What Is Causing the Autism Epidemic? 

During an April 10, 2025 Presidential Cabinet meeting, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. indicated that “By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic.”

“ And we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures,” Kennedy asserted.

If you are eager for the “big reveal” promised by Secretary Kennedy, let me spare you the wait.

I can tell you what is causing the autism epidemic right now.

Before we dive into what is driving the autism epidemic, it is important to first establish what autism is. I elaborated on this very thing in my article titled, “What is Autism, Really?” In a nutshell, autism is a diagnostic label given to a heterogenous group of individuals that demonstrate a set of behaviors, features and symptoms that meet certain criteria established through the DSM- 5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition). Within this label of autism spectrum disorder are varying levels of severity, from mild to severe. People with the label of autism share some, but not all, features described in the DSM-5, as follows:

A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts

B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities

C. Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period

D. Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning

E. These disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) or global developmental delay. Intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder frequently co-occur; to make comorbid diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, social communication should be below that expected for general developmental level.

Even though we have a very specific set of diagnostic criteria, there is still a lot of variability within the diagnosis of autism. People who are diagnosed “mild” or “level 1” autism have a very different experience from those who are diagnosed “severe” or “level 3.” We use the same diagnostic label to describe adults who have jobs, families and full functionality in society as individuals who are severely disabled, have significant motor impairments, cannot speak, use the toilet on their own, or live independently. There are also variations regarding the onset of autism, with some forms of autism being labeled as ‘regressive autism,’ which is a type where a child appeared to be developing typically until some kind of trigger initiated a new set of symptoms that would later be diagnosed as autism. If we are going to examine what causes autism, we need to first establish that there are really autisms (different and varied types), and it is much more than just a neurotype. It is also a condition featuring many, many measurable and documented medical issues.

Autism Is Genetic, Right?

Billions of research dollars have been spent looking for the specific genes that cause autism. When genetic researchers set out to look for the gene or genes that cause autism, they were unable to identify gene mutations present in every case of autism. They did find some genetic variants (such as variants in the SHANK3, or MTHFR gene) that seem to make some children more vulnerable to developing autism, but these variations do not cause autism. Not every child, nor even most children, with these genetic variants will develop autism. Instead, these gene variants could be seen as vulnerabilities that make it harder for children who have them to develop along a normal developmental trajectory, especially in the context of modern living exposures that were not there even a few decades ago.

Another way to say this is that a child born in 1970 with the same genetic makeup as a child born today (I know this isn’t possible outside of cloning, but stick with me) would have a much lower probability of developing autism because that child’s environmental and epigenetic influences were very different from a child born in 2025. The same genetics in a different environment are going to result in a different outcome. Environment influences gene expression.

Why Environment Matters

Here is an example of how the environment interacts with genes to create some of the neurological symptoms of autism. There is a genetic variant in the SHANK3 gene that seems to be present in a small number of children with autism (about 2%). Not all children with autism, a very tiny percentage. So, this gene variant clearly doesn’t cause autism. But in a certain environment, this gene variation becomes an important part of this small number of children’s neurological symptoms.

SHANK3 is a gene that plays an important role in signaling in the brain and is involved with clearing out extra glutamate. Glutamate is one of the most abundant neurotransmitters in the brain. It is the brain’s main “go” signal to help neurons fire and send messages—super important for learning and development. However, it is equally important that glutamate exists in balance with another neurotransmitter called GABA. GABA is the brain’s main “calm down” signal. It slows things down and keeps the brain from getting overstimulated. Low GABA can be caused by nutrient deficiencies (like those caused by feeding our kids the standard American diet at home or in the school setting), and microbiome imbalances (often caused by antibiotics!), and more.

If there is too much glutamate and not enough GABA in the brain, you get excitotoxicity, microglial activation, inflammation, neuron damage and/or neuron death. It is very common for children living in the modern industrial world to have too much glutamate circulating in their brains and not enough GABA. Excess glutamate is akin to too much “noise” in the brain. For more on this, see this excellent TEDx talk by Dr. Katherine Reid on how excess glutamate can contribute to symptoms of autism (and how she reversed her daughter’s autism with this knowledge).

Getting back to genetics . . . a variation in the SHANK3 gene, such as the c.1304 + 48 C>T variant, messes with the “on switch” that controls how much SHANK3 protein is made. When there is too little SHANK3 protein, glutamate isn’t cleared out the way it should be naturally, and the synapses don’t form or function properly, especially in areas of the brain that control speech, social skills, and coordination. If a child with this SHANK3 variation is also exposed to high levels of glutamate from food, toxins, or inflammation, the system gets even more overwhelmed—like a weak dam facing a flood.

Many American and western children are exposed to too much glutamate through processed foods like gluten, dairy, corn and soy (and even EMFs). In addition, glutamate increases if a child has a leaky gut (loss of gut integrity from antibiotics, glyphosate exposure, etc.) or inflammation in the body (from toxins, mold, infections, etc.). The result is an excitotoxic state and an inflamed and overburdened brain. Such changes in physiology, function and bioregulation go a long way toward explaining some of neurological symptoms associated with autism.

Would this SHANK3 variation cause this cascade of problems in an environment without free glutamates and excess inflammation in the body? Probably not. Is the impact of a “total load” of glutamate and inflammatory exposures going to be worse in a child with this genetic variation? Yes. This is why a child born with this SHANK3 genetic variation in 1970 might not have developed any neurological symptoms, but a child born today most likely would.

Interestingly, many of the gene variants implicated in autism are the same variants implicated in other neuroinflammatory conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease. These gene variations don’t drive the development of a neurotype, but they do drive essential functions and can exacerbate dysfunction in the body. When there are any weaknesses in these essential processes in a body that is overloaded with toxic and stressful stimulus, that is when we see neurological symptoms.

It is as if we are all wearing a coat of armor to protect ourselves from the many environmental assaults of living in the modern industrial world. Some of us have thick armor, and some of us have thin armor. Some of us have a greater capacity to withstand the toxic and stressful exposures of modern living. Some of this is due to genetic variation, but some of this is due to other heritable influences, such as the robustness of the microbiome that we inherit from our mothers at birth as well as the total load of exposures to toxic chemicals.

Guns, Triggers and Sinking Boats

You may have heard the autism analogy that genes load the gun and environment pulls the trigger, but that analogy doesn’t quite capture the situation. Perhaps a more apt analogy would be a boat with too many holes, threatening to sink as it takes on water:

Imagine that humans live on a big boat floating in a vast ocean, a boat that has kept them relatively safe and dry for thousands of years. In the last few decades, this boat has started springing leaks and rapidly taking on water. The “leaks” in the boat are analogous to a tsunami of toxic, environmental and modern living health stressors. Some parts of the boat are sinking faster than others. While you may have been born into the boat when it was dry, our children were born into a leaky, sinking boat. Some of our children are up to their waists or necks in water. Meanwhile, each human has been born with (or inherited) different “equipment” – some came equipped with life preservers, inflatable rafts, snorkel and fins, and some came equipped with heavy snow boots, heavy wool clothing, and big puffy snow suits and mittens. This isn’t bad equipment to be born with (it’s great when you live in the arctic, but not a sinking boat!), but the latter group is maladapted for a sinking boat environment.

The boat is sinking. We’re all gonna get wet and eventually be submerged in the water. It is just a matter of how wet, how soon, and what kind of struggle we experience while we are in the water.

While genetics is important and knowing how we are equipped will help us better support those who got the snow gear instead of the water equipment, we would be wise to spend as much time figuring out how to stop the boat from taking on water as we do analyzing our equipment. Again, this boat has been dry for thousands of years. The *cause* of our problems is not the equipment we were born with or inherited. The *cause* is the leaks in the boat and the water rushing in.

Parents of the Severely Autistic Children Uncover What Causes Autism

Many parents of severely autistic children feel insulted when you tell them that it is their child’s genes or genetic variants that caused their child’s autism. In some very rare cases there are mutations or “pathogenic genes” that are a major underlying cause of autism symptoms. According to genomics expert, Dr. Sharon Hausman Cohen, autism that is secondary to a true pathogenic gene happens in about 5-15% of individuals with autism. The remaining 85% to 95% of cases cannot be attributed to a pathogenic gene. Many parents report how they watched their perfectly healthy child (with or without snow boots and mittens) start to struggle in the boat as it began to take on water. They have rightly identified the water coming into the boat as the cause of the problem. They are screaming from the top of their lungs, “It’s the water! It’s the water! The boat is sinking!” while their well-meaning doctors and experts pat them on the head and tell them, “Sorry, but your child just wasn’t born to swim.”

These parents do what any parent would do . . . They spend day and night bailing the boat out. They look for ways to patch the holes in the boat, shore it up, make it stronger, more resilient. They look out into the ocean to see why the water is suddenly coming in so fast. Is there a squall? Has the sea level risen?

They are looking for the root causes or the reasons why the boat is sinking. They don’t have time to worry about the fact that their child didn’t get the life preserver.

It is the parents (and siblings!) of severely autistic children who have been the true pioneers in uncovering what causes autism. Many of these pioneer parents (some of whom are doctors and scientists) have been able to figure out what causes autism as they have been forced to deeply examine what might be causing their children’s serious medical issues. They have been asking incessantly: What is causing the water to leak into my child’s boat?!

Parents who are caring for a severely disabled person with obvious and frank medical issues like severe and chronic diarrhea or constipation, gastrointestinal pain, debilitating headaches, profound sensory sensitivity, whole-body apraxia, and more will do anything they can to alleviate their child’s suffering. We should do this for ALL people. . . people with rheumatoid arthritis, depression, anxiety, Lyme disease, multiple sclerosis and yes, and most especially, autism. The goal is to help people improve or overcome their symptoms, not deny their identity or their neurotype or unique way of expressing themselves in the world. The goal is to stop suffering.

ABA, A Misguided Therapy Backed by Private Equity and Lobbyists

The current standard of autism care is ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis). “Experts” will tell you that the only “evidenced-based” therapy for autism is ABA. However, ABA was not designed to look for or address the root causes of medical issues commonly observed in autism. ABA is a therapy that tries to retrain or suppress the symptoms, or “behaviors,” of a dysregulated body that is desperately trying to adapt to an unsafe world (a sinking boat!). ABA is a therapy that emerged out of behavioral psychology that aims to increase positive behaviorss and decrease harmful or disruptive behaviors by using principles of learning and motivation. What does that sound like to you? Does that sound like medical care? The goal is to “decrease disruptive behaviors”? This is most certainly not root-cause-oriented medical care. It is more akin to dog training than it is to any constructive medical or wellness therapy, yet that is THE ONLY autism treatment that is routinely reimbursed by insurance.

I realize calling ABA therapy dog training seems insensitive, but did you know that ABA is *actually* being used in real life to train dogs?

If your child is currently in ABA, I am not critiquing you or your choices. You may, in fact, find ABA helpful. No judgment, whatsoever. I’m glad it is helping. I’m just telling you that you’ve been misled (or unfortunately even lied to), and there is a mega industry perpetuating that lie to keep making money. I know you are a great parent who has done what the top experts have told you is the best thing you can do for your child. The experts have told you that ABA is the only evidence-based treatment that “works.” But works at what? “Works” at healing the underlying medical issues precipitating the symptoms? No. “Works” at forcing or re-enforcing expected behaviors? Yes.

The experts have been misinformed and misled by an industry with an economic interest in making sure that ABA is the only therapy available to you. Yes, ABA is an industry backed by private equity which funds lobbyists who ensure that it is the only treatment covered by insurance. The ABA industry has established market dominance, so parents don’t have a choice of services. The ABA industry is estimated to be a $4 B industry that has clearly gotten the attention of private equity. One of the largest ABA businesses (CARD) was sold to Blackstone when it was estimated to be worth $700 million in 2018. Since then, more private-equity firms have gotten in on the game, and the system is pushing more ABA, not less. It is currently geared toward making profit, but not helping our children profit. In the sinking boat analogy, ABA is akin to teaching a child to smile and look you in the eye while the boat is sinking. It’s asking them to hold onto a paddle (because that’s what you do in a boat!) rather than teach them to swim or better yet, figure out why the boat is filling with water. Legislation to require insurance coverage of autism therapies is the right thing to do. But limiting coverage to only ABA is an outdated policy and leaves parents with no good choices. These children need root-cause medical care, not just behavioral (or dog) training.

We Need Root-Cause Medical Care for Individuals with Autism

The best way to understand why autism develops and how best help our kids is to look at some of the underlying physiological and medical imbalances and dysregulation documented in the medical literature so that we can use this information to help each individual feel better and become more regulated. The goal isn’t to “change” someone with autism, the goal is to help them get healthy and regulated.

Autism: Scientifically Documented Physiological Imbalances and Dysregulation

The amount of research into the underlying biomedical, physiological imbalances and dysregulation in autism has exploded over the last 20 years. Scientists from around the world have carefully documented these imbalances and shown that compared to “neurotypicals” individuals with autism have the following underlying medical conditions:

• Mitochondrial dysfunction
• Motor impairments or dysfunction
• Cellular toxicity (including heavy metals)
• Brain inflammation and neuroimmune activation
• Autoimmunity
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease

For too long, well-meaning (but ill-informed) doctors have told their patients that the medical problems listed above are “secondary to autism, which is genetic” meaning that something about their genetic makeup causes the medical problems. Truly, this is an outdated viewpoint from the 1990s, and anyone who believes this just hasn’t kept up to date with the medical literature. This outdated notion got flipped on its head with some seminal publications in recent years including this one, this one, this one, and this one, that effectively describe how the imbalances seen in the gut, cells, tissues and systems in autism lead to the behavioral symptoms that we diagnose as autism. In other words, the brain is an organ of the body, and when the cells, tissues and systems in the body are toxic, inflamed or dysregulated, you will get neurological symptoms that look like autism.

What Causes These Medical Issues in Individuals with Autism?

When you take each of the categories, or physiological imbalances, above and look to see what is contributing to each, a clearer picture of the root causes of autism begins to emerge. Patterns stick out. Let’s just take a sample of the imbalances and dysregulations commonly documented in autism and see what common themes emerge.

You’ll also notice that many of these imbalances are contributing factors for the other imbalances. They set up a vicious cycle or feedback loop of dysregulation and dysfunction in the body. Another way to say that is that they create “the perfect storm,” or a “snowball effect.”

In the chart below, I have listed on the left the common imbalances and dysregulation that scientists have documented in autism. In the column on the right you will see some of the things in modern living that have been documented to cause these imbalances and dysregulation.

Possible Causes of Each Imbalance and Links to Scientific / Medical Literature

Antibiotics, reflux medications, hormone and steroid medications (birth control pills! 80% of American women have been on them at one time. Mother’s disrupted microbiome is transferred to baby at birth), high sugar or refined carbohydrate diets, excessive stress, glyphosate and other pesticides and herbicides, lack of sleep (stress hormones)

Additional sources on gut dysbiosis and autism: read this and this.

Gut dysbiosis (microbiome imbalances–see above), low stomach acid/poor digestion (which can happen with dysautonomia, see below), glyphosate, high sugar/refined carbohydrate diets, nutrient depleted soils and industrial, ultra-processed food (Western diets)

Additional sources on nutritional deficiencies in autism: here.

Not going in the sun, wearing sunscreen when outdoors. Lack of sun exposure (here’s another great article about that)

Additional sources on ASD and low vitamin D: here.

Maternal or environmental stress, birth trauma, highly medicalized births, pitocin, C-sections; brain inflammation in utero, neonatal, and infant years; lack of developmentally appropriate movement and opportunity to explore surroundings during infant years. Prenatal stress

Tap water is a source of many toxins. Pesticides, herbicides, synthetic chemicals in personal care products, home goods, toys, cleaners, furnishings, pharmaceuticals, food preservatives and additives, metals found in foods, (arsenic: rice and CAFO chicken; mercury: fish), lead and cadmium in dishes, toys, paint, etc., toxins in polluted air, acetaminophen

Unintegrated primitive reflexes (see above) Birth trauma, brain inflammation (see causes of brain inflammation below), seizures and strokes that damage motor regions in the brain; neuro-immune activation in the brain, mitochondrial dysfunction (see below), restricted infant movements

Petrochemicals, pesticides, herbicides, some pharmaceuticals like anesthesia, synthetic fragrances, heavy metals, lack of mitochondrial nutrients such as carnitine, certain classes of antibiotics, acetaminophen

Chronic infection, chronic high blood sugar, toxicity, microbiome imbalances, intestinal hyperpermeability which can be caused by antibiotics, proton-pump inhibitors, etc. maternal stress; prenatal inflammation, metabolic health of mother and father

Pesticides, herbicides like glyphosate, toxins, chemicals, maternal immune activation, gut dysbiosis, multi-generational immune priming, dysregulated nervous system, non-native EMF, antibiotics

Brain inflammation, glucose metabolism, unintegrated reflexes (see above causes), stress, disconnection from a parent, being in the presence of a dysregulated parent, not feeling safe; lack of sleep, sleep disordered breathing, nnEMF, ultrasounds

Prenatal autoimmunity and immune dysregulation; CNS inflammation following preventative infectious interventions; antibiotics, toxins, chemicals, stress, infections and post-infection sequelae, gut dysbiosis, non-native EMF

Gut dysbiosis, toxins/chemicals, heavy metals, dysregulated nervous system, infections, stress, sleep disorders, preventative infectious interventions, adjuvants

Western diets (ultra-processed food), stress, gut dysbiosis

The Common Denominators

As you review the chart above, do you see some common themes emerge? What words or phrases do you see repeated over and over again:

• Pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics, birth control pills and reflux medications, acetaminophen (better known as Tylenol)
• Modern medicalized birthing practices
• Pesticides and herbicides
• Synthetic chemicals/petrochemicals of all forms, heavy metals
• Ultra-processed or high-sugar, Western diets
• Stress (all forms but especially maternal stress when child is in utero) and nervous system dysregulation
• Gut dysbiosis, gut dysbiosis, gut dysbiosis (you see that one a lot!)
• Non-native EMF (which can exacerbate the glutamate issue mentioned earlier) and open the blood brain barrier to let toxins and microbial metabolites into places they are not supposed to be
• Preventative infectious interventions (that cause autoimmunity and brain inflammation)
• Infections and post-infection sequelae

None of these categories of stressors operates alone. They operate together, compounding and triggering a vicious cycle of dysregulation. When you start looking at the very things that cause the physiological imbalances seen in autism, it is no wonder our babies develop autism! We are swimming in a toxic soup each and every day. We eat a steady diet of nutrient-depleted foods, ultra-processed foods laden with chemicals, preservatives and excitotoxins. We subject ourselves to a constant barrage of non-native EMF that opens the blood-brain barrier to let in toxins, infections and harmful gut microbial metabolites. We subject ourselves to medical interventions that cause gut dysbiosis, brain inflammation, dysautonomia, retained infant reflexes and motor impairment. And we’ve absolutely removed ourselves from the natural world. We need to understand that nature is a fundamental “nutrient” needed for human survival. We need clean air, clean water, clean and nutritious food, and we need to be moving and breathing and being in NATURE, not looking at it through a window sitting under artificial lights in a concrete EMF-filled synthetic classroom or office feeling stressed and unfulfilled.

The Total Load

To summarize, the way we live in the modern world is creating a total load of stressors that is too great for any human body to bear, and for our children, this total load is impacting them during their critical developmental years. This tsunami of exposures is creating an inflammatory neuroimmune firestorm in our babies’ brains when they are supposed to be busy developing gross- and fine-motor planning and execution, processing visual stimuli, auditory stimuli, learning how to communicate verbally and nonverbally. Our babies’ bodies are too busy putting out the fires, and their natural course of development is inevitably stalled, delayed, impaired. We call this autism, but it is really more accurate to call it something like Complex Multisystem Neuroimmune-Developmental Syndrome (CMNDS). Would there be less confusion about what autism is and how to treat it if we called it Complex Multisystem Neuroimmune-Developmental Syndrome? I’m in favor of getting rid of the word autism all together. For adults and children with level 1 autism who don’t feel like “Complex Multisystem Neuroimmune Developmental Syndrome” describes them, then let’s come up with another way to describe their experience. Perhaps we can say that they simply have a unique neurotype that would benefit from general health supports and leave it at that? But let’s not lump those people in the same category as those with Complex Multisystem Neuroimmune Developmental Syndrome. It’s very different.

All in favor of getting rid of the word “autism”?

Autism Is Developmental and Unfolds Over Time

When the total load of environmental health stressors is as high as it is on a growing infant and child, the child’s body will default to prioritizing survival (detoxing chemicals, managing inflammation, fighting infections, repairing tissues damaged by inflammation) before it prioritizes growth and development. If a growing baby has to deal with all or some of the aforementioned health stressors, that baby is going to spend all of its energy protecting itself rather than doing the things it is supposed to be doing: pruning synapses (sensory process disorders develop!), developing vision (vision and learning disorders develop!), developing fine- and gross-motor skills (speech does not develop or is impaired) and so on. The process of autism unfolding in an individual child really begins several generations before that child is even conceived. The probability of that child developing autism increases with each health stressor experienced by his or her grandparents and parents, and each stressor experienced in utero, during the neonatal and infant period. The stressors can be cumulative and compounding until the load is too great.

The Total Load Is Multigenerational

If your grandmother had gut dysbiosis because she took a few rounds of antibiotics in her 20s, she passed that dysbiotic gut bacteria to your mom. Your mom probably took antibiotics in childhood further disrupting her own gut bacteria, and then she passed her imbalanced gut bacteria on to you, and you passed your gut bacteria on to your child. See how this works?

The same is true for toxins. A pregnant mother can actually pass her heavy metal load onto her baby in utero. And mothers transfer their stored toxins onto their baby during breastfeeding, too! (Please do not avoid breastfeeding due to this fact. Breastfeeding is actually the BEST thing you can do for your baby, but you do need to detox before you get pregnant to reduce the risk of exposures for the baby).

For the Skeptics

You might be thinking: “But I’ve been exposed to all these toxins, and I don’t have autism!”

Or maybe you are thinking:

• My child had all the childhood infectious prevention pharmaceuticals and got several rounds of antibiotics, and she doesn’t have autism.
• I’ve been around lots of chemicals, eaten a processed-food diet and worn synthetic fragrances all my life, and I don’t have autism.
• My mother smoked cigarettes, drank beer and was super stressed when she was pregnant with me, and I don’t have autism.

I understand. You’ve had lots of toxic and stressor exposures, too. But the piece you are missing piece is this:

Autism is a neuro-DEVELOPMENTAL disorder that manifests only in those that have had the most significant multi-generational total load, the greatest total load during critical developmental windows, and not enough health supports to be able to withstand this cumulative and compounding effect.

You don’t have autism? Maybe your grandmother and mother had fewer western industrial influences. Your child doesn’t have autism? Maybe the exposures your child had resulted in Sensory Processing Disorder or a mild form of ADHD. We’re all affected; it’s just a question of how much.

Industrialized humans have been “okay” for a couple of generations, but y’all, the load has finally gotten to be too much. Our babies are begging us to pay attention to how we are living in the modern world. They are trying to tell us: Mom, Dad. . . The Total Load Is Too Much.

Kathy Carr, author of The Depth of Her Touch, a biography of the brilliant Dr. Svetlana Masgutova, pioneer in neurosensorimotor therapeutics, beautifully describes how a developing baby interacts with the world from conception on:

Our babies are in a state of contraction and reaction responding to constant perceived and actual threats and danger. To learn more about this, read the elegant work of Dr. Richard Naviaux on the cell danger response, or the literature on dysautonomia (dysregulation of the nervous system). Here is a link for you to get started.

And remember, there is still a gene-environment interaction happening with every exposure and experience. This means that genes are important. Extremely important. There are genetic SNPS (single nucleotide polymorphisms) such as MTHFR C677T, CNTNAP2 rs7794745, and IL1B rs1143634 that make one more vulnerable to the environmental exposures or consequences of developmental impediments. But some of these SNPS are quite common in the population (e.g., MTHFR C677T can be found in between 20 and 40% of Americans) so they are not disease causative, they are disease contributing – a part of the total picture.

So, is autism *caused* by genes? No. There is no human walking on this earth today that has the genes of steel needed to withstand the environmental assaults of everyday living in the modern industrial world. Remember, the boat is taking on water. We’re all going to get wet, regardless of what kind of equipment we have.

The Autism Epidemic as an Emergent Phenomenon – It’s No One’s Fault

There will be some parents out there who will bristle at this statement. Their experience of regressive autism for their child is clearly linked to one (or more than one) distinct medical intervention. For example, I know one child who didn’t have autism, had a surgery with anesthesia (valproic acid is a big risk factor), and developed autism shortly thereafter. There are innumerable stories of children losing function and regressing into autism following their well-baby shots. The child was fine before and not fine after. And that experience is real and true and needs to be acknowledged. What is also true is that this is not the same experience for every child with autism. There are children who have autism who have never had any medical interventions at all. Not a single pharmaceutical. None. So, how are we to make sense of this?

When I say that the autism epidemic is an emergent phenomenon, I mean that it is a phenomenon in our society that has developed due to many factors. A very large number of factors. The factors that contributed to your child’s autism may be different from the factors that contributed to another child’s autism, but both children experienced a “total load” that was too great for their developing body.

An emergent phenomenon is a complex behavior or property that arises from the interactions of simpler components within a system, which cannot be predicted by analyzing the individual parts alone. That autism develops due to “total load” was first and best described by Patricia Lemer, an author and educator and expert on autism. She describes this total load phenomenon in her excellent book, Outsmarting Autism.

Autism can’t be explained by one thing, just as other emergent phenomenon, such as social and cultural revolutions, are not caused by one thing. No single person or group “causes” a revolution. But many individuals acting on local conditions — like frustration, injustice, hunger, hope, or inspiration — combine into a collective momentum that transforms society.

Similarly, no one experience (a round of antibiotics) or series of experiences (stress hormones circulating in the womb) or repeated doses of the childhood medical interventions are necessarily responsible for the phenomenon (the autism epidemic) to emerge. In some cases, there may have been a singular trigger that was such a large stressor that it didn’t need much else to tip the child over into the inflammatory neuroimmune dysregulation cascade, and in other cases, it took many, many smaller influences and stressors to lead to a similar downward cascade.

The root causes of autism are:

• Multi-factorial
• Multi-generational
• Bioindividual
• Cultural

So, What Causes Autism?

All of it.

What caused your child’s autism is what caused your child’s autism. Each child’s path is unique.

Research has shown that babies are born into this world already carrying a toxic load. In fact, in a 2005 EWG study, 287 chemicals were found in babies’ umbilical cord blood. We are exposed daily to innumerable health toxins that can stay in our bodies unless we take specific action to remove them. But not every baby comes out of the womb carrying the same load.

• Some babies have a greater petrochemical/endocrine disrupting toxic load at birth.
• Some babies inherit fungal or bacterial overgrowth from their mother and fathers’ microbiomes.
• Some babies have exposure to heavy metals like aluminum, mercury, cadmium, lead in utero or during the first year of life.
• Some babies develop in the womb of a mother under chronic stress and chronic inflammation.
• Some babies are born with a low toxic load but were put on eight or ten rounds of antibiotics in the first year of life for ear infections and then received childhood preventative medical interventions when their guts and immune systems couldn’t possibly handle them.
• Some babies were born to parents who already had immune systems that had been primed to be overly reactive due to a lifetime of toxic exposures that created toxicant induced loss of tolerance or TILT as described here by Dr. Claudia Miller at UT Austin.

Your Child’s Autism Is Your Child’s Autism (Your Autism Is Your Autism)

The story of how your child (or you) developed autism is your story, and only your story. And each person’s path to health and healing is also unique.

Remission and Recovery

The growing number of cases of individuals who have experienced “remission” or reversal of autism symptoms and who no longer meet the diagnostic criteria is reinforcing the importance of environmental factors At first considered an anomaly or a very rare occurrence, this phenomena of genuine health transformation is now being widely reported by functional, integrative and holistic medicine practitioners as well as parents and caregivers. This “exception” is now supported by a growing number of case reports in the medical literature. (You can read some of those papers of autism reversal here, here, here and here.).

If this is your first time hearing that an autism diagnosis can be reversed or put into remission, please know that most people once believed that autism was genetic and lifelong, but as the evidence mounted, they changed their minds. In time, with enough reading and research, you might, too. If you need further convincing, reach out to someone who has reversed their autism diagnosis, or their child’s diagnosis, and ask them about their experience. We know quite a few and could put you in touch.

Many of the documented cases of autism reversal occurred because underlying biomedical and physiological imbalances or dysregulation in the body were directly addressed using a root cause, whole-child, bio-individual and functional approach (aka the future of medicine).

How Autism Symptoms Can Be Reversed

Just as each child’s path to developing autism is unique, each child’s path OUT of autism is also unique. There is no protocol. There is no one-size-fits all. Twenty-first century medicine needs to be bio-individual, looking for root causes, and identifying each of our unique paths to healing. Typically, these cases of remission or reversal involved:

• Identifying health stressors in the individual’s home, environment and life such as mold, toxins, EMFs, toxins and inflammatory triggers in foods
• Intentionally reducing the individual’s total load of health stressors across all domains of life
• Intentionally living more in sync with nature–> spending more time outdoors, in natural sunlight, moving in natural ways, prioritizing sleep and respecting circadian rhythms
• Regulating the nervous system to help it easily toggle between the sympathetic state (fight/flight) to the parasympathetic state (rest and digest); Many children with autism are stuck in a sympathetic state
• Supplying the body with essential nutrients, clean water, clean air and movement
• Healing and repairing the microbiome
• Revisiting missed developmental milestones (integrating reflexes, addressing vision, auditory or other sensory processing issues, or supporting the development of proper motor function).

In all these cases, there was no silver bullet, no magic therapy, and these healing and restorative actions are often happening concurrently or at least in a sequence that makes sense for the body (e.g. reducing the total load, adding health supports, and regulating the nervous system first, then doing the restorative/repair developmental work).

How Your Child’s Unique Symptoms and Behaviors Hold the Key to Healing

Many of the behaviors displayed by children with autism are found to be absolutely confounding by parents, teachers, and those who care for them. Behaviors such as stimming, rocking, flapping, lip licking, echolalia, head banging, and more are very distressing to watch. What are those behaviors? Why does he do that? The behaviors that an individual with autism displays are a function of physiological or other imbalances in the body. They are a function of dysregulation. Nervous system dysregulation, immune system dysregulation, microbiome imbalances, excitoxicity and inflammation in the brain, oxidative stress, and more. Once you begin to see the behaviors not as “features of autism” but as guideposts pointing to the imbalances and areas of dysregulation, you can begin to systematically address the medical and physiological needs of the body and help them regulate again.

Think of it this way: If you see someone aggressively rubbing their eyes during pollen season, you wouldn’t say “oh, that’s just what allergy-istic people do.” No, you would say, “gosh, there must be a lot of pollen around causing that person’s allergies to flare, making them rub their eyes.” Most of us understand the eye rubbing behavior when we see it, because it’s so common and we understand that it is a natural physical response and behavior that people express when they are exposed to something to which they are allergic. We need to use this very same lens when observing individuals with autism demonstrating “behaviors.”

The behaviors commonly observed in autism are simply a natural physical response to: inflammation in the body, pain in the body, toxicity in the body, dysregulation of the nervous system, brain inflammation and excitoxicity; too much sensory “noise” in the brain feels overwhelming. If we begin to see the behaviors as a function of a system that is dysregulated, we begin to understand how to reverse or overcome the symptoms.

Many of the individuals who have overcome their autism symptoms or diagnoses have worked very hard on establishing balance and regulation in their bodies.

Symptoms and Behaviors and What They Could Mean

Let’s look at your child’s symptoms and behaviors. They hold the key to what needs to be addressed:

• Does your child have chronic diarrhea or chronic constipation? You better believe they have gut microbiome dysbiosis and nervous system dysregulation. The path to healing will involve diet changes, gut healing and nervous-system-regulating activities or therapies.
• Does your child stim, flap, or tiptoe walk? Has your child been evaluated to see if he has a dysregulated nervous system, unintegrated reflexes, brain inflammation?
• Does your child hit his or her head? Have you considered brain inflammation as a possible driver of that behavior?
• Does your child have the inability to generate speech? Have you looked at ways to support the underlying motor issues driving the inability to speak? Here is a great article to get you started.
• Does your child have an awkward gait or floppiness in tone? You might look into retained reflexes, a dysregulated vestibular system and likely motor impairment.
• Does your child have wild mood swings? Check blood sugar or possible foods or environmental exposures that might be causing neuroimmune activation or inflammation in the brain.
• Does your child have cracks in their lips or bumps on their skin? Have you looked into nutrient deficiencies?

I could go on.

Each child needs bioindivdiual attention.

Documenting Hope has created free online resources and a private membership community to help support you as you make your way on your journey to uncover the root causes of your child’s symptoms and behaviors.

We’re here to offer resources, support and to cheer you on. We can’t go back in time and undo what has happened to our children, but we can use the latest research and medical knowledge to give our children a better chance at a better life. But no one is going to do it for you. The system is not set up to help your child live optimally, so you may have to work around the system. This is why we created Documenting Hope. We knew we needed to give parents access to better information so they could begin the difficult but worthy endeavor of healing their children. It may not be easy, but please know, we’re with you.

About Beth Lambert

In 2009, Beth founded Documenting Hope and currently serves as Executive Director. Beth attended Oxford University, graduated from Williams College and holds a Masters Degree in American Studies from Fairfield University.

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