Do ADHD medications affect kid’s Growth? -- with Dr. Sheila Perez Colon

09/02/22 • 24 min

Dr. Sheila Perez Colon: Parents will say, like we are concerned because my son or daughter has attention deficit, hyperactive disorder is on medication and that's why she, or he is not growing. Um, so we, I see it a lot at first I approach it like every other patient. Like we get a good history what's going on within the history we ask about the medication and when I find.

In this case that they're taking medication for that condition. I go, you know, into how long, how much is the dose, et cetera. Uh, because yeah, I have seen. It's very frequent visit to the pediatric endocrinologist when there's like short statu or decrease pro velocity. And they want to know if it's due to the medications or no.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: Hello. Hello. Welcome to beyond ADHD. A physician's perspective. I am Dr. Deanna Mecado mage. I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. I used to be hindered. ADHD, but I now see it as a gift that helps me show up as a person. I was always meant to

Dr. Sheila Perez Colon: be

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: both in my work and in my personal life.

In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs and some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of skills.

Hello? Hello. I am so excited today. I have a very special guest. I have somebody who is gonna talk to us about how ADHD can affect or not affect your growth based on which medications you have and, uh, who better than a P. Endocrinologist who is double board certified. She's also a general peaks doctor and her name is Dr.

Uh, Shala fit. And yeah, we're super excited to have her here today. She, um, went to medical school in the university at they, and then she did her residency and her fellowship in New York. And so. She's been practicing about, uh, 13 years now and she just moved to Puerto Rico and is gonna start her direct primary practice there to help children and adolescents, adolescent.

Uh, but. She will tell you all about what she's into, but I know her specialty interests are puberty and growth and diabetes and, you know, thyroid and all that P C O S which sometimes a lot of us don't realize that polycystic ovarian syndrome can. Play a role with our insulin, uh, and our fertility. So anyways, she's happily married and she has a 10 year old daughter.

Who's already a fifth grader. And so we're gonna just hear her and see what she has to share with us today.

Dr. Sheila Perez Colon: Thank you. Thank you Diana, for that introduction. I'm so happy to be here. Awesome.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: So tell me, did you. Did you ever realize that, you know, growth, um, could be in a way linked to our sugars? Or, I mean, I know, you know, this is like, I'm asking you disguise blue because this is your specialty, but were you curious or what led you that down that route of interest when you were, you know, you could pick anything when you wanted to be, uh, a doctor, you that's the

Dr. Sheila Perez Colon: field that you chose.

For me. I, I knew that I wanted to work with children because I always enjoy, you know, their energy that's so like it give me so much vitality, but in medical school I did, um, fell in love with the endocrine system. So when we were ex. Planning and talking about the hormones and how the endocrine system work.

That's when I say, huh, that really triggers me, you know, that, that, that emotion and that passion for what I wanted to do to be able to kind of fix, you know, I, I think it always, endocrine is like a puzzle. We, we try pediatric endocrinologist, we try to put a puzzle together. So the patient present with the sign or symptoms, then we do the exam and then we're like, okay, what could it.

But very interestingly, and for me, it's very regarding that when I say, okay, there's efficiency of a hormone, I just keep the hormone. And most of the time we kind of achieve that balance. And sometimes if that hormone is in excess, I can also work to bring it down, to bring the balance. So that's really what, what make me go into bits and the cream and yeah, I see it every day.

I enjoy bits endocrine because of that. It, it, it get me thinking all the. It's not . Yeah.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: And then have you had any patients who have ADHD? Like do they come to you? I know they don't come to you because of the ADHD, but have you seen any correlations of the meds that they're taking, whether it would affect their growth or anything of that sort.

Dr. Sheila Perez Colon: So I have definitely seen it. I get a lot of consults for, for example, evaluation of poor growth or short stature. And some of them come directly from the pediatrician staying on the referral, or the parents will say like, we are concerned because my son or daughter has attention deficit, hyperactive.

Disorder's a medication. Why she or he i...

Dr. Sheila Perez Colon: be

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: both in my work and in my personal life.

In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs and some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of skills.

Who's already a fifth grader. And so we're gonna just hear her and see what she has to share with us today.

Dr. Sheila Perez Colon: Thank you. Thank you Diana, for that introduction. I'm so happy to be here. Awesome.

Dr. Sheila Perez Colon: field that you chose.

I enjoy bits endocrine because of that. It, it, it get me thinking all the. It's not . Yeah.

Disorder's a medication. Why she or he i...

Previous Episode

Beyond ADHD A Physicians Perspective: Dr. Leslie Golden

Dr. Leslie Golden

I just got to a point where I felt like I kept just prescribing and adjusting meds and adjusting meds and higher meds. Not really getting to the core of, what was going on with people, that whole comprehensive health, that whole person. When I started diving a little deeper and trying to help people.

Maybe not increase her insulin. I kind of unlocked Pandora's box.

Hello. Hello. Welcome to beyond ADHD. A physician's perspective. I am Dr. Deanna mage. I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. To be hindered by my ADHD, but I now see it as a gift that helps me show up as the person. I was always meant to be both in my work and in my personal life.

In the past two years, I've come to realize that unlearning some of my beliefs and some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of skills.

Well, hello. Hello everybody. I am so excited today. I have my dear friend, Dr. Leslie golden. She's a physician and she also has a master's of public health degree, and she's not only a board certified in family medicine. She's also board certified in obesity medicine. So, so exciting to have her here today so she can share her, expertise.

And she's going to explain to us how, behavior can, can really manage, the patient's long term disease states. And so obesity obviously can be prevented sometimes, but sometimes it's genetic and sometimes it's. You know, just the easy thing to do when we're so tired at the end of the day to go through the drive through and stuff, but you have the real deal here today.

She, is gonna share all her expertise with us. And so we're so excited to have her, and she's gonna explain why, sometimes metabolic syndrome, can be something that, It's not so obvious just on labs. So please, please, please, tell us how you decided to go into family medicine and how you decided to do obesity medicine.

Sure. Well, thank you for having me so glad to be here. When I went through, med school, I was one of those people that I went into med school and I was pretty sure I wanted to be a radiologist. not entirely sure why. , and then went through and got in my first clinical rotation was family medicine up in Queens.

It was this single practitioner owned his own practice. Everyone knew him. He knew everybody. And I was like, this is a great experience. This is fun. But I'm gonna be a radiologist. Right. And so went through my clinical rotations and as I went through, I just couldn't let go of that experience.

That feeling that really knowing people, a child would come in and he'd say, His mom had this and the grandmother, I took care of her too and had this. And, um, and then I think the truth really came out when I got to my electives and did my radiology rotation. And I was like star for interaction.

When people would walk by in the hallway, I'd be like, come hi, come talk to me. Went into family medicine, for that relationship, that connection., as I practiced family medicine, loved it, but it's so broad, you know, everything and which is fun. But I just got to a point where I felt like I kept just prescribing and adjusting meds and adjusting meds and higher meds.

And. Not really getting to the core of, of what was going on with people, this, that whole comprehensive health, that whole person. Um, and when I started look diving a little deeper and trying to help people. Maybe not increase their insulin. I, it, I kind of unlocked Pandora's box of, um, just diving into like their nutrition, their physical activity, their stress, their sleep, their behaviors, their relationship with themselves and others.

And, um, found a home in obesity medicine, because it's such a complex disease that you have to look at all of it in order to help someone. Yes,

that's so good that you PO you found those con connections because the way that medicine right now is unfortunately, like if you're working with insurances, they kind of dictate some how much time we spend some time with their patients and they kind of say quickly, come in, come out.

Right. Mm-hmm . Sometimes it feels like bandaids instead of like getting to the root cost of why is it that they have obesity or why is it that they're depressed? Or why is it that they're doing X, Y, and Z. And so it's so good that you found a way to be able to start to make connections and, and using those relationships to help you to do that.

Um, have you noticed any links with people who have ADHD and obesity or have you noticed any pattern.

Definitely, you know, I think what's interesting to me about obesity and ADHD is in, in so many ways I can see similarities, right. Because very behavior based, but not completely behavior based. Right. Just a lot of, you know, the, the neuro the brain chemistry changes and, um, that in.

Conditions that there's stigma about. Right. I, I think there's still people, even...

Next Episode

Filling in the Gap Creates Financial Freedom with Cassandra Lopez

Cassandra Lopez: If you're not happy somewhere, or you wanna do something, don't stay there just because you don't know how you may make me and means meet your needs or different things like that. Just take the risk and. Very proud that I did. And look what has happened after that.

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: So, hello. Hello. Welcome to beyond ADHD.

A physician's perspective. I am Dr. Deanna mage. I'm a family medicine physician practicing in rural Texas. I used to be hindered. ADHD, but I now see it as a gift that helps me show up as a person. I was always meant to be both in my work and in my personal life. In the past two years, I've come to realize.

That I'm learning some of my beliefs and some of my habits were just as important as learning the new set of skills. Well, hello. Hello. I am so excited today. Um, as some of you might have already heard, I am in a transition state a little bit, and I am starting, uh, here shortly, uh, in October. A new group.

Um, well new in the sense that it's gonna be a healthcare professional group. So it's super exciting. So I'm opening the doors for, um, you know, if you're a nurse, if you are, um, nurse practitioner, a dentist, chiropractor, anybody who used pharmacist, um, Anybody who uses, um, CME credits to come and learn how to use tools to regulate your emotional dysregulation and executive function so that you can leave work at work as the healthcare team.

Um, it's. Then everybody wins. So today I have a very, very special guest with me, very, very a dear friend and, uh, coworker. And, um, so I can't wait to share her story and I will also let her share her story, but today's topic is about how it's so important to be intuitive. And it's so important to look around.

And see if you can find a gap in healthcare and how you can spin it to help you get financial freedom. So my guest today is Cassandra Lopez and. She is gonna share her story with you. But, um, she was working at a nursing home since 2014 and now has her own, you heard it, her own, uh, company that she founded and it's called, uh, beloved community care.

And, uh, she's gonna tell us about it. So please, Cassandra, tell us, um, How, how did you know you had D and like, tell us about what you're up to now.

Cassandra Lopez: Um, hello. Um, thanks for having me, Dr. Medo. Um, my name's Cassandra and I really didn't know I had ADHD at first. Um, didn't know really what it was growing up.

You know, it has the stigma to it and you see some kids taking ADHD medicine and it's because they're labor labeled. So I never, I didn't struggle through through school. I didn't really know anything about it until I was an adult. And I remember going to Dr. Mecado and not really know what was going on.

I was, I would forget things if I didn't write 'em down. And I remember I forgot to. And a very important bill that I couldn't set on auto pay cuz they didn't have it available. And I was like, what the heck? I forgot to, I forget to pay my bills. My what about bills got cut off? Like, I don't know what's going on.

So I kind of filled out a questionnaire and all the symptoms were there and then I got the diagnosis and it it's been helping. So. So

tell

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: me, tell me, what was it like when you got the diagnosis? Like, were you relieved? Were you surprised? Were you shocked? Were you like, oh, thank God. Finally. There's something here that thought it was just me.

Like everybody has a different take to it. What was yours? Um,

Cassandra Lopez: I think I was kind of like shocked because like I said, in the beginning, You just have this stigma, stigma of ADHD and different things, but you as a friend and a doctor, I really trust you. So I was, I was off for it. I was ready to know the things that can help me and everything kind of makes sense.

Um, I could look at somebody and people would think I'm rude or not paying attention, but I could literally be staring at somebody they're talking to me. And I have no idea what they're saying or my mind is somewhere else. Or, and that's just things that I thought that were just me. But coming to find out.

You know, there was a name for it and you could get help for it. So,

Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh: yeah. And what do you think has been the most helpful? I mean, everybody is different, right. But like, do you think taking meds has been helpful? Do you think reading or learning about different techniques online or exercising? Like what, what do you think has been helpful now that you have the

Cassandra Lopez: diagnosis?

Um, I think it's just a combination of everything. Um, my medication does help, but also. Just being more of aware of things and learning how to slow yourself down and write things down and plan more and, um, know that there's, you have to tell yourself there's only like a right now and not ri...