Greetings all. I sometimes take my daily dose of Adderall XR 15mg just prior to doing my 30-45 minuite high intensity (Nordic Track Ski-machine) aerobic excercise. I now do this roughly 5 days a week. I was 285 lbs, when starting back on Adderall XR a month ago, and I am now down to 267. My question is however that while I am doing my excercise activity, I've noticed that my hands are very cold and sweaty. I am delighted that my physical appearance is improving, but I am curious about the cold hands and arms while I am in the heat of a workout.

If I may add one more (almost silly) additional question to this post. I understand that Adderall can stint growth in children. Could this also apply to adults and thier ability to build muscle mass? Thanks!

Its caused by the higher amount of norepinephrine and epinephrine in your body due to the amphetamine (adderall). To be more specific the activation of alpha receptors cause your heart to work harder and blood vessels to constrict which causes less blood flow to your extremities.

What does this mean doctor science? Well it means adderall is doing what its supposed to do and if you're really worried ask your doctor. Which you should do anyway if you have any real health concerns.

You shouldn't have cold hands during exercise... that assumes you are in a hypothermic state... exercise produces massive heat... but yeah look up Raynauds it's what cooper is talking about.

About muscle mass... amphetamines should increase muscle tone... and also it can increase strength naturally.

No im not talking about any syndrome im talking about simple alpha receptor activation causing coldness.

what's your blood pressure like?

it's probably a blood thing...circulation...like they were saying, stimulants constrict blood vessels which may be causing your symptoms.

There are drugs that can help that. I've actually recently started on guanfacine (Brand Name is Tenex) which is an antihypertensive...it's used to lower blood pressure..but is also prescribed off-label for ADHD. It's been known to have a calming effect and can decrease hyperactivity and tics...etc. I think there trying to "approve" it for ADHD. But anyway...I would describe those symptoms to your doctor and see what he has to say...and also, if you want, ask about guanfacine (TENEX). Since it's for blood pressure...and used for ADHD..it might be a good thing for you. On these forums the med. similar to Tenex is Clonidine so it's there if you'd like to know more about it...


I hope some of this can be of help.

eric

(Follow Up) First thank you all for your responses. I've noticed that over time the "cold hands" symptoms have decreased greatly. Esspecially if I do a slow 5-10 minuite warm up prior to accelerating my excercise activity. For whatever reason, as I am not exactly sure why, I've noticed that if I do my aerobic workouts without being on adderall, there seems to be more benefit the next day. My arms, legs, and face, are tighter and I have a better feeling of well being. I also notice better wieght loss. When I do my workouts while on adderall xr, the next day, my arms and legs are not tight at all, and seem to sag. This is unfortunate, because when I am on adderall I tend to work out better without having to (mentally) kick myself in gear as much. I guess the old saying "no pain, no gain" is all too true.

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I had to reread that paragraph over and over. Stimulants tighten muscles, boost energy, and boost metabolic rate, but apparently the reverse is true for you!?

I also have the same thing happen to me when I excercise. My hands get cold and my body is cool to the touch. It has never worried me and I was really glad to read the post that explained why it was happening.
I can really excercise better when Adderall is at a good level in my system.

Greetings Carriie, and welcome to the forum. Wow! I rarely, if ever, see my threads resurface...esspecially when they are over a year old. I too was grateful (thanks to DB COOPER) to better understand why it had occurred. I can say however that I no longer notice having cold extremities during exercise. These symptoms seemed to had subsided fully about a month after I made this post if I recall correctly. They either subsided or I got so use to them they are no longer an issue.

Maybe I'm simply looking at things from the simple perspective but It's probably due to an increase in circulation around the lungs, heart, and brain - the essential organs that work harder during exercise. Muscles perform quite a bit of work too but aren't constantly re-circulating / filtering CO2 & O2 in and out of the blood stream .. theres an increased need in blood to the brain during any stressful situation obviously.
But anyway yeah, same thing happens to me there's nothing to worry about. If anything I like it.

EDIT: Crap I got caught in the 1 year old post thing :(

Well, you should not do that, unless you want to drop dead. You are not getting enough oxygen to your hands as your body dramatically uses more for the brain and heart as theya re sped up. You can easily kill yourself this way, especially as you are almost 300 pounds. I hate to even imagine what your heart rate is. At your weight you need to be careful with ANY exercise and you could literally drop dead from intense aerobics...adding adderal into the mix is just begging for disaster.

I am in excellent shape but I never work out on adderal. It's just too dangerous.

Just because your hands and feet are cold doesn't mean you're not getting enough Oxygen, just less than other parts of your body - If your your foot or hand was to fall asleep while doing it or turn blue, then yeah that's when you should be worried about inadequate blood flow or lack of O2. If your hearts beating fast enough to the point its uncomfortable when you do it I wouldn't work out on it either.

Its simple mechanics, to put it simply, adderall constricts your blood vessels, don't confuse that with getting less oxygen, as its not true. The passageways through which the blood is moving get smaller, but that causes the blood to flow faster and with more pressure, which equates to the same if not more oxygen. What has changes is at any given moment there is a smaller volume of blood in the extremities, as you may guess smaller volumes (or bodies) lose heat faster than larger ones. For example, to maintain equal body temperature a mouse will spend 20x more energy per gram of weight than an elephant would.

The reason why you are experiencing coldness in your hands during exercise is that the temperature in your core is going up a lot more than the temperature of your extremities. Your hands are still warmer than they would be if you weren't exercising.