Medication or Holistic Therapies for ADHD – which is better? with Dr. Elenor MacGregor

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I had one client that had stomach pain for seven years and was diagnosed with a non-specific eating disorder.

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She had an H pylori infection and a parasite and no one had done any testing on her and she sort of was dismissed and people were like, no, you just want to be thin, you just want to get skinny.

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And she's like, no, I literally have pain.

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Welcome to Pivoting Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics.

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Part of the Pharmacy Podcast Network, a must-have resource for pharmacist entrepreneurs seeking to enhance patient care while enjoying career and life.

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Join us as we pivot into nutrigenomics, using pharmacy and nutrition for true patient-focused care.

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Explore how to improve chronic conditions rather than just manage them.

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Align your values with a career that profoundly impacts patients.

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Together, we'll raise the script on health and pivot into a brighter future.

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Hello and welcome to Pivoting Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics.

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I'm Dr Tamar Lawful.

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We'll raise the script on health and pivot into a brighter future.

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Hello and welcome to Pivoting Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics.

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I'm Dr Tamar Lawful, doctor of Pharmacy and Certified Nutritional Genomics Specialist.

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Today I'm speaking to the dear parents, caregivers and all who hold a special child with ADHD close to your heart as you take a moment for yourself today.

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Maybe it's those precious minutes of silence before the kids wake up, or perhaps it's during a quick walk around the block for some fresh air.

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I want you to know this episode is made with you in mind.

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Today we're diving deep into a topic that many of you have lived through, are living through and might feel at your wit's end about the challenging journey of managing ADHD.

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The title of today's episode here's why You'll Never Solve ADHD with Meds Alone speaks to a truth many of you might have sensed, even if it's hard to put into words.

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If you've ever looked into your child's eyes and felt that pain of there has to be more we can do, then you're in the right place.

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Today we have the honor of speaking with Dr Ellie McGregor of Middle Path Integrative Pediatrics.

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Dr Ellie is not just any pediatrician.

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She's a beacon of hope for families who have walked the long, often lonely road of seeking answers beyond the conventional.

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Having trained under the guidance of pioneers in integrative medicine, she brings a wealth of knowledge, compassion and innovative solutions to the table.

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In today's conversation, dr Ellie will share her insights on why tackling ADHD, and indeed many childhood conditions, requires a holistic approach.

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Expect to hear how she uses unique testing methods to uncover the hidden factors at play in ADHD.

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As you breathe in the fresh air, let this conversation be a source of comfort, inspiration and perhaps the beginning of a new chapter in your journey.

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You're not just managing symptoms.

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You're nurturing a whole, vibrant child, and you're not alone.

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Let's explore this path together.

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Listen in, dr Ellie.

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Thank you for joining us on Pivoting Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics.

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Today, you know your journey is a light to many.

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What was that pivotal moment that inspired you to shift from conventional to integrative medicine and perhaps just give us a background of how you got to where you are now doing what you're doing?

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now, you know I don't know if there was a pivotal moment, so much as a tipping point.

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I trained conventionally, I trained down in Florida at Miami Children's and had a journey working for a lovely practice in Utah that was great physicians, but ultimately I just felt like I didn't have the answers to the questions that parents were asking me and a lot of it was about holistic health.

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I also have a strong was about holistic health.

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I also have a strong interest in holistic health and so I said you know what?

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I'm going to go and get my integrative medicine fellowship done out of Arizona Dr Weil's program, if you know Andrew Weil with his cute little beard and his cute little restaurants.

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That's where I train.

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And, long story short, I ended up in a great practice out in California that was pretty supportive of my integrative ways but there were a lot of guardrails that I had to kind of stick to and my patients were needing more and I knew that I had more to offer, especially around the COVID pandemic.

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Prior to the COVID pandemic about 10% to 15% of my patient panel was mental health and mental wellbeing for kids and then after that it was about 50% every other patient and I just thought you know, I have these skills to offer, I can be doing more.

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And I said I've got to do this work because my patients need it, and that's when Middle Path was born.

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Middle Path Integrated Pediatrics.

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Well, thank you for sharing that with us.

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Dr Ellie, you have a very rich and diverse background and from what I was reading it's very clear your path significantly shaped your approach that you take now.

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Can you share how the education and experiences you've had molded your unique philosophy to healthcare and the philosophy you have now?

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Yeah, so when you're in pediatric residency which is the training that you do after medical school and you're really working as a doctor, but you have help, you have people above you that are helping to teach you.

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That training is very specific.

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It's very focused on very sick kids that are hospitalized with illnesses that are requiring heroic measures.

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I'm thinking about right now, my first patient ever in my residency.

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I was so scared because it was midnight.

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I was doing the night shift and the nurse calls me and says this patient is crashing, the blood pressure is going down.

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I'm like, oh my gosh, you know it's my first night.

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Anyway, I go in and I'm like this kid's on the kidney floor but he has tuberculosis.

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I'm looking at a tuberculosis patient right now and he was coughing up blood and we had to get the ICU involved and, thank heavens, he was safe.

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So that's the framework for the allopathic or conventional medical community as we see it now.

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It's like what can we do to save people from these awful we're gonna die right now moments?

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And there's a good place for that in our community.

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Right, there's a place for that, absolutely.

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The problem is, if you have a chronic, recurring or mental wellbeing issue, it's not the best place for you, necessarily.

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You know, if you're having a crisis and your child God forbid is going to commit suicide today, absolutely you need to go in and see someone immediately go to the ER, you know, and get the help that they need.

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Or someone who's actively psychotic.

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Those are different.

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That's not what I'm talking about.

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Kids that have, for example, things that I treat like ADHD.

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They're unfocused, they're hyperactive, but they're functioning okay.

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Maybe you don't need to run in and grab a stimulant medication with the side effects, or maybe you don't want to.

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Maybe you want alternatives.

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There are other things to offer that are gentler, softer things to offer that are gentler, softer and not so heroic in nature.

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You know that we need to do, and a lot of those things can vary from lifestyle to supplements, to influencing our vagal nerve with our stress.

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You know how we manage our stress.

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Our diet is so important.

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Our nutrition you would not believe well, you would believe how much our nutrition affects our mental health.

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I mean, you just don't learn that in conventional training and those are the things that I needed to really help people with mental wellbeing, among other things.

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Yeah, I completely resonate with what you're saying, dr Ellie, because it's similar to in a pharmacy setting and I always worked in a hospital setting majority of my career you're treating things right then and there acutely when it's happening and you realize that, wait, these are especially these chronic conditions are things that can be prevented or managed without it coming to this crisis point.

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So that's what I'm hearing was something that you noticed in your practice as well.

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There's some things that can't be managed preventatively so that it doesn't reach this crisis point where now they're in a hospital and we have to treat it so acutely and emergently.

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I love that you're bringing up preventive, because I'm in pediatrics.

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So, if we can take a left turn, let's talk about the obesity crisis, right?

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Okay, I am so angry.

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I'm not angry at parents, I'm angry at the system that has been created that our children are in, that we have this obesity crisis, that it's not necessary, right, you know.

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So we have children.

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I think it's 31,000 children on Wagovi right now, which, if you don't know, it's the weight loss drug, and I'm not saying it's wrong or right.

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I don't know anyone's specific situation or the nuance of why they're on that or not, you know or what decision has been made.

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I'm not here to shame anyone or say anything about that, but why are we in a situation now that parents have to make that decision?

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Prevention is the way to go.

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Yes, there are things that we can do as individuals a hundred percent but there are things that we can do organizationally and as a country to fix all of this.

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You know, like, why do schools not have funding to provide healthy food to children, especially children, that that is their only place that they can buy food?

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That's where they're being fed?

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Why do we have a bunch of processed food that's not being regulated with chemicals and toxins and food dyes and things that are outlawed in Europe and you're like why do we even?

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have this?

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Why do we have it here?

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And so we can.

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We can intervene early with a lot of things, right, you know, from ADHD to anxiety, to depression.

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It doesn't have to get to that crisis point, to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, like the things that later I can prevent that from happening with the family's involvement and help.

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I can't do it alone, of course, but we don't need to go there.

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We don't need to be at this tipping point where we have an entire generation of people that are sick because of the way that we're feeding our children and the way that we're eating.

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So I love it.

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I love that you're bringing up prevention.

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I am angry with you.

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It's so true, knowledge is power, and the knowledge is being put out there for people is not the best information for them, and the organizations it's coming from are supposed to be trusted and reliable, and so that's what these parents are going off of, because they don't.

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They don't know, like we do, to the core and what's really behind it, and then that's very unfortunate.

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It's true.

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There are countries in europe that they'll ban certain ingredients.

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They'll ban certain products that we have here on every shelf, any store you know.

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So it's very interesting knowledge.

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Knowledge is definitely power and, thankful to practitioners like you, you're sharing that with your patients and their parents.

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Now we touch on your philosophy.

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Can we go a little bit deeper into your conditions like ADHD and anxiety and depression in children?

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Yeah, well, let's start with.

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I think ADHD is a good one to start with because the framework is pretty manageable to follow and with any of these conditions, we want to start out with really good testing.

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So, through no fault of their own and I have done this before I went to you know, like my medical fellowship you go to Whole Foods, right, and you pull up your little shopping cart to the supplement section.

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You're like, ooh, I like these are great, there's some fun supplements here.

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And you're like, oh, you know, got some anxiety right now and I can't sleep and I might need some vitamins.

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And you're just like, oh, let me just put all this in my cart.

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And you're so happy when you check out.

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And then two weeks later, you're like it's not working.

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I don't know why.

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It seems like it should Like this supplement right here.

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It said.

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You know, like mental well-being.

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Well, the issue that I take with that approach is one we don't know what is going on, your particular child's brain chemistry or, if it's an adult, your chemistry.

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So there are different things that can cause problems, like for ADHD in particular.

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Like magnesium is a huge issue.

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Zinc can be an issue.

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Dietary lithium I'm not talking about pharmaceutical lithium.

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I'm talking about what you drink from water.

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So all of these different things come into play.

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Copper, zinc If you bought magnesium supplements for your kid and your kid was the one kid in this world that did not have magnesium deficiency you could be spending hundreds of dollars on supplements that are literally going to do absolutely nothing because we didn't test right.

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So it is important to get good testing.

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And secondly, let's also just kind of put it out there that we really want to buy supplements from reputable places.

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So what do I mean by that?

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Places where the supplements have been third-party tested.

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We know what's in them, we know what's not in them.

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So I'm thinking about there was a study at one point that found that some of the medic or the supplements being sold on Amazon, actually for ADHD, actually has stimulant medication in them, and you know they found Viagra in medicines or supplements that are being sold on Amazon.

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So that may not be the best place to buy your supplements.

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That's another point.

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So you want to do the testing.

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There's various testing that you can do blood tests, urine tests, hair tests.

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It depends on what your child needs and then, based on that testing, we can discover, like you know, hey, we've got an issue with magnesium or we don't.

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We've got an issue with lithium.

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So, like kiddos, who tend to be like very aggressive or have irritability anger, they're often deficient in lithium.

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So we'll have to supplement at very, very low doses I'm talking about lithium or Tate, not carbonate, not pharmaceutical lithium for bipolar disorder and a very low dose, one to five milligrams.

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Nothing that would cause, you know, like a kidney issue or something like that.

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That's completely different.

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Zinc is another one that we talk about a lot or think about a lot.

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So you get like a zinc copper imbalance that sometimes needs to be treated.

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So we really need to figure out what is going on before treating randomly, cause that's just throwing spaghetti at the wall and like I hope something here helps Right and it's.

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It may not be the best approach.

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Yeah, I agree with that type of approach where you want to be specific, you don't want to just be shooting darts in the dark, you know.

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You want to actually know what you're trying to target, and so you're talking.

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When you talk about testing, you're talking about just the standard chem tests or electrolyte testing.

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Is that what you're referring to?

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Yeah, so we can do some of that through like a regular lab.

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However, it's often not the best test to get.

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Often we'll want to do like a hair test, which is a very specific functional medicine test I'm talking specifically for adhd now and that one will kind of give us a mineral analysis.

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That's a little bit more.

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It allows us to see over the course of months versus just what's happening at that exact time.

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So that can be a lot more helpful than just doing like a serum, like a blood test for certain of these nutrient imbalances.

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And the other thing sometimes I do test is the gut.

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And so you know a lot of people don't know this but if you have an infection in your gut, sometimes that can create behavioral issues.

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So I'm thinking about Clostridia and this is an infection that on testing sometimes you find a chemical called HPHPA and that chemical can actually cause kind of aggression, irritability, behavioral concerns.

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And if you'd never tested the gut you would not know that.

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That's why your child is, you know, having these focus, hyperactive, irritability issues.

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So it's important to treat those infections as well.

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So it's another test we can look at.

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And last, organic acids testing is something that I look at.

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This is also a functional medicine lab and that helps me look at the brain metabolites.

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So what am I talking about here?

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Neurotransmitters.

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What the heck's a neurotransmitter?

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It's a hormone.

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It's basically like if you're sending an email.

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So if you have you know someone in LA that wants to talk to someone in San Francisco you send a little email and in this analogy, the email is the neurotransmitter and the two people are brain cells, and so that's what a neurotransmitter is, and that's important to know, because neurotransmitters are very important in how we regulate mood.

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So serotonin is a great one to talk about.

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That's our like happy, calm, chemical.

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Dopamines are focused reward chemical.

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And then we've got adrenaline, noradrenaline, which are like ready to run, someone's going to get me, I got to go chemical.

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Someone's going to get me, I got to go chemical.

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And so we need those to be in the right balance to achieve like a general homeostasis or a good state of mind.

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Of course, everyone has a range.

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We don't want anyone like completely flat, but you know if we're way down low, feeling really depressed, or way high, but you know, unfocused, can't pay attention at school, not functioning.

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Those are things that need to be adjusted, which to that point.

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Some kiddos get put on stimulants and they do worse.

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And then what happens, right, is people will just titrate their dose up.

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They'll just increase the dose higher and higher and higher.

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Oh, it's not working anymore.

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Well, okay, does that kid have too much dopamine?

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So what happens with dopamine is, like I said, that's our focus reward, chemical, and that's usually what we're targeting with ADHD through medications, right, at least stimulants.

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That's fine to an extent.

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But what happens if you have too much dopamine?

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Your body converts it to adrenaline, or adrenaline.

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And what the heck happens when you've got a lot of adrenaline running through your body?

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You're not paying attention.

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I will tell you what.

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So there are some kids that actually have too much, and so we just have to kind of moderate those amounts through food, through lifestyle, through supplements, through a bunch of different things.

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Regulating the vagal nerve is another way.

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Thank you for sharing that your approach.

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Definitely, from what I am hearing, it seems like it can empower your patients, because I know with ADHD, especially on a parent's side, there's a lot of uncertainty.

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They don't really know where to go, whether they should be on these medications.

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Their kids should be on these medications.

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So you definitely are able to empower them with that knowledge and expertise that you have.

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How do you instill the confidence in your patients and their families to take these steps that, hey, this is what's needed, this is what we should do towards improving their mental health?

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Yeah, I think that it's just a matter of talking it through and unfortunately, because of the medical system, many doctors really don't have time to do that.

00:18:51.588 --> 00:18:57.593
I'm in the lucky position that I do so when I'm able to spend the time explaining.

00:18:57.593 --> 00:19:02.416
You know what's a neurotransmitter, how does it work, why is it important to do these specific tests?

00:19:02.416 --> 00:19:09.662
I think most people really get that, especially if I am able to share some stories.

00:19:09.662 --> 00:19:16.747
I think that's really helpful too, and usually, based on that, parents are able to make a decision that's best for them.

00:19:16.747 --> 00:19:27.877
And, by the way, you know what, if you end up on medications at some point, at least we've done all of this testing and at least we can get to a point where we can ameliorate side effects.

00:19:27.877 --> 00:19:32.476
But what we're not doing is not diagnosing something that we should have diagnosed.

00:19:32.476 --> 00:19:33.507
I'll give you an example.

00:19:34.248 --> 00:19:42.173
There was a kiddo who actually was college college kid, who he never had ADHD and never had ADD.

00:19:42.173 --> 00:19:43.459
He never had any problems.

00:19:43.459 --> 00:19:45.688
And then in college he just couldn't focus Right.

00:19:45.688 --> 00:20:02.710
So someone was like oh, adhd, that's what you've got, and here's some stimulants, so you're getting sicker and less focused and worse, and really didn't have any blood work, not even just regular general that you would get from your regular doctor, like here's.

00:20:02.710 --> 00:20:09.958
You know your blood counts, you know he hadn't had anything and, long story short, he ended up having celiac disease.

00:20:09.958 --> 00:20:16.905
And if you don't know what celiac is, it's gluten intolerant and it causes a lot of nutritional deficiencies.

00:20:16.905 --> 00:20:19.894
He was so nutritionally deficient no wonder he couldn't focus.

00:20:19.894 --> 00:20:21.507
He didn't need stimulant medication.

00:20:21.507 --> 00:20:23.150
He needed to be treated for his celiac.

00:20:23.150 --> 00:20:33.971
So at the very very least, let's rule out regular medical conditions like lead poisoning, thyroid disorders, nutrient deficiency.

00:20:33.971 --> 00:20:44.944
So there's a lot of regular testing that can be should be done in in my mind before starting someone on medications wow, all you needed was some nutrition attention.

00:20:46.230 --> 00:20:51.714
Right, that is amazing, yeah, and that goes back to what you mentioned with the gut and brain health.

00:20:51.714 --> 00:21:12.596
That's exactly what that is, because many don't realize the impact that our gut has on our brain needless to say, every other part of our body but it's a very strong force, motivating force for our health when we focus on our guts, and you mentioned a little bit about what you look for when it comes to gut health.

00:21:12.596 --> 00:21:17.516
How do your patients take that process of the testing for gut health?

00:21:17.516 --> 00:21:21.510
Are they kind of grossed out about it or are they willing to do it?

00:21:22.472 --> 00:21:24.317
It depends on the age of the kiddo.

00:21:24.317 --> 00:21:39.195
I'll say that for the most part teenagers, preteens, college students, are pretty grossed out and then, depending on their maturity level, you know some of them are like oh, I just put on my gloves and got the box out and I just did it.

00:21:39.195 --> 00:21:41.771
And then other ones take like a little bit of time.

00:21:41.771 --> 00:21:44.247
The younger kids are like, so into it.

00:21:44.247 --> 00:21:49.337
I mean, if you talk to kids about poop, like younger kids they love it.

00:21:49.337 --> 00:21:50.646
It's on their mind.

00:21:50.646 --> 00:21:54.255
You know they're like that is so true.

00:21:54.394 --> 00:21:59.313
I have a five-year-old about to be six and she is she's grossed out by it but at the same time, intrigued.

00:21:59.313 --> 00:22:02.768
It's, it's, it's interesting, but yeah.

00:22:03.628 --> 00:22:04.250
So funny.

00:22:04.570 --> 00:22:20.438
Yeah, could you, um, perhaps any stories related to that, particularly with the discovery you mentioned, one with the college student, any other experiences with being able to turn things around, or improvement coming from really identifying what's going on in the gut?

00:22:20.826 --> 00:22:26.519
yeah, I mean, one example comes to mind right away, like talking about the Clostridia infection.

00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:38.789
I had one client that had stomach pain, for I think it was seven years of stomach pain, and was diagnosed with a nonspecific eating disorder.

00:22:38.789 --> 00:22:42.746
And she's like, listen, I don't want to lose weight, I want to eat.

00:22:42.746 --> 00:22:44.709
My stomach hurts.

00:22:44.709 --> 00:22:50.679
And I'm like, okay, well, let's just, you know, do a stomach test.

00:22:50.679 --> 00:22:59.670
And if she was not feeling well mentally either because why her stomach hurt and she couldn't eat and she was exhausted from this illness that she had.

00:23:00.211 --> 00:23:08.455
Long story short, she had an H pylori infection and a parasite, you know, and no one had done any poop testing on her.

00:23:08.455 --> 00:23:16.086
And, you know, I was like, well, you're coming with tummy pain, why would we not at least look and see what's going on?

00:23:16.086 --> 00:23:21.146
But she sort of was dismissed and, just you know, people were like, no, you just want to be thin, you just want to get skinny.

00:23:21.146 --> 00:23:23.711
And she's like, no, I literally have pain.

00:23:23.711 --> 00:23:42.105
And we were able to treat her H pylori through supplements and usually I'll use zinc and mastica gum for that and she did choose to treat her parasite with an antibiotic because she was going off to college, so she wanted it to be quick, and that's why she chose to do that, which is fine.

00:23:42.125 --> 00:23:52.011
We just treated the dysbiosis, or the yucky microbiome on the back end, with a dysbiosis protocol that include probiotics and a few other things, and she was fine.

00:23:52.011 --> 00:23:54.758
She got better, her mood improved.

00:23:54.758 --> 00:23:54.837
Why?

00:23:54.837 --> 00:24:03.986
Because she was able to absorb her nutrients, like her B6, like her B vitamins, like her magnesium, and what does that do?

00:24:03.986 --> 00:24:12.073
Those are things that help build our neurotransmitters, our brain chemicals, well and help feed our brain cells, and so she felt much better.

00:24:12.073 --> 00:24:15.175
One, she was out of pain, and two, she could eat.

00:24:15.175 --> 00:24:19.720
And three, overall, she was able to produce the brain chemicals that she needed for well-being.

00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:20.980
I love it.

00:24:21.020 --> 00:24:24.923
Dr Ellie, a very pivotal point in this young lady's life.

00:24:24.923 --> 00:24:33.468
She's now going off to college, transferring from high school to college, and for you to be able to help her during that time so she doesn't have to continue.

00:24:33.468 --> 00:24:36.809
So I have celiac and I had difficulty getting diagnosed and I knew I had celiac.

00:24:53.200 --> 00:25:07.842
So that goes to show that even your doctor can have trouble getting what they need because people are just very some people in the medical system are resistant to the idea of gluten intolerance even being an issue.

00:25:07.842 --> 00:25:14.147
And autoimmune diseases my god, any autoimmune disease is so difficult to get diagnosis because you just do, you get dismissed.

00:25:14.147 --> 00:25:32.346
You know I had symptoms and I had gut symptoms and you know I had a few other things, like I would get heart palpitations, and I was like I'm not feeling well and I just called you know, because I try not to be my own doctor, right, because it's not the best practice and I called my doctor and I was like can you just order, just like a you know, regular blood test?

00:25:32.346 --> 00:25:36.464
And she's like I think you have depression, you need to take an SSRI.

00:25:36.464 --> 00:25:45.393
And I'm like, no, I don't, like I might not be feeling well, but I don't think that correlates to like overall depression.

00:25:45.393 --> 00:25:50.280
Anyway, unfortunately I did have to switch doctors and she ordered my blood work and it was.

00:25:50.961 --> 00:25:57.285
I had a horrible celiac on my blood work, to the point that the GI doctor was like girl, you don't even need that biopsy, just get off that gluten.

00:25:57.285 --> 00:26:01.326
Yeah, that's what we did, and so it's hard for people.

00:26:01.326 --> 00:26:03.526
People just I don't know.

00:26:03.526 --> 00:26:04.788
The system is just.

00:26:04.788 --> 00:26:07.406
It's hard on doctors, it's hard on patients.

00:26:07.406 --> 00:26:09.025
I have so much to say about that.

00:26:09.025 --> 00:26:09.909
We could be here all day.

00:26:10.279 --> 00:26:16.765
Yeah, if the patients don't have an advocate, like you were able to advocate for yourself because you had knowledge A lot of patients don't.

00:26:16.765 --> 00:26:31.002
They don't know, they just go with the flow, with what a doctor says they would have probably been on antidepressant when that's not what they needed.

00:26:31.002 --> 00:26:31.349
Yeah, yeah, there's some.

00:26:31.349 --> 00:26:31.944
Yeah, we could definitely have a sound box on that one.

00:26:31.944 --> 00:26:33.630
From your perspective as a physician and mine as a pharmacist combined.

00:26:33.630 --> 00:26:35.973
We could definitely share some stories on that aspect of things.

00:26:35.973 --> 00:26:46.702
I want to ask you we touched on a little bit with things that might contribute to ADHD, anxiety and other mental presentations that you see with your pediatric patients.

00:26:46.702 --> 00:26:55.388
I'm just curious to know is there anything else, or are there other trends that you notice that are impacting these diagnosis?

00:26:55.388 --> 00:27:04.462
As we mentioned already with the gut health and the minerals that might be lacking, is there any other trend that you notice in patients that are coming to you?

00:27:04.943 --> 00:27:06.386
Yeah, I mean a hundred percent.

00:27:06.386 --> 00:27:10.375
The social pressures right now are through the roof.

00:27:10.375 --> 00:27:18.971
I mean, technology is neutral, but my goodness, I think I heard a quote the other day.

00:27:18.971 --> 00:27:22.227
I think I would credit them if I could remember who said it, but I don.

00:27:22.227 --> 00:27:24.153
And it's all of this.

00:27:24.153 --> 00:27:25.779
Technology is educational.

00:27:25.779 --> 00:27:29.067
It's just a matter of what we are educating our kids.

00:27:29.067 --> 00:27:32.782
You know what are we giving them over the technology and how much?

00:27:33.384 --> 00:27:45.299
You know, I have eight or nine year olds that are coming in asking or talking about the wars and I'm just like I can't process it as an adult.

00:27:45.299 --> 00:27:48.009
And you can only imagine these little bodies.

00:27:48.009 --> 00:27:54.480
They're barely trying to understand their world in their family and those relationships and their friendships.

00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:58.740
And now we're, you know, looking at what's going on globally.

00:27:58.740 --> 00:28:02.290
I mean, the global anxiety is massive.

00:28:02.290 --> 00:28:16.140
And then you know, moving into not always, sometimes it's the young kids too, but moving into those teenage years all of the pressures to have a certain body image that, as we know, is completely unrealistic.

00:28:16.140 --> 00:28:26.320
And then we're confronted with, you know, these Facebook accounts and Instagram accounts where people have these supposedly amazing lives and no one's posting.

00:28:26.320 --> 00:28:29.488
That day they were crying on the couch eating their Snickers bar.

00:28:29.488 --> 00:28:44.085
Yeah, I mean, maybe someone is, I don't know, I don't know, I'm not on there enough to know, but usually it's like this bright, shiny story and it's it really gets into and I include myself, because I really have to be careful what I consume.

00:28:44.085 --> 00:28:47.404
So I would say consumption, so it's like but what are we consuming?

00:28:47.404 --> 00:28:55.691
It's the food, it's the water that we may or may not be consuming, it's the social media we may or may not be consuming.

00:28:55.691 --> 00:29:00.247
And then I would say too, you know, it's lack of nature.

00:29:00.247 --> 00:29:03.192
Play, so unorganized play, yeah.

00:29:03.192 --> 00:29:10.605
Lack of time for transitions, for sitting with family, for being bored yes, it is good for you.

00:29:10.605 --> 00:29:13.530
So we've also got this lack.

00:29:14.092 --> 00:29:23.926
And then we have an unbelievable pressure on I'll just say generally I know not everyone is this way on our kids to perform and to be successful.

00:29:23.926 --> 00:29:31.488
And you know, I've seen college preschools and I'm just like, what are we telling our kids?

00:29:31.488 --> 00:29:49.345
Right, so you know, you can get kids that are high flyers, that are trying to get straight A's, that are in sports, that are trying to have the perfect body, that are also doing four activities and a second language, and I'm like, I'm stressed listening to it.

00:29:49.345 --> 00:29:52.151
And you know what are we saying, you know?

00:29:52.151 --> 00:30:02.507
Are we saying you're no longer valuable unless you can go to the Ivy League school and the only way that you can do that is by putting yourself into a mental crisis?

00:30:02.507 --> 00:30:08.163
I think there needs to be a huge shift in what we're teaching our kids.

00:30:08.163 --> 00:30:20.002
And I don't know, I don't have the answer to that, but that message of like, unless you succeed or are successful or achieve that, you're not valuable, is really it's very warped to me.

00:30:20.324 --> 00:30:27.075
And then this idea of this perfect body image that nobody has, by the way, changes over the years.

00:30:27.075 --> 00:30:29.064
It blows my mind.

00:30:29.064 --> 00:30:30.646
I just I don't know.

00:30:30.646 --> 00:30:34.101
It's very difficult for kids and adults to navigate Right.

00:30:34.101 --> 00:30:35.364
It's very challenging.

00:30:35.364 --> 00:30:36.667
I agree with you.

00:30:36.909 --> 00:30:40.066
Yeah, indeed that's a lot of pressure for young ones.

00:30:40.066 --> 00:30:42.251
Like you mentioned, it's like on you and me.

00:30:42.251 --> 00:30:44.523
There's that anxiety that can come with it.

00:30:44.523 --> 00:30:49.874
So just imagine how much more intense it is for them when they don't really know how to process it.

00:30:49.874 --> 00:30:54.432
They're still, especially younger ones in the state of learning and taking everything in.

00:30:55.059 --> 00:30:56.747
Yeah, and then we've got cyberbullying.

00:30:56.747 --> 00:31:15.371
I mean that's just out of control and you wouldn't maybe you can't imagine, but I mean to try to imagine being the one person that was excluded from the friend group and then you're seeing on insta and tiktok that they're all, or snapchat, you know, whatever the kids are using, you know that their friends are out having fun and no one invited them.

00:31:15.371 --> 00:31:17.423
I mean, how, how do you process that?

00:31:17.423 --> 00:31:19.666
I don't know, I don't have the answer.

00:31:19.666 --> 00:31:25.407
I bless my therapy friends, my therapy colleagues, you know, because they're needed too.

00:31:25.407 --> 00:31:26.521
Right, we need.

00:31:26.521 --> 00:31:31.266
Of course there are psychological pressures, of course there are, and we need to involve those people as well.

00:31:31.646 --> 00:31:40.930
Yeah, definitely do, so we can have the support that our patients need and have the resources that they need to get through that and that the parents can have as well to help their kids.

00:31:40.930 --> 00:31:43.048
And I'm talking about resources.

00:31:43.048 --> 00:31:52.486
You do offer quite a bit on your website and that's a testament to your commitment to holistic healing and helping your pediatric patients going beyond the clinic walls.

00:31:52.486 --> 00:31:59.744
So could you highlight maybe one resource that you have that would be an invaluable tool for our audience to explore?

00:32:00.066 --> 00:32:07.481
Yeah, so go to middlepath integratedpediatricscom, and I'm not sure how to pick, so I'm just going to pick two.

00:32:07.481 --> 00:32:10.509
I have one that's for whole health.

00:32:10.509 --> 00:32:14.886
That one is all about fixing gut health before it goes wrong.

00:32:14.886 --> 00:32:18.119
It is 20 page, I think don't quote me, I think it's like 20 pages.

00:32:18.119 --> 00:32:19.162
It's not fluffy.

00:32:19.162 --> 00:32:25.034
It tells you exactly what to do to pre-treat your child or, if your child's already in a crisis, what to do.

00:32:25.034 --> 00:32:29.711
And then the other one is natural medicines to stock your medicine cabinet with.

00:32:29.711 --> 00:32:40.682
So if you have a kid that you want to get and stay healthy that doesn't have a chronic recurring problem, or even if they do and you're just like I don't want to go to CVS and end up with a bunch of toxins in my cart this tells you exactly what to buy.

00:32:40.682 --> 00:32:42.365
So take a look at either of those.

00:32:43.165 --> 00:32:43.546
I love it.

00:32:43.546 --> 00:32:50.375
I'm going to get that one too, because I have a five-year-old about to be six and I want to make sure I'm ready and prepared.

00:32:50.375 --> 00:32:54.306
Perfect, that's so good, so good.

00:32:54.306 --> 00:32:57.051
Dr Ellie, it's been a pleasure talking to you.

00:32:57.051 --> 00:33:01.631
Thank you so much for coming here and joining us today on Pivoting Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics.

00:33:02.500 --> 00:33:03.684
Well, thank you for having me.

00:33:03.684 --> 00:33:06.386
It's been great being on Pivotal.

00:33:06.406 --> 00:33:07.050
Pharmacy with Nutrigenomics.

00:33:07.050 --> 00:33:07.894
Oh, thank you for having me.

00:33:07.894 --> 00:33:08.798
It's been great being on.

00:33:08.798 --> 00:33:12.203
That's all I have for you today, friend.

00:33:12.203 --> 00:33:15.651
A huge thanks to Dr Ellie McGregor for bringing light to the power of integrative pediatric medicine and its use in ADHD.

00:33:15.651 --> 00:33:22.844
It's conversations like these that open our eyes to the many layers of health and remind us that sometimes the solution lies beyond the conventional.

00:33:23.445 --> 00:33:30.644
If today's discussion sparked something in you, or if you know someone navigating a similar journey with their child, share this episode with them.

00:33:30.644 --> 00:33:40.667
It's stories and insights like Dr Ellie's that can provide hope and pave the way for transformation, and I love to hear from you your thoughts, your stories, your victories.

00:33:40.667 --> 00:33:47.403
Connect with me on social media at Dr Tamar Lawful or leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

00:33:47.403 --> 00:33:53.845
Your engagement not just supports us, but fuels our drive to bring more of these insightful conversations to light.

00:33:53.845 --> 00:33:59.926
Until next time, keep exploring, keep questioning and remember healing is a journey, not just a prescription.

00:33:59.926 --> 00:34:01.109
Talk to you next Friday.

00:34:01.109 --> 00:34:09.170
Until then, remember that in your healthcare journey, always read the scripts on health, because together we can bring healthcare to higher levels.