Episode 257 — For Gut Health, Don’t Kill—REBUILD
Guest: Dr. Myriah Hinchey • Date: May 20, 2025
Episode Overview
Chronic infections are often treated with a “kill the bug” mindset, but that approach can fail kids on the spectrum. In this episode, Dr. Myriah Hinchey reveals why true healing starts with rebuilding the immune system and restoring gut health.
About Dr. Myriah Hinchey
Dr. Myriah Hinchey is a licensed naturopathic physician and Fellow of the Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs (MAPS). She’s an expert in Lyme disease and complex chronic inflammatory conditions, with over 17 years of clinical experience. As the Medical Director at Tao Vitality and founder of LymeCore Botanicals, she’s helped thousands of patients, especially children, heal through personalized, integrative protocols. She’s also a sought-after speaker and educator on the intersection of vector-borne illness and functional medicine.
Instagram @drmyriahhinchey
Facebook @lymecore
You’ll Discover
Why Lyme ISN’T Just a Northeast Problem (4:46)
How Your Child’s “camel’s back” Can Suddenly Collapse (7:28)
Why Shrinking An Infection Isn’t Enough (9:49)
The Shocking Way Healthy Foods May Harm Your Child (14:36)
The Two Foundational Tests Dr. Hinchey Runs On Almost Every Child (18:20)
Full Transcript
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:00:00]:
What I think a lot of people don't realize, and even as a practitioner for the first like decade, I was missing the point, that our immune system is reliant on a healthy gut and a diverse balanced microbiome. And if we don't have that, we are going to have excess inflammation. And that inflammation is what leads to the imbalance in the immune system. And when it comes to treating any of these infection driven disorders, the number one goal and the end all be all on whether that person's going to get better or not is rebuilding the immune system. Because in the end, it's the immune system that will either hold that infection in remission or completely eradicate it from the body.
Len Arcuri [00:00:45]:
If you're a parent of a child with autism, you are being called to rise with love, courage and clarity. This journey isn't easy and most parents aren't equipped, but you can be. This podcast is your invitation to rise higher because how you navigate matters. I'm Len and this is Autism Parenting Secrets, where you become the parent your child needs now. Hello and welcome to Autism Parenting Secrets. It's Len and I am at the Autism Health Summit in San Diego, California. And with me is somebody who just presented Dr. Myriah Hinchey and she is going to share a little bit some highlights from what you shared with the audience.
Len Arcuri [00:01:28]:
But I'm super excited to have her with me. She is a very experienced, credentialed MAPS practitioner and many of you are familiar with maps. So I'm going to do very little talking and hand it off to Dr. Maria to share what she shared with this audience. So welcome and thanks for joining me.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:01:45]:
Thank you. Thanks for having me. And thanks to all of you listening for joining us. So highlights of my talk today, I was talking about the importance of screening for and understanding vector borne diseases when working up a patient with autism spectrum disorder.
Len Arcuri [00:02:03]:
Right. So I think it was called autism and Lyme disease specifically, but particularly for parents who might not be in the Lyme zone, quote, unquote, in the Northeast. Lyme is just one example. Right. And what I think for parents to have on their radar, they think about what's the root cause of what's going on, going on with my child.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:02:23]:
Yeah.
Len Arcuri [00:02:23]:
I think your talk touched on a number of different aspects of what might not be on their radar right now.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:02:29]:
Right. And so if you don't mind, I'm going to correct you with one thing. Yeah, go ahead. So Lyme is a bacteria, not a virus and it is in every state in the United States and it's in most countries in the world.
Len Arcuri [00:02:41]:
But. But people do have that idea that. Oh, that's the Northeast thing.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:02:44]:
Right, Exactly.
Len Arcuri [00:02:45]:
Quite the mis.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:02:46]:
Yes.
Len Arcuri [00:02:46]:
Misnomer.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:02:47]:
But yes. And so I want people listening to understand that we have to get out of that way of thinking.
Len Arcuri [00:02:52]:
We had a doctor in North Carolina who said Lyme was not possible for our son because we were in North Carolina. As if Lyme stopped at the border.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:03:01]:
Oh, gosh, yes. I mean, we have birds that are flying. Right. We import animals. We go on vacation. Right. We can get bit. We're on vacation, doing things like hiking and camping or walking through the grass in the beach, you know, so we really need to get away from.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:03:16]:
Oh, you live here, therefore that's not a possibility.
Len Arcuri [00:03:20]:
Right, perfect. So thank you for clarifying. So now, with that in mind.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:03:24]:
Yes. So there's other organisms. There's Rickettsia, which causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever. There's Babesia, which is actually a parasite that is the cousin to malaria. There is Bartonella, which actually isn't just transmitted by ticks. It can be transmitted by other biting insects, fleas, mites, things like that. And then there's also mycoplasma. There's Chlamydia pneumoniae.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:03:49]:
There's Ehrlichia and Anaplasma. So there's a lot of other bacteria and parasites that can be transmitted through ticks and other insects as vectors. But we also can't forget, you know, that Lyme and Bartonella both, for sure can. Can be transmitted vertically. So it can be transmitted in utero from mother to fetus, and then there's no other vector involved. So it literally doesn't matter where you live or where you've been.
Len Arcuri [00:04:22]:
Okay, so now that's super helpful because everything you just shared in terms of the toxic environment we're in, there is no question that things like EMFs and pesticides and chemicals and you name it, has just exponentially increased. Have these types of pathogens, bacterias, and the like increased, or have they been here all along? And it's really just about becoming aware of them.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:04:47]:
So they've been here all along. They're not new, but I do think that their populations are rising. And I do think that a lot of people are able to live with Lyme and not know it and not be symptomatic. And I'm just using Lyme as an example. But as our environments become more toxic and we become more inflamed and therefore more immune compromised or immune imbalanced, it does certain things to the body. That make the body hospitable to these infections. And they go from being this low level infection that the immune system is able to keep in check to all of a sudden flourishing and almost like taking over, so to speak. You know, it's just like when you look at Epstein Barr, right? So you can get mono and have an acute case of mono, and then the Epstein Barr virus lives inside of the body.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:05:41]:
And the immune system typically does a really, really good job of suppressing that virus, right? But then when you become immunocompromised or really stressed out, you can have reactivation of Epstein Barr. Or we've seen a lot of this with the spike protein, right, from COVID vaccine, right? So many people are now reactivated with Epstein Barr. Another example would be, you know, you have chickenpox and then that virus goes dormant and then when you get really, really stressed out, it comes out as shingles. So I look at these vector borne diseases in the same respect. Sometimes we can get along just fine with them until the scales tip and the immune system becomes compromised. And the analogy that I love to use with patients and it works really, really well, is that the immune system is the camel's back. And all of these various viruses, bacterias, parasites, toxins, et cetera are straws on the camel's back. And some camels have really strong backs because they have a strong gut, strong immune system, they eat super healthy, they manage their stress, they take care of themselves, right? And they, and they have good genetics, maybe.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:06:48]:
But then we have these other camels that have very, very weak backs because they have certain genetic predisposition or previous injuries or trauma. And their gut maybe, you know, maybe they've been on a lot of antibiotics. So now they have dysbiosis and increased intestinal permeability. And now they're reacting to foods and they have mast cell activation and they're toxic and they have mitochondrial stress and, you know, all of these things. And so, you know, two people could walk in with the same exact infectious load and one might not have symptoms and the other might literally be dysfunctional. And it really is all of the different things that make up that person. And so as a practitioner, I do very individualized medicine. And I'm going to look at the kids sitting in front of me and say, okay, what are their pieces of the puzzle? You know, like there's a reason why with autism, right? Like we have the puzzle piece because not every single child is going to present with the same puzzle, but they are going to have various puzzle pieces that we kind of see in common when we look at the spectrum of the disorder.
Len Arcuri [00:07:56]:
Right. So it's. But overall, if you think about this population of kids, right, the unifying element is that in some way, shape or form for what, for very different reasons, perhaps they are more susceptible to harm from the toxic environment and they're more immunocompromised. And so with that, especially for parents who are listening, if that's your kid, okay, it makes even more sense to be a detective, figure out what might have gotten them to this state. But that's where that personalization of what's going to help them the most is why seeing a typical doctor won't really yield much. You need somebody who relishes the idea of the individual nature of this and that there is a unique story for your child and having somebody on your team like Dr. Hinschy to help you figure that out is indispensable.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:08:51]:
You know, when I look at whether it's autism spectrum disorder, Panspandas, chronic vector borne diseases, and honestly even like mycotoxin illness a lot. So aside from autism, the other three are, you know, infection driven, right. And so most of the therapy is geared towards killing that infection. And a lot of times what happens is, is we have further insult to the microbiome, right? So the treatment is actually another straw in the camel's back. Because what I think a lot of people don't realize, and even as a practitioner for the first like decade, I was missing the point that our immune system is reliant on a healthy gut and a diverse balanced microbiome. And if we don't have that, we are going to have excess inflammation. And that inflammation is what leads to the imbalance in the immune system. And when it comes to treating any of these infection driven disorders, the number one goal and the end all be all on whether that person's going to get better or not, is rebuilding the immune system.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:10:03]:
Because in the end it's the immune system that will either hold that infection in remission or completely eradicate it from the body. There's no antibiotic that takes any infection to zero, it shrinks it and then our immune system comes in and gets it the rest of the way out. And then when it comes to autism, like say that, you know, when the mom is pregnant she has a vector borne disease or let's stick with Lyme and she doesn't know it. And then there's vertical transmission. Well now the excess inflammation and immune dysfunction or imbalance that's in that child actually sets the stage, right. It's going to weaken their camel's back of their immune system, and now they are going to be more susceptible to the common insults that we see that can bring on Autism Spectrum disorder. So, you know, if we have dysbiosis in the gut, let's say now that child has a double whammy. They're born via C section and they don't get inoculated with the mother's vaginal bacteria.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:11:04]:
That literally sets up their microbiome and therefore their immune system. Right? Now, now it's almost like two straws or two strikes. I hate to say strikes, but because everything's fixable, as long as we're alive, we can heal, right? But having that congenital piece almost setting the stage that now, you know, they might react more to toxins in the environment, toxins in food, toxins and vaccinations, right? Or having. If your immune system isn't balanced and now you're putting something into the body that has adjuvants, right, to like, hype up the immune system. Well, it can be enough to, like, tip it over the edge.
Len Arcuri [00:11:46]:
Yeah, no doubt. And I love the way that you started off by talking about the goal, because if you think about if it's a pathogen or something like Lyme, whatever you may want to call it, it'd be easy for people to think, oh, the objective is annihilated, get rid of it. But whereas the key is really having the right goal, which I think you basically articulated, it's about rebuilding or enhancing that immune system. And with that as your goal, then you're going to be much more mindful of how you do it without doing something that might be well intended but might actually wreak more havoc than if you did nothing. Knowing what your goal is and what you're going after, extremely important.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:12:28]:
And it's flipping it, right? Because most people think infection kill, right? And we do need to shrink the infection, but we have to do it in a way that isn't going to harm the microbiome and the immune system even more in the crossfire, right?
Len Arcuri [00:12:42]:
And now it's so well established, right? The importance of the microbiome, the fact that it's much more complex than we thought 10, 20 years ago and constantly evolving, which is exciting because it presents more options and more of an ability for a practitioner like you to have a very tailored, personalized approach for a specific child, which I think every parent like me is looking for. What's the sequence? What do I need to do? Just tell me.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:13:07]:
Right. I know, and that's hard.
Len Arcuri [00:13:09]:
And we want that.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:13:09]:
I want to tell you, but it's like I have 5 million questions to ask you first, right? There are 5 million. No, I'm just kidding.
Len Arcuri [00:13:19]:
Pretty close to it, though, right? But that's where if you want somebody on your team who's going to help guide you, particularly somebody from a medical perspective, more conventional type doctors don't have the time or even the interest in asking those questions. And that's where, again, finding a partner, somebody you have on your team who can really help you in this is so critical. And all different practitioners have different specialties and the like. And that's why this podcast really helps to share a lot of those different avenues you can go down. But Again, I think, Dr. Mariah, from all the parents and the kids that you've worked with, particularly ones on the spectrum, and I know there's nothing about autism specifically, there's a lot of conditions that the root cause is the same. It just may manifest itself in different ways. But what are some common threads, some insights you could share with parents about what is particularly in terms of what they can do a better job of in helping their child? Like, you hear about the diet, you hear about minimizing toxic exposure.
Len Arcuri [00:14:28]:
And so those general themes will help. But is there anything specific that you've noted that might be something that's surprising for parents who are listening?
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:14:37]:
Surprising for parents, or at least something.
Len Arcuri [00:14:39]:
That for them to have even a clearer understanding of could be useful.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:14:44]:
So, like you said, first, in addition to cleaning up the environment, both internal and external, you know, focusing on eating healthy, anti inflammatory, clean diets, I encourage patients or parents to take it a step further. So one of the things that I do with almost every single child is I will do a panel looking for IgA and IgG antibody production against the most commonly eaten foods. So again, going back to the idea that this is immune dysregulation sparred by inflammation, it's like we need to do this investigation of what is increasing inflammation and what is further causing either immune overreactivity or just imbalance. And so a lot of times we can be eating foods that we think are super healthy. Like we're eating chicken and we're eating broccoli and we're eating avocado. But guess what? If your immune system, for whatever reason, has identified chicken or broccoli or avocados as a foreign invader, and now every time you eat that food, you are producing inflammation, potentially histamine, and you're mounting an immune Response that food now becomes a poison, right? So we can talk till the cows come home about having this great, healthy, wonderful diet. But if you're reacting to everything, hopefully not everything, but if you're reacting to a big component of the things that you're eating, we're now causing inflammation and, and further harming the immune system. And it's hard enough to control our exposures to these things, but the one thing that we do have control of is what we put in our mouth, right? So knowing these foods goes a long way, Right? And then I would say the second test that I love to do with patients is an evaluation of what is inside of the cell as far as micronutrients go.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:16:48]:
So I'm going to simplify our very sophisticated, amazing bodies. But we're really just a bunch of biochemical reactions structurally as well as hormones, neurotransmitters, immune cells, et cetera, right? So we eat something and then through a series of enzymatic reactions that are dependent on certain micronutrients, we build our bodies and we chemically run our bodies. And if we have a micronutrient deficiency, it can impact the ability for these enzymes to work. And so doing an evaluation like this and seeing just objectively not this is good for this, and that's good for that. What does this child have that it's getting from its food or current supplement, and what is it missing? And then you put those things in and, holy cow, like you wouldn't even believe just doing those two things. How much of a difference it makes. Almost every single kid that I have come in is deficient in epa, and their arachidonic acid to EPA ratios are sky high off the chart. And what that tells me is from a fundamental perspective, they are unable to control an inflammatory cytokine cascade.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:18:04]:
Then couple that with a deficient vitamin D. We need vitamin D of at least 50. We learned that from COVID right? That was one good thing that's coming come out of it, right? You can't control a cytokine cascade without having your D3. Oh, hydroxy D3 at 50 or greater.
Len Arcuri [00:18:21]:
And everybody is deficient in D. Like, you can't.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:18:24]:
I mean, unless you live here in beautiful San Diego or Florida, you know, but. But also you have to be out in the sun, right? You have to have that ultraviolet ray hitting your skin, converting cholesterol into vitamin D. And it's a pro hormone. It's not just the vitamin. So it regulates downstream all of the hormones and so many other things in the body. So there are simple but very effective things that we can do that I consider to be more of like the foundational work that helps to actually affect a lot of the pieces of the puzzle. Yeah.
Len Arcuri [00:18:57]:
Simply put, give the body what it needs, what it might be lacking, and then don't give it poison. For what? For what's toxic for the body. And I love that you started off with the, with the panels. Right.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:19:08]:
So.
Len Arcuri [00:19:09]:
And I know listeners are probably familiar with this, but I'm going to learn something new now. So I totally understand the importance of IGE and IGG panels. So if you want to know if your child's got true allergies to a food, that's an IGE panel.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:19:22]:
Correct.
Len Arcuri [00:19:23]:
If you want to know whether they have sensitivities, which sound less, but they could be equally horrendous as a true IGE allergy. IGG sensitivities. That's useful to have that information. Right. What they might be sensitive to. But, but tell me, talk to me a little bit more about iga, which I've never run for my child and I'm wondering, my son's 18 now and trust me, it's going to be a battle if I, if I tell him that we're going to give up avocados, by the way.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:19:46]:
Oh, gosh, that's one of my most. I hate telling someone they can't have avocados. I hate it.
Len Arcuri [00:19:53]:
Yeah, you won't take that, think that lightly. But so talk, talk about iga. What is that measuring? And would you be running that on foods? Is what. And would you run that on environmental toxins or just mainly foods?
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:20:06]:
Okay. Because so, and when I tell you, it'll make sense. So IGAs are predominantly in the mucous membranes. Right. And our biggest mucous membrane is our digestive tract. So think sinuses, you know, mucous membranes, digestive tract. And basically IGA is kind of like the first line of defense in those areas. So if you have overproduction of IGA in those areas, it's going to be creating kind of like a localized inflammation and it can affect digestion, it can affect absorption.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:20:39]:
And you know, one of the biggest things with IGG and IGA as well as all of the vector borne diseases, is that they're going to increase inflammation in the gut and erode the tight junctions which are basically the barriers in between cells and that keep toxins in the digestive tract to be eliminated. Right. We all know that we absorb things through the digestive tract, but often we, and this was me too. Forget that. That is our massive sewer pipe out of the body for toxins. And so if we have a compromisation of the gut lining, we are going to become more toxic. And not only from toxins that the bodies are trying to expel, but toxins from foods and. And other potentially pathogenic bacteria.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:21:26]:
Right. That our gut is supposed to keep out. So we have this very selective permeability of the gut and when it becomes damaged through inflammation and overreaction of the immune system, we start leaking all of this stuff in that we're not supposed to.
Len Arcuri [00:21:43]:
Got it right now that's very helpful. And if the parents listening again, these panels IGG iga, you can ask your doctor now to run them. But I mean, I think the key thing is having a practitioner who understands this. And my guess is is this something you could run through LabCorp request or is it really more these private lab companies that are more specialized and have maybe much more accurate or meaningful reports. What's your general guidance with that?
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:22:12]:
So you can get them through conventional labs. However, if it's billed to insurance and insurance decides that you don't need that test, you can end up spending thousands, and I mean thousands and thousands of dollars. I had to pay anyways, I won't get into it. Thousands and thousands of dollars. There are a myriad of companies. Am I allowed to say names?
Len Arcuri [00:22:31]:
Sure.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:22:31]:
Okay, so one of my favorite is vibrant America. Their IGG IGA food sensitivity one panel I believe is $178 and it looks at about 90 food. There's also US biotech, whom I love and I'll leave it at those two. There are plenty of others, but those are my two go to companies.
Len Arcuri [00:22:55]:
That's helpful because again, there's a lot of testing companies and of course there's Quest and LabCorp. And I know sometimes with the standard, even if your insurance does pay for it.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:23:03]:
Right.
Len Arcuri [00:23:03]:
And maybe if they agree to it, the ranges they use may be wildly off. And so again, I think the right practitioner who has a track record with knowing what labs are meaningful, what aren't, can again just help you not waste money if you're going to go down this road. Because all that can add up. So you want to do the few tests that are the most meaningful, that yield the biggest bang for the buck in terms of helping to inform what decisions you make. And so I appreciate those specific recommendations.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:23:33]:
Yeah. And I think also it's like for me, it's like I always want to go to the expert with whatever I'm dealing with. So I want a food sensitivity panel done through a company that specializes in it. Like that's one of their expertise is I don't want it to be one of the 10,000 tests that you can order through quest and no one's actually looking at it and involving or evolving it, you know what I mean? And making sure there's efficacy. Right. Because your result is only as good as the lab that did it.
Len Arcuri [00:24:01]:
Right. And everything comes down to implementation. What action, what do you do, for how long. And again, that's where having the right information and the right people on your team who can help you interpret it is a super powerful move to make. So that's great, I appreciate you sharing that. And again, I think with this whole area in terms of what is at the root of what's happening with your child, from your focus, what you're sharing is that in terms of a goal that you might have is the premise is that your child's immune system may be hampered, compromised, something of that nature, which probably explains the majority of kids who are on the spectrum. And with this goal of helping to bolster that immune system, rebuild it if necessary, having that as your goal and your strategy, if that's in place, then again all these options that might be available to you become clearer as to why they're helping and in what way they may be useful. And again, take this information, come up with a plan and again, if you need somebody to partner with to be able to help you formulate that game plan, like a maps doctor, like Dr.
Len Arcuri [00:25:14]:
Henchy is really, really key to have on your team. So I appreciate you sharing these insights and look forward to having you on down the road and if you could just share with our listeners how, how do they find out more about you, your practice and to continue to benefit from your wisdom.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:25:30]:
Sure. So first I just want to say I'm not a medical doctor. I don't want to ever mislead anyone. So I'm a naturopathic physician, board certified licensed but not an MD and so my practice is in Connecticut and I'm licensed in Connecticut as well as New Hampshire. And my practice, my clinic is called Tau Vitality and that is in Hebron, Connecticut. And you can find me at Tao Vitality.com I also do a lot of education on Lyme and other vector borne diseases and we are starting a podcast in May called Lyme Bites. So L Y M E B Y T E S so I have a lot of different experts coming on talking about the most common infection driven complex chronic illnesses.
Len Arcuri [00:26:20]:
Fantastic. Well, good luck with the podcast.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:26:21]:
Thank you.
Len Arcuri [00:26:22]:
Very catchy name.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:26:23]:
Thank you.
Len Arcuri [00:26:24]:
And great. Well, no, I really appreciate you taking the time and. And thank you for sharing your voice with our audience.
Dr. Myriah Hinchey [00:26:29]:
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And thank you all for listening.
Len Arcuri [00:26:33]:
Your child needs you running on all cylinders now. And the fastest way to rise is with personalized one on one support. Get started today. Go to elevatehowunavigate.com.
