The MOST Essential Nutrients for Reclaiming Your Brain Brilliance with Lucinda Miller

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:01

Welcome to the ADHD Women's Wellbeing podcast.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:04

I'm Kate Moore Youssef, and I'm a wellbeing and lifestyle coach, eft practitioner, mum to four kids, and passionate about helping more women to understand and accept their amazing ADHD brains.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:17

After speaking to many women just like me, and probably you, I know there is a need for more health and lifestyle support for women newly diagnosed with ADHD.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:27

In these conversations, you'll learn from insightful guests, hear new findings, and discover powerful perspectives and lifestyle tools to enable you to live your most fulfilled, calm, and purposeful life wherever you are on your ADHD journey.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:42

Here's today's episode.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:48

I'm today absolutely delighted.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:50

Excited.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:51

I cannot wait to speak to this guest.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:53

Her name is Lucinda Miller, and she is a naturopath.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:00:57

She is a functional medicine practitioner, and she's the clinical lead of the Nature doc team.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:03

And she is also an author of best selling books and more specifically, the most fantastic book that has just been released called brain brilliance, and that is nourishing recipes and a nutritional toolkit for dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, autism, and all neurodivergent kids.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:22

I have read this book from beginning to end.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:25

I have written numerous notes.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:27

I've put lots of.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:29

You can see here, I've put lots of paper into, you know, recipes for my kids, for me.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:33

And I have been really looking forward to having this conversation so we can share your expertise and your knowledge with my wider community because I know how much it's needed.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:43

So, Lucinda, welcome to the podcast.

Lucinda Miller: 00:01:45

Hey, Kate.

Lucinda Miller: 00:01:46

It's great to be here.

Lucinda Miller: 00:01:47

Thank you so much for inviting me on.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:49

Yeah.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:50

And I guess maybe the first place to start is that you were diagnosed yourself at 31 with ADHD.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:01:57

And you told me, and I hope this is okay to say, that you're now in your fifties.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:02:01

So that was a long time ago.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:02:03

How, you know, we talk about this late diagnosis resurgence, and I'm wondering how then you were diagnosed, like, what came about?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:02:11

And how did a psychiatrist pick up on your ADHD?

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:14

Yes.

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:14

So, in fact, it was my first date with my husband, who I had known for a long time.

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:20

So it wasn't a random conversation to have on your first date, but he'd just been diagnosed with ADHD.

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:27

And I found that absolutely fascinating.

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:29

And I think it probably rang a chord for me.

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:33

But, you know, then we went on and had a baby, and after having the baby, which I know most women's brains go a bit tamush, but it really was continuing.

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:41

And I found it incredibly hard to manage my life.

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:44

I remember sorting out my bills, and I put the envelopes, I filed them away, and I put the bills, and I put them in the bin.

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:52

You know what I mean?

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:53

So it was like everything was chaos.

Lucinda Miller: 00:02:55

I was letting my friends down, I was letting my family down, I was letting my child down.

Lucinda Miller: 00:03:00

And he said, I really think you need to have this explored as well.

Lucinda Miller: 00:03:04

So I went along to the same psychiatrist that he'd seen, spent the whole day with them.

Lucinda Miller: 00:03:08

We did so many cognitive tests, I think way more than you probably do these days.

Lucinda Miller: 00:03:12

And I learned so much about my brain, and the diagnosis was ADHD, but because I was very keen to have another baby, and this was a long time ago, before there was a huge amount of information on the Internet about the medications, and knowing that they worked for part of your day, but not twenty four seven, I kind of was reluctant to try them.

Lucinda Miller: 00:03:36

And so I therefore needed to pursue other avenues, and that included diet.

Lucinda Miller: 00:03:41

I trained as a naturopath anyway, so it was something I was obviously very drawn to.

Lucinda Miller: 00:03:47

And things started to come together so quickly in terms of diet changes and a couple of supplements, et cetera, that actually, I've really thrived on that.

Lucinda Miller: 00:03:56

But what's interesting, as you said, is a lot of women really struggle in their midlife.

Lucinda Miller: 00:04:02

And I would say that sort of my mid forties, suddenly, I was finding it really hard.

Lucinda Miller: 00:04:09

And it was things like working memory, short term memory, word retrieval, but just overall scatterness was taking over and feeling very overwhelmed and anxious about trying to manage life.

Lucinda Miller: 00:04:24

And actually, that coincided with the diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Lucinda Miller: 00:04:29

So that was when my thyroid was out.

Lucinda Miller: 00:04:31

And equally, the beginnings of perimenopause.

Lucinda Miller: 00:04:35

And obviously, lots of women can associate with this, and they found that when a woman is going through these hormonal changes, whether it's a teenage girl starting their first period, whether it's pregnancy, whether it's postnatal, whether it's peri or menopause, this is where your hormones are all over the shop, and therefore, your brain can be all over the shop, too.

Lucinda Miller: 00:04:56

And so this is why I'm really passionate about helping women as well as children with their ADHD.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:05:03

We hear this a lot.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:05:04

Like a lot of women are talking about Hashimoto's autoimmune diseases, fatigue, pain.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:05:12

And it's all in this sort of melting pot of discovering neurodivergence, understanding how their hormones have been wreaking havoc on their lives, most of their adult, you know, lives and thinking, right, what can we do now?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:05:24

Because our brains is what the world kind of sees when it comes to word retrieval, executive functioning, memory.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:05:31

Like, we're kind of judged on all of this.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:05:34

If we're perceived as scatty or chaotic or disorganized, that has a huge impact on our confidence.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:05:40

I know a lot of women who have been in really high flying careers and all of a sudden have been derailed by their brains when it comes to perimenopause, because the ADHD symptoms of traits have come to the forefront and they're menopausal symptoms and they're desperate for help when it comes to being able to still lean into their brilliant brains.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:06:01

Can we use all the recipes that are in the book and apply them to ourselves as well?

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:06

Absolutely.

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:07

So just, I thought it'd be a good idea to sort of delve into the science a little bit without overwhelming anyone too much.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:06:13

Absolutely.

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:13

It's essentially the neurotransmitter, or brain chemical that we need for.

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:20

Mainly need for ADHD is something called dopamine.

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:22

And most people that have been diagnosed with ADHD understand this concept of making dopamine.

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:28

And we've all learned about dopamine snacks from different inputs in our lives and so forth.

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:33

So when our estrogen is changing our body, when it's going up and down and fluctuating, oestrogen is really important for that re uptake of dopamine, which is what the medication does.

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:44

Okay?

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:45

And so what you need to do is you need to work on optimizing your ability to make dopamine if that estrogen is going a bit sort of awry.

Lucinda Miller: 00:06:55

And the key building block for dopamine is something called tyrosine.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:01

And tyrosine is an amino acid which comes from eating meat, dairy, fish, etcetera.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:08

So this is protein.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:10

And why protein is such an important thing, you'll hear over and over again.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:14

Any conversation about ADHD and diet will always include how important it is to consume lots of protein.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:23

And the most important change that I personally made was switching to a very high protein breakfast.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:31

So this morning I had three eggs and some feta cheese.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:35

Okay?

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:36

Whereas previously this is, you know, prior to diagnosis, et cetera, I was probably having.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:41

I was trying to be gluten free and dairy free for my various autoimmune things.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:45

So I'd probably have the equivalent of cornflakes and some oat milk.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:49

And I literally was a wreck.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:51

45 minutes later, I'd feel wobbly, tired, my brain went to mush, and it's because my brain wasn't being fed with those amino acids.

Lucinda Miller: 00:07:59

So tyrosine is super duper important to have some people do supplement with it on its own.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:05

But actually, I think just that high protein diet is usually enough.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:10

Okay.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:12

And then that tyrosine needs to be converted into dopamine.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:16

And the key nutrient that's needed for that is iron.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:20

And iron is the most abundant mineral in your central nervous system.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:24

Okay?

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:24

So it's really important neurologically, it's important for energy.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:28

It pumps oxygen around to the brain.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:30

It's so key.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:32

And so many women, literally on a daily basis, through my Instagram or our clients, people are getting the wrong messaging from their doctors.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:41

So they're having a blood test saying, I'm feeling lousy.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:44

And there's something, there's a measure called ferritin, which is your iron stores.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:49

And for a woman, it should be between twelve and 400.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:52

So anything sort of twelve and below is anaemic and anything.

Lucinda Miller: 00:08:57

And basically, if you're still menstruating, it should be over 30.

Lucinda Miller: 00:09:00

But ideally, for the ADHD brain, experts have found that between 71 hundred is ideal.

Lucinda Miller: 00:09:07

So it's not even close to the top range, which is 400.

Lucinda Miller: 00:09:10

So, you know, it's pretty hard to get.

Lucinda Miller: 00:09:13

of profile, they're often at: 1213

Lucinda Miller: 00:09:24

So they're almost on the edge.

Lucinda Miller: 00:09:26

There just isn't enough iron to convert that tyrosine into dopamine.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:09:31

Can I ask about this, because it's fascinating what you're saying.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:09:34

I have always measured very low in my ferritin.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:09:36

And during pregnancy, I always had to be on iron tablets.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:09:40

And I've now got three daughters, a son as well, and my eldest daughter, who is 16, nearly 17, I know, is low in iron.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:09:49

We've had her checks and everything, and she's also got ADHD and lots of gut issues and things like that.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:09:56

And I buy the sachets, and it's sort of iron mixed with apple juice.

Lucinda Miller: 00:10:00

I don't know if you're familiar, Bartone.

Lucinda Miller: 00:10:02

Yes.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:10:03

And I keep them and they take them very begrudgingly me, and they go, I've got a 13 year old as well, so when they're on their period or any other time afterwards, I'm like, just take it.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:10:14

And for me, it tastes like apple juice, but they go, it tastes like blood.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:10:17

It tastes like blood and they don't like it, but I know how important it is.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:10:22

Would you say that that is a good way of getting iron, like, as opposed to the tablets, like, how do we.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:10:29

Would you recommend that type of iron supplement?

Lucinda Miller: 00:10:32

So I'm just going to give you an understanding of the levels that someone needs.

Lucinda Miller: 00:10:36

Okay, so a menstruating teenage girl needs 14.

Lucinda Miller: 00:10:41

That's 14 milligrams of iron a day.

Lucinda Miller: 00:10:44

Now, a chunky piece of steak, 100 grams of steak is only about five milligrams.

Lucinda Miller: 00:10:49

So even if you're eating lots of red meat, it's pretty difficult to have enough.

Lucinda Miller: 00:10:54

Once you get to 18, for some reason, the recommendations change a little bit and it goes up to 18.

Lucinda Miller: 00:11:01

Okay, so if you're continuously only having, say, eight or nine or ten in your diet every day and you have a heavy period, you're going to become depleted quite easily spartone lovely stuff, easy to absorb.

Lucinda Miller: 00:11:17

Most people don't mind the taste.

Lucinda Miller: 00:11:19

It's only five milligrams per sachet.

Lucinda Miller: 00:11:23

So, yes, if she's eating a really good rounded diet, so she's having, I know, bolognese and greens and eggs and, you know, black beans and things like that a lot, then five milligrams may be all she needs just to top herself up.

Lucinda Miller: 00:11:40

But in most cases, you need more.

Lucinda Miller: 00:11:43

Now, a doctor, if you are anaemic, so if you're below that twelve.

Lucinda Miller: 00:11:47

And often if actually you're below 30, they sometimes, because when it's menstruating woman, they will give you 200 milligrams a day.

Lucinda Miller: 00:11:56

So five spartan 200 milligrams, doctor.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:01

Okay.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:01

However, that 200 milligrams is not that easy to absorb and it's quite tough on the gut.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:07

So if they've got gut issues, sometimes it just feels funny in their tummy.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:11

So my middle ground is to go with a beetroot based iron, and you can take up to 40 milligrams.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:20

So that would be four capsules a day because it's quite regulated how much is in each capsule, because there are a very small layer of the population who naturally has too much iron in their system.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:33

So they have to be careful.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:35

They maintain to ten milligrams per capsule.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:38

And I.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:39

That's if you know your child is low.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:41

So if you know your child's below 30, for sure it would be four a day.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:45

But you know what I mean?

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:45

Or 40 milligrams a day.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:48

And so, yes, sometimes you have to go higher.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:50

Obviously, some younger kids are not very good at taking capsules, so there are sprays as well.

Lucinda Miller: 00:12:59

But it's basically, I think people are very, very cautious they go, what if I'm taking too much?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:13:05

Yeah.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:06

And actually what you have to say is, I need to get my level up.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:10

It's not how much I'm actually taking, because people with gut issues often don't absorb very well.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:17

So you've got a problem with your stomach.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:18

That's one area where your.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:20

Where your body absorbs iron and then further down as well, in small intestine, again, you absorb the iron.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:26

So if there's celiac disease or autoimmunity or, I know, some sort of malabsorption or, you know, even, you know, gastritis or something like that, you may not be absorbing enough iron.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:39

It's a really, really big problem across the board whether you have ADHD or not.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:43

And there are lots of people who may think they might have ADHD, but it may just be low iron.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:48

And, you know, I learned this the hard way, being quite more relaxed about my iron levels.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:53

And it's when I eventually got to around 70, 80, suddenly my brain was on fire.

Lucinda Miller: 00:13:59

And it's made an enormous difference.

Lucinda Miller: 00:14:01

And I had to work quite hard on it.

Lucinda Miller: 00:14:02

But I did get there.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:14:04

That's really interesting.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:14:05

And listen, there's a lot of women who listen to this and they suspect they've got ADHD and they may not necessarily have had the diagnosis or they're awaiting a very, very long wait for an assessment, and they're desperate for ways that they can bring in that, you know, obviously, you know, they can't get their medication, but what can they be doing to their lifestyle and their diet to help them in the meantime, I wanted to ask you about zinc as well and how important that is for us as neurodivergent women and also for our kids as well.

Lucinda Miller: 00:14:36

Yeah, so that's a really great question.

Lucinda Miller: 00:14:39

So zinc is the second most abundant mineral in your central nervous system.

Lucinda Miller: 00:14:44

So iron's key.

Lucinda Miller: 00:14:45

But then zinc is just as important, and it helps with the reuptake of most of your neurotransmitters.

Lucinda Miller: 00:14:52

So dopamine, norepinephrine.

Lucinda Miller: 00:14:55

So most of the medications are working on that axis of increasing that dopamine uptake and reducing that hydren anxiety sort of state.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:05

So it helps with both of those things.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:07

It helps to make something called GaBA.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:09

And GABA is our neurotransmitter that keeps us cool, calm and relaxed, helps us sleep, helps with anxiety, helps with the OCD side of things.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:18

Really, really important.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:19

So zinc is really important for those.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:22

It's also important for immunity.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:23

So if you're always getting colds and coughs or your little ones are doing the same, especially those with ADHD, then zinc may be the thing.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:31

But the big, big thing for zinc is zinc can help with mood swings.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:38

So if everyone's walking around you as if on eggshells because you're very fiery at the moment, because you feel all over the shop, or your child again, you've got this child that's really difficult to manage, this emotional dysregulation is all over the shop.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:54

Then sometimes it's a high need for zinc.

Lucinda Miller: 00:15:58

And especially so if they're also a highly selective eater or have very disordered eating.

Lucinda Miller: 00:16:04

So they, you know, they graze all day, they binge, but they won't eat a real meal, or they are, well, only eat beige, crunchy food and nothing else.

Lucinda Miller: 00:16:13

Because zinc helps with gastric juices, it helps with sense of smell, it helps with sense of taste.

Lucinda Miller: 00:16:19

So it's a sort of really important one, sort of globally for someone.

Lucinda Miller: 00:16:23

Wow.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:16:24

Yeah.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:16:24

I mean, I'm listening to you and just thinking it's such hard work right now because your information is incredible.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:16:31

But there's so much pressure on us as parents when we couldn't be busier, you know, working mums careers, navigating everything post pandemic, I just kind of want to put it out there and go, yes.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:16:44

Even for someone like us who knows quite a bit, it's really overwhelming.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:16:50

And I just want to say that as a caveat to anyone that's listening here going, how am I meant to do this?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:16:55

How am I meant to kind of like, overhaul my kids diet when they are so, you know, stubborn or, you know, they refuse any kind of like, change in their diet?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:17:05

How do we bring more zinc in, like for ourselves and for the kids?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:17:08

And like you say, you know, with, with food, what you, the example that you mentioned about the steak only having x amount of milligrams and then obviously the supplement having way more.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:17:19

Do we supplement our kids and ourselves with zinc then?

Lucinda Miller: 00:17:22

So it's really tricky to get it right.

Lucinda Miller: 00:17:25

We see at nature dog, we've seen many, many hundreds, if not thousands of kids who are super highly selective eaters.

Lucinda Miller: 00:17:34

And the parents say there is no way they are going to switch from their Tesco chicken nugget to a Sainsbury's chicken nugget, let alone having a homemade one.

Lucinda Miller: 00:17:45

You know, that it's got to that stage.

Lucinda Miller: 00:17:48

And so that's where supplements can be helpful because they are fairly tasteless, especially zinc drops.

Lucinda Miller: 00:17:54

They can go in the apple juice and they don't taste of blood.

Lucinda Miller: 00:17:57

They taste maybe a little bit metallic, but you can, as I said, you know, you can hide the taste pretty easily.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:02

And over six, eight weeks, often they become more interested and curious in food and more willing to try.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:13

So as I said, that can be an inroad if you're overwhelmed by thinking, I'm not going to change the diet, but I'm going to put the drops in.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:21

Or equally, you might say, hey, actually, you know what?

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:25

It's not too bad.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:27

I think I can get more in.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:28

So that's what my recipe is all about.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:31

So most kids love a pasta and tomato.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:35

I have, a lot of people love something called spaghetti vongole, which they would have in Italy in abundance.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:42

They've got little clams in them.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:44

Clams have got b twelve.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:45

They've got iron, they've got zinc.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:46

They're amazing.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:47

They're tiny, they're squishy.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:49

They can be squished into that tomato sauce very easily and not make it taste too strong.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:54

So that's one recipe, again, pesto pasta.

Lucinda Miller: 00:18:58

Loads of people love pesto pasta, right?

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:01

And you can put a white crab in there.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:03

Again, not very strong tasting.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:05

Again, lots of zinc in there.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:06

Now, these may be, again, too overwhelming for your child right now, but you can think about my tahini black bean brownies.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:13

They've got zinc, they've got calcium, they've got iron in there, and they're amazing.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:18

And they're so popular, so you could bake with them at the weekend, bake some brownies.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:22

You know, most kids love that.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:25

And again, I've got some chocolate waffles with quinoa.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:28

And again, those have got trace minerals of, of these various minerals in there.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:32

So there are ways of getting things in through crunchy, beige, chocolatey things that they enjoy.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:41

And as you showed me earlier with your copy of brain brilliance, you know, you fold it over corners, you put post it notes in, and I get the kids to do that, too.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:50

So they're engaged with the process and they've chosen something to make and you can make it with them.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:56

And I know that takes time.

Lucinda Miller: 00:19:58

So, as I said, do it at the weekends, do it at half term, do it in the holidays when you've got that little bit more time on your day off, you know, whatever it might be, and make it a joy for all of you rather than, you know, a chore.

Lucinda Miller: 00:20:12

And yes, you might.

Lucinda Miller: 00:20:13

You know, I'm not the best baker in the world, but I've learned to find good things because my kids just love that.

Lucinda Miller: 00:20:20

Kind of thing, and we've all got a sweet tooth.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:23:06

What I wanted to ask was if we wanted to supplement with the zinc drops.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:23:10

Can we put it in hot food or will it get ruined?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:23:12

Or does it have to be in cold drinks or cold food?

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:15

Zinc can be cooked to bits.

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:17

You can put it in pancake mix, you can put it in a hot drink, you can put it in anything, whereas that's different to vitamin C, for instance, which can be killed off quite easily by heat.

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:27

There's very few.

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:29

No, no rules when it comes to supplements.

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:32

Really?

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:33

Really.

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:33

I think people imagine if you're eating a three course meal, okay, so you're going to a restaurant and you have a nice starter, then you have a lovely main course, you have a lovely pudding, you will have a bit of calcium, a bit of zinc, a bit of magnesium, a bit of vitamin C, some B vitamins.

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:50

You'll have all those nutrients and all those different foods in different sort of types of food, but they'll all be in there.

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:56

There'll be proteins, there'll be carbohydrates, there'll be fats.

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:58

Right?

Lucinda Miller: 00:23:59

So that's a whole kind of mixture of different things.

Lucinda Miller: 00:24:03

So it's the same as supplements.

Lucinda Miller: 00:24:04

You know, you just as, you know, you might put saffron into a paella, which has got some prawns in, which has got zinc.

Lucinda Miller: 00:24:13

So these things all combine naturally in nature.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:24:16

Yeah.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:24:16

I mean, you talk about saffron, and for me, that's been a real game changer.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:24:21

I went to my local health food shop, which the lady who runs it is incredibly knowledgeable, and I think she's gone through similar training to you.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:24:29

And I went in there before Christmas last year and I was really, really stressed.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:24:35

My anxiety was heightened.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:24:38

There was just a lot going on life wise, career wise, just family wise.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:24:43

And I said to her, like, I'm on the verge of going back to my doctor and saying, yes, I do want to take this sort of anti anxiety medication, which had kind of pushed back from after I'd known that it was ADHD that was driving my anxiety and I had found other ways to manage it, but I.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:24:58

It just felt so unmanageable at that period of time.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:25:01

And I said, before I go to my doctor, is there anything that you can recommend?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:25:05

And she said, have you tried saffron?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:25:06

And I said, no.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:25:08

So she gave me some saffron and within about a week, I really noticed that this high level, I would say dysregulation, like anxious.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:25:17

This anxiety that was driving me, this vital flight in my nervous system was much lessened and I have been taking it sort of on and off since then, so it's almost like a year now.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:25:27

Would you say that Saffron is a key supplement for women, perimenopausal, neurodivergent women?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:25:35

Is that something you'd recommend?

Lucinda Miller: 00:25:36

Absolutely, 100%.

Lucinda Miller: 00:25:38

I think it is magic stuff.

Lucinda Miller: 00:25:40

So essentially what Saffron does is it helps to bring down that high fight or flight cortisol state that so many women are in, and that's why you could be anxious, not sleep, etcetera.

Lucinda Miller: 00:25:51

So Saffron basically helps to bring that right down to what it's known as an adaptogen, which means it's a herb or, well, it's a spice that helps to adapt those hormones to normalise them over time.

Lucinda Miller: 00:26:04

It's been used in studies mainly with children, but, you know, equally in adults.

Lucinda Miller: 00:26:10

It's just as important is it has been used compared with methylphenidate and found to be as effective without the side effects.

Lucinda Miller: 00:26:19

Now, I'm not saying it should replace anything that's been prescribed, but it's something to consider, especially if the medication's nothing suiting you that well or you're on a very long waiting list.

Lucinda Miller: 00:26:29

And the other thing is, Saffron's incredibly important.

Lucinda Miller: 00:26:32

It's been used for centuries for premenstrual tension.

Lucinda Miller: 00:26:36

So PM's, stroke, PMDD, which a lot of neurodivergent women experience, that ten days running up to their period, they're all over the shop, their anxiety's through the roof, they almost feel they've got borderline personality disorder.

Lucinda Miller: 00:26:50

You know, they're really, really, really out of whack.

Lucinda Miller: 00:26:53

And Saffron has been found to really help that.

Lucinda Miller: 00:26:55

It's also really helpful for incredibly heavy, crampy, painful periods too.

Lucinda Miller: 00:27:01

So it is a woman's really good friend, whether you're neurodivergent or not.

Lucinda Miller: 00:27:07

But I would say it's one of the first signs of going through perimenopause is a heightened anxiety.

Lucinda Miller: 00:27:14

And so therefore saffron can be so helpful at that stage when I.

Lucinda Miller: 00:27:20

Most doctors would not be happy to give you HRT at that point, but you've still got the symptoms and, you know, as you said, you dip in and out of it when you need it, so you're not like, having to take it every day.

Lucinda Miller: 00:27:33

So, you know, obviously, medications you have to be very consistent with.

Lucinda Miller: 00:27:37

Whereas what I love is, I think that ADHD is a quite intuitive.

Lucinda Miller: 00:27:43

I think it's one of our real super skills, and we really know ourselves, and therefore, you can say, hey, you know what I really am benefiting from right now, actually, it's not benefit so much at the moment.

Lucinda Miller: 00:27:55

Oh, actually, I know my period's coming up, so I'm going to take it then.

Lucinda Miller: 00:27:59

And so you can slightly manage things yourself rather than kind of everything being prescribed and fearful of whether you can or can't or.

Lucinda Miller: 00:28:06

Oh, what if I missed a day by mistake and it's okay?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:28:10

Yeah.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:28:10

And one of the things that I know that you talk about is, is Gaba and how powerful that can be and finding that in different sources and that helping with our moods, with dysregulation, I think anxiety as well, our nervous system.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:28:26

Can you tell us a little bit how we can supplement either with GabA or find it in food and what, I guess, increased Gaba does to our overall wellbeing?

Lucinda Miller: 00:28:36

Yeah.

Lucinda Miller: 00:28:36

So just to remind everyone, Gaba is this neurotransmitter we create in our brain, which helps to keep us cool, calm, and relaxed.

Lucinda Miller: 00:28:45

So for us women, it helps with anxiety, it helps with sleep, it makes us feel much more zen like, and our brains calmer, so it's less scattered, it's more focused.

Lucinda Miller: 00:28:55

For teenagers.

Lucinda Miller: 00:28:58

Those that don't have enough Gaba can be real risk takers.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:00

So they're the ones that are, you know, going off, trying lots of naughty things like narcotics and alcohol and things like that.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:09

Maybe missing bunking off school and not talking about actually too fearful to go to school, but actually just bunking off that sort of thing, you know, just getting into trouble.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:18

There's often they need more gabba.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:20

Gaba also is really important for that whole OCD space.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:25

So very often when you don't have enough gabba, your brain has something called too much glutamate, which is too excitatory, and it can make your brain feel as if it's in a trap of repetitive thoughts.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:38

And so Gaba is sort of calming and helps to take away those repetitive thoughts.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:42

And so you're sort of.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:44

You don't get trapped as such.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:46

So in terms of foods and so forth, just to say, in terms of supplements, in the UK, gaba supplements are not available.

Lucinda Miller: 00:29:54

So you have to specifically take other things that help to create Gaba or have a natural form of gaba.

Lucinda Miller: 00:30:02

But you can't actually take GABA supplements.

Lucinda Miller: 00:30:04

It's because there's a medication called gabapentin, which needs to be very, very carefully managed because it's a very strong medication, and therefore, you know, it's just because it's got the same word, it's sort of been seen as it, you know, we're not quite sure, but chamomile tea.

Lucinda Miller: 00:30:23

This is why everyone loves chamomile tea, especially in the evening, because it puts you in that lovely soporific state.

Lucinda Miller: 00:30:29

Helps you wind down, helps you sleep well.

Lucinda Miller: 00:30:31

So chamomile tea, equally just normal green tea or even black tea, contains quite a lot of substance called theanine.

Lucinda Miller: 00:30:41

And theanine L.

Lucinda Miller: 00:30:42

Theanine is an amino acid, which, again, helps to make lots of gaba.

Lucinda Miller: 00:30:47

So it's why, if you've had a nasty shock and you're all shaky, someone says, have a cup of tea, love, and you feel so much calmer afterwards.

Lucinda Miller: 00:30:55

Some people can't do the caffeine, for whatever reason, it sort of irritates their system.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:00

And so you can take theanine supplements on their own, which is basically extracted from green tea without the caffeine.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:09

And then other things that help to make Gaba, things like oats, yoghurt, kefir, certain cheeses.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:16

Some of the swiss cheeses have quite a lot of gabba in them.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:31:19

Like which ones, out of interest?

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:20

Sort of gouda and emmental things like that.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:31:22

Okay.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:23

And so, yes, there are ways of basically calming down the system with Gaba.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:29

And the nutrients that help to make Gaba are magnesium, zinc and b six.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:34

But one of the reasons why, I suspect, and there is research about this, too, there's an amazing woman who has an amazing TED talk called Unblind my mind.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:46

It's about their child, who gets very stuck into this OCD picture.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:51

Anyway, it basically talks about glutamate in our food.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:56

So the glutamate, as I said, is excitatory, can make you very anxious.

Lucinda Miller: 00:31:59

OCD could even lead to migraines and seizures when it's really out of hand.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:05

And the trouble is ultra processed foods that we're all eating far too much of, especially in the UK, often, I'm not saying always, but often has a high level of glutamate in there.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:17

Not MSG.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:18

The only two foods I found with MSG still are Doritos and Pringles, but everything else seems to have switched.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:24

But what they do instead is they put in, like, yeast extract or natural flavourings in our foods.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:32

So they sort of sound quite nice.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:33

You know, that's like marmite and.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:35

Oh, that's a natural flavoring.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:36

But they're very, very concentrated forms of those foods, and those can act as free glutamate on the brain.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:43

So I guess what it is, is if you feel dysregulated having eaten a big packet of Doritos or your child is out of kilter, you know, having eaten a whole load of processed foods, it may not just be the sugar.

Lucinda Miller: 00:32:57

There may be this high glutamate, and it may be that glutamate Gaba balance.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:00

So I think, obviously, cooking from scratch as much as possible will help to reduce that input of glutamate and then just trying to have as much gaba as possible.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:11

But, you know, the Epsom salt bars will give you gaba vigorous exercise.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:16

Why do us ADhders benefit so much from vigorous exercise?

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:20

Because it makes gabA.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:22

Yoga, breathing, meditation, mindfulness, all those things that I do find hard to do because my brain doesn't like to be very still, but when I do it, I feel so much better.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:34

Yeah.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:35

And I.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:35

So there's all this research.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:37

I mean, I say to you earlier, we've got this gorgeous little puppy, and I'm outdoors a lot more in the morning.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:42

So I'm getting the first morning light, I'm getting fresh air, a little bit of exercise, running around with him, and those are all doing me so much good.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:51

And it's not like I'm doing some HIIT class or.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:55

But I'm getting out there.

Lucinda Miller: 00:33:56

So I'm doing all the things that are so important for the ADHD brain, but it's because it's for the puppy and not for me.

Lucinda Miller: 00:34:01

So sometimes you need to have an excuse to do these things, but the even small amounts really count.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:07

Yeah, I love that.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:08

And I love how you've just given that example, for sure.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:11

I mean, I went out this morning, we're recording this.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:14

It's mid September, and the sun was shining.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:16

And I was like, I got my kids out and I thought, right, I'm just gonna go barefoot on the grass, and I'm just gonna have a bit of time just to breathe before I start work.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:24

And I have to push myself to do this, you know, to do it outside when it's gray and cold and raining.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:30

Doesn't feel so good.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:31

But I thought, if I can't do this now, I can't do it with the morning sun.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:36

I know it's really good for the melatonin, for just everything.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:41

I know I suffer a little bit with sad.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:42

So I'm trying to get as much of it vitamin D as I can.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:45

And I just kind of walked barefoot on the grass.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:48

And then I noticed that I had, um, hydrangeas that are just coming to an end.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:34:53

So I thought, I'm going to snip them, I'm going to put them in a vase and that just for 15 minutes to start my day, as opposed to checking my emails, doing everything else that I needed to do.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:35:03

l and the anxiety is there by: 09:00

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:35:09

And so it's these little tweaks, isn't it?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:35:11

And I just mentioned about the melatonin, because that is really important for us, isn't it, that helps us regulate our sleep.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:35:18

It finds these sleep patterns that many of us struggle with.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:35:22

How can we get more melatonin?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:35:24

Or how can we improve our melatonin without having to take the supplements, which some people I know do have to take.

Lucinda Miller: 00:35:31

Yes.

Lucinda Miller: 00:35:32

So in the UK, melatonin is not available over the counter, so it does need to be prescribed.

Lucinda Miller: 00:35:37

And therefore, again, it's a little bit harder to access than it is in other countries.

Lucinda Miller: 00:35:42

So melatonin is basically our body's signal to say, it's nighttime, go to sleep, and in the morning it goes right down and it says, hey, it's the morning, wakey wakey time.

Lucinda Miller: 00:35:55

But it also works to reduce inflammation in the body.

Lucinda Miller: 00:35:59

And as you mentioned earlier, so many women with ADHD also are in chronic pain.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:06

So a lot are hypermobile, a lot have arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or just aches and pains, especially during the perimenopause and menopausal years.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:15

So actually optimizing melatonin, so optimizing your sleep could well help with your pain.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:21

Okay.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:21

And help your joints to be nice and sort of fluid and oiled.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:25

So first of all, it's actually removing those screens last thing at night, an hour and an hour and a half beforehand.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:33

It can be really hard to do that.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:36

I find that the hardest thing, probably because my brain wakes up in the evening.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:40

I've always been like this.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:42

It's just my ADHD.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:43

I'm slower in the morning in terms of my brain, but I can do my sort of big stuff, like writing blogs or writing the books or whatever sort of late afternoon, early evening.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:54

It's when I'm most productive.

Lucinda Miller: 00:36:56

So I'm learning to stop and to take the screen away.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:00

And then cherries.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:02

So cherries, delicious, whether they're frozen, bottled fresh, it doesn't matter.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:08

Canned, canned juice, you know, supplements, it doesn't matter.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:13

But cherries naturally contain a bit of melatonin.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:16

So having that in the evening and what's exciting is one of the recipes in the book, one of the recipes in brain brilliance is my sleepy cherry smoothie.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:37:25

Yes.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:26

And I have literally had so many DM's on instagram saying, oh, my God, my.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:33

You know, my kid with ADHD, my autistic child has never slept through the night.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:38

And they had one of those in an Epsom salt bath and they literally slept through till seven, not a peep.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:45

It's like, this is amazing.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:47

And I've been so thrilled because I.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:49

You know, when, you know, it works for you guys as a family, but you're hoping it's going to.

Lucinda Miller: 00:37:53

You've worked for quite a few clients, but then it's actually helping other people who are just simply buying this book.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:00

Yeah.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:00

Which is a great recipe.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:02

I've definitely folded that page down because I'm going to try that one.

Lucinda Miller: 00:38:06

And then tryptophan rich foods.

Lucinda Miller: 00:38:08

Tryptophan, which is also serotonin amino acid, it also ends up turning into melatonin.

Lucinda Miller: 00:38:15

So just having lots of things like turkey and chicken and bananas and cashew nuts and avocados generally in your diet can also help too.

Lucinda Miller: 00:38:23

And those are all mainly anti inflammatory.

Lucinda Miller: 00:38:25

So again, it will help with aches and pains as well as sleep.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:28

Yeah.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:28

I mean, what you have provided in this book is like a bible to people who read a million blogs and Instagram posts and podcasts, and there's so much information out there and it's all flying around and we're listening to it in the car or listening to it on a dog walk.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:44

And we just kind of, like, want it all written in one place.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:47

And that's what you've done with this book.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:49

And, you know, it's arrived.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:51

I literally felt like I just wanted to kind of, like, give you a big hug because what you've given to so many people is a miracle.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:38:59

Not because we're going to try all the recipes and we're going to do everything you're telling us to do.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:03

It's just because we know that there's options out there.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:06

That doesn't necessarily mean that we have to wait for ages for a GP or a psychiatrist.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:11

Like, we have things that are available to us in our supermarket.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:14

And so instead of trying to getting so overwhelmed, thinking we've got to do a huge overhaul, like, everything has to go, we have to change all our diets.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:23

Like, the kids are just going to have to deal with this, like, new way of living.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:26

We can just start bringing like, a drip feed of, like, you say that the cherry smoothie, like, why?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:31

Let's just try that, or let's just try those bliss balls for, you know, the weekend.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:36

And we can feel that we are doing something.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:39

We are contributing to our own health and our kids health.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:42

And I know that parenting neurodivergent kids, while we're also processing everything ourselves and kids are watching us.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:50

And there's, you know, dysregulation going on.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:54

There's meltdowns, there's tantrums, there's lots of things going on, kind of from our side.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:39:59

You know, you talk about the OCD, you talk about tics, phobia, anxiety, sleep, things that many parents can't discuss with other people.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:40:08

Like, there's stigma, there's embarrassment, there's shame.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:40:11

Like, you know, what have I done to my kid that they, they're going through this, or why can't they sleep through the night and they're ten or they're bed wetting?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:40:18

And, you know, we put that on ourselves as parents.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:40:20

Like this shame and understanding that we live in this world where we, there's so much stuff going in our food that we don't know.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:40:28

And with this, you know, there's so much, you know, stuff going in, into all the kids food that they eat when we're not with them.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:40:36

And we can reclaim a little bit of control.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:40:38

And I just want to say thank you.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:40:40

And I really urge anyone who is in a situation where, like, they are struggling financially, like, to come and have maybe an appointment with you or your team, maybe quite costly, or to speak to other people, you know, in similar situations, getting private diagnoses, private blood tests.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:40:57

Like, all of this is amazing and it's the future, but right now, it's still very costly.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:03

And we're relying on GPS knowledge, which is very few and far between because they've got so many other things that they're contending with.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:10

But if we can spend, I'm going to see how much it is, 20 pounds or so on your book that is giving us the tools and the ammunition to reclaim a bit of control.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:22

And I feel very strongly that people need to get this, and I don't do this very often with books, but I do feel that we're at this point in our generation where it's like, you know what?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:34

Enough's enough.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:35

Enough of letting big companies and corporations and supermarkets and pharmaceuticals taking control.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:43

And we as people need to go.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:45

No, I'm going to be more.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:46

More intentional and more conscious and more aware of what I can do for myself and for my kids.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:53

So, yeah, I just want to say thank you, Lucinda.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:56

It's very passionate.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:41:57

That came from a very impassioned place, but I hope people know that it's authentic.

Lucinda Miller: 00:42:02

Kate, that's just so lovely.

Lucinda Miller: 00:42:04

And I think the most important thing, knowing about this nutrition is the right nutrition helps how you feel and not who you are.

Lucinda Miller: 00:42:13

So you'll still have your ADHD, you'll still be yourself, but you'll just all feel so much better and live a better life.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:42:20

Yeah, that's what we all want.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:42:22

And I think when we finally get these diagnoses and we get an understanding and a validation of what's been going on for ourselves, but also, like, for our kids who have been living, you know, we've lived difficult, challenging times with our kids and to finally go, okay, right, we know what's going on.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:42:37

There's dyslexia, there's ADHD, it's autism.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:42:40

We understand, like, their behavior, but then it's kind of like, okay, I understand now, but what do we do?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:42:46

Like, how do we move things along and make things better and let them also make these empowered choices?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:42:51

And I think if we start bringing these things in, keep the book open, have, like you say, be interactive with the recipes, discuss the little things.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:42:59

Drop in the nuggets.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:01

I'll finish off with something that I have.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:03

I have Epsom salts in the kids bathroom by the bath and I have it in my bathroom.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:08

I have oils that I've bought.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:10

I just leave them there and every time a kid comes home and they go and they're in a bad mood or this, I'm like, I'm going to run you a bath and I'll do this whole thing like, you know, welcome to the spa, I'm going to run you a bath, put the salts in.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:22

I mean, I wish someone would do that for me, but it's me doing it for me.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:25

But so they can, when they're older, they can go, oh, you know what, I'm feeling really dysregulated or low mood.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:32

I'm going to do what mum did, I'm going to go and soak in a bath and I'm going to put loads of salts in the.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:37

And that's something that I prefer to spend my money on than, you know, expensive shoes or clothes or whatever.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:43

Like, I really just would prefer to spend it on supplements, salts, oils, good food.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:51

And, you know, I'll buy vintage for the rest of my life.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:53

I don't care.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:54

So that's, you know, that's where I come from.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:43:57

Tell me if someone is wanting to take your work to the next level after your book.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:44:01

Like what?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:44:01

What do you help with?

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:44:02

How can people get in touch with you?

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:04

Yeah, so I've got this incredible naturedoc team.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:07

Some specialize in adult ADHD, some in children's ADHD.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:12

We're a team of 23 at the moment.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:14

We're dotted around the country.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:15

We've also got one in Ireland and one in Australia.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:18

So, you know, we do reach internationally as well.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:22

We can do it in person, we can do it by virtual video call.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:25

And basically what we do is we'd spend lots of time with you, discussing your diet, your life, what your issues are, what you'd like to change, what you'd like to get better, etcetera, whether it's you or your child.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:37

We would then probably run some tests and this could be.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:41

So the main one we do is a urine test, and it looks at vitamins, minerals, amino acids, inflammation markers, gut markers, glutamate, gaba, you know, the dopamine, all of these things.

Lucinda Miller: 00:44:53

So it looks at everything and it gives you a really good snapshot what is going on right now and then, which areas are priority.

Lucinda Miller: 00:45:00

Because I think the big thing that I found as a parent, especially with my eldest, who was really, really struggling, was where to start.

Lucinda Miller: 00:45:10

And so once I had it on paper, knowing exactly what he needed or didn't need, then I could prioritize, and that meant so much to me.

Lucinda Miller: 00:45:19

And he also made really quick gains because of that, because it was hyper focused on what he needed.

Lucinda Miller: 00:45:25

So it's all very individual.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:45:27

Amazing.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:45:27

I'll put all the details on the show notes, the link to the book, which I urge people to get.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:45:33

And I just want to thank you for your time and for your knowledge and for giving us what you've given in this book.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:45:39

Because I can see how much time and effort that must have taken, must have taken years of collating it all.

Lucinda Miller: 00:45:45

Okay, thank you so much.

Lucinda Miller: 00:45:46

It's been such a fab chat.

Lucinda Miller: 00:45:48

And thank you for all your.

Lucinda Miller: 00:45:49

All you do for the ADHD world.

Lucinda Miller: 00:45:51

You are incredible.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:45:56

If you've enjoyed today's episode, I invite you to check out my brand new subscription podcast called the Toolkit.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:46:02

Now this is where I'm going to be opening up my entire library.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:46:06

My vault of information from over the years.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:46:09

My workshops, webinars and courses.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:46:11

My conversations with experts about hormones, nutrition, lifestyle, and bringing brand new, up to date content from global experts.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:46:20

This is going to be an amazing resource for you, to support you and guide you even more on more niche topics and conversations so you can really thrive and learn to live your best life with ADHD.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:46:32

I'm so excited about this.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:46:34

It's the Toolkit on Apple Podcast and you get a free trial.

Kate Moore Youssef: 00:46:38

Really hope to see you there.

Lucinda Miller: 00:46:41

You.