babka
12-19-07, 06:27 PM
I'm newly diagnosed, and my doctor has started me on Vyvanse, 50 mg. I'm on my third day, and I'm struggling with the way this drug seems to interact with my metabolism and its feeders, food and exercise. There are scattered references to this issue throughout the forum, but I wanted to seek your collective wisdom in one place.
Basically, I've never paid as much attention to blood sugar as I seem to need to do with Vyvanse. On the first day, I took it after eating a good lunch, bbq with a bagel, and it was astounding. Angels were singing.
I don't mean I had a euphoric surge, only that I was wearing those metaphorical glasses for the first time in my life. I could take short breaks from work to attend to brief phone calls, emails, thoughts, and when those phone calls, emails, and thoughts were over, I could return to work. I'd never experienced anything like that before. I'd taken it at 2, it started working at 4, it started tapering off at 10, and it was largely gone by midnight. (though I couldn't sleep until 2.)
On the second day, I ate a few nuts for breakfast, took the pill, and then forgot to eat for the rest of the day. (In and of itself, that's not unusual: When I'm working in a hyperfocus mode, I often skip food.) It was a disaster. I felt heavy, weighted, my mind was full of a content-less buzz, like white noise turned black. I finally figured out that I should eat something, which took the weight off my mind, but the Vyvanse didn't work at all. I felt, for the duration of the day, like I do after not sleeping: Empty, with flitting, meaningless thoughts.
Today, I ate a good, solid breakfast (with a cup of green tea), waited half an hour, and then I took the pill at 10. Bzzp! The angels were back! But my body had too much energy to sit and work. Instead, I went to the gym, ran a mile (the first time I've managed to run a full mile, non-stop, in my entire life! though I've been working up to it for a while), speed-walked some, did some weights, went back to my desk, and worked beautifully...
until, around 1, when I realized that while I wasn't hungry, my blood sugar wasn't doing so well, and neither was my concentration. I ate lunch, gulped some sugared (herbal) tea to kick-start the blood sugars and in so doing calmed my body, but not my brain. My concentration was a little better than it is without the stimulant, but not very much better, and nowhere close to the level I'd achieved either that morning or on hte first day.
I know that some of each day's variance stems from my body learning how to deal with this new substance and that it will even out over time, but I'd also like to shorten the learning curve as much as possible.
Some of you have mentioned water intake as a complicating factor. I habitually drink 1-2 gallons a day, so I don't think I'm having problems there.
With regard to food, though, I've taken to heart the advice scattered through this forum and vowed to eat well, regardless of hunger. The physician's prescribing sheet indicates that taking the pill after a fatty meal extends the maximum concentration of dextroamphetamine in the blood from 3.8 to 4.7 hours, which bolsters the argument for having a good breakfast, with fat and protein, before taking the pill.
I think that after breakfast, I probably need to eat something every few hours; normally going from 9:30 to 1 without food isn't a problem, but it was a significant one today. And based on both yesterday and today, once my blood sugar crashes, there's no real restoration.
I'm not sure what to make of the gym thing. I know that aerobic exercise temporarily boosts your metabolism; today, rightly or wrongly, I feel like I burned through the drug this morning by exercising as soon as I did after taking it. I think I can avoid the hyperactive body thing by (sigh) abandoning my one measly cup of caffeinated tea in the morning and so I can put off the gym until much later in the day...but do I need to? Could the caffeine and the exercise early in the morning actually change the rate at which I metabolize this drug?
How do you all find that food and exercise impact the efficacy of the Vyvanse?
Basically, I've never paid as much attention to blood sugar as I seem to need to do with Vyvanse. On the first day, I took it after eating a good lunch, bbq with a bagel, and it was astounding. Angels were singing.
I don't mean I had a euphoric surge, only that I was wearing those metaphorical glasses for the first time in my life. I could take short breaks from work to attend to brief phone calls, emails, thoughts, and when those phone calls, emails, and thoughts were over, I could return to work. I'd never experienced anything like that before. I'd taken it at 2, it started working at 4, it started tapering off at 10, and it was largely gone by midnight. (though I couldn't sleep until 2.)
On the second day, I ate a few nuts for breakfast, took the pill, and then forgot to eat for the rest of the day. (In and of itself, that's not unusual: When I'm working in a hyperfocus mode, I often skip food.) It was a disaster. I felt heavy, weighted, my mind was full of a content-less buzz, like white noise turned black. I finally figured out that I should eat something, which took the weight off my mind, but the Vyvanse didn't work at all. I felt, for the duration of the day, like I do after not sleeping: Empty, with flitting, meaningless thoughts.
Today, I ate a good, solid breakfast (with a cup of green tea), waited half an hour, and then I took the pill at 10. Bzzp! The angels were back! But my body had too much energy to sit and work. Instead, I went to the gym, ran a mile (the first time I've managed to run a full mile, non-stop, in my entire life! though I've been working up to it for a while), speed-walked some, did some weights, went back to my desk, and worked beautifully...
until, around 1, when I realized that while I wasn't hungry, my blood sugar wasn't doing so well, and neither was my concentration. I ate lunch, gulped some sugared (herbal) tea to kick-start the blood sugars and in so doing calmed my body, but not my brain. My concentration was a little better than it is without the stimulant, but not very much better, and nowhere close to the level I'd achieved either that morning or on hte first day.
I know that some of each day's variance stems from my body learning how to deal with this new substance and that it will even out over time, but I'd also like to shorten the learning curve as much as possible.
Some of you have mentioned water intake as a complicating factor. I habitually drink 1-2 gallons a day, so I don't think I'm having problems there.
With regard to food, though, I've taken to heart the advice scattered through this forum and vowed to eat well, regardless of hunger. The physician's prescribing sheet indicates that taking the pill after a fatty meal extends the maximum concentration of dextroamphetamine in the blood from 3.8 to 4.7 hours, which bolsters the argument for having a good breakfast, with fat and protein, before taking the pill.
I think that after breakfast, I probably need to eat something every few hours; normally going from 9:30 to 1 without food isn't a problem, but it was a significant one today. And based on both yesterday and today, once my blood sugar crashes, there's no real restoration.
I'm not sure what to make of the gym thing. I know that aerobic exercise temporarily boosts your metabolism; today, rightly or wrongly, I feel like I burned through the drug this morning by exercising as soon as I did after taking it. I think I can avoid the hyperactive body thing by (sigh) abandoning my one measly cup of caffeinated tea in the morning and so I can put off the gym until much later in the day...but do I need to? Could the caffeine and the exercise early in the morning actually change the rate at which I metabolize this drug?
How do you all find that food and exercise impact the efficacy of the Vyvanse?