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Thrive with ADHD
35 Plays27 days ago
Welcome to The Positively Healthy Mom Podcast! I’m your host, Laura Olinger, and today, I’m thrilled to introduce Dana Kay, ADHD expert, board-certified health and nutrition practitioner, and CEO of the ADHD Thrive Institute. Dana is passionate about helping families with ADHD thrive naturally, and she’s here to share her inspiring journey and practical tips. 🌟
Dana’s personal story began when her son was diagnosed with ADHD at age 4. After struggling with medication and its side effects, she discovered the power of nutrition and the gut-brain connection. Through diet changes, her son went from struggling to thriving—medication-free! 💡
In this episode, Dana explains how simple dietary changes can reduce ADHD symptoms, why a “food-first” approach is essential, and how whole, nutritious foods can create a strong foundation for kids to succeed. She also shares actionable advice for busy parents and emphasizes that healing doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective. 🥗✨
Dana has worked with over 1,300 families, helping them find peace and balance while reducing ADHD symptoms naturally. Whether you’re looking for guidance or hope, this episode is packed with wisdom and empowerment. 🎧💬
Grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and join us for this transformative conversation with Dana Kay! 🧡
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Guest
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey moms, it's Laura Olinger. Welcome to the Positively Healthy Mom podcast. Because there's no manual for the hardest job in the world.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Positively Healthy Mom podcast. I'm your host, Laura Olinger, teen and parent wellbeing coach. And today I'm so excited to introduce you to Donna Kay, who is an ADHD expert, board certified health and nutrition practitioner, and two times international bestselling author.
Donna's ADHD Journey and Career Shift
00:00:36
Speaker
She is also the host of the Soaring Child podcast.
00:00:41
Speaker
and CEO and founder of the ADHD Thrive Institute. So Donna, a big welcome to you today. Tell us a little bit about yourself and of course, where are you coming from? Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here today. ah So yes, i'm ah I work with families that have kids with ADHD.
00:01:03
Speaker
I live in Seattle, Washington, but I'm originally from Australia. um We have lived in the US for 10 years, um and so we've been here for a while. We're not going anywhere. We are now here, and my my son is 15, and my other son is 11, and so we're we're here for the long term.
00:01:22
Speaker
Perfect. So tell us what got you into this work?
Exploring Natural Remedies for ADHD
00:01:26
Speaker
Yeah, look, but believe it or not, ah I was completely removed from this health and wellness phase. I was actually an accounting and I really planned to be in that field. And I probably would have been if if if concerns over my son's health hadn't grown as much as he as they did. ah He was actually diagnosed with ADHD at the age of four.
00:01:50
Speaker
And, you know, at first, I i just, his tantrums were were awful. um his's he He could never sit still ah at the dinner table or or at breakfast, he was bouncing off the wall. And it just seems so much more, just so much more than anyone else, any other kid's his age. And when he was diagnosed, I really felt this this sort of sense of relief, you know, it wasn't that It was my fault. it I wasn't a bad mum. And you know, he, the doctor gave us medication and I was so excited about that medication. And I bounced into the drug store and I feel that medication. And I just remember feeling relieved. Like this is fine. We're getting the help that we needed, but you know, things got great for for a couple of weeks, but then the the dosage increased and he started to experience side effects and they became worse and worse.
00:02:46
Speaker
his doctor added in a second medication to counteract the side effects of the first. And this continued until my son, who is now five, was on three very strong medications.
00:02:58
Speaker
And when the doctor suggested a fourth medication to counteract some new side effects that had popped up, I just couldn't do it anymore. you know And that's when my career path completely changed. I went back to school. I did my health science degree. I did multiple specific certifications in this particular area. And I really learned how food can affect so many aspects of our lives. And and I learned that ADHD symptoms can be reduced naturally. ah yeah mike Today, my son, as I mentioned, he's 15.
Diet's Role in Managing ADHD
00:03:32
Speaker
He is in high school. He is thriving and he's not been on meds for years. um He's a straight A student. ah Not that that matters to me at all. I think the most important thing for me is that
00:03:45
Speaker
He's happy and and my family is happy and we we now have sort of that peace and that calm in our house that we always wanted. Look, I will preface that to say as much peace and calm you can have with two boys.
00:04:01
Speaker
But look, once i once I learn about the importance of food and the importance of, you know, the gut-brain connection and reducing inflammation in the body. And once I saw these changes on my own son, I really couldn't keep the information to myself. You know, I didn't want anyone else to have to go through the struggles that my family went through. And I've been lucky enough now to have worked with over 1,300 other families, you know, and get to the same place as me, but just a little bit quicker.
00:04:32
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for kind of sharing the background and like how this has all come about. And I'm so glad that you are handling this. um You know, so I haven't mentioned that my background is in functional medicine. That was my first certification is as a health coach. But I found that I really like to kind of outsource some things because I ended up focusing on more of the emotional part. So when kids do have ADHD, they end up getting, and I'm sure you know this, a lot of anxiety or a lot of depression, or they start to have self-esteem issues because they can't keep up with the work that the other kids are doing or they're not as organized. And so I found my kind of niches kind of coaching that emotional aspect of it. um So I'm so excited to get into that, the physical health part. so
00:05:22
Speaker
um From a nutritional standpoint what do the moms need to know? Yeah look um I just want to ask like who doesn't feel better when they eat better? and I think that if we if we really think about that you know food first should be the first port of call for everything. you know Like most most doctors, when you go to them and you're diagnosed with ADHD, um many of them don't even tell parents that altering the diet ah can significantly reduce ADHD symptoms. So you know I'm a big proponent of that food first approach. you know For my son, medication didn't help him. Food did.
00:06:05
Speaker
ah And I'm not of against medication, but it shouldn't be that first port of call, especially when sometimes food can even be more effective with with no side
Gut Health and ADHD Connection
00:06:15
Speaker
effects. So if we like really dive into into what that means. um You know, if children are eating highly processed inflammatory foods, lots of packaged goods, it's hard for them to do well. You know, who doesn't feel better?
00:06:33
Speaker
when they eat better. And so really we just want to focus on bringing in whole nutritious foods. And I look, I can tell you, I'm a busy parent. I've got two kids.
00:06:44
Speaker
I am not saying you need to to eat, ah you know, a hundred percent whole food diet. That is not realistic no wow the that do say that. But, you know, i I often think of it like this, you know, when you're building a house, a solid foundation is an optional, you know, it's a necessity. And if you have a solid foundation, which in this case is diet, that is not going to be very strong. It's the same way with us diet.
00:07:10
Speaker
foundation And if our diet is poor, we can never function at our best. So we we need to start with that. And, you know, I could go into the details of what that looks like. You know, we want to, we really want to focus on reducing out the foods that create inflammation. It's like,
00:07:29
Speaker
gluten and dairy, artificial flavors and artificial colors. There's lots of research out there just with artificial colors on how much they can exacerbate hyperactivity and emotional dysregulation. But I don't want to overwhelm the listeners because Rome wasn't built in a day. you You don't need to make all of these changes in a day either. You really just, let's focus on on what to eat first. And then when we you know improve that that that diet and what's actually going into their body, then we can you know
00:08:03
Speaker
start to look at some of those more deeper strategies of removing foods that are created. Yes, I think that's wonderful because I can see why people would just like in two seconds get overwhelmed and be like, okay, I'm not doing any of this. I can't, you know, there's no way there's no way this would be impossible for my child to eat like this. I don't even want to eat like this. How could I do that? So it's more about like adding first. And then when you get confident and comfortable and you know, ready, you could take those next baby steps and kind of go from there. So talk to us a little bit about the gut brain connection. Yeah. And it's one of my favorite things to talk about. I just, I just love, I love talking about it. I just want to start off with some statistics quickly. ah It's, it's estimated that 54% of American children have been diagnosed with a chronic illness. And that was in 2018 when they did this study.
00:09:00
Speaker
But that figure was only 15% a couple of years before that. And you know I was floored looking at that increase. you know Our kids are suffering. One in two have anxiety, asthma, type one, type two diabetes, diabetes you know heart problems, allergic conditions. One in five have allergies. One in six have developmental delays. And one in 32 have autism.
00:09:23
Speaker
But we've got to ask ourselves, why do we think that this rise has occurred so rapidly? yeah The answer is simple. It all begins in the gut. And that's because 80% of the body's entire immune system, 80% is within the gut wall, and okay? With billions of nerve cells and an extensive amount of of beneficial gut bacteria. So all of our children's health and our own health, obviously, is literally connected to everything that occurs in the gut. And I've got so many families that come in and say, um you know, when I ask them, how how is your, is there any history of sickness? They so they usually say, no, everyone's fit and healthy. And, but when I press forward and ask if whether their child has been on antibiotics or suffered from diarrhea or constipation, they often tell me that that they have, and they're actually surprised to learn that it's not healthy or normal. um And it might be, it might be very common, but it's a byproduct of an unhealthy gut.
00:10:23
Speaker
Now, a lot of them have been on antibiotics, but what happens with antibiotics, they work by killing the bacteria or preventing it from growing. Unfortunately, most antibiotics can't distinguish between good and bad bacteria.
00:10:39
Speaker
means that they wreak havoc on a gut um the gut's healthy bacteria, and many people actually suffer lasting changes to their gut flora. So we've got a large percentage of these children that have been on on on antibiotics or multiple rounds of antibiotics, so it's not a huge surprise to see that disorders and illnesses are on the rise.
00:10:59
Speaker
But let's tie it to ADHD because that's, you know, the gut brain. And what brain connection means is that our brains are deeply connected to our gut. So if our, our guts aren't functioning well, our brains won't be able to function well either. 95% of the body serotonin, 50% of the body's dopamine are produced in the gut. And these are our hormones or neurotransmitters.
00:11:26
Speaker
that help us manage emotions, balance our mood. They help our cognitive function. Emotional dysregulation is a common symptom of ADHD, but parents don't realize that this actually starts in the gut where the serotonin and the dopamine are made. So once we can work on the gut, a lot of these mood issues rectify themselves.
00:11:53
Speaker
next thing is even more exciting is the main area that the gut talks to is the frontal lobe, which if you're just listening, um I'm pointing to the middle of my forehead. ah You wouldn't have seen me doing that. But the frontal lobe is the area in the brain that is responsible for attention and focus and executive function and planning, organizing, problem solving,
00:12:17
Speaker
which are all areas that are affected by ADHD. You know, a lot of children with ADHD struggle with these. But because the frontal lobe is in the brain, many people are under the impression it's the brain that needs care, when in reality, it's also the gut that's causing problems. It's like this highway between the two of them.
00:12:38
Speaker
Have you ever, have you ever um felt ah butterflies in your stomach because you were nervous about something? Absolutely. Yeah. Totally. Like a first date or a test. I say a first date because you know, my, my son is 15 and he's going on his first dates. and But like that's a perfect example of the gut brain connection. You know, our body is perceiving whatever we're nervous about as a stressful situation. And then our brains are triggering. the raw emotions in the gut, resulting in those butterflies and the nausea. you know That's the brain talking to the gut, but the reverse is also true. okay So that that gut is talking to the brain as well. And when we've got a broken down gut, when we've got that bad balance of good bacteria and bad bacteria, that's all traveling up into the brain, it's no you know no surprise to to realize that you know that that gut is causing those symptoms in the brain
00:13:35
Speaker
you know, the brain, which is the inability to focus.
Inflammation, Detox, and ADHD
00:13:38
Speaker
So we like that highway. So when we can work on the gut, we can really reduce those ADHD symptoms. We can optimize that gut brain connection and really help that brain thrive.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yes, yes. And um not only that, but one of the things I learned in the past is how there are certain things that get into your bloodstream that would then travel to your brain. So it's not just the nervous system and the, you know, like you talked about all the neurotransmitters, but it's actually these things like going into our brain through the bloodstream. So share a little bit about that.
00:14:14
Speaker
Yeah, look, I mean, ah you can have pathogens that are in that are in your gut, um things like, ah so we talk a lot, I talk a lot about inflammation, exacerbating ADHD symptoms. And I kind of like to um use this analogy, if you haven't already told, ah yeah, and already seen, I like to use analogies. But um I've got this analogy where we're all sort of born with this metaphorical trash can in our body.
00:14:42
Speaker
and our goal through life is to keep the load on that trash can low, okay? And so, um you know, most of us, we take our trash can out to the sidewalk on a Monday, ah so the garbage truck can come by and empty it. But just think about if that trash can doesn't get emptied, you know, what's it gonna do to our house? It's gonna, like, overflow. There's gonna be garbage everywhere, okay?
00:15:07
Speaker
And that garbage, you know, is just going to stink out our house. It's going to make us sick. And if that's inside our body, that is creating inflammation. Now, if we can't empty that trash can, meaning our detoxification pathways aren't optimized,
00:15:23
Speaker
then that trash is causing chaos in our body. When we add that to what's going on in the gut, you know, and a gut our gut lining is broken down, we can have some of these toxins, these particles that can go through the lining of the gut into the bloodstream. And what happens when stuff goes through in the bloodstream, the body sees it as a foreign object. The body uh, response is turn on this inflammatory response. Okay. And it's going to make symptoms worse. That's inflammation drive symptoms. It's going to further break down the lining of the gut. And then what happens is it's this vicious cycle. Okay. When we actually then eat food, that food eve hasn't had a chance to be broken down by the gut. It actually can go through the lining of the gut into our bloodstream. Then the bodies,
00:16:12
Speaker
seeing that as a foreign object. It's turning on an inflammatory response. So even when we eat food, our body sees it as a toxin. Now, some of these other things that can go into the brain are things like malt. Okay. If it's out into our bloodstream and it crosses that blood brain barrier and the sudden we have more toxicity and and our brain is on fire. We need to actually reduce the toxic load. We need to optimize detoxification pathways and really heal that lining of the gut. We can start to function well. I know it sounds really overwhelming. I just, you know, that was like getting into a little bit of the detail, but I'm just going to bring it back for listeners to say,
00:16:59
Speaker
Rome wasn't built in today, okay? You don't need to take all of this information and go, oh my God, what am I going to do with it? um Just taking small, slow steps ah to helping your child thrive is the best way to have success. Okay, so next question. It might be a little tricky, but um we'll we'll do it together. So your son, you started feeding, you started educating yourself at a very young age. You started making these changes at a very young age. Now, imagine we have a listener whose child is 15, 16.
00:17:31
Speaker
And all of a sudden we decide we want to make changes and the teenager is already trying to form their own identity, be their own person. They don't want to hear advice from their parents. How would you tap into personally getting your child on board to start trying these things or start trying to make changes or educate them? Like how would you do it?
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah, look, um we we work with a lot of teenagers as well. So definitely that one comes up a lot when you've got older children. It's really important to get them to understand the why. And I will say that with teenagers, it's more um critical to actually show them on a piece of paper why they are doing something that they're doing. So we use a lot of functional lab testing.
Engaging Teens in Dietary Changes
00:18:20
Speaker
And so just say, um ah just say yeah ah we've got a child who we know is extremely sensitive to gluten and we need to remove it out. I find that with teenagers, when they can actually see a lab test that says, oh my gosh, like you are extremely high to sensitive to gluten and it's causing a lot of your symptoms.
00:18:40
Speaker
they're more likely to follow through and they really understand the why. So it's to taking them on this journey is super important right from the get go. You know, with a younger child, you can just make these changes at home and you know, they'll go along for the journey. But with ah an older child, you need them to understand why you're doing it. Another strategy that that works really, really well is really tapping into a couple of things.
00:19:07
Speaker
You know, if you've got a child who's super into sports, super into health, tapping into that and really driving, this is why we're doing it to help you be more successful in this. That is a really good way to go. But then most of our kiddos with ADHD as, you know, teenagers understand that they struggle in certain areas. And a lot of the time they don't want to struggle. They don't want are different in struggling at school. They don't want to be having an emotional meltdown at home. They don't want to be getting into trouble and so really educating them to say, look this is what is exacerbating a lot of those symptoms. I know you don't want to feel like this. I know you don't want to continue doing bad at school. I know you don't want to be doing this and this. This is why we're making this change.
00:20:05
Speaker
And again, bringing it back to Rome was not built in a day. And so one change at a time, you take and the journey with you, you know, you don't need to go and chuck out all the food, ah throw away, sorry, chuck i' chuck out is an Australian saying, I think. It translates, we get it. yeah like Even though I've been here for 10 years, I still say things and I just don't know if it actually comes the right way. but i You know, let's just change one product at a time. Focus on breakfast. Breakfast for our kiddos that are going off to school. It's the most important meal of the day. day So let's focus there. And when we're all comfortable, when when our kiddo, our teenager is comfortable, let's move on to the next thing.
00:20:52
Speaker
And so they're going to start to feel better as well. And when they start to feel better, they are going to want to continue down this path. Yeah. Yeah. That makes so much sense. And, you know, even if they are resisting, um which you might anticipate some of that, or, um you know, then they go off to college and they're like, you know, screw it. I want to live my own life, or maybe they're like, I really want to do well in college, so I'm going to stick to this. Either way, what I found is that when teenagers do veer off track, if they've had the education, they do end up coming back to it. It's just kind of sometimes a matter of when it might be in their 20s or kind of later, but um they do come back to it even if they are like pushing or resisting or or whatever that is. Yeah, you are 100% correct there. um ah I yeah had um ah my nephew. ah This was back in the day. um We helped him you know ah have some success.
00:21:47
Speaker
um And he was doing amazing. And then, you know, when he hit 16, 17, he was like, nope, not going to do this anymore. um Started to struggle, had to go on his own journey. Now he's 19, and he's back eating the way that he he was. And he feels great. And so he needed to go on that own journey. And that's okay. yeah Yeah, to get that get that you know the contrast, so they they feel more motivated to stick to the path. Well, Donna, this has been really awesome. Is there anything that we missed that you feel is important that we share? Look, I think I've given a lot of concepts today. um I'm just going to bring it back to Rome wasn't available in a day, and I think that that is the most important thing to remember.
00:22:31
Speaker
um when trying to help our kiddos, because I know that as parents, all we want to do is help our kiddos right now. yeah But I chucked away all the bad food in my house on day one. I ended up in with multiple panic attacks myself. What am I going to feed my family? um That is not what I recommend.
00:22:52
Speaker
So um I always teach slow and steady wins the race. So I think, you know, give yourself permission to go at a pace that's doable for you and your family and your child. You know, it's not a race. um It's a marathon and um It's okay to take one step at a time. Yes, I completely agree. And especially if like you have multiple children and you know it can be a little bit overwhelming if you know one child needs to eat this way, but this child it doesn't want to have to do it because of them. And so it's kind of like, can you get the whole family on board? so
00:23:27
Speaker
I can see why you are in such high demand.
Conclusion and Resources
00:23:30
Speaker
So that being said, how can people find you going forward? Yeah, the best way to find me is at ADHDthriveinstitute.com. ah That same handle is on all social media platforms, so I'm pretty easy to find. You can get a copy of my international bestselling book, ah Thriving with ADHD. ah It's available on my website or Amazon.
00:23:51
Speaker
Awesome. Well, this has been a fantastic and enlightening conversation and I feel like I learned so much. um So Donna, it was amazing talking to you and people I'm sure it will flood to your resources to learn more. So thank you again. Thank you for having me. Much appreciated. Okay. Thank you for listening to the Positively Healthy Mom podcast because there's no manual for the hardest job in the world. Don't forget to subscribe and share with your friends.