039: John Gray on ADHD & Correct Diagnoses

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Is ADHD Under-Diagnosed
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039: John Gray on ADHD & Correct Diagnoses
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In natural health circles, it is common to hear that ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is over-diagnosed and that too many children are being medicated for “just being kids.”

John Gray, famous for his bestseller “Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus,” would agree that too many children are medicated, but he believes that ADHD is actually under-diagnosed.

Gray struggled with ADHD most of his life before finding relief and became an expert in natural health in the process. Though he is known as a relationship expert, he has spent the past 15 years researching and becoming an expert in natural health after receiving (and eventually reversing) a Parkinsons diagnosis.

Now, he has written a book called Staying Focused In A Hyper World: Natural Solutions For ADHD, Memory And Brain Performance, that details the steps he used to help recover from ADHD and Parkinsons and resources he has used to help many other people recover as well.

In This Episode, We Discuss

  • Why Gray says ADHD is under-diagnosed
  • The different types of ADHD and why the differences are important
  • Why reducing a fever may lead to ADHD and other problems
  • How EMFs affect us, especially those with underlying brain issues
  • Why oxidative stress affects the brain and the rest of the body
  • Practical solutions if your child has ADHD (the answer might be in the bath tub?)
  • Why Glutathione is the master nutrient for the brain and how to get enough
  • How giving your children a hot (103 degree) bath every other day can help
  • Why 20 minutes of sunshine each day is so important
  • So much more.

Resources from this Episode

Thanks for Listening!

Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please leave any comments or feedback in the comments section below.

[toggle title=”Read Transcript”]
Katie: John Gray, welcome. Thank you so much for being here.

John: It’s a great pleasure for me.

Katie: Well, I’m pretty sure everybody probably knows who you are, but for those who aren’t familiar with you, can you just give a brief overview of who you are and the different things that you’re an expert in? Because it’s more than one.

John: Well, I’m basically a marriage counselor for 35 years. And about 30 years ago, I realized that we needed to understand the positive ways men and women are different in order to improve communication, and wrote the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, which has gone on to spawn another 15 books on relationships. But about 15 years ago, I had early-stage Parkinson’s. I’m on my 60s now, but when I turned 50, I was having all the shakes and everything. And I dedicated myself to learning natural solutions, and I was able to reverse it at the early stages.

And in doing that, by providing good nutrition, I realized that I had had ADHD my whole life and it had gone away. We didn’t diagnose ADHD as kids, but it does affect our relationship. It affects our life. So in researching ADHD and brain function, I just learned so much insight on that and began teaching seminars on it, opened a wellness center for it. And my most recent book is Staying Focused in a Hyper World: Natural Solutions for ADHD, Memory, and Brain Performance. So that’s a lot of my focus these days.

Katie: Yeah, that’s fascinating. And I had the chance to glimpse through your book, and it looks like you have some amazing information in there. So you were able to get your Parkinson’s into remission. You don’t have any symptoms now.

John: None.

Katie: That’s amazing. What were some of the things that you did that were the most pivotal in that transition for you?

John: Well, it’s the whole key, and this is for any improvement in brain function. We have to recognize that you need a healthy balance of the brain chemical dopamine, which gives you focus, motivation, interest in pleasure, as well as serotonin which gives you optimism, and relaxation, and comfort, and ease, a surety. And then there’s GABA, which makes you really happy and in the present and fulfilled. So these are some of the major brain chemicals. And if your digestion isn’t working properly, you don’t make those brain chemicals.

And for me, the original cause of my Parkinson’s. There’s many causes of these brain problems, but mainly digestion is the big issue. For me, it was triggered as a child when I had a concussion. Concussions can cause oxidative stress in the brain and deplete the body of antioxidants, and so then other systems in the body shut down. And for me, as for all children with ADHD, they tend to have mineral deficiency. They tend to have vitamin deficiencies, particularly because they’re not digesting their food properly. And it’s not just digestion in the stomach. It’s about in the intestines and the small intestines and the gut. When we’ve taken antibiotics, when we’ve been through medical procedures, if we’ve taken lots of things like Tylenol for fevers and so forth, this wipes out the microbiome that helps us to digest our food and activate and create B vitamins, activate vitamin D, a lot of benefits. Most of the problems we have today come from improper digestion.

So I was able to correct that very quickly symptomatically and eventually get to the cause of it, so I didn’t need to take so many supplements. But when you have a problem, the cause is usually the gut. That takes a while to heal. Meanwhile, you can take supplements that will provide predigested nutrition for the brain so the brain could come back into balance.

Katie: That is so interesting. I actually had a similar experience. I had head injuries as a child and also was on antibiotics a lot for strep throat. And they think that was a large part of the precursor to me getting an autoimmune thyroid disease. And I’m so glad that we’re learning all this now finally, how our digestion and our gut health affects so much more than just what we eat, and how our body absorbs things. So that’s fascinating that you were able to get in complete remission. And especially the ADHD angle, I feel like that is really important for a lot of moms. And you said you had it your whole life, and I’m sure you know what a struggle it can be to have that and to have to stay focused when dealing with the true imbalance in your body. So can you give some specific suggestions for moms who maybe have a child struggling with ADHD or for adults who also have ADHD?

John: Yeah, the first thing I like to explain is the different types of ADHD very briefly. Because the people ask me, “Well, do you think that it’s over diagnosed just to sell drugs to kids?” And first of all, my experience has been you don’t need to get drugs. It’s not a medical condition, but it is an imbalance in the brain. It doesn’t require drugs. But second of all, I think it’s way under diagnosed. Because what I have seen is that the same condition that causes some children to be hyperactive makes other children hyper-talkers, talking over, dominating conversations. It makes some children hyper distracted. That’s the traditional ADD where you’re sort of disorganized. You can’t finish things. You wait ’til the last minute. That’s more of the type that I had, resistance to starting new things, but then getting excited about new things, not being able to finish things. So that is the ADD. So that’s hyper distracted.

There’s hyperactive, but there’s also hypersensitive. And these children are very much affected, much more so, by the colorings and dyes and so forth. They’re affected by people’s emotions around them. They’re affected by loud sounds. They’re environmentally supersensitive. And Wi-Fi also causes big challenges for them. They’re just more sensitive, more thin-skinned so to speak.

And then there’s the fourth category, which is the more responsible child when they’re hyper responsible. They tend to be compulsive. They tend to be perfectionists. Nothing ever measures up. They hold everybody to a higher standard. And in all of these cases, there tends to be an impulsiveness, whether it be an impulsive resistance, an impulsiveness to do something different and be sort of scatterbrained, an impulsive reaction to things, getting your feelings hurt, being overly sensitive. And so I like to get that broad range.

Now, for mothers, because you sometimes go, “What is going on with my child? What am I not doing right?” And really, it can be the challenge of the child in all of those areas. Now, those are normal challenges anyway. They become hyper challenges when we have oxidative stress in the brain.

And so the next thing I like to explain is a complicated idea, but you can simplify it down. And most parents don’t know about this term oxidative stress, but there’s 150,000 studies on PubMed linking oxidative stress to all of these issues as well as other health issues, and yet nobody knows what it is. So I like to explain very simply what it is. We all heard of free radicals. Every time the body makes energy, free radicals are produced. Every time you think a thought, free radicals are produced. Because it takes energy, and free radicals are the byproduct of energy. And they’re not bad. Free radicals are just a normal body processing which then mate with, join together with antioxidants, and then become neutralized or balanced. Then they go on to function in a normal way.

But if you don’t have enough antioxidants in the brain and these radicals are being produced, then a problem results. And what you get is oxidative stress, which is the gradual loss of neurons in the brain and stress in the body. So this degeneration occurs, and we don’t have enough antioxidants to neutralize the free radicals.

So that’s really important. It’s a simple concept, and the number one producer of antioxidants is another term that I want mothers be familiar with, and that’s called glutathione. Glutathione, there’s over 100,000 studies showing glutathione is necessary for brain function, for detoxification, and for brain growth. And this is something produced in every cell of the body. And when we give our children drugs, unfortunately, particular pain pills like Tylenol, it inhibits the body’s ability to make glutathione. So many of the problems that result down the line for our children actually result from using Tylenol.

So it’s a cautionary thing. The child will get 101 fever, and they panic and they give them Tylenol. If you talk to naturopathic doctors, there’s absolutely no research saying any hurt or damage can occur to a child with a high fever, even at 105. And usually there it will stop. If it’s above 105, then something else is going on that could cause problems, and antibiotics may be the answer at that point. However, up to 105, there’s never been a case where any damage occurred, any injury occurred, but only benefit occurs because when the body has infection and is not able to handle it with enough antioxidants, then the body starts producing a fever, which generates higher levels of antioxidants, higher levels of glutathione.

So this is one of the most important things. When you get those earaches and so forth, try to stay away from antibiotics and use some homeopathic remedies — they’re all available online — for it, and avoid the Tylenol and avoid the fever. And now, you’re dealing more with protection. This isn’t a cure, but this is to help protect. And that’s an important thing to know.
The other side of this is these digestive issues that come from foods with pesticides, particularly foods with glyphosates. Those are called GMOs. They use Roundup on these crops. And most of your packaged foods, anything that has fructose in it, processed fructose, will be GMO, and will have damaging effects on the digestion. Now, not to go on to crisis mode and panic. This is all accumulation over time. But I have to emphasize this, is that with once we get to the natural solutions, if I was to give you a pill that took away a headache, but you kept hitting yourself over the head with a hammer, the pill can’t work. So we need to minimize exposure of our children to these processed junk foods, and at the same time, provide the kind of support they need for their bodies to heal.

Katie: That makes so much sense. So you mentioned glutathione being really important, and I have definitely noticed that in myself and in my children. What are some natural ways that you would recommend increasing glutathione? Do you do that through diet? Or is that something that you would supplement?

John: Well, there are many people who recommend just taking glutathione. And certainly with children with autism, you can give them glutathione and you will see dramatic improvements. People with Parkinson’s, just give them an IV drip of glutathione and you’ll see amazing benefits within an hour. However, then you need to get the treatment the next day and the next day. So taking glutathione is not a bad thing. There are various companies now that have great supplements of glutathione. It is symptomatic relief. It’s symptomatic improvement, but what we want to do is get to the cause so you’re not needing to take that supplement or other supplements of that nature.

Now, part of my remedy, I didn’t understand glutathione at all 15 years ago. I just started taking all kinds of natural solutions to see what would get my brain working normally again. And I came across undenatured whey and casein protein from Australia, which was very pure dairy. But it’s not heat processed, so it wasn’t pasteurized, it’s powdered form — and found that that had an immediate benefit. Then later on, I found out that the undenatured whey, not normal milk. Normal milk is toxic to the body when it’s pasteurized and homogenized. but when it’s in its raw state and it’s powdered, so there’s no bacteria that can grow in there, so it’s completely safe, when you get that raw whey protein, it is super high in an amino acid called cysteine, which is the precursor to making glutathione. Also the undenatured casein provides the amino acids to sustain energy and metabolism. Many of these children, they lose their metabolism over time as well.

So there’s a lot of misinformation out there, like parents are told don’t give your children casein that would be in cheese, for example. Well, if you have casein that’s undenatured, that means it’s not heat-processed, these children can usually digest it very, very easily along with the undenatured whey protein. So the undenatured whey protein is considered to be the most powerful natural solution to increase glutathione in the body. But to do that, you also need other minerals. You need selenium. Brazil nuts would be great, one or two Brazil nuts in the morning superfood shake. I recommend adding that in there so you get a natural source of selenium, which is necessary to make glutathione. All children with ADHD tend to be low in these minerals. I found that a collection of special minerals is what was the most powerful thing to reverse my symptoms. and even to this day, if my brain gets a little scattered and I start daydreaming, like when I’m reading and my mind starts to space out or move somewhere else, or I’m not finishing things, but I’m moving from one thing to another, I’ll just go take an extra capsule of minerals.

Now, minerals just sounds like nothing, but actually it’s the essence of life. Nothing happens to the body without minerals. We know of the importance of enzymes. Every function in the body is efficiently accomplished with certain enzymes, thousands of different enzymes in the body. But those enzymes can only work if they have a cofactor of a mineral. There are 70 minerals, and there’s like 6 alkalizing macrominerals: calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, lithium. These minerals are in our food. Unfortunately, with farming practices, our food is deficient in these minerals. If you just go and take regular calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, magnesium oxide, that has some benefit, but it doesn’t get into the brain. They’ve proven this. To get the minerals into the brain, they actually have to be from the plant. But to get the amount of minerals we need, it’s very hard to get in our food today.

A German doctor by the name of Dr. Hans Nieper developed a process of getting minerals into the brain. And I’ve seen immediate changes in children with these particular minerals. He took a substance in mother’s milk called orotic acid and bonded it with the alkalizing minerals. And you just take tiny doses of this, and it crosses the blood-brain barrier, and it immediately creates, if your child’s hyper, they’re more calm. If they’re distracted, they tend to be more focused. It’s really just giving the brain the cofactors necessary for the brain to do what it’s designed to do and to also heal itself of the oxidative stress which is going on in the brain.
One of the more controversial minerals that you won’t find anywhere except online, and it’s completely over-the-counter. There’s no side effects. There’s just a lot of misunderstanding about it, is lithium. Because lithium is something that’s prescribed by doctors in toxic doses to help people with bipolar, so people think that it’s toxic. But actually lithium is non-toxic if given in the normal doses. Doctors prescribe it at 50 times the dose for people who are bipolar, and it does take away the symptoms because the brain needs that lithium to put out the oxidative stress. But when you put too much of anything, it can have side effects. And it’s a salt, so it’s like taking too much salt, and it affects your body in a negative way. But that’s only if you take three or four bottles of it. So you don’t really need those high doses for it to be effective if you can get it into the brain in the doses the body would get from food. And so it’s bonded to orotic acid. So it’s got lithium orotate, magnesium orotate. Calcium orotate takes away hunger cravings. Magnesium orotate calms the brain. Potassium orotate helps to hydrate the body and to make glutathione. So these are essential minerals.

Now, minerals aren’t everything. Children also need a good vitamin supplement, full-spectrum, B vitamins A, B, C, all the vitamins need to be there in small doses. You don’t need to have big doses. And I have researched this thoroughly and found a company on the East Coast, which has a product called Potential. And it not only has all of the vitamins, but it also has something called OCPs. And these OCPs are fruit extracts that create focus and one of the most powerful things that I’ve seen for children for them to balance brain function, to relax, to focus, and so forth. I take them every day even though they’re for children. They’re the best I’ve seen. Because they’re not only good multivitamins, but half of the chewables are also these OCPS. And the most common OCP is something called grape seed extract.

And in my book, the research on these Potential vitamins is the way I found out about them was a PBS special that showed a school that had the lowest performing children became the second highest performing public school in the East Coast. And basically, they just gave them two of these chewables every day. And they’ve been doing it for 10 years now and getting the same results. I just think every child, every adult needs to be taking OCPs along with all their vitamins. And it’s a simple protocol. They’re just chewables. You take it.

The other protocol I recommend is the superfood shake with super minerals of these minerals that are bonded to orotic acid. This is a very simple thing, and I hear again and again, I’ve hunt for hundreds of parents who have told me what an immediate difference it made for their children as well as for themselves. And what I did in my book is I outlined . . . I have 80 pages of references on the various studies showing the benefits of these different nutrients that I talk about. one of the chapters there’s eight major nutrients were there are double-blind studies or clinical studies done proving that just taking supplements was more effective than taking Ritalin and Adderall, these drugs, and that drugs are now proven to have injurious side effects, whereas these supplements have no side effects.

And that’s really why I was so motivated to get this message out there because mothers are not told by the doctor that there are dangerous side effects of taking these drugs. Sometimes there’s immediate benefit, but you can get that same immediate benefit, but it can be a lasting benefit if you do the natural route. But if you go with the actual drug route, the benefits of temporary, and they regress, and the brain changes, and there’s problems down the line. And this is now documented by Harvard University and eight other universities. You’re basically giving your child methamphetamines when you give them this Ritalin and Adderall.

So it’s never too late to help heal the brain. That’s the good news, and that’s why I just want parents to know the later research. Because back 10 years ago, New York Times came out with an article that said these drugs are miracle drugs and there’s no side effects. Eighty percent of the kids get immediate improvement. And that is true, but then the improvements become less and less and less. And what’s not publicized is how these natural solutions have been compared to the drugs, and they have the same benefits and have no side effects. There’s nothing which is ever a miracle cure for anything, but you restore health by providing protection against creating the problem again and again with the toxic substances and providing the body the opportunity to function by providing the nutrition that’s missing in our diet.

Katie: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s so important. And I’d love to go back. You mentioned that kids with ADHD and people with brain problems in general might be more sensitive to EMFs. And I thought that was really interesting because I’ve actually noticed that connection in people that I know personally. So could you delve into that a little bit more? I know the media seems so divided on this. Half of them say there’s absolutely no problem from EMFs whatsoever, and the other half say it’s going to be the smoking of our generation. So where do you fall on that?

John: Oh, I’m right there. It’s a huge problem today. And as with everything, people are different. It affects people differently. Some people are not being affected by it, but many people are. It depends upon your sensitivities. and if you look at the autism rates, the highest autism rates in the world are in Silicon Valley, San Jose area, and LA, which we’ll call these the early adopters to using Wi-Fi and computers and electricity. These fields have an effect on the mother during the pregnancy for sure. That’s what the child’s brain has no protection. And as children grow up, some children are more affected by it than others.

I’m speaking right now from my office. I have several offices, but this is my private office which is underground. We don’t have Wi-Fi in our house at all, but I wanted to use some Wi-Fi in my office for downloading things on my iPad. And I set up the Wi-Fi in my office, and because it’s underground and the waves didn’t spread out, within a minute, my body started to perspire and I started getting a massive headache that took all day to go away. I tried the experiment three weeks later, and the same thing happened.

I tried it again after taking a particular supplement that I recommend for sensitive children, which is called 2-AEP membrane support. It actually rebuilds the membranes of the cells. It makes them stronger. And what I experienced in my office was not as dramatic of an effect by having the Wi-Fi there.

Now, I fly in planes all the time. I don’t notice much effect from the Wi-Fi like I did in my office. But I realized some people are feeling that way all the time and they don’t know what’s causing it. They’re more sensitive. And I did do the experiment. I thought it would work, and it did to a great extent, which is if I had a child who’s sensitive to Wi-Fi, I’d first take the Wi-Fi out of the house or at least turn it off at night when they’re sleeping, at least do that. And the second thing is if they’re sensitive children that means they’re moody. They’re irritable. They cry a lot. That it is in the more sensitive children, you have to be more careful with their diet. And I would give them the supplement, one pill before every meal which called 2-AEP membrane support. Now, I give a video on all of these things at my website for free. All my recommendations I give videos itemizing how to use these things.

But membrane support is such an important thing for anybody with any kind of mental issue. And the reason for that is many, many doctors have concluded that every condition of the brain not only has been caused by the digestion problems, the lack of glutathione, but also unstable blood sugar. That’s why these problems are so common now is that when your blood sugar is high, your liver doesn’t make glutathione. And if you don’t make glutathione, you can’t make brain chemicals. You can’t detoxify heavy metals, and you can’t protect the brain from oxidative stress.

Now, I’ll say that again. This glutathione is so important, but what inhibits glutathione is high blood sugar. So I mentioned the other thing, which is when we suppress fevers, we also inhibit glutathione. But when we’re children eating the sugar and getting the blood sugar rushes, their ability to make glutathione becomes less and less and less. So one of the simplest things to help people with prediabetes, people who are sugar sensitives who are affected by sugar is another formula that was developed by Dr. Hans Nieper in Germany, which is membrane support. And 2-AEP means it’s calcium, magnesium, potassium bonded to aminoethyl phosphate, which is what the cells are made out of. So you’re actually giving the cells the minerals they require to rebuild themselves and become strong again.

Katie: that is so fascinating. And you mentioned your videos on your website, and I’ll make sure to link to those people so can find him. But another thing, I think I actually ran across your video a while ago about with chlorine. And that’s something that I think a lot of people just dismiss because it’s in our water. It’s in swimming pools. It’s very common. But for me, it was a big factor in finding my own healthy answers was removing chlorine from drinking water and not swimming in chlorinated pools. Can you talk about why chlorine can be so problematic for some people?

John: Oh, there’s even research showing that most of our arterial sclerosis and heart attacks actually started once we started using chlorine in around 1900. It started to increase, and about 20 years, later people started getting arterial sclerosis. Before that, it was almost extremely rare. And what they did a study in the 50s with chickens, and they raised one group with chlorinated water, one group without chlorinated water. And when the chickens grew up, they cut them open, and the ones that chlorine had arterial sclerosis and the ones that had regular water didn’t.

Chlorine is a free radical generator. It is carcinogenic. This is well-known. This is established, and that’s why you put it in your pool. It oxidizes bacteria on the spot. It’s an oxidizer. Oxidizer means it generates free radicals, so these free radicals get into our system and they cause more and more oxidative stress which depletes you of glutathione. And one of the things you know right away, if your child’s getting any sort of acne or bumps on their back or whatever when they take showers, that’s a clear indication that they’re extremely allergic to chlorine. But it’s affecting all of us. We’ve certainly had water purifiers all the time on our house.

Also, chlorine depletes the body of iodine, which is necessary for thyroid function. And so a good iodine supplement would be seaweed and other green products. I know Ian has a great seaweed product rich in iodine. There’s something called Iodoral that you can give to your children before and after going in a swimming pool if you’re going to put them in a chlorinated swimming pool. We do have swimming pools now which are called salt pools, which really they have chlorine in them, but much, much lower levels of chlorine. They actually generate a low-level chlorine from salt. If you run salt through of electricity, it turns to chlorine, and so you don’t have to put big doses of it in there. You can just keep these low doses in there so it has a better effect. There are other treatments that I have on my pool. For example, absolutely no chlorine, but they’re more complicated and sophisticated. Most people don’t have access to that.

Katie: That’s really interesting. So when I was diagnosed with thyroid disease, one of the questions they asked me that I thought was really obscure was, “When you’re in a hotel and the elevator opens, can you tell if the pool is on that floor or not by just the smell?” And I was like, “Oh my gosh, I can tell before the elevator opens.”

John: Right.

Katie: . . . because I’m so sensitive to it. And I think a lot of people really struggle with
that but have never connected that dot or realized how important it is to avoid chlorine.
John: It’s so important. One of my daughters, when she travels and goes to hotels, she has a chlorine filter that she’ll put on the shower. It affects her enormously, the chlorine. It doesn’t affect me as much. Again, I’m not as a sensitive person as she is. Some people are just more sensitive and they’re going to be affected by it more. That’s what we have to realize.
And you can also put your child in a bath. And there’s something called bath balls, crystal balls for dechlorinizing a bathtub or a hot tub. And you just put it through the water a little bit. It turns all the chlorine in the water to salt. And there you’ve got very pure water for you to be in and there’s no danger of bacterial infection or anything. It doesn’t have time to grow. So you’re in the water.

And I highly recommend for all children with ADHD problems to have hot baths every other night. Hot baths is not 98 degrees. That’s your normal bathtub. It needs to be around 103. There was a study done, and I’ve been teaching this for 15 years getting great results with it. Finally somebody did a study on it. And they took autistic children, different degrees of autism, and they’ve put them in baths of 102 degrees for 30 minutes. And these kids had dramatic improvement just from that. Because the hot bath also stimulates a low-grade fever, which generates the glutathione production, reduces oxidative stress, and the brain has a chance to heal itself.
You don’t have to do it every night, just do it every other night. Because the effects last for 48 hours once you get it up to about 103. The body temperature doesn’t go up to 103. The body temperature might change by 1 degree, but that’s a huge effect in terms of helping the body heal and reduce the oxidative stress. Your kids will be smarter. Your kids will be more relaxed. Your kids will sleep better.

Katie: That makes perfect sense. So we’re getting toward the end of our time, and I want to make sure I respect your time. But can you say what you think maybe are the top three or four big health issues or causes that we’re going to see, especially in our children’s generation? Because that’s for me, the reason why I write the blog and the reason why I got into this in the first place was realizing that the statistics for our children’s generation right now are really bad. And it’s pretty grim what they’re expected to see in their lifetime. What do you think are some of the biggest factors that are causing all these rapid rises in cancer and heart disease and autoimmune disease?

John: Oh, I hesitate to end our session on just that, but I’ll start with that, end on something else. What we’re seeing is we already know one third of the kids will be full blown diabetic before they’re 21, and that’s due to the high carbohydrate diet, but due to the heavy metals that are in vaccinations along with the antibiotics that kids get, as well as the fever suppressants that mothers unfortunately give to their children. This wipes out the gut, the microbiome, and that then causes digestive problems, causes dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism. These are all the outcomes of that.

And autism in California is 1 out of 20 boys. People don’t realize that. This last year, 1 out of 40 something boys nationwide, 1 out of 50 children period. This is a huge epidemic and it’s only on the rise. So we’re looking at learning difficulties. One of six children today were looking for older people as they grow up. Already in our generation, 1 out of 6 women over 65 has full blown dementia. Mental problems are becoming a big problem. The brain problems, anxiety, depressions, lack of motivation, failure to launch, these problems are only getting bigger and bigger because of this oxidative stress in the body and the brain.

And the good news is it can be corrected. Even if you’re doing vaccinations and you’re doing antibiotics, you can restore the microbiome in the gut. You can actually do a gut transplant right now, not a medical procedure. You can put the original microbiome back into your gut. This is a new discovery the last couple years that I’ve been studying and promoting. It’s from Switzerland and it’s called Bravo yogurt, B-R-A-V-O, which has 42 probiotics, not just the three that you’ll find in most good probiotic products, which I think are great. This one has 42. It’s just right now, it still takes a little more time intensive. You have to make the yogurt at home. I make it for my children, my wife, and my grandchildren. It takes a couple of hours every week and I make a month’s supply. So this is doable. It just takes a little dedication. I explained all how to do that my website, but you can get these through my website. You can get it from Switzerland. These special probiotics in a form that you make yogurt out of it. And it has an amazing effect on restoring that gut bacteria.

So in spite of all these negative influences coming in, we can fight it off. We can become whole again. There is good news, and that is really the secret. And more and more medicine in the future is moving in the direction of the microbiome. It’s the newest great big discovery.

Katie: I definitely agree. I think we’re going to see so much more research on that in the next few years. And hopefully, people are going to really start getting on this trend and that we’d be able to reverse a lot of these problems that we’re seeing before they really do affect our children.

John: Yeah, one other thing I just want parents to know, at least 20 minutes of good sunshine on your children every day if it’s possible without sunscreen, one of the healthiest things to make that vitamin D. Vitamin D is so important, and if they’re not getting regular sunshine, they need to be getting their omega-3s, and they need to be getting vitamin D3. Several thousand units of vitamin D3 a day is essential for our children without doubt. Once again, the brain can’t function. The body can’t make the glutathione necessary for all this good functioning.

Katie: I agree 100%. And john, thank you for being here. You’re a wealth of knowledge. I knew you were on relationships, and I love that I found your health book as well now. I’ll make sure to link to that and to your website, which is marsvenus.com. You had a lot of great videos on there as well.

John: It’s a real pleasure to be on your show. Thank you. Thanks for Listening!

Katie: Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please leave any comments or feedback in the comments section below.
If you enjoyed this interview, please share with family and friends via email or using the social media buttons at the bottom of this post. Also please leave an honest rating and review of the podcast on iTunes. Rankings and reviews really matter in the rankings of my podcast and I greatly appreciate every review and read each one.
Don’t forget to subscribe via i Tunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any future episodes.

Thanks to Vital Proteins for sponsoring this episode of the Wellness Mama podcast. I use gelatin and collagen powder daily in cooking, baking, smoothies, hot drinks and as a supplement. Collagen helps reduce wrinkles and improve skin health, so this may be the reason that I often hear “You look too young to have five kids!” If you’ve never tried gelatin or collagen, I definitely recommend checking our Vital Proteins! Use the code VPWM10 to get a 10% discount off your order!
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If you enjoyed this interview, please share with family and friends via email or using the social media buttons at the bottom of this post.

Also, please leave an honest rating and review of the podcast on iTunes. Rankings and reviews really matter in the rankings of my podcast and I greatly appreciate every review and read each one.

Don’t forget to subscribe via iTunes or Stitcher so you don’t miss any future episodes.

Read Transcript

Thanks to Our Sponsors

Thanks to Vital Proteins for sponsoring this episode of the Wellness Mama podcast. I use gelatin and collagen powder daily in cooking, baking, smoothies, hot drinks and as a supplement. Collagen helps reduce wrinkles and improve skin health, so this may be the reason that I often hear “You look too young to have five kids!” If you’ve never tried gelatin or collagen, I definitely recommend checking our Vital Proteins! Use the code VPWM10 to get a 10% discount off your order!

Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

24 responses to “039: John Gray on ADHD & Correct Diagnoses”

  1. Audra Avatar
    Audra

    Super interesting information! This morning I woke up and thought, I wonder if my child has ADHD? I’ve been trying to figure out what is going on with them, as we have three others and none of them have any of the same problems that this particular child does. I’m going to check out John’s website, thanks for sharing this with us!

    I’d also like to add, that I have always been in the school of thought “there is no such thing as ADHD,” but I know that there is SOMETHING going on with our kid, and it has been constant since that child’s birth. Gut health has already been evaluated, and many things have been removed from said child’s diet, but I believe more must now need to happen, if I am ever going to see this child thrive in their fullest potential.

    1. Audra Avatar
      Audra

      Sorry, I should have thought out what I wanted to write, before I began with the first comment, but anyways….

      Katie, I too have Hashimotos, and because of that, I avoid dairy. I have recently began making yogurt for my children (who were previously dairy free, but seem to tolerate the yogurt well -yay!) and now am considering buying the BRAVO yogurt kit that Dr. Gray mentioned. My question for you, since I know you are dairy free (or correct me if I am wrong on that,) would you personally consume yogurt made with this BRAVO starter, or would you still avoid it, since dairy is not recommended for us who have Hashimotos?

      1. Katie - Wellness Mama Avatar

        I would personally probably be fine with it, as I can even now handle occasional dairy without a problem, but I do think it is a very individual thing. I’ve been watching my levels and symptoms carefully as I occasionally added dairy and I was fine, but some people react very negatively to it. I’d say test it without changing any other variables and see how you do

  2. Delores Avatar
    Delores

    This was a great podcast. I am looking for a link to the yogurt starter mentioned in the episode and cannot find it here or on his website. Help, please! 🙂

  3. Elisheva Avatar
    Elisheva

    This was a wonderful podcast. I’m so great full I discovered your podcast and blog. There is so much helpful, inspiring information. I am amazed by your cornucopia of information.
    THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

  4. Sandra Avatar

    Wow, that blew me away. A lot of info to take in. Thank you for the transcript Katie!!

  5. Nina Avatar

    Another factor that is often missed, and this happens with diagnosis of Autism as well, is whether the mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. What manifests as ADHD may really be complications of brain damage from exposure to alcohol while in the womb. This is not getting enough media attention, nor even spoken about in the medical field often enough, in my opinion.

  6. Peter Avatar

    For god’s sake, please do some research people! ADHD is neither over-diagnosed, nor under; it doesn’t exist at all. Labelling a child this way is nothing short of child abuse, let alone subjecting them to brain-damaging drugs on the basis of this diagnosis.

    I advise reading “talking back to Ritalin” by Peter Breggin.

    1. Stephanie Avatar
      Stephanie

      Peter I have to say that I have a child who has ADHD symptoms. I hesitate to label his condition, because I believe there are many varying underlying issues causing symptoms. But the symptoms are real. They have changed my life. For you to say this is very hurtful to those suffering due to these symptoms. Label or no label the struggles are real. I have found that changing my son’s diet has helped a lot, because he doesn’t have to process out so many chemicals and his brain can function better.

      1. Peter Avatar

        For me to say what? That there is no such thing as “ADHD”? There is no proof that it exists, why feel offended about someone pointing this out? Why can’t you just say your child has “challenging behaviours” rather than “ADHD symptoms”?

        Remember the diagnosis of ADHD is always made on the basis of circular reasoning; i.e “why does johnny misbehave? Because he has ADHD. How do we know he has ADHD? Because he is misbehaved.”

        There isn’t any good reason to conceptualise your sons difficulties as stemming from a hypothetical brain disorder, when there is no evidence that this is the case. So you should keep your hesitation permanently or you will be guilty of emotionally abusing your child.

      2. Peter Avatar

        To quote the Christian Science Monitor article;

        “On a scientific level, we get past ADHD the same way we got past phrenology and eugenics; we demand that the theories that are being expounded be based in fact and verified by research. On a societal level, we take responsibility for the fact that the diagnostic labels we have accepted, and pharmacological interventions we have embraced, are harming children and that we have NO RIGHT TO ASK CHILDREN TO BEAR THOSE HARMS (my emphasis). On a personal level, we place the difficulties of childhood within the context of the life of each child, and within the nature of childhood itself. We make a commitment to helping children be their best selves, and above all, we do the best we can to make sure that we never use our positions of authority to harm anyone”

  7. Gary Sellars Avatar
    Gary Sellars

    You guys need to come up to speed. The doctor who first diagnosed ADHD admitted on his death bed that HE MADE IT UP.

    Its proper designation should be called: “being a boy.” This is one reason why boys need dads. Women do not understand boys. Because they know how boys will react, they think they understand them.

    That’s absurd. Recognizing behavior does not mean one understands the behavior. I’ve seen woman after woman frustrated with boys and men because they don’t act like girls!

    Women do not understand men; they just think they do.

    1. Laurie Avatar

      What? Being a boy? I am 38 years old and I have ADHD and it is REAL and it can be debilitating at times. Please realize extremes on either side aren’t good.

      1. Peter Avatar

        “The past twenty-five years has led to a phenomenon almost unique in history. Methodologically rigorous research indicates that ADHD and hyperactivity as “syndromes” simply do not exist. We have invented a disease, given its medical sanction, and must now disown it. The major question is how we go about destroying the monster we have created. It is not easy to do this and to save face, another reason why physicians and many researchers with years of funding and an academic reputation to protect are reluctant to believe the data.” –Diane McGuiness, professor of psychology.

        But perhaps you or the author of this blog are aware of research which really does objectively validate “ADHD” as a real biological condition? If so I’d love to see it.

        “Please realize extremes on either side aren’t good.” You’re invoking a logical fallacy known as the “false compromise”. The diagnosis of ADHD is never made on an objective basis. Simple as that.

        promoting the ADHD diagnosis is promoting child abuse.

        1. Sylvie Avatar

          Peter, I was diagnosed with ADHD in 5th grade. It changed my life. All my life I had to go get extra help, I could not focus and did not know why. Now I know. I have been put on medication, after I was on it I was finally able to focus normally. There is something messed up inside of my mind that prevents me from functioning normally. The medication helps me to function like a normal person. I went from a failing student to a normal one. We might not know what causes it but acting like it does not exists helps no one. ADHD does exists. If my parents were anything like you I was be considered dumb and out on the streets. But instead the opened their minds and helped me. They put me on a medication and told me that others like me were also on it and it helped them, and also me as well. Child abuse should be considered like acting like ADHD does not exist and letting the child fail due to others’ arrogant mindset like yours. Peter, I don’t have ADHD, then what is it that makes me unable to focus?

  8. Katie Avatar

    Super interesting and inspiring podcast!

    I have to say though, it makes my head spin trying to research what supplements are safe to give my son. Right now I only give him FCLO, probiotics and synergy vit c as I worry about getting carried away and giving him something that could be detrimental to his health. But on the other side, I want to give him the best advantage possible. I am curious about the seeking health multi you linked to and have been considering it. Is that only good for children with MTHFR? Also, could you do an updated list of supplements or recommendations for children? Thanks for all your amazing work, you are one of my few trusted health bloggers!

    1. Katie - Wellness Mama Avatar

      Maybe consider testing with 23andme.com and interpreting results with genetic genie. This was really helpful for us and gave a lot of clarity on what supplements were best for each of us individually. The Seeking Health one would be good even for someone without MTHFR, as long as a person doesn’t have a rare but specific mutation that makes methylated forms unusable.I will work on an updated list though of what we are giving each of our children. Hope that helped a little!

  9. Mitzi Avatar

    Thank you for the podcasts – I have a nephew who is in my care who has been diagnosed with ADHD and ODD. He sees a psychiatrist and on his 3rd medication and I really don’t want him to be on meds and have been looking for natural remedies for his condition. I am definitely going check out his suggestions. Again, Thank you!

    1. Nina Avatar

      Often multiple diagnoses indicate Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder has been missed. This may not be true for your nephew but could be worth looking into. Check out http://www.nofas.org for more info

    2. Peter Avatar

      “If a parent forced a child to take alcohol, a depressant, in the mistaken belief that he was curing a “chemical imbalance” in the child’s brain, we would not hesitate to have the child removed from the home”…

  10. Carrie Willard Avatar
    Carrie Willard

    I ordered the book after listening because I recognized two of my kids in the description. Thanks for this.

    1. Carolyn Avatar

      I’m a great grandparent and would like to do things with the youngster that has this problem. Are there games or activities that would entertain them. Some things like computer games keep his interest for a hour sometimes, then he is restless with needing something else to do. He jumps on the trampoline,, he can run like the wind. He would, when younger, he would run in the orchard pushing a tricycle, never wanting to ride it. I can feel his frustration. We paint on wood, rocks and paper. Just wondering if there is anything else, he only works well one on one. Others can join in but best one on one. He is in kindergarten and has trouble there. He get embarrassed easily. Thanks for any help. School should be more helpful, but as yet all they do is call someone to come get him. What is a spammer? I don’t believe that I am one.

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