 Every year in the United States, doctors write 20 million prescriptions for stimulants like Ritalin to give to kids for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and it goes up every year. In fact, more than any other drug class, another 0.8 million added every year to that 20 million. That's a lot of amphetamines for a lot of kids. These drugs are thought to act by increasing dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the brain. What else can increase dopamine and norepinephrine levels? Exercise, and it happens within minutes of getting on a bike. Levels shoot up. Medications can take an hour to work. Physical activity works almost immediately. But does it work for ADHD? According to the latest review, there isn't a lot of research out there, but the current evidence suggests that both acute and chronic physical activity can mitigate ADHD symptoms. So while medications and exercise with regard to ADHD shows that they both work to more adequately regulate dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the brain, some of the new long-acting formulations of drugs can work for up to 12 hours, whereas the therapeutic effect of exercise may only last an hour or so. But the drugs produce unwanted side effects and have the potential for abuse. Exercise has been shown to be effective in controlling ADHD symptoms and has essentially no side effects. Well, it's not really true. It should be noted that a major difference in the two treatment modalities is that medications have a defined effect on ADHD symptoms alone, whereas exercise produces physical, mental, and emotional advantages that are far-reaching. So exercise does have side effects, but they're all good.