Beyond Meds: The Functional Medicine Approach to ADHD

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So, When we talk about any type of issue, whether it's like ADHD, poor focus, right, impulse control, I always like to basically compare and contrast kind of functional medicine approach versus conventional medicine approach.

I think you can see the difference philosophically once we drive that.

So like conventional medicine approach, anytime we're dealing with like focus issues, almost always there's going to be two major types of drugs that are going to be given.

They're going to be like SNRIs, things that increase or block the uptake of dopamine or norepinephrine.

in between the pre- and post-synaptic neurons.

So here's your pre-synaptic neuron, here's your post-synaptic neuron.

You have all this neurotransmitter hanging out between, whether it's dopamine or norepinephrine slash adrenaline.

And when you block the reuptake, that allows more of that neurotransmitter to hang in between the synapses.

So that's like number one, where we're kind of blocking your uptake.

And so those are going to be things like Ritalin, Concerta, Focalin.

They're going to be blocking more of that dopamine norepinephrine output.

And then you have things that stimulate the norepinephrine dopamine.

That's going to be your Vyvanse.

That's going to be your Adderall.

These are going to be more of your These are going to be your stimulants.

So those are the two major kind of medications that are usually given.

There are other ones like non-stimulated norepinephrine, like adomoxetine is another one that kind of works similarly to the first one, to the SNRIs, right? But they're trying to increase that.

And the goal of that increased stimulation is going to help with the prefrontal cortex.

It's going to help with the more the prefrontal cortex is stimulated, the more it's going to help with impulse control and focus.

None of that gets to the underlying cause because that dopamine and norepinephrine, using a medication to artificially boost that, you're going to have side effects.

You're going to have appetite issues, potentially sleep issues.

You're overly taxing your adrenals.

You're whipping a tired horse to increase dopamine, to increase norepinephrine because the more you block reuptake, you also increase the recycling of those neurotransmitters.

So what happens is longer term, you're going to need more medication to stimulate more of that release.