미등록집 안팎서 '이것' 바꿨더니...두 살배기 쌍둥이 자매 '자폐증' 호전 [바이탈사인]

Even before a child arrives in the world, its parents are imagining the person it will become and the things that it will achieve. Core to these imaginings is the hope for the good health of their child, upon which every part of its life will depend. At this time, however, families are particularly challenged by child health issues with everything from respiratory illness like asthma to neurodevelopmental conditions like autism. While many on the autism spectrum go on to live full and accomplished lives, autism can impose a hefty burden on the child concerned and their family. This includes co-occurring epilepsy, depression, ADHD, sleeping difficulty, and self-injury. But what if there are paths to resolving at least some of autism symptoms, and in certain cases, even seeing an autism diagnosis reversed? My guest today, integrative pediatrician, Dr. Joel Gaider Warsh, says that such paths do exist and offers the example of two two-year-old severely autistic twins and the results seen after various dietary and environmental changes were made. What medications and what toxins inside and outside the home may influence a child toward autism? And what can be done to potentially improve a child's autism symptoms? Welcome to Vital Signs, where we learn how to get healthy from all angles, from the biochemical and nutritional to the things we do that nourish our minds and our souls. I'm Brendan Fallon. Dr. Warsh takes an integrative medicine approach to treating his child and adolescent patients. He's the author of Parenting at Your Child's Pace, the Integrative Practitioner's Guide to the First Three Years. Dr. Warsh, it's a pleasure to have you join us on Vital Signs today. Thank you for having me on. I'm super excited to chat. And apart from the fact that you're a very much sought after pediatrician, the fact that you're coming from the holistic side is immensely valuable to have your perspective on this show, because I know there's so much coming through in terms of nutrients and other holistic modalities in their benefit to children, not just with autism, but other neurodevelopmental conditions. Could you start just by giving us a snapshot of what the status quo as you see it with autism in your practice? Yeah, I mean, it's a very interesting and I think a little bit unfortunate topic. We don't talk about it enough, but the autism rates are skyrocketing. I mean, if you look back a few decades ago, depending on which statistics you look at, it was like 1 in 25,000, somewhere within 1 in 1,000, and then it went up to 1 in 250, then 1 in 100, and now it's 1 in 36, and 1 in 22 in California. So the numbers are staggering. I mean, it's increased so much, especially over the last 20 years or so, and I get really frustrated because a lot of times when you talk about this, people say, oh, you know, we're just better at diagnosing it, and that's why. And of course, we are better at diagnosing it, so that's a small part of it, but you don't go in the last 20 years from like 1 in 250 or 1 in 100 to 1 in 22 without it occurring more. And especially when it comes to autism, it's not one magical genetic test that we can figure out exactly what it is. It's a diagnosis of symptoms, and we're looking at their communication, their social skills, their verbal skills, repetitive behaviors, these kinds of things. And so any child that is manifesting with some of these symptoms, you can go to the practitioner, the therapist, or the psychiatrist, do the evaluation, and then if you meet enough of the criteria, you would call it autism. But that doesn't mean that autism is just one thing. Autism is the name that we give these symptoms or some of these symptoms, but I really think that it's a lot more than one thing. I think there are many things contributing to this, and especially when we're talking about autism and severe autism, 25 to 30 percent of children are non-verbal with autism these days. And so when people talk about this as, oh, it's just so we're just better at diagnosing now, well, where were those kids 30 years ago? Where were those kids 40 years ago? I mean, maybe they didn't have the label of autism, but then there would be a lot more kids with verbal issues and speech issues that would have been under some other category that don't exist. So that's why I don't believe that. I think it actually is just occurring more, and I think we need to get to the bottom of this. Looking at some of your previous interviews to read, and I think this is something that will be very hopeful for many parents watching, this idea that in some cases the diagnosis of autism can be resolved. So I'm really interested to get into this with you soon about what that involves, what you've seen personally in terms of resolving autism symptoms. But before that, I think parents would also be very interested to know how much their contribution is to a child having autism even before the child is born. And I've seen that a parent's stress level in terms of the hormones like cortisol that might be involved can possibly influence autism. Could you say a little bit about that? Yeah, well, I think that's a great question. And to set the stage to answer both of those questions, I think we need to step back and talk about the controversy around autism because I think that's important. It depends on the framework that you come from. So some people say, you know, autism, it's just a genetic condition. Some of the research shows that it's 80 percent genetic or all genetic, and so it doesn't really matter what you do. It's something that's just a genetic normal part of the spectrum. We're a neurodivergent spectrum of mental status, and so this is, you know, quote-unquote normal, and we shouldn't necessarily look for anything that's causing this or contributing to it. I mean, that is a very common viewpoint that you see out there. It really doesn't look at the variety of what autism really might be. I mean, I agree there probably are some kids that it's completely genetic and has nothing to do with our environment at all, and they get that diagnosis, but I think the reason why we're seeing it so frequently and so rapidly increasing is because a large portion of it for many kids and many families is environmental. And if we start to take that mentality of there are some things that we could be doing or there are some things that we are doing that are contributing to this or even causing autism, then we can start to work towards improving symptoms, decreasing the autism rate, and helping these kids and families that want to be helped. I mean, there's so many families where they have children that are really struggling, the family's really struggling, they're hurting themselves or non-verbal, and they would do anything to help that child to be a little bit more resilient and have an easier life. When we're talking about environmental factors, could you define that a little bit? Yeah, so again, still controversial because nothing's really been proven, but if you look at the research that looks into autism, there are many different factors that might play in and are correlated with autism, like maternal age and paternal age, so mom and dad's age. So there are chemicals, like you mentioned, in pregnancy. So exposure to kind of any chemicals really has, there's some research and data around that, but metals, aluminum, cadmium, arsenic, there's been research around that. Lead, there's been research around that to show that could be related. Living close to a highway, there's some good research that shows that if you live within a football length of a highway, you have an increased risk. There's been links to water and chemicals in the water. So there's just so many different studies out there that maybe show some links towards environmental factors, and nothing's really definitive at this point because I think a lot of the media is kind of pushing back on that and saying, no, it's just genetics. This is just what's happening. Welcome to Vital Signs. I'm NTD health reporter and show host, Brendan Fallon. If you're living with autism or have a family member affected by it, we'd love to hear about your experience. If you're watching on TV, you can find vital signs at epochtv.com to leave a comment. And if you're finding this video helpful, please be sure to share it with family and friends by clicking the share arrow below. And in looking at the spread of factors that you were mentioning before that can potentially influence a child toward autism, off those studies, which one shows the strongest correlation to a child developing autism? The strongest correlation is maternal and paternal age. So most of the studies show that an older age of a dad with actually a very young mom, that's the strongest correlation. And then also older for both. So those are the strongest correlations. And then I've seen some studies that show pretty high correlation with proximity to the highway. That was another study that showed pretty strong relationship and then some of the metals as well. What would be going on in that situation? Why would having a father of older age and who has a younger spouse, what would be happening that would contribute to autism in that situation? I don't think we know at this point. I mean, there are some theories maybe for the older male that's affecting the sperm in some way. So maybe that affects the viability of the sperm, or maybe that affects it in some way that makes it more likely. Maybe there's just more chemicals and toxins in male who's older or female who's older. So that way it affects the baby, the sperm. I don't, I don't know the reason they don't really know. It's just a theory. And it's actually been, it's really interesting because when the study that I saw, they thought it would be older mom, older dad, and that is still a much higher risk, but actually older dad and young, really young mom is the highest risk. I don't, I don't have a good explanation for why that would be. I wonder, you mentioned metals there, and this is something we see come up a lot, particularly in relation to, we've all heard the fears around vaccines in the wake of the concerns that have been raised around the mRNA COVID vaccines. We know that parents are more hesitant to get their children vaccinated now. In the scheme of pharmaceuticals, what are the main potential risks would you say? Well, I would say that the number one potential risk overall is just using pharmaceuticals in general. I mean, I think that we are so quick in medicine to offer medications and we don't take into account the potential side effects. So, you know, we're quick to give antibiotics, which can affect the microbiome. We're quick to give Tylenol. And there is research that shows that babies, that moms that take Tylenol during pregnancy have an increased risk of autism in their children. So I don't think that we give enough thought to taking medications. I think it's okay to take a medication if you need it, but I think we need to minimize our use of medications because it obviously affects us and affects our body and for good and bad. And so if we're taking a lot of medications, especially antibiotics, then, you know, who knows what kind of downstream effects that have. And the research is starting to show that the more you take medications, the more the kids take medications, the more risk they have for autism. So I think that's one big one. I mean, obviously vaccines, you mentioned it. I think that's something that's been discussed in circles for a long time. And I think it's really frustrating that it's not on the table. I think that we should be discussing everything. And, you know, obviously there are more vaccines than ever. So I think if we want to help our kids the most, then we should be leaving everything on the table. We shouldn't take anything off the table in terms of what could be something that's causing or contributing to autism and all chronic disease. And we should be studying this as much as we can. You were speaking a little bit about the microbiome before. Is there a connection between the use of certain medications, the child's microbiome and potentially developing autism? There are a number. So the thing is that, you know, there's so many medicines, right? And it's so hard to study these things because they're long-term, but the things that we give often, like antibiotics and acid medications, there is research to show that there is increasing risk of autism and chronic disease in general when we're taking a medication. I mean, one of the best studies for that looked at taking one dose of antibiotics before six months of age. It wasn't looking at autism specifically, but it was looking at chronic conditions like allergies, asthma, and autoimmune conditions. And even one prescription increased your risk significantly of having these conditions. So yeah, I think it does affect you. I mean, why wouldn't? Your body is an environment, your body is an ecosystem. And if you're giving your body a medication, like an antibiotic and killing the good bacteria, then that could have some downstream effect. And if you keep doing that, if you keep pushing your body to the extreme, then at some point, it's going to develop a condition, whether that's autoimmune condition, autism, or whatever else it is. That's what I think is going on. I think we're just pushing our kids beyond what they can handle and it expresses itself in different ways. And one of those ways we call autism. Afterwards, you can check the top of the comments and also the description below to see if that video's already been published. To get notice of new Vital Signs videos, follow me at Vital Signs Is it more the case that we're the assaults on the body that are leading to this condition, or that the body's ability to defend itself through the immune system is compromised? I think it's both. I think for me, I would say that it's more a constant assault on the body from chemicals and toxins. So I think that there are chemicals and toxins in everything now a lot more than there used to be. We're not getting the nutrients that we need from food. And you're mixing that with a whole bunch of chemicals in our food. We're surrounded by a lot more chemicals in our home in our everyday lives. We're taking more medications than ever. We're not moving like we used to. We're not going to the bathroom like we used to pooping and peeing. So there's this build up of chemicals and toxins in the body. And at some point, we just can't handle it. That's the same for adults and for kids. And I think we're just getting to that point a lot sooner now we're surrounded by so many chemicals and so many toxins and we're not supporting our body in the way that needs. And so that spills over into whatever. And I think for a lot of kids, we call that autism. I mean, we know that the gut and the brain are connected, right? We know the gut-brain connection at this point, how that microbiome can affect the body. And so I think if you're looking up the gut, then one of the long-term complications that we see is what we call autism. It's affecting the brain. Just an interesting point you mentioned there about the rate at which we go to the bathroom. Is that people in general are pooping and peeing less than they used to? I would think so. I mean, first of all, if you look at just what's natural, if you look at indigenous tribes, they're going to the bathroom many, many, many times a day, like a lot of maybe five, 10 times a day on average for bowel movements. But it's pretty normal in Western society not to even go to the bathroom once in a day, but at least once a day we should be aiming for. And of the things that we're seeing in general practice, gut issues, constipation are extremely common in children. So yeah, I don't think we're going as much. We certainly don't drink as much water as we used to. So I'm sure I don't have a specific study for that, but I'm sure we're peeing a lot less than we used to. And that's how we get things out of our body, right? I mean, it's pretty simple. For detoxification, we pee, poop, and sweat. And so if we're not drinking enough, we're not peeing as much. If we're not eating the foods that we're supposed to be eating and eating the fiber that we're supposed to be eating, we're not pooping as much. And if we're not moving, then we're not sweating as much. So in one day, does that matter? No, not really. But if you're doing that every day for 10 years, does it add up? It does. And I think our body can only handle so many chemicals and toxins. And if we are exposing it to more and detoxing it less, then why would we not get sick? And that's what I think is happening. Okay. I imagine that lack of fiber would factor into this problem significantly. I think so. I mean, I don't know how significant that is, but I think it's in the greater picture of our really crappy diets that we just don't eat the foods that we're supposed to be eating. We're having a ton of processed foods, so much sugar. We're eating the starches and the breads and the pastas and wheat, soy, corn, just everything's made with those staples. And we were never designed to eat food like that, especially in those kinds of quantities and certainly not the processed genetically modified versions that we're eating today. And so I think that has an impact on our gut. It has to. And we see that with all the gut issues that we are plagued with right now. It's one of the biggest reasons, again, that people go to the doctor. So yeah, I think it's a huge part of it. Not maybe the most major part of it, but definitely a very, very important part of it, I would say. Yeah. Another thing is you touched on the toxic metals a little bit earlier. It's quite staggering to see the kinds of metals that are actually turn up in a child's body, like lead, cadmium, arsenic. What would you say are the main ones that parents should be concerned about and where are these coming from? The ones that are most common when you're doing the lab testing would be really the ones that you said. So lead, arsenic, cadmium, and aluminum. Most of it comes from the ground. So there are metals naturally in the ground. So that is where some of it comes from. But I would think that a lot of it comes from the processing. So it goes to processing plants, and it's on machines, and conveyor belts, and things are packaged. So it gets on it. And when you see the testing, I mean, good companies will test for these things, but not every company does. And even if they do, just because they tested it once doesn't mean things are exactly the same now. So when you see most of the testing, it's like they all have some metals. And it's really sad to see these days. They look at baby food, they look at chips, and it's like 90% of them have whatever. It's like they all have metals. 90% of them have a little bit of lead. 90% of them have a little bit of cadmium. So it's not that little bit is going to affect you severely, but I think it's the buildup. And that's what's going on. It's just everywhere. It's consistent. It's a little bit in this food, a little bit in that food, a little bit in that food. And over the years, it just adds up to being too much for most people. And everybody gets around it by saying, oh, you know, it's just a little bit. It's just a little bit. It's not going to affect you just a little bit. But I think we're seeing that buildup now. So far, Dr. Walsh, we've looked at different toxic influences and quite a variety, including the toxic metals. Is there a common denominator to this that would lead to autism diagnosis? What is the common effect of these things in the body? Well, I mean, I think that's a really good question. We know that for the most part, the metals are neurotoxic. So when you're getting them in large amounts, they can affect your gut and they can affect your brain specifically. And the most research has been done with lead. So we know that as you get more and more lead, it can severely affect your brain, severely affect your IQ. Even low levels can affect IQ in children. And that's why over the years, there's been a big push in public health to get lead out of everything, get lead out of paint, out of gas, to test for lead in babies, to make sure that we have basically no level of lead in our blood at this point if we can, which was not the case just a few years ago. A few years ago, we could have a little bit and they said, oh, that's OK. And now really, there's no OK level of lead in your blood. So we know that these things are neurotoxic. And I'm sure the other ones are too, depending on what research you you look at, but probably not good for you, at least not in not in large amounts. And I understand that inflammation can also be a result of having these these kinds of toxins affect the body. Yeah, I guess it depends really where it goes. Right. So depending on where where it gets deposited could affect different things. But of course, metal that's not supposed to be there is going to cause inflammation in your body. Hopefully your body can filter it out. But if it doesn't, then it gets taken to other locations in your body. And if it goes to your brain or if it goes to your your gut or it goes to your liver or wherever that's going to be, that's going to cause inflammation and your body is going to have to deal with it. And your immune system is going to have to deal with it. And your immune system can only do so much. It's very alarming to hear about this, the diversity of this toxic assault that faces children. At the same time, it's quite a hopeful message because there are avenues to reducing these things. Can you give an example in your practice, Dr. Walsh, of the way you've assisted a child with autism, with an autism diagnosis and what kind of results you've seen? Yeah, and I love the way you said that, because the point of this is not doom and gloom, right? I mean, this is not about, you know, we're all doomed. Everybody's going to have a chronic condition. The point is to look at the direction, the direction that we're going and to look back and to say, you know, there's a lot of things in modern medicine that we're quite good at now that we do a lot better. But maybe not everything. And certainly not with chronic disease and autism. I mean, we're going in the wrong direction. And just a few decades ago, these things barely existed or weren't around that much. And so maybe we can learn something from that and move backwards just a little bit. It's not all about modern medicine. It's not all about medications, not all about more shots or more of what we're doing in modern medicine. Sometimes it's doing a little less, sometimes it's going backwards. And in my practice and other practices that work with kids with autism or chronic conditions, you have to dive into their lifestyle. You have to have long discussions about what they're doing. We have to change up the diet most of the time. We have to get them moving, drinking more, going to the bathroom more. I mean, these are the things that are just basic, right? But that makes a big difference. There was a great study by Documenting Hope, and they looked at two kids with autism, 20 months old, and both had severe autism symptoms. And after two years of working with integrative practitioners, doing a variety of different testing from metal testing to stool testing to nutrient testing and changing up their diet, getting them moving more, getting them into different programs to get them moving and active, getting them sleeping a little bit better, cleaning up their home and doing a review of their home and trying to get some of the toxins out, the symptoms drastically improved. One went from high to nonexistent, and one went from high down to low. And then after the study, they reported that that child also went to no reported symptoms of autism. So again, it's just two kids. But the fact that they were able to do that, the fact that they were able to work on their lifestyle, improve their symptoms, improve their cognition, improve their speech, improve their behaviors, and get healthier, that is a good thing. No matter what you believe, that's a good thing. And we should be offering that to families to see if we can get our kids as healthy as possible to the best place that they can be. It doesn't mean that's going to be possible for everybody, but the fact that you can do that means there are some environmental factors playing a part for certainly some kids. And for those kids, why would we not try to do whatever we can to help them? And for parents who are watching this, where can they start to help their children if they have an autism diagnosis? Well, if you really want to dive into it, I would say you want to find an integrative practitioner that specializes in autism. And really, you have to focus and spend the time to go through all the things that we're doing and try to work through that over years. It's not a magic pill. And people in America especially, they want a magic pill. They want everything to go away. And something that is going to be lifelong, that's going to be a real change, it's going to take time. And you need to go through all the different things that you're doing and be open to making some lifestyle changes, whether that means moving to somewhere where you're more in nature, whether that means changing up the foods that you're buying, where you're buying them from, that you're cooking more, maybe you got to be moving more as a family, making sure they're getting more sleep, thinking about the products you're bringing your home and decreasing the toxins. Maybe there's some mold in your home, you got to get a mold inspection. I mean, there's so many things to think about. And that's where working with a practitioner can be really helpful because it can be overwhelming. You want to kind of work through things slowly, but you don't have to do all of those things. And you don't have to work with a practitioner if you start thinking in this way. I just think it's helpful for somebody who's starting out to work with somebody who does this every day. Because even for me, I'm a pediatrician, I'm an integrated pediatrician. I work with kids, but I don't work with autism every single day like some of those practitioners do. And so obviously, I can make suggestions and help. But I think if you can find somebody that specializes in this, and you can work with them for a couple of years, that's where you're going to have the most likely chance to see a lasting change. In the lead up to finding a good integrative practitioner, do you have just general advice that you give to parents to follow in the household or in what they're feeding their kids? Yeah, I would say if there's one big thing that you can start today, it's to read labels. I feel like reading the labels on everything is really the place to start becoming a health conscious consumer. You don't have to have a PhD, you don't have to know what every ingredient is. But if you look at a label, you don't even know what the words are, and it's probably not good for you, let's go find something that's similar, but has ingredients that you actually know. And if you start to do that, then I think you start to learn about these things, you start to look at the amount of sugar and try to minimize it, look at the kind of sugar in there, you try minimize the processed sugars. You're going to see some long chemical words, you don't know what they are, you're going to put it back. And over time, that really adds up, that really builds to something that makes a difference. Dr. Walsh, thank you so much for joining us on Vital Signs today. What you just mentioned, I think sounds like a great topic for our next interview. And look forward to having you back on Vital Signs again soon. Thank you so much for having me on. We've heard about a range of factors from air pollutants to metal toxins in our soil that may contribute to autism. However, through optimizing a child's health, symptoms may be reduced, and in some cases, diagnoses even reversed. Dr. Walsh will be back soon for a closer look at what we're feeding our kids, and what to be wary of on food labels. Here's a preview. They put them in there, of course, because they want it to be more colorful, and they want people to buy their products, but there's no nutritional value to these things. They don't use it in other countries because it's not allowed. Just in America, it's allowed, we get the worst, you know, crappier products because nobody's pushing them to stop doing it, even though the research shows that it affects your behavior, affects your mood, certainly for kids with neurodevelopmental concerns and hyperactivity concerns. What are the warning signs that a parent would look for to know that the child is being influenced by the food that they're eating, and particularly on the behavioral or mental health side? The link to that, and also our look at the role of nutrient deficiencies, like zinc and vitamin B6, in causing mental illness are both at the top of the comments and in the description below. With that said, it's been great to be with you. I'm Brendan Fallin, and this is Vital Signs.