Do You Have ADHD or Is It Something Else? - Episode 341

Welcome And Why This Show Sandy Kruse 0:02 Hi everyone, it's me, Sandy Kruse. Welcome to Sandy K Nutrition Health and Lifestyle Queen. For many years now, I've been a trusted voice for people in midlife and beyond who want a deeper, more honest conversation about wellness. One that includes the physical, the emotional, the mental, and the esoteric.

Most episodes are solo now because I want to bring you thoughtful research, lived experience, and grounded insight without noise or bias. And when I do bring on a guest, it's because their work genuinely adds something meaningful to the conversation. Here we explore the full spectrum of what it means to be well, how the body functions, how the mind heals, how the spirit expands, and how all of these layers shape life lived with clarity and joy. Thanks for being here.

And if this show resonates with you, please follow, rate, review, and share it. It truly helps the message reach more people. Hi Why ADHD Is Everywhere Online Sandy Kruse 1:32 everyone, welcome to Sandy K Nutrition Health and Lifestyle Queen. Today I'm going to talk about ADHD.

And the reason this came to me is I'm on TikTok and sure I scroll every now and again. And I'm like, everyone on TikTok seems to have ADHD. So I thought I'd record a podcast on this, without judgment, of course, to how like how to tell if you really do. And of course, I'm also going to say, see a professional, because this is not in any way advice.

And, you know, no therapy, no advice, no nothing. You need to see somebody about this. I'm just bringing you some awareness to a topic. And I'm like looking at myself, going, oh my God, like literally in one week, it feels like we went from summer to winter.

Like I'm dressed all in dark clothes. I feel like I've lost my summer tan. But hey, now it's time to go deeper into the winter months, right? So let's start with the topic.

Um, I'm also going to say before I get started, please hit subscribe wherever you're listening. I have a lot of people who listen, but they're not actually subscribing or following me on Instagram. It's Sandy Knutrition everywhere: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, wherever you do social media. I've been in this space for over nine years.

I've been podcasting for over six and a half. I think February it'll hit seven years since I started Sandy K Nutrition Health and Lifestyle Queen. You can rate and review on Spotify, on Apple. I'm everywhere.

So wherever you are, it really helps to rate and review because there's so few independent podcasts that are not celebrity run or massive machine run with a million discount codes. This is my own little independent passion over profit, bring good to the world podcast that's been going for a very long time. So now let's get into the topic. TikTok Misinformation And Real Research Sandy Kruse 3:37 You walk into the kitchen, you forget why.

There are 19 tabs open on your laptop. The laundry that you started on Sunday is still wet in the machine on Tuesday. That night that you're scrolling in bed, a video says, if you have these five things, you might have ADHD. And you have all five.

And so by midnight, you figured yourself out. Like this is this is the world of social media. Unfortunately, we give too much power to these people who are talking to not you, but to the masses. So you're not alone in this.

A University of Toronto team looked at the top 100 ADHD videos on TikTok, and just over 50% of them were misleading. So this is why I chose to do this podcast because I bring real research, science, and soul into mostly everything I do. So this trend is overblown, and some diagnoses are decades overdue. Both are true.

Like, I mean, there's many times I'm 56 years old. I'm like, hmm, did I have ADHD as a child? Do I have ADHD as an adult? Hmm.

So that's the other reason why I also wanted to do this because it totally interests me. But here's the problem: not being able to focus is often just a symptom, not a diagnosis. And a scattered brain usually comes from one of four places. True ADHD, that's wiring that you're actually born with.

You know, your phone, your body, your genetics, that could make a brain run really fast, which is what's running through my own house. They look the same from the outside, but they need completely different things. Okay. What ADHD Looks Like In Brain Sandy Kruse 5:52 The real thing.

Let's start with that. When you finish a boring task, you get a little click of, you know, satisfaction. That's dopamine. That's your reward signal.

In most brains, it shows up even for the dull stuff, the boring stuff. Dr. Nora Volkov at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse used PET scans on adults with ADHD.

In 2009, her team found lower dopamine activity in the brain's reward pathway. The lower it was, the worse attention problems. So in an ADHD brain, that click is kind of quiet. Boring tasks feel like pushing a car uphill.

Only interest, novelty, and urgency get that whole engine going. And that's why someone can't file one receipt, but will spend nine hours rebuilding a website that nobody asked for. Then there's the daydream network, which neurologist Marcus Rochelle named the default mode network. I've talked about this a number of times on my podcast.

It's supposed to switch off when you start a task. In ADHD, it keeps humming. You're writing an email while your mind redesigns the living room and replaces something that your sister said in 2011. And ADHD runs in families.

A 2019 review of twin studies put its heritability around 74%, similar to height. It shows up early, it doesn't appear out of nowhere at 35. The Phone Brain And The Focus Test Sandy Kruse 7:53 second story is the phone in your hand, right? How many of you have that basically glued to you?

Researchers followed more than 2,500 teens with no real ADHD symptoms. Two years later, the heaviest digital media users were more likely to have developed them. Okay, so it's like they have so-called ADHD symptoms. Another study found that just having your phone on the desk, face down and silent, lowered people's scores on focus tests.

Part of your brain is busy not even checking it. Dr. Gloria Mark at UC Irvine found that people used to stay on screen for about two and a half minutes. Now it's 47 seconds.

So every ping is a hit of novelty, and your brain gets trained to expect one every few seconds. Then how? But a book feels unbearable. I kind of get that.

I used to, I'm an English literature graduate. I used to read and study, right? Like imagine these kids now. Like, how do they even study?

So here's the test. Were you like this at nine years old? Or could you read for three hours on a Saturday and your focus only fell apart in the last 10 years? Then put the phone in another room for a week.

True ADHD doesn't disappear on a cottage weekend. Phone brain often starts to lift. So the third story is inside the body. And Body Causes That Mimic ADHD Sandy Kruse 9:51 most of you know I am a registered holistic nutritionist.

Iron. Your brain needs it to make dopamine. A French study found low ferritin. Your iron stores.

I've always been low in ferritin, by the way, ever since I could remember anyway. In 84% of kids with ADHD compared to 18% without, women lose iron every month. Plenty of women are running on empty and being told that they're scattered. Then there's thyroid.

Most of you know I wrote the Essential Thyroid Guide. It's just a guide, it is not a clinical book, but it's just so that people understand their thyroid a little bit better. And thyroid is massive. Too slow functioning thyroid, your thinking is going to be foggy, too fast, and you can't even settle.

Either look like ADHD. I've been there without a thyroid guide. Most of a thyroid gland, I should say. Most of you know I lost it in 2011.

I had it removed. So then there's sleep. If you snore or wake up exhausted, get checked for sleep apnea. A brain short on oxygen all night can be scattered all day.

Then there's blood sugar. Coffee until two o'clock, then a crash at three o'clock. A brain without steady fuel can't focus. What's your blood sugar doing?

Very common issue for women, especially around menopause and beyond. And then there's hormones. Estrogen supports dopamine. When it swings in perimenopause, a lot of women feel like their brain just got unplugged.

That's often exactly when she finds the ADHD videos. Sometimes it's true ADHD getting worse. Sometimes it's the hormones themselves. And then we can never dismiss chronic stress and trauma because that belongs here too.

A nervous system that's been on high alert for years is always scanning. That looks like distraction. It's actually paying attention to everything because it doesn't feel safe. And then there's the fourth story, and it's my family.

COMT Genetics And Dopamine Speed Sandy Kruse 12:21 We all did genetic testing, and everyone in my house came back a GG, or they call it a valve, on a gene. It's called Comp T. Every one of us has this. Okay.

Comp T makes an enzyme that clears the dopamine from your prefrontal cortex in the brain. The planner behind your forehead. So if you have the GG version, or also called the valval, this works faster in human brain tissue, about 40% faster. So guess what that means?

That dopamine gets cleared out faster as well. So scientists nicknamed a fast comp T, the Warrior, and a slow comp T, the Warrior. Dr. Amy Arnstein at Yale showed the prefrontal cortex works best on an upside down U.

Too little dopamine and you can't focus. Too much and you can't think. You want the middle. A fast comp T brain sits low on an ordinary Tuesday.

Paperwork can feel impossible, but in a crisis, stress chemicals push you right into that sweet spot. And suddenly you're calm, sharp, and decisive. That's my house. Give us a deadline, and we're brilliant.

Give us a quiet afternoon of filing and it's a fight. But here's the key comp T G G is not an ADHD gene. Can't do that. You can be a GG and not have ADHD.

What it gives you is a temperament. And if you just go by a video, you might label a trait as a disorder. Okay. We joke about it in my family.

Oh, yeah, ADHD, whatever. But we're not seriously diagnosing ourselves, people. In 2008, anthropologist Dan Eisenberg studied the Ariel people of Kenya. Hope I pronounced it right.

Some are still nomads, some have settled into villages. He looked at a gene variant tied to restlessness and novelty seeking, one that's been linked to ADHD. Nomads with the gene were better nourished than nomads without it. Their quick scanning helped them to survive.

But villagers with the exact same gene were worse off. Same gene, different life, opposite outcome. So that's the entire episode in one study right there. Whether a trait is a gift or a problem depends on kind of where you put it and what you do with it.

Why Labels Feel So Popular Sandy Kruse 15:38 So why does everybody want a label now? I want to get into this part because I find it super interesting. If you grew up in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, I'm a 1970 baby. You left the house after breakfast and came home when the street lights came on.

No bike helmet, road hockey until someone yelled, car. If you're bored, just go outside. Your parents always said, just go outside. The kid who couldn't sit still was never diagnosed.

That kid was maybe a handful, busy. The teacher sent them to clean the erasers just to move him. People noticed differences, they just didn't turn them into identities. I'm going to get into my own story after this.

So, what changed? Childhood moved indoors. Psychologist Peter Gray has shown how free play disappeared from kids' lives while anxiety and depression rose. We know this, especially if you're a Gen Xer, you know this.

Jonathan Hayt calls it the shift from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood. Put that busy 1978 kid who ran all day into 2026 sitting at a desk with a phone in her hand. Same brain, different world. The definition got wider.

In 2013, the diagnostic manual raised the age symptoms must appear from seven to twelve, and adults need five symptoms instead of six. Okay. So that helped catch women who were missed. It also opened the door much wider on this diagnosis.

Psychologist Nick Haslum called the bigger pattern concept trauma, anxiety, disorder have stretched to cover ordinary life. A rough week becomes my trauma. A lot of labeling, right? Losing your keys becomes my ADHD.

And I've already said I definitely do this. And awareness has a side effect too. Researchers Lucy Falkes and Jack Andrews called it prevalence inflation. Awareness helps people who really need it, but it can also lead people with normal struggles to believe that they have a disorder and then start living it.

I can't do that. I have ADHD. A label that's supposed to explain you starts to limit you. And your power has to start with you, not with a word telling you what you can't do, my friends.

Then there's the algorithm. Right? Watch one video, feel seen, and then you're going to get 50 more of the same. So where there's attention, there's money.

We know this already. I've talked about this a million times. In 2024, the founder of an American telehealth company that advertised fast online ADHD assessments was charged by the Department of Justice over Adderall distribution. And the biggest reason of all, all this, people are lonely.

Back then, you belonged to your street, your church, your Sunday dinners, your family. Robert Putnam documented the collapse of the community life in bowling alone. And that was before smartphones. A label comes with instant belonging.

Thousands of people saying, Me too. That's me too. After a lifetime of being called lazy, that feels like relief. I'll never mock anyone for that.

The old days weren't perfect either. Okay, so don't get me wrong. Kids who truly had ADHD were called stupid or written off. So keep the best of both.

Keep the label. Use the label when it's true and it helps. Let go of it when it's just a costume the algorithm decided to hand you. I'm going to give you my story now.

And I Sandy’s School Story And Screening Steps Sandy Kruse 20:22 think I get into this about looking back at your report cards. I think that that is really important to do because you're trying to figure out is this real or is this something that's caused by my environment? So one of when I was in grade one, you know, I had this one teacher, and she she was always on me. I still remember her name.

Anyway, she used to make me, she would stop me in the class from talking because I was always socializing. And she would make me put my hands on my head so that I would look straight ahead in the room and I could focus and stop talking, right? Is that ADHD? Or is that just I'm a really social person?

But it's definitely in my report cards. Other symptoms, you know, like remember, they have to show up before the age 12, in more than one part of your life, before the smartphones, and actually cause problems, missed bills, lost jobs, strained relationships, despite really trying. I never had any of that. Okay.

In Canada, you want to start with your family doctor. Okay. And there is an association, the Canadian ADHD Resource Alliance. They actually set the national guidelines.

And many specialists use a structured interview, and it's called the Diva five. So rule out the body stuff because remember, I'm a whole body practitioner. You know, get your blood work done. It's it's not just about doing one or two things.

Check a whole panel. Check for your ferritin. Do a full thyroid panel. Check your blood sugar.

If you think you have sleep apnea, go and do an assessment on it. Check your hormones. So if it is ADHD, medication is well studied and it can change your life for some people. But that's between you and your doctor.

Now let's get into a little bit of the soul of this. A Soul Lens On Attention Sandy Kruse 22:45 So I find this super, super interesting when you attach the science to the soul. So ADHD is called a deficit of attention. But I don't really see it as a deficit.

I see it as an overflow of attunement, a nervous system wired for nonlinear awareness, intuitive leaps, and taking in the world through every sense, living in a world built for straight lines. Think of a wide band antenna. Most minds will filter out the background to focus on the one thing. But this mind stays open to a whole field.

The mood of a room the second you walk in. And I mean, this blends in other stuff. I've recorded a podcast on highly sensitive people. I'm one of them.

But I would never say I have ADHD really, or I would never even go and get it diagnosed because I don't have all the symptoms. And I don't listen to a quick TikTok video that would leave me thinking I do. Right? It's giving power away.

So a busy grocery store can feel like you're being screamed at. Then there's, you know, hyperfocus. People call it a glitch. I call it selective devotion.

When this kind of mind connects with something that it loves, time dissolves. You look up and it's dark outside. That's the same state that shamans call a trance and artists call flow. The spirit is moving from passion, not obligation.

I do a lot of that. So the real question was never why can't you pay attention? It's what are you devoted to? Every community, every early community had keepers who tended a fire and planted the same field every single spring.

And scouts, the restless ones with the fast eyes and busy bodies who went over the next hill, found the water, and felt the storm before the wind changed. When disaster hit, the scouts came alive. That is fast comp tea in a crisis. Scouts, healers, innovators, boundary crossers, the tribe always needed both.

But the modern world was built for keepers. Rows of desks, same hours, same tasks, 40 years. The scout isn't broken. The scout is standing in a factory.

And that leaves the deepest wound, which isn't in the brain at all. It's shame. The kid told to sit still a thousand times. That's me.

But I'm not labeling myself as ADHD, remember. Then there's the bad report cards. I was a very, very smart child. However, I did not learn in a linear fashion, like a lot of the other kids seem to be able to do.

And then there's the woman who apologized her whole life for being late, loud, forgetful, too much. In a culture that worships predictability, she learned to see herself as a problem. I want you to hear this. Your spirit is not broken and it is not chaotic.

It runs on a living rhythm instead of an artificial schedule. The tide doesn't come in at the same time every day. Energy moves in waves. Reclaiming your power starts when you stop seeing yourself as something to fix and start seeing yourself as a rhythm to understand.

That goes for a spiritual practice too. Sit silently for an hour, same time every morning, empty your mind for a fast spirit. That's a cage and one more thing to fail at. So try to do it differently.

Try my method, the sovereign method. You might like this, it's coming soon. Movement as meditation. That's big.

Walk in the forest, breath work, somatic shaking. I absolutely love doing qigong movements when I feel a lot of energy that's pent up. Dance in your kitchen. For many fast minds, the body has to move before the spirit can land.

Rhythm over rigidity. Stop punishing yourself for the missed checklist. Notice your waves. When your energy's up, go deep.

When it's down, rest without guilt. Creation is prayer. Paint, drum, sing, garden, write, cook. When something moves through you and time disappears, that's prayer.

Take away the judgment. An ADHD is a sacred variation of human consciousness. A mind meant to break stagnant patterns, connect ideas that no one else would, and bring life into places that has gone have gone still. The world has always needed these people, and it still does.

So how do you support a fast brain? Foundations Supporting A Fast Brain Safely Sandy Kruse 28:42 first. Get outside in morning light, move your body. Okay, kind of talked about a lot of this.

But really, if you're a family like mine and you know your genetics, you know you have a fast comp tea, there are some nutrients that you can look to. I'm not giving you advice. I'm not your nutritionist. I'm just mentioning this.

Magnesium is always going to be the calming mineral. Glycinate is a lovely at-night magnesium glycinate, that is, for quieting the chatter. L-3-inate was designed to get into the brain more easily. That, you know, although it's a very expensive form.

L-theanine from green tea is very powerful. That's why green tea feels calm and alert instead of jittery, like coffee can. It boosts the alpha waves, the relaxed but awake state. And in a 2011 study, they found it helped boys with ADHD to sleep better.

In my house, it's staple. And then there's taurine, it works on the same calming receptors as GABA and supports the liver. Omega-3s, the brain is primarily fat. So I have been giving omega-3s to my kids ever since they were young.

And then there's iron. I prefer a heme form of iron, which is highly absorbable. And don't guess with iron. Make sure you know that you need it.

Because you definitely don't want to have too much iron. A lot of men have too much iron over 50. So be careful with that one. Make sure you know that you need it.

And look for a heme form and for better absorbability, take it with vitamin C and take it with a liposomal vitamin C. Again, better absorbability. Remember, guys, I am educated in nutraceuticals. Most general physicians are not, but I am not providing you with specific advice for you.

Okay. So I'm going to summarize this. Key Questions And Closing Sandy Kruse 31:04 I really wanted to do this topic because, like I said, I can relate to a lot of the symptoms, but I do not have ADHD. So next time a video tells you that losing your keys means you have ADHD.

Remember that this is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Were you like this at age eight? Does it lift when you move your phone away completely? What does your blood work say?

Are your hormones shifting? Are you a fast, beautiful brain that simply runs best under pressure? So there's a lot of factors. What's your nervous system like?

Whatever it is, find the truth that makes sense for you. A brain that's understood can be supported. And a brain that's supported stops feeling like it's a problem and starts feeling like it always was. And that's yours.

So if this podcast helped you, please share it with a friend. Make sure you're subscribing and follow me on all of my socials. And I want to thank you guys so much for being here each and every week. Have a great week.

And always remember when you rate, review, subscribe, you help to support my content and help me to keep going and bring these conversations to you each and every week. Join me next week for a new topic, new guest, new exciting conversations to help you live your best life.