November 1, 2024 • 22 mins
Your gut health plays a crucial role in managing ADHD symptoms, particularly during perimenopause and menopause. Let's look at the fascinating connection between the gut, hormones, and brain function, including how neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine are largely produced in the digestive system. Many practitioners overlook the impact of gut health on mental health, which can lead to exacerbated ADHD symptoms. By understanding and addressing these connections, you can take control of your gut health and enhance your overall brain function.
Takeaways:
- The gut-brain connection is crucial for understanding ADHD symptoms and overall brain health.
- During menopause, hormonal changes can disrupt gut health, impacting ADHD symptoms significantly.
- Chewing food thoroughly aids digestion and nutrient absorption, benefiting gut function and mental clarity.
- Probiotic foods like yogurt and sauerkraut can enhance gut bacteria balance
- Women with ADHD often experience more digestive issues, highlighting the need for gut health attention.
- Functional lab assessments can uncover hidden gut issues affecting mental health and hormone processing.
Links referenced in this episode:
- getabossbrain.com
- Grab labs for checking into your own gut function
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
What if I told you that yourbrain and gut are having a conversation
right now?
And if that conversation isn'tgoing well, it could be making your
ADHD symptoms worse,especially during perimenopause or
menopause.
Let's explore how your gut,hormones and ADHD are all connected
in ways you've never imagined.
Welcome to ADHD SmartSolutions for Holistic Women with
(00:22):
Christine McCarroll.
I'm Christine and this is thespot to learn natural strategies
for supporting your ADHD brain.
As a woman with all thehormonal curveballs and unique challenges
that only females face, I'vemade it my mission to uncover the
root causes and little knownsupports for your ADHD brain that
your doctor doesn't know andwon't tell you.
Learn the truth and find your focus.
(00:43):
No prescription required.
Well, hey friends, and welcomeback to ADHD Naturally Smart Solutions
for Holistic Women.
As a reminder, these last fewepisodes I'm doing in season one,
here are covering what I'mcalling the Boss Brain Blueprint,
which is my unique frameworkor methodology for how we can help
(01:04):
you to have a better feelingbrain naturally.
So this strategy is designedto take your brain from feeling like
it is a disco ball to a laserbeam on demand.
And what we've been talkingabout are the pillars of this framework.
So we've already talked aboutthings like what's on your plate,
what are you eating?
How can we get the nutrientsthat we need to have a good feeling
(01:27):
brain?
How is sleep in your circadianrhythm impacting the health of your
brain?
How is detaching,detoxification impacting the health
of your brain?
And we're having theseconversations because what I see
really missing in theconversation is that we are not talking
about brain health when we'retalking about mental health.
And when we completely missthat part of the conversation, we
(01:48):
actually miss how you could behaving a better feeling brain.
And that is my goal, is tohelp you have a better feeling brain
regularly and to be able toaccess that when you need it, to
be access, accessing your,your focus and the best feeling brain
that you can when you need it.
So what we're going to betalking about today is something
(02:10):
that certainly mostpractitioners, certainly just about
everybody in the conventionalworld is not talking about in relationship
to adhd, which is what'shappening in your gut or your digestive
system.
And what's fascinating to meabout this, well, first of all, I
have been focused in onsupporting my clients with gut health
(02:30):
and digestive health prettymuch since the beginning of my career.
So for the last decade, thisis something I have been working
with people on, and I'vetalked about it a lot with people
in relationship to things likeother mood issues like anxiety, depression.
There's a huge body ofresearch on that.
And interestingly, there isactually also a body of research
(02:53):
on what's happening with thegut and with neurodevelopmental disorders,
of which ADHD is one.
So if your practitioner, yourdoctor doesn't know about this, it's
not because there isn't theinformation out there.
The information actually isout there.
It does exist.
And that's what I want to dive into.
So that gut brain connectionis real.
(03:14):
And if you're listening to me,because you already know something
about the natural and holisticworld, then you might have heard
of the gut brain axis.
A lot of people outside ofthis world haven't heard of it.
So I'm just going to introducethis concept that we have this connection
between our digestive system,I'm just going to say the gut here,
to keep it easy, and our brains.
(03:35):
And we have this connection,and it's called the second brain.
So our gut is often called thesecond brain because a lot of the
neurotransmitters that areactually impacting our brain health
are made in our gut.
So you may not know this, butover 90% of the serotonin in our
bodies is produced in thedigestive tract.
(03:56):
We also have a lot ofprocessing and production of dopamine,
which is that neurotransmitterthat is really dysregulated in those
of us with adhd, is alsohappening in the gut.
So when we look at these twomajor neurotransmitters and we look
at how that production ishappening in the gut, we can start
to understand why it's soimportant for us to pay attention
(04:17):
to the digestive system.
Now, there's growing evidencethat people with ADHD actually have
more GI problems than peoplewho don't.
So a large study focused onyoung adults with ADHD found that
they were more likely toexperience digestive issues like
constipation, indigestion, and ibs.
(04:38):
So that could mean that ifyou've been struggling with focus,
and maybe you're also feelingsymptoms that you thought were unrelated,
maybe you thought they werejust gut symptoms or you thought
it was part of your periodproblems like bloating or stomach
discomfort, that actuallycould all be connected.
There's also research lookingat what happens to your gut during
(05:01):
perimenopause and menopause.
And this is something that'sreally interesting.
And, you know, before I waseven focused on ADHD specifically,
I've been working with womenwith women's health, and particularly
holistic hormone balancing formany years and talking to women about
what happens with ourdigestive system and our hormones
(05:22):
and that relationship.
And there's a couple of waysthat this is an important relationship.
So one way that it's animportant relationship is that a
lot of the processing of ourhormones is actually happening in
the gut.
So whether you're able to, forexample, break down estrogen very
well and recycle it and get itout of your body, that's related
to what's happening in your gut.
(05:43):
So there's actually this wholepart of your digestive system that
is just devoted to yourability to break down estrogen.
So if you are having a problemwith that part of your digestive
system, if there is animbalance in the bacteria that could
be helping your body to breakdown estrogen, you're actually more
likely to have some symptomsrelated to estrogen dysregulation
(06:06):
because of what's happening inyour gut.
So that's already happening.
And what we have seen recentlyin the research is that there are
substantial changes thathappen to our gut microbiome, which
is just that colony ofbacteria and yeast and other critters
that live in our.
In our gut, there's asubstantial change that happens during
perimenopause and menopause.
(06:27):
So as our hormones arechanging, we are also seeing this,
this reflected change in thegut, and that has a couple of big
impacts.
So the first one is that wemight be processing things differently.
So you might actually have areduced ability to get rid of something
like spent estrogen, and youmight start to have worse symptoms
related to estrogen metabolismjust because of that.
(06:50):
The other thing that canhappen is, you know, I think of that
as it's a little bit of achicken and egg issue where, you
know, we are seeingrelationships on both sides, and
that is that the decrease inestrogen actually makes our gut work
less well.
So can see an increase inwhat's called intestinal permeability,
which is otherwise known asleaky gut from those hormonal changes
(07:13):
in perimenopause and menopause.
So what this could meandownstream is that where we should
have had this nice, strong wall.
So if you think about thecells of your gut lining up like
a brick wall, and that wasreally, that's really your protection
of the outside of the body andthe inside And I know it's weird
to think of it that waybecause when you eat food and it
(07:34):
goes down into your gut, youkind of just think, well, it's inside
my body, but to your body thatis actually outside.
So until we break that fooddown and we get those, you know,
those nutrients that we needand they cross that gut wall, it's
still outside your body.
So what can happen is if weget a breakdown in that, we get a
breakdown in intestinal, thatintegrity, so we get that leaky gut
(07:57):
happening.
Things that should have stayedoutside of your body, as far as your
body is concerned, are nowcrossing out into your bloodstream
and to your body.
That can look like a thro.
And you can understand why,like, that's not actually the wrong
response, it's the right response.
That if something is therethat shouldn't be there, we're going
to react to it.
So we can see an uptick ininflammation and immune response
in our bodies if we have abreakdown in that gut barrier.
(08:21):
So we have a couple of reallybig changes that are, that are impacting
us directly based on our gutchanges in perimenopause and menopause.
So there are also changes, youknow, that we can see with relationship
to what's happening to our children.
So there is a genetic andfamilial link between gut health
(08:44):
and adhd.
So one research paper foundthat children of parents with IBS
were actually more likely todevelop ADHD themselves.
So if you've experienced gutproblems in your family, and probably
I'm going to say most peopleare not like going around talking
about this over dinner, but ifyou asked around, you might find
out, find out that this wasfamily issue.
(09:05):
And it might not be acoincidence that both gut issues
and ADHD run in the family.
So I've talked about beforehow there is a strong genetic component
to ADHD and There are almost100 different genetic relationships
to ADHD.
And we can see that it runs in families.
We can also see that thiscould be related to our family genetics
(09:27):
around gut health.
This was really interesting to me.
The study showed that whenfathers have ibs, their children
were more likely to developADHD than when the moms had IBS and
their children were morelikely to then experience depression.
So just really highlightinghow interconnected what's happening
with our gut health and whatis happening with our mental health,
(09:49):
you know, what that connectionreally is and why we really need
to be considering gut healthwhen we are talking about mental
health and why the gut iscalled the second brain.
So the other thing is thatduring menopause, that gut dysbiosis
or that imbalance in your gutbacteria, it could be making making
ADHD symptoms worse byreducing those neurotransmitters
(10:09):
that we were talking about.
So dopamine and serotonin arecrucial for mood and focus.
And when we have an imbalanceof good and bad bacteria, which that
dysbiosis generally just meansthat there's an imbalance where we
have a lot more problembacteria than helpful bacteria, we
might be reducing those that neurotransmitters.
And so young adults actuallywith ADHD have more frequent gut
(10:34):
issues like IBS and constipation.
But it could be that, andthat's the research that we have.
It could be that as we age,that gut brain connection becomes
even more important becauseit's going to degrade even more over
time.
So if we already have theseissues when we were young, we absolutely
could be seeing a worsening ofthese issues as we are getting older.
And it might make it moreimportant for us to address this,
(10:57):
this, these gut issues as weare looking at helping your ADHD
symptoms as you are getting older.
So what can we do to figurethis gut piece out?
So I started this series of,you know, talking about my framework
and, you know, the blueprintfor how we have a better feeling
brain, saying that, you know,I was talking about some things that
(11:17):
maybe didn't require as muchtesting upfront and then things that
we might want to test later on.
So here we are in this sectionof talking a little bit more about
testing.
And there are some things youcan do.
And I will end, I will leaveyou with some strategies that can
help you regardless of ifyou've done any testing.
But I will say I find itincredibly useful to do lab assessment
to help figure out what'sgoing on with gut function, because
(11:40):
some of the things that webroadly talk about, as you know,
I'm going to kind of, youknow, air quotes here, you know,
as gut health, they might ormight not be the wrong, the right
strategy, depending on what'sgoing on functionally in your gut.
So when we talk aboutfunctional lab testing, what we are
actually talking about isspecifically that how are things
functioning?
So we're not just looking for,let's say, a parasite or, you know,
(12:04):
kind of bacteria that might bemaking you sick, which are the standards
of care when you're just kindof generally getting maybe a GI test
from your doctor.
So a functional lab assessmentis looking at a lot more than that.
Functional Lab assessmentslook at things like, how are you
breaking down your proteins,fats and carbs?
Is there a sign if, is thereany, like, for example, blood in
(12:26):
the stool?
Are there signs of inflammation?
Are there proteins that aretelling us that you have a lot of,
a lot of inflammatory activity?
What is that relationshipbetween the good bacteria and bad
bacteria?
And by the way, we can see areal difference in the gut bacteria
population for people who haveADHD and who don't have adhd.
So that is also in the literature.
(12:48):
We can see that there'sdifferent kinds of bacteria present.
We know that certain kinds ofbacteria do things like help us with
serotonin or help us withbreaking down, you know, different
things in our gut that couldbe creating inflammation.
There could be something likea problem digesting fat.
This was one of the firstthings, you know, when I was actually
looking at a completelydifferent diagnosis for my daughter
(13:09):
when she was just two and wewere looking at specific fatty acids
that she needed to supplement with.
The conversation I was having,you know, with the pediatrician who
was helping us were about whatwas her, what was it looking like
in her poop essentially?
And did it look like she wasable to digest her fats?
Because if you can't digestyour fat very well, you're going
(13:29):
to have deficiency in thosefat soluble vitamins.
But also remembering that yourbrain is mostly made of fat.
So if you can't digest yourfat very well, you're not going to
have the wrong materials andthe building blocks to have a good
functioning, a wellfunctioning brain.
So looking at fat and fatdigestion is huge and critically
important when we are thinkingabout brain health.
And again, that's notsomething that you are going to see
(13:51):
on your, on your average gut test.
And then certainly there arethings like infections or even, you
know, certainly things likeparasites that can make overall gut
function diminished.
And then if you, again, if youaren't getting the nutrients that
you need or you're seeing alot of inflammation created by this,
then we're going to, we'regoing to see systemic problems and
certainly we're going to seebrain problems.
(14:12):
The last thing I'm going tosay here is that if we can see evidence
of lack of intestinal integrity.
So what I was saying earlieris we have that, you know, that barrier,
so the gut is really that,that barrier to protect us from things
that shouldn't be getting intoour bloodstream.
We also have a similar barrierin our brains.
So we have the blood brainbarrier to protect our brains from
(14:35):
things like you know, toxinscoming in or even inflammatory proteins
from food we're eating that wemight have a sensitivity to.
So if we are having lack ofintegrity in the, in the gut, we
often see a mirror of that inthe brain where we are seeing a decrease
in the, in the strength ofthat blood brain barrier.
(14:56):
And then we're going to begetting, potentially, we're going
to be gettingneuroinflammation, we're getting
brain inflammation from thatlack of integrity because things
that are able to get throughthat barrier, barrier that shouldn't
get through, are passing across.
So that could be everythingfrom toxins to heavy metals to inflammatory
bacteria to proteins, foodsthat we have a sensitivity or an
(15:18):
allergy to.
So those are all things thatto consider when we are looking at,
when we're assessing the gut,we actually also can be kind of coming
in a side door to be assessingare we having sufficient protection
to the brain on that level.
And then the last thing Iwould say with functional testing
is I often pair doing thatdigestive assessment with a food
(15:42):
sensitivity test.
And you know, when I wastalking about food and food sensitivities
and food allergies, we weretalking about how that can create
systemic inflammation.
And certainly one of thethings that can stop you from being
able to have these gut healingstrategies help you is if you are
having these sensitivitiesthat are continuing to inflame your
gut.
So the way, the way that Ithink about it is if you are, you
(16:03):
know, if you have a scab, likelet's say you've got a little paper
cut and you had a scab, if youkeep picking at that scabbard, what's
going to happen is it's neverfully going to heal, right?
So besides, you know, maybe,you know, cleaning out the wound
and putting some ointment onit and putting a band aid on it,
you really have to stopscratching it and you have to stop
introducing that problem sothat it can actually fully heal.
And that's where foodsensitivity and food allergy assessment
(16:26):
can really help when we'relooking at the integrity of the gut.
Because if you are having thisaggravation to your gut from something
that you're sensitive to, youcan't really fully get gut healing
if we're continuing to scratchat that, that wound.
So we have to be able to stopirritating your gut at the same time
that we're trying to work ongut healing.
So here's what I want to say.
(16:49):
Here's the things you can doeven without any functional Assessment.
So I actually stronglyrecommend functional assessment.
Again, I'll put a link in theshow notes too where you can order
this yourself.
It is part of my foundationalblueprint for how we have a better
feeling brain.
But besides that, here's somethings that you can do starting tomorrow
to actually just help your gut.
So the first thing is going tosound super obvious, but I'm will
(17:10):
say this is like, it's simplebut not easy.
And almost nobody I talked tois doing this.
And that is just chewing yourfood really well.
And I know that sounds likesuper boring and dumb and like actually
like, how could that even help?
But let me just tell you thatif you are not breaking down your
food very well in your mouth,you're not going to be able to break
it down very well in the restof your digestive system.
You're not going to get accessto the nutrients that you need.
Your stomach does not have teeth.
(17:31):
So if you don't, if you'reswallowing your food really fast,
this especially, you know, Isee this happening a lot with parents.
We were taking care of the kids.
We're probably eating standing up.
We are, you know, just kind ofshoving things in our mouths while
we're trying to get our kidsready for school.
And what happens is we'reswallowing things after like three
or four bites and you, youaren't able to actually fully break
that down and get access tothings like the enzymes in your saliva
(17:55):
or again, just breaking thefood down well enough for you be
able to digest it and absorbit well.
So just chewing your foodreally, really well can help with
your gut function.
Something else that a lot ofpeople are benefited with is a simple
digestive enzyme.
So, you know, any natural foodstores, you know, grabbing a digestive
enzyme, taking some enzymeswhen you are eating your food is
(18:16):
definitely not going to hurtand could help.
Especially if you think youmight be sensitive to something like
dairy.
Helping your body to breakdown any of those proteins is going
to be really beneficial.
And then eating probiotic foods.
So probiotic foods areanything that has been cultured or
fermented.
That's things like yogurt orsauerkraut or kimchi.
There's also a lot ofbeverages like kombucha and kefir
(18:40):
and water kefir and all ofthose things have that good beneficial
bacteria that our guts rely on.
So it's really fascinatingthat the western world is like the
modern Western world.
So I guess I'm really justgoing to say like, you know, the
US Is what I'm talking, whoI'm talking to here.
We don't have a traditionalfermented food.
Just about every other cultureon the planet has some sort of traditional
(19:02):
fermented food.
So we are not replenishing ourgood gut bacteria very often, and
we are often doing things thatdisrupt that good gut bacteria.
So besides taking antibiotics,which taking three or more courses
of antibiotics in the courseof your lifetime is likely going
to permanently disrupt yourgut function.
So most of us born in the 70s,80s, in that perimenopause age have
(19:26):
had that, that was just like,you know, a standard of care for
a long time.
So also all of the things thatwe are, you know, all of these antimicrobials
that we're constantly exposedto, so your antibacterial soap and
your antibacterial, you know,cream and, you know, coatings on
shopping carts, all of thesethings are actually disrupting our,
our gut function.
(19:47):
So we have a kind of, we'regerm phobes in our modern world,
and that comes with gettingrid of the good guys as well as the
bad guys.
So most of us are reallydepleted in that gut microbiome.
So getting those things inevery single day, getting in some,
some sort of cultured andfermented food, is really going to
go a long way towards helpingkeep that gut bacteria, that colony
(20:09):
in your gut, happy.
And the happier that colonyis, the better we're going to do
things like make thoseneurotransmitters and be able to
break down our hormones andhave better, again, better function
and a better feeling brain.
So we've covered a lot today,how your gut and your brain communicate
some of those changes that canhappen during menopause and perimenopause
(20:31):
that might be impacting bothyour gut and your hormone function,
and therefore your brain andyour ADHD symptoms and how a family
history of, of gut issuesactually could be influencing your
adhd.
Also, how folks with ADHD tendto have worse gut issues.
So it means we actually needto pay extra, extra attention to
what's happening there.
But the good news is youactually have, you have control over
(20:53):
this.
You have control overimproving your gut function and if
you need it, figuring out whatmight be happening invisibly in that
invisible world of your gutthat is creating a challenge for
your brain and making thoseADHD symptoms feel better or worse.
So start with a small changethis week.
You can start, you know, youknow, try some probiotic foods, take
(21:14):
a digestive enzyme, chew yourfood and, and start to figure out
how those pieces might beimpacting you.
So just remember, everythingis connected and as we start to figure
out these relationships witheverything happening in your body,
we are going to have betterbrain health that leads to better
mental health.
And if you want to get moreinformation about my framework and
some of the strategies that Iuse for getting that laser focused
(21:37):
focus instead of the insteadof the disco ball for your brain,
you can go togetabossbrain.com and I'm constantly
updating that with the latestresources that I have available.
Have a great rest of your week.
Hey love, thanks for making itthis far.
If you're hearing this, you'reone of the magical statistical few
that listened all the way tothe end and I so appreciate your
(21:57):
engagement.
I hope that means the messagetoday resonated with you and you're
taking away a tool trickaction step that will help you have
your best feeling brain.
If that's you, I have a favorto ask.
So many more women need tohear this Message and your 30 seconds
to leave a rating or reviewwill help them hear it.
Just go to the show in yourpodcast player and scroll down until
you see the stars to leave aquick rating and make my day while
(22:19):
you're at it.
Thank you so much.
What if I told you that yourbrain and gut are having a conversation
right now?
And if that conversation isn'tgoing well, it could be making your
ADHD symptoms worse,especially during perimenopause or
menopause.
Let's explore how your gut,hormones and ADHD are all connected
in ways you've never imagined.
Welcome to ADHD SmartSolutions for Holistic Women with
(00:22):
Christine McCarroll.
I'm Christine and this is thespot to learn natural strategies
for supporting your ADHD brain.
As a woman with all thehormonal curveballs and unique challenges
that only females face, I'vemade it my mission to uncover the
root causes and little knownsupports for your ADHD brain that
your doctor doesn't know andwon't tell you.
Learn the truth and find your focus.
(00:43):
No prescription required.
Well, hey friends, and welcomeback to ADHD Naturally Smart Solutions
for Holistic Women.
As a reminder, these last fewepisodes I'm doing in season one,
here are covering what I'mcalling the Boss Brain Blueprint,
which is my unique frameworkor methodology for how we can help
(01:04):
you to have a better feelingbrain naturally.
So this strategy is designedto take your brain from feeling like
it is a disco ball to a laserbeam on demand.
And what we've been talkingabout are the pillars of this framework.
So we've already talked aboutthings like what's on your plate,
what are you eating?
How can we get the nutrientsthat we need to have a good feeling
(01:27):
brain?
How is sleep in your circadianrhythm impacting the health of your
brain?
How is detaching,detoxification impacting the health
of your brain?
And we're having theseconversations because what I see
really missing in theconversation is that we are not talking
about brain health when we'retalking about mental health.
And when we completely missthat part of the conversation, we
(01:48):
actually miss how you could behaving a better feeling brain.
And that is my goal, is tohelp you have a better feeling brain
regularly and to be able toaccess that when you need it, to
be access, accessing your,your focus and the best feeling brain
that you can when you need it.
So what we're going to betalking about today is something
(02:10):
that certainly mostpractitioners, certainly just about
everybody in the conventionalworld is not talking about in relationship
to adhd, which is what'shappening in your gut or your digestive
system.
And what's fascinating to meabout this, well, first of all, I
have been focused in onsupporting my clients with gut health
(02:30):
and digestive health prettymuch since the beginning of my career.
So for the last decade, thisis something I have been working
with people on, and I'vetalked about it a lot with people
in relationship to things likeother mood issues like anxiety, depression.
There's a huge body ofresearch on that.
And interestingly, there isactually also a body of research
(02:53):
on what's happening with thegut and with neurodevelopmental disorders,
of which ADHD is one.
So if your practitioner, yourdoctor doesn't know about this, it's
not because there isn't theinformation out there.
The information actually isout there.
It does exist.
And that's what I want to dive into.
So that gut brain connectionis real.
(03:14):
And if you're listening to me,because you already know something
about the natural and holisticworld, then you might have heard
of the gut brain axis.
A lot of people outside ofthis world haven't heard of it.
So I'm just going to introducethis concept that we have this connection
between our digestive system,I'm just going to say the gut here,
to keep it easy, and our brains.
(03:35):
And we have this connection,and it's called the second brain.
So our gut is often called thesecond brain because a lot of the
neurotransmitters that areactually impacting our brain health
are made in our gut.
So you may not know this, butover 90% of the serotonin in our
bodies is produced in thedigestive tract.
(03:56):
We also have a lot ofprocessing and production of dopamine,
which is that neurotransmitterthat is really dysregulated in those
of us with adhd, is alsohappening in the gut.
So when we look at these twomajor neurotransmitters and we look
at how that production ishappening in the gut, we can start
to understand why it's soimportant for us to pay attention
(04:17):
to the digestive system.
Now, there's growing evidencethat people with ADHD actually have
more GI problems than peoplewho don't.
So a large study focused onyoung adults with ADHD found that
they were more likely toexperience digestive issues like
constipation, indigestion, and ibs.
(04:38):
So that could mean that ifyou've been struggling with focus,
and maybe you're also feelingsymptoms that you thought were unrelated,
maybe you thought they werejust gut symptoms or you thought
it was part of your periodproblems like bloating or stomach
discomfort, that actuallycould all be connected.
There's also research lookingat what happens to your gut during
(05:01):
perimenopause and menopause.
And this is something that'sreally interesting.
And, you know, before I waseven focused on ADHD specifically,
I've been working with womenwith women's health, and particularly
holistic hormone balancing formany years and talking to women about
what happens with ourdigestive system and our hormones
(05:22):
and that relationship.
And there's a couple of waysthat this is an important relationship.
So one way that it's animportant relationship is that a
lot of the processing of ourhormones is actually happening in
the gut.
So whether you're able to, forexample, break down estrogen very
well and recycle it and get itout of your body, that's related
to what's happening in your gut.
(05:43):
So there's actually this wholepart of your digestive system that
is just devoted to yourability to break down estrogen.
So if you are having a problemwith that part of your digestive
system, if there is animbalance in the bacteria that could
be helping your body to breakdown estrogen, you're actually more
likely to have some symptomsrelated to estrogen dysregulation
(06:06):
because of what's happening inyour gut.
So that's already happening.
And what we have seen recentlyin the research is that there are
substantial changes thathappen to our gut microbiome, which
is just that colony ofbacteria and yeast and other critters
that live in our.
In our gut, there's asubstantial change that happens during
perimenopause and menopause.
(06:27):
So as our hormones arechanging, we are also seeing this,
this reflected change in thegut, and that has a couple of big
impacts.
So the first one is that wemight be processing things differently.
So you might actually have areduced ability to get rid of something
like spent estrogen, and youmight start to have worse symptoms
related to estrogen metabolismjust because of that.
(06:50):
The other thing that canhappen is, you know, I think of that
as it's a little bit of achicken and egg issue where, you
know, we are seeingrelationships on both sides, and
that is that the decrease inestrogen actually makes our gut work
less well.
So can see an increase inwhat's called intestinal permeability,
which is otherwise known asleaky gut from those hormonal changes
(07:13):
in perimenopause and menopause.
So what this could meandownstream is that where we should
have had this nice, strong wall.
So if you think about thecells of your gut lining up like
a brick wall, and that wasreally, that's really your protection
of the outside of the body andthe inside And I know it's weird
to think of it that waybecause when you eat food and it
(07:34):
goes down into your gut, youkind of just think, well, it's inside
my body, but to your body thatis actually outside.
So until we break that fooddown and we get those, you know,
those nutrients that we needand they cross that gut wall, it's
still outside your body.
So what can happen is if weget a breakdown in that, we get a
breakdown in intestinal, thatintegrity, so we get that leaky gut
(07:57):
happening.
Things that should have stayedoutside of your body, as far as your
body is concerned, are nowcrossing out into your bloodstream
and to your body.
That can look like a thro.
And you can understand why,like, that's not actually the wrong
response, it's the right response.
That if something is therethat shouldn't be there, we're going
to react to it.
So we can see an uptick ininflammation and immune response
in our bodies if we have abreakdown in that gut barrier.
(08:21):
So we have a couple of reallybig changes that are, that are impacting
us directly based on our gutchanges in perimenopause and menopause.
So there are also changes, youknow, that we can see with relationship
to what's happening to our children.
So there is a genetic andfamilial link between gut health
(08:44):
and adhd.
So one research paper foundthat children of parents with IBS
were actually more likely todevelop ADHD themselves.
So if you've experienced gutproblems in your family, and probably
I'm going to say most peopleare not like going around talking
about this over dinner, but ifyou asked around, you might find
out, find out that this wasfamily issue.
(09:05):
And it might not be acoincidence that both gut issues
and ADHD run in the family.
So I've talked about beforehow there is a strong genetic component
to ADHD and There are almost100 different genetic relationships
to ADHD.
And we can see that it runs in families.
We can also see that thiscould be related to our family genetics
(09:27):
around gut health.
This was really interesting to me.
The study showed that whenfathers have ibs, their children
were more likely to developADHD than when the moms had IBS and
their children were morelikely to then experience depression.
So just really highlightinghow interconnected what's happening
with our gut health and whatis happening with our mental health,
(09:49):
you know, what that connectionreally is and why we really need
to be considering gut healthwhen we are talking about mental
health and why the gut iscalled the second brain.
So the other thing is thatduring menopause, that gut dysbiosis
or that imbalance in your gutbacteria, it could be making making
ADHD symptoms worse byreducing those neurotransmitters
(10:09):
that we were talking about.
So dopamine and serotonin arecrucial for mood and focus.
And when we have an imbalanceof good and bad bacteria, which that
dysbiosis generally just meansthat there's an imbalance where we
have a lot more problembacteria than helpful bacteria, we
might be reducing those that neurotransmitters.
And so young adults actuallywith ADHD have more frequent gut
(10:34):
issues like IBS and constipation.
But it could be that, andthat's the research that we have.
It could be that as we age,that gut brain connection becomes
even more important becauseit's going to degrade even more over
time.
So if we already have theseissues when we were young, we absolutely
could be seeing a worsening ofthese issues as we are getting older.
And it might make it moreimportant for us to address this,
(10:57):
this, these gut issues as weare looking at helping your ADHD
symptoms as you are getting older.
So what can we do to figurethis gut piece out?
So I started this series of,you know, talking about my framework
and, you know, the blueprintfor how we have a better feeling
brain, saying that, you know,I was talking about some things that
(11:17):
maybe didn't require as muchtesting upfront and then things that
we might want to test later on.
So here we are in this sectionof talking a little bit more about
testing.
And there are some things youcan do.
And I will end, I will leaveyou with some strategies that can
help you regardless of ifyou've done any testing.
But I will say I find itincredibly useful to do lab assessment
to help figure out what'sgoing on with gut function, because
(11:40):
some of the things that webroadly talk about, as you know,
I'm going to kind of, youknow, air quotes here, you know,
as gut health, they might ormight not be the wrong, the right
strategy, depending on what'sgoing on functionally in your gut.
So when we talk aboutfunctional lab testing, what we are
actually talking about isspecifically that how are things
functioning?
So we're not just looking for,let's say, a parasite or, you know,
(12:04):
kind of bacteria that might bemaking you sick, which are the standards
of care when you're just kindof generally getting maybe a GI test
from your doctor.
So a functional lab assessmentis looking at a lot more than that.
Functional Lab assessmentslook at things like, how are you
breaking down your proteins,fats and carbs?
Is there a sign if, is thereany, like, for example, blood in
(12:26):
the stool?
Are there signs of inflammation?
Are there proteins that aretelling us that you have a lot of,
a lot of inflammatory activity?
What is that relationshipbetween the good bacteria and bad
bacteria?
And by the way, we can see areal difference in the gut bacteria
population for people who haveADHD and who don't have adhd.
So that is also in the literature.
(12:48):
We can see that there'sdifferent kinds of bacteria present.
We know that certain kinds ofbacteria do things like help us with
serotonin or help us withbreaking down, you know, different
things in our gut that couldbe creating inflammation.
There could be something likea problem digesting fat.
This was one of the firstthings, you know, when I was actually
looking at a completelydifferent diagnosis for my daughter
(13:09):
when she was just two and wewere looking at specific fatty acids
that she needed to supplement with.
The conversation I was having,you know, with the pediatrician who
was helping us were about whatwas her, what was it looking like
in her poop essentially?
And did it look like she wasable to digest her fats?
Because if you can't digestyour fat very well, you're going
(13:29):
to have deficiency in thosefat soluble vitamins.
But also remembering that yourbrain is mostly made of fat.
So if you can't digest yourfat very well, you're not going to
have the wrong materials andthe building blocks to have a good
functioning, a wellfunctioning brain.
So looking at fat and fatdigestion is huge and critically
important when we are thinkingabout brain health.
And again, that's notsomething that you are going to see
(13:51):
on your, on your average gut test.
And then certainly there arethings like infections or even, you
know, certainly things likeparasites that can make overall gut
function diminished.
And then if you, again, if youaren't getting the nutrients that
you need or you're seeing alot of inflammation created by this,
then we're going to, we'regoing to see systemic problems and
certainly we're going to seebrain problems.
(14:12):
The last thing I'm going tosay here is that if we can see evidence
of lack of intestinal integrity.
So what I was saying earlieris we have that, you know, that barrier,
so the gut is really that,that barrier to protect us from things
that shouldn't be getting intoour bloodstream.
We also have a similar barrierin our brains.
So we have the blood brainbarrier to protect our brains from
(14:35):
things like you know, toxinscoming in or even inflammatory proteins
from food we're eating that wemight have a sensitivity to.
So if we are having lack ofintegrity in the, in the gut, we
often see a mirror of that inthe brain where we are seeing a decrease
in the, in the strength ofthat blood brain barrier.
(14:56):
And then we're going to begetting, potentially, we're going
to be gettingneuroinflammation, we're getting
brain inflammation from thatlack of integrity because things
that are able to get throughthat barrier, barrier that shouldn't
get through, are passing across.
So that could be everythingfrom toxins to heavy metals to inflammatory
bacteria to proteins, foodsthat we have a sensitivity or an
(15:18):
allergy to.
So those are all things thatto consider when we are looking at,
when we're assessing the gut,we actually also can be kind of coming
in a side door to be assessingare we having sufficient protection
to the brain on that level.
And then the last thing Iwould say with functional testing
is I often pair doing thatdigestive assessment with a food
(15:42):
sensitivity test.
And you know, when I wastalking about food and food sensitivities
and food allergies, we weretalking about how that can create
systemic inflammation.
And certainly one of thethings that can stop you from being
able to have these gut healingstrategies help you is if you are
having these sensitivitiesthat are continuing to inflame your
gut.
So the way, the way that Ithink about it is if you are, you
(16:03):
know, if you have a scab, likelet's say you've got a little paper
cut and you had a scab, if youkeep picking at that scabbard, what's
going to happen is it's neverfully going to heal, right?
So besides, you know, maybe,you know, cleaning out the wound
and putting some ointment onit and putting a band aid on it,
you really have to stopscratching it and you have to stop
introducing that problem sothat it can actually fully heal.
And that's where foodsensitivity and food allergy assessment
(16:26):
can really help when we'relooking at the integrity of the gut.
Because if you are having thisaggravation to your gut from something
that you're sensitive to, youcan't really fully get gut healing
if we're continuing to scratchat that, that wound.
So we have to be able to stopirritating your gut at the same time
that we're trying to work ongut healing.
So here's what I want to say.
(16:49):
Here's the things you can doeven without any functional Assessment.
So I actually stronglyrecommend functional assessment.
Again, I'll put a link in theshow notes too where you can order
this yourself.
It is part of my foundationalblueprint for how we have a better
feeling brain.
But besides that, here's somethings that you can do starting tomorrow
to actually just help your gut.
So the first thing is going tosound super obvious, but I'm will
(17:10):
say this is like, it's simplebut not easy.
And almost nobody I talked tois doing this.
And that is just chewing yourfood really well.
And I know that sounds likesuper boring and dumb and like actually
like, how could that even help?
But let me just tell you thatif you are not breaking down your
food very well in your mouth,you're not going to be able to break
it down very well in the restof your digestive system.
You're not going to get accessto the nutrients that you need.
Your stomach does not have teeth.
(17:31):
So if you don't, if you'reswallowing your food really fast,
this especially, you know, Isee this happening a lot with parents.
We were taking care of the kids.
We're probably eating standing up.
We are, you know, just kind ofshoving things in our mouths while
we're trying to get our kidsready for school.
And what happens is we'reswallowing things after like three
or four bites and you, youaren't able to actually fully break
that down and get access tothings like the enzymes in your saliva
(17:55):
or again, just breaking thefood down well enough for you be
able to digest it and absorbit well.
So just chewing your foodreally, really well can help with
your gut function.
Something else that a lot ofpeople are benefited with is a simple
digestive enzyme.
So, you know, any natural foodstores, you know, grabbing a digestive
enzyme, taking some enzymeswhen you are eating your food is
(18:16):
definitely not going to hurtand could help.
Especially if you think youmight be sensitive to something like
dairy.
Helping your body to breakdown any of those proteins is going
to be really beneficial.
And then eating probiotic foods.
So probiotic foods areanything that has been cultured or
fermented.
That's things like yogurt orsauerkraut or kimchi.
There's also a lot ofbeverages like kombucha and kefir
(18:40):
and water kefir and all ofthose things have that good beneficial
bacteria that our guts rely on.
So it's really fascinatingthat the western world is like the
modern Western world.
So I guess I'm really justgoing to say like, you know, the
US Is what I'm talking, whoI'm talking to here.
We don't have a traditionalfermented food.
Just about every other cultureon the planet has some sort of traditional
(19:02):
fermented food.
So we are not replenishing ourgood gut bacteria very often, and
we are often doing things thatdisrupt that good gut bacteria.
So besides taking antibiotics,which taking three or more courses
of antibiotics in the courseof your lifetime is likely going
to permanently disrupt yourgut function.
So most of us born in the 70s,80s, in that perimenopause age have
(19:26):
had that, that was just like,you know, a standard of care for
a long time.
So also all of the things thatwe are, you know, all of these antimicrobials
that we're constantly exposedto, so your antibacterial soap and
your antibacterial, you know,cream and, you know, coatings on
shopping carts, all of thesethings are actually disrupting our,
our gut function.
(19:47):
So we have a kind of, we'regerm phobes in our modern world,
and that comes with gettingrid of the good guys as well as the
bad guys.
So most of us are reallydepleted in that gut microbiome.
So getting those things inevery single day, getting in some,
some sort of cultured andfermented food, is really going to
go a long way towards helpingkeep that gut bacteria, that colony
(20:09):
in your gut, happy.
And the happier that colonyis, the better we're going to do
things like make thoseneurotransmitters and be able to
break down our hormones andhave better, again, better function
and a better feeling brain.
So we've covered a lot today,how your gut and your brain communicate
some of those changes that canhappen during menopause and perimenopause
(20:31):
that might be impacting bothyour gut and your hormone function,
and therefore your brain andyour ADHD symptoms and how a family
history of, of gut issuesactually could be influencing your
adhd.
Also, how folks with ADHD tendto have worse gut issues.
So it means we actually needto pay extra, extra attention to
what's happening there.
But the good news is youactually have, you have control over
(20:53):
this.
You have control overimproving your gut function and if
you need it, figuring out whatmight be happening invisibly in that
invisible world of your gutthat is creating a challenge for
your brain and making thoseADHD symptoms feel better or worse.
So start with a small changethis week.
You can start, you know, youknow, try some probiotic foods, take
(21:14):
a digestive enzyme, chew yourfood and, and start to figure out
how those pieces might beimpacting you.
So just remember, everythingis connected and as we start to figure
out these relationships witheverything happening in your body,
we are going to have betterbrain health that leads to better
mental health.
And if you want to get moreinformation about my framework and
some of the strategies that Iuse for getting that laser focused
(21:37):
focus instead of the insteadof the disco ball for your brain,
you can go togetabossbrain.com and I'm constantly
updating that with the latestresources that I have available.
Have a great rest of your week.
Hey love, thanks for making itthis far.
If you're hearing this, you'reone of the magical statistical few
that listened all the way tothe end and I so appreciate your
(21:57):
engagement.
I hope that means the messagetoday resonated with you and you're
taking away a tool trickaction step that will help you have
your best feeling brain.
If that's you, I have a favorto ask.
So many more women need tohear this Message and your 30 seconds
to leave a rating or reviewwill help them hear it.
Just go to the show in yourpodcast player and scroll down until
you see the stars to leave aquick rating and make my day while
(22:19):
you're at it.
Thank you so much.
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