I’m reading a new book, Head Strong by Dave Asprey, in a personal effort to lose weight — I mean, increase my energy! Just kidding — it’s all about losing weight and looking good. As much as I want to buy into this philosophy, I am aware that I don’t really trust Asprey’s claims. Is it true that if you eat foods with polyphenols, so-called “plant chemicals,” such as blueberries, that the molecules will somehow digest, find their way into your brain, and “grow new neurons” (52)? If I ingest good fats with DHA, will that really mean I will
Upcoming Workshop on the Mindfulness Prescription for ADHD
Mindfulness Prescription for ADHD, and for Parents Cultivate Compassion for Your Child and Yourself Come discover this method to strengthen attention, manage emotions, and achieve your goals. Mindfulness has been established as a way to combat stress in everyday life. Parents of children with ADHD experience high levels of stress, which can be helped through these specific exercises of the breath and the body. We will be following Dr. Lidia Zylowska, MD’s mindfulness prescription for cultivating new habits to minimize the negative behavioral effects caused by ADHD. The method of self-care has been proven to be effective to reduce stress,
Mindfulness Prescription for ADHD
Does it sound crazy to ask someone with ADHD to practice … focusing on one thing? For a relatively long time? Yes, it is counterintuitive. However, there is strong evidence that this simple activity works to reduce the side effects from ADHD, and that it can be learned by almost anyone, including younger children. The important take-away is that it is a skill that can be used, and produced on demand in a stressful situation, to improve the outcomes of everyday frustrations. Look at the picture on top of the page: it is full of details, and it’s hard to
Mindfulness from Tai Chi
Mindfulness from Tai Chi A recent article, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, describes an experiment in which healthy young adults with inattentive type of attention deficit disorder showed improvements in specific tasks, after taking a Tai Chi class for 15 weeks. The results show improvement on the participants’ ability to focus, which leads the researchers to conclude that Tai Chi can help people with inattention improve in certain activities of daily living. That is, people are more “mindful” of what they are doing – a new definition of “staying on task.” This article intrigued me because it seems like
The “Myth” of ADHD?
The Myth of the ADD Myth Review of The ADD Myth: How to Cultivate the Unique Gifts of Intense Personalities by Martha Burge (San Francisco: Conari Press, 2012) Ms. Burge asks some provocative questions in this book, such as, “Intensity: Gift or Disorder?” While the word intensity here has a specific meaning, as described by Dr. Kazimierz Dabrowski as a particular giftedness, I appreciate her implication of how “intense” a person with ADHD can be. People with ADHD really are intense people; they feel intensely, they think intensely, they play intensely… and they fall apart intensely. Ms. Burge, a life
Good Nutrition Can Lessen ADHD Symptoms
I just recently read this information in “ADDitude” magazine online. They outline several ways to relieve symptoms of ADHD without medication. I have seen these ideas discussed over the past several years, and some in particular ring true: – fatty oils / fish oil – iron, zinc & vitamin C and vitamin B6 – lots of protein in the diet to keep energy steady throughout the day They note that for the fish oil, “The best supplements have two or three times more EPA than DHA.” I know that the “gentle” forms of iron work much better — the other types
ADHD Medication Advice from Most Experts Is Positive
While some parents prefer no medications for their children with ADHD, many others are administering them with good results. The most common recommendation I hear is, “Use medication AND behavioral interventions.” Don’t just pop a pill and expect everything to come into focus. If a child or young adult does not know how to organize his school work, taking a pill that stimulates a neuro-receptor in his brain will not help him learn that executive skill. For parents struggling with this decision, I would like to present the many “pros” I have read about medication. Yes, there are some “cons,”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for ADHD
A great book on the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, for people who have ADHD has just been released in paperback. While it is intended for therapists who want to help people with ADHD to build skills in executive functioning, the first half of the book presents evidence about the areas in life where working adults may struggle and fail, in spite of being talented, articulate and hard-working. It’s called Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adult ADHD: Targeting Executive Dysfunction by Mary V. Solanto. She is a psychiatrist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. I’ve taken