Episode 323 — Healing Is More Possible Than You Think
Guest: Beth Lambert • Date: September 3, 2026
Episode Overview
Beth Lambert is the Executive Director of Documenting Hope and one of the leading voices in the root-cause children's health movement. In this conversation, she explains why she is more hopeful than ever and why healing is far more possible than most parents realize.
About Beth Lambert
Beth Lambert is a former healthcare consultant and teacher. As a consultant, she worked with pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic, and other healthcare companies to evaluate industry trends.
She is the author of A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America's Children and co-author of Brain Under Attack: A Resource for Parents and Caregivers of Children with PANS, PANDAS, and Autoimmune Encephalitis.
Beth founded Epidemic Answers in 2009 and currently serves as Executive Director of Documenting Hope. She attended Oxford University, graduated from Williams College, and holds a Master's Degree in American Studies from Fairfield University.
www.beth-lambert.com/documenting-hope
You’ll Discover
Why there’s more reason for hope than ever before (1:26)
Why YOU are your child’s most important decision-maker (7:00)
Why commitment beats chasing the next intervention (15:42)
How community can create unexpected breakthroughs (23:05)
Why the future of children’s health could look radically different (32:48)
Full Transcript
Beth Lambert 0:00
All the people there get it, like they get it. You know, one of the struggles I think so many parents have is that they feel like they're the only ones because this doesn't meet it mainstream yet, right? So when your child gets an autism diagnosis or your child has you know some kind of autoimmune disease, you are not told about healing. That's not part of the standard of care. You're told here's management therapies or here's management drugs, but what what you don't know at that moment, and hopefully you know soon, is that there's this whole community of people. They're all over the place that are like, nah, I don't buy that. I don't buy that narrative that this is lifelong, that this is genetic. I'm going to seek out what solutions there are to help my child heal. These are people who believe in the fundamental capacity of the human body to heal and overcome these challenges. So when you get all those people together in one room, all of a sudden you feel normal. You feel like you belong. You feel like you're a part of something that's like you know like a breakthrough.
Len Arcuri 0:59
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. Welcome to the show. Today I'm talking with returning guest Beth Lambert, executive director of Documenting Hope, and for more than two decades, Beth has been one of the leading voices challenging conventional thinking about children's health, and she's the author of A Compromised Generation and co-author of Brain Under Attack, and she's helped countless families discover that many chronic childhood conditions are far more reversible than we've been led to believe. And what's especially interesting is that after spending years studying root causes, environmental influences, nutrition, detoxification, and recovery. Beth seems more optimistic than ever, and so this conversation is going to really explore why, what's changing, what breakthroughs are giving families new reasons for hope, and why are some children making remarkable progress? And overall, what does the future of children's health actually look like, so the secret this week is healing is more possible than you think. Welcome back,
Beth Lambert 2:28
Beth. Ah, thanks, Len. It's good to be with you again.
Len Arcuri 2:30
Well, always a pleasure talking to you. And you know, I guess I teed it up at the beginning, but you know, after everything you've seen over the years, why are you even more hopeful today than you were maybe let's say 10 years ago. So
Beth Lambert 2:42
I think when I got into this work, you know, a couple decades ago, I feel like there were these parents and doctors and researchers that were kind of like on islands by themselves. Some of them started finding each other and sharing knowledge and sharing information, but it was really kind of these this renegade group that was looking for answers for kids with autism and neurodevelopmental conditions. That you know they had to be pioneers. So there wasn't a lot of support. There wasn't a lot of funding for research. It was very much just people were doing things, trialing things, really with their the children in their practices and at home. And then you know, fast forward to today, there is there's been an explosion of research in the microbiome and the nervous system on what's going on physiologically, biochemically with with kids and their growth and development, and so we know a lot more now. But what's even more exciting is that that information has begun to translate into clinical practices, and so now there's many more clinics and practitioners of all types that are routinely seeing children with neurodevelopmental conditions and helping them reverse this and teaching the parents what they need to know to prevent their children from developing conditions in the first place. So I feel much more optimistic. I also just experientially, as somebody who's in touch with parents all the time, I just get more recovery stories my way. So, like, I might post something on social media, for instance, about you know a child who reversed their condition, and I will get feedback, direct messages from the parents. We'll say, "This sounds exactly like my son. We did this work five years ago. We were we used to be that parent. I'm getting more and more of those messages because I think the internet and social media has really taken off, and there's a lot of voices out there. Yours being one of them, as as a great example. You know, just advocating for what's available. So that does give me a lot a lot more optimism. We still have a lot of work to do, but I feel more hopeful than ever before.
Len Arcuri 4:44
That's that's amazing, and I would agree with you. I think the the successes and and the progress that some kids are making that really is increasing. And I know there's also an element of this where for some parents. There may be if their child had major issues and then they they got better. Some parents may not be comfortable sharing it. It's kind of kind of like oh that okay good we got out of that and we don't really really want to talk about it anymore. Then there's maybe a tiny percent that are in that camp, but overall there is this explosion as you mentioned with options, with knowledge, with practitioners who are more equipped to to help guide families? So there is a lot of real momentum, and I have no doubt that you're hearing lots of feedback. I see it all the time as well, where if the parent can actually respond more powerfully, so much opens up for their child, and that that means making sense of all the information that's out there, that might seem overwhelming, but you can take all that in and come up with a plan for your child, and it's amazing how much the parents' decision making really influences things.
Beth Lambert 5:52
Yeah, and you know it's interesting because there's a lot more parent influencers out there. So I mean, like I would consider you a parent influencer. You know, somebody who's had personal experiences, learned a lot, and has a lot to share. You know, and I find that again, those are good guides. But it all comes back to, you know, what how you take that information and you apply it to your own child because your child is bio individual. I saw this happen when you know Luke of Warren became a hot topic, and everyone was like, "Oh, should I get Lucavoren for my child? And that was like this. You know, it's like it's like the silver silver bullet mentality that we have. And there's nothing wrong with that mentality. I get it. I understand it. But we really need to, I think, understand as parents that it's up to us to do the research and discern whether something like that makes sense for our children or not, and not just to follow what somebody else is telling you to do or you know somebody else's pathway. It's take that information, but you know put it through your own filter and your own research process, and and and figure out whether it's right for your child. Yep,
Len Arcuri 6:55
I think you and I are in violent agreement with that. And again, there there's lots of great resources and and and people who you could learn from, which is why community is so important. Of having the right people around you, who you know who may have been down this road a little bit longer and can give you some suggestions and perspective, but it but it is kind of just something that's it's worth curating that support because it's easy to get overly influenced by what another well-intentioned parent might be suggesting, and that's where hey, you could take all that in. But as you said, the key is taking the information, the perspectives, maybe the unsolicited or solicited advice, but never losing sight of the fact that it's about your own ability to discern what's a fit for your child, and and again bringing all your your resources, your time, energy, your money, and channeling it on what's uniquely going to move the needle for you, because this is such an individualized, personalized thing. There is no one size fits all. There's no silver bullet. So so again, I know you and I agree with that community is important, but you don't want to just be following the latest trend and what's hot. It's so. I guess what I'm trying to suggest is it comes down to becoming much more discerning about what's right for your child,
Beth Lambert 8:16
right? And that's actually something you're one of the few people that I know that that starts there with like what you know the parents' discernment, the parents' self awareness, and understanding of what they are capable of. Because so much I think of what we're trained to do, especially just sort of like in modern American culture, is to when you have a health problem, you outsource it. You go to the doctor, you go to the expert. We've been trained that way, so there's nothing wrong with it. It's just sort of our culture and what we do, I hear all the time, and I'm sure you do too. Like, who's the best doctor to bring my child to? Who's the expert? Who's the specialist in this or the specialist in that? And it's wonderful if you have one of those people or several of those people on your team. But the end of the day, as you know, and you train parents, I think, and teach them, it's really up to you in your own discernment. So I really appreciate that that perspective that you have.
Len Arcuri 9:03
Yep, no, it's it's it's it's important, and I think a lot of while there's a lot of good resources out there, it's just a an aspect of this journey that is lost sometimes. That ultimately, you know, whether we like it or not, as parents, right? Whether we like it or not, how we're showing up, how we're navigating, how we're implementing-you know, taking action-it's huge the influence that has. I mean, it really does, in many ways, determine your child's trajectory, whatever that might be. It has an incredible amount of influence. So that's where I know there's a hesitation sometimes for parents to reach out for support because they think, okay, that's taking energy away from me focusing on my child. But that's where that's a huge mistake. And whether it's you know one-on-one coaching, or whether it's going to a conference, or whether it's you know going into a community type, the right community where you have the right people around you, and I know you have your healing together community. There's lots of ways parents can allow support in terms of how they're navigating this once in a lifetime journey for their child, but sometimes I think there's initial hesitation to even taking that first step because it seems like okay, well, no, but I need to focus on my kid.
Beth Lambert 10:17
I mean, of course, that makes total sense. How how would I mean we're just wired that way as parents to put our children's needs before our own, but I think the the misunderstanding is that there there is that they're one and the same. Our needs are our children's needs, and we can't. It's the whole you know you can't pour from an empty cup kind of thing we hear all the time, and and we're learning more and more as as science reveals this to us just how much our systems or our children are intertwined. It's like our nervous systems are in lockstep with our children. So if our nervous systems are dysregulated, their nervous systems are dysregulated. They are looking to us for cues, so I think that's part of the the learning and the awareness that it's not selfish to work on your own health. It's not selfish to work on your own regulation because you should know that that is providing benefit to your child. And in fact, sometimes that's a foundational need for your child is to have a parent that's regulated, that where they can feel safe, because the body can't heal if the body doesn't feel safe. Yep,
Len Arcuri 11:26
and and that's why if your child is, from their perspective, receiving or or experiencing an environment that doesn't feel safe, then again it's very hard for a lot of the other things you might be doing to benefit your child, which is why parents, we can't control a lot of this. What's happening, you know, in in the environment in our in in our in our world, but we can definitely we can definitely control how we're showing up. So to the extent that our energy is something that's not supporting our child, right? That that they're receiving in in let's just say a not helpful way. You know we can do something about that, which is why if you're running on fumes, if you're anxious, if your nervous system is dysregulated as an apparent, okay, that just may be reality. But it's something that you actually can do something about, and the impact of that, not only for yourself but for your child, is not small.
Beth Lambert 12:21
That's right, right. I mean, I I feel like I this is something that people were talking about, you know, even a couple decades ago. Like, if you think of the Sunrise program, the Sunrise program, which is so much about co-regulation and so much about sort of connection with your child, you know, that so that's something that's been known for a long time. That I really feel like it is starting to become much more discussed in in popular culture. I think people are starting to acknowledge it and and become aware of it. Probably because our society is so dysregulated. Just as a function of living in the modern world, it is fast paced. It is like the stressors and the the pressures on people are just so much that I think people's bodies are breaking down, and you know our kids, of course, are the canaries in the coal mine. But it's happening to all of
Len Arcuri 13:08
us, right? Well, I don't think there's any better organization than yours in terms of really providing the the evidence of the impact of stressors in the environment, particularly right. So environmental stressors will absolutely, without a doubt, have a potential role in holding your child back, holding you back. So, having more awareness of these stressors, and then taking action to do something about that to to minimize exposures, etc. That is a really key part of navigating. And I think what we were both kind of just touching on is that, yes, environmental factors like mold, electromagnetic fields, heavy metals-the list of toxins is endless. Glyphosate. But one way of looking at this is, as a parent, the way we're showing up, we want to make sure we're not doing it in a way that's actually a stressor for our child.
Beth Lambert 13:57
I actually went through that myself. I think I, you know, when I first learned about all of the things in our environment that our stressors on the body and would be contributing to, you know, different kinds of symptoms and diagnoses in our children, it was like this sense of like panic, like oh my god, everything is toxic around me. You know, it's it's we grew up in this culture that is synthetic and plastic and chemicalized, and everything that is normal is toxic, and once you see it, you can't unsee it. And it does kind of put you in a state of fight or flight. You're like, oh my gosh, I have to protect my children from all the EMS and the mold and the plastics and the toxins and all the things, right? So, I mean, that alone, just the awareness alone, can put you into a really dysregulated state. But it's important to remember what you said a moment ago, which is control what you can control. You know, you may not be able to control what's being, you know, sprayed in the next the neighbor next to you. You may not be able to control every little thing, but do what you can within your home, within your environment to control things. And and again, coming back to this idea of. Knowing that the body has this like innate ability to heal, and you know you do the best you can to remove as many of those obstacles to healing as possible. But it's okay if you can't control everything. The body's constantly working towards that state of healing and balance, and it has some forgiveness. I mean, it's incredibly resilient, right? So you cannot control everything. I love that's why I love the 8020 rule that people use. People talk about the 8020 rule for you know diet and nutrition a lot of times. Like you do the best you can, eat organic and whole food, nutrient dense 80% of the time. And and 20% of the time, if you have to like you can't quite get there because you you know you can't buy this thing organic or whatever it is. You you do the best you can, and that's a that's I think a healthy nervous system regulating kind of way to to move through our modern world.
Len Arcuri 15:51
I fully believe in that, and I'll even take it a step further. Where you know the 8020 is about doing a few things that'll move the needle the most, and really focusing your time and energy there. So so under that frame, if you do discern a few actions that you think are going to really help your child, do them really really well and commit, because otherwise it's easy to also take the concept of I'll do the best I can. Where if you're doing let's say a diet change because you think it's creating inflammation, then it may not be okay to do it five days a week, and then two days a week you're off of it, right? So I think there's a way of applying that principle in a powerful way. And again, my lesson learned personally, and what I've seen with other families is, yeah, the the more powerful move is to really discern where to focus, what moves make the biggest difference? And it may not be many, but do those really well. Don't do 20 things and try to look around you and say, "Okay, I need to do what everyone else is doing, because that's a definite recipe for burnout.
Beth Lambert 16:53
I love that. That's so important. It's the it's the commitment. I see this a lot because people will try a particular modality, and they'll try it once or twice and be like, "It didn't work. And I think that's because if you think about the psychology of healthcare and what our experience has been culturally, you know, we saw, you know, pharmaceuticals rise in this in this past century, right? Like all of a sudden, you had people dying from tuberculosis and all these, you know, infectious diseases, and then you had antibiotics. And what did an antibiotic do? It immediately restored somebody's health, whereas they would have died before. You know that kind of experience of this like miracle pill really captured, you know, the American imagination, and it still it still persists. This idea that like you know there's a quick fix to this, and if I do it once and it doesn't work, it it just it's not working. So I see that a lot with modalities, like whether that's like neurosensory kind of modalities, OT, you know, speech or chiropractic or craniosacral. But really, what you're talking about is choosing where you're going to get your most bang for the buck and commit. And an example of that is the like the pediatric chiropractic, where you know you can go one time, two times, three times. It's not going to move the needle, but if you make it a consistent commitment to go routinely, you're retraining that body, you're retraining the nervous system. So that really applies for a lot of different healing modalities. But I love the what you said about just stick with it and make a commitment. Diet could be another example. Like just go in on all that diet, but stick with
Len Arcuri 18:27
it. Yep. Yeah. No, I think that's well said. And you know, sure, we all kind of you know look into hey, what's gonna what's gonna really help? And it's easy to get kind of you know intrigued by like these major intervention interventions that might be out there, perhaps costly, perhaps you know fill in the blank, but the key really is that perhaps your best moves are more simple, but maybe not so much interventions as much as it's new habits, new lifestyle changes. That if you do consistently day after day, the cumulative effect of maybe just some subtle changes could make a huge difference.
Beth Lambert 19:03
Yeah, for sure, for sure. And right now, I mean, as you were saying at the at the outset of of our talk here, there's so much more now that's available than there was even just a few decades ago in terms of therapies and interventions and help and support and coaches and that you know that's really encouraging. So it's to like pick your lane and really do it well.
Len Arcuri 19:25
No, I agree, and and I think you know you I think you might be the the top return guest. You've been on you've been on several times, and I know you have so many ways you know with you documenting up your whole organization to really help parents with you know what they need to be able to to step into that that stronger version of themselves and to help their child, you know. I know this year in November you have another event coming up. Would you like to talk a little bit about that? Because I found conferences can be really powerful, but they're inconvenient because you have to physically get up and and. And fly somewhere, or you know. Now I know people can participate virtually, but I know a lot of effort goes into you know scheduling and and running these conferences. Tell me, tell the listeners about the thought process with what you had planned for November.
Beth Lambert 20:14
Yeah, so we do a lot of different programming for parents throughout the year. We have our online membership community called Hailing Together, where we can meet virtually. We have resources on our website. You know, all of that's wonderful and great, but there is nothing like getting the bodies in the room together and feeling connected to other people who are on that path with you, or getting a chance to you know meet people in person that you otherwise wouldn't have been able to meet. You know, maybe it's a some expert, or maybe it's you know somebody that you follow on on Instagram. There is something magical that happens when you get people together for a shared purpose. So we hold this conference in November. It's the Health and Healing Expo. It's in Orlando, Florida, November 21 and 22nd, and the you know the purpose of doing these in person events is to create that magic, is to create that that ability for people to be in one room saying we're all here to learn how to heal our kids, or from the perspective of the speakers and experts that are there, we are here to share our knowledge about how to heal kids. So like that kind of like you you walk in the room and I know you've been at our events before, Len, so you could probably you know give your feedback on this. But you kind of feel like it's a family reunion because all the people there get it like they get it that you know the one of the struggles I think so many parents have is that they feel like they're the only ones because this hasn't made it mainstream yet, right? So when your child gets an autism diagnosis, or your child has you know some kind of autoimmune disease, you are not told about healing. That's not part of the standard of care. You're told here's management therapies or here's management drugs, but what what you don't know at that moment, and hopefully you know soon, is that there's this whole community of people-they're all over the place-that are like, nah, I don't buy that. I don't buy that narrative that this is lifelong, that this is genetic. I'm going to seek out what solutions there are to help my child heal. These are people who believe in the fundamental capacity of the human body to heal and overcome these challenges. So when you get all those people together in one room, all of a sudden you feel normal. You feel like you belong. You feel like you're part of something that's like you know like a breakthrough. Because the way I see it is, this is the future of healthcare, and it's happening already. Like you can see these these shifts in adult care, like function health, which is you know they do this telehealth where you get your functional medicine labs, and it's personalized, and it's bio individual, and it's looking at the root causes. So that's like just cresting in the in the adult healthcare space. It's not covered by insurance yet, but it's getting there, right? So when you get the group of parents and practitioners and experts together who are doing this root cause healing work for kids. You're like I'm part of that next generation of healthcare that's coming down the pike. It's just not there yet. So there's this sense of like I'm part of a movement. I'm part of a a group that's at the cutting edge, and I love that part. And I'll tell you what happens. Like another example of the magic. So our conferences in the past, they've been heavily focused on topics related to kids who have autism or pans and pandas or really complex chronic illness, chronic Lyme. And in our 2023 or 24 conference, I can't remember which one it was, there were a group of parents that came because they have kids with type one diabetes. Now we don't have a lot of cases of type one diabetes that have been reversed.
Beth Lambert 23:44
There's a few cases of adults that report it, but there's nothing in the medical literature. It's one of these autoimmune diseases that is really kind of a holdout, and I think there's a lot of reasons for it. We've documented MS, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Hashimoto's, like all of these autoimmune diseases have been documented in the medical literature as fully reversed. It's happening all over in clinics, not yet with type one diabetes. So yeah, type
Len Arcuri 24:08
two type two diabetes. Yes, that's that's much more manageable. But type one's a very different animal.
Beth Lambert 24:14
That's right, and I think the reason why it hasn't been reversed yet, like think about something like MS. Like MS is a debilitating, horrific disease if left to progress, but people are like Terry Walls is this amazing physician researcher who's led an entire movement of people who are reversing their MS, following her you know her methods and and her strategies. So it's like if we can reverse MS, why can't we reverse type one? It's it's an autoimmune disease. I think the reason why we haven't is because it is you're dealing with life and death every day with your insulin and your blood glucose. Like you could die on either high blood sugars or low blood sugars, and so people don't mess with it. You're not going to biohack it. But I will tell you this: at that conference, this group of type one diabetes moms got together. They found each other somehow. This is what I mean by the. Magic of these in-person events. They wouldn't have found each other online necessarily, but they're all in the room because they're like, I think kids can heal, and we all share that common belief. They found each other, they connected online, and now they are pursuing the reversal of type one diabetes through root cause functional medicine. And what we're doing as sort of a little side event with the the Health and Healing Expo in November is we're having a type one diabetes think tank, and we are bringing together experts and parents who have kids with type one or have an expertise in autoimmune reversal, and we're bringing them into a room and asking the question, why not type one diabetes? Why can't we reverse this? So that's an outgrowth of getting the people in the room and figuring this out, like creative problem solving. So that's what is one of the features of an in-person conference that I'm really excited about is because it it provides this opportunity for engagement, connection, creative problem solving. So hopefully, out of this next event in November, we'll have some other tangents like that. You know that people will be pursuing new lines of thinking or new ways of of understanding health and healing. And like I said before, we're learning so much. We know so much more now than ever before. But gosh, what I would really love to see is to make it easier and simpler for parents that are navigating this this journey. Like that's a problem we haven't figured out totally yet. Like there's a lot more that we could do to make it an easier journey for for these kids to reverse their conditions. So hopefully that kind of you know something will come out of our event that way where people will begin to to chew on that problem.
Len Arcuri 26:42
Yep. No, that's a problem I've given lots of deep thought to. So yes. So so yes. To make this easier for parents, again, there's so much on so many elements of this journey. But having a a roadmap, a playbook, a way of helping parents really to just become equipped to to To be able to even more than they are now to to make great decisions for their child, and again, it's all very individualistic, and and what a parent is wanting for their child can vary as well. I know you've thrown a few terms out, which I just want to focus on because even using terms in in this space of regarding children can be viewed by some. Some people can take offense to it. It could be controversial. So you're throwing around words like recovery, healing, right? And again, some people feel like, hey, especially autism. What do you mean? You know, it's like a lifelong condition, and you're giving false hope. But you know, I think all bottom line, and then you you feel free to add what you think makes sense, but you know it doesn't matter what the condition is, what the label is. It's all about hey, these kids, particularly ones with complex challenges. There's lots of factors, so all we're talking about is for a parent to really understand, meet their child where they are, and doing taking actions that help their child thrive, you know, so their bodies can operate the way they were designed, and that's really what we're talking about here. Whether a parent uses it, describes it as I'm trying to heal my child, or recover my child, or just help my child thrive, it really doesn't matter. It's all the same thing, and there's nothing wrong with a parent wanting more for their child and channeling their energy accordingly.
Beth Lambert 28:22
Yeah, and it's just really about optimizing, you know, your child's health and your child's functioning and their and their daily life and and how they move through the world. The word recovery healing is used a lot by parents. Like that's what they'll say. Like they'll say, I, you know, we we've recovered my son, or we recovered my daughter. They'll make that kind of statement because that's what resonates with them. That is what is true for them. Some parents will say, you know, we're we're working, we're on the healing journey. We've identified some things that are imbalanced, and we are trying to optimize my child's health. And I think that you know you use the terms that that work for you. But at the end of the day, I think what you said is spot on. The diagnosis it doesn't really truly matter. It is a label that we use that describes a cluster of symptoms. Sometimes those diagnoses help us get extra support that we need, so that the diagnosis serves a purpose. I'm not saying we want to totally get rid of diagnoses. It it does help us get like you know services in school and different kinds of therapeutic support. But when you're captivated by the diagnosis as a permanent thing, that doesn't serve anybody. So it's it's like you kind of use the diagnosis for what you need it for, but remove it from your mindset in terms of outcomes, and instead just take it day by day and say to yourself, "What can I do to optimize my child's health? What can I do to help them become the most regulated, the most, the healthiest version of themselves?" And if that's your focus, you're going to have much better outcomes than if you're attached to a diagnosis.
Len Arcuri 30:06
Right, right. And I think a lot, maybe part of the resistance might be just this concept, you know, in terms of hey, if I'm if I'm really focusing too much here, that I might in some way be changing who my child really is. And I and I know so many people seem to wrestle with it. I don't understand why it's it's conflicting, but the idea of you know wanting more for your child, wanting to help them with these these challenges they have again, we can honor and respect our child as they are now, and from that place of acceptance, take discerned actions to help them, and just in case anyone feels any conflict, there really is no need for any conflict with that.
Beth Lambert 30:47
Yeah, I mean, the other thing is you don't want to negate the experience either. You know, so this is something I've learned from talking to adults who had an autism diagnosis who no longer have an autism diagnosis and can reflect back on their experiences, and everybody's experience is different. But I'll give you, I'll give you an example. You know, I know a woman who's about my age who had an autism diagnosis, developed Crohn's disease in her 20s, and began to see the connection between her gastrointestinal health and her autism symptoms. And she actually learned how to heal her Crohn's disease. Like many autoimmune diseases, when you focus on healing that gut, you know there's you're reversing the autoimmune process. So she was able to minimize or reduce most of her symptoms that classified as an autism diagnosis by healing her gut, by healing her Crohn's disease. And she will say things Like I have many gifts and experiences as a result of having had my autism experience. You know, she has an incredible sensitivity to perceive things that a lot of people don't have. You know, and she has a really interesting way of thinking of things and processing information. I mean, she can carry like she'll describe it like that. She can carry an entire library of information in her head. Like she has access to that. That is an incredible experience and an incredible gift. So you know, it's important to not negate the things that we experience and how they changed us. But it is important, I think, to do what we can to try and nourish our bodies and have our bodies be as healthy and as regulated as possible, so that we don't suffer with symptoms in our day to day life. So there's that balance, right, of appreciating and respecting the experience of autism or the experience that you had as your healing, and whatever pieces that you retain, you know whether that's like faster processing speed or sensitivity to emotions or whatever, that could be a total superpower. Could be a total superpower, but we don't want to let somebody continue to struggle with physical or mental health symptoms, if they don't have to, and so that's where I really, I really want parents to feel that the they should lean into the health piece and not so much, you know, getting caught up in the the labels and the diagnosis and what it means or what it doesn't mean. Just focus on optimizing health, and everything you know gets easier from there,
Len Arcuri 33:21
yeah, no, I I agree. Focus on optimizing health and focus on how you're showing up, right? Because the parent is the linchpin; they're the key. The everyone's energy and that family is going to feed off of the parent again, and that's and that's a great thing. It's not anything to be to be worried about. And the the key, the the reality is the parent is the key, and so no, I appreciate you sharing all that. With looking ahead, though, is there is there anything if you look ahead, like just next five years, is anything that you see on the horizon that's that excites you the most?
Beth Lambert 33:54
I, you know what it what does excite me is I did a deep dive into our system for supporting autism, like as a as a healthcare system, and we spend billions and billions and billions of dollars every year on behavioral therapy, and that's the only thing that's offered to parents right now is when your child gets a diagnosis, you have ABA, and that's all there is. So what excites me though is that the science, especially since AI and AI is just absolutely accelerating our knowledge and how quickly we can publish research papers and and things are just moving so quickly now. There is so much literature right now that defines autism and these neurodevelopmental conditions not as genetic, but as environmentally derived, as you know, physiological, biochemical, microbiome, metabolome-like all these pieces that are addressable-that it's no longer going to be deniable, and we're going to have to shift our system from like only paying for ABA to actually paying for medical care for kids with autism. And I feel like we're right around the corner because the technology and the tools are getting easier. And I'll give you an example that I just did an incredible dive on this the other day. There are retinal image scans that you can do that AI because we have AI now, and so just a couple years ago we couldn't do this retinal image scans that can reliably with up to 100% accuracy, diagnose autism spectrum disorder by taking a picture of your eye. And why they're doing be able to do that now is because AI now has the capacity to take 1000s of retinal images and analyze them in the in the way that a human couldn't do. It would just take too much time, and you know there wouldn't be enough specificity. So that's an example of a technology that's rooted in physiology and biology about what's going on in in autism, and that's going to be a diagnostic tool. So instead of you know waiting six to 12 months after a behavioral assessment, or even to get a behavioral assessment and then to get in the queue for ABA, what we're talking about in the future is all of a sudden you're going to go into the the optometrist, you get a retinal scan, and oh, yep, your child has autism. But not because there, it's a genetic behavioral condition, but because they're the eyes are actually part of the brain, and we're showing neuroinflammation, and we're showing all kinds of brain-related biochemical physiological things that are addressable. So that is what makes me excited. We're on the cusp of having the tools accessible for diagnosis and treatment of conditions. It's it's just getting the system to catch up. So we need like we need to be a little bit more of advocates to push the system in that direction. It's kind of like we need the what the Autism Speaks did in the early 2000s, where they just pushed and pushed and pushed to get ABA covered, we need to push and push and push and get medical care covered because the science is there, the technology is there. We just need a system to catch up.
Len Arcuri 36:54
Absolutely, and the key thing in what you said is that once you maybe have that diagnosis through a retinal scan, et cetera, and what that reveals, if it is neurological inflammation, the key thing is there are things you can do to address it, right? So, so, so again, getting that information is the first step. But the reality is, there's so many ways to that we can help our kids. And again, it comes down to really discerning what's going on with them. So, and I know that's really a big part of what your organization's about. So no, I appreciate you sharing all this. You know, one more time, if you want to talk about the the conference coming up, I know november 21, 20/21, and 22nd is it? Yeah, november 21 and 22nd in Orlando, correct?
Beth Lambert 37:36
Yeah, really close to the airport. We're at the Rosen Shingle Creek, which is less than 10 minutes from the airport. That's a two-day event, Saturday, Sunday, all day. We have speakers coming in talking about the microbiome, metabolism, photobiomodulation, mitochondria, nutrition. One of my favorite, two of my favorite features of this conference. We haven't done this before. We have a picky eating panel, which is you know for people who are having feeding challenges with their kids. We brought in the experts that can help you get through that process, and then we also have this awesome panel of parents who have been on the journey. So they're the veteran parents, and they have these great stories to share about what they did with their children, help their children overcome their diagnoses. So I'm super excited about those pieces. We have a huge expo hall, and we're trying to make our expo hall more experiential, so you can come in, you know, and and and get a ionic foot bath, or you know, experience photobiomodulation, or try some of these things on. So that's kind of like you know, for those of us who are biohacker health nerds who love you know learning about that stuff, we have that expo center too, which is which is the fun part.
Len Arcuri 38:42
All right, fantastic. Well, I'll include everything in the show notes. Encourage everyone take a look at the calendar. Again, as Beth said, there's nothing like being physically with people who get it, who understand, and sometimes just you know whether it's the presentations or just the side conversations you'll have with being in proximity can make huge differences in terms of how you're understanding what's happening and what you can do about it. So, Beth, thank you so much for sharing all this. And again, every time we talk, I know I always walk away feeling much more optimistic about what's possible. So, thank you.
Beth Lambert 39:14
Thank you, Len.
Len Arcuri 39:16
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 elevatehowyounavigate.com
