Add/adhd Medication & Gluten-free Diet

[lucy-Q]

I'm new to this whole "gluten-free" living situation. I'm currently waiting to hear back on my blood test results to find out what my IgA & IgG levels are later this week. After I find out my test results and find out if I'm to do any further testing, I'm going on a gluten-free diet.

I was diagnosed in my late 20's with ADD. Finding out that diagnosis was a huge helpful revelation in my life as it explained a lot of my behaviors and thought patterns. It also allowed me to seek help for my "all over the place" thinking and start to get my life more organized. I have found ADD meds to be very helpful for me... though I had to go through a few that weren't so helpful to get to a good one.

As I have been reading up on gluten intolerance, several sources have talked about a relationship to ADD (though most of them talk about children with ADD). I'm curious to know several things:

1) Do lots of people with Celiac have ADD?

2) Do people (adults!) with ADD who go gluten-free experience relief from their ADD symptoms/behaviors?

3) Has anyone with ADD who has gone gluten-free been able to reduce their use of ADD meds?

If anyone who has ADD (or "brain fog") wants to chime in with their experience in going gluten-free... I would love to hear your experiences and input. I'm absolutely facinated to hear more about how these two conditions are related or interact....

[AliB]

Although I have not had a major problem with 'brain-fog', my husband did. When I went gluten-free after my digestion collapsed last Jan, he (not wanting to be left out! ) decided to do it with me.

After a few weeks it was quite clear to me that the gluten-free diet was having a quite radical effect not only on his brain-fog but also his Fibromyalgia. He didn't think it was making much difference and had a couple episodes where he had gluten only to wake up three days later in a lot of pain and in the blackest pit of brain-fog and depression all over again.

He didn't think it was such a bad idea after that! It has been like having a different husband. He is happier, he plays with, and enjoys the company of our grandsons rather than being shut away in his room in pain and in fear of being touched. He now remembers the right routes to take when we are out in the car (which saves me from having to give him directions all the time - and means less arguments and frustration for me!).

He doesn't generally have to have the days in bed like he did - usually at least 3 or 4 days every fortnight, and he is able to join in with us all and participate in our outings as a family.

I didn't think that he is now as reactive to gluten as he was, but about 4 weeks ago he went down with a bad chesty cough, verging on bronchitis. He just can't seem to shake it. He is very headachey, has little energy or motivation, is still coughing a bit and just can't seem to get out of it. Interestingly he has had some gluten over the last 2 weeks or so.

Not to say that the gluten caused it, but I am now wondering whether the gluten has knocked his immune system off course and is distracting it from getting him better!

Although I have been around him all the time I did not go down with it at all, which is amazing as I always caught everything going, but I am sure that being not only gluten-free but, unlike my husband, dairy-free and on the SCD along with the probiotic backup may well have given my immune system enough boost to fight it off.

I really wish I could get our son and daughter to do gluten-free and SCD. Our daughter who is 30 suffers with depression verging on Bipolar only held at bay by St Johns Wort, and our son was very bad with ADD, brain-fog and tics, all of which have improved somewhat as he has grown (28) but I am sure could be very much improved on on the diet if my husbands' experience is anything to go by.