Very Interesting...

[tcepsa]

Inspired by a friend, I decided to try an experiment today. At lunch, I drank three glasses of Mountain Dew. It's been a little over two hours, and so far I haven't been feeling jittery or hyper... if anything, I've been concentrating better (I reviewed a 7-ish page document without checking my e-mail or LJ once--highly unusual ;)

I realize that that's hardly a large enough data set for it to be statistically significant, but I'm very tempted to do further research into the results of caffeine on me.

Comments

[reedrover]

From my Mom's experience as a teacher, kids who were truly ADHD actually functioned better for a Coke or two before class because the chemical reaction spun up the brain to match the body's needed impulses.

[grum]

I don't think the portion that comes after the because in that sentence is actually correct. Though I'd love to have a reference or three to read if you have them. I don't recall having come across a solid explanation of the paradoxical reaction of folks with ADD/HD to stimulants.

Sweetie, may I suggest that caffeine pills (crushed to powder and portioned to moderate the dose) would be a less caloric/sugary way to partake of the stimulant being experimented with?

[reedrover]

I don't think the portion that comes after the because in that sentence is actually correct.

::laugh:: You have far better information than Mom does/did, and I'm quite willing to be told I'm (she's) wrong. I expect the true "because" was something more like "because they got to tear down the hallway to the snack machine at top speed and burn off some of their squirmies."

I have no trouble believing that my mother made up the ADHD body/brain/caffeine claim to protect herself and her students. She made many choices that other teachers found odd and borderline heretical, but from what I understand, those choices often resulted in kids who were actually enthusiastic about her and her classes.

[tcepsa.livejournal.com]

~nods~ The explanation of the 'why' doesn't really seem to fit with my experience yesterday, but I don't have any better explanation either... [tangent] a book that I am reading talks about how different chemicals tend to use different pathways in the brains of extroverts than in introverts (haven't yet followed up on the studies to find out details). It seems like a similar situation may be the reason for the different reactions to things that have been traditionally considered stimulants. Whether that's actually the case or not I've no idea, but I'd very much like to know more as well if there is any research out there that examines this. (If not, it seems like it would make a brilliant Ph. D. thesis for someone ~grin~)[/tangent]

The powdered caffeine pills sounds like a very good plan (I knew there was a reason I needed a mortar-and-pestle ^_^). I'm also looking for caffeinated teas that I can enjoy without sugaring them; unfortunately it looks like both the Egyptian Licorice and the Smoky Tea are decaf. Oh the irony. But that doesn't mean that I couldn't recaffeinate them with crushed pills as you suggested ^_^

[nminusone.livejournal.com]

If you have an appropriate scale I'll give you a jar of caffeine powder. I don't know why I got 2; at this rate I'll never finish the first one.

[tcepsa.livejournal.com]

I do not currently have such a scale, but I can probably get one and I'd be happy to relieve you of your extra caffeine ^_^

[nminusone.livejournal.com]

the paradoxical reaction of folks with ADD/HD to stimulants.

I don't think the reaction is paradoxical, I think "stimulant" is used too loosely. The amphetamines, the endogenous trace amines and various related chemicals have different activity profiles against the TA family receptors. Most seem to increase both focus and vigilance to some extent, but the balance between those effects varies widely from substance to substance and somewhat from person to person. The "stimulants" marketed for the treatment of ADD tend to be those that lean more towards increasing focus. The dose-response curves for the 2 effects aren't the same, leading to the common observations that a small amount of many "stimulants" will cause sedation, and too large a dose of most stimulant ADD meds reverses their usual effects.