Kristen Carder 0:00
Kristin, welcome to the I have ADHD podcast, where it’s all about education, encouragement and coaching for adults. With ADHD, I’m your host, Kristen Carter and I have ADHD, let’s chat about the frustrations, humor and challenges of adulting, relationships, working and achieving with this neurodevelopmental disorder, I’ll help you understand your unique brain, unlock your potential and move from point A to point B. Hey, what’s up? This is Kristin Carter, and you are tuning in to the I have ADHD podcast. I am medicated, caffeinated and 100% ready to roll. I’m so glad that you press play on this podcast episode. I just love the fact that you’re here with me, that we can have these conversations together, and that I’m not the only one with ADHD in the world who’s like trying to figure it out. So welcome pull up a chair, or get started on that laundry, whatever it is that you’re doing right now. And this is going to be a great episode. Today’s guest is Dr Robert Melillo. He is an expert in brain health, specializing in childhood and adult neurological disorders. He’s the best selling author of the book disconnected kids, which you may have heard of, and he focuses on ADHD, autism, OCD, tics, anxiety and other developmental issues. He’s dedicated to bridging brain function, behavior and physical health, and that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. So really interesting interview. It was helpful to me to ask him questions. I really wish I could have asked him 100 more questions, but we ran out of time. I really hope that you enjoy this and hey, if you like it, share it. If you enjoy this content, hit the Like, subscribe the rating button, all of the things, no matter what platform you are listening or watching on, it would help the show so much. It helps me so much. Also, I have ADHD. I am in need of dopamine. Would you give me some dopamine today? Leave a comment. Hit the like button. Subscribe to the channel, press the five star rating button on Apple or Spotify, whatever, any thing that you do in the next five seconds to say that you appreciate the show. It matters so much to me. I am so grateful to you. Please enjoy this interview. So Dr Melillo, thank you so much for being here. So glad to chat with you. I know you’re calling in from New York City, not too far from me. So welcome.

Dr. Robert Melillo 2:41
Oh, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Kristen Carder 2:43
Yeah, it’s great. So I always like to ask our guests to kind of establish credibility for us. My audience comes with a really healthy dose of skepticism, and so I’m curious if you could just give us a context for who you are and the work that you do and your expertise,

Dr. Robert Melillo 3:01
sure. Well, I’ve been a healthcare practitioner for 30 plus years. I have multiple degrees, and started out with a chiropractic background, but then got a diplomat in neurology. I have a degree in neuroscience. I have a degree in clinical rehabilitation, neuropsychology, and I have a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, and I’ve been, you know, practicing for many, many years. I have written about 100 over 100 scientific papers. I head up a research lab, and I’m a university professor, postgraduate professor in brain development and and developmental neurology. I have written eight best selling books, disconnected kids is the best known that we just came out with the third edition about a month ago, and that book has been translated into 18 languages. It’s one of the best selling books of all time in the genre of ADHD, autism development, neurodevelopmental disorders. I also, you know, have done a lot of things with my wife and I have a web series that is out there that has over 4 million views that we’ve gotten in the past year on on your home TV, which is a new streaming network. So you know, I’ve been doing this a long time as a researcher, as a professor, teaching clinicians around the world, doing the actual research, publishing. We published, I think, seven or eight papers last year alone, just on the relationship of things like retained primitive reflexes and autism spectrum.

Kristen Carder 4:51
Is it fair to say you’re obsessed with the brain? Yeah. I mean, for me, sensing and obsession like there’s a lot. It. There’s a lot there.

Speaker 1 5:01
Yeah somewhat. I mean, you know, when I wrote my first textbook, which is called neuro behavioral disorders of childhood and evolutionary perspective, came out in 2004 but I started writing it way before that, literally, I took six months off of practice, and I wrote by hand. I wrote 1300 pages with 4000 references. So it was kind of like, it was kind of like, you know, you know, the an obsessive type of, yeah, purge at that point. But so, yeah, learning about the brain, understanding the brain has been a, you know, a pretty much lifelong obsession for me,

Kristen Carder 5:47
something that’s really curious to me. I have so many questions for you, because when I encountered your work, which was fairly recently, it is very different from what I have found in research and from ADHD experts that I’ve spoken to, and so I’d really like to get to the bottom of kind of the differences between what I have learned from other people and your method and your theories Behind ADHD. So my first question for you is, you know, you have a different perspective on the root cause of ADHD, and I would love to hear your thoughts on that. What is the root cause of ADHD?

Dr. Robert Melillo 6:35
Yeah, well, you know, to me, it all comes down to understanding the brain. And you know, again, I don’t think I have an opinion. I think I know what the actual research says and what our research has proven as far as what is actually happening in the brain, when you think about it, you know? And this is the first question I ask any patient that comes into me. Has anybody ever tried to explain you know, what is actually happening in your brain? You have a label, whether it’s ADHD or OCD or whatever it may be, and has anybody explained to what that means? And you know, virtually anybody who comes into me from anywhere all over the world, their answer is always no. No one’s ever explained it to me. So I think a lot of people that are out there in the treatment world, they really don’t know anything, or they don’t know much about the brain. They don’t really know what the problem is, and they think of it in really basic terms of biochemical imbalances, and that’s not really how it works. So it really is about what is happening in the brain. And I wrote a very detailed paper about this last year where what we see is, first of all, we have to define what we mean by ADHD, right? There are three different subtypes of ADHD. Type One is the inattentive type. Type Two is the hyperactive or impulsive. Type three is the combined type. So all of those things represent different areas of the brain where certain areas are overactive in other areas, or underactive or underdeveloped, that leads to these different types of functions or behaviors, right and so the more traditional type of ADHD, the combined type, the hyperactive, impulsive type, is, you know, pretty clearly recognized as a right brain deficient syndrome, where certain areas in the right side of the brain and the right side is mainly responsible for attention. There’s five different types of human attention, and four of them are regulated by the brain, but especially sustained open attention, which is the kind of attention that we need in like a classroom or that we need to, you know, do that type of work. The left brain only has really one type of attention, and that’s super detailed, hyper focused attention. And so what we see is that, you know, certain areas of the brain, like what we call the parietal lobe, there are areas also called the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, there’s hyperactivity or impulsivity is generated in part by an area called the orbital frontal so what we see is that overactivity of an area called Rodman area six, or the premotor area on The left side, is what causes hyperactivity or ticks or stimming behavior, or any of the type of overactive movement, physical movement, overactivity on the left side, if the orbital frontal causes hyperactivity or causes impulsivity, and those are all related to deficiencies in the right side. So all of this starts from the brainstem, and it’s all based on maturational delays and imbalances. There’s no damage in the brain, there’s no genetic mutation, there’s no chemical imbalance per se or metabolic issue. These have to do with the way the brain develops grow. Is and the way it communicates between networks in the brain, and this developmental imbalance is the root cause of the problem.

Kristen Carder 10:08
Okay, so if you were to explain it to someone who is having trouble understanding, would in its simplest form, be that it’s a developmental imbalance in the brain, is that kind of like the most concise way to describe it,

Dr. Robert Melillo 10:25
between networks in the brain, and especially between the two hemispheres of the brain, yes, so

Kristen Carder 10:30
an imbalance between the two hemispheres in the brain?

Dr. Robert Melillo 10:35
Yes.

Kristen Carder 10:35
Okay, that’s fascinating to me, and I, I I just, I guess, as someone who has been around people with ADHD for the last 10 years and talking to experts on ADHD, I don’t understand why people aren’t saying this, right, and you must have Some of that in you too. Like, hello. Like, what so help me understand, like, why this is not like a widespread, widely held view,

Dr. Robert Melillo 11:12
yeah. I mean, well, I mean in the research areas, it is right. So with people that really research ADHD at the highest level, most people understand that there is this right hemisphere under development and there’s these imbalances in different networks in the brain. And of course, it’s much more complicated than it sounds, and it involves an area of the brain called the basal ganglion. There are different pathways called the direct and the indirect and hyper direct. So, you know, it’s more complicated, but essentially, that’s the root cause. And again, in the scientific literature, it’s out there, but you know, the average, you know, so called expert in ADHD doesn’t really know much about the brain, that very few people actually know the brain. They have learned it, maybe at a basic level. And so, you know, I’ve spent my whole career, really, 30 plus years, trying to understand this from a functional perspective. Because I’ve always believed that, you know, understanding this is the root cause of many different types of issues. All mental health issues come down to these issues, and most physical health issues come down to this. I believe ultimately we’re going to move to a brain based model. But the bottom line is, is that most people out there that are dealing with this have no idea how the brain actually works. They don’t know how it develops, and they don’t know really, really high level neuroscience and neuroanatomy. And I do know that really well, and to me, that’s the only thing that makes sense, because I started out as a father of a child with ADHD that knew a lot about neurology and rehabilitation, and you know when, when he was labeled with that, my first question is, well, what’s actually happening in the brain? And you have to think about this, because you’ve interviewed a lot of these people, and if nobody’s ever explained to you what’s actually happening in the brain so that you understand it, you have to say, why would that be? You know, that doesn’t make any sense if it’s a brain issue, right? So the

Kristen Carder 13:16
what I have been told over and over is that the prefrontal cortex of the brain is underdeveloped, and so the prefrontal cortex is where all of our executive functions are housed. It’s where our impulsivity and our regulation ability is housed. And so because the prefrontal cortex is underdeveloped, that is why we, myself included with ADHD, struggle with things like attention organization, self regulation. Is that in line with what you’re saying?

Dr. Robert Melillo 13:54
Yes, but it’s very, very basic, okay, meaning that it’s not so we have, we have, you know, different attention networks in the brain. The right brain has what we call the ventral attention network, and there are different hubs in the different areas, and networks start from the bottom of the brain and work up into the brain, right? But in one way, you’re saying is correct. So there’s under development, so there’s immaturity of the prefrontal cortex, but predominantly on the right side, the left side, if anything, in most people with ADHD is more developed and may actually be beyond so that’s the thing. When I first started looking at ADHD, the first concept that came across in the research literature was something called an unevenness of skills, meaning that people with ADHD don’t struggle with everything, that they’re actually very gifted and very talented in certain areas, and then they may struggle in others. So right from the beginning, the description is that of some sort of imbalance. But again. Prefrontal cortex is the last thing to develop, and there’s other things that lead into that that are also immature and underdeveloped. That’s why the pre the prefrontal cortex and so we have areas like the parietal lobe, which is really where attention comes from. Like I said, we have another area that’s called the premotor area. That is what inhibits. We know that, you know, if that area is underactive, if we don’t have the proper Default Mode Network, which is another network that is involved, and what we see is there’s overactivity of those networks in the left side of the brain. Yeah, and that, that is so it’s to say that it’s just immaturity, or under development of the prefrontal cortex is is just really pointing out part of it, okay, but it’s really much more than that. It’s really specific developmental imbalances where certain areas are overactive, that’s where hyperactivity comes from, or impulsivity comes from, and there’s a developmental underdevelopment of the attention networks, which are primarily those type are in the right side of the brain.

Kristen Carder 16:11
So why are these areas over developing or underdeveloped? Like, what causes that to happen?

Dr. Robert Melillo 16:20
Yeah, good question. So the all of these factors, first of all, we see all of this increasing, and we are seeing an epidemic rise of it. And the reality is, there are more and more people with these issues, and they’re real issues. And again, there are also different versions of ADHD. ADHD type one is really more related, in quite often, to a left brain delay, where it’s only inattentive, and that is often associated with dyslexia or learning disabilities, where you get people that may have overactivity of the right so there are different and that’s another thing. They’re very different from one another, but yet they all fall under the label of ADHD. So that’s why it’s very confusing. You can get people that are very different personality types that are both claiming that they have ADHD, and it’s like, wait a second, how can ADHD be all of these things in these people that are very different. That’s why what we talk about it is different, but essentially, it starts with a gift. It starts with people that have certain areas of their brain that are stronger than most people, right? So in people with the classic ADHD of the combined type, it’s the left brain. So these people are usually highly intelligent. They may, you know, actually read earlier. They may be really good at certain things, like certain academics. And, you know, they’re, they’re very right but the right brain develops first. In the first three years, the right brain is developing and in the womb. So anything that might affect the development of the brain in the womb, and there are many different environmental factors that can have an impact. It may have more of an effect on delaying the right brain’s development. And then, if the person is gifted in the left brain, it comes online too early, and it holds back that right brain development, and it becomes the dominant brain when it’s really supposed to be the other way around, and the right brain doesn’t fully develop. And the right brain is about developing attention networks. It’s about being able to develop normal social and non verbal communication, being able to be aware of other people, emotional regulation, being able to calm ourselves down. All of those things are really what should be developing in the first three years. There’s another thing called retained primitive reflexes. This is my main area of research, and I’m kind of the world expert in it right now. Last year, we published seven papers alone, you know, and autism is really a very similar mechanism. It’s just more extreme version of it. Okay, so when we talk about neurodivergence, we’re usually talking about ADHD and autism. And neurologically, they’re very, very similar, and the genetics underlying them are very, very similar. So these reflexes are there to help us through early developmental movements going through out of the womb, going through normal milestones, and then at one year, almost exactly, a child should walk and talk and be able to point and have joint attention, and these reflexes should go away. What our research has proven is that in many cases, these reflexes don’t go away when they’re supposed to. And then they hold the brain back, and again, they slow down, especially the right side, which is mainly developing. And then the left brain can come online too early. And if they don’t go away on at one when they’re supposed to, they. Never go away on their own, so that it affects you all the way into adulthood. So that adult ADHD, almost all adult mental health issues, we understand. It all starts in development. So I don’t just work in pediatrics. I work in brain development. Yeah, and the fate of the adult brain is really determined in the first six years totally, and it may not show up until, like the 20s, when you’re schizophrenic or bipolar may not show up until your 30s, and dementia may not show up until your 70s or 80s. But most of it all starts in childhood.

Kristen Carder 20:35
So I am interested to talk about that, but I want to put a pin in that and just share a personal story, because you’re talking about these reflexes. And I have a family member who, right now is eight years old, and when they were a toddler, they kept falling, repeatedly, falling, falling, falling, and the preschool teacher counted 14 times that this kiddo fell within the two and a half hours of preschool. And finally it was kind of like, okay, like, we need to get this kiddo assessed. And they were assessed and found that one of these reflexes, I forget the name of it, tonic, something,

Dr. Robert Melillo 21:20
the asymmetric tonic, neck reflex. Thank

Kristen Carder 21:23
you so much. I believe that’s what it was, time reflex. Okay, so I believe that’s what it was. Definitely the word tonic was in there. I associated it with the adult beverage. That’s probably a problem, but that’s how I remembered it. And so he went to physical therapy, stopped falling wonderful, but now is being evaluated next month for autism. And it’s so fascinating to me just to have a personal story of a kiddo in my life who you know had one of those primitive reflexes never go away. And, you know, that was finally kind of addressed, but then now he is kind of on the pathway to being assessed and diagnosed for autism. What an interesting connection.

Dr. Robert Melillo 22:12
Yes, and that’s, you know, that the idea that movement is what drives our brain development. The reason why move by why brains evolved on this planet, which was the subject of part of my first book textbook, is because a living thing moved. Living things that don’t move don’t have brains, right? So movement is what initiates the need for a brain, and movement is what develops a brain in childhood first. So anything that alters movement, anything that affects normal, smooth, coordinated movement, and there’s very specific blueprint of how the brain is supposed to develop. And these milestones are very important. And you know, lately the CDC is saying that they’re not important anymore, that you know even that crawling isn’t even a milestone anymore, which is absolutely ridiculous, because again, though that’s the way it’s supposed to develop. And we see that most kids, especially with the right brain delays, that they have problems with muscle tone. They have imbalances of tone. They’re very clumsy. They have gross motor developmental delay. They miss or skip many of these milestones, and they’re much later than they should. And you know, so that is not coincident. That is what we see almost 100% of the time with anybody really diagnosed with ADHD or autism, or any other really neurodevelopmental issue,

Kristen Carder 23:44
I’m really interested to hear what you think about genetics and how genetics play into ADHD, because what I have read, what I have heard from experts, is that, you know, It’s highly genetic. It’s highly inheritable. 70, I think the latest study says that 70, 74% heritability rate, which is high. What do you see? What? What? Why is this so? Why is this question so hard to get out. Let me try again.

Dr. Robert Melillo 24:22
I know exactly what you’re asking. And like, where do genetics

Kristen Carder 24:25
fit into this? Because it’s really easy for people to say, like, oh, just genetics. It’s just genetic. Like, your your dad has it, you have it too. And like, like, my dad has it and I have it too. So like, yeah, I can see the heritability. So can you talk to that a little bit

Dr. Robert Melillo 24:41
Sure? Well, first of all, it’s not a genetic mutation. So we have to make the distinction when people say genetic, you know, most people think that would mean a single gene mutation that is not the case. That is what you would see with like Down syndrome or fragile X or no. Mental health issue is related to a single gene mutation. So what we call talk about is epigenetics, right, meaning that there’s no damage to a gene, there’s no gene injury, there’s no deletion, per se. But there may be genes that aren’t being expressed, and the genes that are most susceptible to environmental factors are the genes that regulate brain development, because our brain is the most adaptable organ we have. It’s designed to interact with the world around us, and so different environmental factors can create what’s called DNA methylation, meaning we get methyl molecules that attach to parts of the gene. So when we go to transcribe and translate the gene, we go over it and we don’t read it. Now, in the old days, you know, before the year 2000 and some research, we used to think that, you know, these marks, these methyl marks that block gene expression that when we have a baby, it’s completely wiped clean, and a baby starts with a completely clean genetic slate. So therefore, the only way to pass something down inherited was if it was an actual physical mutation of the gene that the parents would have, right? But now we know, you know that that’s not the case, that those epi mutations, those methyl marks, can be passed down to up to 11 generations. AG,

Kristen Carder 26:32
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Dr. Robert Melillo 28:28
The idea is that you know this, these are built on traits. So I believe, and I think it’s pretty clear, that we, again, are all more right hemisphere or left hemisphere dominating the way that we see the world and and we’re a little biased one way or the other, and within there are different subsets, you know, like people that are right brain dominant. Some people might be good at music. Other people might be athletes. Other people might be just really good socially and intuitively. Other people might be inventors, or other people might be designers. With people that are left brain dominant. Some people are good in math, some people are great at reading. Some people are just really good at fine motor skills. Some people are, you know, really super motive motivated. So there’s different subsets within that, but that you know, is something these are traits, like, just like, you know, in a family where everybody’s, like, a good athlete, or everybody, you know, all the people are engineers, or everybody is a musician. You know, these are family traits. And what happens, though, is that these traits, they get passed on. And lot these epi mutations can be passed on. But you know, there’s nothing bad about traits. And in fact, again, as we said, most people that end up with these imbalances actually are extremely gifted when you have an area of your brain that you very gifted in. And what does that mean when you’re talented or intelligent or gifted? It means that an area of your brain that controls that function is more tightly connected. Impacted. It does things faster. It has more physical connectivity in that area, and so that you perform that skill better. But when you do that on one side, the other side, that same side, might be a little less than most people. And for most people, their strengths outweigh their weaknesses, but in developing, what can happen is those, those can become accentuated, your strengths and weaknesses can become too great, and this imbalance between them, and then the weakness outweighs the strength, and that, again, is superimposed on your natural strengths, your natural personality traits that you get from your parents, and then also on other environmental what we call epigenetic factors, that may cause those genes to be more or less expressed than they normally would be. And then this can run in families. So the good news is that, you know, we don’t want to change any family trait. That’s good. We may want to balance the versions of it out so that we don’t have an extreme version of that. And you know, there’s no genetic mutation. And by doing things to improve the health, and you know, you know, reduce things like inflammation or other factors, we can allow these genes to become fully expressed, and primarily it’s about changing the brain. And I mean physically changing the brain.

Kristen Carder 31:29
Okay, we really need to talk about physically changing the brain. But before we get there, I think it’s important, as someone with ADHD, who helps people with ADHD to have a conversation about medication. And I’ve heard you say that medication is a short term solution, not a long term solution. Can you share your thoughts about that?

Dr. Robert Melillo 31:51
Yeah, well, medication, again, is very good at managing symptoms, but it doesn’t really change the brain, right? It doesn’t structurally, physically, chemically, connectivity wise, change the brain. That’s why, when the medication wears off, the symptoms come back, right? And it’s not therapeutic, meaning, over time, it doesn’t improve brain function. And so therefore, it is, you know, something that is there to manage symptoms, but it’s not dealing with the core issue, and it doesn’t change the brain in specific ways to reestablish, you know, connectivity or functional balance between the networks of the brain.

Kristen Carder 32:30
So, how does an adult with ADHD improve their brain? How? Like, what? Actually, let’s, let’s make that a two part question, how do you do it? You know, when you have someone come into your center, and then after that, we can maybe talk about, what can just an average listener at home, how can they make improvements? So let’s talk about, like, the method that you use to help an adult with ADHD who walks into your center and says, like, help. I’m sick of taking medication. I need help with these symptoms. I’m not functioning the way I want to what, what is it that you and your people do to help?

Dr. Robert Melillo 33:11
Yeah, so it’s kind of like, you know, if you said to me, somebody came in and they, you know, and they had, like, certain weaknesses, or, you know, certain problems, physically, you know, what could we do to change that? And obviously, we would put together a program that would be a series of exercises or activities or different types of stimulation. And that’s the idea with the brain. The brain is an organ that creates functions. It’s not chemical, right? So the idea is it’s functional, meaning, you know, areas of our brain that see respond to light, and using our eyes and visually reading things or processing or stimulating that area of the brain with light causes it to grow and develop. And that’s how it does from the beginning, right from the beginning, as the brain builds from the bottom up, all this sensory input comes in and literally builds from the bottom up into the brain, and then grows the back of the brain, which is the visual cortex, and then the temporal lobe for hearing and smell and other things and and then the parietal lobe for feeling our body and knowing where we are in space and and having, you know, feeling hot and cold and pain, and then the frontal lobe for moving our body, and then the prefrontal for cognitive skills. So we grow that area by using it, by doing it, by stimulating it, and this causes a physical growth of the brain, and so we will put together a program based on an assessment that will identify, where are the weaknesses, what are the deficiencies? What areas of the brain like you know, we’ll do visual testing or visual processing. Do they have deficiencies in certain types of visual processing? Like the right brain does what we call global visual processing, the left brain does local or detail processing. We look at how they perceive sounds, or how they will process auditory sounds, or whether they’re actually registering smells, whether they feel their body in different places. Do they have a good sense of balance? Do they have their inner ear functions. Is it coming in in a balanced way? Is it are their eyes balanced and moving? Do they have a lazy eye? Or, you know, is there a problem with, you know, their pupils and how they’re reacting? Do they have any cognitive deficiencies? Do they have problems with certain types of memory or attention? Or, you know, again, are they really good at word reading, but they’re terrible at reading comprehension, or they may be really good at algebra but horrible at geometry. So there’s different aspects, and all of those things correlate with different areas on different sides of the brain. So we see where there’s these deficiencies. And then we put together a program that combines maybe 30 or 40 or 50 different things to target those areas of the brain in a program. If people come into our office, we do it usually in about an hour to an hour and a half. We’ll work with them doing physical exercises, getting rid of these primitive reflexes. And then we have them do things with balance or with spinning or, you know, listening to certain types of music or sound, or doing things with their eyes. Or they may, you know, be on a vibe plate, or we have vibration on their body. We use different types of electrical stimulation, like a 10s unit, or we use transcranial direct current or alternating current. Or we can use lasers, all of this, all of this. What it does is it really changes the frequency of networks in the brain. Ultimately, that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to when we say we want to create balance, different networks will oscillate on different frequencies, ranging from what we call a delta, which is a zero or two hertz, up to, you know, goes into what we call theta, and then alpha, and then beta and gamma, and high down up to 100 hertz. So networks to talk to one another, they have to be oscillating in the same they have to be on the same frequency band. And as the brain matures, the brain gets faster. So if we have immature areas of the brain, it’s oscillating at a slower rate than another area that may be more mature and they can’t talk to one another. So by doing stimulation exercises, stimulus, we’re literally changing the frequency, and we’re causing that area to grow and mature, and then we may do things to literally quiet down or slow down the other side of the brain so they can catch up to one another, and they can start to communicate with each other in a balanced way. And that’s the law. That’s the ultimate solution to

Kristen Carder 38:01
get the both hemispheres of the brain communicating to each other in a balanced way. That’s what we’re looking for. Yeah, right, how can someone like an average listener who maybe doesn’t have the time or money or capacity to invest in a program like yours. What kinds of tips like? What are your top one or two things that you would suggest for an ADHD or an adult who’s looking to make improvements in this balance between the two hemispheres of the brain? Well,

Dr. Robert Melillo 38:39
first of all, that’s what my book disconnected kids is, right? So even though it says disconnected kids, it really is for adults as well meaning, because, you know, an adult with ADHD was a kid with ADHD, right? Meaning that, so their brain really, they have to go back and in that it’s a complete program where you can assess yourself, and then you can put together a combination of physical activities and exercises with different types of combinations of sensory stimulation along with diet and nutrition, because the brain regulates everything. So the brain regulates the immune system and the digestive system. You know, a lot of people are under again, the misconception that all of this stuff starts in the gut or with diet and nutrition. It doesn’t. It starts in the brainstem, in the bottom of the brain, which regulates the gut and the immune system and the balance, because before between what we call the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, and then ultimately it affects, you know, these full networks in the brain, right? So that’s why, you know, we have to do things from the bottom up. We have to, we have to make the foundation solid and then build it up. We can’t just go to the brain and try to stimulate it. We need to do both bottom up and. Up, down, and in the in my book disconnected kids, I really go through how to do that and understand that diet and nutrition does play a role. Cognitive skills of some kind play a role. You know, how you use your brain, what different types of things you you work at. And you know, the basic principle is that we want when you do something that’s hard for you, you get better at it, right? And you need to push yourself outside of the comfort zone. If you only stay in what you’re comfortable with, or you only gravitate what you’re good at, then you’re not going to correct this imbalance, and you can’t overcome these issues by doing that right so you need to be able to lean into your weaknesses and do things to strengthen them and so that they can match your strengths.

Kristen Carder 40:52
Well, I have so many more questions for you, but we are out of time. I’m grateful to you for just bringing your expertise and for sharing your knowledge with us. I really appreciate you being here.

Dr. Robert Melillo 41:05
Well, thank you. I appreciate it too, and I’d love to talk to you more about Yeah,

Kristen Carder 41:09
thanks. If you’re being treated for your ADHD, but you still don’t feel like you’re reaching your potential, you’ve got to join focused. It’s my monthly coaching membership where I teach you how to tame your wild thoughts and create the life that you’ve always wanted, no matter what season of life you’re in or where you are in the world. Focus is for you. All. Materials and call recordings are stored in the site for you to access at your convenience. Go to Ihaveadhd.com/focused, for all the info you.