What supplements to take with dexamphetamine, having ADHD and anxiety
Hey everyone, looking for some tips on how to make good use of my 23andMe results, particularly if there's any specific supplements that would be useful for.
First of all though - I'm really amazed by how much you can find out. I know nothing is concrete but a lot of it has a lot of good research behind it. I have no idea why this isn't done as standard for anyone with any kind of health problem. I found out I have a gene that makes me 7x less responsive to certain anti-depressants - if I knew that from the start it could have saved a lot of time and money... and the test probably costs less than the cost of all the medication I was put on.
My current issues / problems - diagnosed with Bipolar (ultra-ultra rapid (ultradian?) cycling type 2), ADHD (never got picked up as a child because it's actually UNDER diagnosed in the UK at least!), and Social Anxiety Disorder. I also have some kind of undiagnosed sleep problem in that I can sleep perfectly fine, but I NEVER feel "refreshed" and it's always a struggle to get up. Sometimes I feel really sleepy in the day and my head is almost "nodding" off to sleep at my desk. Luckily I only work in the office 3 days a week but if it was 5 (like I ideally want to get it back to), I think I'd be falling asleep at my desk a lot more. It still happens regardless of that though if I'm in a boring meeting / lecture - it's almost guaranteed that my head will start "bobbing".
I personally think the most problematic at the moment are - fatigue, not feeling refreshed when waking up, and difficulty in focus / attention / getting things done. I think if I felt more awake then I'd have a better mood anyway.
Current Medication - I'm on dexamphetamine once or twice a day (20mg) for ADHD and it helps to a certain extent - it wakes me up in a way, and I also find it quite calming which does help my attention and focus. But it's not something that I want to keep upping my dose of, I think 40mg in a day is the most I'd want to do, and I try to go without it whenever I can so not to build a tolerance.
My 23andMe results show that I have low MAO-A (rs6323 is TT) which should make my neurotransmitter levels high... maybe with the exception of dopamine due to ADHD.
According to Promethease I have quite a few variants associated with a higher risk ADHD, and a LOT associated with a higher risk of Bipolar.
Interestingly, I also have quite a few that are associated with a higher risk of Narcolepsy - maybe that's the sleep problem, I had thought about it before. Also a few showing increased chances of M.S.
I also have rs2032583 at (T;T) which means I'm 7x less likely to respond to certain antidepressants because it blocks many of them from entering the brain. The list includes the 2 that I've been on unsuccessfully in the past - Citalopram (Celexa) and Venlafaxine (Effexor)... that probably explains why they didn't work haha.
If anyone has any ideas of specific supplements that could be good for me I'd love to hear them! Also if there's any other specific SNPs / websites I should check, I'd be grateful if you could let me know!
I do think I have some kind of sleep disorder though, I do think it's highly likely to be narcolepsy. As well as the 23andMe results indicating that I have higher odds of getting it and also the daytime fatigue / unrefreshing sleep, I do seem to get too much REM sleep and I do seem to go straight into REM sleep before any other stage... GP has so far refused to send me for a sleep study though and has told me that I just need to be "less stressed" and that I should try meditating... that would obviously be nice but I think being so sleep deprived is a big contributing factor to the stress... and obviously it also makes the ADHD + Bipolar much worse than they need to be...