Hi All~
I am on Adderall IR 20mg 2x / day -- was previously on XR 30mg 2x a day with 1 10mg IR a day but that sent me into tachycardia -- I've been on this dose for over a year and in the last few weeks I've noticed that I'm just a puddle. Not depressed but just sitting wasting time. It feels exactly like it did when I did a trial of Strattera. I've talked to my doc about upping it, and he won't until he sees me again, yet I just saw him 2 months ago -- and my appointment isn't until Feb. Any ideas on supplements or anything even diet related that can perhaps increase my effectiveness with this adderall dosage?

Greta

I usually take sublingual B-12, folic acid, B6 from trader joes. It provides a mild energy boost I notice most in the afternoon.

I've seen some posts that amino acids can trigger a strong effect, but I dont believe it is a good way to go long term. A few posts have said it stops working in as little as a week if taken daily. The best results involve L-tryosine followed by DLPA about 20 minutes later.

BobC

Hi Greta,

Urinary and stomach pH levels can have the strongest effect on amphetamine excretion and absorption. Taking acidic substances causes an accelerated excretion of amphetamine, while taking of alkaline agents like an antacid causes a large increase in both retention and absorption of amphetamines.
But be careful it makes such a large difference that it can potentially result in dangerously high blood levels amphetamine levels..

You can try taking 1/2 your normal dose along with an antacid and you will be surprised at what a difference it will make. maybe you can even lower your dosage rather than raise it.

Most antacids are not recommended to take every day so I recommend discussing this with your doctor or doing some further research before making any changes in your medications that can affect your health..

Also in the previous post by "bobC" none of that is going to work (most likely) unless you have some deficients of those vitamins ect. in your diet.

But it is actually common for people with ADHD to have deficiencies
in their diet and your diet and nutrition is probably the best place to start.
If you cannot eat a balanced diet where you get all the nutrients you need i would recommend a multi-vitamin.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask! :)





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Also, you could try taking a couple of days off every week if that is feasible for you (e.g. weekends); this may help lower tolerance.

There are also strategies that can help reduce tolerance, although they probably work better for slowing down the development of tolerance than reversing it. People take magnesium supplements at night after the drug wears off, and/or during days off. Magnesium is a partial NMDA receptor antagonist, and these receptors are thought to play a role in the development of amphetamine tolerance. There are others besides magnesium as well. Do a search for "tolerance Magnesium" here, or "tolerance Adderall" on the web and you'll find lots of information on this.

I know this must be frustrating for you. I was having a hard time just waiting a month to get a needed dose adjustment.

Another approach would be to change doctors. This would have to be done very carefully though; you would have to disclose that you have been under the care of another doctor and what meds you are on, etc. Otherwise, if you wind up getting overlapping prescriptions from 2 different doctors for the same condition, you can easily get caught by one of the systems that are in place to detect this practice and many bad things can happen. As long as there is full disclosure though, there's nothing wrong with changing doctors in the middle of treatment. Of course, you don't know what the new doctor is going to prescribe yet (if anything). If the second doctor did prescribe something, you can't continue to accept prescriptions from your first one (disclosure again required).

Hope you feel better,
-tom

boc c

so you really think supplementing l-tyrosine can help increase the effectiveness of the stim? I thought it may just provide an additional alertness like adding caffeine , but you say that tyrosine actually boosts the stimulants effectiveness ?

To answer the question "hollywood" had about the post by "bobC"

Tyrosine will have an affect nothing like caffeine because caffeine works by
antagonism of adenosine while Tyrosine can "possibly" increase dopamine. which would mean yes it "could possibly" increase the effectiveness..

[/URL]L-Tyrosine in converted to L-DOPA which is then converted into dopamine in the brain and body.

According to the studies done, tyrosine does not seem to have any significant effect on mood, cognitive or physical performance in normal circumstances. This is another one to be careful of because too high doses of Tyrosine result in reduced levels of dopamine.<sup id="cite_ref-pmid12381742_17-1" class="reference">[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrosine#cite_note-pmid12381742-17"] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_receptor)</sup> Tyrosine may also decrease the absorption of other amino acids in high or frequent doses. Also Tyrosine decreases absorption of l-dopa which makes it kind of confusing because thats what the Tyrosine is converted too once you take it...

So in conclusion, It is "possible" to increase dopamine from taking Tyrosine and in reasonable dosages it should not hurt...

and for Gretta. Since you cannot see your doctor soon, i think your pharmacist would possibly have more knowledge about the drug interactions with taking supplements so please ask the pharmacist or Dr before you take anything that could have negative outcome..

Good luck

I noticed that my mood would bounce back and forth from happy to sad when I took tyrosine and adderall together. I also noticed this with dexedrine(almost the same thing as adderall). One second Id be happy, another, I would just be so sad. Word of advice: Don't take tyrosine with ur adderall. Increased anxiety levels as well due to how both of them increase blood pressure. Just be careful of what u mix with adderall.

Hollywood,

L-tryosine definitly has an impact on dopamine levels. Caffeine has a fairly different mechinism + antagonizes Adenosine receptors.

I sometimes take l-tryosine before exams and personally notice an improvement in cognition (specificly math/logic). Taking dlpa about 20 min. after the l-tryosine seems to work best.

I generally think amino acids are too unpredictable for treatment purposes. A balanced diet is all that is needed to have normal amino acid levels.

BobC

Don't eat anything within 30 minutes of taking it, or an hour or so after taking it.

I also take a B-50 complex vitamin, twice a day (on the days I remember to take the second dose!), this makes a HUGE difference. Also, if you don't have adverse reactions, caffiene really helps me out a lot as well. Many people with ADD self-medicate with caffiene anyway, before getting treatment. Caffiene doesn't spaz me out, just helps my brain come into focus. Also really helps start the day. I'd rather have a cappucino with 10 mg of Adderall than no cap and 20 mg.

I have actually been researching magnesium quite a bit (I just did 3 recent blog posts on it!), and I'd have to agree with Tominal about its treatment possibilities for ADHD. In my opinion, magnesium is a very overlooked mineral for ADHD nutrition. It also is connected to a number of related comorbid disorders like Tourette's, allergies, OCD, and even seizures.

Of the ADHD subtypes, it appears to be more effective with the Hyperactive/Impulsive subtype or the Combined subtype than the Inattentive ADHD subtype.

If you do try magnesium, make sure you have adequate levels of vitamin B6 in your diet (or supplements). Target levels can be found here for magnesium (http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/magnesium.asp) and here for Vitamin B6 (http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb6.asp). Just be careful about some over-the-counter meds such as antacids and laxatives, both can contain high levels of magnesium, so make sure you're taking this into account to avoid overdose. Good luck!

Also, you could try taking a couple of days off every week if that is feasible for you (e.g. weekends); this may help lower tolerance.

There are also strategies that can help reduce tolerance, although they probably work better for slowing down the development of tolerance than reversing it. People take magnesium supplements at night after the drug wears off, and/or during days off. Magnesium is a partial NMDA receptor antagonist, and these receptors are thought to play a role in the development of amphetamine tolerance. There are others besides magnesium as well. Do a search for "tolerance Magnesium" here, or "tolerance Adderall" on the web and you'll find lots of information on this.

Hope you feel better,
-tom