LATE BLOOMERS - 4: SURVIVING PERIMENOPAUSE: what happens when your ADHD brain can't keep up (With Dr Jolene Brighten)

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

This week on LATE BLOOMERS, Rich and Rox sit down with Dr. Jolene Brighten to talk about something nobody's telling ADHD women — perimenopause doesn't wait until you're 50, and for a lot of you it's already started.They get into why ADHD women hit perimenopause about a decade earlier than everyone thinks, why doctors keep saying you're "too young" for what your body's already going through, and why you can end up with twice the symptoms and half the answers. Rox also opens up about a period last year that felt like a full breakdown, and what it took to actually find out why.Grab Dr. Brighten's new book, ADHD & Women: drbrighten.com/adhdandwomenMore from Dr. Brighten:Website: www.drbrighten.comInstagram: instagram.com/drjolenebrightenTikTok: tiktok.com/@drjolenebrightenThreads: threads.net/@drjolenebrighten20% off Loop Earplugs: https://www.loopearplugs.com/adhdlove

It's a huge day in the late bloomer's camp because we have got our very first guest today. Can you believe it? No, I cannot. We have the incredible Dr Jolene Brighton. She is the author of Beyond the Pill and Is This Normal? And she's also written a brand new book called ADHD and Women. It's coming out in October and she is here to tell us all about it. We are going to learn what we should be eating to try and help our ADHD, how we're going to finally get to sleep and what the hell is going on with our hormones during perimenopause. We're also going to learn the scientific reason that rocks is so grumpy in the morning. Oi! This is the late bloomer's podcast where we are getting our lives together. Eventually. Just pop that over there, Malab. Dr Brighton, welcome to the late bloomer's podcast. It's

so incredible to have you here. Thank you so much for having me. You're actually our first ever guest. I know, I don't like meeting new people usually. I better not disappoint. Rich did actually before you, or just when you arrived, I was obviously running late and he ran up and said, when are you coming down? Dr. Brighton's here. Yeah. Well, it's just so difficult.

I was like, as soon as the doorbell rang, my heart sank because I could hear you on the hairdriar. I was like, oh my God, I can't expect Max to do the entertaining in my house. No. But you've made it. We're here. I do have to say, though, I ring the doorbell and then I was like, oh, no, I should have messaged first because we arrived early and I did, I have timelineness and so I was very

paranoid about getting here on time. Yes. So I did have the moment at the door where I was like, I shouldn't have wrong the bell. I should have messaged first. We need our own neurodivergent social rules that like break down everything we've been told just for us lot. Well, when we were chatting about it. Dr Brighton said, if you'd have just said sit there, oh, we'll be with you in 20 minutes. She would have liked that. But society tells me that you can't do that. I know. Go away society. I've just read your brand new book, ADHD and women. And it is absolutely blown my mind. I feel like it's a book that every woman with ADHD, it should be compulsory reading, not just for us, but for doctors. It blows my minds how this isn't compulsory learning

or teaching. It's a subject really, really close to my heart because I've been having a really very, very difficult time with perimenopause over the last few years. And in fact, last year, that really came to a head, didn't it? Definitely should. You should probably say, though, the book's not out yet, so you're in a privileged position. Oh, I've read the early copy. It's not coming out until October.

So, yes, acknowledging the privilege, I've got to read it soon, and I can't wait for other people to do it. I wish we could have you here for like eight hours, so we could go through every single chapter. And what I've done is just tried to kind of extrapolate the bits that I think people have to know. And also a few funny things that are going to maybe help me with you.

Help you with me? Yeah, we'll get there. It's about why I can't wake up in the morning. There's like an actual medical reason. Of course there is. Okay, yeah. So last year, I effectively felt like I was going through a mental breakdown, a burnout, a complete loss of identity.

It was incredibly horrendous to go through. I almost like quit my career and you had a tough time with me, didn't you? I did, yeah. At points it was like you'd sort of lost touch on reality. You was so low about things that really didn't matter. Like one of the things was we were a bit behind on our last book. We were going to like miss the deadline for the manuscript by like a couple of weeks, right? which is standard.

Like it would be more surprising to make the deadline. But you were like everything's ruined, like life's over. We've missed the deadline. I'm rubbish. Like our career's over. I was like, what are you talking about? Crying panic attacks, meltdowns. And it's like the whole of life just became awful.

I have now realized that I was going through perimenopause. It started in my late 30s. And because nobody knows about this stuff, despite numerous blood tests and visits to doctors, nobody like picked up on the signs. In your book, you say that ADHD women are more likely to have a severe perimenopause. And also it might affect us earlier. Can you just tell us more about that? Well, there was recent research that came out showing that ADHD women experience perimenopause.

about a decade earlier. So for a very long time, we've said, oh, perimenopause can start around age 35 for some women. For ADHD women, that's quite common. Yet medicine still says, no, that's too young. You know, many doctors will say, oh, no, like, you're 50? Like, that's the age, right, that we expect you to be in perimenopause. They don't realize that perimenopause is the transitional phase leading into menopause,

which is a one-day event. and that's 12 consecutive months of no period, and then the next day you're postmenopausal. And so, you know, they were often dismissed and told like you're too young. You know, the same study showed that women have twice the symptom severity, ADHD women, twice the symptom severity of perimenopause. So they're not only dealing with worsening ADHD, but they're getting the dry skin, the itchy ears, the joint pain,

the hot flashes, the night sweats, the brain fog, the sleepless nights, right? Like the list goes on and on. And you're talking about somebody who's already struggled, likely with emotional regulation. They're losing their progesterone. They're losing the GABA, basically stopgap, the mouth filter, as I shared with you guys before,

that stops them from saying the things, from raging out, like, you know, all of these things. And then they're told, that's a you problem. That's a your broken problem. That couldn't be a hormone problem. Oh, and you're not trying to have a baby, so why would we test your hormones? Why would we even look into that? Oh, my Lord.

And then even when they do test your hormones, because I had at least three blood tests when I was looking for answers for what was happening, nobody picked up. There was low testosterone on there. And, yeah, it's just never noticed. And one endocrinologist, 60-year-old man, you were with me, said, I sort of questioned my low I think it was free androgens is that sounds about right

I questioned that and whether that could be something absolutely not you're 40 far too young but never women starting HRT far too early you don't need to do it just flat out dismissed it in one sentence but I listened because he was the expert it's like a breath of fresh air

hearing you speak so just thank you and I want to hear more of it You mentioned their progesterone. Obviously, this book is about optimizing hormones to actually help your ADHD. Would you mind just giving us a kind of like quick idiots guide to the big hormones? Sorry, no, but like just because actually I don't know. I know you certainly. I only work in bullet points.

So if you could visualize bullet points in your head. No, I'm just laughing because, you know, having ADHD, I'm like, and this is my special interest, right? So like ADHD autism meets and I'm like, you want me to talk about hormones? It's like whenever people are like, how could you be autistic? You're not into trains. And I'm like, I'm into nutrition and hormones. It just so happens. Everybody wants to hear about that.

So if I like nerd out on you, you're like, oh, this is helpful. I love this. And then I realize like, oh my God, I've been just like talking to this person for an hour. Just talking. We want you to nerd out on the hormones. So what hormones do we, ADHD ladies, need to know about what are the big ones okay so progesterone you only make it following ovulation that should make you chilled out calm help you get good sleep estrogen she's the it girl this is

she's being followed around by all the neurotransmitters acetylcholine is why you are able to hold a thought in your head like i remember what i'm saying while i'm saying it thank you acetylcholine i also know where like my keys are right like those kinds of things then there's dopamine noraphyrine. Everybody loves to talk about those. They're important in ADHD, but they get all the attention because we develop drugs for them. So the reality is, yes, absolutely important for focus, attention, motivation. We love them. Then there's serotonin. Not often talked about with estrogen and not often talked about with ADHD. Serotonin's not just about your mood. It's also about neuroplasticity. So if you come across something, dopamine says this is relevant.

serotonin says solidify it. Let's make sure that we remember it. And estrogen is helping all those things. So when estrogen goes low, the eight girl, they follow. The other side of this, too much estrogen, unopposed estrogen, so maybe not enough progesterone. Now we've got histamine problems coming up. Very common in ADHD. That is raging, agitation, waking up at 2, 3, 4 a.m. in the morning. feeling like you're getting the flu every time before your period comes. And this can happen quite commonly in perimenopause, but also PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder symptoms. That can be related to this histamine component. So these are always the two female hormones we talk about.

Amazing. You learnt some stuff there? Well, my brain went to when as soon as you said histamine, I was like, wait, what? So that just, that's like a hay fever thing, right? Absolutely, yes. Like you take antihistamines if you've got hay fever and you can debunk this or tell me if it's real. So in a slightly weird, odd thing that I, if I scratch myself, like a couple of minutes later, I'll have four yellow lines like really show up.

And my mum, who's not medically trained, always used to say your histamines must be up. Is that a thing or not? Is it actually? Dermatographia. Yes. Wow, that's crazy. I didn't think it was real, but it is. So with our kind of introduction to these female hormones,

they're obviously all interplaying with each other and affecting estrogen is the it girl. And everyone's following estrogen. So when you go into perimenopause, these hormones start to clite, like what's happening to make us fall apart? And the reason, obviously, I had what I went through last, year. But I've got a couple of best friends, obviously, flocked together, the neurodivergence, who haven't identified or been tested for ADHD, who haven't thought they've had ADHD, but they are sort of, I think entering perimenopause, they're having the kind of hot flushes,

the anxiety, though not feeling like themselves, brain fog. And they're saying, my life's falling apart, my coping mechanisms have gone. And it's almost like it's unmasking ADHD. Like what's going on there? Yeah, I love this question. So perimenopause doesn't cause ADHD, but it absolutely does unmask it due to the energetic changes of the brain. So for people, I'm sure on this podcast,

people are familiar with masking. So you're serving, like what's happening in the room? What's happening in the conversation? You're rehearsing what you're going to say next. You're monitoring your face constantly, right? Like, this is all very energetically expensive. And so what happens is that in perimenopause, estrogen declines. Estrogen is a mitochondrial hormone.

So kicking it back to when you were 12, that's the powerhouse of the cell. This is how you generate energy. As estrogen declines, the mitochondrial function declines. So we see reduction, 10 to 20% reduction in glucose utilization. That's your blood sugar. But you don't have enough energy. You want just really energy hungry? Your brain, 2% of your body weight, 20% of your energy, it's consuming.

And the prefrontal cortex, where all of the executive functions exist, need all of that energy. So we get the mitochondria start decreasing in their energy production. And then with the hormonal changes, we get immune system dysregulation. We also get gut changes that lead to neuroinflammation. Then the mitochondria see that. They're like, are we making reactive oxygen species? That's what you all are doing. which are free radicals that rip apart cells.

And then the mitochondria is like, cool, I'm going to do that too. Like, come and join in on all of that. And so what we have is neuroinflammation, disrupting how the neurotransmitters actually dock onto the receptors. We have neuroinflammation causing neurotoxic metabolites to be made and causing like all this brain fog. We've got decrease in energy production. And then we've got increase in free radical.

So you can be a perimenopause. And you have what I call ADHD light, where it's like you get the light version and it's temporary and by the time you're two years postmenopausal, you're going to be fine. The brain will actually switch into using fats for energy. 25% of those with ADHD will enter postmenopausal with the most severe lifelong symptoms of ADHD. Oh my gosh. And I think what's important to understand because often ADHD is portrayed as this quirky thing online, right? It's like, I hear things like, oh yeah, so you mismatched your socks because you misplaced them.

And I'm like, if it's only that, these women are missing mortgage payments. They're having to leave their workforce. They can't support themselves anymore. They're missing critical screening exams. And I think people kind of take that for granted. But these are preventative medicine. And you lose track of the appointment. Before you know it, you're like, wait, I was supposed to have that done in 45 and I'm 55?

Like, where did that time go? It can have a serious impact on your health. When you put it like that, it's actually a health crisis. Absolutely. But women are going. into 10 years earlier and they're not knowing. And actually something you said there just really resonated with me that they're leaving their careers. One of the things that we spoke about so much of last year, I felt like I'd lost my energy, my drive, my identity. I actually didn't

feel capable of like doing my music career. It's something I've done on the side for, I've tried to do it for 20 years and it's finally started working. And I was just in bits and crows. And trying, panics, saying to Rich, I think this might be the end. Because I'd just lost. You were ready to leave it completely, weren't you? You were like, I can't do it anymore. Yeah, from your point of view, like, what were you witnessing? Just like, I guess it's something, we always used to joke and say it was your forever fixation.

Like, you'll have a new hobby every week and a new business every year. But the music was the one that stayed. And since childhood, right, you was picking up. instruments and stuff. But for that to go, it's like this isn't, right? Like, this isn't who you are at your core. Yeah, you're losing a core part of your identity. So can you just speak a bit more about that, women who are entering perimenopause and then struggling with work or dreams and actually quitting or walking away? And why is that happening to people? You know, there's so many layers to this because on one end there's like the decrease in the energy production in your brain,

right? Then there's changing hormones and how they change how your brain functions that creates a vulnerability. So this is like anxiety starts to come up. I think we often, we characterize sensory sensitivities and those being heightened in Mary Benaz as this pathology as something wrong. But if you consider that if you are becoming vulnerable, what would be the smartest thing for your body to do? survey the environment more for threats so that you can avoid those threats. But we see that as a dysfunction. I think it's also incredibly difficult, you know, depending on the demands of your job. Like you, you're having to remember lyrics, right? That's incredibly difficult when the brain doesn't have enough energy. You're moving a lot on stage. Okay, as estrogen declines,

we get more inflammation in our joints. We don't recover as well. Like you might work out and you're like, this is the same workout routine I've been doing my whole life. And five days later, later, my body still hurts. I don't feel good from it. If it's testosterone declining, we're also having a decline in our muscle mass. We're having problems with having enough energy to see things through. We're having trouble setting boundaries. So we start getting, you know, pushed over, walked on and not because we want to or because we're like a weak character, but because we don't have our hormonal allies supporting us. And so, you know, there's a lot of ways that hormone changes are affecting the body. And I think cognitively speaking, that's the biggest complaint women

have. But depending on your job, it can be all of these different areas. It's just horrendous that someone might be going through that and not know. Like I didn't realize until I'm reading your book and going, oh my God, I almost walked away from a 20 year passion project because of hormones. It took me a while to get there, but I actually started taking HRT. in January. So it's been over six months, and it's been completely life-changing. I mean, within the first couple of weeks.

Not only that from a mental health point of view, but your sleep as well is something that is ridiculous. You always struggled. And now you, like, go into a coma every night. So I thought I'd just become a bit more of a light sleeper. Wake up in the middle of the night, struggle to get back to sleep. I didn't think anything of it. And then my first day, I'm kind of taking cyclical progesterone.

I took progesterone. I had the best sleep I've had in decades. Can you talk about that a bit? Why is progesterone helping me? Because it's not a sleeping tablet. Yeah. And I think, you know, what you said, like, I became a light sleeper. Again, evolutionary adaptation for survival, right? you know, if you are feeling like I'm more vulnerable, let's make sure that we wake up if there's a threat. And we just don't live in that kind of society anymore, right? There's this huge evolutionary mismatch between the operating system, the body that we have and then the society that we've now landed in in this very moment. So progesterum is what helps you stay asleep at night.

So melatonin, when the sun goes down, things are dark. Hopefully we're not exposed to blue light for my ADHD years. Try to remove that best you can because then your melatonin rises. And that will say, okay, let's go to sleep. One of the most important things you can do is wake up at the same time every day. Anyone who has toddlers knows what happens when they miss their nap. Here comes cortisol. Here comes noraphenephyne.

Here comes, I ain't going to sleep for like another two to three hours now. And so we want to catch that window of adenosine and melatonin and then go to sleep. But if you don't have that GABA stimulation, you don't stay a. sleep. So that 2 to 4 a.m. waking is very common. But we also have to rule out, could that be histamine or could that be a blood sugar issue? So when we talk about perimenopause, the first hormone to go universally is progesterone. Because first the ovaries become weak after ovulation. They don't make enough progesterone. Then they stop ovulating as consistently. And estrogen can be, you know, I said in the book, rock and and roll in like more like harder than a heavy metal

concert. I love it. Yeah. So that's why I'm sleeping. Yes, because of progesterone to ala pregina alone, to GABA stimulation. And then what that does, just being able to sleep has changed a lot of stuff. Here in the UK, HART, it's still, there's a lot of worries about it. There was some kind of press and beliefs about it that were quite old and quite outdated now, but a lot of women still have fear. The HRT, for example, would increase your breast cancer risk. Yeah. Or that it's somehow inherently dangerous.

Obviously, you speak a lot about it in the book. Could you just kind of speak about that? And if, say, a woman was experiencing some of these symptoms of perimenopause, but was really scared about HRT, what would you kind of say to her? Well, the first thing I would say is that every woman qualifies and can benefit from vaginal, estrogen or DHA. That's not going to go systemic in the same way as the other hormones that we're talking about that affect your brain. So that's also the downside of it. But that prevents things like UTIs, pain with sex, vaginal atrophy, which can be very inflammatory. And I pause. Anything that can

upregulate inflammation in the body can contribute to worsening ADHD symptoms. Now, the systemic estrogen that you're talking about, that's what most women are concerned about, that women's health initiative study, what was interesting about it is that they actually looked at a whole arm of women who only used estrogen. And they didn't get breast cancer. The women who got breast cancer were the estrogen and progestin, which is a synthetic form of progesterone that does not stimulate GABA in your brain, does not help with the myelin sheath, which is the insulation of your neurons. It doesn't have the same benefits. It's really effective for the endometrium, for endometriosis cases sometimes, but not so effective if you want the actual brain benefits of progesterone.

Because progesterone helps with anxiety as well. Oh, yeah. Something that roughly like 40% of women in perimenopause will experience. So what we found, you know, looking at that data that did scare everyone, everyone stops, hormones. But when you look at that data, it's like actually the estrogen arm wasn't experiencing higher rates of breast cancer. And that makes sense because who gets breast cancer?

Not a 20-year-old. not a 30 year old in a lot of instances, it's the women who actually lose their estrogen. And so they're now researchers starting to look into, like, estrogen might actually be protective. The other thing we have to consider that I talk about in the book, it gets really nerdy in there, but the way I wrote the book is like,

you can nerd out with me or you can just jump to solutions. Like you can just be like by the solutions, is the estrogen metabolites we make. So the way we process our estrogen, we can make different metabolites, and those can be pro-carcinogen They can cause DNA damage or we can make more favorable metabolites. And we can do that very simply with like how we eat.

It's like eating more cruciferous vegetables. And for my people, someone always says, I get bloated. Broccoli sprouts, two tablespoons of broccoli sprouts rival two and a half pounds of broccoli itself in terms of the sulfurophane, the anticharcinogenic compound that they have that promotes a healthier estrogen. So we can see why women were scared. Now, the other part of it I will say is there's a critical window I talk about in the book. We know five to 10 years within your last menstrual period or before age 60.

If we start you on estrogen, there's been some studies that show a significant reduction in your risk for dementia. But if we start you 15 years later, so the average age of 51 being when women enter menopause, there was a study that looked at if we started women at age 76, they had almost a 50% increase for it. of developing dimension. There's a lot of nuance in this is someone who's been prescribing for 15 years. I mean, at one point, I mean, I had doctors writing me being like, you're going to kill women.

Like, you're going to kill this patient because I prescribed her vaginal estriol. And I'm like, she's had how many UTIs? Like, she now can't even use the antibiotics. Oh, sorry. UTIs is linked to women. Yes. I say estrogen is like your farmer

and it stimulates the cells of the vagina to produce glycogen, which glycogen is a fertilizer that causes the lactobacilli, which is your crop to grow and to flourish. So estrogen, a little farmer in there. As estrogen declines, so does their food supply. Now we see a skew. We see a shift. We see dysbiosis. So abnormal flora can, you know, be overgrowing. So it's normal flora, abnormal levels is what I should say. So we can see more yeast infections, bacteria, vaginosis and UTIs because estrogen and also testosterone are really important for the pelvic floor, the integrity of the tissue. One of the number one causes of UTIs is E. coli.

And we share it. Now this is going to grow some people out, but the major reservoir for all these organisms is our gut. And so that's the other part of this is that as estrogen declines, microbial diversity in the gut declines, we don't have the lactobacillus reservoir. The farmer has left the crops. And so we're not getting that proliferation of the lactobacillia in the vaginal canal.

And then the tissue integrity. So five years postmenopause, we lose about 30% of our collagen. And everyone's always like, oh my God, fine lines and wrinkles, droopy breast. Yes. I get that you're concerned about that. But I'm also concerned about the integrity of your pelvic floor, urinary incontinence, and then having

UTIs. God, everyone should follow you. I'm not even joking. How many UTIs have had in the last four years? Yeah, yeah. I'm like, it's perimenopause too. Oh, my friends. I just like, what the hell?

We need to shout it from the rafters so women know. How many times have you spoke to people about it? Nobody connects. It's why we have so much antibiotic resistance against UTI organisms. Like we have created a health problem. by ignoring women's physiology and by ignoring the fact that like this could be solved with estrogen. And for people listening, I think sometimes when you're like, if you've never had a UTI, you're like, oh, what is it just a painful bladder? It's the risk of losing a kidney.

Pylonephritis is real. You've got immune privilege sites, so your eyes being one. This is why your mom always like, don't touch your eyes when you're out in public. The other is your kidneys. And once an organism gets in there, that's very life-threatening. you could lose your kidney. Your immune system cannot get in there and battle in the same way it can if this infection was in your gut, on your skin somewhere else.

Box was taken away in an ambulance from a UTI that got to a kidney and stuff. Yeah, it was almost, it was, what was the word? I don't know. It wasn't sepsis, but it was like one level before my temp, he's come home and found me passed out. That was the worst time, but I had it, yeah, had it for so many years. I think that's one of the things that's most shocking, amazing, but shocking in reading this is quite how many different health issues in ADHD women are connected to our hormones

and nobody's connecting the dots. So the fact that UTIs are connected, your anxiety is connected, your get up and go and your zest for life is connected. And one other thing that blew my mind was the connection with insulin. So, and this actually makes me a bit angry, a bit, a bit, sad. I think my first symptom that I can remember something going wrong was five years ago where I started suffering with low blood sugar out of nowhere. And I was relatively healthy. I didn't think I had a bad diet. I bought one of those little blood sugar monitors from Amazon. And I was stunned to find out that my level of blood sugar was pre-diagnet. And I would feel sick in the morning, would have to get me emergency foods, sometimes when we were

out of the house. Now, I sort of managed to deal with it on my own with diet. But reading all the connections in this book, I'm like, oh my God, it was like the first sign that I was, my hormones were changing. Can you just kind of speak about insulin hormones and what that might feel like for somebody experiencing it. Right. So for people who aren't familiar with what insulin is, it really is like, it's the guy that vouches for glucose to let them in the cell. So you have your blood sugar, that's the glucose, and insulin escorts it to the cell and knocks on the door and says, I vouch for glucose, let them in. They're cool. And then that's how things flow. And then the mitochondria take that and they say, let's produce energy. So if the glucose can't get in,

because the cell is like, I can't even hear your knock, I'm too inflamed to even hear the knock. There's like a, you know, a double door between us, then the mitochondria cannot produce energy. So you can feel fatigue, like full body fatigue, brain fatigue. You are three, four o'clock in the afternoon and you're like, I need a donut and coffee. Like I need something to stimulate me now to keep going. And while in the brain, so the brain is unique that it doesn't need insulin to be able to escort glucose in the cell because it's so hungry and it's impatient. It cannot wait.

it's like no i ain't got time for insulin the insulin can still if it's in elevated levels because that's the body's response if there's resistance like you can't hear the knock let's knock louder let's put more knockers at the door and that insulin can disrupt the neurotransmitters in the brain and how the brain's actually able to function and there is research on ADHD and insulin but what we always see is that people are like well if it's not diabetes then it's not a problem but pre-diabetic means that we're already getting, and this is why I say in the book, test insulin first. I don't care what your fasting blood sugar is. It's very uninteresting because you could be stressed out going to the lab.

You could be scared of needles and your fasting blood sugar is high. I want to see what your fasting insulin is. If that's elevated, we've got a problem. That means on average, your blood sugar is staying higher than it needs to. Your hemoglobin A1C, which is a marker of the average of the last three months of your blood sugar, that'll also tell me if that's up high, on average, we're having too much of this glucose exposure. Glucose being too high actually ages you rapidly.

And so that's also something. Like, we don't want that, right? And the kidneys, the eyes, your fingertips, your toes, like all of these start to get hit first. In perimenopause, what we've come to understand is that as estrogen declines, insulin sensitivity becomes more of an issue. And then this is, again, manufacture recall. This is so lame.

We start to build visceral adiposity, which is belly fat, but not the grab the belly fat. It's packed around the organs. This is metabolically active. This is an endocrine organ and it is inflammatory. And so that's why, like, I mean, I fought for so much in this book. This book is so long and meaty and dense. But I'm like, we have to have a whole section on visceral adiposity and how to actually address that because that can be a source of inflammation that's now disrupting your neurotransmitters.

instead of making serotonin, you're happy, you have great, you know, solidification of memories and having your neuroplasticity and then going into melatonin, so you have great sleep, you instead start to go in these neurotoxic pathways. And now you're like, I have brain fog. I'm feeling anxious and irritable and I can't focus and I'm like something is wrong with me. And visceral adiposity, you don't always necessarily see. So we have to do a waist to hip ratio where you have to measure your waist, measure your hips to really understand if you're waste is starting to expand your waistline. Like, that's not something of like, you're just not exercising and eating right.

It's a, okay, wait a minute. We have something very serious developing. Yes, exercising and eating right is going to be helpful. It's going to be necessary. But I need to start asking the question right now, what is going on with your hormones and what health risks are you, are you going to experience if we do not intervene quickly or maybe are already developing? So what you're eating?

by the way, I'm sat here drinking a full fat Coke. Okay, so let's just, I'm going to ask you a few questions about food and drink. Let me have a sip of full fat. You never drink full fat. Did you call it full fat? I had a bit of a crash. We're recording the podcast. I go to the fridge.

I grab a full fat coat. Now, in the book. Wait, what do you call it then? So it's just a Coke. It's just a, but it has sugar, but not fat. It's like a full fat. That makes sense. But you know, I don't know why.

The alternative is like sugar-free coke, which then, you know, diet Coke. Yeah, I have its own problems with your digestion and other things. But this was just like, right, I need a, I'm having a little crash, go to the fridge. Do I want to make a potato salad or, no, I'm going to grab a full-fact food. We should definitely talk about potato salad, though, for the ADHD brain. Oh, so. We should definitely do that.

But I do, I think everyone should not judge you and recognize that we've been at this for a while because you were first interviewed on my podcast. Oh, yeah. Listen, no, I'm rocking and rolling with the full fat Coke, but there's a part in the book where you say, and it just made me giggle because it is, you sort of said it was dense. I just find it incredibly detailed. It's somebody's passion. It's somebody's lifelong, like, hyperfocus. And it's so engaging. I think sometimes we give ADHD as a hard time for not being able to engage with a long book. But we absolutely can. If it's something that will change your life and you're interested in it. it, we can get there. But within all the kind of science and the hormones and all of that jazz, there's this bit about food. And you talk about an ADHD, a opening the fridge and sort of looking around, not choosing something and just closing it. And it may be giggle because that is me. I mean, multiple times a day, it's open the fridge. The executive dysfunction is like, I can't access cooking right now, maybe a slice of treats.

But you've just told us that insulin can be affected and be with ADHD. And what we eat is affecting our hormones and making everything worse. So it sounds to me like our ADHD executive dysfunction is like getting in the way of eating what we need to eat. So what are we meant to do? Because I can't start cooking, Dr. Brighton. What am I meant to do? I know it's not drink a full fat coat, but what are the alternatives? Well, in the book, I have the Chill Girl Mills, which is like, and it has a, it even has, you know, I might basically take these pages and you can rip them out of the book, I won't judge you, and stick them to your fridge where it's like, okay, I need you to have protein, I need you to have healthy carbohydrates, I need you to have healthy fats, I need to have this fiber source on your plate. And like, here's a menu of selection. You don't have to put together a meal. You just have to structure it in a way so then,

it is going to optimize your blood sugar. It's going to support mitochondrial function, lower inflammation. Like this sounds really heavy as I'm saying it all. And support the microbiome. No, no big deal. But it is really simple of like, just make sure you have proteins that you gravitate towards and that you can just grab. Set up basically like adult chakouterie like style, right? So you're just setting up a plate. Half your plate is going to be the, you know, fruits, vegetables, things of color, things with fiber in them. then you're going to split the plate in half. A quarter of it, stick a protein on it. Like, whatever you want. Several proteins on it if you want.

And then the other corner of that plate, that's where you're going to have your grain. So like potato salad. Why do I love potato salad? You cook a potato. You cool a potato. You eat the potato. You get resistant starch. Resistance starch supports your microbiome in creating a short chain fatty acid called buterate.

This is amazing because not only does it help with healing your gut lining, but it helps with healing the blood brain barrier and it helps lower inflammation. It's like seriously, Mother Nature sets us up. Can we just buy potato salad though? Well, we have. We've got a pre-made potato salad. You can also buy ghee.

You can also buy ghee. We love it. How many times do you see me stood outside the fridge with an open potato salad just spooning it in and you're like, I can't believe you just eating that on its own. I now have got a doctor who's told me that that is good for the blood brain barrier. So no more.

laughing at that. Yeah, so you can stick that on the carb portion of your plate and just, so I did a whole visual model because ADHDers are much better with visuals, like, and when they read something and then they have the visual to make that connection. But then I also just set up these, like, it's even in the recipes that I put in the book is just like these chill girl meals of like, just stack it up. And the focus plate. Yeah, you want to put like pickles in there. You want to add like some nuts, some avocados, like do it. It's funny because there was a part in my book where I'm like, Oh, here's avocados and like your plant part of the plate. And then later I'm like, oh, extra toppings like guac.

And they're like, well, you repeated that. And they're already having a lot of avocados. And I was like, do not underestimate women who went through the 90s needing permission to eat more fat and to have the extra guac? We love avocado. You could do with more protein now, I think. Yes. That's the one thing reading that.

And it seemed to be protein was like the star of the plate for us ADHD women. why is protein so important for the ADHD brain? What's going on? Well, if you want to make a neurotransmitter, you're going to need protein for that. The other thing about protein is it's going to keep your blood sugar stabilized. And when we talk about aging, protein is one of the ways we combat what's called sarcopenic obesity, which is that visceral adiposity and then the extremities you lose your muscle mass. And so I like, you know the round M&M guy? That's basically what you're becoming is the round M&M guy with the like the little tiny stick arms and that is associated with

increased morbidity and mortality more muscle in your legs is it's increased mitochondria in your brain and associated with better brain outcomes as we age and so we need that protein to reinforce all of that right more protein you need to take me out for more steak dinners that's what i'm hearing from dot to bright i think the thing is we need more bits in the fridge that you can easily eat cooking, not just solitary cheese. I'm sure there's no food protein. Yeah, that I talk about in the book though is like the bell pepper boats.

And like, I'm pretty savage about it. I'll just take a bell pepper and break it open and then like stuff it with like deli meat. And like that sounds freaking delicious. Yeah. And then I'll just eat that. For dinner tonight. Without cooking it.

Without cooking it. Oh, that is nice. I would just open it up. Yeah. And then, you know, sometimes people want to put guacamole in it, cream cheese. like other things, but I'll just stuff it with me and then I'll stuff like broccoli sprouts in it and I'm like done.

But that sounds like a dream because you can just make it with your hands, no cooking. Yeah. Objective dysfunction doesn't get in the way. And literally you break it open over the trash, break it out like you're like no mess. That is dinner tonight. So look, for someone listening,

obviously there is so much more in the book and I can't wait for people to read it or listen to the audio book. But for an ADHD woman listening, if you could say to her three changes, three simple changes to her diet that would make the biggest difference for her, what would those three changes be? So we cover the protein. So to protein every meal? Every single meal. Wow. No exceptions.

Yeah. Okay. No exceptions. And it's like seriously the like when you're like getting to like middle age, which I don't like that's what we're called now, but it's the reality. It's like protein becomes a full time job. Like there are days I resent protein. Yeah. I mean, it's like why. The other thing is diversity of fiber. Okay. So I say in the book, microdose your microbiome. Like these days, I was just at a conference literally everyone wants to microdose like everything in the world. And I'm like, microdose your microbiome. That's the most important thing. So what that means is, is that if there's fiber rich foods that you're like, oh,

like I hate a chia seed pudding, can you just take the tiniest bit of that? Just microdose it because even the tiniest bit is going to signal something positive to your microbiome. As we age, our microbial diversity reduces because of estrogen going down, which is really lame because having ADHD, you already have reduced microbial diversity. There's already so much gut dysfunction happening. So eating a variety of fiber, this is where I think it's really important to travel and eat different foods. But also, you can just go into like the different sections of the groceries. So like go into the Mexican food section and like pick out some spices, some seasonings, like spices,

seasonings, herbs, these are so rich in polyphenols. And then the other thing that you could do is go over into like, you know, they got the weird root section where you're like, what are these weird roots? I don't know. Take a picture. Ask chat, GPT. Can you at least like grind a like great a little bit of that in a pan, saute it and

eat just a little bit? It's those little things that can add up to big changes in your microbiome and that microbiome works for you. So not only is it making nutrients, but it can make that buterate. the microbiome is also making tons of neurotransmitters. They don't cross the blood brain barrier, but they communicate with this giant nerve called the vagus nerve that helps you get into that parasympathetic, helps tell the brain environment that things are safe.

So protein, variety of fiber, and then hydrate. And there's a drink I talk about in there called Suero, which is from Mexico, and it's basically a non-alcoholic margarita, but it's lime juice, sparkling water, and a salt rim. Great way to hydrate. because drinking water is so boring. Like, why is it the things that we need to do are the most boring things?

But drinking water is really boring. And so having something like that, that's always been my secret weapon at parties too, where people are like, Jeline parties so hard with us. And I'm like, I'm just drinking sparkling water here. But also you get a boost of vitamin C in it. You get some electrolytes.

Like, it's a fantastic combination. But staying hydrated. Because when we get dehydrated, the brain really struggles to function. And so you'll be like, why am I so tired? Oh, it must be my sleep. It must be this. It must be that. And oftentimes is like, have you drink enough water? It's so true. Like the simplest solution. Okay, so I'm going to eat more protein. I'm going to microdose my microbiome by trying loads of different things.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm quite good at that, I think. And then the water, I'm so close. I, obviously, for like, weird ADHD reasons, I find like plain water quite boring. So I drink sparkling water with lemon juice anyway. So I just need to add a little salt and then we're rocking and rolling. That is incredible. I literally drink so much sparkling water. I reckon you do have enough salt though.

You do have a lot of salt. I do. I love salt on an avocado. Salt and oil. Oh my God. Most people don't need more salt. Like that's the reality. We probably find it.

But I mean, it makes it feel like something novel, something unique. And it feels like a cocktail, right? But it's such a low effort, mock tale. I do love like a really complicated mock tale, but like also sometimes I'm just like, that gets in the way. That gets in the way of the objective of just hydrate. Something simple. We don't want executive dysfunction to play up. I also recommend like, you know, so like I wrote this book and I joke, but it's actually facts is that like my husband would have to escort me to the

shower after like three days because he's like, you stink. Given showers, you're not taking care of yourself. Like that's the, like, you know, it's a superpower. I'm like, have you seen me hyper focus into like nasty? Like, no. I'm so grateful because I think when you have someone of your stature who's written many books who is a doctor also admitting this that sometimes we can hyperfocus so much so we forget to shower and the hubbies have got to. It's just really healing to know that you can achieve incredible things, you can write books, you can know everything there possibly is to know about hormones and some days you can forget to shower. It just makes it like very real. And I was going to say, that's why it's my trick of three beverages at the desk before you sit down, because then you'll be dancing and you'll be like, I have to get up. I have to pee. Like, I have to move. We absolutely love it. The late bloomer's podcast is sponsored by the amazing loop ear plugs, something that me and Rich use all the time and absolutely love. We have our own website with Loop that has all of our favorite products and all of our listeners can get. 20% off. You can find the link in our show notes or even in our social media bios. We've recently

added this amazing loop link because, you know, we often put it on the wrong way around. We often forget or we lose them. So the loop link is there to make sure that you never lose your loop earplugs again. Look at that. Lovely. Well, let's get back to the episode, should we? One thing that you've mentioned here and you mentioned lot in the book is exercise. And in the same way, food is really important for us that executive dysfunction gets in the way. Seems to be the same thing with exercise. Like exercise seems to be so important for people with ADHD. And yet there is so many barriers in the way to making a routine. So firstly, can I just understand why is exercise?

exercise sort of hormonally important for us ADHD ladies. Well, I would actually give you the brain importance first because I think whenever you talk about exercise, it's like the way you look, prevent diabetes, like, right? But I told you the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. So that's what's like running the electricity of the house right now. Exercise is literally the crank generator on that. You have to move your body to generate that thing that makes you sore lactate acid. the brain uses the lactate as a backup energy supply.

That's why like the worst thing we ever do to an ADHD kid in school is say sit still. Their brain is screaming. It's starving and you're like, you need to sit there and just endure it. Like would you tell someone who hasn't eaten? Like, oh yeah, just suck it up. No, but that's what we're telling children. And so exercise is so important for that reason. And we know that from the research, like so if you like want to be the best like at what you're

doing mentally, 20 minutes of physical activity can buy you two to three hours. of focus and increased cognitive performance. That is absolutely incredible. And it's so simple. But if you're listening to this right now and you're like, yeah, I know exercise is not good, that's where I invite you to be like, and how well are you doing it? Because so many of us know all of this. We're told like drink water, exercise, eat a good meals, all of that. But that's what I try to do differently in the book is like instead of just telling you do all of these things, I'm like, let's evaluate why you're not doing these things. Because for the ADHDer, it's so much more complex and it's also things that other people think are just silly and ridiculous like

you mentioned in there even and you'd never ever imagine this in a go and exercise book and it was so beautiful to read about sensitivities it might be the bright lights in the gym that you don't like it might be the clothes that you're wearing and it's like oh my god yeah actually thanks there are other things that get in the way other than what i think I think ADHD is tend to think, which is, I'm just lazy. Or I can't follow a schedule. I can't follow a schedule. But also routines are boring.

And your body was never meant to do the same exercises every day. That is supposed to be boring. So how do we do it? We need to exercise. It helps with focus. We know that to be true, right? Last year. Well, what's helped you recently is we've started CrossFit, which is different every day.

Mm-hmm. And competitive. Yeah. competitive. I mean, I come last every time. So I'm competing with myself at the bottom. But I love it. It's a lot of weightlifting. There's also cardio. We might go once a week. We might go five times a week depending on on the week. There's flexibility. But that thing you said about how good exercise can get you focused. I mean, I come back feeling happier and ready to. Like it's a huge, huge difference. So how can. we get ADHDs into a form of exercise that works. What should they be doing? Well, I think it's different for everyone. Like sometimes gamifying it. Like, so maybe you have a reward after you exercise. Or maybe you have a sticker chart. Sticker charts are like highly effective. Okay. Especially if you really like the stickers. And I know it seems like, wasn't that something a five year old do? Yes. And you're

actually perpetually a five year old. Like you just have responsibilities now. So you could use a sticker chart that says like when I complete a naked small. So the first thing you're probably going to say is like when I complete 10 exercises, I earn this. How about instead when I complete one exercise, I earn this thing? Now when I complete three exercises, I earn this thing. And you work your way up. Maybe it's like you're like, oh, like, you know, fitness clothes for women are just so ridiculously expensive, but like a good bra can not be underrated. So maybe you're like, okay, when I when I reach this goal, I'm going to buy that like nice bra because then I know I'm going to keep going. Maybe that's what you need to do is you need to buy clothes that you feel good in that are like comfortable that like the, you know, the waistband

isn't rubbing on you or you like don't have to like, I have sports bras that I love. Sometimes I have to get my husband to get me out of them because I'm all sweaty and I'm like, why do I do this to myself? And I'm like, well, it's not enough of a hindrance and an, you know, obstruction. But if it is for you, but you're like, I don't like being trapped. I feel like I'm suffocating in my clothes. get a different outfit. Maybe you come up with a playlist that you're like, this is going to be my playlist for this.

This is songs that I love and motivate me. Or you say to Spotify, pick the playlist for me. And then you're excited. You're like, what songs coming next? So you have to find the way to gamify it for you

and make it to where it's like, this is actually fun. You know, I share in the book that like, I was a group fitness instructor because I really, oh my God. And I had to become a spin,

a cycling instructor because I freaking hate cardio so much. to be like paid to do it. Then I only paid to do it, but having like 40 people waiting on me to do it. And then I also had to control the lights and pick the music. Like that's what it took. And now nobody pays me to work out.

So I just like have to figure out these other ways. The gamification is massive, isn't it? Because like for me, I could think of nothing more boring than going for a run for 30 minutes. But if you said go and play football competitively for 45 minutes, it'd be like that sounds like loads of fun. And it'd probably be better exercise. So even sports and stuff, I mean, it's probably not that much of an exercise, but you've just started golf and you're obsessed with it at the moment.

I'm walking. I'm walking loads. I'm carrying my golf bags. And what I like, what I'd like to highlight, okay, is the buying the clothes to get you to work out, which I do that. So it has now been scientifically proven that it's a good thing because I'm stimulating my brain to go. You know, I was someone. that as a kid exercised every day, every club I'm doing gymnastics, I'm doing running, I'm doing

netball, obviously ADHD kids signing up to everything. And then I kind of, I lost it in my, in my 20s, in my 30s, I wasn't really doing any exercise. And I really felt the downsides to that. Getting back into it was like really quite difficult. And over the last few years, we've tried loads of different things. CrossFit has been our thing that has worked. But I wouldn't have been able to do that a few years ago. It would have been too much. Even just going for a walk was exercise. If someone's kind of at home, they're not very active, but they really want to try and do exercise because they know there's going to be focus benefits. What would be the kind of like, I think you talk about the minimal effective dose. Like, like, what could they start with?

that they could commit to, that they would notice a difference, like, in their brain. I think that's such a great question. So if you're, like, if you're starting from the couch, starting with walking. So walking is a cross-body action. We're moving our arms and legs, and it actually helps both lobes of your brain speak better. So it's fantastic, especially if you have worries, if you have things that you need to process to actually get out and move your arms and legs. If you're someone who's like, I would love to, like, pick up running, Well, don't start with that because it's going to hurt. It's going to suck.

Like, and you're going to feel like a failure. There's actually a great app that's called Couch to 5K. And it just has you, you start with walking. Then you have these intermittent sprints. Sprints are actually fantastic for the brain. And it's not even like a full out sprint. It's just doing a little bit of running. And why I love that is because it's a very small dose that is manageable.

So you get a win. Then you're like, okay, I can do this. So often we're like, I'm going to work out. So you'll see, you know, I see people online. make fun of women for picking up like three pound five pound weights i'm like you have to start somewhere if you tell them to lift heavy and they go from the couch to the gym and they try to deadlift like that you know even like 50 pounds they might end up injured what does an injury do especially uh you know in our 40s and beyond it sets you back like six weeks or more so it's always better to

listen to your body see where you're at honor where you're at and then figure out like what's the next best step if you're someone who's like i've never been in a gym. I've never picked up a weight. Needing with a personal trainer. If that is within your means, can be really helpful. If it's not, there's all these free people on YouTube. All these free people on YouTube. And I would also say don't underestimate mobility work. Now, anytime I say that, people are like, no, but like I have a connective tissue disorder because it's very common with ADHD ADHD and autism. And if I stretch, that's going to be, you know, it's going to put a joint out. It's going to cause an injury. Mobility work is not just stretching. It's,

actually supporting joint mobility. So the other day I was going on a stage, I'm like, I would usually lift weights, do some cardio before I go on a stage that I can be my best for two to three hours. But I think I have not had good sleep in a week. I can't do that. If I do a workout like that, I'm probably going to fry myself. It's going to be too much. Like, working out is a stressor. Just like cold plunges are a stressor. Intermittent fasting is a stressor. All these things people do. We have to just gauge where is your stress at at the moment and how much stress your body can handle. So mobility work, I was like, I'm going to do this 20 minute mobility routine on YouTube. And I just pull it up. I'm like, this is what I should be doing before stages,

because it's strengthening the joint capsules while also releasing them and releasing your back, your shoulders, your neck. And not a yoga hold a pose for like a minute and stretch, but really movement, dynamic movement that is strengthening in a gentle way and getting movement. the way I tell you that I'm like, I don't think I've never done this before I went on a stage and I was so in the zone. Everything was so like just, I just was like, this is one of the best performances because when I speak it's like a performance that I've ever given. And I'm like, I think part of that was that there was so much nervous system regulation

as part of what I was doing. And I was completely within my body like doing that. And that's the kind of exercise that people would often look at and be like, that's a nice to have. that's not so great, but it's supporting blood flow, lymphatic flow, actually getting joint mobility. This is something that we don't appreciate that as we age, we start to lose joint mobility. Like, you know, we were talking about people watching us people watching in the airport and seeing how many elderly people really couldn't move their body. Like, I'm looking at that moment.

You're capable, but there's so many restrictions because we're not focusing on getting that movement in. And so I want to give people permission for that. And there's actually like a weak plan of like, okay, if you don't know where to start with exercise, like here's a plan, not because I'm telling you what to do, but because sometimes it's just helpful to know where to start. And mobility is one of those days. Because especially if you have a connective tissue disorder, you need to have mobility work because you need to strengthen around the joint capsule so that you don't have that laxity. Babe, can I do a time check before you respond?

Yeah, yes. But I'm just like so. We're like two-part episode. I'm just, yeah, seriously, I'm just like learning so much. There is one final thing that if you don't mind, I would love to speak to you about. I'm not the timekeeper. Because, yeah, you're the timekeeper. Am I allowed to keep going?

Because this, this just made me giggle, and I think you'll understand why. So we've kind of spoken about hormones and perimenopause. We've spoken about diet, how important it is for ADHD. And we've also spoken about exercise. there's kind of one final piece that really struck me from the book, which is about sleep. Obviously, we can struggle with getting to sleep and staying asleep. But there was one section where you were talking about,

please correct me if I'm getting it wrong, cortisol. And you were talking about what it can feel like in the morning to wake up with ADHD. Now let me tell you how I wake up in the morning and a little argument that Rich and I sometimes have. When I wake up, I am not awoken yet. I need half an hour minimum. I need to have a coffee. And I can't actually like engage with the world until I've, I don't know, like booted up the system and had my coffee. and sometimes he'll lay something on me in the morning like, right, what are we doing at work today? And I'm like, well, I don't do it like that.

Sorry, no, sorry, I'm doing it for effect. But then I read in the book that this might have something to do with cortisol and ADHD and that there is a reason why I might be a slug in human form in the morning. And I would love you to explain to Rich why that might be and then to maybe tell me what I could do about it. What 80s years are very good at doing is engaging that delayed sleep phase onset, which about 70% have, and then working from like, you know, 11 p.m. until like 2 a.m. in the morning and doing their best work. So you can develop a reverse cortisol curve. So cortisol should spike in the

morning and melatonin should come down. And then, you know, it should taper off during the day. And then be at its lowest, melatonin comes up and you go to sleep. So cortisol wakes you up in the morning. You, you do shows, right, at night. So night shift workers tend to develop this reverse cortisol curve. We also see it in moms who have newborns because they're up all night as well. And the body's like, what is the deal here? And so you don't spike cortisol the way that you're supposed to first thing in the morning and then wake up, alert, ready to go. It might be spiking a little bit later in the morning. And then you might get that second wind in the afternoon and then find in the evening, it's going back up and now you want to stay awake. Most ADHD years, their melatonin is not

rising 9, 10 p.m. like other people. It's rising like 1 a.m. So of course we're going to see this. And this is where it's like, man, we don't really fit in this modern world. Like if we were all like living by campfire back in the day, like we'd be guarding the tribe. Like we're like, I'm good. I'm up right now. Like there's a, there's a real value in all of this. And again, it's not you. That's the problem. It's this society that like, and this mic that I'm walking. But this society that, like, we now exist in that we haven't really evolved with. So, you know, one thing that you can do is in the evening, try to avoid those blue lights as much as possible. You know, you're on a stage.

You've got bright lights in your eyes. You could get really cool red tinted glasses, which help block the blue lights. Like, there's ways around that that will help. But, like, also, you need to be awake. So, like, that's a little bit tricky. But when I do, so I came in on the flight, you guys are all laughing. What is happening? I'm just waiting to speak, but I don't want to be rude.

No, I know what you've said. You said something I didn't want to hear. She was hoping for you to side with her to say, rich, don't ask her to do anything in the morning because she's special with ADHD. But what you've told her to do is get off her phone at night. It has backfired so much. hard. Don't ask you to do anything in the morning though because she's like a bear coming out of hibernation. I will say it. I know. I know. You will get mauled. Have you heard that? I'm a bear coming out of high. But right. To actually quantify what happened. It was the other day.

She did apologize. It was the other day. I was really like calm. It wasn't like right. Come on. We got to do this? I was like, babe, do you want me to help you with your wear again shelf today? Because it's growing arms and legs. And she was like, why are you talking to me about this? Like, were really properly. It was prickly. I was prickly. Because my cortisol hasn't risen yet. And it's because you're on your phone the night before. Because I was on my phone reading Twitter. Just absorbing that blue light energy. Oh no. Well, you can also get filters. No, no, no. Don't tell her that. Yeah, tell me that. Well, it is a good idea because it really should start like by like 8 p.m. Like as soon as the sun starts going down, we should put a filter on our phone. And so on

YouTube, there's tutorials of how to put a red filter on your phone. So it's blocking these lights. Okay. And the other thing I was going to say is I came into the airport, a obscene hour last night. Like, don't live like Dr. Brighton has for the last week and a half. But it was like 3 a.m. Estonia time. But I put on my blue light blocking glasses so that, okay, now that I can get in a car and go, I want my melatonin to start rising. I don't want the light to affect me. And then the other thing is, again, trying to wake at the same time every morning so that you build up that sleep pressure. But This is like not going to be enough sometimes in these instances. It's like we might need to use things like bringing in B vitamins,

especially B5 for the adrenal glands, having vitamin C. And then herbs, like, I don't know if you can get them in the UK, but like rodeola is a really good one for mental, physical endurance. But, and in some cases when cortisol is really low and we don't have a blood pressure issue, we'll also use like some licorice first thing in the morning, like a like an actual like tincture of licorish because that helps. when the little bit of cortisol is there, it keeps it around a little bit longer.

And so there's like little tricks that we can start to do to start to shift things. And then in the evening, that's when we might want to use. So we got to have bedtime rituals, practices, sleep hygiene that I talk about in the book. But we might also want to use something like magnesium glycinate that can help the nervous system wind down. Elthianine is fantastic for getting better sleep.

And it's been shown to be really beneficial for ADHDers. And then for the women who are like, I can't get progesterone passion flower is an herb that stimulates the GABA system in the brain as well. And so that's something that you can drink as a tea. You can take as a capsule form. It's not going to outperform progesterone. But it is, these are some of the things that can get you by until you get the hormone therapy. Or maybe you're like, I don't want hormone therapy.

I just want to go natural routes. And that's your right to choose as well. Absolutely amazing. I can't wait to try them all. There's obviously so much more in the book. and ADHD and Women is going to be released this year in October, and it is coming to us here in the UK, and there's also going to be an audio book.

And I think it would be amazing if you could just tell our late bloomer's listeners where they can pre-order the book. And I also believe they might be able to get something special if they do pre-order from your website. Yes. Well, you can pre-order anywhere, and I'll still give you something special. But if you go to Dr.brighton.com slash ADHD and women,

you get the first chapter read by me immediately, so instant gratification. I also give you a focused meal plan and recipe guide that goes beyond what is in the book. So you can just start that right away. And then there's other bonuses included like the PMDD ADHD workshop to help you identify like what is driving your PMDD, how to talk to your doctor, get help. And then what you can start doing right now. Because too many of us are like, I've identified the problem and it's a six month wait to see my doctor. So whatever you can start now is going to help whatever treatments are offered to you actually work a lot better. So grab the book. We are going to link that in the show notes for anyone that is interested.

You will be able to go to Dr. Brighton's website, pre-order ADHD and women and also get those samples, which sound amazing. I could listen to you talk about your hyperfocus all day long. My mind is blown by everything you've shared of us today, but also in the book, it has really, really, I wish I'd had it a few years ago. It would have absolutely changed my life, our life, from the struggles of the last few years. And I just hope it can help so many more women. Thank you for being a voice, a passionate and informed voice about ADHD and hormones. It has been an absolute pleasure to have you here. Guys, our first guest, Dr. Brighton, what an absolute pleasure it has been. Please shout her out in the comments. This has been the

late bloomer's podcast and we shall see you next week.