Dr. Jules Altfas
Obesity is a huge problem in the U.S., with two out of three Americans now classified as overweight and nearly one out of three as obese.
No doubt you're familiar with those statistics. What you may not know is that excessive body weight is unusually prevalent among people who have attention-deficit disorder (ADD ADHD). And, given their impulsivity and their often-erratic eating habits, adults with ADD or ADHD have an unusually difficult time losing excess weight once they've gained it.
"For a significant number of overweight people, ADHD may be a contributing factor," says psychologist John Fleming, Ph.D., of the Nutritional Disorders Clinic in Toronto.
Fleming should know. He is among the first scientists to link ADD and weight gain. In a 1990 study of overweight people who seemed unable to shed any pounds, Fleming found that these individuals exhibited "clearly disturbed eating habits, with typically no regularly planned meals or snacks, and an inability to follow dietary plans for any useful length of time."
Sounds a lot like ADD, right? Fleming thought so, too. And looking deeper, he discovered that the rate of ADHD was, in fact, five to 10 times greater among these overweight individuals than in the general population (30 percent versus 3 to 6 percent).
In the ensuing years, Fleming's basic discovery - that there are links between ADD and obesity - has been corroborated by other scientists, including Jules Altfas, M.D., of the Behavioral Medical Center for Treatment and Research in Portland, Oregon. "At all levels of obesity," Dr. Altfas explains, "patients with ADD symptoms were less successful at losing weight than non-ADD peers."
In search of stimulus?
The precise mechanism underlying the link between obesity and ADD is yet to be discovered. But the evidence seems to suggest that the same low levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine that cause ADD also encourage overeating.
People with ADD are "chemically wired" to seek more dopamine, says John Ratey, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Eating carbohydrates triggers a rush of dopamine in the brain," he says. "It's the drive for the feeling of satiety."
Lance Levy, M.D., a frequent collaborator of Dr. Fleming, says that eating several mini-meals throughout the day (grazing) provides a "source of ongoing stimulation that may lessen feelings of restlessness in people with ADD."
