Unlock the secrets to a sharper mind and a more balanced emotional state with the help of Dr. Rachel Gow, an expert nutritional neuroscientist, in our lively and enlightening conversation.
Discover how the foods you eat have a direct line to your cognitive functions, impacting everything from your ability to focus to your emotional well-being. Dr. Gow opens the door to understanding the critical role that nutrients, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, play in enhancing neurotransmission—think of it as the brain's way of swiftly navigating through a sea of daily challenges.
Guest host Nick Steiert and Rachel also discuss the unique needs of neurodivergent individuals in the workplace, offering strategies to support ADHD at work and turn perceived weaknesses into celebrated strengths.
So, tune in, get inspired, and start feeding your brain the nutrition it craves for peak performance both in life and at work.
We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.
Feature Your Brand on the HRchat Podcast
The HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score.
Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here.
Unlock the secrets to a sharper mind and a more balanced emotional state with the help of Dr. Rachel Gow, an expert nutritional neuroscientist, in our lively and enlightening conversation.
Discover how the foods you eat have a direct line to your cognitive functions, impacting everything from your ability to focus to your emotional well-being. Dr. Gow opens the door to understanding the critical role that nutrients, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, play in enhancing neurotransmission—think of it as the brain's way of swiftly navigating through a sea of daily challenges.
Guest host Nick Steiert and Rachel also discuss the unique needs of neurodivergent individuals in the workplace, offering strategies to support ADHD at work and turn perceived weaknesses into celebrated strengths.
So, tune in, get inspired, and start feeding your brain the nutrition it craves for peak performance both in life and at work.
We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.
Feature Your Brand on the HRchat Podcast
The HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score.
Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here.
Welcome to the HR chat show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HR Gazettecom.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of the HR Gazette, wellness Edition. I'm your host, nick Steerts. Today, my guest is nutritional neuroscientist Dr Rachel Gow. Rachel, say hello.
Speaker 3:Hi, nick, it's wonderful to be invited on today and thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the podcast, rachel, so please introduce yourself to the guests.
Speaker 3:I would love to. So my research, background and training are in neuropsychology, so I am a neuropsychologist specializing in neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD and autism. I'm also a registered nutritionist under the category of science. I'm a recently published author of smart foods, adhd and brain health, and I have quite an extensive background in conducting clinical trials in the field of nutrition and neuroscience over in Washington DC at the National Institutes of Health, also known as the NIH, and also at Kings College London.
Speaker 2:You're my guest today because you spoke at Wellingview Festival In under two minutes. Please tell the audience about your session and some learning outcomes that took place.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. Wellingview was a fantastic forum for everyone who wants to know more about wellness, because it's such a loose word and what does wellness actually mean? So I spoke in the nutrition tent about the role of nutrition in brain health, and I refer to brain health as opposed to mental health, because, of course, the brain is an organ with biochemical underpinnings and nutrition impacts the brain above molecular and cellular levels.
Speaker 2:You talked a lot about brain health and from that comes also nutrition, and with this podcast being about wellness, please can you tell us a link about nutrition and wellness?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I think nutrition has pretty much been addressed from the neck down, and the fundamental role of nutrition in brain health is often overlooked. We know that there is a general consensus and understanding among consumers particularly that what you put in your body impacts your body, and nutrition is often looked at in terms of prevention, especially in relation to the premature development of metabolic diseases you know, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, stroke. So we know that what we eat obviously influences all those metabolic and bodily functions. However, the understanding, the fundamental understanding, that what you eat also impacts your brain, your brain's health, in terms of how you feel, nutrition basically impacts many processes in the brain, but in particular, neurotransmission. So that's chemical messaging, and, of course, neurotransmission underlies much of our everyday thoughts, behavior, actions, and so it's critical. It also occurs within milliseconds about what's even thinking much about it. However, we have it's estimated that we have in the region of about 100 billion neurons, and each of these neurons are coated in a myelin sheaf, a fatty sheaf, which is made up of an omega 3 fat called docosahexaneroic acid, also known as DHA, and what that does is it acts as an insulator around the neuron, making for faster and more efficient self signaling. So it helps speed up our neuronal responses, which is critical Because otherwise, you know, I often say to parents having adequate omega 3 in the diet, translationally, is like a child or your child in the class from listening to the teacher and the teacher's asking a question and the child understands that question, understands and has computed the answer and is ready to deliver the answer, versus the child that is still trying to figure out exactly what the question was. So that's the difference. Translationally we need omega 3,.
Speaker 3:You know the brain is the fattest organ in the human body. 65% of the dry weight of the brain and retina are made up of these specialized, unique, complex fats called lipids. So they are dietary essential because our body cannot make them and we know that nutrition doesn't just impact self signaling but also helps play a key role in the regulation, so in the control of other neurotransmitter systems such as our serotonergic and dopaminergic systems in our brain. And of course, serotonin is the neurotransmitter that enables us to feel, to have that feeling of wellness. You know, we call I like to call it stable serotonin, because it doesn't give us the highs and lows that dopamine can cause, because dopamine is more transient and A lot of things can release dopamine, especially unhealthy things like gaming, you know, computer games in particular.
Speaker 3:Also things like nicotine, alcohol, obviously, substances like cannabis, cocaine, all of these, and especially junk food, sugar and ultra processed foods. They can release that dopamine high and anything that releases dopamine can set us up for, you know, problematic eating or problematic behaviors or that binge with your repeat cycle of addiction. Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at HR Gazettecom. And now back to the show.
Speaker 2:Your other area of specialty is ADHD, and what can you tell us about ADHD in the workplace and how companies are reacting to it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there's a lot more work to be done, but there's so much more in the public eye now surrounding neurodiversity and individuals that present themselves as neurodivergent. I think HR could encourage more training. That would be absolutely ideal, so, for example, to invite professionals like myself who are considered world experts in ADHD to come along and talk about the brain based differences and some of the behaviors, some of the struggles, some of the risks and some of the help and support that can be offered to individuals of ADHD. I certainly don't think anyone with ADHD should feel embarrassed or ashamed. You know, we know that some of these you know neurodevelopmental differences can result in creativity and superlative abilities that neurotypicals may not possess, and that's why people like Google and Microsoft spearheaded recruitment campaigns to seek out individuals who are on the spectrum. They wanted them because they recognized their amazing abilities to solve problems and for pattern recognition and to come up with creative solutions, and their deeply analytical skills. Oftentimes, people with ADHD are very deep thinkers and people with ASD as well, and they present with often unique skill sets that are incredibly valuable. The person that invented the Sony Walkman was on the spectrum, and Sony didn't change that individual to fit the environment. Rather, they changed the environment to fit that individual and they enabled him to come to work and to work nights, because he couldn't do days and his little tweaks like that.
Speaker 3:I'm not suggesting for one minute that everyone should be able to work nights not at all but what I'm saying is our working environments are evolving, they are changing. You know, I think Google really said like this you know, they created a creative space, if you like, places to hang out to discuss innovative ideas. Changes. You know how can we do things differently. You know, after all, you know, if all we've got is sameness and it's pretty boring, isn't it you know, we need difference and we need to celebrate difference. We need to celebrate different brains, we need to understand different brains, we need to support, nurture different brains.
Speaker 3:You know, oftentimes children are required. They're often like square pegs and round holes, you know, and they've just, they've got so much creative energy and they're all of that is being squashed and they're just. You know, they're surviving the school system, but they're not thriving and we need to introduce, you know, the visual arts and focus on other areas in which they make. So I mean, we look back historically, some of our, some of our greatest inventors and writers and entertainers and actors are people with ADHD. You know Will I Am, and you know Olympian gold medalist Michael Phelps and Simone Biles, and you know there are so many. We could be here talking all day about them. But yeah, we need to be much, much more inclusive of people.
Speaker 3:We need to understand differences because they will be overlooked. I mean, people may present with kind of comorbid symptoms of depression and anxiety, for example, and that's not easily recognised as being part, perhaps, of what comes of having ADHD. They are more likely to also experience other symptoms, and some people, you know they don't recognise what I call these invisible symptoms. You know we don't look at a person and think, oh yeah, they've got anxiety or they've got depression or they've got ADHD or they're on the spectrum. You know I have a bit of a radar because I've been, you know, working intently, you know, with this community for several decades now. But you can't expect an HR manager to know, for example. So people should be able to disclaim, come forward, say actually, you know, I've got a diagnosis of ADHD or I've just had a diagnosis.
Speaker 3:Hr managers can create wellness days. They can encourage continued professional development. They can offer online. You know fun kind of quirky. Perhaps you know presentations. They can monitor the length of those presentations. You know TED Talks are 19 minutes. For a reason is because you know the average attention span is around 19 minutes. So having being able to break up people's days, having lots of short breaks, being allowing people to have you know headphones and listen to their favourite playlist as they're typing and as they're working, that's really important. It can help in terms of enhancing creativity and attention. There are so many tools and, as I said, if anyone is interested in learning more, do reach out to me. I would love to be involved.
Speaker 2:What are your top tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance?
Speaker 3:So there are quite a few. If you're struggling, you might want to find out if you are nutritionally insufficient in key nutrients that facilitate neurotransmitter function, so your iron, iodine, zinc, selenium, magnesium. You might want to look at your vitamin D, your omega-3 levels. A lot of these tests now you can get online. You can go to Omega Quant. I have discount codes that people can email me perhaps or write to me on my social media platforms, so I can, you know, happily give out discount codes. But find out what is your diet like. You know my answer to everything is food. First, look at the food you're eating, because you know there are some sort of foods, especially ultra processed foods, which hinder brain health. They're not helping your brain health and they can contribute towards low energy and fatigue and you know irritability, especially your gut. You know the gut is really the second brain and most of serotonin is made in the gut and then transported by the vagus nerve into the brain. So if you've got gut dysbiosis, which is inflammation of the brain, or perhaps you are feeding your unhealthy gut microbiome with, you know, lots of milk, lots of dairy, lots of sugar, and you know that can create all sorts of problems. So there's many things. So look at your food first. What are you eating? Can I make changes? And you can always make changes. That's the great thing about nutrition. It's so empowering because, of course, you can change your diet and that then changes your brain. We're not stuck with the brain we have. You know, the field of neuroplasticity has shown that with the acquisition of new skills, we can improve our brain's function.
Speaker 3:Also, sleep is so important. If you're struggling to sleep, you know, try having a magnesium bath before bed or some hot sort of steamy showers. Put magnesium salts into your bath. They're a muscle relaxant. Or drink a magnesium drink, or take the supplements. That really helps. If you really struggle with sleep, you can ask your GP to prescribe you a melatonin, which is, of course, a natural hormone secreted by the pineal gland, and as we age, the secretion of melatonin can be interrupted and it can produce less, which impacts sleep. People with ADHD often have sleep disturbances. So help eating. Sleep is really important.
Speaker 3:Try and make sure that you maintain healthy connections in terms of friendships. That's super important. Don't bring your problems home with you. It's very healthy to have a therapist nowadays, someone that you pay to listen to you and can help you with faulty thinking behaviors or faulty thinking patterns. They can help change that so that you don't succumb to that negative thought-feeling loop which I often talk about.
Speaker 3:And I would say exercise, because nutrition and fitness work in synergy to release our bodies natural antidepressants and there's wonderful endorphins and flood your brain with brain boosting chemicals. So make sure that you are exercising on a daily basis, whether that's yoga or a high intensity cardio workout like Fight Club. They will dance a drum and bass music I'm a big fan of drum and bass or go cycling. Or the other thing is to help release the stable serotonin. Do things like watching the sunset or sunrise, do things like let me think I think all of those actually collectively will really help improve mental wellness. Your food, exercising, healthy connections, healthy friendships you know we literally eliminate toxic people from your life that they're going to make you unhappy. And don't bring your work home and make sure you get a good night's sleep and minimize alcohol and substances like that, which are a depressant and will make you depressed.
Speaker 4:Once in a while, an event series is born that shakes things up, it makes you think differently and it leaves you inspired. That event is Disrupt HR. The format is 14 speakers, five minutes each and slides rotate every 15 seconds. If you're an HR professional, a CEO, a technologist or a community leader and you've got something to say about talent, culture or technology, disrupt is the place. It's coming soon to a city near you. Learn more at DisruptHRco.
Speaker 2:So, rachel, for the next question in one minute or less. How can leaders and managers set an example by promoting wellness initiatives and encouraging employees to prioritize their health?
Speaker 3:I think employers should definitely have a wellness day I mean ideally one a month. That would be incredible, where they bring someone into the workplace, maybe do something fun, like you know cooking demonstrations or showing employees how to eat healthily to optimize, you know, not only wellness but also cognitive performance in the workplace. There's so much we can do. Mindfulness meditation is absolutely key. There's so much we can do to improve the function of our brain.
Speaker 2:How can we utilize technology and apps to stay motivated and maintain a healthier lifestyle?
Speaker 3:Apps and smartphones are an amazing invention and thank you Steve Jobs and Apple. However, we have to make technology work for us and make sure that we don't become overly dependent on a smartphone or app, because anything that gives us a dopamine high which social media does, for example, when we post a number of likes gives us a little dopamine high. Anything that can release dopamine runs the risk of us becoming addicted to it. So we have to make sure that the technology that we use in our life we maintain control over. And yes, there are certain apps, like you know, giving up drinking or eating healthier or fitness apps which can initially help us, you know, become motivated. But really, at the end of the day, only we can motivate ourselves, and the healthier we are and the fitter we are, the more motivation we will develop. You know, motivation is driven by dopamine. There are natural ways to release dopamine rather than artificially, and we need to focus on that. So, if we get our brains working on a daily basis optimally, as they should, then we will have sufficient motivation to get us through the day. However, that is not the case in, you know, sometimes in conditions like ADHD, where they have depleted dopamine and they're always seeking. You know, humans after we're master manipulators of their brains biochemistry so we are wired to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
Speaker 3:And you know we have to be careful that's all I'm saying that we don't become addicted to things that we think are helping us when actually all we have to do is help ourselves. You know, the opposite of connection is addiction and we have to always be mindful of that that we don't get sucked in with the screens. You know, I'm always advising parents actually to minimize their child's screen time because it can be incredibly unhealthy, and lockdown was an example of how everyone's mental health suffered immensely whilst they were using screens to communicate, and that's not the same as reality. You know we need. We're humans, we're social creatures, we're wired to be sociable. So, yeah, so just watch your screen time. That's all I would say. You can learn to motivate yourself. There are tools and techniques and I'd be happy to share them with you on another occasion when we've got more time.
Speaker 2:OK, brilliant, amazing answer, rachel, and, yeah, it's been a pleasure having you on the pod today. Thank you for all the different answers you gave. And, finally, how can the listeners connect with you?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. If you're interested in the field of nutritional neuroscience psychology, I would say head on over to Amazon, get a copy of Smart Foods for ADHD and brain health. It really is a kind of a Bible of all things ADHD and brain health, but it is written for everyone, so you don't have to have ADHD to pick up the book. But I think I'm most active on Instagram, so do follow me on Nutritious underscore minds, where there's enough information to kind of almost a quiver of getting through an undergraduate psychology or nutrition nutritional science degree. There's loads of free information on their recipes, you know, mental health tips and so much more, and it's a real pleasure. Nick, thank you for inviting me on and I look forward to attending Wellergy next year.
Speaker 2:It's been a pleasure, rachel, and yes, roll on. 1g 2024.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the HR chat show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HR Gazettecom.