Hey there! If you opened this newsletter today, you’re probably extra curious about this research. Well, I’ll be honest - it’s both complicated and simple at the same time. I’ll do my best to make it easy to understand, but I highly encourage you to try to read it for yourself to learn even more (especially if you understand the gut microbiome more than the general person). Please be sure to send over any questions or your thoughts on it! It’ll be a controversial study for sure.

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Remember the newsletter on the gut microbiome?

Depending on how long you’ve been around, you might remember that breakdown I sent out almost exactly a month ago. Let me quickly synthesize that information here:

The ADHDer tends to have a different gut microbiome than the general population. The changes coincide in increases in general inflammation as well as decreases in dopamine production ability. A likely reason is that people with ADHD tend to overeat foods that don’t encourage happy guts and undereat foods that do, along with having less money, less access to healthcare, and less exercise.

With that in mind, the current researchers with this study were interested in trying to figure out if ADHD medication impacts the gut microbiome. After all, a lot of the research out there shows that ADHD meds improve the overall system, including even regulating a lot of nutrients in our bodies such as creatine and iron!

This study just released to the public on the 24th of January so it’s hot off the press and straight to you. Let’s break it down together :)

ADHD meds and the gut microbiome

Link to the study

Let me start this off with saying that it was a correlational study, NOT a causal study. Unfortunately, the authors used causal language in the title (Impact of psychostimulants on microbiota and short-chain fatty acids alterations in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), which to the untrained reader could make us believe that there is a causal relationship of stimulants on the gut microbiome.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. That’s the first dock to this study, and honestly, it’s a large one in my book. Misleading titles are against everything scientists should be about, especially with the impacts it could have on the general public.

That being said, let’s take a look at the rest of the study.

Essentially, they found that the people with medicated ADHD (with methylphenidate):

• had lower gut diversity than both unmedicated ADHDers and the general population

• had lower levels of short-chain-fatty-acids and their producers than both unmedicated ADHDers and the general population

  • This is associated with an increase in inattentive symptom severity

So does this mean that medication makes your gut microbiome worse??

Let’s put on our critical thinking hats here.

It’s easy to jump to that conclusion, for sure. After all, that’s what the study shows, right?

WRONG!

What it shows is that there is an association between our gut microbiome and the people who either take or don’t take stimulant medication. While one reason could be that the medication makes our gut microbiome worse, the other reason is that people who take ADHD medication already have worse gut microbiome systems.

This explanation is the most likely answer, and honestly I’m surprised that the researchers did not conclude this or even offer it as an explanation. It makes more sense. After all, since we know that worse gut systems are associated with more severe ADHD symptoms, and the people with more severe symptoms are the ones who tend to take medication, it is more likely that the people with ADHD who need the medication simply have more gut dysbiosis.

Now, if they did a pre-test post-test study that looked at the microbiomes before and after medication (and, even better, if they had a placebo), we would be able to better understand the direction of the association. Until then, the conclusions of this study are very vague and don’t hold much for us except that it would be awesome to have a better study.

The biggest thing to know about this is that the research may likely end up in the news since it’s such an interesting topic nowadays - it’s controversial, it includes the gut microbiome, it has all the buzzwords (essentially, it’s a journalist’s dream). If and when you see it, you’ll be able to better counteract the messaging that might get put out there encouraging people against medication.

Medication continues to be the number one intervention to help our ADHD! Adding to the stigma will only make it harder for those who need it to access it.

Thanks for reading!

If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments, be sure to shoot me a DM on Instagram @Nutrimindcoach or simply reply to this email. I LOVE hearing from you!

This week on the Nutritional Mental Health Podcast: How to Improve your Fibromyalgia, Scientifically: Addressing Exercise, Stress, Sleep, and Nutrition with a Fibromyalgia Research Expert. My friend Rachel, a personal trainer and fibromyalgia research expert, and I chat all about the best ways to approach fibromyalgia treatment, according to science. It is completely fascinating and I hope that if you have that condition you get something helpful out of it. I know I learned so much!