Are there any natural remedies for increasing mental focus?!
Question: I was diagnosed with Adult ADD. However, due to trying for another child, it was recommended that I not take the medication any longer. I am looking for some help & guidance to find some other "natural" remedies for increasing my mental focus. Of course I will check with my OB/GYN before staring any of them.
Answers: I was diagnosed with Adult ADD. However, due to trying for another child, it was recommended that I not take the medication any longer. I am looking for some help & guidance to find some other "natural" remedies for increasing my mental focus. Of course I will check with my OB/GYN before staring any of them.
Ginkgo Biloba is a safe form to take if you are looking for a daily dose of something. If you're looking for something "in the moment" (a certain time it is harder to stay focused) try peppermint or lemon. Both are natural sensory stimulants and will increase your concentration and keep you more aware.
Good luck!
The most popular natural products for brain health are Ginkgo Biloba, Acetyl L-Carnitine, Phosphatidylserine (abbreviated PS), DMAE, Huperzine A, Bacopa Monnieri (or Monniera), and Vinpocetine.
There are a LOT of people that get a lot of benefit from any combination of those. I would suggest adding one at a time to your daily regiment as too much too fast can be tough.
When trying to get pregnant and during pregnancy it is good to take Bcomplex, folic acid and omega fatty acid.
These are good for mental focus and most should be good for the baby as well.
omega fatty acid, phosphatidyserine, B complex, sublingual B 12, folic acid, alpha lipoic acid, lecithin and choline, C0 Q10,
NAC, amino acid complex, L arginine, L Carnitine, Huperzine A, Gotu kola,
Ginkgo biloba ---avoid if taking blood thinners
After having dealt with adult ADD, I have recommendations.
Stop watching TV.
Practice your mental focus with activities that are intensive and goal-driven. Mentally, crossword puzzles are helpful.
Other puzzles are helpful.
Physically, dribbling a soccer ball up and down the length of a field. Working out with weights with intensive accuracy and concentration is very helpful. For me, playing the piano was helpful is mentally constructing a fluid, connected thought measuring with exactness and poetic inflection.
For a woman, maybe an activity such as needlework, I don't know, not a woman, but something controlled and exact. Cooking, for example, is something that demands exactness of quantity and timing. Get into that.
For raising a child, you need to stop your ADD behaviors. Children have a naturally short attention span, and you can do damage by failing to be an example of one who can focus and concentrate. You can make it worse. Just look at the children of those with Adult ADD who have children.
In addition to the suggestions you've gotten, I'd like to add:
You may want to see a naturopath, or maybe list some of your symptoms that aren't attention. It could be one symptom in a broader cause.
For Example: Low adrenal function has many other symptoms, including fatigue, sunken eyes, weight issues, dark pigmentation on face, over-flexibility of joints, headaches, body temp issues. . . and more. One of the signs is also lack of focus. You see that the symptoms could seem singular and unrelated, but they are actually all relative to adrenal function. Adrenal cortex has been known to improve the symptoms, help the adrenals heal and return to normal, and almost immediately improve focus.
I do not know that adrenal cortex would work if you didn't have adrenal issues though - to increase attention. That is the thing with pharma meds or alternative remedies, they may work, but if that wasn't the issue, they may just not do a thing for you. Potentially, depending on the drug or remedy - cause another set of issues - I will qualify, that water solubles, like B vitamins which are normally lacking - shouldn't cause anything other than excessively yellow urine or potential hyperactivity. But, then, why waste your money or time if they won't help. Best to know the cause and treat that.
That is the example I am most familiar with for the complexity that attention deficit actually is, so I used it. But, there are other potential issues that would be better addressed naturally than just throwing a pill at the one symptom. B deficiency, and someone already mentioned B vitamins, would be the next best example I could give of apparently random symptoms that are related.
In alternative medicine, the paradigm is flipped. Most modern medicine works on the symptom=cause paradigm. In alternative medicine, you need to think symptom=effect, that means the jury is still out on the cause, and that is what must be addressed. It can be a bit of a maze to find the cause through the seemingly unrelated effects (symptoms), but a good naturopath, homeopath and even other alternative medicine practitioners, will be trained to help weave the pieces together to find the best solution.
A great short video that illustrates this hilariously is found on the first page of http://www.mercola.com - click on the link for "The Town of Allopathy."
The natural remedies given already may address the attention - depending on the root, but you really want to find the cause and heal the issue so it doesn't follow you around. If you have children, you want to be at the top of your game!!
I didn't mean to go on so long, but really, sometimes the simplest question is really much more complex.
IMPORTANT EDIT: I see someone said ALA (alpha lipoic acid) - while this is a good supplement for some, it is not for anyone who is mercury toxic! It moves mercury in the body and is used as a mercury chelator. If not used properly, it will just transport the mercury to another location - which is not good, especially since ALA will cross the blood/brain barrier.
It is also possible that the attention problem is caused by mercury - so I wouldn't recommend messing with ALA unless you know for sure you are not mercury toxic - which is hard to know. First off - do you have any silver fillings in your teeth - then ALA is a NO go. See http://www.noamalgam.com for more info about mercury toxicity. It doesn't show up in testing because it binds.
There is a safe chelation method to rid yourself of mercury, but only a safe method such as Andrew Hall Cutler's is advised or problems can become much worse. I am preparing for chelation myself, because I have mercury fillings and need to get them out then chelate to remove mercury from my body. I also can't use cilantro - it taste like nickels because it immediately grabs metals and moves them.
If you are considering getting pregnant - ALA is Dangerous! Many autistic children are mercury toxic and recover when mercury is removed. You do not want to be moving mercury around your body when you are considering becoming pregnant.
Some basic foods can increase concentration. Fish (or, omega 3) in the long term will really solidify your train of thought. Peppermint, peanuts, and chocolate have been found to temporarily increase attention.
Definitely don't try the Alpha Lipoic Acid. Alot of people use it for chelation. It could make you sick if not used properly.
The idea that Alpha Lipoic Acid (aka ALA) is dangerous or can make you sick is absolutely absurd. Hey Zambiti and Amy, do some real research and stop reading the National Inquirer. This is just another example of ignorance on the internet. You've got to be very careful when people like them get near broadband with a keyboard. Hilarious!