Dr. Richard Friesen is a pediatric neurologist and the President of the Autism Discovery and Treatment Foundation. He is also the Director of Research at the Rosensol Medical Center and is a passionate advocate for research into new treatments for kids with autism.
00:00:56.000The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.
00:01:09.000All right, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:11.000I'm Andrew Colvett, executive producer of this show.
00:01:15.000We have a special episode for you guys, and it's all about autism.
00:01:19.000This is a conversation that has become very much front and center in the national dialogue, of course, with the Maha movement, RFK studies, and this discussion about Tylenol and potential treatments for it.
00:01:31.000And so we wanted to make sure that we address this issue head-on so that you guys have all the information that you need in order to make wise decisions for yourself, for your family, for your kids.
00:01:41.000And to help me make sense of this is going to be a very special guest, Dr. Richard Fry.
00:01:46.000You are a medical doctor, you're a PhD.
00:01:49.000You're a pediatric neurologist studying treatments for kids with autism.
00:01:52.000You're also the director of research at the Rosignol Medical Center, and you were the president of the Autism Discovery and Treatment Foundation.
00:02:00.000It's very, very amazing resume that you got there.
00:02:04.000And we also have Riley Marty, who's actually on our team as well.
00:02:07.000And Riley is a passionate, passionate advocate for, I think, it'd be safe to say, for doing this the right way, the right studies.
00:02:16.000You and your husband Ryan both have some sort of medical background and studies and school and that sort of thing.
00:02:22.000And so you're kind of our resident expert.
00:02:23.000So I wanted Riley to be here with me as we go through this very important topic.
00:02:27.000But Dr. Richard Fry, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:02:32.000And so as I understand it, you have been way out front on this issue in a way that it was, you know, you almost have to use that expression, you know, they're not crazy.
00:03:05.000And I'd like to say autism found me, you know.
00:03:08.000So I was, you know, very interested in neuroscience.
00:03:12.000I was talking to Riley before and, you know, very interested in how the brain works and the wiring of the brain.
00:03:18.000But being a doctor, you know, you think of things beyond just kind of academics of, you know, the interesting science of it of how to make kiddos better.
00:03:28.000So I was actually very interested in learning disabilities when I was in residency and I did a fellowship in learning disabilities and behavioral neurology.
00:03:37.000But what was happening is, you know, I was interested in dyslexia, but, you know, I was also a doctor.
00:03:42.000And as a doctor, you know, when I'd see patients, there was a lot of kids with dyslexia and learning disabilities that would come to me.
00:03:49.000What was happening, this was the early 2000s, and I was a fellow, you know, and all these autism was being recognized more and more.
00:03:58.000So parents were bringing their children to the neurologist to say, my child has autism.
00:04:17.000And so parents would come to me and they would say, well, my child just got diagnosed with autism.
00:04:24.000They say they don't know what causes it and they don't really know what to do about it, but probably has something to do with the brain, so maybe you can figure it out.
00:04:30.000And I kind of took it as a challenge because, you know, I wanted to make these kiddos better.
00:04:35.000And I was doing my residency, you know, in neurology.
00:04:37.000So we knew how to do EEGs to look at seizure activity.
00:04:41.000And we know that some kiddos with autism have strange type of seizure type of phenomenon.
00:05:12.000And so in academia, I was in academia for about 20 years.
00:05:16.000And I'd go to the department, of course, and my colleagues would say, you know something about autism?
00:05:21.000Because I have a whole clinic full of them and I have no idea what to do with these kiddos.
00:05:26.000So they gave me all their kids with autism.
00:05:28.000And finally, I had to make my own clinic where I was seeing pretty much only kids with autism.
00:05:35.000And as I saw more and more kids, I started to figure out other things to do.
00:05:40.000And as, you know, as neurologists, one of the things we do when we can't figure things out is we do what we call lumbar puncture to look at the chemistry in the brain to see if there's something wrong with the chemistry.
00:06:26.000And the kiddos had some amazing results.
00:06:28.000Well, and I want to pause right there because I actually have a personal experience with this.
00:06:33.000Not me, not my family, but it was, you know, Riley's been helping get this interview set up and kind of telling me some of the backstory.
00:06:41.000And it finally was like, I'm literally texting with a dear friend whose son is nonverbal, four or five years old, and all of a sudden is taking this drug and is adding words, additional words to his vocabulary.
00:06:55.000And now all of a sudden he's using multiple, multiple new words every week.
00:06:58.000And the parents are ecstatic, as you might imagine.
00:07:01.000But let's, before we get to the Lucovorin conversation, I want to kind of take a step back because Charlie had somebody on this show named Craymu.
00:07:12.000He's got a Twitter account, X account.
00:07:15.000And he's kind of like a statistician almost.
00:07:19.000And they discussed, this wasn't that long ago, they discussed whether or not what we're calling this rise in autism is, is it more statistically?
00:07:32.000Is it more because we broaden the definition of what autism is?
00:07:35.000Or is it really, really truly, you know, what are they saying?
00:07:39.000One in 22 kids or something like that in California.
00:07:42.000It's one in 30 across the nation, something approximately like that.
00:07:46.000Do you, I mean, is it maybe a bit of both that we've opened the aperture and now we're considering more kids with learning disabilities or what have you autistic?
00:07:54.000And we just simply didn't classify them that way.
00:07:57.000So, it's misrepresenting the numbers, or is it also that there just simply are more kids that are autistic?
00:08:05.000I know when we went from the different definitions, so we used something called the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to diagnose the DSM.
00:08:14.000We went from the DSM four to five, we actually thought it was going to be more strict and that we'd lose.
00:08:20.000But instead, we went the opposite way.
00:08:23.000And so, they have studies that you know.
00:09:01.000And it's many times thought, you know, for a long time, thought maybe there wasn't any biology to it, but we learn more and more that there is biology.
00:09:08.000And the more we look into it, we find out that there's actually medical causes that are causing the brain and these behaviors to actually occur.
00:09:16.000So, right now, we're still left at that point where we're using this behavioral definition without having any blood tests or scans or anything.
00:09:25.000So, it's the American Psychiatric Association, which determines the DSM guidelines.
00:09:31.000So, you're saying that they are looking at behavioral outcomes and not looking at the underlying biology, or in this case, blood work or hormones, whatever that you're noticing that is deficient.
00:10:02.000I mean, do we know more about what these underlying causes are?
00:10:05.000I think what we know is that it's complex, you know.
00:10:09.000But definitely, there are predispositions, sometimes genetic predispositions, and there's a lot of-button between 1950 and well, this is the very interesting thing.
00:10:22.000Yeah, so this is the interesting thing.
00:10:25.000And what I've started to talk about a lot is this fact that a lot of people for a long time, for the last 20 years, we've assumed that autism is genetic because it's very heritable.
00:10:36.000Okay, and we think that most of what's heritable is genetic, and that's not completely true, and that things that are genetic are untreatable.
00:10:47.000So, first of all, what we're learning is those genetic mutations are what we call de novo.
00:10:53.000So, they're non-inherited, they're new mutations.
00:10:56.000So, it's a kind of interesting way to try to think about it because, yes, autism is genetic, but it's also environmental because you have to get those mutations somewhere.
00:11:06.000Okay, so and that's an interesting question.
00:11:08.000When you're talking about mutations, is that something that will happen in the parents' life?
00:11:13.000So, they're having kids, let's say, at 30, but something happened between 20 and 25, and a genetic mutation happened, and then they pass that on, or is it happening in conception?
00:11:24.000So, all of the above, and it's different for men and women.
00:11:28.000Okay, because for females, their eggs are actually made when they're developing in their mother's room.
00:11:35.000So, you can go back to their mother, the grandmother.
00:11:38.000And men, we're making sperm all the time.
00:11:42.000So, actually, we can have mutations throughout our life.
00:11:47.000Well, there's all types of environmental toxins.
00:11:50.000So I think we can look at one, you know, there's certain types of toxins in the environment that we're exposed to that cause problems, but there's also the other aspect of the nutritional aspect of it.
00:12:02.000So, and that's kind of where the folate comes into it too, is because we know that folate abnormalities will cause problems with replicating DNA.
00:13:55.000It's now more difficult because of our evolving understanding of the way the human genome works and the way cell replication works and DNA replication works, that you could identify multiple nodes along the life cycle of reproduction and development where you could isolate a potential mutation, which could then lead to autism or other abnormalities.
00:14:21.000Sometimes there's pure genetic syndromes, you know, where it can be the genes that are very, but then more likely it's a genetic predisposition.
00:14:29.000And then there's some type of environmental agent that interacts with that to predispose to change the way our bodies work.
00:14:38.000And we know that one of those major, you know, the most, probably the most influential environment you have is those nine months in your mother's belly.
00:14:46.000You know, so we know that that influences the way that the baby develops.
00:14:51.000And, you know, there's been many links to certain types of both, of course, low folate, but also certain types of environmental agents that can change the way that those cells develop, that can change the physiology.
00:15:07.000And so that's one of the mysteries we think of, you know, how do we have this heritability, right, without having necessarily those genetic mutations, you know, is because much of what we think is happening is that the environment in the mother is changing the way the baby develops.
00:15:29.000So you're actually inheriting changes that are due to the environment you had in your mother's womb.
00:15:38.000And so let's say if the mother has a problem with having processing folates, let's say, that's going to be transmitted to the baby.
00:15:48.000So the baby is going to develop that way with abnormal folate metabolism, and that baby is going to change its development.
00:15:57.000Same thing with other types of metabolic disorders, which we find that run in families.
00:16:02.000That environment in the mother's womb is going to be different.
00:16:08.000The fuels that the baby gets, the different types of metabolites that may be off because the mother isn't metabolizing things as well.
00:16:17.000That changes the way the baby develops.
00:16:22.000For example, one of the studies that we did, and this is associated with another study.
00:16:28.000It was a really good study by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
00:16:34.000Some of my colleagues there, they did some really amazing research where they actually can take baby teeth, and baby teeth start to develop at the end of the first trimester.
00:16:45.000So what you can do is you can go back and look at what's deposited in that teeth and tell what toxins, but also what nutrients the baby was exposed to.
00:17:00.000And so one of the first studies, they did a very, very nice study that was published in Nature, one of the best journals, where they showed out of twins that the twin that developed autism, that they were deficient in zinc and manganese in, I think, about the second or third trimester.
00:17:20.000So for some reason, that nutrient wasn't getting to that baby, and there was changes in the physiology of that baby.
00:17:29.000We actually showed when we, you know, were very interested in mitochondrial function.
00:17:33.000We showed that the function of the mitochondria as a child was actually correlated with those levels of manganese and zinc that they had prenatally.
00:17:45.000So this is a change that happened prenatally that then probably programmed the physiology, how the body works long term.
00:18:00.000So we found that, well, they found that there was the zinc and manganese, and we found that those nutrients correlated with mitochondrial function later on in life.
00:18:10.000And was that a genetic, I guess, predisposition of the autistic right.
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00:19:37.000So in regards to mitochondrial diseases, If a mom is predisposed to a mitochondrial X-linked disease, what would you suggest or is there anything that that mom can do if she's planning on having a baby, if she's currently pregnant, to help minimize those risks of the baby inheriting that disease?
00:19:59.000Yeah, well, first of all, if it's a genetic disease, so we divide these into what we call mitochondrial disease and mitochondrial dysfunction.
00:20:08.000So what we find is that some type of mitochondrial disease is due to actually problems with the genes, you know, and the genes that run the mitochondria.
00:20:18.000What we're finding is that there's many other diseases, including autism, where the mitochondria isn't working well because other parts of the body aren't working well.
00:20:27.000So it's trying to compensate for other factors that are not working correctly in the cell.
00:20:57.000If a mother has mitochondrial disease, if the child has that gene, then they're going to be more predisposed for the child's body not to work well.
00:21:08.000But if they don't have that gene, we have to make sure that the abnormalities and metabolism in the mother is not interfering with the baby the way the baby grows.
00:21:17.000So is this like the new front line, the forefront of the research that's going on with autism is how to identify these abnormalities prenatally and treat them in the womb.
00:21:36.000So we're finding is that many of these metabolic disorders and inflammatory disorders run in families, you know, and they may be influencing the baby and when the baby is growing, you know, prenatally.
00:21:51.000But if you can go back and identify those things before time, you know, and control them, then you have a much better chance of the child.
00:22:06.000So I would say for really very simple things, okay, and this, and you know, and we've written some blogs on this, that it's not even that difficult because we know things that predispose to autism and intellectual disability.
00:22:19.000You know, folate, you know, iron, iron deficiency, you know, thyroid abnormalities, you know, and carnitine.
00:23:58.000But these are simple things, you know, that you don't have to do any fancy tests or anything.
00:24:02.000They're very simple things that if you watch, you know, and you make sure you get ahead of the game, you know, that you can increase the chances of your child being healthy without chronic disease.
00:24:13.000We find a lot of these things not only related to autism, but other types of chronic disease, especially inflammatory disease like asthma and eczema and all these other so-so, are there genetic markers that you could also screen for it?
00:24:26.000Like when me and my wife, we you know had our first child, our daughter, we, you know, our OBGYN did a genetic screen to see if we had any inheritable diseases.
00:24:39.000But could you do a test like that that is a new iteration of it that would test for, you know, does that test exist when it comes to autism to see how likely you might be in certain risk factors or whatever?
00:24:53.000Well, so there's a so there's a difference between two things.
00:25:22.000And you can, what we try and do is look at these changes to see how maybe some of, you know, if you have a pathway that has a number of weak spots, weak links, maybe you need to be supplemented in one way or the other.
00:25:39.000You know, and this is, and it's very complex.
00:25:42.000So we combine this with not only looking at the genetic changes, because one of the problems with looking at combinations of genetic changes, right, is you have 23,000 genes in your body.
00:25:54.000So, you know, it's hard enough to look at all those 23,000 genes.
00:25:57.000Think if you're going to start to look at all those combinations.
00:26:00.000You know, so this is what's really kind of limited us in a lot of ways.
00:26:04.000So you have to be smart in how you look at those things.
00:26:07.000And then you really have to look at the biochemistry.
00:26:09.000That is, what do those changes do to the function of the cell?
00:26:14.000So it takes a lot of science to come up with really very definite recommendations.
00:26:22.000So now we know some of these polymorphisms, how things work a little bit worse or better.
00:26:28.000But still, the science of what that solution is is still developing.
00:27:59.000So, and this is, why don't you come in here, Riley, and explain for our audience, because I know it enough to be, I would say, 50% right here.
00:28:12.000But essentially, there was a big press conference that came out earlier in the year.
00:28:16.000RFK, it must have been a cabinet meeting, basically said, we're doing a moonshot.
00:28:20.000We're going to find out what the cause of autism is.
00:28:23.000And this is going to take our conversation into this folate, Tylenol, this drug that we talked about.
00:28:55.000Towards the end of September, RFK, as well as FDA Commissioner Dr. McCary, had announced this approval, FDA approval for Lukavorin to treat kids with autism.
00:29:08.000I think a lot of people thought at the time it wasn't very clarified as to if this is for all autism cases or if this is just for a subset.
00:29:22.000If you could go into detail on how this isn't necessarily a cure-all for autism, but it is a step in the right direction for where we are right now.
00:29:31.000So yeah, to clarify the announcement, the FDA is not approving it for autism.
00:29:36.000So they're approving it for genetically confirmed cerebral folate deficiency.
00:29:41.000And so that's kind of the model is we think many kids with autism have cerebral folate deficiency, or we call insufficiency, not enough folate.
00:30:03.000And so, yeah, and I from the FDA, at least from the FDA.
00:30:06.000And you can understand, I mean, if they were to say, oh, I'm just going to suddenly approve this drug, you know, I mean, that would just open up a, you know, a Pandora's box of, you know.
00:30:16.000So what they did is they looked at these 47 cases, you know, that were, and when you have that, you know, those few cases, they're what we call case studies.
00:30:25.000So we have very dense clinical data that shows, okay, you give this medication, this is exactly what it does to the body, you know, so we can definitely say, you know, why this happened and this actually was a therapeutic agent.
00:30:40.000So when you look at large numbers, like kids with autism, you don't have that very granular data where you can see that.
00:30:47.000So the idea of leukavorin, so leukavorin is a type of folate, vitamin B9, and it's really important for everybody to understand that leukavorin and what we call reduced folates are very different than folic acid.
00:31:06.000So we think of folic acid, that's the folate that we take.
00:31:10.000Folic acid is the synthetic form of the drug.
00:31:15.000And there's certain caveats because of that.
00:31:19.000Because of that, our body has to actually activate it for folic acid to be useful in the body.
00:31:27.000And we have an upper limit to how much we can activate.
00:31:32.000And certain Estimates have put that at about 400 micrograms, which is what's in kind of a high-dose multivitamin.
00:31:41.000So, if you need extra folate in your body, if you have some type of folate deficiency or your body systems need extra folate, you can't do that with folic acid.
00:33:05.000Well, no, it's actually not the 47 cases because it's very interesting.
00:33:09.000When this was first discovered, that there was low folate, as I had mentioned, you know, we do lumbar punctures, we find there's low folate.
00:33:17.000And so, a doctor by the name of Dr. Rainmakers in Europe discovered this.
00:33:22.000And he noticed that these kids that either weren't developing or actually had regressed, had lost skills very early on.
00:33:29.000He did a lumbar puncture and he found there was low folate.
00:33:32.000And we know that the major way that folate gets into the brain, because everything that goes to the brain has to be carried there.
00:33:39.000There's a big barrier, is this thing called the folate receptor alpha?
00:33:44.000And so, he said, okay, that was his first idea: there must be a genetic problem with it.
00:33:49.000And so, he sequenced a gene in these cases.
00:33:54.000So, that's when he collaborated with Dr. Edward Quatros, who's at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, who actually had been working on that same folate transport mechanism, but for women's health, and had discovered that there's this antibody that the body makes.
00:34:10.000So, you know, antibodies usually, you know, attack viruses and bacteria and such.
00:34:16.000But sometimes your body makes antibodies against yourself.
00:34:19.000So, he found that some people had this antibody that attached to this mechanism, this pump that brings folate into the brain.
00:34:28.000And so, they tested those kids for that antibody, and they found out that, yes, indeed, most of those kids had this antibody, and that's the reason why folate wasn't getting into the brain.
00:35:16.000So, I say, like, the folate receptor alpha is kind of like a fire hose that puts folate into the brain, and the reduced folate carrier is like a straw.
00:35:26.000So, now what we have to do is we have to push folate through that straw and a special type of folate.
00:35:34.000So what we have to do is increase in the blood levels of reduced folate and essentially now push it into the brain to restore those levels in the folk.
00:35:59.000Which is making it easier for this backup system to have enough to sort of push through the tube into the brain to balance out the chemistry in the brain.
00:38:01.000And so Lukavoran comes in within the last, I guess, month, and all of a sudden verbal skills are developing with their son, and they are over the moon ecstatic.
00:38:11.000I mean, it's every day a new word or a couple new words.
00:38:14.000And I've seen some of these videos of the mom just so excited, you know, because she loves her little boy so much, of course.
00:38:20.000And all of a sudden, watching it, and it's because of this drug.
00:38:24.000So you're saying that probably it's, or at least it's possible that this kid, and I have not asked follow-up questions of the diagnosis, but what you're seeing a lot is that there's actually an antibody that is working against the body's ability to get folate through mechanism one, the normal mechanism into the brain, which will help with verbal processing and social skills.
00:38:53.000So what we find now, there's other reasons too.
00:38:56.000So that's kind of the most prevalent and straightforward reason.
00:39:01.000Now, also, as I said, that this folate receptor, alpha, actually pulls folate into the brain, so that takes energy.
00:39:07.000So it ends up that if the mitochondria isn't working, that also that's another reason.
00:39:12.000And so, and we found that in individuals with mitochondrial disorders that have cognitive issues, actually that that is the mechanism sometimes that they have some cognitive issues.
00:39:22.000And there's another mechanism that we can help those individuals.
00:39:26.000Describe what mitochondria is, just for people who don't know.
00:39:31.000I mean, mitochondria is like a weird thing to me because it doesn't have its own DNA and it's like the power center of the cell.
00:39:38.000And I mean, there's like crazy theories about where mitochondria came from, and we don't need to go into that.
00:39:44.000But like, just explain what mitochondria is.
00:39:47.000Yeah, so mitochondria, we think of it as the powerhouse of the cell.
00:39:51.000It makes the energy currency of the cell called ATP.
00:40:15.000And it's different genetically from it has its own genome, too.
00:40:19.000Right, which makes a complex situation incredibly much more complex because you not only have your DNA, then you have mitochondrial DNA.
00:40:28.000Yeah, the mitochondria, which you inherit from your mother.
00:40:31.000And then it ends up that not all the mitochondria that you have, if you have a hundred mitochondria, not all of them may have the same DNA.
00:40:43.000So that makes it even more complex to understand how mitochondrial DNA and mitochondrial inheritance goes on top of what we call Mendelian inheritance.
00:40:54.000And the mitochondrial DNA also is very sensitive.
00:40:58.000It's more sensitive to environmental stressors.
00:41:03.000It sounds like maybe that because the environmental stressors, we talk about all these toxins and plastics and cleaning material.
00:41:10.000I mean, it's like there's a thousand theories on what's causing environmental toxins to build up in our society and just our lived experience.
00:41:19.000And so you're saying that mitochondria is more susceptible to that, which makes me think that that's probably, I mean, maybe you could correct me.
00:41:26.000Are you seeing more autism being linked to mitochondrial dysfunction or to or to just miss?
00:41:34.000So yeah, definitely we think that mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the major parts of autism that's driving autism.
00:41:44.000So when we look at the biochemistry and how the cells aren't working, we find that there's kind of three pillars.
00:41:51.000We find that there's mitochondrial dysfunction.
00:41:53.000There tends to be there's high levels of what we call oxidative stress.
00:41:56.000The body can't handle certain types of stresses that can come from toxins or not having enough nutrients.
00:42:07.000So all of these three things kind of can reinforce each other in a bad way and cause a vicious spiral, which we think cause chronic disease.
00:42:16.000Could you also explain how severe mitochondrial diseases truly are and how catastrophic they can be in more detail?
00:42:27.000So definitely, you know, kind of your traditional mitochondrial disease many times, you know, starts very early on in life, especially, you know, at birth.
00:42:38.000And the mitochondria is so important for energy and for many things, actually, for actually brain development.
00:42:46.000We know that the mitochondria is important for actually putting the neurons in the brain in the right place, you know, helping them get there.
00:42:53.000So if the mitochondria isn't working prenatally, you know, actually the brain doesn't develop correctly.
00:43:00.000So and so if we don't have those, that energy, then our bodies can't grow, especially very early on, right?
00:43:08.000Because one of them you need the most energy is when you're little and your body is going from very small to very big.
00:43:16.000If you don't, one of the things that happens is the body, if the mitochondria energy, it can use different things for energy, including, as I said, carbohydrates, fats, but also amino acids.
00:43:28.000And amino acids are important for building your body and your proteins to make your body bigger.
00:43:34.000So if your mitochondria is under stress, it'll actually use that protein in your body as energy instead of building up your body.
00:43:50.000So one of the treatments that sometimes for mitochondrial disease is just to pour in proteins so that the body, so the mitochondria can use those proteins and the body can actually also build itself.
00:44:03.000And how does the ketogenic diet play into that?
00:44:06.000I know that with mitochondria, it comes to energy and you need to boost up your protein, but you also, with keto, it is low carb, but it's the high fat.
00:44:16.000So is the body utilizing that fat as the energy source to kind of compensate?
00:44:22.000No, it does seem that it's utilizing that as an energy source.
00:44:27.000It's a very dense energy source, so it can get more energy out of it.
00:44:31.000But there seems to be other properties of the ketogenic diet that make it anti-inflammatory too, and an antioxidant diet too.
00:44:38.000So it has many different types of properties that will actually help protect the body than using carbohydrates.
00:44:46.000It changes the program of how the cells work and changes the way that the mitochondria works to make it more efficient.
00:44:55.000And, you know, one of the things is that it may actually help repair the mitochondria too.
00:45:02.000And so, you know, that's one of the things that we're trying to do.
00:45:05.000At some point, we think of mitochondrial disease.
00:45:07.000We're trying to stop the body from not falling apart, but we know we're trying to go to that next level of now how do we repair the mitochondria, you know.
00:45:17.000And there's a lot of people working on that of how do you take that next step and have the mitochondria repair because the mitochondria can repair themselves, you know, and you can make more good mitochondria.
00:45:27.000So how do you promote the cells to make more good mitochondria so that the body actually repairs itself?
00:45:33.000So is your message to maybe parents or people that want to become parents that if you know that you have a mitochondrial disorder, you're scared about that maybe impacting your son or daughter that you're hoping to have, that there is hope.
00:45:48.000There is potential solutions, treatments.
00:45:51.000Yeah, no, I think that's, you know, the, and I say one of the most important parts with that announcement of leukovorin, you know, as a treatment for autism is the fact that somebody's actually said there's a treatment for autism.
00:46:06.000You know, so as I said, the mantra has been it's genetic and you can't treat genetic disorder.
00:46:12.000So it's, it's, you know, genetics is just one little part of it.
00:46:16.000And actually we find out that leucovorin actually treats a lot of genetic disorders also, because many genetic disorders have these same physiological abnormalities that we see in autism.
00:46:27.000So if you say you're living in Cincinnati, Ohio, or wherever, and you're worried about these things that we're talking about right now, what do they do?
00:46:37.000What does a would-be or current parent, who do they look for?
00:46:41.000Are they looking for what, like, is it a neurologist?
00:48:17.000But you have a yes, before you go into that, we were talking earlier.
00:48:21.000I think with the research that you've done on this medication and the different formulations that you have found and what you have found that works best and go into detail on that because that was very interesting.
00:48:34.000So this is something that is very important, yeah, is that, you know, we thought at some point that, you know, that some kids with autism just didn't, you know, react very well to the commercial forms of leukavorin because one of the problems is that commercial formulations have additives in them, you know, and there's actually a study that estimates that 50% of what we think are allergic reactions to drugs that we take are really to the additives,
00:49:02.000not to the drunks, you know, and so we, what are those additives?
00:49:06.000There's all types of dyes, lactose, other types of.
00:49:11.000So what we finally figured out last year, actually, that they were good brands and bad brands.
00:49:20.000So brands that kids seem to tolerate really well and brands that they didn't tolerate really well.
00:49:26.000Are you comfortable sharing some of the good ones versus the bad ones?
00:49:30.000Well, I'll tell you the story because that's kind of academic because what I started doing at the beginning of this year was only prescribing the good brands.
00:49:39.000And in March of this year, that manufacturer ran out of their year supply.
00:50:11.000So next year, maybe they'll produce more.
00:50:13.000So it shows you the fragileness of the supply and the fact that these and the fact that leukavorin isn't made for this population.
00:50:26.000So right now, I will only prescribe leukavorin from a compounding pharmacy that I know well that's going to make a very high quality leukavorin.
00:50:38.000So you can still get it from this group, this so you can get it from a compounding pharmacy.
00:50:45.000So right now, that's what we're trying to do is actually making a special formulation of leukavorin just for kids with autism so that they will have something that they can tolerate and that will be useful for them.
00:50:58.000But we see all also all these over-the-counter formulations now of folinic acid, high-dose folinic acid, where you can get doses that are medicinal up where leukavorin should be.
00:51:11.000And so, and these are completely uncontrolled.
00:51:14.000So, you know, it's very important for parents, I think, to know that not all the formulations are the same.
00:51:21.000Okay, well, that's really good to know.
00:51:23.000Is there a resource where they can go maybe that are on one of your websites that you would point them in the right direction?
00:52:03.000Yeah, because there's going to be parents all over the country that are going to be watching this interview, and they're going to be like, well, I don't live in Arizona.
00:52:09.000I don't know how to find a guy like him in my backyard.
00:52:13.000So where do I go for this, you know, and we're struggling with autism.
00:52:17.000So I want to make sure there's like things that they know to do.
00:52:28.000Also, before you do your title thing, what are some questions that parents should ask their pediatricians if they're interested in this Lukavorin to help treat their child?
00:52:40.000What are amazing questions that if their pediatrician isn't as adverse in Lukavorin as you might be, what's something that could kind of get them to where they need to be?
00:52:52.000Yeah, I mean, definitely the parents should, they can do a number of things.
00:52:58.000You know, there's varying amounts of comfort, you know, and I can understand that if a pediatrician doesn't know anything about it, you know, they want to prescribe something they're not comfortable with, you know.
00:53:10.000So they should, you know, ask their pediatrician about it.
00:53:14.000We have all of our, one of the things we've done for every article that we've written, we have both parent articles and we have science articles.
00:53:27.000So the parents can actually print it out and bring it to their pediatrician, ask their pediatrician to look into it.
00:53:32.000You know, if their pediatrician doesn't want to take that step, ask if they can be referred to somebody that will, you know, actually prescribe the Luke Vorin.
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00:58:33.000So the problem with women that are pregnant is they can't take those, what we call the NSAIDs, because the chemistry of what regulates labor is influenced by those.
00:58:44.000So they can put themselves into labor.
00:59:06.000No, no, during the breadth of process, she took all the pain medications proudly, actually.
00:59:13.000And there's some women that are, you know, they believe that that's not the right thing.
00:59:18.000But anyways, the point is, so if you are a woman that's pregnant and you've got a migraine, you've got some sort of ache pain, like it becomes debilitating.
00:59:56.000I mean, I just think it's the idea that too much of anything is real good.
01:00:01.000So that, you know, if you, so think twice, you know, and, you know, there's other, you know, I'm not saying that, you know, women should just, you know, tough it out.
01:00:34.000Your nutrition, everything you put in, your water, your food, everything you do, you really have to think about during gestation.
01:00:41.000So we can't talk about autism without talking about vaccines because it's just been, it's just too there.
01:00:47.000Even if I don't bring it up, like all the comments are going to be like vaccines.
01:00:51.000So what is your opinion on the level of vaccines that we, you know, I mean, there's far more vaccinations now than there were in the 1980s.
01:01:03.000Could this, you just got done saying with Tylenol, the level at which it becomes toxic, you know, maybe there's a vulnerability.
01:01:12.000Couldn't you then extrapolate that same logic and say, well, if we're doing more, at some level, does it become toxic?
01:01:53.000Well, why is there such a reticence from the establishment medical community to even address it?
01:01:59.000It's like, you take your darn vaccines or you're an anti-vaxxer.
01:02:03.000Well, you know, maybe we want to take the vaccine.
01:02:06.000We just want to space them out a little further for our kids or maybe not have to take this particular one for school because there's quite a bit of, for our kids to attend like a public school or whatever.
01:02:59.000I mean, I think, you know, I've made my career at listening to parents and listening to their concerns.
01:03:04.000Because I think that, you know, the thing is, even if vaccines have nothing to do with it, a parent, if their child, you know, develops autism And they were coerced into having five vaccines, you know, they're going to question: did I make that wrong decision?
01:03:24.000And did I cause my kid to have autism?
01:03:27.000So that's why I think it's important for parents to make their decisions and support it.
01:03:31.000Vaccines are important in some states because, you know, the schools won't let your child go to school.
01:03:38.000So in those instances, you're left with: do we pod school?
01:03:43.000You can't even send them to Christian schools, for example, in California, because they won't give you a religious exemption.
01:03:49.000The Christian schools, in order to keep their charter, have to keep doing what the state tells them to.
01:03:54.000So it's completely, you know, there's no options.
01:03:56.000I mean, I've talked to the HHS and tried to say, hey, you need to do this, but it's such a local issue that federally they don't have much control.
01:04:04.000So a lot of parents in states like California or Massachusetts or New York, they're up a creek, and there's not a whole lot that they can do other than homeschool their children.
01:04:15.000It's like you've either find a doctor that's willing to shoot the thing over your shoulder and give you the slip, or which nobody wants to have to lie.
01:04:22.000Nobody wants to have to misrepresent the truth at all.
01:04:26.000But it's either that, homeschool, or you just say, you know, yes, sir, may I have another?
01:04:31.000And you just send your kids off to school fully vaccinated, and you hope for the best.
01:04:35.000Yeah, I like to be a problem solver, and I don't see that the current way that things are doing is solving any problems.
01:04:41.000It's just causing more fracturing of things and kids maybe not getting their vaccines that they should.
01:04:48.000Because, as you say, a lot of parents want to give the vaccines.
01:04:51.000They just want to give it on their own schedule.
01:04:53.000And then what's the deal with this MMR vaccine where they put it used to be given in separate doses?
01:04:58.000And it feels like the only rationale I've heard for combining them into a single shot as opposed to three separate shots is that we have the kids there and we want to make sure we get them when we have them.
01:05:12.000And that seems to be one of the vaccination that's on the schedule that is most controversial.
01:05:19.000I mean, there's been definitely controversy over the MMR, but I don't know that it's, you know, that the controversy has any more validity than anything else.
01:05:30.000Yeah, but again, to your point, it's like if you're going to coerce a parent into having to do it, and then something, God forbid, does happen in the development of that child, then they're going to probably look to you as opposed to just spacing it out like they used to do.
01:05:44.000Stuff like that does bother me simply because it does feel coercive.
01:05:49.000It does feel like just trust your betters and shut up, plebe.
01:05:52.000And I don't think anybody wants that experience with the health system.
01:05:56.000Well, that's not what doctors should do, and that's not how the medical system should really work.
01:06:01.000Really, it should be something that's a collaboration, right, between the parent and the doctor.
01:06:08.000Well, I want to show your book here, Doctor, The Folate Fix.
01:06:13.000And I mean, this is really exciting because I think I have just this week, that's what's so wild about having you on the show.
01:06:19.000Just this week, I have a friend that is having this breakthrough with this drug that you've been using and experimenting with, using, treating patients with now for, did you say, 20 years?
01:06:33.000And you've seen, maybe that's where we land this plane is just explain, you know, one more time so it's really clear.
01:06:41.000If you're a parent, you have a child that you're worried about their development, you're wondering, because there is that point where you're like, they're one, two, three years old, and you're like, is everything okay?
01:06:51.000And I think I have three kids and I've thought about it with all three of them because parents worry, right?
01:06:55.000And thank God I think, you know, they are and they're developing on their route and the pace that they should.
01:07:02.000But if you're a parent and you're worried about this, you know, explain, just land the plane there with this folate fix.
01:07:08.000Tell them about your book and resources they can get from you and why they should consider maybe looking into this.
01:07:14.000Yeah, no, I think definitely, you know, if a parent is concerned, they should bring it up with their doctor and talk to them.
01:07:22.000You know, yeah, some kids, you know, some kids are late talkers and such.
01:07:25.000That's true, but some of them do have signs for autism.
01:07:28.000So you definitely want to ask your pediatrician, make sure that they do a screening for autism.
01:07:34.000The universal screening is something called the MCHAT, which is a questionnaire that the parent fills out.
01:07:43.000And if they screen positive for that, they should definitely take that seriously.
01:07:49.000It's important to find pediatricians that embrace autism.
01:07:53.000I think that some are more comfortable with it than others.
01:08:23.000Because you don't have to, I think that's probably the main thing here that I'm taking away: is that if you find yourself in a situation where your kid does have autism, it could be light, it could be severe.
01:08:33.000There are people like you out there working on solutions, working on ways to help.
01:08:37.000And this, you know, the Lukavorin is a new breakthrough for a lot of parents.
01:08:42.000It won't be the silver bullet for everybody, but these things are being worked on as we speak.
01:08:47.000Yeah, and what's great also in the book is that we have 12 stories from parents about what they went through to get to get their children diagnosed.
01:08:56.000And you can see that one of the things I always say is that really it's really important for the parent to advocate for their child.
01:10:49.000Even if your kid is at a younger age showing these signs and you intervene in whether it's supplements or Lukavorin or whatever the treatment that are out there, and a lot of love and a lot of attention, a lot of sociability, like a lot of prayer for friends that I know that have gone through this, They watch these young kids grow up and have full lives and breakthroughs, and whether it's speech or social ability,