Favorite 0 Featuring Dr. Jeff Chamberlain, MD · August 22 2011 at 11:03 am

Dr. Jeff Chamberlain discusses the possible linkage between caffeine and ADHD. Hey what's up? Barnaby here, you know when it comes to ADHD, hyperactivity disorder,...

Dr. Jeff Chamberlain discusses the possible linkage between caffeine and ADHD.

Hey what's up? Barnaby here, you know when it comes to ADHD, hyperactivity disorder, a lot of people might think 'well maybe they're just jacked up on caffeine, maybe that's the problem', so, Dr. Jeffrey Chamberlain family medicine specialist, I guess we are talking about adults here although I see a lot of the kids swigging the starbucks or whatever caffeinated beverages might be of choosing these days.  So ADHD, caffeine, linked? Yeah well caffeine can definitely make ADHD symptoms a whole lot worse, could make people a little bit more jittery and have ADHD like symptoms.  In some people caffeine helps them with their ADHD symptoms so it could be a big variety of issues, you'd be surprised at how many relative young children are having way more pop than they should have, way more caffeine than they should have.

Oh my gosh, yeah, all the caffeinated drinks I'm trying to counsel my young son saying 'just because the snowboarders doing it doesn't mean you have to do it' I mean do I sound like an older person?  You know because we all heard that growing up right?

Yeah and so that could be an issue, if we are concerned about ADHD symptoms getting our kids off the caffeine can be important.  A lot of the high schoolers, the college age people, and adults they're drinking energy drinks now and the general perception that 'it's an energy drink it's healthy for me', but a lot of times those are just loaded with stuff that just aren't good for us and loaded with caffeine.  You know back when I was a kid they called it Jolt but that wasn't healthy, because that was a pop, now it's an energy drink and for some reason this is supposed to be healthy for you.  And it can cause a lot of problems for some people.

Yeah back in the day Jolt, all the sugar and twice the caffeine.  So then what should we do if a kid is drinking coffee or tea or an energy drink should we just subtract that from their diet while we still have some control over them?

Yeah if you're concerned with their behavior and maybe they have ADHD, I'd try to keep them off of it and if they're older, talk to them about it saying 'hey let's go a month without caffeine' and see how things go and the child might be surprised about the difference.  The transition from caffeine to no caffeine the first week or two is hard, but once the body is not used to it anymore, usually people do a lot better and feel a lot better.

Okay so, it could be masking as well, it could be giving you false positives on it because you're jacked up on caffeine or you have ADHD or vice versa you might have have ADHD and they see you with an energy drink in your hand and say 'oh that's the problem, it's not ADHD.'  So i you have any suspicions about a child's erratic or just not usual behavior, subtract the caffeine and get a pure look at them.

Exactly yup.

And there you have it, caffeine, ADHD, the mystery somewhat unraveled right before your very eyes and ears at HelloLife.net because we're all about matching your commitment to a healthy lifestyle.

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