Adult ADD Strengths

Often impulsive, inattentive, easily distracted and forgetful ADDers forget to eat. Then their blood sugar drops, and here’s some of the consequences from Conscious Choice’s Dr. Ronald Hoffman

Experiments have now confirmed what the hypoglycemic person experiences. Low blood sugar triggers hunger — especially carbo craving. In addition, the brain is starved for its preferred fuel: glucose. At rest, the brain consumes one-third of the body’s total glucose requirement. The brain is a hungry, rapidly metabolizing organ, and fuel shortages  in it create problems with concentration, memory, and mood. A recent study showed that individuals with low blood sugar scored poorly on tasks requiring memory, concentration, and reasoning.

But perhaps most important, low blood sugar triggers an outpouring of counterregulatory hormones (catecholamines) from the adrenals. These hormones oppose the action of insulin and push blood sugar levels back up. Unfortunately for the hypoglycemic person, these “rescue” hormones are the very same ones that produce the adrenaline rush of a fight-or-flight reaction. The results are symptoms like palpitations, sweaty palms, nervousness, tremor, and sometimes even severe panic attacks.

So if you don’t make time for fueling your brain, make sure you make some time for the consequences of not doing so. Sometimes it’s a simple as having relatively health snacks like protein bars, etc at work, kind of a back up food source. Our ADD brains are often quite active and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out if we use up glucose faster than non ADDers.

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