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by FollowingTheDao 1317 days ago
This is the truth.

And by the way, the effect on dopamine is secondary. ADHD meds work because they affect glutamate leveles. You all do not have low Dopamine, you have low glutamate.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nn0301_275

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3966039/

https://www.brown.edu/news/2018-03-12/glutamate

And you all probably just need B6: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24321736/

1 comments

The active form of B6 is the enzyme cofactor used by AADC:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aromatic_L-amino_acid_decarbox...

AADC is an enzyme in the path that converts amino acids into dopamine and PEA/NMPEA (see "biosynthetic pathways" in above link), the latter of which is an endogenous structural isomer of amphetamine.

You're not really making a strong case that this isn't about dopamine or that amphetamine is the wrong thing for it.

Moreover, B6 will make more of these things up until the point that it's no longer the rate limiter in their production, if it ever was. (The rate limiting step for dopamine is ordinarily AAAH converting Tyrosine into L-DOPA). And if you hit a different rate limiter before you have enough dopamine or PEA/NMPEA, what then?

Important note: This is also a thing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megavitamin-B6_syndrome

> Megavitamin-B6 syndrome has been reported in doses as low as 24 mg/day.

Meanwhile people sell 500mg B6 tablets and it has a half life of like a month. Ask your doctor etc etc.

P5P is also the cofactor for GAD1 an GAD2:

https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q99259/entry

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340492849_The_Gluta...

I did not say it is not about dopamine, but it is, at a deeper level, about glutamate. Which is why coffee works so well for ADHD because the stimulant action from caffeine is produced by glutamate.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7700297/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4166758/

Regardless, here is so much evidence that B6 plays a large role in ADHD and what, you all just ignore it?

> Which is why coffee works so well for ADHD because the stimulant action from caffeine is produced by glutamate.

Caffeine also antagonizes adenosine receptors which modulate dopamine. (Caffeine is complicated. Nicotine too.)

> Regardless, here is so much evidence that B6 plays a large role in ADHD and what, you all just ignore it?

The problem is it's the same kind of thing as saying that eating more reduces nutrient deficiencies. It might be more effective than placebo. If you're deficient in one thing and you get more of everything, you get more of that. It might even be the right solution if your underlying problem is actually that you're not eating enough.

But you want the solution that solves the problem as effectively and as narrowly as possible. Unless your underlying problem is actually a B6 deficiency, it's completely plausible that B6 could be more effective than placebo and less effective than Adderall. At which point nobody wants to hear you telling them to give up their Adderall for B6.

zrm, FollowingTheDao, can I just say that I massively appreciate you for sharing your thoughts on this?

The fact that I can read up on this as a civilian compared to your expert level knowledge is something I am deeply grateful for. Truly!

Leading experts on ADHD do not say that coffee works well for ADHD