Edgy And Ageless with TraceyAnnn
Hosted by Tracey Ball, a fearless, flawed, and thriving survivor who grew up in foster care, Edgy and Ageless shares raw, relatable stories and actionable tips designed to inspire you to rise above life’s challenges, laugh through the tough times, and thrive.
Tracey’s journey from overcoming adversity to achieving success is at the core of this show. Her mission is to inspire you to embrace bold reinvention, discover joy at every stage of life, and remember: There are infinite possibilities waiting for you!
Edgy And Ageless with TraceyAnnn
Unlocking ADHD and Mental Health: Struggles to Solutions
Episode 4 - Dr Paul Corona “The Doctor for Depression” discusses his ground breaking theories on ADD/ADHD, mental health awareness and the stigma around taking medications to live your authentic life.
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People think mental health, they think it's not real, they think it's just a weakness in your character. You know, I have to follow my will. If I just try harder, you know, and then people will say, well, is it all in my head? I go. Well, now some people will say, oh my gosh, that's terrible Giving a kid a pill. Oh my gosh, what are you kidding? That's just a kid, you're just a kid. What do you do? Kid, you're just a kid. What do you do with it? Well, because it's really important that people understand that it's not a weakness to take medication, it's actually a the test begins.
Speaker 2:As you pick up your pencil, something outside catches your eye. Your mind wanders. Someone tapping their shoe snaps you back to the test. Then to the clock. What the when did the time go? You look down at your paper it's blank. Suddenly it hits you. There's no time left. That sinking feeling hits I am going to fail again.
Speaker 2:This is an example of ADD attention deficit disorder which is a neurodevelopment disorder that affects a person's ability to focus, stay on task and regulate impulses. This is a story Dr Corona knows all too well. From ADHD to anxiety, depression to bipolar disorder, dr Corona has spent his career helping people, me included, reclaim their authentic lives. In his latest of several books, the Corona Protocol, featured in the Emmy Swag Bag, and his TV show, the Dr Corona Show, dr Corona continues to dedicate his life to the study and education of neurological disorders. Come on, how can someone who's never experienced it truly understand it all? Well, dr Corona himself has dealt with his own disorders, so he's not just speaking as an expert, he's speaking from experience, raw and real. Here is Dr Paul Corona. Dr Paul Corona, I am even more thrilled to have you here and talk about your early beginnings and how your focus was on family medicine. What prompted you to turn your focus into exploring chemical imbalances, which I have? How did you make that transition?
Speaker 1:Well, when I first started in uh, in in even medical school, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I thought initially pediatrics, I thought at some point OBGYN, I just didn't know. And so I basically chose family practice. Because I just didn't know, I like psychiatry, I like I like a bunch of things, and so I thought, well, let me, the family practice sounds like it's good, because it would give me a broad range of things to deal with. And so that's why I chose and did three-year training on that. I started practice in 1992.
Speaker 1:And you know I love being a family doctor, but you know I was always really interested in psychiatry and mental health and during the 90s I, uh, I just got more and more into it. A lot of it I mean one you know everyone's heard of ssri is like zoloft, lexocrocovac, um. That's all they had available when I first started practice. And then a brown breaking medication came out called effector um, the first actually serotonin and norepinephrine medication, not just serotonin. And that's when I really started to see like, wait a minute, what's going on here? Because I started to see better results with anxiety.
Speaker 1:It was stress, and I also saw physical changes.
Speaker 1:So I started seeing my patients saying you know, my headache, my neck, my back, my shoulders, my stomach, my all those that, those things I used to have when I was stressed out, it had gone away.
Speaker 1:So I started seeing this physical link and I think as a family doctor I was seeing that where maybe a lot of maybe psychiatrists don't didn't see that because because they're not really focusing on the body, the physical stuff like we did, we do and most family doctors don't get really as into it as me, so they don't get have as much experience. So I, during the 90s I just did more and more and more of this. I started understanding it, how to combine medications together. A lot of it was just self-taught. I read psychiatric textbooks, I I tried to learn as much as I could about what I was doing. But I then I realized you know after about a decade of practice that you know that I was doing so much more of this than regular primary care. And that's when I made the decision around the year 2000 to 2002, right in that range to switch my practice over and kind of give up on primary care and move full time to mental health.
Speaker 2:So many of us deal with mental health. For me personally it was, you know, anxiety, and your help with me personally has been amazing. And then you know, I don't know if we're going to go into the ADHD, but I also have that too. And you know how many times I've said to you a thousand times, I don't want to take it and then I'll stop taking, you know, my Adderall. I have a low dose and I'll start something new and I'll come running back to you because you know things are starting to go haywire and you're like, well, what did you do this time, tracy?
Speaker 2:I tried NeuroGum and it's partly because I feel like a drug addict. Just, you know, I hate that feeling of having to take something and if you could just walk us through the way you explained it to me, I loved when you said it to me and again, I just went through this with you. I stopped taking it because I'm like I'll try some homeopathic medicine, because every time I go to the pharmacy I feel like they're giving me the side eye and it feels poopy. So I want you to walk through, if you could, how you explain what the mind does with the chemicals.
Speaker 1:Well, usually what I do with a patient, I draw diagrams of neurons, I explain, like how neurochemicals cross over the cell to cell, you know. But I think the main issue really here is that people don't take. When people think mental health, they think, uh, it's not real. They think it's it's just a weakness in your character. You know I have on her will if I just tried harder, you know. And then people say, well, is it all my head? I go well, what's in your head is not your, where your brain is. Well, yeah, it's in your brain. Well, no, no, I mean, is it all in my head? Meaning is, am I just making it up or am I just being weak? No, no, it's a medical problem. But see, it doesn't, since we don't have blood tests. So if someone had a thyroid condition or diabetes or whatever, you do blood tests and show it to them, they go okay, I'll take my thyroid supplement and I'll do this. People don't have a problem with it because it's even more medical.
Speaker 1:Now, when it comes to people, people think it's just not the same and what doesn't help? The situation is like podcasters, not you, but I mean I heard a. I heard a small clip from I don't listen to joe rogan, but I heard a small clip of his that someone sent me and he's tired he's he had a doctor on who had add and so he's going off about add medications. Oh, I think it's horrible. The and the doctor stopped me. But wait a minute, I'm on one. He had a doctor on who had ADD and so he's going off about ADD medications. Oh, I think it's horrible. And the doctor stops him and goes wait a minute, I'm on one. And Joe stops and he said well, oh, really.
Speaker 3:And then you have the child raising their hand, and then you have everyone clapping and you have the child with a big smile on their face and you've medicated your child to be a successful and integrated person in society. Shall I spot off about ADHD for a minute. Yes, please.
Speaker 4:That was my first book on ADHD. It's the American Scattered or Scattered Minds, depending on which edition you get, and that was after I was diagnosed with it myself in my 50s. What does it mean ADHDs? What does it mean ADHD? Yeah, what is it exactly?
Speaker 1:Is it real? Oh, it's real. He said oh, it doesn't make you wired, he goes. No, I calmed the brain down. No, it helped. And then Joe said, okay, and the other thing that created anxiety, oh, but are we all anxious, don't we all have stress?
Speaker 1:So the problem is belittling the, the condition with someone like as powerful as he is, with that far of a reach, or like a jack tatum, who's like this macho dude with the podcast and all that. These kind of people, and even not just not just them, but also other, you know, kind of mainstream people, just don't get it. And so the people feel shamed about it and, like you said, and pharmacies don't help because people say they look at me kind of funny, like, why do you need Adderall? You are you taking this for weight loss or whatever? So pharmacists make it more difficult because they shame people. Um, you know, and so I don't. It's understandable why you, why you would do this, try you, try NeuroGamgam, you try focus factor.
Speaker 1:People get on supplements of some type. Do some of them work a little bit? Yeah, I mean they could. They can help somewhat. You know they they help a little bit. Not as well as the prescription ones. No way, no, but they do help a little bit, but sometimes it's just a matter of yeah, but don't you want something that's going to work better?
Speaker 1:And and the fact that some medication, yeah, so what? You know, people take medication for a lot of things. Why not? I think, once I explain it, and I explain that the neurochemical got a balance for reasons you have no control over, um you know, which have also caused anxiety, which is the number one thing I see in my practice is anxiety disorders. It's all based on imbalances that you can't help. Now, why do they happen in the first place? Genetics, number one run through your family. So if we, if I look into people's families history mom, dad, one, probably your mom or your dad I don't have your chart in front of you, but probably one of them has add, you may not know who, but one of them probably does.
Speaker 2:Um, one or both of them, maybe one of them has an anxiety issue my mom was bipolar anxiety and obviously she was probably the person who passed it down to me. But also, you know, I think you're going to probably go into it but trauma is also isn't that a base of the adhd as well?
Speaker 1:right and you're not bipolar, I mean, and you got perfection out here, you for your dad's side, you know so you don't get everything, but you get a little bit from mom, a little bit from dad, and both of their sides. And then second factor is hormone changes. So some women especially will see problems like a lot of problems start of puberty, middle school, pre, premenstrual, postpartum, menopause, you know so men, women have a little bit of rougher. We have, you guys have more hormonal changes during your life than men do. And then trauma, stressors, so sometimes trauma it's the scale, then sets things off. Um, so, uh, so, yeah, so the reasons that happens, you have no, you can, no one can control that, um, so I, I think it.
Speaker 1:I think it's really important that people understand that it's not a weakness to take medication. It's actually a strength, the fact that you can stand up and really treat the disorder the way it should be treated. You know. But people have difficulty because no one wants to take a pill. Everyone wants to take natural, all natural supplements and vitamins and they think, well, if pharmaceutical, I want to stay away from the pharmacy, I want to just do it through a supplier or through the health food store or whatever you know well, someone was asking me what is it like when you take the medication, when you don't take the medication, and I likened it to, there's this superhero that can hear everything and he cannot go to sleep.
Speaker 2:I don't know the name of the superhero, but when you're not taking it, everything you can, it feels like you can feel and hear everything, and when the superhero goes to sleep he has to go underwater, so it blocks it out, and so it kind of feels like that. It blocks everything out except what you're focusing on. It's like there's a protective bubble around you. And this is how I feel and you can tell me, if you've heard from other clients and you're able to focus those the bells ringing, the lights, the everything is not stealing my focus, the squirrel, and when I'm trying all these homeopathic things like NeuroGum or whatever, that there's no bubble. There might be a small haze, maybe it, like you said, it works a little bit, but I can tell when I'm using the medication because and I take a small dose, my I remember when you first got me started on it, one of my teachers was like wow, you're looking at me and I was like what do you mean? She goes when you talk. You're just not looking at anyone. You don't like it feels like you're not listening because you're thinking of a thousand different things and she's like what's, what's going on? I started this medication and it's. It was life changing for me to get it's. It's. It's in no wonder that I have I have a company, because it was later in life that I actually was diagnosed with ADHD. I guess it's the hyper focus that we have as ADHDers that are a superpower. But back to what you were saying about Joe Rogan I just wanted to throw back. I'm actually a big fan of Joe Rogan. People forget to walk in other people's shoes and I'm guilty of that as well.
Speaker 2:My man, he didn't believe in mental illness. He had never experienced it, so he couldn't understand it, and so he was one along that line of like that's ridiculous, get over it, get strong. Until he had a surgery and he had a full blown anxiety attack and he had a couple and his whole, like his whole perspective changed. He was like it felt like I was dying and his whole perspective changed. He was like it felt like I was dying, like I was being smothered to death. It was the most horrible feeling. I go imagine what some people deal with. When they deal with that every day, he's like I couldn't imagine.
Speaker 1:Then he got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are some of the challenges in a relationship? I can tell you what my challenges have been, but what would you say challenges are in a relationship with people who have ADHD.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, communication, I think what you mentioned just a little bit ago is listening skills. So a lot of times with ADD, it's people interrupt or they just see a thought comes ahead, boom, it comes out without sitting back, and then let me just wait for that person to finish what that says and then I can talk. It's just boom that the communication can be more difficult. What do the? Well, let's talk about the features core, focus and concentration. You know that one easy distractibility, like you said, squirrel, you know you.
Speaker 1:You know the teacher's talking, there's a bird flying out the window over there and then they're looking at the trees and the teacher's talking over here and just not even really hardly listening because they're, you know, just focused on other things besides what they're, you know, or people at their desk and they're trying to work on something, and then they get distracted so easily. Just easily distracted is a very common one Impulsiveness, doing things impulsively without thinking, and so these are the features. And again, the main reason is genetics, like I told you, and so it's challenging sometimes in a relationship, but the main thing is the communicating and the other person, the non-ADD person, you know, just getting very frustrated. You know why can't you just listen or look me in the eye when you're talking, or whatever, but that's, that's probably the biggest challenge.
Speaker 2:What would you give as advice to a couple that one has the ADHD, one does not, because it is incredibly frustrating and communication is the foundation of all relationships. What would be your advice?
Speaker 1:Read about it, understand it, you know? So then not. Well, both people need to understand, not both of the people who have really doesn't think it's moderate, really understanding and so reading about it. I mean, I in my new book, the Current Protocol, I have a whole chapter on it on ADD. So if someone wants to delve into it and understand it, I talk about three different cases in that the whole new book is 30 original short stories, so three out of the 30 stories are on ADD. It's also in my first three books I talk about ADD. So just really, I think, more education, understanding, maybe understanding your partner and and what he or she goes through, and I think that's that's the main thing is just learning about it and it's an understanding I think that's your next book, dr corona is is relationships and adhd, because it's a it's a?
Speaker 1:there are books about that there. There are specific books about relationships with ADHD. I haven't written them, but there are books out there. So that's me fighting out a book. I can't remember the author of it.
Speaker 2:I've read a few and they are very eye-opening and informational and educational in terms of how to navigate through a relationship with somebody who has ADHD, because it is incredibly frustrating. I know that because I'm the person who's doing it, so I've had to educate myself on, you know, better communication and, sorry, but taking my medication, like my man knows. He says have you been taking your medication? And I get so mad. I'm like I'm taking neuro gum and it can remind you the case. And yeah, yeah, he's like is it working? I don't know if it is and I get really mad and they'll call you hi, it's me again. Speaking of your book, I'd like to walk through your book, uh, the corona protocol yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean backing up to when I first started writing, so going back to 2000 to 2002, when I turned into my practice. At the time I was thinking you know, why aren't other doctors seeing this? Why? Why am I not seeing primary care doctors doing this and why am I not seeing psychiatrists this? Supposedly this was a specialist doing things the way I'm doing it. You know the way I've learned how to do things. I don't see other doctors doing it. So I thought you know, I need this, I need to start putting this on cable. Who's going to believe some family doctor about this subject unless I write a book? So I just set out to write a book and after four years and 800 pages I thought, okay, this is too much for one book, so I'm going to split it into two books. So I thought, okay, this is one, this is two. So then I released the one and then I started working on more on the two and then by the end of another three or four years I was up to another 800 pages on book two. So okay, we'll split that. And then now it's book three. So I basically just kept writing for 12 years to release those three books.
Speaker 1:It took a little short break from writing and then I thought what do I want to do now in my career? I love practice. I want to keep that. I want to do now in my career. I love practice. I want to keep that. I want to teach. I think the need out there is for doctors to learn about this subject and they're not getting the training they need to get from their reading or whatever. So I thought I'm going to set up a training course. So I wrote two smaller books that haven't been released yet that I'm probably going to release in the next year or so for doctors Well, actually doctors, there's physician assistants, nurse practitioners, focus on primary care. I love syphagists. I also read it to understand. Read the two books, and then I'm going to set up a training course.
Speaker 1:So then I thought you know now what I want to write another book. I want to write one more book and that's it. And I thought you know I want to make this one different. I want to make this one about storytelling. People love reading about stories, and so that was just a whole different concept working with my editor, trying to figure out the chapters and all that, the makeup of the book, and then I just started going at it and it took me about four years to finish this one. And so the concept, well, the front of the book. And then I just started going at it and it took me about about four years to finish this one. And so the concept, well, the front protocol, basically, is what I do. The protocol is really the way I've learned how to do things, my methods in a sense.
Speaker 1:And then I thought, you know, I the crazy subtitle a scientifically proven medical solution to stop addiction, bullying, homelessness, school shootings and suicide 30, 30 years in the making. Uh, so then I thought, you know, I want to put something on the cover that's going to pop out, so people will like what, and I wanted to. I wanted to choose subjects that are, you know, they're really topical today and all of those are usually topical. Addiction, for us, everyone's talking about addiction nowadays. Bullying is a huge thing. Homelessness we dare about that and we see it all the time. School shooting we've had what a couple of the last week or two. You know. Um, suicide, you know, obviously the worst outcome for patient with mental health issue. So I thought I'm gonna. I put those five on there just because I thought this was gonna be the. You know the.
Speaker 1:The core of the and so that's kind of the middle of the book is talking about those things. What I do in this book I talk about a subject that starts with anxiety disorder, that I talk about depression, bipolar eating disorders, schizophrenia. I talk about a myriad of things PTSD and what I do is I talk about a subject briefly and a couple, maybe two or three pages worth, and then I log into the story and I know the book it's storytelling. Then section five of the book is I tell my story. Then section six, I kind of tell about some of the difficulties that I've gone through personally and the struggles I've gone through and I've made it to the other side. So that's basically the core of what the book's about.
Speaker 2:I'd love to talk about your personal journey, like the struggles that you had. Is that something you can talk about?
Speaker 1:I don't know if I want to ruin the book for people who haven't read it yet.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm going to give people a small snippet, like a commercial, and let them know that you've had your own struggles.
Speaker 1:I take medications too. I have my own, yeah, and I tell about that. I tell the whole story in Section six of my book. Someone wants to read all the ins and outs of what I went through and how I kind of got through that. So I kind of want, I wanted to put that section in because, even though it's difficult to talk about those things, I thought hopefully people can relate to that and say, look, even the guy who treats this up, even he. That's why it's like there's no reason for stigma, there's no reason to be ashamed about this stuff. I'm not ashamed of what I ate at home. So that's why I put that section in.
Speaker 2:I think it's important and to give the audience just a little snippet, you had your own breakdown, is that correct?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you go through and you tell the story and how you got to the other side and I think it's a really great story. It's again one of the things that made me fall in love with Dr Corona and come to your office. You were so authentic about your own journey and your own struggles and how you got to the other side and how you take medication. It just made me feel so much better. I think that reading your book and these stories will make anyone who has any of these mental disorders because it will make them feel like they're not alone. You are not alone. That's why I love you so much is because you truly make patients feel like they're not alone and that there is help and that you're not ridiculous. But I do want to say can you go into a little bit of? I personally have children at my studio that deal with bullying. What are you talking about in the bullying? And you say solution to stop it.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, just recognizing it. I think the story I talk about is a family and the daughter is bullied at school as well as the son is bullied at school. The mom is bullied at the school board meeting, but she has very strong views that are opposed to some of the other people in the community. And so, just basically, with bullying, that you're not alone and also you need to stand up to it. And if you need to get help, it's not weak to get a teacher or the principal and tell them that what's going on here, that you know someone needs to step in and stop this.
Speaker 1:You know, or the bullies, currency to be notified, or something you know and you know, I, I, in my, I stopped short of saying that if someone wants to fight you, that you fight back. Well, that's an option, is, uh, is fighting it out. But I, you know, rather than that, I think, um, I think just being aware that it's so common and again, just really more, it's mostly, you know, trying to find people who listen to the person and saying that you know, I'm very uncomfortable with this and you know, and I mean, of course, the victim can try to avoid the bully as much as they can, but if it's at a school, they can only avoid it for so long, right.
Speaker 2:And now throw in social media where you in the old days, when we were younger, you could go home and it's done. But it continues, sometimes on social media.
Speaker 1:And then social media. I mean there's so much shaming and bullying on social media sites and you know, and it's just a, I mean social media and very you know there's good parts of it, obviously people communicating and all that but you know, there's a lot of negative, a lot of negativity. There's a lot of um toxicity that goes on, and with young people too, it's been. If they spend too much time on there and it's just a lot of wasted time, they should be out and um, but yeah, a lot of that, a lot of that happens throughout, you know, and again, in the end, um, at a national level too is, you know, with politicians and this and that, I mean it was just bullying is just, you know, so common.
Speaker 2:It doesn't go away. It's so crazy Like I was explaining to the kids and like I'm going to say something that's probably not going to be very popular, but I do think that the bullying word is kind of thrown around at some point. It was a little bit too much. I'm like people are going to have disagreements. However, when it becomes overbearing and constant, yes, it's bullying, and I think I don't know if you know who Patrick Bet-David is. I was listening to his podcast and he was talking about how he only lets his kids get on to. I guess his kids don't have cell phones they're the only ones that don't and he's very strict about how much social interaction they have online, and I think that that's where it starts. I actually think that kids shouldn't have cell phones. If they need to get in touch with them, they give them a pager.
Speaker 1:I agree, I agree. And then this is a conversation at school, sue, where they know that a lot of parents take this big phone away when they're in class, but otherwise they're going to be sitting with the pager on their phone laying around the away when they're in class, but otherwise they're gonna be sitting with the teacher on their phone laying around the phone when they're supposed to be listening to the teacher. There's a lot of that. And then the parents' argument is like, well, what, if they need something, they need to be able to call me. It's like, okay, well, they can go to the office and really, just, there's other ways of doing it so that you know than that. And so, uh, yeah, I agree that that's just good parenting. I think it's just if you just let them.
Speaker 1:Same thing, like with video games. Mostly that's a guy thing, but uh, with video games, you know, just limbing, it is okay, you can do it for a half hour, or do you do for an hour? Then you gotta get your homework done and then, or if you get your homework done, then I'll give you an hour, but that's it. You know that you know just this, and on the weekend or whatever, just to smart them out. And don't you know so many kids are sitting there all day, every day, eight hours and hours and hours doing video games.
Speaker 2:You know, it's not healthy, it's not healthy and I was talking to somebody yesterday that, um, you know kind of had a rough childhood. And here's my biggest takeaway on what I've seen as somebody who is in the child industry like I, I have a performing arts center, I'm an after-school program I have seen kids do so much better because they are part of something bigger than themselves. After-school programs should be funded by the state. I 1,000% believe and it's my understanding nowadays that it's not really funded very well and you have to have a lot of money to be in a football team. And when I was younger, growing up in foster care, I lived from my after-school programs. That's where I had connection.
Speaker 2:And I really believe that if you give kids connection not on the internet, outside, playing football, playing chess, doing it as birdwatching, whatever it is they're a part of something bigger than themselves. They are a part of a community, they're part of a team and maybe we would see less shootings and bullying and stuff like that, because you're not left to your own defenses. What we're all going to, you know, listen. If we're on the Internet, we're going to go to the things when you're younger that are, you know, maybe spooky or weird or you know, horror shows, and if you're out and about, you don't get that option, it's just not there. If you're out and about, you don't get that option, it's just not there. So I mean, obviously there's a fine line, which you probably know, between overdoing it with your kids, with activities every day, all day, every second of the day, then having something at least twice a week to go to to be a part of, and that's why, growing up, I played football, since I was young, and I played chess, of course, you did.
Speaker 2:You're a big guy.
Speaker 1:Speaking of chess, I was a ranked. I was in tournaments as though I loved chess or not.
Speaker 2:Really, that's so awesome. Of course you're smart, tall. It's great. This is not a surprise.
Speaker 1:And reading. I mean I've read probably hundreds of books. I've been to have a reader since I was young and so I I'm, I'm on a book now I'm on page like 520 of a 900 something page book right now. Um, but I'm, I'm always. I mean, I'm even right in late in the evening when I'm home I read, you know, I watch a little pv and then I slap, I go, you know enough tv one shows enough or whatever, and then I, I read, you know, and and so so, yeah, and I think back then, you know, we used to go out and play.
Speaker 1:And now people say, yeah, but it's not as safe nowadays. Good point, you know you don't want your kids outdoors in unsafe areas and supervised. You know there's always dangerous sports out there, criminals. But I think it's just when I grew up, it was just back in, just a up, it was just back. There's a healthier environment back then, back in the 70s and in the 80s, during college, was that things were just like a different. It was a different back then, you know, we didn't have all these modern stuff we have now and I think it was just healthier the internet is a great thing in moderation, like anything right I wanted to go back to.
Speaker 2:Let me go back to your book for a second. What role does the neurochemical imbalances play in the challenges highlighted in your book? How can they be effectively treated?
Speaker 1:I do talk about that in the book, a lot of medications. I talk about that also in my first book, probably more detail in my first books, my first books. Obviously probably more detail in my first books, um, but but yeah, I think so basically, you know, if someone can visualize this. So the whole nervous system, the brains, the center, is composed of over a hundred billion nurse. They're called neurons and they connect, they, they communicate through spaces, um, and, and chemicals are traveling from cell to cell around the system about a thousand times a second.
Speaker 1:The spaces in between the cells we call synapses. There's over a hundred trillion of those in your body, and so the problem is where the chemicals are passing from cell to cell. There are little holes called receptors that allow the chemicals to travel from one cell into the next cell, and that's what's supposed to happen is a one-way transmission of these chemicals. What happens in the cell is these holes become, they get get leaky, so you get leaky holes. They become like almost like two-way valves instead of one way. So that way sometime that goes forward. Sometimes they go back and go backwards. So that's the problem.
Speaker 1:So when we, when we say neurochemical imbalances, that's what I mean the chemicals in the nervous system going out of balance. That's what that's the problem. So when we say neurochemical imbalances, that's what I mean the chemicals in the nervous system going out of balance. That's what that means. So how do we fix it? Well, what we do is we fix the leaks. So it really is about working on the cell membrane of the cell and fixing the problem at the source of the problem. So it's not a lack of chemicals. So people have this notion that I'm going to boost my serotonin and are going to boost my dopamine. I guess, in the sense, you're boosting it forward, yes, but it's not adding chemicals to the system that aren't there.
Speaker 1:Medications are actually trying to fix the problem and then, which basically forces the chemicals to move only the one way they're supposed to move, ideally, and not go the wrong way. So that's what they're, that medications are about and that's why there's, you know, they're not addictive. They're not, you know, because they are. They're just fixing a problem and, and I think, like I said, there's a lot of things in medicine that we fix with medications.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes thyroid blood pressure, you know, you know a lot of things out there. We're fixing a problem that the body just doesn't fix on its own. In the case of some of these things like blood pressure, cholesterol, then we can deal with some pretty serious things stroke, heart attack. When we don't treat neurochemical imbalances, then you're dealing with persistent anxiety, persistent depression, add, untreated dysfunction, people not performing well at work, getting fired because the boss said you're not performing up to par. You know you're not. Your peers are producing more than you are because the person not treating their ADD. So how are they supposed to keep up with someone who doesn't have ADD if they can treat it?
Speaker 2:If I can say for listeners who don't have ADHD but might be in a relationship with somebody who does what I'm getting from. What you just said, which is absolutely amazing, is, say, you have a leaky boat and you're sitting there trying to scoop out the water because you have holes in the boat. And you're scooping out the water with the narrow gum, with all these other things, but then to try to fix the actual boat to plug those holes. That's what the medication is. Is that kind of like what you're talking about?
Speaker 1:I like the boat one that's the new one for me. Yeah, the boat's good. I use the shower. Now I say, if you're taking a shower and all of a sudden the water pressure comes down, you're like what's going on? You look down in the faucet, the big leak coming out of the faucet. Well, what do you do? Well, you know you can't fix that. But then you got to realize, okay, I got to fix what's going on at the faucet. There there's a leak going on there. If you don't fix the leak you're going to still have problems with the water. And so I say what medication to do? They go right to that leak, they fix the leak at the faucet and all of a sudden you do that. All of a sudden the water's pressure, if you fix boat water, stops going into the boat to be able to have to scoop it out. Why are you scooping it out?
Speaker 2:Why don't you just focus on fixing that dang leak Primarily. I've been asking you questions sort of from the adult perspective. As far as kids and ADHD, do you feel like there are people out there that might be either A misdiagnosing and what are your thoughts on kids taking? It's a lot to wrap your head around, I know, on these medications Because I wish I, when I was younger, I would have had it, because it probably would have saved me a lot of trauma. But what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, it depends on the training. I mean, as family doctors, we're trained to treat it. Tea attritionists are supposed to treat it. Some of them don't. Now you obviously have to go to someone who's trained to know how to do what they're doing. Part of the reason I wanted to set up a training course is for that very reason, that doctors need more training. They need to know more, and so my goal is to try to teach as much as I can.
Speaker 1:But see, add has nothing to do with intelligence, so it has to do with focus. And so some people are highly intelligent, but they just can't take the intelligence and make it, you know, make it translate into the grades or at a work level, work performance. But so some kids can skate by okay for a while because of their natural intelligence and their work ethic. So then at some point you know, it gets more difficult, whether it's middle school, high school, college, grad school, whatever. The more you go in the school, the more difficult it gets, the more the more challenging and become for an ad person. Now some people will say, oh my gosh, that's terrible giving a kid a pill. Oh my gosh, what are you spinning? That's just a kid, you're just a kid. What do you do it? Well, because you really want that person you know suffering through their boy. Do they ever be frustrated throughout their school experience? You know, and if you can give them someone, and what's this? What's established? As far as starting point, most, most experts, will say the youngest they would give is probably around seven years old or so. Some go that's five or six years old, because it's pretty apparent, usually at a young age, you have add, and then some will say the argument is low. Well, the kids are hyper anyway. So you're just going to take a hyper kid and just zone them out? No, that's not the point. Uh, we're not taking away the personality of person and if we are, if we're blunting a personality, you know that's the wrong.
Speaker 1:Medication is too high of a dose. You you have to watch the appetite of a kid. You don't want to dose it too high where they're growing and they need to gain their appetite. But medicating kids, I think it's hugely important and I have so many patients and families who are grateful because all of a sudden everything turns around for this kid, you know, um, and confidence improves. And there's also been shown statistically if you don't treat add to the higher chance of drug addiction later in life, a higher chance of getting in trouble, because you do think that, possibly, and so now we're dealing with you know. So that's why I think you you treat it whenever you diagnose it and you just keep treating it.
Speaker 1:And people will say until when? Well, until when you want it. And you just keep treating it and people will say until when? Well, until when do you want to stop? Do you want to stop it when you go to work? Oh, no, I can stop it now because I'm not going to school anymore. Well, okay, but aren't you going to get a job? Yeah, yeah, but don't you need it when you're working? Well, maybe, okay, good, so, okay, when can I stop it now? Well, when are you retiring? Um, no time, real soon. Okay, we'll take it till you retire and then we'll talk again about it. Then then you retire and say you know you can stop it if you don't have any work to focus on.
Speaker 1:But some people say you know, I just feel so good when I take it, I just feel better. It is more get done than just work and school. There's other stuff to do too, but, um, but, yeah, but that's basically that the controversy. That shouldn't be. Well, it's a controlled substance. So, oh my gosh, you're gonna get a controlled substance, yeah, you know. Do you want to treat them properly? Do you want to treat them in the best way with the, with the best type of treatment? Sure, absolutely, you know. I mean, I can go on about ad, because it's a topic I'm passionate about, you know, because it's way, way underdiagnosed and people will say the opposite. People say it's overdiagnosed. Too many people are taking these things wrong. The government might say that that's why the government is trying to control the production. That's up, but absolutely not. I think it's way underdiagnosed. I think way more people that have it that don't treat it than actually a food area.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a stigma, you know. That's probably why they're not. I'm with you, I agree with you and, to go to your point earlier about a kid suffering, I work with children half of 20, 30 years now and I, you know, part of the reason why I think my studio does so well is that we're very involved with trying to help Everyone's a snowflake, you know, at our studio and we try to teach, treat each child differently because they have different wants and needs. One of those things is watching kids suffer when they, you know, and we have lines, you know, I do musical theater, they, you can see somebody who is very smart but just can't focus. And I've seen kids go from. You know, they can't get a lead because they can't memorize the lines, but they try, and then suddenly something will change and the parent will come to me and say, okay, I just want to let you know that we're trying this new medication, you know, can you please give us some feedback? And I'm like, absolutely, and I'll say, wow, jimmy Sally, they are focused, they're, you know, and they're, and it makes me want to cry.
Speaker 2:It's like they're not suffering, they're, they're, they're living the life that they should, that they can, and they're going to flourish. And you know, is it for everyone? Maybe not. There's no reason for the uh, the interruptions, the constant talking, talking, the not raising the hand, the, the running all over the place, it's. It's like wow, and I'm like I. I get to the point where I almost have to say, if you're not gonna help me and give me some tools, I gotta let you go. I that you're hurting the other children in the class, and now that's hurting that poor child. Does that make sense at all?
Speaker 1:you're right and that, and that's the challenge with parents is, you know, feeling, you know just like you're not being a bad parent by treating it's not their fault.
Speaker 2:It's not their fault. Yeah, you know. Oh, they don't. They're. You're not wrong, you're not an, you're not an a-hole because you want to go get your kid a better life. On another note, now stop talking, because I keep talking again. I'm also passionate about it too, dr Corona. But my nephew? He has diabetes, and he was diagnosed at seven years old. He ended up in the hospital. He has to take this insulin every day, he has to wear a thing, and his life is better now. Isn't that the same, though?
Speaker 1:Absolutely See, people think that's different because that's a real matter as a problem with blood tests. So people will think that's real. This AD is not real and you're giving a kid a controlled substance. That's terrible. No, it's not.
Speaker 1:Kids already growing up comparing to other kids, already growing up comparing to other kids and, and so they sometimes feel, feel less than because they say how come I can't do as well as these? I thought I'm as smart as they are. How come I can't perform the way well? Because you, you know, you're not able to. It's just not possible and so, um, so it just it's huge. Growing up is self-esteem. No, you know, you don't have gosh, being that this causes a lot of problem in life. Um, and so, yeah, so they, for every reason. There's no good reason not to accept that again. People, heracles will talk to other karens, they'll go online, they'll look stuff up, you know, you know they'll look up. Oh, that's side effects of things not focusing on the benefit but focusing on what the government is saying, and the side effects are and, um, you know, and so they, you know, just focus on the wrong things and get, and you get sidetracked instead of on the internet. Why don't you go to a doctor you trust who treats this, and the doctor can tell you the ins and outs of what to look for, what side effects to watch, or. I can do that in a much better way than someone trying to research you on their own and trying to like figure it out on their own, which is fine you can, you can research, but you got to watch what you read, because you know what people get the wrong.
Speaker 1:There's three sources of information. I I tell people it's kind of a funny thing that there's three. I tell three first sources of information you never, you never get medically. Number one internet. Internet's terrible source of medical information. There's so much of medical information. There's so much misinformation. There's, there's, there's this, and now they're saying the completely different thing. Well, which one of those is right? So there's a lot of opinion, there's a lot of governmental nonsense, and so I tell people if you want to get medical advice from the attorney, go on there. Um. The second is family and friends. You know, is that really the best story? I didn't know. The third is pharmacists. You know, you, you want to get your medical admission to pharmacists? Absolutely not, because they're not clinicians, they don't prescribe, they don't understand. They'll just, they'll just give you negativity, like pharmacists will do, and so that's it. So where? And so what does that have? Where's what's left after those three? Um, the expert, maybe, or the doctor that you know, that you trust? That's the person you get information from.
Speaker 1:I, I've treated the add for over 30 years. I can tell you the ins and outs of it. I can tell you the side effects to watch for. I can tell you why that is too high of a dose, why you need to lower it. Whatever I, I can help with that. You know it. But because I do it, I and I see the results constantly and um, so, and that's much better source of information than anything else.
Speaker 2:At the end of the day, I know parents just they want the best for their kids and so you're right. Sometimes misinformation will bring you down the wrong path of trying to give that great life to their children. So I think it's amazing that you're starting a teaching program. Talk to us a little bit about the teaching and the program course that you're going to be starting.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So basically my focus is going to be on primary care doctors. There's a lot of physician assistants or practitioners, family doctors, pediatricians, anyone who is able to treat these conditions. So my idea is to do something very unique and never been done before. So an online training program, meaning that, ok, let's say, for example, I get a new patient and I find Maybe I screen, make sure it's a good teaching face, make sure it's an interesting face.
Speaker 1:So basically what I do is have the person come online with whoever else is online with me and I think, a history. I talk to the patient and ask a bunch of questions. Then I open it up and say does anyone else have any questions? And then, once we have everyone satisfied with the information, we, the person exits the scene, uh, and then we talk about it and they say, okay, let's talk about it, let's go around, let's say what do you think about that, who's the diagnosis, what's your treatment plan, etc. So we all go around, everyone, and then I you know I make the final decision, um and uh, and then what we do is we follow it.
Speaker 1:So then they'd be okay, let's see the person after a couple of weeks, two, three weeks, and so it's kind of like an ongoing online clinic and then follow-up patients, new patients, so basically seeing patients and treating them with other doctors, witnessing what I'm doing live, in a sense, and then seeing the results, and then it's all teaching. So, in other words is okay, well, I chose a pristik instead of lexapro. Here's why I did that, and I know you, this other person wanted lexapro. Well, the problem with lexapro they probably wouldn't give them this kind of result.
Speaker 1:You know, you can use it all, as this is why I chose this medication. Okay, I was wrong, you know I, this medication didn't work out. I had to change it, but it's all learning, because I'm always learning. I mean, every patient is different. I have to figure out each person individually, so it's not always. We don't always make the correct decision every time you have to. Okay, let me back up, that wasn't it. Let me see what, what might work.
Speaker 1:So it's all. It's a lot of trial and error. It's, but it's rational trial. You know what? It's, not a just throwing darts to the dartboard. There's a thereboard, there's a logic to what I do and there's a specific way I do things. But that's what I want to do with teaching, because I think to give back. I can only see so many people. There's so many people around that don't have access to a doctor who understands this, and they're kind of stuck. And just think about rural areas, think about areas where they don't have access to medical care as much. So I want to be able to reach doctors all over the place, hopefully, and help get them, teach them to help their patient.
Speaker 2:Is this going to be an online course? Yeah, yeah, that's great. And when can you expect to launch that?
Speaker 1:That's a good question. I haven't really in the details of how to set it up and everything what I want to do. I'm not sure if I release the two books first and then set it one up, or do I make the book part of the course. I haven't really known.
Speaker 2:I don't really know yet it sounds like, honestly, dr Karina, like it sounds amazing and, I think, a great opportunity, for it's. Like you said, there's a lot of people out there not diagnosed yet. Maybe possibly because they don't have the information that you're offering.
Speaker 1:I love talking about it. I love teaching and I'm constantly teaching every day, but I'm teaching my patients. I'm teaching my patients to understand their condition. And look, I want you to understand why you're taking this pill. It's not just you're taking this pill for no reason. You're taking it for this reason, and this is exactly what it does. Here's what it does on my diagram. Here's what the Adderall does, here's what this does, and so that's why both of them have their role. They're both totally different things, but they work together. And so there's a lot of existence with anxiety and AD, depression, ad. Ad foreexists a lot of other things.
Speaker 1:Bipolar disorder you have to treat everything the person has. If someone comes in with high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease, I'm just going to treat the diabetes, I'm just going to treat the blood pressure, I'm just going to do that. No, you've got to treat. You've got to look at all those things. You have to look at the big picture and treat the whole person. Got to treat. You got to look at all those things. You know, you have to look at the big picture and then treat the whole person, not just treat one thing and then okay, that's enough. You know, next video. We'll start working on your high blood pressure. Oh, I know it's super, super high. Oh, yeah, you're a risk of stroke or bleed. But well, no, we'll do that. I mean, no, you got to treat everything together. You know that's what I do in my practice. I make look at every diagnosis, make sure every one of the diagnoses is predisposed. A lot of my patients are on two to three things probably the average and you have to get people comfortable and say, well, I only want to take one thing. Well, how much better do you want to get? Do you really want to limit yourself to one pill when you can get better with the second one? And some more complex people, some of the bipolar patients who are more difficult to treat. They may be on 3, 4, 5, 6 net. They have a really tough one that has serious implications, like some of the serious bipolar disorder out there. You know you got to treat it. Or it's a person who's been self-destruct, yeah. So it's important to make sure that every person, every individual, is in what we call full remission.
Speaker 1:Remission means completely well. My gauge of completely well is you feel like your old self. Now, when I ask the question of old self, the most common answers are childhood. Now, that's, if you have maybe a really happy, carefree childhood, not like what you had, but if you had like a really happy, neighborly kind of childhood. Or a lot of people will say late teens, early mid-20s, why then? Uh, out of high school, starting career, maybe starting college, starting whatever, before marriage with kids, before life gets more complicated, um, so there's, there's sometimes times and I tell, I ask people are you back to where? You told me the first visit that this was? Are you? Are you there? I'm pretty close to there. What's missing? It? This or that? Okay, let's work on that. Are you? Yeah, I'm there again, or I either get I'm there again or you know what. No, because even at those times of life, I never felt like this good, this is the best I've ever felt. So all of the answers are great. All of this means is the remission.
Speaker 2:To add to that, and you're absolutely right, that's how I feel. When I'm taking what I need to take, I feel like a million dollars and I feel like I'm taking what I need to take. I feel like a million dollars and I feel like I'm brighter, I'm focused. You're absolutely right. I feel like right now in my life it feels like the best I've felt ever, and I'm sure there's been other times, but it's because I called you back up for the 90th time and I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm taking the medications that I have and I don't feel and I finally, at 50 years old, at 50 something years old, I finally don't give a shit.
Speaker 2:I'm done caring about people, like what they think. This is how God in the universe source whatever you believe in. You are here as a gift. You have been given your best self. Your obligation is to live that life the best that you can and give to others and just shine. And if you're not doing that because you just feel like you're caring about what other people, I don't give a shit anymore. I'm done and I'm like why do I go back to that where everything's all over the place? I don't know where my keys are don't know where I'm going, where. What was I? I missed it. There's nothing worse than missing an appointment because you didn't write it down and so it feels great, you hit the head.
Speaker 1:it's because it's normality, it's you're, you're feeling a normality and people think that after, after a normality for a period of time, people think where am I taking these again? I, I'm fine, you know, I don't.
Speaker 2:That's exactly. I'm like I don't need these. I remember like this is going to sound really weird. But Britney Spears and I'm going to wrap up. But Britney Spears would say this and I remember thinking at that time when I was younger, like she's, like I feel good, so I stopped taking everything, and then I Then I go to kaputs again and then she goes back on. I'm like gosh darn it. It took me until I was 50 to realize that Before we go, I just wanted to kind of wrap things up and I say again thank you so much for taking your very busy time to spend it with us.
Speaker 1:If you could share one, key takeaway from the Corona Protocol with our audience. What would that be? Well, I mean, I hopefully, when someone reads the book, they can see something in there that, oh my God, that sounds like me. So I want the takeaway to be that, you know, these things are extremely common. I think at least a quarter, probably half, the population has something that's in that book, this book. So people, I think people realize how common it is and don't be ashamed to treat this and and it's not as scary as you might think it is, you know, but again, I think it just you know, I want people to have hope that, no matter where you're at, um, whenever what you have any kind of issue, that I talk about in the book, it's, it's all readable, it's all easily readable, you know, and you, just you know, you want to make sure and be your best self the night.
Speaker 1:I call this the true self. Again, this this is the real tracy. It's not tracy, unmedicated, that's, you're still tracy, but this is the, the healthy, underlying real person that you are. So that's what I want for everybody, everyone out there. And if you, if you don't have any conditions, great. But you know what? Maybe you can find someone in your life that does, and give them some hope and educate and say you know what? Maybe you know there's help to this right and so maybe you recognize someone in your family or friends and you want to get to that person and give them some hope.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, quick rapid fire. Just to end on a fun note, is what is your favorite comfort food?
Speaker 1:Oh boy, my favorite comfort food? Well, I love tamales, we have them every Christmas. And my favorite number one food I don't get very often is king crab legs.
Speaker 2:Really Okay. What is your favorite smell?
Speaker 1:Oh boy, Cuban cigar.
Speaker 2:Really Love, love it, I love it.
Speaker 1:I have a sweet. I have a Cuban cigar once a week and on Friday evening wow, see, I learned something new about you.
Speaker 2:um well, thank you, dr Corona. Thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom, all of your expertise. For anyone out there listening, all of his information, dr Corona's information, will be in the description his books, everything else, his show, of course. And from now I just want to tell everyone you are awesome, stay edgy, stay ageless and you are legendary, you.