If you want to know what the best kept secret about autism is, then first we need to understand why anyone would want to keep it secret. Surely when i tcomes to healthcare, everyone would want everyone else to know if there was something that could improve the lives of thousands of families around the world.
But instead, most people have never heard of ‘functional medicine’ and the natural ways we can all help ourselves and our families to lead a much healthier, happier lives and with a better quality of day-to-day living.
Let’s look at the reasons you have never heard of functional medicine for autism.
Your Doctor Doesn’t Know what Functional Medicine Is.
As a parent of someone with autism, your first port of call for a diagnosis is your family doctor. Once they give you a diagnosis, they will tell you that there is no treatment because they cannot give your child a pill for it. They will then recommend behavioral therapy to try to ‘teach your child not to exhibit autistic traits’ so they can adapt to mainstream living and education. Your doctor is very unlikely to have studied anything about nutrition or lifestyle medicine other than to tell you to eat five-a-day, unless they, as an individual, have opted to find further training beyond their Med School curriculum. They will not have been taught about functional medicine and are probably unaware of the very sound and extensive research that backs it up.
Medical Education for Doctors
If you want to know who is supporting you, look at who is supporting them. In the UK we have a free national health service, but the reality is that someone has to pay for the doctors, the surgeries and the hospitals. According to the British Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry, they give “donations and grants which collectively mean funds, benefits-in-kind, or services freely given for the purpose of supporting healthcare, scientific research or education” allegedly with no benefit to themselves. They go on to say: “the industry sponsors events with HCOs (healthcare organizations) to support the provision of education to healthcare professionals (HCPs) – keeping them up to date about the latest development and delivery of medicines.” This means that once a doctor qualifies, their ongoing education is given free of charge by those who have a vested interest in ensuring their drugs get out to market so they can get a return on the research and development investment they have made.
In principle, there is nothing wrong with this so long as it is disclosed. In practice, however, it has created a society that is dependent upon the doctor and Big Pharma.
Lack of Education about Health Preservation
Every cell in our body, every system and every process needs certain nutrients to perform optimally. The only way we can obtain this is via what we ingest, inhale or inject. This means that the quality of the food you eat is either helping you or harming you, yet schools teach virtually nothing about this. When my children went to school and had a ‘cookery lesson’, they were told to take in a carrot, an onion and a jar of Ragu so they could learn how to make soup! This horrifies me, but only becasue I am a lady who is over 50 and actually learned ‘domestic science’ when I went to school.
At a talk recently, a gentleman came up to me afterwards and asked why, after 60 years of being diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, no-one had told him the food he eats makes a difference to his mood and wellbeing.
This is staggering. We all know that the basic needs of any human are food, shelter and love. Why, then, are children not being taught about the importance of food and lifestyle to the overall quality of life? Many of those ‘children’ are now parents who simply have not been taught how to cook or what is wrong with ultra-processed foods.
This is a societal failure, yet on a daily basis I speak with parents who express a profound guilt for not knowing. This is utterly tragic becasue the majority of us simply don’t know what we don’t know, so why would we go looking for a different solution if our doctor tells us there is ‘nothing that can be done’ and ‘if your child will only eat beige food, then don’t worry, at least they are eating’.
Free Healthcare Service
I have noticed that more than half of the people interested in my program of functional medicine for autism are from outside the UK. This tells me that when people have to pay for their own healthcare, they are more interested in looking for a lasting and natural solution, they are resourceful in exploring options and they are committed to paying for personalized healthcare rather than taking a one-size-fits-all pill. Compliance also tends to be extremely high becasue they want to focus on staying healthy in the first place.
Even within the UK, the majority of my clients are British but with another heritage, usually Asian, Middle Eastern or African. It seems that the NHS has in some ways become a victim of its own success by leading people to get their doctors’ opinion and accept whatever he or she says without looking beyond that. This is compounded by a plethora of contradictory ‘cures’ that we are all barraged with on a daily basis each time we go online. How do you know who to believe or where to get valuable information from?
Agricultural convenience
Yes, this may seem like an odd category here, but if you look at the research it is undeniable that agricultural pesticides are having a detrimental effect on everyone’s health but they are particularly closely associated with autism. The research goes right from maternal exposure to glyphosate being a known trigger for autism, right through to on-going daily exposure through farming techniques, weeding the paths in public places, and even glyphosate that can be purchased in the garden center to keep your drive clear from weeds. Not only is big agriculture an incredibly powerful industry just like Big Food and Big Pharma, but the reality is that there are few options to weeding, for example, other than getting down on your hands and knees and pulling them out! Even regenerative farmers are having to learn how to farm without pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides. There is an abundance of research, but a good place to start is the CHARGE Study, which stands for Childhood Autism Risk from Genetics and Environment.
Genetics vs Epigenetics
Although autism is not associated with one particular gene, it is apparent from research that they often have genetic traits that mean the body cannot detoxify adequately or metabolize certain nutrients. In the past, the study of genetics led people to believe that if you have a gene then you have a certain condition or that it will develop. However, the greater understanding that epigenetics has brought means that we now know that genes can be silenced or triggered depending upon the ‘biochemical soup’ that they are bathed in. This ‘soup’ comes from your environment meaning the food you eat, the air you breathe and the internal body systems including hormone balance etc. This means that if the body is unable to detoxify, then the ‘soup’ gets more and more toxic and the symptoms could get worse. It also means, however, that a regular and effective ‘detoxification support program’ can improve symptoms of autism.
Food and Autism
This is a tragic vicious cycle. Ultra-processed foods are harmful for anyone, simple as that. However, parents who have an autistic child are absolutely on their knees and desperately need food to be as quick and easy as possible. Marketing, packaging, and special offers are all designed with one thing in mind: to separate you from your money. They are not designed to make you healthy – one look at the different sized fruit and vegetables that may not look pristine in an organic shop will tell you that. the bottom line is that the food, especially snacks and treats, that you are giving your autistic child may well be making the symptoms worse, increasing meltdowns, worsening sleep, making them hyperactive etc. Unfortunately, when I went to the doctor for advice about my own daughter, I was told that if she would only eat beige food then give her that, so long as she is eating, there is not a problem, was their answer. This so, SO far from the truth that it would require another blog post to explain why. In fact, all my social media posts point to why this is disgraceful and irresponsible advice from anyone who practices conventional western medicine.
Nutrients and Autism
This is not quite the same as the previous point. When I get lab results back from someone with autism, I often see that certain nutrients are not being processed adequately by the body, most likely due either to a restricted palate, or to genetic deficiencies. Once we recognize what is lacking and why, we can supplement accordingly and get amazing results very quickly in many instances. The reality is that most people do not know that they can get a stool or urine test sent to their home to find out answers to questions like this. Neither does their doctor know, so it is not a solution that is offered to parents.
Parental Burnout
The sad reality is that in the UK and USA statistics have now reached 1 child in 36 that has an autism diagnosis and it is getting more and more common every year. Parents are utterly burned out through lack of sleep, worry and isolation. Every parent I speak to believes that there is something that can be done to help their child, but they do not know what it is and they definitely do not feel that they are getting enough information from their doctor.
Schools are also at their limit and research done by the University of Birmingham shows that autistic children are twice as likely to be unlawfully excluded from school due to inadequate systems and budget cuts. This leaves parents facing the frightening possibility of having to give up their work and learn a whole new world of homeschooling. So everything they had worried about their child is then compounded by the fear of losing their income as well.
On top of this, the pressure it puts on marital relationships which may also break down means taht families are not getting the support they need when they need it most. These mounting pressures leave parents desperate for solutions but with nowhere to look other than their doctor who seldom gives helpful information, or the internet.
Unfortunately, most parents have told me that they look for answers on social media but instead find dreadful footage and harrowing stories from other parents in their situation. Rather than reducing the isolation, this heightens their fears of what the future may hold and is extremely damaging to their mental health.
Feeling stressed out, burned out and unheard leaves parents in a very vulnerable situation where even if something comes along that looks like it may help, they doubt their own judgement or that of their partners. They wonder if they are clinging to false hope after hearing so much negativity from conventional medicine and moreover, they are too tired to look into so many stories, options and ‘potential snake oil’. One person will tell them they need B12, another will say Glutathione, another says ony ABA will work, and so it goes on.
The reality is that functional medicine tests many aspects of your child that a conventional doctor would not test. We look for metabolic deficiencies that will trigger neuroinflammation and make meltdowns, self-injurious behaviour, aggression, sleep, sensory issues and the like much more prvalent. As a functional medicine practitioner, my goal is to get to the root cause of each individual’s health concerns.
No Mass Roll-Out Solution
This brings me to the final point. Because functional medicine for autism is highly personalized and solutions are tailored to each individual, it is not something the NHS or the State can roll out to the masses. The medical system simply would not have the time to devote such intense 1:1 care to one in 36 families. This means that as a parent, you either have to pay privately or study it and get qualified yourself.
Summary
The reality is that your doctor is funded by Big Pharma who thrive on you or your child taking medication to suppress symptoms, not on educating you on how to avoid exposures that are making it worse. The food companies fulfill our desire for convenience food that looks and smells great. We have moved away from eating locally grown organic produce that is in season. Most parents are too tired to cook after a working day and quite possibly a very disturbed night’s sleep. Exhausted parents want and need a tried and tested solution that is familiar and proven and in the Western World that invariably means conventional medicine. Think of it this way: other than you, who stands to benefit from wider acceptance of functional medicine for autism and any other health condition? Not Big Pharma because there would be a reduced need for medication. Not the Government becasue there is no way they could roll out such personalized treatment plans for the number of people affected by autism, let alone ADD, ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions. Not Big Food because people would be better educated about the connection between what they eat and their long-term health, so we would all stop eating junk food. Not Big Agriculture because there would be more activism from groups such as Greenpeace pointing the finger at them and forcing an admission of criminal liability for global health problems. Combine this with social media platforms that silence then de-platform people who speak out, even conventional doctors (Watch the film First Do No Pharm) and now offer this in a country with a ‘free National Health Service’ and there you have it: Functional Medicine for Autism, the best kept secret about autism.
