Magnesium, ADHD Meds & Cycle Tracking: Worth It or Not? | Mini Episode

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Your heart can tell you a lot about your health. Apple Watch Series 12 measures your heart rate every five seconds with the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable. So your vitals app, now with heart rate variability, can tell you when something is off. And your readiness score can let you know when to rest and when to push. Hear the story in every heartbeat with Apple Watch Series 12

The features described are for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. iPhone 11 are later required. Based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy August 2026 Visit apple.com/applewatchseries12.

Dr Faye Bate (0:30)

We've got a section of the podcast called Bye or Bye Bye.

Dr Helen Wall (0:32)

Okay.

Dr Faye Bate (0:33)

And I'm going to show you something. And I would like to know whether you would say bye or bye bye to this as in goodbye.

Dr Helen Wall (0:39)

Okay.

Dr Faye Bate (0:39)

And the only rule is we love a little bit of nuance. On social media, we often don't get enough nuance. So feel free to give balance. We do love balance.

Dr Helen Wall (0:47)

Yes. Okay.

Dr Faye Bate (0:48)

Starting with magnesium glycinate.

Dr Helen Wall (0:51)

Okay. Yeah.

I think this is a cautious buy.

Dr Faye Bate (0:55)

Okay.

Dr Helen Wall (0:56)

So I think for some people, it can help. We know that it can help with sleep. For some people, it can help with like nervous system regulation. And yeah, some people get good benefit from it.

I don't think it's going to like solve all your problems. I think you've just got to take it with a bit of like caveat that it might help, it might not, but it's not going to solve like all your perimenopausal, adhd issues. So yeah, it's a cautious buy for me that one.

Dr Faye Bate (1:23)

Nice. ADHD meds.

Dr Helen Wall (1:28)

Okay. Well, yeah, again, I think it's very individual. One of the criticisms I got about my book was that, you know, you're just trying to get all these women diagnosed and on medication. And absolutely not. I think ADHD meds can be life changing for some people, male or female. They're definitely the thing that the number one thing that's recommended in all the evidence and the studies to help ADHD. But not everybody wants to be medicated and everybody can take the medication. And I think there's plenty of other things you can do to support support with that as well. So, yeah, I think if you're suitable for them and you're keen to try them, then buy if you don't feel pressured into it, I think, because it's not for everyone.

Dr Faye Bate (2:07)

The criticism around ADHD meds is really, really interesting.

The example that I will give is people with ADHD are known to have a higher rate of death by traffic accidents. I'm away with the ferries, and I am a much safer driver when I am on my ADHD meds.

Dr Helen Wall (2:27)

And I can see that. My daughter's medicated. I can definitely see the safety of it. So I think, yeah, I think there's definitely safety aspects. And they say it about all sorts of things. If you've got really bad ADHD and it starts to affect your mental health, you know, getting on meds and medication can help that. So I think there's lots of pros and cons to it. I just think it's like anything. It's got to be an individual decision for you, like weighing up your pros and cons, like what you like without it, what you like with it. Yeah, it's an individual.

Dr Faye Bate (2:52)

It can often be seen as, I don't know, it's got this really big stigma attached to it. I don't take them every day. Then that's personal choice for me because it affects my sleep and because it can affect my nervous system.

But exactly what you said, it's an individual choice.

Dr Helen Wall (3:10)

I think the frustrating thing is that it's not an equal choice for all because the system is so hard to navigate. Because where I'm practising Bolton, there's a four-year waiting time for an adult ADHD diagnosis. And then when you've got there, you have to go on to a medication titration pathway, if that's what you want to do. And then you've got to try and get your GP to take that on, etc. So there's like just so many barriers. And I think it should be an equal choice for people, so that they can make that informed decision and individual choice. I think the difficulty is at the minute, a lot of people are having to go privately. And then, you know, it's just health inequalities, isn't it, at large, really.