give up or stop with exhaustion within a month.

And most importantly…

What can I commit to now that I will be able to continue to do in the future?

To work out what to do to heal my ADD, I want to tap into my intuition, my inner wisdom. I am sure that my path to healing is already known within me, I just have to listen to it. For now, I am going to focus on only three simple things. These are my first three steps on a road of a thousand miles…

1. Green Tea

My gut instinct is still telling me that Kelly Turner’s research (see my post here) has tapped into the inherent mechanism by which the body heals from any health issue, not just cancer. So I wish to try to use her strategies where possible. Therefore, a first easy step for me is to take follow her protocol to take some herbs and/or supplements. But which ones?

I want to start small yet consistent and I feel that a cup of green tea each morning, before I have breakfast, fulfils those requirements. Green tea contains the amino acid L-theanine. L-theanine not only has a direct effect on your mental alertness, enabling your to relax, but L-theanine is also a building block for dopamine in the brain. All from a good old cup of tea!

2. Listen To Classical Music

I found a piece of neuroscientific research that found that classical music increases dopamine production in the brain.

I am not an expert on classical music, let alone its effects on my brain(!), so I was unsure which pieces of classical music should be on my playlist. Thankfully, the experts over at the ADDitude blog have already put together a list of suitable music!

I have uploaded it onto Spotify as a playlist and called it ‘Classical Music for ADHD’. I am going to hit the play button for 30 minutes every weekday morning as I get ready for my day and hopefully my dopamine levels will rise beautifully!

3. Get Out In Nature

I love nature and really don’t need any excuse to get out in it! Life is always busy and I guess I don’t prioritise doing this as much as I would like to. This one is on my list of action items for multiple reasons.

Firstly, I feel good in nature. Kelly Turner emphasises the need to increase positive emotions and reduce negative emotions as part of your healing journey. Nature does this for me.

Secondly, multiple studies highlight the direct link between exercise and increased dopamine levels. So walking in nature also ticks this box.

Thirdly, this one feels so intuitively right (although, at the moment, it’s a sweltering 30-degrees plus out my window and a part of me just wants to run and hide in a deep freezer rather than go out and walk!!). Therefore, I am going to commit to walking for at least 15 minutes in nature five days each week. Ideally, I would like to do 30 minutes but I want to make sure it is achievable rather than setting myself up to fail.

A Helping Hand…

I discussed above about the vicious cycle that is set up in ADHD where a depletion of dopamine causes you to lack the motivation necessary to make the changes that will lead to you increasing your dopamine. For example, lacking motivation means that you won’t go for that great twenty-minute run that will naturally increase your dopamine. I really struggle with this lack of motivation and therefore I am desperate to find a way to solve this Gordian Knot. And I think I may have found the answer…

Accountability Buddies!

Until I have been doing my dopamine-focussed tasks and activities long enough to have built up a more-naturally-occurring dopamine supply in my system, my motivation is likely to be sporadic or non-existent. So I am going to have to rely on the dopamine, and resulting motivation, of others!! My husband is going to be my main buddy in this but I will also be recruiting my friends into this (unbeknownst to them!). This will particularly be required for getting out in nature.

Drinking my green tea should be fairly straightforward. I have linked it to my first meal of the day. I have put my teacup on top of the plate I usually have for breakfast so hopefully that will work!

Listening to classical music for thirty minutes should be the easiest. I have asked my Amazon Alexa to play my ‘Classical Music for ADHD’ playlist at 8am each morning. So there are no excuses for that one!

Let’s see how this goes!

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Natalie Leader

Natalie is a blogger with Type 1 Diabetes. Natalie's special gifts are questioning the status quo and being a rebel. She is using these gifts to question medical 'knowledge' and find a true cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

Intuition

My True Guide to Healing Type 1 Diabetes

Summary: This article explores the intersection of intuition and health, challenging the dominance of rationality in medical discourse. It delves into personal experiences where intuition guided health decisions, contrasting scientific objectivity with intuitive wisdom, emphasising its role in holistic healing approaches for conditions like Type 1 Diabetes.

I have been struggling to put this article together for quite some time. For me, this article marks the line between the more academic, rational (respectable…?!) perspective and the more spiritual elements.

I could dive off at this point and talk about all the cognitive psychology research I’ve found that supports the idea of the non-conscious mind in order to try to defend my position. After all, research highlights how the mind only focuses on 5% of the data it processes from its environment, leaving 95% to be processed outside of conscious awareness [1]. But taking that approach and dedicating my blog post to it is not something I feel would not truly honour intuition.

Intuition is not factual and scientific. It is not quantifiable, analysable or even necessarily easy to define. I am doing intuition a disservice if I try to understand it through that lens. Instead, I am going to look inwards and try to reflect on what it means to me. In this post, I want to look internally, into my own mind’s eye, rather than externally, onto data, results and statistics that may hint at what lies within.

What Is Intuition?

Have you ever had the experience of sitting in a doctor’s office when they give you a diagnosis and you immediately know it isn’t right? Or a time when you have met someone for the first time but immediately know that they are not trustworthy? Or the feeling that you must phone a friend, only to find out that, when you do, a hardship has come into their life? That feeling is what I call ‘intuition’. Some people might also refer to it as a ‘gut instinct’, ‘sixth sense’ or ‘God speaking’.

Mateo Sol, on his blog Loner Wolf, discusses how we have three types of inner intelligence: instinct, intellect and intuition:

‘Instinct’ is the base level through which we satisfy our needs, such as our need for nourishment or safety.
‘Intellect’ is our mind, our thought processes. This is the level of inner intelligence from which the majority of people in the Western world function.
‘Intuition’ is the highest of the three levels. It is connected to our souls, our inner wisdom. It is inherently linked to the spiritual and the divine, that which exists outside of ourselves.

Reading Mateo Sol’s post reminded me of the work of the neuroscientist Candace Pert. For me, her concept of a psychosomatic network parallels Mateo Sol’s level of ‘Intuition’. The psychosomatic network connects the mind and body in a holistic, reciprocal way. Indeed, Pert [2] discusses how tapping into this psychosomatic network yields awareness of, and insight into, our internal (emotional) and external (social) environments in a way that our mind cannot come close to understanding on its own.

Why Focus On Intuition?

Kelly Turner identifies ‘Intuition’ as one of the nine key factors that enable people to spontaneously heal from cancer. She discusses how the cancer survivors she interviewed believed that the body has an innate knowledge, its intuition, that can guide the person towards healing.

Intuition And My Health… So Far!

I have witnessed the influence of my own intuition on my health. For example, during my teenage years, I had been doing a lot of running and ended up with pain in my leg. I was diagnosed with a blood clot and put on treatment for three months. However, I was in pain and I intuitively knew that this was not due to the blood clot in my calf. I continued to go back to the doctor and, after much insistence on my part that there was definitely something else wrong, I was eventually diagnosed with a broken leg too!

With my diabetes, I use my intuition on a daily basis. I will sit and calculate my insulin dose for the meal but then intuitively know that the number I have derived is too high or too low. In most cases, my intuition gives me better blood sugar readings than my insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio calculations do!

Using Intuition To Heal My Type 1 Diabetes

My intuition is my guide on this journey to healing. It is guiding me on what to focus on and what to disregard in the multitude of options that promise healing. I know that, if I am going to be able to figure out what I need to do to heal my Type 1 Diabetes, I need to use everything I can… That includes my whole mind! So I am aiming to tap into the 95% of my mind that is non-conscious and therefore indicated by intuition.

So far, my intuition has guided me to start trying to heal my Type 1 Diabetes after having understood years ago that it is incurable. It has since guided me to use Kelly Turner’s [3] nine key factors for healing cancer as a basis for healing my Type 1 Diabetes. I anticipate that my intuition will continue to guide me through this path to healing.

References

1. McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and his emissary: The divided brain and the making of the Western world. London, UK: Yale University Press. [Link]

2. Pert, C. B. (1997). Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel. London & Sydney: Simon & Schuster. [Link]

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Natalie Leader

The Neuroscience of Diabetes

Showing How Neuroscience Highlights The Fundamental Connection Between Emotions and Physical Health

Summary: Candace Pert’s ‘Molecules of Emotion’ profoundly shifted the author’s perspective on Type 1 Diabetes, revealing its mental and physical connections through neuropeptides. Pert’s research on peptides bridging emotions and bodily functions challenges conventional views, suggesting holistic treatment integrating mental health and physical care is crucial for natural healing.

Candace Pert’s book ‘Molecules of Emotion’ [1] has revolutionised my understanding of my Type 1 Diabetes. I first read this book whilst I was at university (as a mature student!!) and was blown away by the concepts in it. This book truly inspired me to start thinking that healing Type 1 Diabetes is possible.

Who Was Candace Pert?

Candace Pert was an American neuroscientist who was most famous for having discovered the opiate receptor in the brain. This receptor is the place where endorphin – a type of neuropeptide responsible for feelings of euphoria, pain cessation and analgesia, amongst others – binds in the human body in order to become effective. Through her discovery in the 1970s, the field of neuroscience was transformed. Until then, it was assumed that peptides and their receptors were only found in the body – in the bloodstream and cerebrospinal fluid. For many years, Candace Pert held highly esteemed research positions with the National Institute of Health. Here, she further explored and developed the scientific knowledge of the peptide system and how emotions work in the human brain and body.

The Psychosomatic Network

Candace Pert’s research focused on a particular kind of molecule in the body called ‘peptides’. Peptides are small molecules that are made up of a string of amino acids.

Peptides were originally thought to exist only in the body and were responsible for communicating messages from one part of the body to another, potentially far-reaching, part. However, Pert and her team have identified that these molecules in fact exist in both the brain and body and can even be produced in the brain itself [1].

Indeed, this is the case for insulin. Insulin, as I discussed in my article here, was originally thought of as a hormone that was produced solely in the pancreas and solely for use in the digestive system to break down food into glucose to be used or stored. However, insulin and insulin receptors have now also been found in the brain, although the source of the insulin (whether from the brain or the body) remains unclear [2, 3].

The idea of the brain running on neurons and the body running on peptides is now defunct. In its place, Pert and colleagues [4] outlined the concept of a psychosomatic network, which is powered by peptides. In this network, peptides are the messengers that take information from one part of the body to another, where they are received onto receptors on cells that adapt their output in response to the information received.

Emotions In The Psychosomatic Network

Pert has conducted a large amount of research on the role of neuropeptides in the brain, particularly in the limbic system. The limbic system is responsible for attachment, affect regulation and aspects of emotional processing.

Two of the main components of the limbic system are the amygdala and the hypothalamus. These two brain regions have been found to have neuropeptide receptors that exist in a density forty times higher than that in other areas of the brain [5].

Pert [6] therefore hypothesises that neuropeptides are the ‘obvious candidates for the biochemical mediation of emotion’. She further suggests that, since these neuropeptides are found distributed throughout the body and in all of the major organs, body and emotions are highly interlinked via these neuropeptides. Pert [1] therefore believed that the mind and body could not be understood as distinct entities but were, instead, part of one system that she named the ‘bodymind’.

Emotions Influencing The Immune System

What is particularly interesting for me is when Pert [5] discusses how she can no longer differentiate between not only the mind (emotions) and the body, but also between this combined psychosomatic (brain/body) network and the immune system. Neuropeptides have been found to penetrate the immune system, as much as the endocrine and nervous systems, existing in mutual close physical and communicative contact [7].

Specifically, emotion-affecting neuropeptides, like insulin, have been found to directly control the routing and migration of monocytes, which are pivotal in the immune system. One of the roles of monocytes is to communicate with beta cells, which are responsible for making insulin in the pancreas.

Indeed, Pert [1] discusses how the cells of the immune system also possess receptors for neuropeptides and also make the neuropeptides themselves. In other words, the cells of the immune system are also producing and receiving the chemicals that are responsible for emotion.

Insulin As A Peptide

As I discussed in my post here, insulin has now been re-identified as a neuropeptide [8]. Pert [1] outlines two reasons for this:

Insulin works in the body via the pancreas and this is a location where neuropeptide receptors have been found.
In the brain, insulin has been found to be received by insulin receptors in the limbic system, namely the amygdala and hypothalamus.

Thus, insulin can, like other peptides, now be seen to directly link emotions and the body in a bi-directional relationship.

Peptides Link The Mind And The Body

Neuroscience has proven that the mind and body are not disconnected entities but are, in fact, intrinsically related via the peptide network. This network brings emotions and the body into a direct relationship with each other.

Emotional strain, stress and trauma will have an impact on the body. Similarly, disequilibrium in the body (due to toxicity or illness, for example) will impact the emotions. Peptides are the units that carry this emotional information between the body and the mind. Insulin, being a peptide, therefore carries this emotional information bi-directionally between the body and mind.

Candace Pert in fact hypothesises that each separate emotion could in fact be linked to a particular peptide. Science has yet to prove this but, if it turns out to be true, the search would need to start to find out what emotion insulin is associated with. For example, does insulin production stop (or start) depending on the amount of happiness, sadness, anger or fear a person has? And is there a lack or excess of a particular emotion that causes or contributes to the development of Type 1 Diabetes?

The link between the physical body and the emotions is actually not a new idea. In the 1960s, Solomon & Moos [8] challenged the prevalent Cartesian dichotomy by highlighting how emotional states can significantly alter the course and outcome of biological illnesses previously considered to be purely somatic. However, whilst other autoimmune conditions were considered, diabetes was not under the microscope in that piece of research.

Understanding Type 1 Diabetes Anew

Candace Pert’s [1] neuroscientific work highlights how Type 1 Diabetes can no longer be understood as a purely physical condition. The body and mind are interrelated and therefore diabetes, like every condition that involves peptides, has both physical and mental components. This is really no surprise to the majority of diabetics. I myself know how the amount of insulin (and therefore the amount of glucose in my bloodstream) directly impacts my emotions. When I have high blood sugars, I am often angry. When I have low blood sugars, I can become tearful and feel unlovable.

Candace Pert’s work and my own personal experience strongly suggest to me that, in order to heal Type 1 Diabetes naturally, a combined mental and physical treatment plan must be implemented. Therefore, my approach to healing my Type 1 Diabetes will be multifaceted. Alongside the physical processes that I will be implementing over the next year or so, I also take care of my mental health via psychotherapy. I originally undertook it when I started suffering from anxiety and depression in my teenage years. I am now mainly free of anxiety and depression. However, I now use the therapeutic space to explore ways to heal my Type 1 Diabetes. I will talk about that more in a later post.

References:

Pert, C. B. (1997). Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel. London & Sydney: Simon & Schuster. [LINK]
Brüning, J. C., Gautam, D., Burks, D. J., et al. (2000). Role of brain insulin receptor in control of body weight and reproduction. Science, 289, 2122–2125. [LINK]
Pert, C. B., Ruff, M. R., Weber, R. J., & Herkenham, M. (1985). Neuropeptides and their Receptors: A Psychosomatic Network. Journal of Immunology, 135(2), 820s-826s. [LINK]
Pert, C. B. (2002). The Wisdom of the Receptors: Neuropeptides, the Emotions, and Bodymind. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 18(1), 30-35. [LINK]
Pert, C. B. (1997). Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel. London & Sydney: Simon & Schuster, p. 33. [LINK]
Blalock, J. E., Harbour-McMenamin, D., & Smith, E. M. (1985). Peptide hormones shared by the neuroendocrine and immunologic systems. Journal of Immunology, 135(2), 858-861. [LINK]
Hendricks, S. A., Roth, J., Rishi, S., & Becker, K. L. (1983). Insulin in the Nervous System. In: D. T. Krieger, J. B. Martin, & M. J. Brownstein (Eds.), Brain Peptides. New York: John Wiley & Sons. [LINK]
Solomon, G.F., & Moos, R.H. (1964). Emotions, immunity, and disease: A speculative theoretical integration. Archives of General Psychiatry, 11, 657-674. [LINK]

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Natalie Leader

Healing Attention Deficit Disorder

What can I commit to now that I will be able to continue to do in the future?

Accountability Buddies!

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Intuition

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The Neuroscience of Diabetes

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