This presentation is a functional medicine approach for nutrition considerations for children and adults with autism spectrum disorders. I wanted to show you how it all comes together. For autism, we see social interaction and communication difficulties, restrictive interest and repetitive behaviors.

We can see seizures, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. We can see OCD. We can see cognitive deficits as well, and sensory issues. Sensory issues actually affect seventy eight to ninety percent of children.

We see that it started out with one in ten thousand, and then in the year two thousand, it was one in one fifty. And now it's about one in thirty six. I would actually believe that it's even less than thirty six because they haven't counted it for a few years. We see that the autism is more in males than females.

I believe it's more in males than females because males have lower glutathione, which is the major antioxidant to detoxify. And that's why I always recommend running an organic acid test because it will check glutathione.

It will check vitamin C and N acetylcysteine, and those are precursors to glutathione. So we see that estimated ten to twenty percent could be contributed to genetic causes. I like to say that there could be a genetic vulnerability.

So what are the factors? It could be parents' age. It could be lead exposure. With C section, well, a c section, you're not gonna get all that beneficial bacteria from vaginal birth.

It could be pollution, so that's toxins. It could be the mother and father's health, quite frankly, as well as all these other things, hypertension, diabetes, nutrition. So what we see about common nutritional deficiencies within this spectrum, protein, fiber, calcium, iron, zinc, but vitamin a, c, d, e, k, b six, b twelve, folic acid, omega threes and six in balance, and tryptophan, which is going to affect our serotonin. When we look at the organic acid test, we see imbalances of serotonin, glutamic acid, GABA, and homocysteine.

And it's very important, again, to look at that organic acid test. That should be the first test you're running for anyone in the spectrum. If we can, I would also run other tests, like the gut test, like the neurotransmitter test, the toxin test would be really important? So organic acid test, toxin test, and then if we need to go further, I would do the gut test.

So vitamin D is really important because there's so much research that shows vitamin D deficiencies specifically increases the risk of autism spectrum disorders. So you can look at the research for each one if you want to go deeper into the vitamin D link to autism. We also see inflammation with autism, inflammation associated with autism. That's where if you can run the gut stool test, that's going to show you a lot about inflammation.

And it's really noninvasive. We see serotonin issues. We're going to get that information in the organic acid test, and we could also go deeper into the neurotransmitter test. But we do see low levels of vitamin D, low levels of serotonin.

You could have high levels of glyphosate that are not letting the body make the serotonin because we need to make the serotonin, most of it in the gut. All of this works together, and this is what we're looking at. The serotonin could be that these amino acids are low, but we have to also look at the glyphosate. We also have to look at the beneficial bacteria in the gut to see if it's a good environment to actually manufacture, make the serotonin.

We see a lot of oxidative stress. This is where the glutathione comes in. Yes, we need vitamin d, but we also need glutathione. And we want to look at vitamin c and n acetylcysteine markers from the organic acid test so we can see if there is oxidative stress going on.

This just shows vitamin d is very, very important for the child and the adults for that matter because it's going to help with serotonin, lower inflammation. Also, seizures are involved. If there's a low vitamin d, there's a a big deficiency. It's very important for neural development, working to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress.

Now we look at zinc. And zinc, deficiencies are very common in autism at young ages. And when we have low levels of zinc along with high levels of copper, there's an imbalance between the copper and the zinc, and those are the more severe symptoms associated with the autism spectrum disorder. So this is another thing that we wanna look at.

Now, when we're giving zinc to anyone, we always have to make sure it's given with food, otherwise they can feel nauseous. So there's a method to the way you introduce supplements, and there's a method to actually testing. So if there is a deficiency in zinc, we see that's involved with the gut brain access. The mom could have a deficiency in zinc.

The foods that they were passing to the baby could have been low zinc, possibly high copper, and that's going to cause GI problems, as well as vitamin and mineral malabsorption and imbalances.

And then heavy metals, we can see a lot of eczema when we have low zinc as well because that's needed for the skin. We also see environmental toxicity. That's why, again, I'd go back to the organic acid test. I wanna see if this person can detoxify.

I would add in the toxin test. Those two are urine tests. They're going to give so much information. If we can run both tests, those are the tests you wanna run.

If the child has a lot of gut issues, you can run the stool test. But honestly, right now, if you could get that baseline of the organic acid test, for sure. And then if you could add the toxin test, you're going to have so much to work with at the very beginning. And then you could add the other test on at the end.

You may be working with a family that just wants to run all the tests together. You do organic acid test, the toxin test, then you do the stool test. That would be extremely beneficial to you as well as your client. So we see a lot of exposure to environmental toxicities.

Toxins are all over the place. If we can't push it out, it's gonna cause neurodevelopmental issues in children. It's also going to cause cognitive decline in adults. So zinc is closely related to detoxifying these heavy metals along with glutathione.

We also look at the concentration of zinc can stop these certain processes. And this is why when you think of zinc, you say, well, what's going on behind the scenes? Well, there's all these genes in the body that need the zinc to perform. So zinc is involved with autism, and that could cause food selectivity in the child where they only want to eat certain foods.

It could cause severe autism spectrum disorder symptoms. It could make them exposed to more toxic metals. They could have this genetic vulnerability of this gene. They could have GI issues, and that causes changes in neurodevelopmental.

The requirement, we would really look at how many pounds the child is, how much do they weigh. We would look at the test results as well. And when you're meeting with the caregiver, if you are meeting with the biological parents, you can see if they ever got tested for zinc. Just to put another piece to the puzzle, iron deficiencies could be very common for infants and child, depending on what they're eating, where they live, and what they're exposed to.

But we do see that there could be iron deficiencies in children as well. So how does that affect the nervous system development? It affects the brain cells. It affects the lining around our brain cells, neurotransmitter metabolism as well.

Our body is the human body is very complex. It's fascinating. So iron is related to neurological structures. So if we're deficient in it, it's going to affect the transfer of electrons.

Iron is also necessary to create neuro transmitters, like dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which are all involved in emotions, sleep wake cycle, movement, attention, memory, and learning. Iron also goes deeper into the dopamine synthesis pathways. You'll get information on this in the organic acid test. If you wanted to go deeper, that's where we would run then the neurotransmitter test.

But just to keep it, the baseline would be organic acid test, and I would add on the total toxin test. Those are two urine tests, very non invasive. If we can add on the gut comprehensive stool analysis test, great. So nutritional control of metabolism in autism.

If we're not eating a variety of food, if we're not absorbing, if we're not detoxifying, we're going to have a combination of these symptoms of immune dysfunction, gastrointestinal issues. Some can have seizures. There could be vitamin and mineral deficiencies, hyperactivity. There could be increased oxidative stress because they cannot detoxify, as well as inflammation.

There could be an eating imbalance and a communication impairment and even cardiovascular disease. And we look at the nutraceutical aspect. Again, if you order your lab through our portal, we put together the lifestyle and nutraceutical recommendations.

People always ask about camel milk. I would not recommend that. I wouldn't recommend anything that has casein because that is the milk peptide that affects neurological performance. So what would I recommend?

I said the next frequently asked question, coconut milk has lauric acid in it, which is similar to breast milk. And then if they don't have a nut issue, I would do cashew and you can make it it yourself, which is very easy by just putting cashews and water in a blender, and there you have it. Coconut milk, though, has great fats, so that would be the one that I would recommend. Or cashew, I would stay away from anything with soy or rice because those could feed candida.

And you always hopefully can get organic so you don't put any more pesticides in the person's body. So we see a lot of gastrointestinal changes with autism. Eight out of ten children have either diarrhea, nausea, constipation, vomiting, abdominal pain, or they have like the Buddha belly where it's distended, and they could have reflux. Now, if they're nonverbal, you can only look at the visual signs to see if their belly is extended, ask about their bowel movements.

Twenty five percent of children have at least one persistent digestive tract syndrome. And when you heal that, they feel better, they perform better, and we can get them even closer to their highest potential. So we see a lot of food sensitivities, and identifying those trigger foods could be very helpful with the blood test. That's not the first thing I go to because we have to know what's going on in the body with an organic acid test, as well as a total toxin test.

And then if we could do the gut comprehensive test, then support and work on fixing all of that. So then food intolerances are lowered. The person's brain and body are you want to ask yourself, are they getting the right nutrients to function optimally? All the foods they're eating, are they addicted to them because of a zinc or vitamin D or glutathione deficiency?

And can those problematic foods and substances as they if they have a leaky gut, they become substances in the blood, can they be affecting the body and brain so they are not functioning optimally? And the answer is yes. At least that's what I've seen. So we want to break down the barriers.

We want to work on the gut brain access, the gut immune access, the gut adrenal access, and we also want to support the blood brain barrier. This really shows how we are all connected our bodies from the gut to the brain, the gut to the adrenal, the gut to the immune, gut inflammation. And the vagus nerve is what really communicates from one system to the other. So we have to really work on the gut lining to prevent letting the foods pass through what we call a prevent letting the foods pass through what we call a leaky gut if it's impaired.

And that's what you're going to get that information with an organic acid test, but also if you can add in the comprehensive stool analysis and the toxin test. So factors that contribute to this increased, what we call a leaky gut, well, there could be issues, dietary factors from wheat, peptides, nutritional deficiencies that aren't keeping the gut healthy and strong, autoimmune issues, pro inflammatory markers. We're going to see that in the stool test. And it checks all of these.

It's going to check pathogen activities, bacterias, parasites, candida, aspergillus, that will know if a person has chronic inflammation. We'll know about the bacterial and fungal byproducts, and if they have an imbalance. We'll know about environmental toxins as well, and the inflammatory condition. We will get an idea of how the stomach lining is damaged as well and putting stress on the gut brain axis.

Food factors and nutritional status that can impact the intestinal lining causing leaky gut. We see right here, eflatoxin b one, that is a mycetotoxin.

Alcohol intake, obviously not from the child, but sometimes we are working with infants that have been adopted and had an alcohol or drug issue. So it's good to know the medical history comprehensive stool analysis. Fasting, food additives, sugars, salt, all those emulsifiers and gums that they add to food are not good for the stomach lining at all. These organic solvents like ethanol, artificial sugars, you may see allulose.

All these different names actually affect the stomach lining. Gluten is a problem for the stomach lining. Any nano particles of toxins, excessive fructose or sugars, the sensitive foods will also impact the intestinal strength and cause leaky gut if there's a problem. As well as nutritional deficiencies, my cytotoxins, the other molds besides and B1, and then vitamin A and D and insufficient omegas if they're eating the Western standard American diet, and if they have zinc, cysteine, and other micronutrient insufficiencies.

So we look at that functional medicine approach where we remove, replace, reinoculate, repair, and then rebalance. So we want to remove pathogens, food allergies, sensitivities, those foods that cause triggers, intolerances, as we refer to them. We wanna remove pesticides, environmental toxins, glyphosate, and stress. To remove this, there has been multiple findings that show children that adhere to a gluten free casein free diet.

So gluten free is the wheat, casein is from milk, dairy, cheese. The children that eliminated it significantly improved in social interaction, communication, and imaginative play. Those foods, if they have a leaky gut, can actually act like a drug to the brain in a negative way. There's enough research that shows adverse food reactions trigger symptoms, and then you remove that and you work on the gut, the child gets better.

Because that's where we get the clinical evidence. When the parents remove it, they see significant changes. So remove. Well, you get tested.

It's not a food allergy test. It will show if there are intolerances.

So if you are dealing with a family that won't remove the offending foods, then it's best to get tested because you can explain to them how it also is affecting not only their neurons, but their immune system. And there was a study of twelve children on the autism spectrum disorder that had problems with relating to people, emotional response, problems with change, visual response, listening response, verbal communication, and intellectual response. And then when they did the functional medicine approach, they improved. So they eliminated problematic foods, the sensitivities, they had balanced eating patterns, and they supplemented, tailored to their testing.

And they saw significant improvements in all of these areas, the social interaction, emotional reaction, flexibility and routine environment, attention and processing, use of language, improved clarity, appropriate intellectual reactions, and improved auditory tolerance. So now, what do you wanna remove? Well, you run the food intolerance sensitivity test to actually detect any food issues. You wanna run that again after you ran the organic acid test, the total toxin test, and the gut comprehensive stool analysis test.

You may never get to this point because you have worked on the imbalances from the three prior tests, the oat test, the toxin test, and the gut test, where all of this just gets healed. If we need to go deeper or, like I mentioned before, the parents don't know if they can remove those foods unless they see scientific results, then you would run the food intolerance test. And these are just case studies that show a five year old, high functioning autism, and Asperger's, he did a poor sleep, he was grumpy, lethargic, defiant, argumentative. Here's a problem right away.

Not interested in eating, hiding sense of smell, constipation, a bowel movement twice per week. You should have one every day. Not willing, very rigid, to try new foods. There was no noticeable improvements when put into a social group with their speech therapist.

Then they ran the test. Imagine, these are the foods that this child is having. Less than twenty foods. Eggs, bacon, Lucky Charms, problem.

Potatoes, fries, another problem. Pretzels, problem. Goldfish, problems. Grapes, well, that's gonna feed Candida. Nutri Grain bars, problem.

Chicken tenders, another problem. Nitrate free turkey dogs, that might be good. Cheese, gonna be a problem. Capri Sun, v eight fusion, sweets, not much water, problem, problem, problem.

Flintstones, chewable vitamin, multivitamin, another problem. We test to see food sensitivities. These are the outcomes. Banana, cantaloupe, egg white, onion, gluten, very severe.

Moderate with black pepper, canola oil, cow's milk, casein, pinto bean, rosemary, sage, strawberry, vanilla, and then mild with string beans. So the parents removed those trigger foods, what we call reactive foods, and supplemented with probiotics, digestive enzyme, and multivitamins to replace the Flintstones. See what happened here? If you run this test first, it would be too premature because you see the supplementation.

It says probiotics, digestive enzymes, multivitamin. Those probiotics and digestive enzymes and multivitamin would have been discovered with the organic acid test, the toxin test, and then it definitely, if you include the gut comprehensive stool analysis, but at least the organic acid test and the toxin test, you would have started on the probiotic and digestive enzyme and the multivitamin, and this would have helped heal the gut. So if you did that first and then ran this test, you might have had less of the moderate, but this is sometimes what it takes for a family to change the diet. So

the parents reported more interested in eating this child, acceptance of vegetables, drinking more water, eating more weight gain. Thank God. God. Look at that bowel movement daily from twice a week to daily, sleeping longer, no more meltdowns, pleasant personality, improved communication, expresses opinion, and appears happier overall asking for hugs.

So the sensory touch issue is getting minimized. This is powerful. This is what we see. Another case study.

Now we're talking about a female, four years old. Behavioral issues, inflexibility, biting, hitting, bedwetting. Usually see bedwetting with Candida overgrowth, hypersensitivity to smells, constipation, bowel movement every other day, picky eater, textures, likes crunchy, usually because they have sensory issues and they can't feel the soft foods. They have to have the crunch.

So what was their food intake? Her food intake? Okay. We have Chex, Trader Joe's cereal bars, milk, gummies, banana pizza, bagels.

Wow. Carrots. At least they were getting beta carotene. Raisins. We're feeding more Candida. Peanut butter, it's going to have mold in it.

I don't care if it's organic or not. So peanut butter sandwich, we're going to have the mold from the peanut butter, and we're also going to have the gluten from the sandwich. Yogurt drink, that's just awful. Pirate booty, I mean, this gets worse as I read it.

Chicken nuggets, carrots again. Must look like a lot of carrots. You always wanna see if the kid has an orange tinge to their skin tone. Goldfish, nightmare, cold water consumption.

All of this is usually what a typical diet is in the states, and it is horrible. Parents do well with offering healthy options, avoidance of dyes, and preservatives. And there's a gummy vitamin that's going to have sucrose and fructose and other bad things in it. So intervention was neurological rehabilitation therapy, developmental enhancement programs, nutrition basics, encouraging more variety.

And thank God, they did a food encouraging more variety, and thank God they did a food sensitivity. This is a family that wanted to do the food sensitivity first, fixing the gut with an organic acid test and looking at toxins with the total tox and looking at the gut further, the bowel movement issues with that gut comprehensive stool analysis. Okay. So what shows up?

Almonds. This is why if a family is says, oh, I'll just do the gluten free casein free diet, and they go to almonds. Well, if we haven't healed the gut, almonds are high in salicylates, which could cause focus issues. This is why we want to start with the organic acid test, the total toxin test, and then if we can add in the gut comprehensive stool test, great.

If not, we have a lot of information from the organic acid test and the total toxin test. Moderate reactivity was to asparagus, avocados, baker's yeast, cabbage, cow's milk, oats. Oat's a problem. Okay?

Oats are highly sprayed with glyphosate. Even the organic ones have some glyphosate in it. Peanut sweet. Mild was gluten.

Whey. So whey is gonna be you know, that's why you wanna remove the casein and all dairy. Apple, banana, bell pepper, cinnamon, clam, cocoa, corn, cottonseed, high fructose corn syrup, ginger, green pea, millet, olive, and turkey. So sometimes it takes these test results for parents and caregivers to take all of these food reactive trigger issues seriously.

The plan is to remove reactive foods from eating as well as variety of nonreactive foods. And here we go again, supplementation. What are we seeing? Probiotics, multivitamin to replace gummies.

And how about omegas, some healthy fats? Run the organic acid test and the total tox test, we would've had this child on probiotics, the multivitamin, maybe not omega threes, maybe so. It all depends what they're getting in their diet because we will give DHA and other healthy fats to newborns, infants, and children to help with the brain because the brain needs fat. What happens when they removed those trigger foods?

Bowel movement daily. Again, it goes back to the gut, the gut brain access, the gut immune access, the gut adrenal access. You need to have a bowel movement every day. Increased energy.

Behavior was more balanced. No hitting, no biting because those foods are bad for the brain. This child tried and accepted new foods, and mom no longer considers the child picky, appears healthier. Did not accept recommended supplements except the fish oil.

Okay. That's interesting. Now if the child needs those supplements, parents can put it into a syringe as if the child needed medicine. It's also interesting that this child accepted the fish oil.

We see this with certain children where they will accept that they met you would think they wouldn't, but they feel good when they have it. You know, you have to look at the gut because it's the gut brain access, gut adrenal, gut immune system. This child had increased energy. The behavior was balanced.

No more hitting or biting. Many times when children act out like that, a food is triggering that behavior. Many families will put the supplements in a syringe as if the child needed medicine, that's how they're gonna get in their body because we need compliance. When you run the test, you then need compliance.

So this is the functional medicine approach to nutritional considerations with autism and how we can reduce these autism characteristics and symptoms. I would personally start with the organic acid test, the total toxin test. Those are noninvasive urine testing. First morning urine testing, meaning they have to be concentrated.

And then if we can add the comprehensive stool analysis test, that would be great. This food intolerance test is a blood test. You could either do a finger prick or a toe prick, or you can draw it from the arm, so that's more invasive. When you get these test results, you have to work on the gut first. So let's do that with the noninvasive test because these can lessen in symptoms of behavior by working on the gut, and you can recommend the elimination diet to the families. If there's a compliance issue and the child gets better and then plateaus because they're eating these trigger foods, then I would recommend running the food intolerance test.

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