Originally Posted by myst

as a 3rd year medical student, i can say this is just plain wrong. read up on ADHD instead and clinical trials instead. you have no idea what kind of clinical trials and rigorous testing that is done to prove that a drug is effective in treating a condition. the beauty and essence of science is to link cause and effect, not simply correlate two things. in clinical trials, patients ages, diets, race, gender, etc etc are all accounted for and "controlled" using very sophisticated statistical methods so that we are able to accurately say that "drug x does this"; taking care of the interference of other variables

adhd is a condition where parts of the brain are overactive (stimulatory neurons) and others are underactive (inhibitory neurons). a simple way of knowing whether someone has adhd is if you treat them with the medications that have been listed here. all medications that were listed are actually stimulants (derivatives of amphetamine basically). those with adhd have a paradoxical effect of actually decreasing the hyperactivity of the brain and it is thought that is due to an increase in the firing of inhibitory neurons; or it is due to a "densitization" process the cells undergo when exposed to so much stimulation

on the other hand, if you give these stimulatory medications to someone who does not have adhd, the result will be the opposite - patients will be going off the wall, hyperexcitable, flight of ideas, etc etc etc.

1) gluten intolerance is due to a gene polymorphism in some patients that causes hypersensitivity to gluten containing foods. it has absolutely nothing to do with adhd. it has to do with an inflammatory reaction that happens in your bowels because your body thinks that the gluten is "foreign" and tries to "attack" it - causing gastrointestinal problems
2) intestinal candida overgrowth is almost unheard of except in the context of aids patients, those with severely depressed immune systems (like uncontrolled diabetes) or those with rare defects in white blood cells that cannot recognize candida as "foreign"