Ep: 112 WTH?!? ADHD and Autism-- an Integrative Approach w/ Dr. Juliana Nahas

Got it. All right. Welcome back, Everybody. I am Dr. Greg Eckel, and this is what the Health, our live Tuesday show. We're also live streaming here as well. Our topic today is near and Dear to Me. It's an integrative approach to adhd, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, and autism. Brain health in children with chronic conditions is our subtitle. My Expert today is Dr. Juliana Nahas. She's board certified pediatrician and a functional medicine certified practitioner. Specializes in treating complex pediatric health conditions like autism, adhd, autoimmune disorders, abdominal pain disorders which are really intense in kids, obesity, asthma, allergies, eczema, and more. For over 25 years, Dr. Nahas has served her community in Covington, Georgia, and is now offering virtual visits for clients who live at a distance. She's an integrative physician experienced in both conventional and holistic functional approaches as well as in energy medicine to help your children have the best overall health possible. After experiencing her own troubles with autoimmune conditions that almost rendered her crippled, Dr. Naha searched for all types of conventional medicine and alternative modalities to get well again. She knew that taking Advil every day wasn't the answer. She found that energy healing, yoga, mind mindset meditations, as well as a functional medicine approach led her to resume her vibrant energy and vitality in a few short months. So now she combines all of that knowledge and expertise with her pediatric and adolescent clients to customize their treatment approach and help them restore their optimal health. Welcome aboard.

Thank you, Gregg. So fun to be here with you.

Indeed. This one is near and dear to me. I shared right before the show, this is what got me into medicine was I was a preschool teach in a Montessori school and watching three to six year olds being prescribed medications like Ritalin, it just kind of, it broke my heart and it really, it led me into medicine. So I am so excited to have this conversation with you and bring you on to what the health. You know, we created this platform to share information with folks that they don't get elsewhere. Right. This is not coming from the top down. This is coming direct to them from what the health and from the community. So I really appreciate you taking the time to come on and talk about your specialty with us.

Yeah, my pleasure. I remember some years ago when I was still a young pediatrician, I would see these parents that come in and we diagnose the child with adhd. And some parents were absolutely against medication and other parents were like, nothing to do with nature. They just wanted the medication and thank you very much. I was always confused what makes one set of parents tick one way and the others differently, and why isn't there a middle ground? But at the time, I didn't have the answers. For the people seeking a holistic approach, I just knew one tool, which is, yeah, prescribed medicine. In fact, recently the American Academy of Pediatrics brought down the age limit from six to four to start prescriptions of Adderall. It's only getting worse, and I feel like I need to get out there and get my voice heard because I want to give hope to those parents that are searching for holistic methodologies.

Is it my understanding now? It's been many years since that has been my focus, like 25 to tell you how long I've been doing medicine. But early on, some of the research that stuck in my brain was that the medication was effective for like 5% of children with this diagnosis. Do you know any of the stats like that on.

I don't know the stats, but I know it's multifactorial. I know for most children with the diagnosis, we have to experiment and try two or three different medications before we land on the right one for them.

Sure.

There's something to do with bio, individual or biochemical individuality, like Dr. Williams taught us, just looking at the patient, not as this is a disease, but they're individuals that happen to have a diagnosis. And what's this interaction between those two events and how can we customize care for that particular patient?

I love it. Go figure. Individualized care is the way that we should be treating people. What are the three, five issues contributing into ADHD and autism? You've linked these together in this talk. In our modern era, you know all of these factors, right, because attentional units, as we know, and kind of neurological issues in children, too. It is multifactorial. So let's dig in there.

Yeah. And just a nuance for parents. You know, you can have a child with autism or a child with ADHD or a child with both. But sometimes, you know, I don't want to confuse that. They're the same thing. They're not. They are separate neurobiological processes. Things that can affect both are genetics. If we have certain genetic malformations or SNPs, diet is a big one. Go figure. And the environment and the toxins in the environment, those are the three big categories that can affect our bodies, our brains. In children who are much more sensitive, it shows up in a bigger way.

Are you doing genetic assessment then on your children and adolescents with this diagnosis, I can.

I haven't had the opportunity to do many, but I can and I do on some. So, for example, often we'll see an MTHFR mutation, we'll see a comt. Comt mutation. We might see some other more rare disorders, like you need a different gene array to look for it, but they're very common in autism. The SNPs are more common in ADHD, I would say, but with autistic children, you have more genetic impact.

Got it. I'm curious how you talk about the genetics with families and bringing that conversation up, because I think a lot more and more our viewers and listeners are interested in it. I always put a big asterisk around the discussion is just because you have this snp, which is a single nucleopeptide, doesn't mean you're expressing it. So I think sometimes people feel like genes are their destiny, but they're not. But it does help us on the platform. So how do you talk about that?

First thing, I want to take away any blame or guilt because parents often feel like it's their fault that their child is the way they are, and I don't want that to be the label at all. So I take that off the table right off the bat, even before we test. So after we get the test back, it's really to help understand how can we impact the environment, because we're not going to change our genes, but we're going to change the expression of the genes. So that's more epigenetics. And so we want to impact the environment, meaning mainly toxic exposures and diet. That's really our mode of intervention, more.

Of the epigenetic component of it. So. Good. Well, let's. Let's lead into that aspect then, because those are the other two factors that you shared here. So let's talk about on the food front, because it is, you know, I don't think for listeners of our show, I think people are dialed in. But if you're kind of new to the game into functional medicine, you know, really in conventional land, it's really around diabetes and diet. But otherwise, food has no influence on your health. Right. Which we know is not true. And that is a big generalization. However, in particular, you know, we have this nuance between food allergies and food sensitivities, and there's a distinction there to be made.

Absolutely. And it's a big one. I talk about food intolerances separate from food sensitivities, separate from food allergies, and we have to look at the pathways that these immune reactions are happening. So in the food intolerance, we may have a byproduct of the food that's causing a chemical reaction in the body. So it's not an allergy or not involving the immune system in the sense of immunoglobulin, but it's just causing a biochemical impact. For example, gluten and dairy have gluten and wheat and dairy has casein. So they are transformed into these peptides called gliadorphin and caseomorphin. Those are morphine like substances that go into the brain and cause an addiction and a craving for these foods. That's why a lot of these children want only to eat this bland diet of milk and cheese and bread. And they avoid all vegetables, all fruits, to the detriment of their health. So what we want to do is take out these bioactive chemicals somehow, either by giving an enzyme that will break them down further, or by just removing them from the diet, doing some kind of an elimination diet.

So they are addictive substances, really does explain a lot cravings.

Right. That's why we call them comfort foods, because we have a craving to these byproducts.

Do you. So that is. So do you recommend. I mean, this might be news to folks with attentional issues. And are we seeing these conditions on the rise as well?

We sure are. And there's variable toxic influences that are causing that. The way our food is made. For example, you've probably talked on your show about glyphosate many times. A lot of these foods, if they're not organic and raised in a pure, non GMO way, have the glyphosate bound to the gluten or bound to the casein. So we're eating these franken foods, these artificially made foods that are now impacting how our bodies are responding and reacting to these foods.

Yeah, I've had Dr. Stephanie Senhoff on the show where she really goes into that in depth. And I think that's news, though, that the food is manufactured to hold on to the glyphosate. So a higher concentration, concentration of a pesticide. You know, they're finding it in Cheerios and children's cereals. And so it is really important. You do recommend to eat organically?

I do, yes.

And do you test for, like, how do you address the food sensitivities? Because so many parents, you know, when you've got a child that has attentional issues and perhaps it's also in the family system a lot of times I see the parents also have attentional issues. I've been actually on that spectrum continuum myself. And so just for full self disclosure. So maybe some of my questions are personal. So on around that. How do you address. Because it gets really muddy when you start talking about diet. It's loaded on so many fronts socially. And you said mental, emotionally, we might have some addictive pulls to it with even realizing it. How do you dive in there?

You know, it's, it's part of my protocol to remove these kids off of these foods. So we take out gluten, dairy, corn, some of the other allergenic foods like soy, fish, seafood. I mean some of these could be healthy, but we don't know. Unless we do the elimination trial, if parents are adamant that it's going to be too hard, we can't do this diet, then I might do a test. So we do food sensitivity test. I use great plain laboratories and it's a quick blood test that will give me 200 different food items and ingredients and I can quickly assess, you know, which ones to eliminate and which one we can afford to keep in.

Got it, got it. You know, it is, I think obviously the elimination diet is the gold standard because you can have reactions to seven different pathways that children and adults can be reacting to the food. And then you have like the blood test that will test, you know, for maybe two antibodies, maybe three antibodies and they're transitory. So it does, it's, it, it isn't as easy as it sounds, but maybe speak into what you've seen with just that aspect of your, of your protocol. And you are so gracious to provide a checklist that we're going to put in the show notes too. So I will have that link for folks to click in the show, not on to download your checklist. So you can maybe this is a good place to talk about that too.

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot to consider and I really customize what we do with every patient like I said at the beginning. So not everybody needs a test, you know, just really depends on the child family history. For example, if I know there's a family history of celiac, we're definitely taking out the gluten. No, no questions there. But if we don't have that history, I really play with, well, what are you comfortable in doing? Are you may comfortable taking out one food gradually and then once you get that out, working on the second ingredient and do it sort of a gradual day by day diminishment as opposed to cold turkey? Because These children also deal with the addictive. You know, if you're pulling that food out, all of a sudden they're going to have withdrawals, withdrawal symptoms. And we don't want that. We don't want them to get worse in their behavior or their tantrums. So we work with them patiently, slowly. It may take longer than maybe working with an adult, but eventually we get there.

Awesome. Yeah. I'm guessing you've got some tricks of the trade there. But, you know, when you, it is a true addiction and when you're talking about a little person and a child, you know, they can get really cranky, you know, and that already, you know, parents are, you know, I call it, you know, new newborn and young parents are basically unsafe at any speed. Right. Because of the sleep deprivation. It's like, well, this thing didn't come with any instructions, what's going on here? You know. So it is, it's great that you've got a program that supports people and families in that, in that discussion. And I'm guessing do you see it in a familial pattern with maybe add, ADHD more so, yeah. You know, I found it was always interesting, you know, with talking to the parents and then kind of letting them know, like, you know, oftentimes a lot of these behaviors are learned from visually of what they're witnessing. And do you exhibit any of these traits? And you know, more times than not the parents would say, well, yeah, that's actually me to a T, you know, so I think it's great that you help with the kids and then, you know, the parents just by happen chance are getting, getting the information and helping their health too.

I mean, the tantrums can go both ways. I remember a young child with autism who was very vicious to his grandmother and all the women in the family, but not the men. He would just take out his aggression on the women for a period of time. We thought it was maybe because of chronic constipation and pain and he's dealing with this burden in his body and he's just expressing his pain as aggression. But it turns out that no, it was just a learned behavior and we were able to get some therapy and help him not behave that way with the women and his family.

Interesting. Yeah. So that was a full family constellation kind of healing there. It is so fascinating. I'm always honored to be privy into helping people on their health journeys. And it is such an honor. And you know, we get to see into family life and you know, really with a non judgmental Approach, a heart centered approach is the way that I talk about it. And really helping folks make those changes, it is so rewarding. One, but two, it has such a large impact. Like that was the whole, the whole family that got to kind of witness and get educated to it. I'm sure they were feeling that in their, in their family constellation. But to actually maybe see some change for them, that's really awesome. I want to stick in the food component. Then we'll talk about environmental. But you had some other nuances here around nutrient deficiencies that impact neurotransmitter production and function. And then how does this play out with our healthy brains?

Yeah. So we don't realize it. Like when we take a diet history, which is very quick in a conventional pediatric office. We're not going to dive into minutiae, although we need to start doing that because it reveals so much about what's going on in the child. But I've started testing, so I'll send them to Quest or LabCorp. And I've started checking just some routine mineral and vitamin levels that I can assess that way because it's covered by insurance. And it just a quick way of assessing and I'm flabbergasted. I mean, so many of their kids, these kids have very low vitamin D, low zinc or high copper. Magnesium tends to be low as well, and iron can be deficient in ADHD and autism children. So if we uncover those deficiencies, then I have something that I can target. I can maneuver that and put it into the new diet that we're prescribing. Whether we use supplements or foods rich in these minerals and vitamins, we have a possibility of discussing that with the parents and making a difference in these children.

Awesome. Yeah. So the components from our food sources, even, you know, the mineral deficiencies in the soil, so the food doesn't have the, the mineral content. And then we're not. Then we're kind of more addicted to the bland white food component of the breads and the pastas and the milks and the cheeses and, you know, which are then, you know, feeding certain neural pathways that make us more craving those foods. You can see how we wind up into this situation. Right. Which then leads, I guess into the discussion into that epigenetics of like, environment. So with these conditions on the rise, I mean, I was, you know, when I was the first round of ADD ADHD that I, you know, when I came into medicine was in the early 90s and that was Ritalin. Now we're into Adderall but you know, I now I still have patients in high schools where, you know, half the kids in the elite high schools are on Adderall or the equivalent just to keep up with their cohort and the stressors. So let's talk on environmental toxicity, but then also the social aspect of what's happening here too.

Yeah, I have to be careful not to prescribe short acting stimulants anymore. I go only long acting to try to deter people from abusing the drugs in college and selling it on the street. Because that's been an issue.

Well, yeah, I mean, you know, I have had kids that have gone through high school and it's like, wow, at these parties, you know, kids will share their medications and they're savvy enough to know what is happening. It's legalized speed. Right. And you know, at a certain level, I guess that would be a fun component. Definitely helps with focus. But then also, then there's this, you know, big, big component around abuse and misuse.

So I don't want to encourage that. I really want the children and the teenagers who need the medication to get their medication and not waste it on friends. The other piece of it is if your zinc levels and iron levels and protein and amino acid levels are sufficient, your body can probably make more dopamine. So maybe you need less medication. If we can target some of these nutritional deficiencies, that's another angle I present to parents who are open to a holistic approach and that maybe your child will need medicine, but maybe we can avert it altogether by just really focusing on nutrition as medicine. For the longest time in conventional medicine, we glazed over nutrition, but I think it's time to bring it back and put it front and center because it's life changing. And really that's what I'm seeing.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, it is, you know, food is our best medicine. Sometimes it's not enough to get the change, but it is the foundation that we need to start with. Because some of these things like you're mentioning, you know, you, you correct, you get them off of foods that are, you know, interacting with their system, with their biology and their mental emotional states. You know, Doris Rapp was one of my mentors and boy, she was such a, a thought leader in food in its relationship to mood and in children in particular. I was very fortunate to have my path cross with her early on. What about the toxic biologic components that impact brain function?

Again, as a conventional pediatrician, first, firstly, like, we don't check for lead except at age 1 and 2. We don't really check again when they're 4 or 5 or when they're being diagnosed with a problem. Right. It's just, it's forgotten. Like, if they tested negative earlier, we just assume they're going to be fine moving forward. But some of these children actually have low levels of lead, whether it's two or four, you know, not anything the health department's going to make a big fuss about. But it's actually been shown in studies that any level, even low levels, can impact the development of a child. We look for that. We want to use binders to help pull these out. I don't do chelation in my clinic, and only if it's high levels would we send them to the hospital for that. But we can use binders like clay and Zeolite and all of these type of things to help the children bind it out over time.

When you do that, how long? I mean, I know it's hard to say, like, well, how long that will take. Right. That's everybody's question. But what have you seen clinically when you're using the binders? Because, you know, I kind of explained that as like the slow boat. But it's effective. When you're retesting, what do you see with levels dropping?

So six months has been a good trial period for most kids. Usually when I retest at that point, the levels are low, great and unacceptable. Some kids, if they have higher levels, will go a year and go a year.

And is there a different level of lead? I believe it's five for adults to be acceptable. But we know that causes. Yeah, it's still five for children, too.

Yeah. But any low level has been shown to cause or be linked to developmental delays. So I, you know, if it's not less than 1, I take it seriously.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I call it getting the proverbial lead out. Right. So for our generation, that was Led Zeppelin, but this is different. And it is, you know, it's an endemic issue in the United States. And drinking water with levels of lead, I mean, even in Portland, Oregon, where my kids went to school, they had to stop drinking the water in the high schools because there was lead in the water. It was like, what are we doing? We know it lowers iq. It is not meant to be in our body. So, I mean, that is such a big one. There are websites that you can check lead in your drinking water, which I do encourage everybody, whether you have children with ADD or you have ADD or really for any health condition, you Want to know what's in your drinking water. But that is really an important point for folks. What other components are you seeing in environment or why the rise of these neurological.

I do like to get a hair mineral analysis through brake planes. We just cut some strands of hair from the back of the head and we run the test on it. We can look for actual mineral composition as well as toxic chemicals like lead, arsenic, mercury. Name any others. Aluminum.

Yeah.

So if some of those are high, I work diligently with the family to bind them out. Some things require more magnesium to kind of wash it out, et cetera.

Yeah.

But if they're high on copper, which you would think, well, we need copper. Yes, we do. But if copper is high, that's going to cause the aggressive type of ADHD or aggressive type of autistic child. There's definitely a link between copper and the manufacturing of dopamine. So we don't want copper to be too high because it offset the zinc. So zinc and copper kind of teeter, totter with each other. And if copper is too high, then zinc is going to be low. And zinc is important in 300 different enzymatic reactions in the brain and body. So we want to make sure there's balance there. So we look at that.

Where do you think that, where's the copper coming from? In the environment?

Water, sometimes the dirt. Now, women on birth control, they get more as well. But for children, it's mainly water or the pipes. You know, if we have copper pipes, that would be one way of getting more. Yeah, got it.

What you list lithium as well. So what is lithium and what does it have to do with the brain?

So lithium is kind of the Newfoundland mineral. Dr. Greenblatt, my teacher and mentor, raves about it and has published a lot of research for Alzheimer's and dementia as well as ADHD and autism. Lithium really affects our mood and we need it in microscopic doses. So 1 milligram or half a milligram a day will keep us sane. Basically, if we're not getting that through our food that we're eating, usually organic foods, has more lithium in the soil, then that deficiency triggers the limbic brain. We're much more emotional, much more likely to rage and not filter our behavior. Quick to anger, quick to react, more impulsivity, more aggression as well, and mood swings. We find that if we can give low dose lithium to these children, even without testing, just on the basis of their behavior, I'm seeing within a month or two, they're much calmer.

That is so good. I've seen the studies on lithium and drinking water and the happiness quotient. Right. So communities that have a little higher lithium in the water actually are showing more happier population. So that makes sense to check that out and. Or consider that with these children, is there a component? And it's not genetic, but there are certain kids that just can't clear this toxic burden out of their bodies. What is happening there?

I've seen that a lot with my autism children. Their liver is not as efficient at getting those corpuscles of mold or toxic chemicals out of their bodies, and they're constipated on top of it. So they tend to hold on to all this less waste in their system. So it's multifactorial. I can't say it's one thing I know for sure. They produce less glutathione. So it's the master antioxidant. And they need a lot of support with antioxidant foods. And that comes from your fruits and vegetables, especially the highly pigmented fruits and vegetables. Right. So we want to be feeding those kids these foods or supplementing them. So I use things like juice plus I use OPC formulation from Dr. Greenblatt. So depending on the age, I have different formulations I go to if we can't get it in the diet. But my first effort is let's eat better.

Sure. Yeah. And it's nice to give them some support until as they're making those changes. What about. So let's talk about the social scenario with the rise of these diagnosis, because it is. It's the child that is suffering, and then the family constellation around them is having to adapt and adjust and accommodate and then, you know, community at large. So, you know, there's a lot of pressures on the parents. There's a lot of pressures on the child. You know, the performance component on kids. I think that, you know, we're asking more and more of them. They're just like little pressure cookers. I mean, we're seeing, you know, after the last two years, a 30 to 40% rise in anxiety and depression, which I'm guessing is playing out in your world quite a bit.

Most definitely.

Let's address some of those. Those pieces of this discussion.

So again, it's always a multifactorial thing why that's happening, and I don't think I can say or it's because of COVID or like that. But I think we're all under more stress and we know that stress causes more inflammation in the body. So that's one Factor which can be reversed. But it takes work, it takes effort. Like I learned in my health journey. I had to learn meditation, I had to do yoga. I had to do things for my body and my mind to help reduce the stress. And with a young child, you're not going to teach them those things, but you can teach them similar techniques. So visualization, writing out stories, going out to play. So being in the sunlight, getting nature around you, not being locked into the house, I think that was a huge disservice we had during COVID as everybody was locked in. Everybody's sleep schedule was topsy turvy. They were sleeping all day and waking up all night. So that really wreaked havoc on our body, stress and immune system. So that's one big box, right? And that could take us weeks to really iron out with every patient. But then you've got whatever toxic fumes are being inputted to the environment. I think I heard Amy Myers once say, it's like 85,000 tons of toxic fumes being pumped in every day into our planet's atmosphere. We're inhaling it, we're putting it on our skin, we're eating it in our food. We're bombarded with toxins. So our genetics, we're not going to change. The only thing we can change is environmental exposures and our diet and our stress response. So those are things we can do something about. And that's where I feel like I need to direct my energy and my teaching to the folks that come see me to help them. Well, work on what we can control, not things we cannot control.

Perfect. And there's a component. You're talking about the importance of relating positivity positively to the child and also self care for the parents. So what kind of speak into that for us?

So kids are watching what we're doing, right? If we're staying up late watching Netflix all night and then smoking, not exercising, I mean, they're gonna follow what we're doing. We need to lead by example and by engagement. So if you go outside, take a walk, let your children come in tow on their bikes or on their tricycles or what have you, you know, go to the park and hang out as a family, drink water, eat the vegetables in front of your kids even though they don't want them. So modeling to these children is very important because self care is going to pass on to them. They're going to watch you make a smoothie one day, and even though they don't like vegetables, they're going to say Can I have a taste? Because they're curious, right? So that's where I'm talking to the parents about give yourself the opportunity to take care of yourself. Also, how are you going to last for years and decades with a difficult child if you're exhausted, like, you're no good to anybody. If you're exhausted and sick, we have to keep you healthy. You have to keep your energy up so that you can do the work you need to do for your children.

Yeah, that component, it's really, I mean, that is, you know, you've got to walk your talk and if you can't say, well, eat this way and then you're eating a different way, or you're eating the grilled cheese and the, you know, it is, you know, method by observation. So it is the component of addressing the whole family. And in particular, most of the parents also have some of the attentional issues as well because a lot of that is learned and, and some of it is genetic and then they're also living in the same environment. So all of those levels that you've been bringing in here today so nicely.

And also like, how can you as a parent be kind and patient with your child if you're so stressed, you're so tired, you're so burnt out, like your irritability level is going to be sky high if you're not taking care of yourself? So you cannot be showing compassion to the child when you're burnt out yourself. So it's a trickle down effect. We have to live it and then model it and then it passes down in terms of we can be patient with the child, we can repeat what we were asking, we can give them compliments when they succeed and not miss those opportunities because the kids need a lot of positive feedback to help their self esteem as well.

Do you have other areas to support that? Give some more examples around? Because I think we will focus on the negative so much because there's so much behavior. Like my poster child going to medical school was Michael. And Michael like to include others in his learning is the way that I talk about it. And you know, he was rambunctious for sure. And he never sat down at his desk in the Montessori classroom. You know, he's always, you know, helping other children. Well, that's what led to the lead teacher saying, well, maybe you should take them to, to the pediatrician. It looks like maybe he has some attentional issues. And I just, I remember the first day he came back in just kind of slumped over. He definitely sat in his chair. But that little sparkle was gone in his eye and, you know, to. It just broke my heart. And it's what got me into medicine. But also I just thought, gosh, if we could have given some more tools and resources and education around this approach. But then also that component around the positivity of like really noticing the winds. And I think all of us actually could do more of that rather than. I'm not sure how we got bent into really, you know, picking on negative components.

We almost label the children, right? Oh, he's got adhd, she's got autism. Their odd. Whatever we label them. And once they have that, that tag attached to their, you know, uniform, it's never going away unless we take the label off and look at them as a child. And what does a child want? They want positive affirmation and love. They want to feel honored. They want to feel heard. They want to feel respected. So how do we do that when they're constantly butting in and defiant and not minding? It takes a lot of patience, it takes a lot of training, maybe even parent training, teacher training to refocus. But we've seen the experiments where a teacher is told at the beginning of the year, you have the smartest class and just go teach them because they're all in quest or something. And those kids excel because the expectation from the teacher was they're all brilliant kids. When you come and they unblind the test, it's like, no, they were just normal kids. But we set that expectation coming in with that knowledge that we can affect what is the performance of a child. Just by setting a different expectation, we get different results. Of course it takes all of these components in a program. It's not just focusing on what are they eating or how are they sleeping. But we need to look at the whole picture together to really impact long term.

Awesome. How about specifics on self care for parents? Because it is overwhelming and if you have got a child with some specific needs, there is not a lot of other time for self care. So what are some like down and dairy for women?

I can't speak too much for men, but for women, sleep is the number one regenerating habit. If you can just get seven or eight hours of sleep, we're golden the next day. We can tolerate a lot more on our plate. I'm not sure if it's the same for men. Our biology is a little different. I think for men they need to go out and do sports. Exercise may play in more for men than women, but sleep is really important having that one hour a day where it's me time. So whether you decide to have a cup of tea with a friend and generate some oxytocin, or you want to just sit and read a book that you've been dying to read and just have quiet time, nobody bothering you. I hear so many moms that say, I can't even go to the bathroom alone. Everybody follows me. Right?

Right.

So those are some simple things we can add in baby steps, and then we can do more in terms of I want to get on an exercise routine, I want to eat better. You know, those come in as more ninja steps after. But we can start with the simple.

Maybe for folks that haven't heard oxytocin before, maybe explain what that is.

And oxytocin, yeah, is a bonding hormone. So when we have a child, when we birth a child, we make a lot of oxytocin. That's the bonding hormone between mom and baby. And it also helps to express the breast milk. But in adults, we also make oxytocin. So anytime you give somebody a hug and it lasts more than 12 seconds, you're going to make oxytocin. But for women especially, we make oxytocin when we are in a group. So just a group of women talking to each other for a while generates a lot of oxytocin. It's part of our instinctive wiring, I suppose. I think men make it, too. It's just in a different way. Men tend to do things together, activities together, whereas women just want to sit together. We don't have to be doing an activity. It's just the talking that generates that oxytocin hormone.

Lucky you all. Yeah. That's awesome. Are there things that folks can start implementing today? What would be some action items for folks as we come down to the last third of the show here?

Yes. So it's all in my cheat sheet, and I don't have it in front of me, but just off the top of my head, spend some time outside in nature. Get some sunlight on your face. We know vitamin D is so important for everyone, and it's good for happiness, it's good for sleep, it's good for immune system boosting. So let's get outside and get some nature going. Drink water, work on dialing your sleep to seven or eight hours a night, and go on a leisurely walk so you can combine. Walking in nature would help you hit two of these milestones.

Awesome. Again, I'm going to have the link in the show notes for folks so you can get that cheat sheet with the summary of steps of Dr. Nahas program. So make sure you download that, folks. It's a really nice gift. So thank you for that. What else can. What else.

What else can we do? So Omega 3, we didn't touch on that, but fish oils have been studied for a long time now. You want to get a brand that's reputable, that's pure. You don't want a lot of mercury and fillers and your omega 3. So usually the brands that are over the counter at the pharmacy are not the ones I recommend. I would recommend getting something much more premium, pharmaceutical grade level. And then the quantity can vary with the individual. If we can test, it's always nice. But let's say we cannot. Then just starting to take the Omega 3. So DHA and EPA blend, and if you can add in the GLA, which is an Omega 6, that's even better. Some people can't make enough GLA. They have an enzymatic dysfunction. And just supplying it helps their liver detox and work better, their brain work better. But studies have shown that, you know, there's 68% improvement in ADHD scores by taking the omega 3s.

68%.

So that's huge.

That is a huge number.

It's almost malpractice. Not to mention that, you know, your patients taking their vitamins for all the folate and B12 and all the other ingredients, but also fish oil, magnesium, you know, those are critical nutrients that the body needs and we probably don't get enough of in our diet.

Yeah, the Omega 3s, those essential fatty acids, they're called essential for a reason, is we can't make them in our bodies and our food really is devoid of them. How do you get kids to take omega 3 fatty acids? Because otherwise there's like a horse pellet or it tastes horrible. So do you have any tricks there?

So gummies. Yes. Yeah. Designs for Health. They make a liquid version in different fruit flavors. That's just delicious. I had a taste test of all three flavors, and they're wonderful. Yeah. So there are brands out there that give it. You know, I mentioned juice plus they have one that's a gel, so it's for older kids. And Nordic Naturals is another company I like.

Yeah, that's a great one. Yeah. I didn't realize. Designs for Health. I'll have to do a taste test. So we'll. Folks, that's great. And then you talked about some enzymes. So like some of the kids that have the gluten and dairy. Not even just sensitivity, but just having them in the dumpling.

Yeah, yeah.

You have some peptides and so there.

Is an enzyme called DPP4. It's a dipeptidase enzyme. Some of the manufacturers make it like I'm thinking for children. Houston, what's the other name? Houston Labs or something like that. They have one that, that's got the DPP in with other digestive enzymes in a chewable format. So that doesn't have hydrochloric acid, just the digestive enzymes and the DPP4. So kids can chew these enzymes with snacks or with meals and really help to prevent reactions. They're great. If you're going to a birthday party and you know they're going to eat pizza and cake and that's going to wreck their system. Give them those enzymes around that meal and they'll probably do okay.

Much better. For sure.

For sure. Yeah.

That's awesome. And I have seen the studies as well on really multivitamins. I've seen a couple that went into some school districts with basically underperforming across the board and were given multivitamins and all of their test scores. Not that that's the only measurement, but it is a measurement. All of their test scores went up and more graduated high school and more went to college. Again, not the only end all component is going to college, but it is impressive with just what a multivitamin people do.

Exactly. I mean, it could be as simple as that. I think there's a study in New Zealand that looked at people with depression and the ones who took vitamins had way less stress in their life. Like they had more resilience just in the face of earthquakes and other natural disasters versus the ones that weren't taking any vitamins. So yes, we can do. I mean, that's been shown in multiple studies. Not, not just New Zealand, but. But that's the one that comes to mind.

Wow, that is awesome. What else would you like to add in for parents or folks with these conditions? Any words of wisdom here?

Yeah, I think start slow, don't make a lot of changes all of a sudden because you're going to upset the cart and upset the child. So let's go slow and take it one step at a time. Even if you want to start a probiotic, let's say, and you think their system is too sensitive, they're getting diarrhea from it or they're throwing up or whatever, then back up and do a little bit of that probiotic, not the whole serving and just gradually incrementally increase as the child is tolerating that new supplement because some people it turns the cart too fast and then we have more problems on the other side. So I say go slow, go steady, one day at a time. Don't try to conquer Mount Everest in one week. Be patient and work closely with your doctor. Whether it's a naturopath or a functional medicine doctor. We're going to be more understanding of what's happening biologically than a conventional doctor and we're going to support you. I'm in both camps. I can speak to the fact that before I knew about functional medicine, I really just was ignorant. It's not my fault. It's just I wasn't educated on all that's going on in the natural holistic approach. So now that I have both hats, I have more tools in my toolbox and I can offer more solutions to parents.

I love it. Yeah. And you have created a mini course here as well. So that is going to be in the show notes. It's covingtonpediatrics.com mini course. So thank you on that. And you also wrote a book, Wellness Wisdom the Holistic Guide to Revitalizing youg Mind, Body and Soul. I am thinking at the end here I am curious on the energy medicine component. Right. So you opened up your mind for your own need and found like wow, these therapeutics were really helped me come back. How do you incorporate that into your pediatrics conversation?

I think the biggest tool I use is visualization and eft. So emotional freedom, tapping with the children, especially when they have phobias and anxieties, it really helps us to move through, you know, a hang up situation, a phobia. So I use that for depression as well. I haven't tried it much for ADHD because these children won't sit down and tap with me unfortunately. But at some point when they're older we could probably bring that in. If they're capable of meditating, I invite them to use Headspace or Calm like one of these apps to meditate with every day and help them center and focus. But I teach basically things I've tried myself and I send them to YouTube or other free resources where they can do some more digging on their own.

I love it.

I love it.

Empowering them. Right. The root word of doctor is doceri, the teacher. Dr. Nahas, thank you so much for coming on. Any last parting words that you'd like to imbue?

Yes. Do not give up hope. There's a lot of solutions out there. You just haven't heard about them yet. Keep digging keep searching and the right provider will show up.

Awesome. Thank you so much folks if you like today's show or think of somebody that could utilize this information please do them a favor and share it. Share it with two people that you're thinking of and if you like the show give us a five star review. They really do make a difference out there for us. In your description of why the five stars maybe put down something that you are going to put into action or what you learned today or why you really why you wanted to give a five star it is really how we get the information out to folks and this is a life saving info so thank you Dr. Nahas everybody out there thank you for tuning in and viewing. I wouldn't be doing it without you so thank you. Yeah you who I just said that to and we will see you next week on what the health Dr. Greg Eckel. Take care everybody. It.