S2 Episode 1: A Mother's Conversations with World-Leading Experts: "Brilliant Brain Food" - with Lucinda Miller

Hello lovely listeners!

Welcome to the first episode in a brand new series of our podcast "My Mighty Quinn", called "A Mother's Conversations with World Leading Experts"

The Brain Health Movement is thrilled to launch with the first of our world-class authorities, and where better to start than with our children's tummies, aka their guts, and of course their diet. 

How does all this sit within how we can delivery optimum healthy brain development?

In this episode, Lucia is speaking with esteemed naturopath, nutritional therapist, functional medicine practitioner and best selling author, Lucinda Miller.

Lucinda has over 25 years of experience. In addition to mentoring children with ADHD and Autism, her specialisms are paediatric nutrition and nutrition for supporting optimal brain function.

She is the founder and director of Nature Doc, an inclusive clinic which understands neurodiversity and the specific nutrition challenges this can present.

She is the author of two bestselling family nutrition cookbooks which focus on feeding the brain, the immune system and the gut microbiome.

Summary:

In this episode, Lucinda dives deep into the connection between nutrition, brain and gut health and the challenges that some of our children with neurological challenges encounter.

She shares her expertise on managing various children's needs from those struggling with symptoms such as ADHD, Autism and Misophonia, as well as Fibromyalgia and IBS,  through a holistic approach. 

Lucinda also discusses the impact of diet on emotional well-being and provides practical insights for parents navigating the nutritional needs of their children. From the benefits of certain supplements to addressing the challenges of managing stress-induced IBS, Lucinda offers valuable tips for achieving optimal health.

Key Takeaways:

1. Nutrition and Brain Health
2. Supplements for Emotional Well-being
3. Managing IBS
4. Teenagers and Alcohol
5. ADHD and Fibromyalgia

Lucinda Miller Resource Links: 

• https://naturedoc.com/ 
• https://naturedoc.shop/
• https://www.instagram.com/naturedockids/

Resource Links:

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  www.thebrainhealthmovement.com/free-guides
  
  
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• Enrol in The Brain Health Movement's Taster Course - Your Gateway to Healthy Development for your Child:
  Taster Course Enrolment (thebrainhealthmovement.com)
  
  
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  Complete Course Registration (thebrainhealthmovement.com)
  
  
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  https://www.thebrainhealthmovement.com/

Transcript

My Mighty Quinn

[00:00:00] Lucia Silver: Turn your food into medicine and you won't need medicines anymore. Amen. I could not be more excited to introduce you to the brilliant Lucinda Miller. Lucinda Miller is the clinical lead of NatureDoc and runs a team of UK wide nutritional therapists specialising in family nutrition and children with neurodevelopmental challenges and delays.

[00:00:22] Lucia Silver: As well as running an online health food shop, naturedoc. shop. She has been practicing as a naturopath for over 25 years, qualified in functional medicine, and is author of the best selling book cookbooks, The Good Stuff and I Can't Believe It's Baby Food. We are also very excited to share that she will be launching a brand new book called Brain Brilliance this summer, 2024.

[00:00:50] Lucia Silver: Lucinda is also the proud mama of three gorgeous kids and lives in Wiltshire in the UK. Now as at the Brain Health Movement, we are about healthy [00:01:00] development. Strong foundations, and finding the root cause to problems, rather than sticking plasters on things and accepting short term symptom management.

[00:01:10] Lucia Silver: To this end, we scour the earth for the crème de la crème of paediatric and brain development experts to inform and educate our wonderful followers, parents, carers, educators, and more. And we painstakingly select individuals who are not just esteemed leaders in their field, but who are also trailblazers with a passion to address the chronic state of health in our children today.

[00:01:35] Lucia Silver: They deliver their insights, expertise, and experience in a kind, accessible, digestible, and effective way. So with diet and eating being one of the most significant things we do as human beings, and a critical area of focus raising our children, with no further ado, I would like to welcome Lucinda. Thank you for joining us on the Brain Health Movement podcast, my [00:02:00]mighty queen.

[00:02:00] Lucia Silver: Hello and good morning, how 

[00:02:02] Lucinda Miller: are you? Hi Lucia, it's great to see you. I'm on great 

[00:02:06] Lucia Silver: form, thank you. It's just so exciting to have you, Lucinda, and I thought no better place to start than with one of your own quotes, if I may. I dream one day doctors might be able to say, there's nothing medically significant that we can find.

[00:02:24] Lucia Silver: But clearly your child is suffering, so please seek other support. Rather than, your child's tests are normal and there's nothing wrong. Lucinda, what do you mean by this? 

[00:02:36] Lucinda Miller: I find that many parents can see that their child is really struggling. with their development, with their behavior, with their focus, with their learning, with their self esteem, etc.

[00:02:46] Lucinda Miller: Maybe they've got gut issues, maybe they've got highly selective eating, and, life is pretty full on, pretty chaotic, pretty intense, and They can see [00:03:00] that there's something else going on and so often they will go and seek out medical advice. And unless it's really a tumor or seizure activity, the doctors won't do very much.

[00:03:14] Lucinda Miller: They will do a blood test probably if the child is willing to have blood drawn. And very often when we do see those, most of the time, these test results come back within normal range, as in there's no, nothing medically significant going on. They're not sick, then they don't need to go into A& E, they don't need to go to hospital, they don't have, need long term medication.

[00:03:36] Lucinda Miller: The only thing that usually comes up in these blood tests is maybe low iron, which is very common amongst children. We'll probably talk about that later. But generally, these kids with Neurodevelopmental delay often will show a pretty healthy profile in terms of blood. However, what is happening is day to day, they may be, not eating very [00:04:00] much or eating a very narrow diet.

[00:04:01] Lucinda Miller: So they do have vitamin and mineral deficiencies. They may have gut issues, they may be in pain with hypermobility associated issues. They may find it really difficult to get to sleep. So this impacts their whole lives. And until the day that the doctors say, we know there's nothing going on in the bloods, but there must be more going on.

[00:04:23] Lucinda Miller: Let's take this further. I feel that there's this incredible sort of gap where, there are children being basically ignored. And it's just a mentality. And it was very interesting. I was hearing a nurse talk about this the other day and when you're in hospital, then you're very unwell.

[00:04:43] Lucinda Miller: Basically they have a saying, are you sick or not sick? And so of course you're sick because you're in hospital, right? But what they mean by sick is basically you need life support or you need critical care. And if you're in [00:05:00] recovery and you're, going along the right trajectory to get home again soon, you're not sick.

[00:05:04] Lucinda Miller: So these are words that have been bandied around in the medical system that a lot of, us on the street don't understand or take very literally. And it must be, so often parents say that we've seen the doctors, they say, my child is normal. Is this my new normal? Is this forever? And sometimes, yes, that's the case.

[00:05:25] Lucinda Miller: Your child has specific developmental delay and it's difficult for them to progress. But so often, when you put the input in, whether it's helping to mature primitive reflexes, whether it's to add their nutrition, whether it's to do osteopathic work, whatever it might be, Audio integration, speech and language therapy, all these things can help to move a child on.

[00:05:49] Lucinda Miller: And yes, some of these things are offered by the NHS, but a very small amount. I don't know where it's at now, but I've been looking after kids for nearly 20 years [00:06:00]doing this now. I've been practicing for nearly 28, but, I was really focused in on the kids about 20 years ago due to my children's sort of needs.

[00:06:08] Lucinda Miller: But I found that even then a child might get five or six speech and language sessions through the NHS. And this is a child that's non verbal, non speaking, unable to communicate at all. And, a handful of speech and language therapy sessions is not going to help. And so people do end up having to turn privately to these things.

[00:06:31] Lucinda Miller: But the great thing about food is we have to feed our children every single day, at least three times a day. Most of our kids graze all day too. And these are opportunities to be able to nourish their brains in a relatively easy way. I know there are always going to be blocks along the way. There are highly selective eaters.

[00:06:48] Lucinda Miller: That's what neurodivergence seems to bring is a difference in. ability to take on textures and tastes and smells, but that's something that can be helped over time. So basically, [00:07:00] I feel that nutrition is something that you have to feed your children anyway, so let's supercharge the food and get their brains as sharp as possible through eating good food.

[00:07:10] Lucinda Miller: Absolutely. 

[00:07:11] Lucia Silver: And that's such an insight, isn't it? There's this cavernous divide between what is regarded to be okay, living healthily, and what is not. As you say, unless you're seen to be chronically ill, you're sent away with a clean bill of health. Agitated stomachs, eczemas, skins, loose bowels, all of these sorts of things that I certainly remember taking little Quinn to the GP and that's just normal.

[00:07:34] Lucia Silver: That's don't worry about that. Things getting passed off where clearly right then, had we known, had we had a you in our life, had we known about primitive reflexes right back then, we would have started to address it at a foundational preemptive, don't wait for worse symptoms to manifest. We've got this wonderful vehicle food, let's use it to best effect.

[00:07:55] Lucia Silver: But unfortunately there isn't that. Communication channel [00:08:00] open, but let's break this down Lucinda because I think a lot of the time We're all in a bit of a state of overwhelm with what we can and can't do. And simplification is super helpful. So one of the things you've touched on, which I'd like to come back to is this idea, and we're hearing a lot of it at the moment in the news and in nutritional magazines and so on, is toxic load that our children are burdened with a toxic load.

[00:08:26] Lucia Silver: What does that mean again? And how can we start to ad address that in simple steps? 

[00:08:32] Lucinda Miller: So our modern world, unfortunately, is very polluted. So even though measures have been taken to take lead out of petrol, for instance, England, I would say is one of the better countries to live in, in terms of pollution but every single day we're exposed to things like plastics.

[00:08:51] Lucinda Miller: There's plastic bottles, plastic wrapping on our food, more so than say in Europe. And it's thought, I've read some, a paper, maybe a year or two ago, which [00:09:00] suggested that us as humans are now consuming the equivalent of a credit card's worth of plastic each week. 

[00:09:08] Lucia Silver: A credit card of plastic each week.

[00:09:10] Lucia Silver: Let's just take that in for a moment. Extraordinary. So that's one area, isn't 

[00:09:14] Lucinda Miller: it? Yeah. Yeah. That's one area which can create disruption in the endocrine system. So it can lead to early puberty in girls and late puberty in boys. And also exacerbate, menstrual issues, puberty issues, mood swings, et cetera.

[00:09:32] Lucinda Miller: It's also been linked to other kinds of hormonal imbalances and over time, things like infertility. So these things are very important. We do have, pollution in our air. We have an awful lot of cars on the road. Weather. It's pumping out lead or not. It's still a lot of pollution in the air. Our soil is now full of heavy metals.

[00:09:51] Lucinda Miller: So even organic food is now often polluted by things like lead, cadmium, arsenic, etc. So we [00:10:00] can't escape. They found, toxins. On the North Pole, they found them in the South Pole, they found, they're all throughout the world. So it's very difficult to avoid entirely. It's partly because there are so many people on this planet.

[00:10:12] Lucinda Miller: It's partly because, we are living a very modern life, which we know we're expecting everything to be very, a lot of things are manufactured now, as I said, we rely on aeroplanes, we rely on cars, we rely on all these things which pump pollution into our 

[00:10:27] Lucia Silver: environment. And as you say, the mass production of food.

[00:10:31] Lucia Silver: as well, right? Which is bringing these toxins directly into our best efforts to eat clean food, as you 

[00:10:37] Lucinda Miller: say, even organic. Yeah. So actually, unless a fruit has a very obvious skin that you would peel off like a banana, pineapple, et cetera, I would suggest that you peeled your fruit and veg, or at least washed it.

[00:10:52] Lucinda Miller: To help reduce those pollutants to come into the body. So we are a very polluted planet, [00:11:00] unfortunately, so we can't escape from it. However, what can happen is if the pathways in the body are stuck and unable to excrete it, then we can become more toxic than say our sibling or, our friend. And that's why we look at people and say, why is it that someone can live off McDonald's every day for years and seemingly be okay?

[00:11:23] Lucinda Miller: Whereas others can eat one McDonald's and feel pretty lousy for days afterwards. Why is it that one person can eat a nut and it can benefit them and give them a great amount of nutrition, whereas another might have an anaphylactic shock? Yeah, so we're all words slightly differently. So partly it's to do with how we excrete.

[00:11:42] Lucinda Miller: So if we sweat nicely, so if we do lots of exercise, children often sweat at night, especially neurodivergent kids. They're definitely trying to get the toxins out. So sweating is very good to do. Pooing is very important too. Okay, so a lot of kids that we see in our clinic are incredibly [00:12:00] constipated And when you've seen x rays, they've been absolutely stuffed full with constipation and very difficult to pass it out you know if you're very constipated that's going to keep the toxins in Equally if they don't drink much water or their water isn't it isn't filtered then again that can you know hamper the ability for the kidneys to detoxify.

[00:12:20] Lucinda Miller: Flush things out. Yeah, exactly. So we have these natural detoxification systems. Now, getting a little bit deeper, without blinding anyone with too much science, is that we have we make in our bodies an amazing thing called an antioxidant or a, and it's called glutathione. And glutathione is our master antioxidant that our body makes to be able to get rid of toxins, reduce inflammation in the body, which is things like pain and anything that's swollen skin or asthma or whatever.

[00:12:58] Lucinda Miller: It helps to prevent autoimmune [00:13:00] diseases like type one diabetes or multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis, et cetera. So basically it helps with those detox pathways and many neuro neurodivergent kids have a genetic predisposition, which means they find it very hard. And it's complicated.

[00:13:20] Lucinda Miller: There are various genes involved. The main one that people have heard of is called MTHFR, which is related to folic acid or folate, which comes from eating green vegetables. The other one that's very involved is B12, which tends to come from eggs and meat and fish. Now, what we find is, first of all, you may be genetically predisposed.

[00:13:41] Lucinda Miller: to not being able to make this glutathione very easily. But secondly, you may have, the exposure, overexposure within the home. Maybe there's a lot of lead in your paintwork or whatever, or you'll eat a lot of rice, which may have some arsenic in it or whatever that might be. And thirdly, You may not eat the foods that [00:14:00] help to create that glutathione.

[00:14:02] Lucinda Miller: So they may not eat their greens. They may not eat much meat or eggs or fish. Most neurodivergent kids I know, when they first start out with our clinic, they're eating a lot of pasta. Toast, cereal, milk, cheese, but they're not really eating beige food. Beige foods. Beige foods, beige crunchy foods. So this is something which is a hurdle and therefore that's why the toxic load can build up.

[00:14:25] Lucinda Miller: So when we do tests, whether it's a hair test or a urine test or whatever test we choose to do to find out whether, what this sort of toxic load might be, the parents are often quite shocked. By what is shown in the results. And that helps to motivate them too, cause they get, Oh my goodness, lead.

[00:14:43] Lucinda Miller: Okay. Lead reduces IQ. Lead could easily mean a developmental delay, for instance. And it's relatively easy over time to clear lead from the system. And that is obviously trying to remove it from your environment. And then. [00:15:00] Things like apple pectin, which comes from having lots of freshly squeezed apple juice, or eating apples and pears, lots of the zest from, and the pulp from lemon and limes and oranges.

[00:15:12] Lucinda Miller: Those delicious fruity. And most kids like fruit, so that's often quite a good way. You can use things called Epsom salts, which are magnesium salts in the bath, which help to detox a little bit. And then there are various different other sort of things like coriander. and running.

[00:15:29] Lucinda Miller: Saunas and sweating, exactly, and all of that. So that's why the sporty kid, sporty ADHD kid, is often going to improve their ADHD over time because they're sweating out the toxins. Yes. Yes. Things like coriander and parsley. So making lots of verdes and things like that and using those in your cooking and guacamole and things like that can also help to detox.

[00:15:55] Lucia Silver: Great. Wow. It's a it's a hell of a a universe, isn't it? To try and, to [00:16:00]think what's coming in from the air, what's coming in from the water, what's coming in from the diet. But I'd like to take us back again, Lucinda, to this feeling of overwhelm, because listening to this, you could, it would be understanding if you didn't want to walk out your front door with your little baby, the toxins in the air, the petrol, the this, the that, don't eat the plastic, don't have the, as you said, a credit card of plastic every week we're consuming.

[00:16:23] Lucia Silver: I often find, and I have been prone to a meltdown or two in Tesco's trying to work out how I could be gluten free, but not too much sugar. Dairy free, but not packed full of other crap in the milk to compensate for it not being dairy. Or added sugar to give taste, or this removed to give that. And I used to joke with friends that, taking the mickey out of nutritionists who say, For your smoothie, take the finest downy hair from the rarest Himalayan goat and mix it with the chia seeds planted only in August and sprinkled with organic cocoa powder from Ghana.

[00:16:56] Lucia Silver: That sort of idea of nutrition where people just go, I can't [00:17:00] consume this amount of information. I don't have time. It's expensive. So really what I think you are such a, an extraordinary queen of is breaking this down. It doesn't have to be hugely challenging. It doesn't have to be massively time consuming, and nor does it have to be outrageously expensive.

[00:17:19] Lucia Silver: There are some things that you can do straight away. For example, with organic food. One of your fantastic clinicians I heard speaking, actually, and said that you could put some fruit and vegetables in bicarbonate of soda in water to try and draw out some of the toxins. Because Half the time, organic is either too expensive or not even available for certain bits and pieces, so that might be one tip.

[00:17:44] Lucia Silver: Gluten free breads, again, very expensive, Lucinda, and often quite tasteless, so baking them might be an option. Could you talk us through a few things maybe from your own recipe books, or just some tips on quick wins that don't have you, like me, sobbing on the Tesco [00:18:00]supermarket floor because you just can't find anything that ticks all the boxes?

[00:18:04] Lucinda Miller: So my first tip is to cook from scratch as much as possible. So have good quality ingredients at home. I know it takes a little bit more thought and time and probably a bit more washing up to do. But if you've got, simple things you could have, I don't push the gluten free, dairy free diet at all, unless the child specifically needs that.

[00:18:26] Lucinda Miller: And we would normally run a urine test to understand whether that was something that was affecting their brain or not, for sure. So I'm not going to, I will touch on that towards the end, but I think really it's to have things that your child does like to eat. So for instance, you look at your child's typical day and think, okay, they like to have porridge for breakfast.

[00:18:50] Lucinda Miller: So first of all, you could soak the porridge oats the night before in some yogurt, in some apple juice, some nuts and seeds or whatever, [00:19:00] so that it's ready to go. So you don't, all you have to do is heat it up. You don't even need to cook it. You just literally heat it up and you, and it's ready to go. That could be an easy tip, but basically porridge.

[00:19:10] Lucinda Miller: My mother was slightly Scottish and she basically, our porridge would be porridge oats with water and then a bit of brown sugar on top. If I ate that, even as a young child, I remember feeling absolutely drained within ten minutes of eating it, almost wobbly, like blood sugar low, and I'd feel like I needed to go back to bed.

[00:19:31] Lucinda Miller: That's how bad I felt. Okay. And so I always assumed I just can't do oats. You know how you just assume that porridge is not my friend, right? And this is something I've worked out in my little mind, even from quite young, that was not going to work for me until I learned about supercharging porridge.

[00:19:49] Lucinda Miller: So first of all, you cook the porridge in whole Ideally organic, but whole full fat milk. Okay. So first of all, in there, you've got some really healthy [00:20:00] fats. You've got some good quality protein that's going to stabilize those oats. So you're not just getting all carbohydrate. You're getting a little nice balanced meal.

[00:20:09] Lucinda Miller: Cause we all know about a balanced plate. Don't we always, but we always think about supper time. You always think about, the broccoli and the potatoes and the meat, but you don't think about breakfast being a balanced meal at all. So first of all, that was helpful. Lucinda, 

[00:20:23] Lucia Silver: can I just interject there?

[00:20:25] Lucia Silver: Because I, that was such a revelation to me. Just remember your proteins at breakfast. Remember your proteins all the time. That's what we're looking for. So I broke, I've been breaking an egg into Quinn's porridge in the morning for that reason. And it's been feeling great because he's got an egg in his porridge because it's not just a bowl of oats.

[00:20:41] Lucia Silver: Is it, is that another thing we could do? 

[00:20:43] Lucinda Miller: Yes, that's just such a genius thing to do. So I was just going to say, so the first thing you would do is milk because you think, okay, that's, you're going to probably add a bit of milk at the end anyway, to cool it down. So they like that. That's normal for them.

[00:20:56] Lucinda Miller: The next thing that you can do is to get ground [00:21:00] seeds. So you can get blends. So a few chia seeds, black seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, whatever it might be, they literally taste of nothing. They're almost the same texture and color as the porridge. So even the fussiest eater, you can put that in and suddenly you're getting more protein in there.

[00:21:17] Lucinda Miller: You're getting the fiber to help them poo. You're, you're helping to nourish this thing called the gut microbiome. Almost immediately you're turning that porridge into something that may last them one or two hours. Even four hours, if you get enough of the seeds in, but you build it in slowly, you might put half a teaspoon in, then a teaspoon, because I know these kids can sense change very easily.

[00:21:40] Lucinda Miller: I got 

[00:21:40] Lucia Silver: caught out this morning, Lucinda, for putting chia and flaxseeds in the porridge. I thought, oh, I've got the egg in now, I've got the MCT oil in now, this is like protein fuel, this is brilliant, and I tried to get the flaxseeds in. What's this mummy? And I was like, Oh, I don't know, so I made it the same way as normal.

[00:21:56] Lucia Silver: It's I can taste something. I was like, darn. So yes, you do. You [00:22:00] have to do it bit by bit, don't you? You bit by 

[00:22:01] Lucinda Miller: bit. And another tip is almond butter or cashew butter. Cause again, they don't taste that much. Peanut butter obviously has a stronger taste, but if they like peanut butter, they might really like it and they might want to put banana in it or whatever.

[00:22:14] Lucinda Miller: Some love to have berries in there. The egg is a genius idea. And, it doesn't taste. It makes it slightly shinier, creamier. Yes, it's nicer. It is absolutely nicer. So that's a real win. And then because so many neurodivergent kids don't like the texture normally of egg. Some love it. That's great.

[00:22:34] Lucinda Miller: But there's an awful lot. I find it's one thing. So they'll have egg in cakes. They're not allergic, but they just. Don't like the texture of scrambled eggs or boiled eggs or whatever. Yeah. So this is a really good way to get it in. So that's what you can do with porridge. And then you can go, you can get quinoa flakes in.

[00:22:51] Lucinda Miller: You can get hazelnut butter. You can get cocoa powder in there. You can really make porridge fun. So if they're a porridge [00:23:00] kid, that is easy peasy. If they prefer more the crunchy side of things, this is something you may want to prepare the night before but you can make waffles, you can make pancakes, and again you've got the egg, you can get ground almonds in there, you can get yogurt, you can get grated carrot, you can get grated courgette, so that's the next step, but waffles seem to be one.

[00:23:23] Lucinda Miller: of the best wins. Probably my most popular recipes have been waffles. Oh 

[00:23:28] Lucia Silver: look that one up. We actually shared on our newsletter, Lucinda your buttermilk pancake recipe. It's going out this weekend, so we're excited about that one, but I will definitely look up the waffles because they, it's treat looking food is also, how the food looks and presents is a big part of the win as well, isn't it?

[00:23:44] Lucia Silver: As long as it doesn't look like a broccoli, if it looks like a sort of naughty pudding, you got, you're halfway there, aren't you? 

[00:23:52] Lucinda Miller: Absolutely, and you can make it a full meal, the proteins, the carbs, the fats, you've got the, you've got zinc, you've got [00:24:00] magnesium, you've got omega 3, you can get it all in the veggies, all into a waffle.

[00:24:04] Lucinda Miller: And that's what's so fantastic. And if they're not that hungry when they wake up in the morning, which a lot of neurodivergent kids are. are not quite ready for breakfast, even though they need fuel before, before school. You can, they can munch on a waffle in the car or walking to school even, because it's easy.

[00:24:23] Lucinda Miller: They do take a bit of time to make. That's why I said do them the night before, doing them at the weekend. They freeze beautifully. You can just pop them in the toaster to defrost and warm up, ready to go. They're one of those great things. And because And most of them associate waffles with something rather treaty, as you said, so they think it's rather fun.

[00:24:38] Lucinda Miller: And it's crunchy and it's beige. Perfect. It's crunchy and it's beige. Yeah, absolutely. So that's breakfast and I think breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Okay ding, note that everybody, breakfast is the most important. Especially for neurodivergent kids. So first of all, if they're on ADHD medication, [00:25:00] within half an hour of taking that ADHD medication, their appetite will completely disappear until the medication wears off.

[00:25:05] Lucinda Miller: So this means they probably won't have that much lunch. And the biggest worry for parents about ADHD medications is them not growing. And losing weight because they're missing out on at least one meal a day. So that's where really supercharging breakfast is key, especially for those kids, however, generally remember almost all the academic work that's done at school and the most demands on a child's brain.

[00:25:33] Lucinda Miller: is in the morning. So even if it means you have to get up 10 minutes early to make sure breakfast is really substantial, then that it is worth that 10 minutes because they will find school so much easier. So not only will they do better at school, not only will they probably eat better lunch at school as well because they'll be less strung out by lunchtime, but also they'll be much easier to manage after school because that blood sugar Which basically [00:26:00] you're maintaining with this slow release food over the morning.

[00:26:04] Lucinda Miller: It will last through till about 3, 3 pm if they had a little bit of food in between. And that means when you pick them up, they're not just going to raid the Oreos or the crisps. Yes, and crash. They're going to actually be totally happy to have a banana, get home, have the hummus and the carrots or whatever, rather than rather than just just being a nightmare because the dysregulated child after school is Such hard work.

[00:26:28] Lucinda Miller: It 

[00:26:28] Lucia Silver: is such hard work. And actually, I have such a sense of calm waving Quinn goodbye in the mornings because he's had this amazing breakfast. I look at it, I think, how did you get all that down your huge smoothie with all the goodies in it, the porridge with the egg in it? He's full. So if for any reason, he's rushing his lunch down footy.

[00:26:48] Lucia Silver: He might not eat as well at lunchtime, but he's managed because his breakfast was hearty. So by the time I get him at 3. 15, I'm ready there with the protein again. So it is very much [00:27:00] about thinking in advance, preparing in advance as much as you can so that you're not caught short and you're suddenly, I'm starving after school and you're running into a corner shop and picking up something.

[00:27:11] Lucia Silver: Full of sugar, which brings me on to actually, before I do, could you quickly, cause this is my promise to my listeners and our followers to keep things simple. You mentioned gut microbiome, and I was about to ask you about it anyway. Would you mind just briefly explaining it, the gut microbiome, 

[00:27:27] Lucinda Miller: please? Yes, so inside our bellies, inside our gut and intestines, there is a, an important ecosystem full of billions and billions of bacteria.

[00:27:40] Lucinda Miller: So many bacteria that this is thought that we are, there are actually more like more bacteria in our guts than there are cells in our bodies. So that's how many bacteria we have in our bellies. We've always thought that our gut, what does it do? It digests food. It makes poo. That's it, isn't it? [00:28:00] But actually a lot more.

[00:28:02] Lucinda Miller: So this gut microbiome helps with digestion. So it helps to digest certain foods. So like milk and dairy, for instance. It helps to make B vitamins. If your family is plant based you're not eating much meat. Then the B vitamins are very critical to make within the gut. It also helps to dial down something called inflammation in the body and inflammation can be manifested as anything from brain fog, to rage, to mood swings, to eczema, to asthma, to, to aches and pains.

[00:28:33] Lucinda Miller: So it really helps with all of those things. But where this is linked to the brain, this is where it's critical. Is these gut bacteria Help to make something called neurotransmitters and neurotransmitters are brain chemicals. We've probably all heard of something called serotonin. Serotonin helps us sleep, helps us poop, but puts us in a good mood.

[00:28:57] Lucinda Miller: And 90 to 95 percent [00:29:00] of that serotonin is made in the gut by that gut bacteria. It also, the gut bacteria also makes things like dopamine, which is very important if your child has any kind of focus issues, impulsivity, maybe ADHD. Also it helps to make acetylcholine. So if your child has any working memory issues, processing issues, self regulation, emotional regulation issues, then acetylcholine is key.

[00:29:25] Lucinda Miller: So nourishing that gut microbiome is really key. How do you do that? Ideally, you would do that by consuming fermented and cultured foods, things like live yogurts, kefirs, maybe a splash of apple cider vinegar in a bolognese, maybe some miso these sorts of foods. There are things like sauerkraut and kimchi.

[00:29:46] Lucinda Miller: I know they're not massively children friendly, so I don't generally, I just think start with the things that are relatively straightforward. Obviously, a lot of kids are dairy free, so they can't have them. So if they've been on [00:30:00] antibiotics, which can wipe out the gut microbiome, so even though it gets rid of the bad bacteria you don't want, it also can kill quite a lot of the good bacteria that helps to make these neurotransmitters.

[00:30:08] Lucinda Miller: I often suggest a probiotic supplement, especially if their diet is very limited. The other way to help create a diverse and really flourishing gut microbiome that helps to create these neurotransmitters is also to eat a vast range, wide range of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, et cetera, whole grains, pulses.

[00:30:32] Lucinda Miller: And these, especially the fruits and vegetables, the brightly colored pigments in these. So think of carrots, you've got orange carrots, you've got purple carrots, you've got yellow carrots. Those have all got different polyphenols or different pigments. And those will all nourish the gut microbiome in a slightly different way.

[00:30:49] Lucia Silver: Okay. It's good to know, like a rainbow plate, if we can think of things simply, just make sure it's as colorful as possible and unprocessed. 

[00:30:56] Lucinda Miller: Absolutely. So obviously, where do you get [00:31:00] blocks with this? You might get blocks if the child is very highly selective eater, won't eat any fruit and veg, is dairy free, been on lots of antibiotics, maybe even had reflux medications, because those again can reduce the diversity in the gut.

[00:31:13] Lucinda Miller: Maybe there may be presence of things like parasites, Or other bacterial infections, again, which can cause an imbalance in the gut. So that's what we do in our clinic as a primary part of our work. We might run a gut microbiome test to see whether there are enough of the good guys. What about the bad guys?

[00:31:32] Lucinda Miller: Is the digestion working well? Is the absorption working well? Etc. And then we work on that very individually. But the things that I've just talked about are things that you can do day to day by even if it's, as I said, even if it's just grating a little bit of courgette into the bolognese or whatever it might be will help or smushing in some red lentils into a tomato sauce will still help getting an extra.

[00:31:56] Lucinda Miller: little extra vegetable into a sauce will help. [00:32:00] So even if it's using lentil pasta or, whatever it might be, trying to get different types in will help to nourish this gut microbiome. 

[00:32:07] Lucia Silver: That's fantastic. And to hide it a little bit as well, just a trick on that, that I've been doing recently is I've been throwing a lot of the Bolognese sauce into my Nutribullet where the famous smoothies are being made in the morning and I'm hiding all of those vegetables in there in the tomato sauce.

[00:32:24] Lucia Silver: So he's getting it all in and then I cook it up with his grass fed organic mince, which is my one big expenditure to get the organic meat in. And he loves it and it's got broccoli, it's got courgettes, it's got every green. Dream of getting down crib, but all hidden. So that, is that something we could do as well?

[00:32:42] Lucia Silver: Just smush it in so they don't see it? 

[00:32:45] Lucinda Miller: Absolutely. So if your child will have sauces, some will not have any sauce. They will not have a bolognese. They will not have a tomato sauce. Nothing. Yeah. We see kids like that. And in fact, the recipe coming out on Sunday, which I'm really excited about, is a pizza.

[00:32:58] Lucinda Miller: Ooh. And it's [00:33:00] a red lentil base pizza. 

[00:33:02] Lucia Silver: Do you have to be a brilliant cook for that, 

[00:33:04] Lucinda Miller: Lucinda? No, not at all. You soak the lentils, you turn it into a batter, you form it into pizza bases and that's it. It's really easy. No rising involved, no three day ferment, anything like that. And this weekend it was some black bean and beetroot muffins.

[00:33:20] Lucinda Miller: So again, they literally taste like normal chocolate muffins. But they were just full and packed of goodness. So this is where, this is what we, what I try and do. I try and create recipes where there's a bit of a sticking point, where the child won't eat vegetables, they won't eat fiber, they won't, all these things and, trying to find really great ways to get it in.

[00:33:41] Lucinda Miller: Because I know how important it is. And we've seen these microbiome tests. We've seen how low and depleted these microbiomes are. And of course, as I said, they're the building blocks. for what goes on in the brain. How does this gut bacteria, these neurotransmitters, basically the neurotransmitters that are in the gut, [00:34:00] the serotonin, the acetylcholine, GABA, the, all dopamine, etc.

[00:34:04] Lucinda Miller: that's made in the gut. This is thought. To either go into the bloodstream and up to the brain that way, or through amazing nerve in the body called the vagus nerve, which connects the back of the brain to the gut. It's a really long wandering nerve. Oh, 

[00:34:19] Lucia Silver: the body, the most important little 

[00:34:21] Lucinda Miller: big big fella, really.

[00:34:23] Lucinda Miller: Exactly, the big fella. And think of it as a superhighway sending signals up and down. And apparently about 10 to 20 percent of the signals from the brain. Go down the vagus nerve to the gut, but 80 to 90 percent go from the gut to the brain. So what's going on in the gut is more influential than the brain.

[00:34:45] Lucinda Miller: That what's going on in the brain is influential in the gut, if so that's why it's super important. 

[00:34:49] Lucia Silver: Hence the brain gut link. And we will be speaking to someone in a few weeks time from the Brain Gut Institute. And I think the more we can see. Your world and our world, the primitive reflex world, the [00:35:00] building of the correct foundations for the brain, alongside what we're putting into the gut, which affects autoimmunity, which affects mood regulation, which affects everything.

[00:35:09] Lucia Silver: With those two partners in crime, if we can understand their interrelation, I think we are some way towards addressing the root cause of many of the Symptoms that we're seeing with ADHD, attention, emotional regulation, concentration, meltdowns, and so forth. What about triggers and troublemakers, Lucinda?

[00:35:27] Lucia Silver: I wanted to touch on these because I see sweeties being handed out all the time. And sometimes I think our parents. just unaware of what actually happens. I call it the great Satan sugar. We know young kids love it. We know you can't strip it out completely. But could you talk to us a little bit, please, about the effect of sugar and then what we can do to replace it in scrummy yummy ways?

[00:35:55] Lucia Silver: Quinn now opens the cupboard with this chocolate that I bought from your wonderful website. He's can I [00:36:00] have the health? And I'm like, I give him a little bit now knowing that I'm not going to send his blood sugar levels through the roof. But would you mind just taking us back a little bit and talking about 

[00:36:09] Lucinda Miller: our brains all do need glucose, OK?

[00:36:12] Lucinda Miller: They need glucose to work, but we can get glucose from many different sources. A carrot, a sweet potato, even tomatoes apples, pears, these all will give you some glucose. Okay, it might be via fructose, through the fruit, but basically we're going to get sugar through, through food. And most of the time if we eat some kind of carbohydrate or some kind of sugar, that will be enough for our brains.

[00:36:41] Lucinda Miller: And I think children for centuries have always had, a little bit of sweet tooth, been given little bits of sweeties here and there, little bits of cake here and there, and that's very normal. However, sweets were normally given as a pudding, after food rather than [00:37:00] a snack in the middle of the day.

[00:37:02] Lucinda Miller: And it's, there's quite a lot of research to show that Kids that are, have ADHD, have dyslexia, dyspraxia, sensory processing, autism, are much more prone to developing things like type 2 diabetes and other metabolic illness that is associated with blood sugar dysregulation. Goodness. And. Personally, I have ADHD, and one of my biggest challenges has been to get my blood sugars properly balanced.

[00:37:37] Lucinda Miller: My mother had both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, so it, I'm, and I'm built metabolically exactly like her. So I do know that is my biggest challenge, and when my brain is empty of glucose, I cannot think straight. But when I feed it the right foods I was going back to the porridge. So that is why when I [00:38:00] ate the porridge that was made with water and brown sugar, my blood sugars my pancreas could not cope.

[00:38:07] Lucinda Miller: It spiked far too much insulin to cope with that. And then I got this really low blood sugar. So I think a lot of kids with neurodivergence. You will associate with them getting very hangry, very easily. If lunch is delayed, they get very ratty, often mid morning during lessons, they might become very distracted and it's partly because they haven't got enough sugar in their brain.

[00:38:31] Lucinda Miller: So it's not about whether they have sugar or not, it's all about a balance. So if you can get a porridge in, as I said, with the nut butters, with the egg, with the seeds, whatever, the whole milk in there, then that's going to balance their blood sugars all morning so that their energy and their focus will be very sort of wax and wane, slow, little hills, right?

[00:38:55] Lucinda Miller: Whereas if they were to have the porridge with the water and the brown sugar or the honey, [00:39:00] they are literally going to have pure glucose spike and it's going to go up steep like a mountain and then shooting down as fast as like going down a black run and then up again and down again. And that is where their focus will be out.

[00:39:12] Lucinda Miller: And they'll be, this is why they get so tired by the end of the day. Yes, and dysregulated. Absolutely. Dysregulated emotions is often dysregulated blood sugars. 

[00:39:21] Lucia Silver: Absolutely. In an ideal world, you would regulate their systems to the extent, as we all know, once you've got a balanced diet and you're feeling good, you stop craving a lot of the stuff that's naughty anyway, don't you?

[00:39:31] Lucia Silver: You don't seek the sugar because it's come in healthful ways outside of that. But given the little challenge of the treats that our kids do love, if we're trying to buy healthy chocolate, healthier chocolate, what are the ingredients we're looking for in the chocolate? We're looking for it to not have the processed refined sugars, or we're looking for it to be more higher raw cocoa content.

[00:39:53] Lucia Silver: And I want to know what I can buy for my little guy and treat him. What gets the thumbs up 

[00:39:59] Lucinda Miller: from you? [00:40:00] So Not all kids love dark chocolate, but they can become acclimatized to it over time. Okay. So I would start with probably, 55%, then go to 60, then try and find 65, 70, then you might go up to 85. I think probably above that is really quite bitter.

[00:40:21] Lucinda Miller: It's quite unique too. You're 

[00:40:22] Lucia Silver: quite sneaky, aren't you, Lucinda? Bit 

[00:40:24] Lucinda Miller: by bit. Bit by bit . So the higher the choc high, higher the cocoa content, the more polyphenols, the more goodness, the more magnesium. All the really good parts of dark chocolate turns my brain on. I get hyper focus all day.

[00:40:41] Lucinda Miller: I have found it better than almost any other thing I've tried. In terms of, so chocolate is my friend personally. And so therefore I'm a big fan. So it's not about chocolate. So you can use things like cocoa powder, so raw cacao powder, which I bought from your [00:41:00] site, which is fabulous. You can use it in baking.

[00:41:02] Lucinda Miller: So it's not about the chocolate, but unfortunately, most confectionery chocolate tends to be 35 percent chocolate and the rest is sugar and, skimmed milk powder, which again is often taking, making it more sugary. Or a sugar hit. So really what I would do is to, as I said, get the best chocolate you can, build up the darkness, include, you can mix it with fruit.

[00:41:31] Lucinda Miller: So we often will get, say a date. Maybe put some almond butter in it, coat it with some melted chocolate, maybe put even a raspberry in there or something like that. And again, that makes the darkness of the chocolate seem less dark because there's a bit of sweetness. Yes. And then the chocolates you were talking about that we stock at nature.

[00:41:51] Lucinda Miller: shop. It's by the raw chocolate company and these are amazing because they just use coconut sugar, which has a much lower [00:42:00] Hit on the blood glucose. So table sugar, which is what they would use normally in say Mars bells, whatever That will have a glycemic index hit on the blood sugar I'll talk about percentages because it's easy, 85%, whereas coconut, sugar, honey, and maple syrup is more like 60, 65.

[00:42:22] Lucinda Miller: So it's still going to give it a hit, but it's a bit less, a bit more controlled release. So that mountain is not quite so steep. Okay. And then they coat things like mulberries. Goji berries, almonds, ginger. And so you've got that sort of sweetness and they really, and kids seem to really like them and they're quite small, so they could just have a few, you could, they look like large raisins, if so they're like chocolate raisins, chocolate yogurts, those little yes. Yes. I sprinkle them. Yeah, exactly. Or you could sprinkle them. So that's why. I particularly love them and mulberries [00:43:00]are full of iron. Goji berries are full of antioxidants, so they've got protein in both of them.

[00:43:06] Lucinda Miller: So they're good, nice, balanced little kind of snacks. They're not the only ones on the market, obviously. But it's just looking to see how. For instance, if you are giving chocolate, or even if you're giving fruit, try and balance that snack with something that's got good levels of protein and healthy fats.

[00:43:26] Lucinda Miller: So it might be, I'm going to give you some chocolate, but I'm going to give you some almonds, or some hazelnuts, or some pecans. Or I'm going to give you an apple and a couple of chunks of cheddar. Or you're going to have some carrot sticks because they say carrots turn into glucose too. You could give them some hummus.

[00:43:42] Lucinda Miller: So that's where, and this is where one of my bugbears, and it's just one of those things that you and I don't know how old you are, I think way younger than me but the way we were brought up was in the, with the low fat mentality. Yes. So healthy snacks have been seen [00:44:00] to be fruit. Raisins.

[00:44:02] Lucinda Miller: Breadsticks. Rice cakes. Things like that. And where's the protein? Where's the protein? Where's the healthy fat? Yep. So this is where We have been duped into thinking these are healthy snacks. Yes, they are, they're missing a lot of the ultra processing, which, obviously we do want to avoid, but still, they're still all carbohydrate.

[00:44:26] Lucinda Miller: Yes, and so if your child's had Cheerios with oat milk for breakfast, which is super high glycemic index And then they've got rice cakes and some grapes for break time 

[00:44:38] Lucia Silver: They're literally crashing and burning minutes afterwards 

[00:44:41] Lucinda Miller: at school, aren't they? Exactly. Exactly. So it's very hard because schools are very strict now on snacks.

[00:44:48] Lucinda Miller: And they may not allow some of these things. So that's where the breakfast is so key because you can't rely on the snacks because, we used to have when we were young, we'd have a little bottle of milk. That was probably pretty [00:45:00] warm and horrid, but it was still, it was still had some protein and healthy fat in there, which we're not getting anymore.

[00:45:05] Lucinda Miller: So yeah, so snacks really is to probably have a little kind of box of little compartments so that when you're out and about, they can pick out on lots of different parts of that. 

[00:45:15] Lucia Silver: Oh, that's so helpful. Lucinda, we've got some quickfire questions, but I'm going to challenge you, if you can, to try and answer these in just a couple of minutes, if you can, from our wonderful parents who knew you were coming on.

[00:45:27] Lucia Silver: If it's okay, could I ask you a few of those questions? Yes, absolutely. I'll give it a go. Okay. You've touched on this a little bit, but perhaps not in with regards so fully to supplements. What are your top supplements for major emotional dysregulation? 

[00:45:41] Lucinda Miller: Okie dokes. It depends on age, obviously, but I'm going to give you from six, seven plus.

[00:45:46] Lucinda Miller: Okay. So one of my favorites is something called theanine or L theanine. It comes in little apple gummies or capsules, depending on age. And this is the same effect that you would have having [00:46:00] had a cup of tea, but without the caffeine. If you've had a big shock, someone says, have a nice cup of tea, dear.

[00:46:05] Lucinda Miller: And afterwards, the shaking's gone, you've calmed down. And it's because the tea contains this theanine, which acts on a neurotransmitter in the brain called GABA, G A B A. And this gives you that sort of zen like calm feeling. Theanine can be absolutely life changing and it works pretty quickly on the system.

[00:46:27] Lucinda Miller: So what's 

[00:46:27] Lucia Silver: dysregulated, Lucinda, just to be clear? It's have it to calm down as opposed to preventatively? Both. 

[00:46:34] Lucinda Miller: Both, okay. You can get into routine of giving them one or two at breakfast, one or two when you pick them up from school, to help through the bumps along the way. Also, equally, sometimes these kids are predictably unpredictable and therefore, if you've got a few in a little pot in your bag and, there is a major meltdown, it might just help them to regulate and for you to get out of a dangerous [00:47:00] space.

[00:47:01] Lucia Silver: Wow, that's fantastic. Incidentally, as we go through, just to let our listeners know, we are going to be producing the top tips and a fantastic free guide on everything that Lucinda's saying, so that you'll be able to download that from the show notes. If you're frantically taking notes, I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but know that we'll have this all for you afterwards.

[00:47:18] Lucia Silver: Second question. Once you have removed dairy and gluten from what has clinically been shown as stress induced IBS from my gastroenterologist, what else could you do? Now, before you answer that, I think it's super interesting, Lucinda, that we're talking about the brain gut link, the links between our world at the Brain Health Development where we're Brain health movement where we're looking at foundational movements to help work with the neuroplasticity of the brain to build those healthy foundations in conjunction with diet.

[00:47:52] Lucia Silver: IBS has just recently, which is Irritable Bowel Syndrome for any of our listeners that aren't aware of what that is, has recently been given another name. I was reading [00:48:00] last night, which is Disorder of the Gut Brain. interaction, which is very much the heartland of of what you and I've been talking about throughout this podcast.

[00:48:09] Lucia Silver: So interesting this question is IBS. So what else could be done beyond removing some of the irritants for this? It's a young teenage lady. Her mother was asking on her behalf. 

[00:48:23] Lucinda Miller: So the reason why the foods will have been suggested to is because the gut's immune system has tagged them as aliens as such, as in really struggling to digest and break down the proteins that are quite tough proteins to break down, which are the gluten and dairy ones.

[00:48:39] Lucinda Miller: So this is why they often are the foods that people need to take out if they've got an irritable bowel. But what you always think it's not the food's fault that actually over time, wouldn't it be wonderful for them to have a broader diet and not have to stick to these things? That's our mission with NatureDoc is to get kids other than the severely anaphylactic kids and the [00:49:00] kids with celiac disease.

[00:49:01] Lucinda Miller: You want to be able to get them to be able to have at least a small amount sometimes and not have fear of food. Absolutely. So the things that you can do to heal that gut is first of all, to have something called bone broth, which is where you make a really rich stock from your chicken bones from a Sunday lunch.

[00:49:19] Lucinda Miller: And you try and incorporate that into your child's diet as much as possible. So that could be so we've got actually in two weeks time, a new recipe coming out. It's one with miso soup. It's like a miso soup, but it's got the bone broth in it. Delish. You can add it to bolognese, you can add it to tomato sauces, you can make soups.

[00:49:36] Lucinda Miller: And this in itself is incredibly healing on the gut. Eating lots of grass fed butter if they're able to have a little bit of dairy. Sometimes they can have ghee, which is the clarified butter, which seems to have none of the allergens. And then also the probiotics that I spoke about earlier, some in themselves.

[00:49:54] Lucinda Miller: We get on my Instagram, I get stories. Amazing change around stories so [00:50:00] quickly once the probiotics have been put in. I've got lots of like skin pictures, which are much easier than explaining the gut changes. But, as in, things change really quite quickly when the microbiome is supported.

[00:50:12] Lucinda Miller: So I would do that. And then again, to reduce the gas and the bloating, which often is associated with the IBS by using things like fennel tea. Ginger teas, lots of ginger in the food, peppermint tea, et cetera. So those things are all very calming. 

[00:50:29] Lucia Silver: That's a great list. We'll make sure we get that down. And also the links to which products they can buy from Nature Dog.

[00:50:34] Lucia Silver: As far as probiotics are concerned, we'll make sure we get those from you too. Lucinda, what sort of effects can we expect in relation? You'll love this to alcohol and teens if they were to be drinking. This question's brilliant. Are there any alcoholic drinks that are worse than 

[00:50:49] Lucinda Miller: others? Okay, so first of all my children's schools have been very proactive when it's come to teen age, alcohol [00:51:00] intake.

[00:51:00] Lucinda Miller: And essentially they recommend to all parents that the teens do not drink until they're 16 because they're, it's going to. do some degree of damage to their brains. Okay. Even though this is relatively new information, it's still important. So they will then, suggest that maybe one or two drinks a week after the age of 16, it's good to get into the sort of routine of it.

[00:51:21] Lucinda Miller: However, the reality, having got two teens, two kids out of teenage now, they're a bit older and one in teens, you've got this, the reality of teenagers, they're pushing the boundaries. Yes. One thing that you can do is. To have alcohol free beer in the fridge because they often don't know the difference.

[00:51:41] Lucinda Miller: Love that. And there is low alcohol wine as well. And ciders and things like that. So that is, I've been to a new year where the kids were, thought they were all really drunk and they literally, yeah. But what's really interesting neurodivergence is I think, especially the ADHD side of things, there can be a [00:52:00] craving and sometimes the brain can feel much better.

[00:52:04] Lucinda Miller: Initially when they've had a drink. So there's a kid we, I look after he's not a kid anymore. I think he's 19. He's had severe OCD and anxiety since he was 12 and has not been able to get to school. Okay. He's seen a lot. He's got a great psychiatrist now. He's under some really good care.

[00:52:22] Lucinda Miller: We've been helping too. And it was only when he was 18 and he had first drink that for about 24 hours, all his anxiety. An OCD went away, or almost, he was in a much better place. And But the problem is, that is not a good long term solution. Anyway, we did some genetic testing and we discovered he's got a gene, which means that his brain responds really well to the GABA, which I was talking about that's in the tea.

[00:52:53] Lucinda Miller: Yes. You get this GABA rush when you first have an alcoholic drink, which puts you in that calm state. Later on in the [00:53:00] night, you get the toxicity obviously from the alcohol, but that first sort of couple of hours is why you feel good on it. And anyway, we've basically been mimicking that effect using antioxidants like rosemary, sage, thyme.

[00:53:16] Lucinda Miller: etc. But also we found a non alcoholic drink and I think it's called something like Sentia or Sentia S E N T I A, I think it is. And these are basically give you a lovely feeling of alcohol, that GABA feeling, but without any alcohol in there. Wow. 

[00:53:36] Lucia Silver: That would be amazing to get our young teens onto that, wouldn't it?

[00:53:40] Lucia Silver: Next question. Apart from magnesium and B6, what else can you give a child for misophonia? And for our listeners, that is a disorder that reacts emotionally or physiologically to sounds or noises of some order. And it's a very specific question, Lucinda. Are you 

[00:53:58] Lucinda Miller: able to help with that at all? [00:54:00] Yes, I wrote a blog specifically on this and I have expanded it more in Brain Brilliance as I said, which is coming out at the end of August.

[00:54:08] Lucinda Miller: In terms of actual research and what I write in blogs, what I write in books, all are evidence based. So it's where there is research to back up what I've said. Okay. However, I think in this environment, we're talking about clinical experience, as well as what is published in a paper where it's involved.

[00:54:28] Lucinda Miller: What 

[00:54:31] Lucia Silver: you literally see coming in and coming out as a result of your protocols and approaches. Yes, 

[00:54:37] Lucinda Miller: exactly. One of the, so obviously magnesium and B6 both work neurologically to calm down an overactive neurological system and helps to rebalance the brain. Hypersensitivities or hyperarousals.

[00:54:52] Lucinda Miller: Okay. Another nutrient which we find really works, which works quite well as a trio, is zinc. And zinc is the [00:55:00] second most abundant mineral in the central nervous system. I think Zinc would add, would be a really good addition to those two. Thank you. There is also a mushroom called Lion's Mane that a lot of people take for cognitive support, and the research would say that it is very good for cognitive decline.

[00:55:22] Lucinda Miller: We're talking about later on in life where you may be thinking you're becoming more forgetful, etc. Maybe for, the beginnings of dementia, etc. It could be very helpful. There's less research or almost none on ADHD and so forth. However, a lot of people with ADHD and a lot of people with these hearing irregularities like tinnitus or whatever will find that taking lion's mane will help over time to help rebalance that nervous system.

[00:55:54] Lucinda Miller: and that response. So that is the other thing to try, even though there's no specific [00:56:00] direct effect that I could cite in terms of a reference, story, a study, but it's something that our clients have found have made a massive difference. Great. So 

[00:56:11] Lucia Silver: lion's mate and zinc. Thank you. Second to last question.

[00:56:15] Lucia Silver: I have just been diagnosed with ADHD as well as fibromyalgia. This is a late teenager. Is there something that I can do nutritionally to manage both? I am medicated for both, but I really feel I need something more natural. 

[00:56:31] Lucinda Miller: This is a very common link. A lot of parents We'll have, say the mum has fibromyalgia and the child has ADHD or autism and it's very well documented in studies.

[00:56:45] Lucinda Miller: Okay. And we are now seeing more and more, especially girls for some reason, and it seems to affect women more than men that you've got both. You've got this ADHD and fibromyalgia or autism and fibromyalgia.[00:57:00] And when that happens, you're thinking, this is probably driven by. This. overall information in the body.

[00:57:09] Lucinda Miller: Up until a few years ago, it was thought that the brain is not affected by the body, that there's something called a blood brain barrier that protects the brain from what is going on in the body, and it's like a Berlin Wall. And the protection, but actually over the last few years, they've discovered that scientists have discovered that in fact, the brain, blood brain barrier can become very permeable.

[00:57:33] Lucinda Miller: And therefore, and there's also an immune system in the brain, and they're also inflammatory cells in the brain. And essentially, if the body is inflamed. Fibromyalgia is a deep pain in the muscles. It's not like a joint pain. It's a sort of heavy, deep, chronic, dull, you feel very low energy, etc.

[00:57:53] Lucinda Miller: But equally, you will probably have brain fog, you'll probably find really struggle with focus, etc. And My thoughts [00:58:00] with this is that we're looking at an inflammation picture and therefore you would want to probably adopt the principles of a Mediterranean diet, which are all anti inflammatory, so lots of fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, olive oil, garlic, herbs, spices, et cetera.

[00:58:16] Lucinda Miller: You'd want to probably bring in lots of turmeric, magnesium. Omega 3 and then there's an amazing supplement called PEA and PEA is one of the strongest anti inflammatories that you can take and will help often with both things. There's been evidence that it will show with deep pain, but also it will help with, this ADHD brain.

[00:58:37] Lucinda Miller: So those together, obviously one of my team can really navigate this properly for you. But in the meantime, start by eating a really good Mediterranean diet, cut out the ultra processed foods, really cut from scratch, really brighten up that plate with the rainbow foods, get lots of omega 3 foods in like salmon and sardines and mackerel and see [00:59:00] how you feel.

[00:59:00] Lucinda Miller: It could really help. And it, because you're so young. It's something that could ease itself up relatively quickly. And can be fine tuned. I'm not promising, I'm not promising miracles, but I, it's amazing a young body and a young brain can adapt quite easily. 

[00:59:15] Lucia Silver: Absolutely. And I think you touched on a very important point there, Lucinda, and certainly for me, that we get out of touch with what feels good to our bodies.

[00:59:25] Lucia Silver: I think some of us live with gripey tummies and live with sort of latent headaches and really to just get back in touch with what feels good as you're eating, just listen to your body if you can. Quinn is becoming much more connected to his body now. So as he's eating, he can describe that he's feeling a good energy or he's feeling apathetic or he's feeling bloated or he's feeling uncomfortable.

[00:59:49] Lucia Silver: And that mechanism, again, gut brain connection, just the vagal nerve, making sure that we're actually communicating between what's going on for ourselves is a big part of the [01:00:00] picture as well. Just reconnect with yourself. 

[01:00:03] Lucinda Miller: Absolutely. Going back to the beginning of this podcast, we were just talking about, is this normal or not normal to have these symptoms?

[01:00:12] Lucinda Miller: As you said, it's connecting with your body, whether it's you as a neurodivergent listening to this podcast or a parent of a neurodivergent child to help them, if possible, to connect with their body and just say, you know what, every time I eat sweet potato, I feel lousy. It's not suiting you. It's not your friend right now.

[01:00:31] Lucinda Miller: It doesn't mean it will be forever. It may be because you've not combining it with the right foods. It may be the actual food. Every time you eat tomato, you start sneezing, itchy eyes. Again, you may be having too many, maybe switch to red peppers instead. So there are different, it's basically being in tune and saying that just, and even if you've got twins, you might have twins who can eat slightly different foods.

[01:00:53] Lucinda Miller: They've got different microbiomes. They've got slightly different kind of setup. And, so it's just to be. Really tune in [01:01:00] with yourselves or your child rather than to rely on what is said on the internet. Because one thing is a journalist is going to write a very general picture.

[01:01:11] Lucinda Miller: It might be about one person or someone that's a blogger. So we'll write about themselves. Their take on life. And very often people, especially if they've got a bit of, that sort of autistic slant to their brain, which is very black and white, they can't see the broader picture. And I think it's really important to realize that just because your spouse can drink three cups of coffee and still sleep really well at night.

[01:01:40] Lucinda Miller: And you can't even have two sips without being wired all day. That's because you have goals. different genetic differences, you are wired differently. And it's just learning to accept what is right for you individually. And as I said, I don't think it's the food's fault. And I think over time, if you get the gut microbiome working [01:02:00] well, the nutrition up to speed, the inflammation down, and very often you can start weaving in these foods again.

[01:02:05] Lucinda Miller: I had to be gluten free for nearly 25 years and I can now eat gluten pretty regularly without any problems at all. Wow. 

[01:02:13] Lucia Silver: My, my partner in crime here at the Brain Health Movement, Connah was the same with dairy. She had a sensitivity for quite a while and then was able to reintroduce it and then had to take it out.

[01:02:22] Lucia Silver: And so I think that it's an evolving picture. And the most important thing for us is to understand that we can go back and heal. Slowly, little steps. It's empowering and it's exciting and it's inspiring to hear how you are seeing this day in day out, Lucinda, the power of eating well, the power of giving the body what it needs so that it can eventually accept.

[01:02:45] Lucia Silver: a whole spectrum of foods. Why should we be limited? We all want to enjoy our food. We all want to be relaxed and celebratory about what we eat. So that's where we all want to get back to. Nobody enjoys restriction and diet. We all want to tuck in, don't we? [01:03:00] Absolutely. So Lucinda, thank you so much.

[01:03:03] Lucia Silver: This has been an absolute cornucopia of incredible information. We could talk to you for hours and I hope that we'll be able to invite you back and we are going to be waiting with bated breath for your Brain Brilliance, your book, coming out this summer and we'll certainly be sharing more information on it when it is ready to be purchased.

[01:03:25] Lucia Silver: In the meantime where should parents seek professional guidance? And just a quick word on functional medicine. What does it mean really? What does your organization offer as a naturopath and as a functional?

[01:03:38] Lucinda Miller: As a naturopath we're basically, we're a team of naturopaths and nutritional therapists. We are very diet led. To begin with, we're trying to improve diet, improve nutrition. So we will do tests. We'll do lab tests if needed. We don't have to do them, that's really helpful if you want to really hone in on exactly what is going on inside the child, because [01:04:00] often they can't.

[01:04:01] Lucinda Miller: Articulate what is going on inside. So sometimes you can't guess and you want to have that information. So functional medicine is first of all, looking at diet, lifestyle, sleep, stress control all of the things that you would have heard about in terms of wellness, but with the added. of being evidence based in that you've done some lab test work.

[01:04:22] Lucinda Miller: Exactly what the primary things are to focus in on. And as I said, the guesswork's taken out. And yeah, so we are a team of 25 nutritional therapists and naturopaths. We're based in the UK. We do have one in Ireland. Just outside Dublin. We also have a Nature Doc who's just moved to Australia.

[01:04:43] Lucinda Miller: So we are expanding around the world slowly. And we all specialize in women's health and children's health. We do see men as well, but we mainly do women's health and children's health. So the website is naturedoc. com. We have an online shop selling the vitamins, the[01:05:00] probiotics, the fish oils. X Macreams, et cetera, and that is nature.

[01:05:04] Lucinda Miller: shop. And then my main social media handle is nature. kids, which is mainly Instagram, but I am on, all the other socials as well, including TikTok. And I follow 

[01:05:15] Lucia Silver: you like, like a. strange, creepy person in a car park. I watch everything you do and read everything you do, so I can thoroughly recommend it to our listeners and to our followers at the Brain Health Movement.

[01:05:29] Lucia Silver: Just to round off, a huge thank you to you, Lucinda, and to everyone else. We will be creating a free guide following this enlightening conversation with all the top tips and some delicious, healthful, easy, and reasonable recipes, which you can download from our website, www. thebrainhealthmovement. com.

[01:05:48] Lucia Silver: And it'll be in the show notes as well. That's all for today. Thank you so much for listening. Big kisses and love into your day. Bye bye for now. 

[01:05:58] Lucinda Miller: Bye.[01:06:00]