Entry 3 - The Health Focus

Introduction

Without adequate physical health, your brain and cognitive functions are considerably harmed (Williamson 2024). 

With ADHD, the brain is already disadvantaged due to a chemical imbalance and impaired structures (Thomas 2022). These differences directly relate to ADHD’s symptoms. Therefore, it is even more important that students with ADHD emphasize their physical health. We should look to maximize everything we possibly can to feel and perform at our best (Kanojia 2018).

Through this past Winter Quarter at UC Davis, I have been particularly emphasizing my physical health to combat ADHD. As I have been adjusting to college and growing older, the importance of my physical health has only increased. For example, last quarter, I initially struggled with consistency in cooking for myself and exercising. This quarter, by employing strategies to build habits, I have made these aspects of my life routine. Compared to last quarter, the difference in how I feel and operate is astronomical.

In this blog post, I will cover strategies related to physical health and reflect on my personal experiences. I am positive that these strategies will help you feel better beyond just eased ADHD symptoms.

Successful Through Health

Strategy #1: Nutrition

Research over time consistently shows a strong relationship between cognitive health and physical health. Consumption of complex carbohydrates (e.g. vegetables and fruit) and healthy fatty acids (e.g. fish, nuts) have been shown to improve memory, learning, cognitive-well being, brain structure and blood flow to the brain. Our cognitive function directly affects the capacity to which we can take on life (Williamson 2024).

While scientific work pertaining to ADHD and nutrition is limited, it suggests a similar relationship in which overall increases in nutritional health showed positive change in ADHD symptoms (Lange et. al 2023). 

Foods high in fat content, sugar, and that are highly processed negatively affect executive functioning and analytical ability (Williamson 2024). In a strategy called the “few foods diet,” (FFD) these foods are removed from a diet, leaving limited options. The FFD is used to identify specific foods that may better or worsen symptoms by slowly reintroducing food. Across over 50 studies analyzing nutrition and ADHD, a FFD resulted in reduced symptoms, implying the importance of a nutritious diet.

With ADHD, there is even more of a need to provide our bodies with the right fuel. By doing this, it’s like tapping into an unexplored reservoir of brain power.

Personal Application:

If I could pick only one strategy for someone to take away from this series, it would be nutrition. 

I can still remember how I rolled my eyes when I heard my pediatrician mention nutrition and good habits as the most important remedy to ADHD in high school. At the time, I believed that medication could fix everything, and hearing a solution as mundane as “nutrition” ignited my stubbornness. Fast forward to being a college student, I discovered just how potent it really is.

As a junior in college, I’ve had to rebuild my relationship with food from the ground up. From figuring out how to stay fed as a freshman, to learning how to cook and grocery shop as a sophomore, to now discovering the power of nutrition, I’ve come a long way.

My relationship with food has been a great struggle for me since being signed as a model. Often associated with modeling are stigmas about weight and body image - nothing could’ve prepared me for how true these struggles were. During this time, I began to become cognisant of the worsening of my ADHD symptoms, and realized that the only other times my symptoms had been as troublesome were when my nutrition was poor.

Eventually, I made a breakthrough over winter break by reframing my mindset. Tired of feeling sluggish and obsessing over my physical appearance, I shifted to putting how I feel over how I look. The first step in this change would be grocery shopping for nutrition, rather than weight loss. This involves shopping in a way that covers necessary macro and micronutrients as emphasized in the studies above.

Since I’ve made this shift, I can’t sing enough praises about how much better I’ve felt. In the first two weeks, the amount of cognitive power I felt like I got back was unreal. I didn’t have to completely fight myself to be productive, let alone just get out of bed. The increase in mental clarity has also allowed me to be more present in life. Additionally, my physical body has also been feeling better than ever and is improving more consistently than ever before. 

There’s just no downsides in treating yourself right.

Strategy #2: Movement and Exercise

Beyond nutrition, movement and exercise is an essential aspect of physical health.

In my interview with Dr. Julie Schweitzer, director of UC Davis’ Attention, Impulsivity, and Regulation cohort, Dr. Schweitzer made it a point to advocate for physical movement as a strategy for ADHD. Movement helps ADHD because it naturally produces lots of dopamine and norepinephrine, which ADHD brains have lower levels of. By producing these valuable neurotransmitters, chemical and structural gaps caused by ADHD are filled. This results in increased alertness, attention, motivation, and processing ability (Lara 2012). In Dr. Schweitzer’s words, movement could look like fidgeting, taking a walk in between homework assignments, lifting, or sport.

Partaking in exercise - as little as 30 minutes a day - is potent in improving cognitive health (Jacobson 2024). Additionally, it’s a strategy that many college students with ADHD already employ (Kreider et al. 2019). Outside of students with ADHD, making time for physical activity is demonstrated to be a commonality between high achievers (Foong et al. 2020).

Personal Application:

Physical movement has been a consistent part of my life long before I knew it was a coping mechanism. Always involved in sport, I didn’t realize the extent that it kept me sane until I graduated high school. In college, I’ve found the same solace in lifting weights and playing basketball. 

Lifting weights for me acts as a reset or a wind down to my day. It's an hour to myself to just feel good. In the realm of exercise, dance has become my next endeavor. Being a lifelong desire, transferring to UC Davis, where opportunities to dance are everywhere, I’m finally getting the chance to explore it. I’ve been finding lots of joy attending dance workshops recently and will continue to leverage the peace movement brings into my life.

Finally, fidgeting is a small action, but has been essential for me, even without realizing it. Talking to Dr. Schweitzer was extremely fulfilling in this way, because hearing her bring up the helpfulness of fidgeting helped me see how much I really do it. Unconsciously, I always bring a fidget to any high stress environment. For example, in interviews, I always make sure to bring a pen or my keys to hold on to. Of course, remember to fidget in a reasonable manner!

Final Thoughts

While the strategies discussed were less specific to ADHD, I hope you can now see the value of focusing on your physical health - I know personally it has been changing my life. In many ways, it is something that we can immediately change. For example, just by talking a brisk walk, making sure to keep a fidget device in stressful situations, or cooking a nutritious meal. Just by changing a few things we may not be conscious of, we begin to realize how much more potential we have.

Remember that this whole journey is a process! You are not alone in this. Try and see if anything works for you. If it doesn’t work - that’s okay. Learn from it and keep pushing. You got this!

If any part of this post resonated with you, please make sure to share this blog and bookmark the page to stay updated for future posts. I’ll see you on the next stop on our ADHDventure. 🙂

References

Foong, Chan Choong & Pallath, Vinod & Lye, An Jie & Atira, Nurul & Bashir Ghouse, Nur Liyana. (2020). How did High Achievers Deal with Challenges: A Qualitative Study?. Journal of Research in Medical and Dental Science. 8. 159-163. 

Jacobson, R. (2024, May 3). ADHD and exercise. https://childmind.org/article/adhd-and-exercise/

Kreider, C. M., Medina, S., & Slamka, M. R. (2019). Strategies for Coping with Time-Related and Productivity Challenges of Young People with Learning Disabilities and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Children (Basel, Switzerland), 6(2), 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/children6020028

Lange, K. W., Lange, K. M., Nakamura, Y., & Reissmann, A. (2023). Nutrition in the Management of ADHD: A Review of Recent Research. Current nutrition reports, 12(3), 383–394. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-023-00487-8

Lara, M. (2012, June). The exercise prescription for ADHD. CHAAD. https://chadd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ATTN_06_12_Exercise.pdf

Williamson, L. (2024, September 27). Food for thought: How diet affects the brain over a lifetime. www.heart.org. https://www.heart.org/en/news/2024/09/27/food-for-thought-how-diet-affects-the-brain-over-a-lifetime#:~:text=Research%20has%20shown%20that%20replacing,berries%2C%20to%20better%20academic%20achievement.