CAFFEINE and ADHD? Neurodivergent Doctor Explains which one is best for him.

Welcome to the caffeinated Beverage Showdown! Energy Drinks? Coffee? Tea? Soda? Which one helps me with my ADHD? This video covers what caffeine does for us, if anything, and how that might work with ADHD.
For more in depth information, please see the following sources:
Nehlig A, Daval JL, Debry G. Caffeine and the central nervous system: mechanisms of action, biochemical, metabolic and psychostimulant effects. Brain Res Brain Res Rev. 1992;17(2):139-170.
Barry DG, Christopher DW, Sloman L. Responses to methylphenidate and varied doses of caffeine in children with attention deficit disorder. Can J Psychiatry. 1981;26(6):395-401.
Leon MR. Effects of caffeine on cognitive, psychomotor, and affective performance of children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. J Atten Disord. 2000;4(1):27-47.
Smith, A. P., & Rogers, R. (2000). Positive effects of caffeine on attention and memory: A double-blind, randomized, controlled trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 14(3), 253-261.]
Arts, I. C. W., & Hollman, P. C. H. (2005). Polyphenols and disease risk in epidemiologic studies. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 81(1), 317S-325S.]
Brown, R. T., Freeman, W. S., Perrin, J. M., Stein, M. T., Amler, R. W., Feldman, H. M., ... & Duby, J. C. (2001). Prevalence and assessment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in primary care settings. Pediatrics, 107(3), E43.]
Eskelinen, M. H., Ngandu, T., Tuomilehto, J., Soininen, H., Kivipelto, M., & Kåreholt, I. (2009). Midlife coffee and tea drinking and the risk of late-life dementia: A population-based CAIDE study. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 16(1), 85-91.]
Hu, D., Li, X., & Tezvergil-Mutluay, A. (2019). Caffeine effects on dental hard tissues. Journal of Dentistry, 83, 34-42.]
Fredholm, B. B., Bättig, K., Holmén, J., Nehlig, A., & Zvartau, E. E. (1999). Actions of caffeine in the brain with special reference to factors that contribute to its widespread use. Pharmacological Reviews, 51(1), 83-133.]
Blanchard, J., & Sawers, S. J. (1983). The absolute bioavailability of caffeine in man. European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 24(1), 93-98.]
Mitchell, D. C., Knight, C. A., Hockenberry, J., Teplansky, R., & Hartman, T. J. (2014). Beverage caffeine intakes in the
Allie Yang. How sugar and fat affect your brain published in National Geographic. Published, 29 DEC 2022
Svatikova A. 116 - Increase in Norepinephrine After Energy Drink Intake in Healthy Adults. Presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions; November 7-11, 2015; Orlando, FL.
Khan N, Mukhtar H. Tea and health: studies in humans. Curr Pharm Des. 2013;19(34):6141-7.
Volkow, N. D., Wang, G. J., Kollins, S. H., Wigal, T. L., Newcorn, J. H., Telang, F., Fowler, J. S., Zhu, W., Logan, J., Ma, Y., Pradhan, K., Wong, C., & Swanson, J. M. (2009). Evaluating dopamine reward pathway in ADHD: clinical implications. JAMA, 302(10), 1084-1091.
Ulke, C., Rullmann, M., Huang, J. et al. Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is associated with reduced norepinephrine transporter availability in right attention networks: a (S,S)-O-[11C]methylreboxetine positron emission tomography study. Transl Psychiatry 9, 301 (2019).
Castaldo L, Toriello M, Sessa R, Izzo L, Lombardi S, Narváez A, Ritieni A, Grosso M. Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Coffee Brew Evaluated after Simulated Gastrointestinal Digestion. Nutrients. 2021 Dec 5;13(12):4368.
Nehlig A. Is caffeine a cognitive enhancer? J Alzheimers Dis. 2010;20 Suppl 1:S85-94.
Jiahao Min, Zhi Cao, Linlin Cui, Feimeng Li, Zuolin Lu, Yabing Hou, Hongxi Yang, Xiaohe Wang, Chenjie Xu. The association between coffee consumption and risk of incident depression and anxiety: Exploring the benefits of moderate intake, Psychiatry Research, Volume 326, 2023, 115307, ISSN 0165-1781,
Gökcen BB, Şanlier N. Coffee consumption and disease correlations. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2019;59(2):336-348.
Paluska SA. Caffeine and exercise. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2003 Aug;2(4):213-9.
Latif AS. The Importance of Understanding Social and Cultural Norms in Delivering Quality Health Care-A Personal Experience Commentary. Trop Med Infect Dis. 2020 Feb 5;5(1):22.
Belayneh, A., & Molla, F. (2020). The effect of coffee on pharmacokinetic properties of drugs: a review. BioMed research international, 2020.
Disclaimer: This is not intended to provide information on treatment, to be a treatment, or to offer advice on ADHD or anything else related to it. Consult your medical professional to seek treatment for ADHD or any other disorder, and caffeine is a drug, with harmful and addictive potential. Always consult your doctor on these matters.

[@Sweet-fn6po]

Yes, caffeine calms me down.

[@alexagates]

Ahhhh!!!! He’s back 🥳 I clicked so fast when I saw this in my Subscriptions. Edit: I wish you were my teacher back in HS because this is one of the most engaging science/health videos I’ve ever watched lol

[@NeurodivergentDoctor]

Wow! "That's high praise". (Nick Cage). Ive been through a challenging but busy year and am still in burnout mode but doing better. I've got a few more vids I'll be uploading over the next month. Thanks again. I really appreciate your kind words.

[@alexagates]

@@NeurodivergentDoctor I could only imagine the pressure to keep up with posting while still living a “real life” offline. However often or not often, you are definitely appreciated!

[@mandarinadreux9572]

Man if I think back, during all my school years, i was the kid who was always ALWAYS drawing, scribbling or talking to their friend. It should have been sooo incredibly obvious to teachers that I was a classic adhd kid. I think i was missed because I'm a girl and I was smart and had good grades. I've also been drinking black tea from primary school age and then coffee and yes, I've never felt awake or alert because of that but focused and able to do organisational tasks. I think I must have been doing it subconsciously. And yes, it doens't impact my sleep if I drink coffee late.

[@RissShinsei]

When I thought it worked for me it just made my mind more stable.

[@nvdawahyaify]

I'm autistic and have adhd. I drink coffee (black) daily. It helps with my adhd. In fact the more i drink the calmer, and more patient i am. And heres the weird thing, when I drink more coffee, I sleep better. I have a 12 oz mug, and when I have 6, I get those aforementioned benefits. When I don't, my adhd symptoms are worse. I don't drink a lot of soda or energy drinks. I have like 2 or 3 sodas a month.

[@NeurodivergentDoctor]

Wow! You've got this dialed in. Nice job!

[@nvdawahyaify]

@@NeurodivergentDoctor thank you, I spent quite a long time testing it. It started with an observation. It was cold one day so I was drinking coffee throughout the day to help me stay warm and I noticed the next morning that I had the best sleep. So I tried to see if it was the coffee, by testing different amounts over different amounts of time

[@nighthawk244]

So happy you're back!

[@NeurodivergentDoctor]

Thanks. I am tryin'. Coming out of burnout.

[@katzenbekloppt2412]

Yes, me too😊

[@katzenbekloppt2412]

​@@NeurodivergentDoctorOh, sorry, just read this after sending my answer. Hope You are better now and don't started to early. I am.very thankful for your videos and would like to have this in german too, but sadly it seems german doctors can't do it the unformal funny AND informative way english speaking people can do. I guess it is something like "this is not what professionels do, they don't take us serious then, we have to stick to the way we talk on conferences with each others"

[@NeurodivergentDoctor]

@@katzenbekloppt2412 I wish I knew German. We are working on Spanish right now, but I would make German sound SO bad. LOL. If you have ideas I am open to them on how to get this into German.

[@katzenbekloppt2412]

@@NeurodivergentDoctor Oh, no, I didn´t mean it that way. I am sorry, my school english probably makes it a bit more different to get me right often (wich is even worse because my autism causes me so much missunderstandings anyway😖... well, You know...). I understand your videos pretty good, I think and my argentinian spanish is worse then my english grewing up in Germany with a german mother that didn´t understand spanish at all an d a father that had to flew after beeing tortured and had severe trauma in the late 70s and stopped speaking spanish to me later to "make me better integrate in society here". I meant I wish there would be german AuDHD-influencers here like You or others. But I guess it is a cultural thing that there is nothing like this here. I got my ADHD-diagnose late after my son was diagnosed (he was that "typical" ADHD-boy who stressed out teachers, so...), am waiting for my "official" autism diagnose for more than two years now (there are very little hospitals where You get them as an adult and You have to wait years, the ones You can get from specialized psychologists are not paid by insurance and are not accepted for official things, but my not-specialized psychiatrist agrees with me I have it. I myself thaught this for more then 15 years while getting my first ADHD-diagnose but was told "that´s not possible as we diagnosed You clearly with ADHD without Hyperactivity". Yeah. All the important facts which is ALSO attached with ADHD I learned from english speaking YTbers, also that there is AuDHD and how it looks on women. I am sad and also angry that I lost so much time, had to face so much trauma because nobody cared to give me the right diagnose and treat me a helpful way. When I was young they tried Borderline, even I didn´t cut myself etc., once in hospital (the only time I was there) after a breakdown they guessed manic-depressed for one week then telling me, "no, that´s wrong, but You don´t fit in the depression correctly, we don´t know, sorry", later I was diagnosed with "chronic depression since childhood wich is not treatable with anti-depressants". Which I stayed with, loosing the ability to work at last. During the last two years at home I finally found all that information on YT nobody gave me before. Of cause I started a research on science sources, I am not stupid and lazy. It´s just that I can´t believe NOBODY ever in Germany, where everybody has a health insurance and where we have a good medical system (or had, as it is getting bad the last years after privatizing common hospitals etc., neo-capitalizm is doing it´s bad job here also, we sadly learned the wrong lessons from the US...). Why was I left alone, like so many other women? There is a lot of sadnes, frustration, anger. I was working as a social worker, my mother was a teacher and studied psychology, I learned a lot in this field. But there is was no information here and still it is very poor. It shouldn´t be my job as apatient to get information "by accident" watching YT. This is ridicolous! And I don´t want others to waste years of their life not getting the right diagnose and treatment, so I want german speaking proffessionel YTers. Puh, that was a looong rand. I am sorry, it is not your fault. Ah, and my self diagnose is Yes, I definitly have autism, too, this is even the core of me beeing me, how I feel and how I am at my safe space at home, where everything is very tidy and silent, where I prefer to stay alone with my cats, the ADHD kicks more in when I am outside and overstimulated, which tires me to death and I always needed days to reload alone at home, my chronic depression getting worse and more often the older I got was/is in fact severe autistic burnout and everything I did to get better was not helpful. I am pretty sure, but I want it on an official piece of paper to send it to every doc etc. that ever told me my feelings what´s going on with me are wrong and they know better. I don´t want to be a US-citizen because of many things like law-system, death-penalty, insurance/social-system, weapons, more fundamental religion stuff, people who vote for Trump etc., but I want doctors like You here😏

[@jeweledsnail]

Uranium glass! I don't have a huge collection but it's definitely a special interest of mine as well. I have a necklace made with all uranium glass beads that makes me so happy. Probably AuADHD here. I don't like coffee and avoid energy drinks, but I drink a ton of tea. Liters of iced tea a day in the summer. I don't notice a huge effect with caffeine, but it's been a long time since I wasn't drinking it daily so maybe I've forgotten what it was like.

[@skinnyway]

tea actually has more caffeine than coffee. I used to drink it by the buckets!! I got so I cant stand the taste of the paper of the teat bags and I dont drink it any other way. all of it is autism. the separate labels are lies.

[@NeurodivergentDoctor]

That's cool. I have never seen Uranium Glass necklaces. My wife brings home some pretty cool stuff, but not one of those yet. She has too much of it. LOL

[@DarkSaguaro]

I love yerba mate gives you a hightent and longer lasting focus.The comedown is not as hard from coffe

[@LadyNieske]

This explains my black tea habit in the morning. But I stopped with refined sugars a while back, turns out that it did give me a lot of dopamine... but it also triggered my IBS. It took quite a few weeks of me being an absolute grump, but nowadays I get my sugars from fruit (maybe less dopamine, but with no stomach cramps, so I am calling that a win)

[@jelliemish]

Ok. Noted. Green tea in the morning, Camomile in the evening, and if I go to Starbucks, stick with decaf, lol Also I had never heard of caffeine half life and it's fascinating. Love me a coffee, but I broke the habit a while ago and now even forget to have it some days. So switching won't be an issue. I'll see if tea will do anything for me. Being ADHD and autistic and having a high alert nervous system that doesn't need even more boosting, it's probably the way for me to go.

[@JokerFace090]

Thumbs up for the aside to inform us on the word varmint.

[@eyeudyne]

Love your little saloon! Simply adorable and fun! Lots of knick knacks and talking pieces. Thank you for your discussions, educational points and awareness. Due to your video's, I've been able to better articulate and communicate my symptoms to my doctor so I can find treatment, and, as a direct result, I have been able to get a formal diagnosis for ADD and ASD level 1! It's strange, because before this diagnosis, I was led to believe I was sociopathic, Bi-Polar and major depressed. Just turns out I have difficulty with relating to others from my autism, leading to quirks that Isolated me, triggering anti-social behaviours and depression, fueled into a long cycle of self-medicating with alcohol, cannabis, caffeine and sugar. I created my own cycle of emotional roller coasters that just appeared to be bi-polar in nature. No more alcohol, moderate cannabis, caffeine and sugar, eliminating the latter two after 1 PM, and the former after 7 followed up with a healthy regiment of vyvanse, and, I'm more productive, capable and motivated than ever before. So much better than the plethora of antidepressants, anti-psychotics and anti-seizure medications I was being tossed around with over the last 20 years of my life. I have my life back. TLDR: You're doing great public service work and it has had an immediate and beneficial impact. Please keep doing what you do! You matter more than you might sometimes think. Thank you.

[@AspieMemoires]

Vanilla chai tea has been the best for me I’ve found. Has a little more caffeine than regular tea, but not as much as coffee.

[@lizziegreeneyes]

Really happy to have you back here, but also - good on you for stepping away and doing the creative thing because this B&B looks amazing!!!

[@peterdentice5725]

V8Plus Energy cans. Something that I rationalize as being a healthier choice since it has 1 serving of fruit and vegetables per can along the black and green tea derived caffeine.

[@nealhammond1454]

Great video, I love all the humor added too! Very nice rental as well, had to look at it online and see it’s a “favorite” of many!

[@jakke1975]

I only just discovered your channel and I love your content (and your house by the way!). Would be nice to see a little more of your wisdom splashed over the internet ;)

[@mal1cious_]

i've recently found Bawl's Guarana derived caffeine drinks to be the most effective and least counterproductive way to get some caffeine in me (coffee and energy drinks which are also derived from coffee beans tend to give me the jitters)

[@darbydelane4588]

Great topic and great teaching!

[@Omneyvdwatering]

I have an autism diagnosis but no adhd. But probably only because i have not been tested for it. Caffeine is amazing. it gives me focus and makes sure i can stay longer on one task. I can also drink it before having a nap, and i will wake up super focused and rested. A friend of mine said after i told him this: " congrats, you have adhd" 😆

[@silicon212]

On a serious note, being AuDHD myself (mostly ASD, some ADHD) I've noticed that I can have different reactions to energy drinks or other forms of caffeine overall. One example is when moving back in 2002, I needed to keep myself awake around midnight to keep packing and load the Uhaul ... a friend suggested a Rockstar energy drink so I thought 'perfect' ... this should do the trick. I drank this and within 30 minutes I was sleeping like a baby. Not exactly the reaction I was looking for. However I have noticed that on most days, an energy drink in the AM helps me to focus throughout the day.

[@TheAgamemnon911]

AuDHD here. 3 Cups of Coffee on average day. Otherwise the meds don't seem to work / wear off way too quickly. Strictly no sugar in liquids. Herb teas for hydration. Given this info, I'll try dropping the coffee and switching to green tea instead. Does need a lot of art. sweetener, though, because I don't like the taste of actual tea ... tea.

[@darbydelane4588]

Beautiful home! Wow!!

[@lordlazerwolf]

Adderall + Caffeine = LIFE Awesome video, hilarious and educational!

[@luciddaze248]

I love a coffee in the morning but one is enough for the day. Drinking tea this morning because I ran out of coffee 😅 Used to have 8 coffees a day + energy drinks before dx n meds 🤯

[@katzenbekloppt2412]

Ha, funny thing: I was just preparing my late breakfast on a free day with a cup of black tea with sweetener, one bread with vegan sweet almond butter because I crave something sweet every morning and one with vegan pepper salami because later I need something salty to have a contrast and "normalize the sweetness Level again" (yep, that makes sense to my body and AuDHD-brain). Also don't like to drink water unless I am REALLY thirsty, so I buy Coke Zero decaffeinated and Sprite Zero or Black Icetea with Lemon Zero (no peach, never, it is so disgusting🤮). In the last weeks I started to prepare my own Ice Tea with cooking decaffeinated black tea, add some no-calory sweetener, lemon juice and water. This is less sweet and concentrated then the one I can buy and I like it better. I often put water in bottled drinks because I find them too sweet and "thick", I even do it with Coke. And I also don't like the amount of gas in it, so I pour it in the beginning and open it slowly several times to have less gas in it. Yep, hate me for this, but this is one of my weird needs😅. What I find also disgusting is this Red Bull, from wich I took one zip years ago to try. Bäh, tasted like chewing gum with medicine, hated it. So these energy drinks are nothing for me, never tried it again. And all this american drinks Luke Mountain Dew are not available here in Germany, so I don't know them too. Coffee is something I love as half south american too, but I have it for quick breakfast like we do in Argentina, a big bowl with coffee, warm (soy) milk (as I am an argentinian failure, beeing half german and went vegan early, sorry dad🤷🏽‍♀️) and two or three teaspoons of sugar, some cinnamon combined with a little light sweet thing as a small cookie, a vegan croissant or whatever because on normal busy mornings I need something to start my system, but don't have enough time for a breakfast You have to sit down calm AND am not able to fill in more into my stomach. Okay, when I had to deal with morning shifts in the winter and felt to tired to deal with people I did the two-espresso-shots and then more coffee at work-breaks-thing, but.... I mostly feel too overstimulated quick, my heart runs, I get annoying talkative, etc. so I stopped this. Also I am not one of this ADHDers who get's calm with caffeine, it's the other way round, I am extremly sensitive to it. Maybe because of the autism?

[@NeurodivergentDoctor]

I also add water to my juices. Too sweet for some reason. I'm trying to cut down on soda though. Fruit infused water is golden though

[@bensabelhaus7288]

How the British conquered half the planet on tea, I'll never know lol. Coffee makes my brain work and makes the fine motor control better

[@nickfrancisco1]

omg . Thank you for this :) . The overtop Memes are the perfect memory cues . i cannot look at a coffee cup without without picturing Austin Powers now .

[@NeurodivergentDoctor]

HA! That's hilarious!

[@joeymartoni]

When I'm feeling out of sorts I have a coffee and take a good nap.

[@Authentistic-ism]

I found a sugar free Baja Blast knockoff drink flavoring powder to mix into water.

[@Sanisfaction]

Hello doc, I just watched your video on interoception and recognised all of it! I am 32 years old and only just finding out why my life has been quite the ride so far.. I would love to translate the information in your videos to Dutch and spread it. Could we get in touch on this?

[@dortek882]

Cigarette factories put a lot of harmful chemicals in along with nicotine to get people hooked. I have heard it is the same with some of the coffee brands. The bigger the kick, the more addicted you become

[@AutisticSOS-PleaseHelp]

Autistic SOS ... please help ... Don't want to lose my girl forever. We are both autistic. Please help her hear my poem.

[@dortek882]

Cannot tolerate coffee, it makes my heart rate go up. But coke, yes. It gives me alertness when i am otherwise barely staying awake. But not much, no more than 250ml. Otherwise it keeps me up for most of the night. My liver has a problem detoxing caffeine. I am like a baby

[@Starwolf30]

I didn't know this or i forgot more likely but i drink water and coke cola mostly the second don't care how healthy it not. But i am not medicated only buy Coca-Cola

[@Ashtonjks]

Water is my number 1, sorry caffeine 😂

[@DenshaOtoko2]

I also eat bread or rice or noodles. No cake or sweets or candy.

[@Indykitty1]

Mt. Dew

[@dortek882]

Ah,…. No. Caffeine causes adrenalin to be released, which in turn causes sugar to be released. So even caffeine will cause an elevation in blood glucose, even if you get no sugar

[@j7ndominica051]

If "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and "Big Iron" had a baby, this is how it would sound after drinking too much coffee. These seem to be an abundance of experts on the Web who accuse people who are insensitive to coffee as having ADHD. It seems to be a common first world problem. That an drinking 2L of water. I'm watching this because I came from a Web forum. I had a teaspoon of caffeeine: 1) couldn't sleep because I was about to throw up in bed, 2) the monitor screen felt distant, 3) I really couldn't watch Meme-style jumpy videos with cuts and fast language. I conciously dislike them as I do most modern things. But I physically felt like throwing up from them. Maybe the attention span could be cured if one disconnected from the Internet and returned to a slower pace of life without an ability to seek in media files, and stop to type comments. You're supposed to not sleep for a day after this much caffeine, because of half-life and such. But the relief when the throwing up and holding the number two phase is over is such that I have no problem sleeping. I wonder how they make an energy drink with half a gram of caffeine not bitter. Pure anhydrous caffeine is extremely bitter.

[@DenshaOtoko2]

I drink soda and tea. No energy drinks or coffee.

[@freecat1278]

If you have kratom on the side, the alkaline will cancel the acid in the coffee.

[@silicon212]

Water? You mean like from a toilet? Ahaahahaaaahaha

[@DenshaOtoko2]

I make for a good actor or businessman.

[@16ft2in]

"scientific consensus" no such thing...

[@visionarylhc_11]

Hahaha. You make having autism feel acceptable in me. Thanks for sharing. It helps. 🙏🩵