Episode 282 — TARGETED Support Transforms
Guest: Dr. Jerry Kartzinel • Date: November 20, 2025
Episode Overview
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel returns to share how precision and focus in nutrition and supplementation can make a profound difference for children on the spectrum. He explains why less, done with purpose, often works better than more, done at random.
About Dr. Jerry Kartzinel
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel is a Board-Certified pediatrician and a Fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics who specializes in the recovery of neurodevelopmental, chronic neuro-inflammatory diseases, and hormonal dysfunctions. He is the author of the best-selling book Healing and Preventing Autism (co-authored with Jenny McCarthy). Dr. Jerry has helped thousands of children on the autism spectrum through targeted, individualized medical care.
https://www.mendingnaturally.com/
You’ll Discover
Why Less Can Be More With Targeted Support (7:49)
How Parents Can Avoid Trial-And-Error Burnout (13:05)
The First Steps Dr. Jerry Recommends For Families (19:36)
Why Generic Protocols Rarely Deliver Transformation (25:15)
A Story Of Transformation Through Precision Support (32:54)
How Coaching Helps Parents Maximize Practitioner Guidance (39:04)
Referenced in This Episode
Full Transcript
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:00:00]:
I kind of cringe when people say we have the treatment for autism. And I've seen so many variations of autism. It's kind of like talking about dogs. I have a dog. Well, you sure would like to know what kind of dog it is. Is it a Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, or is it a Chihuahua? Is it a poodle? Has it got long hair? There's just so many different. But still a dog. Well, these are all children with autism, but there's so many variations.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:00:26]:
I've got autoimmune, I've got. I've got allergic. I've got inflammatory bowel syndrome, kids. I've got kids who've got increased pressure in their brain. And then, of course, the big one, Leucovorin, you know, that's the big one that was kind of touted as the treatment for autism. And I'm cringing going, which autism?
Len Arcuri [00:00:44]:
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. Every parent wants transformation for their child, but it doesn't come from guesswork. Real change happens when the right support is identified and applied with precision. And that's why I'm excited to welcome back Dr.
Len Arcuri [00:01:24]:
Jerry Cartsinel. He last joined us in episode 199. Autism is treatable, and Dr. Jerry is a trusted leader in functional medicine and pediatrics with decades of experience helping children on the spectrum. This conversation is about why doing less but with focus can work better than trying everything. And how targeted nutrition and supplements can bring results that may surprise you. If you felt overwhelmed by too many options or stuck in trial and error, this conversation will bring clarity. The secret this week is targeted support transforms.
Len Arcuri [00:02:01]:
Welcome, Dr. Jerry.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:02:02]:
Thank you so very much for having me. It's good to be back. 191. What number are we on now?
Len Arcuri [00:02:08]:
This is going to be around 280 or so. Weekly podcast for about five years, and it's a gift and an honor to be able to have people like you on the show, to be able to share your perspective. It's no exaggeration. Decades at this. You've been serving families for so long, and I just feel so privileged to be able to have your voice reach more listeners. And what we're talking about today May sound obvious to you and me, but for a lot of parents, like when I first started, I didn't mean to, but I was basically throwing the book at my son, whatever might work. And I know in retrospect that was a horrible strategy. So with that as a backdrop, what would you suggest to parents for them to understand within this space of targeted support?
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:02:55]:
I love this whole idea with targeted support because that's kind of been my approach as I have the patients interview them, try to figure out what's going on and then what do we need to target? So for example, if a child is not sleeping and is up or catnapping 30 minutes sleep and then up for 3 hours and 30 minutes, whatever the sleep issue is, we're going to target that, but we're not going to go with everybody else's arm waving. You need to have probiotics, you need to have this, you have to that. Not that they're bad, but my parents need to sleep, the child needs to sleep. And we'll use something that initially that the, the body makes. Body makes melatonin. It's not a foreign agent. I'll use melatonin. But it's a little more complicated that.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:03:45]:
Because what if the child's constipated and the child's waking up numerous times because the belly hurts because of constipation and the waves of contractions that the belly feels colicky pain that's waking the child up. Or what if the child is having pain from ice cream that they had that night because they can't process dairy? And I know you've had people on the show talking about gluten free and dairy free. So when we talk about targeted nutrition, we have to think kind of like how classical music is written multiple stanzas at a time. Yes, I like the melatonin, but I can't have constipation. We can't be putting things in like gluten and dairy if they're sensitive to gluten and dairy. Because I do have kids who they're not sensitive to gluten dairy and that, that frustrates parents because, well, we did gluten free and dairy free and we didn't see any improvements in our child. But the other kids we read, they're, they're incredible now on gf. So then I have to take a dietary history and because if I'm going to give them targeted nutrition, I have to try and figure out what are they not getting in their day to day food intake.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:04:54]:
So I'll have kids who are just eating french fries, rice, and chick fil A and they've been eating that for two years. And I'll ask the parents, if you just ate what your son or daughter ate for two years, how would you feel? How would you repair? How would you. And it's like, well, I feel terrible. Yeah, well, we all would. So then I have to say, okay, if I'm going to do targeted nutrition and I have a kid who's eating. They eat fruits, they eat vegetables, we eat protein, we do everything. Then from a multivitamin nutritional point of view, I don't have to do so much. But for the kid who's just eating french fries and bacon and Froot Loops, I have to do a lot to resuscitate their vitamins and their minerals because they haven't been getting them.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:05:43]:
And they're very irritable, cranky, not sleeping, constipated or chronic diarrhea kids. And they have to look at the body. Some of these kids come in like roly poliolis. They're way overweight. They're getting plenty of calories, or they just look like they walked in. They're like they have been malnourished and they look terrible. I mean, real skinny little arms, skinny legs. The way they walk, it's kind of a wide base gait as opposed to a regular walk.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:06:14]:
And they're shaking things and rattling stuff. Each one of these kids is different. So I. I kind of cringe when. When people say we have the treatment for autism. And I've seen so many variations of autism. It's kind of like talking about dogs. I have a dog.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:06:35]:
Well, you sure would like to know what kind of dog it is. Is it a Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, Or is it a Chihuahua? Is it a poodle? Is it got long hair? Is it. There's just so many different. But still a dog. Well, these are all children with autism, but there's so many variations. I've got autoimmune, I've got allergic. I've got inflammatory bowel syndrome kids. I've got kids who've got increased pressure in their brain.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:06:59]:
And then, of course, the big one, leucovorin, you know, that's the big one that was kind of touted as the treatment for autism. I'm cringing going, which autism? Well, I know which autism it is. It's the one that has cerebral folate deficiency or these antibodies that are either binding to the folic acid or the blocking it from going to where it needs to go. But if you don't have those problems. It's not going to help. Okay, so. So that's how it gets targeted, by taking a good history and looking at the problems. Does the child have anxieties? The child have obsessive compulsive behaviors? Does the child turn to his name? Does the child understand everything but just can't speak? Does the child.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:07:44]:
The child make eye contact? Not eye contact. Is there night blindness in the family? Mom can't see well at night or grandma can't see well at night? Then you talk about, you know, a special form of vitamin A. So in, in that. That's why in my office, I don't have nurse practitioners working for me. It's just me. Because it's not Dr. Jerry's way. I don't have a method, you know, oh, this is the such and such method for recovery from autism.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:08:12]:
My method is to understand each unique child and figure out what intonations is not working and what is, because a lot of things are working great. Some of these kids sleep super. Some of these kids can't have a bowel movement but once a week. So I do want to talk more about nutrition, but then I have to throw the ball. Well, how are we going to do this if I don't have a, a case to talk about? So we can make up a case and maybe one that seems to be a little bit more common. It's kind of like a bell shaped curve. There are certain commonalities, certain traits that some of these kids have. But I do want to make sure I answer or dialogue with questions that you wanted to get out during this conversation today.
Len Arcuri [00:08:58]:
Yeah, no, I think we could definitely take kind of a base case example and to maybe walk that through. But I so appreciate the fact that what you're basically going deeper on is the idea that there is no one size fits all in terms of a protocol, a sequential step. It is so individualized. And the way I would look at it or the way I process it with my mind is it all comes down to really discerning the top root causes that are behind whatever your child's exhibiting, whether it's behavioral issues or physical issues. So I think what you do and why it's just you, it's. How about really understanding what's going on with that child and helping the parent to discern what for their child are the most important moves to make to be able to meet your child's needs, irrespective of whatever the diagnosis is. And I also appreciate the fact that in many cases there's so much that is going right for the child that's so easy for a parent to not even consider because they're only focused on what's not. So it's that totality of what's happening with the child.
Len Arcuri [00:10:05]:
And again, having the effort that a parent's expending going on, what's the fit for them and their child? And that's why, yes, this week, or last week rather, with the announcement about Lucavorin being approved as a treatment, it's not the treatment, but it's a treatment. And discerning whether that is even relevant for your child is extremely important, which is why having a guide like you walking alongside of a parent is so important.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:10:31]:
Well, that's, that's so true. And you know, the, in the old days, if you wanted to make the diagnosis that, that, you know, that leucovorin would be helpful is you'd have to do a spinal tap to see if they have a cerebral folate deficiency or do the antibodies testing for it or just write the prescription, give it a try and see if the kid gets better. It is just vitamin B, as in Bravo 9. And I saw in my, I have patients just like, I'm sure you've been hearing questions. Oh, well, we want, we want that 50 milligrams of. And it's like, whoa, that's a huge dose. We don't start. And it's like when they talk about that, are they talking about a 2 year old? Are they talking about 5 year old? Notice they never mention ages or weights when they talk about when people go, well, we're using 80 milligrams a day.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:11:21]:
How big is your kid? That's a lot. So I think one of the things that we have to understand is I always start with a small dose and work my way up, dial in the dose for that particular child. More is not necessarily better. So I have kids where, if I started them, say at 20 milligrams of something, and since we're talking about Leucovorum, we could just use that. But If I start 20 milligrams of something and the kid gets irritable and cranky and mom says, I'm never using that again, throws it away, oh, I may have started too high. Maybe we should start at a lower dose. Nope, nope. Dad says, no more of that stuff.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:11:56]:
So I missed the window. So there's what we call a therapeutic window. And for example, a glass or two of wine is wonderful, but a bottle is too much. There is a window of something that really works well. Okay. And you have to find that. And sometimes a lot of time what I do is I creep into that window because one child's window's here and another child's here. But if I started here, that's way too much.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:12:22]:
Okay? So I start low and I titrate or dial in the dose for that child moving up relatively quickly. But I don't want to blow them out of the water because these kids will become irritable, they'll have problems sleeping, they'll start screaming, they'll start stimming more because I'm overstimulating the brain with something in this case like leucovorin. So in fact, I had that this week as your listeners probably can imagine. Oh, well, we want 50 milligrams of such and such. I said, no, you're wrong, doctor, we don't do that here. We'll start with 15 or 10 and work our way up and say I'll make it there, but give me some credit here. But you have a very well informed, very intelligent audience right now. So I know they've heard about this.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:13:07]:
So from what they've heard already, I know they've heard gluten free, dairy free. So I'm going to assume in our base model, if you will, our base child who comes in a four year old with autism who's stimming, walking on their toes, not sleeping. Great. And we are already gluten free, dairy free, but we're constipated. So I'm going to put them on something to help them move their stools. Now we'll step into some controversial areas, but we're going to talk about it anyway. If the child is super picky, I mean, can smell a molecule off, I'll use Miralax, colorless, odorless and tasteless. And I can hear the people going, oh, but you know, it's just fraught with all these dangers and it's poison, it's polyethylene glycol and stuff.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:13:54]:
And I'll sit there and say, okay, great, you sit in this chair and tell this set of parents what to give this kid who won't take anything and is constipated up to his eyeballs because everything else for constipation has a taste profile and they taste this stuff, they smell this stuff and obviously if they see you put something in their drink, it's over. Okay, so we have to work now. I have kids. Oh, he'll take anything. He'll take anything. Oh, then I'll use a magnesium product or something like that. But they, they have some funky flavors to it. Oh, but he takes everything.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:14:25]:
He doesn't care. Then I'll use the more natural things that I can. He won't eat anything but chocolate. That's all he eats. Doctors chocolate. Well, I'll use chocolatey flavored exact. Oh, but you'll become addicted to it or whatever. The kid's going to end up in the hospital and have an emergency decompression of his bowels if he doesn't move his poop.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:14:46]:
And you're worried about what? So I have to work with the individual temperaments of the parents too. Temperaments of the child. And from that, pick what I need from my tool chest to help that child immediately. Then we can get the child to be more flexible and be more apt to take other. Oh, he's now doing smoothies. Wonderful. I can hide anything in a smoothie, but I'll tell you stuff. I can hide things in Coca Cola.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:15:14]:
He just drinks soda. Now the doctor cap will say, oh, he should not drink soda. It's got high fructose corn syrup, it's got this and that and it's sugar load. He should never have that. On the other hand, it may be the only way I can get supplements into him or the game's over, it's a no go. Because I know there's people out there. We can put them on their skin and they'll go into transdermally. I haven't seen that.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:15:38]:
I haven't seen the improvement because I'm a clinical physician, which means that if I do something, I expect to see results. For example, child's not sleeping, I give melatonin. What do I want to hear? The next day I email the office. He slept great. He did not sleep great. Then I'll increase the dose. So when I do things for language, when I do things for constipation, when I do things for hyperactivity, when I. There are certain things I do, like vitamin D.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:16:04]:
Everybody in your group knows now vitamin D is so important, but nobody ever calls me up and thanks me because I put their kid on vitamin D and he's so much better. It works behind the scenes. Great for health, great for mood, great for a lot of things. But behaviors from autism, not going to help. Okay, so that's the approach. So I've got this little guy, he's gluten free, dairy free, he's constipated, he is not picky. I'll use magnesium citrate. It comes usually in a green or white bottle at the pharmacy.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:16:36]:
And I'll have to of course, come up with the right dose for the age. So I can't unfortunately give to your audience the doses Dr. Jury uses because obviously it's going to be different for a 2 year old than it'll be for a 12 year old. I have kids who have this functional. They just can't move their bowels. They can't move their bowels at all. And it's a real problem for them. And we have to figure that out.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:17:02]:
Sometimes we have to send them to the gastroenterologist for biopsies to see if, if the nerve plexus of the colon are intact or not. That's called Hirschsprung's disease. So there are different, various degrees of how involved I have to get. Sometimes I just put them on a little bit of Miralax and they're moving their bowels every day. They clean themselves out, they fill the toilet and oh, doc, he's so much calmer and he's not aggressive, he's not violent, he's just beautiful. And there was a stool issue problem with stool accumulating in the bowels. And I know that your listeners have heard this. I'm just going to remind them they tend to grow bacteria and yeast and those affect behaviors targeted again.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:17:44]:
So I would love to use caprylic acid, garlic, oregano to help mitigate the growth of these bad bacteria and or yeast. Problem is, who wants to take a teaspoon of oregano and put it into apple juice? They won't drink it. They can swallow a capsule. That's a different story. But they won't. So now I have to use a real medication. And again, we try not to, but the kids limit us. They love Yummy.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:18:20]:
Ibuprofen, Motrin, never Tylenol. But to take them to take curcumin, which is an anti inflammatory. That's a tough sell in any drink or beverage. So we gotta be mindful when we talk about supplements and not to have your parents pull their hair out because the kid won't take it. He won't take it. He won't take it. And you can disguise it, but you know that's the first thing I do. What does your child drink? He drinks only water.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:18:51]:
Oh boy, I'm in trouble. And will he drink any water? Oh no, it has to be Fuji water. If I try and use any other water, he will not drink it. She goes, I even take the other water and put it in a Fuji bottle. He knows he won't drink it. That's going to be a tough one for me. Okay. Because he's great at counterfeit to detecting.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:19:13]:
In other words, some of these kids have a hypersmell. They can smell things, they can hear things. Some kids, they taste stuff. And man, you can discern the difference between Dasani water and Fuji water and reject one. My parents out there say, well, I can taste the difference between Dasani and Fuji. Yeah, but would you not drink it? No. Drink it. These kids will.
Len Arcuri [00:19:33]:
What you're highlighting though, is something that, and I know you have decades experience seeing so many kids, but it's not a small percent of the kids who are super sensitive who can identify and smell out anything that's added. So now I'm fortunate. My son has always been one of those that he'll take whatever he took. Curcumin like he would take it in smoothies and drink. I don't know how he did. But especially for parents who I coached, it's a high percent who have those kids who won't eat anything. If anything's been added to it, they can sniff it out. So I appreciate that.
Len Arcuri [00:20:11]:
Hey, in certain instances you have to look at your, your toolbox and use what's going to be effective because I know you're starting with constipation. Not randomly. My guess is in terms of what might be happening with a child, constipation is not a minor. Like we all think that's kind of a minor issue, but for a child, particularly on a spectrum, it's a major issue for all the reasons you just mentioned, right?
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:20:33]:
Oh, absolutely. Like, all right, again, I can talk to an audience such as yours with understanding, I would say, or joke. Joke that Miralax is my favorite seizure medicine. Miral, how. Why would you say that? Because of the fact that constipation makes whatever you do for autism 10 times worse. So if you are prone to having seizures and you get constipated, you're going to have a lot more seizures each day. Now remember, 30% of my practice has seizures and they can have up to 200 seizures a day. Some of the kids I take care of, it's 30%.
Len Arcuri [00:21:07]:
Wow, that's, that's, that's a good.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:21:09]:
So if constipation is making their aggression worse, their anxiety worse, their inability to follow instructions worse, their seizures worse, I have to decompress their bowels. It's a sewer system. And if the sewer system is full, the rats are going to grow. That's the bacteria and yeast. So obviously we Got behind the eight ball with the parent with the seizures and the constipation. So what happened? Well, you. He was doing so good, I didn't think he needed his medicines anymore, so we stopped him. Okay, so there's a period of time that I call managed recovery.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:21:44]:
As long as we're gluten free, dairy free, and taking the supplements that we're doing, and they're doing well, you don't want to take them off, but it's the inclination. Well, because it's expensive, it's a lot of work and we just want to take the summer off. He has all this stuff and we're just tired of giving it to him. Maybe he doesn't need anymore. And we took him out for pizza. And then I hear about it, of course, the next week, and then we're so sorry. I said, no, it's a good thing you did that. They go, huh? I said, because it's cemented in your mind, this is necessary and you won't do it again.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:22:13]:
Okay, so it's a trial by fire, or maybe not my best way to do it, but it works. And both, everybody, both grandma and grandpa now are very convinced that they can't treat the kid to regular cookies when mom and dad went out because there was, you know, issues following that. So it's again, very, very individualized. Like you're saying your son would take everything. My son would too. You put it in a syringe and my son would take. You put it in his water, his food, he wouldn't touch it. But if you put it in a syringe, he would take it.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:22:43]:
Okay. Even it was like the real. This was, you know, my son's 29, so this would have been cod liver oil, you know, like from 25 years ago. That really thick, oily, fishy, smelling, rancid material. He'd love it and suck it down. Okay. And I tell them, go, go kiss your mom now. You know, because oil gets everywhere.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:23:01]:
So, yeah, you have to be kind of mindful. You know, I was thinking, because you said, well, what are your favorite supplements? And it's like, well, my favorite supplement is the ones that work for your particular child. I don't care about the others. It's just that if your child has great bowel movements every day, we don't even need to be talking about constipation. Let's move on to find out. Well, he's got a lot of anxiety, a lot of transition issues. He's clawing, scratching, biting, kicking, breaking stuff. And he's merciless to his younger sissy that now just rose to the top of what we're doing.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:23:35]:
You got lion and they're destroying the house. That. I'm going to work on that. Okay. So I kind of. You come to me with 10 problems, I have to stack them. Like you said, prioritize, which are the ones that we need to address and target those. Get rid of those now.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:23:53]:
We get rid of those. That's great. He's now a sweetheart, no longer attacking his sister. He's wonderful. But then I get five more things that rise to the top. But can you get more language out of him and can you get him to. And so we have to do it that way. I can't do everything at once.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:24:07]:
We have to go for the 1, 2 or 3 worst things that are really affecting his quality of life as well as the quality of life of the family.
Len Arcuri [00:24:18]:
Right. No, that makes sense. And actually, as you're talking though, again, I think there's this interplay between the symptoms, what the child's exhibiting that the parent wants to help them with. And again, there's maybe a lot going on and there is a sequencing.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:24:33]:
Right.
Len Arcuri [00:24:33]:
That makes sense, that you're familiar with. But ultimately, isn't it still about once you have that intake and it's about, okay, well, what are the root causes that are behind that aggressive behavior? Right. So my guess is, as you're trying to discern what makes the most sense, it does come down to what's at the root that's resulting in those behaviors. Where if constipation is happening now, that's kind of in the moment, a key root cause to focus on. As you were talking about aggression, which is very common to just high level. What could be some root causes that you've seen that might be fueling that aggressive behavior?
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:25:14]:
Okay, so if you've got the gluten free, dairy free diet, you've gotten the stools taken care of, you've taken care of bacteria and yeast with antibiotics, antifungals. Okay. And the stools look great. And you're resuscitating that child with vitamins, minerals if they need it because they're very picky eaters. Omega oils. If we're irritable and cranky, could be because we're missing fats. Okay, so the omega oils. Oh, no, my kid eats salmon every week.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:25:48]:
We have three times a week. Then it's probably not the issue. Loves guacamole and avocado. He's eating that all the time. But a lot of These kids don't. So we make sure that they're vitamin ice, mineralized, oilized, they're pooping great, they're sleeping good.
Len Arcuri [00:26:02]:
And.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:26:02]:
And we still have a child who's anxious and aggressive and ADD and not communicating and not playing with toys properly. Then we have to think about not so much supplements, but we have to think about what's going on. Usually I find that they have adrenaline issues, okay? Adrenaline. The brain is perceiving situations in their life as a crisis. And when the brain perceives a situation as a crisis in human beings, it tells the adrenal glands that sit on top of the kidneys release adrenaline. Okay? That's what's happening. We can prove that hypothesis in the child by measuring their heart rates. So adrenaline does a lot of things.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:26:55]:
Increases respiratory rate and blood pressure and dilates pupils, but it always raises the heart rate. So I can actually, for some of the kids who are willing and get like, a Fitbit watch, and we can see what their heart rates are doing all day, and then they can download it to their smartphone, do print screen, and I can see the big peaks and stuff. I had one little girl in my office and sitting in her mom's lap, she looked calm, but her heart rate was 148. Okay, so she's bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom. So if adrenaline is an issue, then we have to take care of that. Now, there are in the human being two types of adrenaline. We have adrenaline and noradrenaline. And I liken it to the adrenaline of a rabbit and the adrenaline of a lion.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:27:37]:
The rabbit adrenaline gets the child to be hyperactive. Add my nail biters, my chewers, my pickers. Okay, kids not speaking, they look add, they have adrenaline. If you go to the pediatrician, oh, well, your kid's got adrenaline. Let's give them a stimulant like fiveans or Adderall, which is an amphetamine derivative. Or they'll go to the methylphenidates like Ritalin and concerta siloid. Oh, great. That's a cocaine derivative.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:28:10]:
So you're going to give a kid with too much adrenaline some stimulant. What could possibly go wrong with that? And, oh, yeah, we tried the riddle, and it was a disaster. The other adrenaline, not the rabbit, it's actually called noradrenaline. Nor noradrenaline. You know, when. When the lioness is chasing after the zebra for dinner, she too is adrenalized. Focus, kill. This noradrenaline is the dangerous one.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:28:41]:
This is the One that causes our kids to do the severe self injurious behaviors, the big bites on themselves. They'll bite you, headbutt you, kick you, pinch you, scratch you. Okay. Or property destruction. They break stuff. Their iPhones, your television set. And of course, I've had kids who put their heads through the window pane and then end up with 42 stitches. You know, they look like Frankenstein's monster after that.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:29:07]:
It's just terrible. And the thing about autism that your families know is they don't learn. Meaning that they can do that and they will do it again. It's like, don't you remember the last time you put your head through a window? You ended up in the ER and they had to hold you down and stitch you up and port. You did this again. It's like, what is wrong? So autism, they don't learn from their mistakes, which makes, from a parenting point of view, very difficult to discipline because they don't learn. And then parents will say to me, how do I discipline this? Well, we've got an adrenaline issue. They're perceiving things as a crisis.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:29:41]:
They're releasing adrenaline. And the good news is we can block both of those adrenaline reactions. Not with mentally intrusive drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, Zyprexa, Risperdal, Abilify. Because you go see a psychiatrist, that's what they'll use. You would never use Abilify or Prozac for a urinary tract infection. Why would you use it for an adrenaline issue? That's not where they're working. That's a bad idea. So there are ways that we can.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:30:09]:
With medications. Because unfortunately, the natural things that I love to use if I can, like valerian root, nashwagandha, they don't have enough horsepower to get the job done. That kid needs a 400 horsepower motor to fix this. And these are like 45. They work, but.
Len Arcuri [00:30:26]:
So it could be helpful for some kids. But generally speaking, not.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:30:30]:
Not the ones. Okay, no, not the ones I see. The easy ones to take care of don't come and see me. They've already been taken care of by the rest of the practitioners out there. I get the ones who have seen two or three people and they come to me on multiple seizure meds or psych meds or whatever, and it's like. And it's not helping. Okay, it's not helping. So they heard about me or whatever, and they come and see me.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:30:52]:
So I love to see the child who heard about me. And they haven't been Gluten free, dairy free, and they're three years old and nobody's worked on them before, so that's kind of fun. But generally, these are the kids that I see, and there is a lot of hope and help for these, the group of children with autism with violent aggression. Okay, okay, let's get away from adrenaline. What if it's hormonal? Okay. You got to test for the hormones. Maybe these eight, nine year old girls have polycystic ovarian syndrome and they have a ton of male hormones going through their system, and that's what's making them violent, irritable, cranky, hypersexual. Okay, nobody likes to talk about it, but I bring it up.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:31:42]:
Are we doing anything like masturbation or pumping or whatever? I mean, because it is a human thing and we have to ask about it. We don't like to talk about it, but it's out there. It's like, oh, yeah, she's always got her hands in her pants. She's always, you know, grabbing onto a leg or something like that. It's like, really odd. And it's like, well, let's fix that. Oh, can you. Do you think it's a yeast infection? Well, it could be because it itches down there and that's an interesting area to scratch and they figured that out or there's something else going on.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:32:15]:
So we have to look at all of this, and as you take care of each problem, the pooping, the peeing, the sleeping, the eating, the aggression, then all of a sudden, the things that we call autism become less and less of an issue. And now they can focus on, let's get language, let's get conversation, let's get receptive skills, let's follow instructions, let's put your clothes in the hamper. You know, fun stuff. Getting that. Yeah, there's still special needs Bubbas, but they're great to be with. We could take them anywhere. We can go out to a restaurant with them and they're just fun to be with. And, yeah, they're a little goofball and they'll start singing a Disney song in the middle of Walmart.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:32:53]:
But they're not like they used to be. And then, of course, we work on getting them even further along. Great.
Len Arcuri [00:32:59]:
Yeah. Nope, that all makes sense. And I know a lot of the things let's say that a parent might want might be something that you can address more down the road if you focus again, on what's critical to focus on now. That's why, again, the sequencing is key. Almost impossible for a parent to really discern that sequencing without a trusted guide walking next to them, such as you. So I appreciate you shedding light on some of these examples where targeting in the right way at the right time really does make a huge difference because you can't fix everything all at once. Even though we would love to be able to do that. And I know that with what you do and the supplementation, that is a piece of it.
Len Arcuri [00:33:43]:
Not only just targeting and using supplements wisely, but I know there's a lot of companies out there that do have products and that there's a supplement for every issue that's out. And a lot of great companies have also wound up selling to bigger companies and the quality that's in some of the supplements is questionable now. And you hear all the time about people who buy supplements on Amazon and it's not actually, you know, it's like black market version. So there's a lot of danger zones with respect to supplementation. And I appreciate, I know it's not your primary focus, but you do have supplements that are extremely clean that do address a lot of these targeted issues. So I just want to make listeners aware that again, what you do is key. And if you are going to supplement to make sure that you have a super clean product that doesn't have stuff in there that might be an issue. I have a super sensitive kid.
Len Arcuri [00:34:35]:
Well, my son's 19 now, he's a young man. But we still have to really look at ingredients and oftentimes supplements have so much crap in there in addition to whatever that beneficial thing might be that you have to be really discerning there.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:34:48]:
Exactly. Super.
Len Arcuri [00:34:51]:
Well, anything else that you're just thinking about with all the parents that you've served? Is there anything else on this topic that you just wish a parent would really understand better early on? I know you covered a lot of great ground, but anything top of mind that perhaps we missed?
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:35:06]:
Yeah. I think one of the things to help the parents try to get a feel for what's out there in the supplements, that they're going to make big grandiose statements like this detoxifies the nervous system. And I want them to learn and say that's great, we all need to detoxify. Are we detoxifying? And how do you know and how do you know that's happening in a three year old or a four year old or seven year old, whatever your little girl or boy is, how do we know when it's not toxic anymore? And you'll find out there's no studies done. Okay? So when I chelate a child, I'm measuring the lead before, during and after chelation. I can tell you when there is no more lead in the body. Now I've been chelating children since the 80s when they were eating lead paint, when we had lead paint still and public housing and all. So I don't know about these, these, these nebulous claims that this cleans the liver, this cleans the blood, this cleans the colon.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:36:07]:
You have to ask, gee, I wonder what we're cleaning. How do I know when it's been cleaned? How do I know the product's working? And then of course, there's parents. Oh yeah, we use this particular spray or that, we put this on the feed or whatever and our kid is so much better. Well, who, who said that and which kid is that? Because I don't get any of those kids. You know, imagine in my mind as a scientist putting something on the foot and it pulls heavy metals. Like we store heavy metals in the bottoms of our feet because they're heavy and they fall down there. Okay? Heavy metals that are causing brain issues are in the brain. So if you say, well, we have to get it out of the brain, that means you have to introduce a molecule into the body, whether orally is usually what they are.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:36:55]:
It has to get into the bloodstream, it has to cross through the blood brain barrier. It has to actually pass through the cell membrane of the neuron. I know everybody's had biology in 8th grade, go in and find its targeted thing. Just pick mercury, for example, because everybody hates mercury. Mercury is tightly bound to an enzyme. That's how it's doing its destruction. It's keeping that enzyme from doing its job. It has to pull it off that enzyme, take it out of the membrane, back through into the capillary system, and then eventually peed out.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:37:31]:
Boy, that's a lot to say that your product does without any proof, any substance. So, so I'd ask them to ask the questions, you know, first say, this is great. I really love what I'm hearing. This, this corrects the microbiome. This corrects. What does a, what does a healthy microbiome look like, by the way, in a 4 year old? How do you know what you're doing is actually changing that with your 2 billion based on trillions and trillions and trillions of cells in there? There. So I, I'm. You don't need to check your brains out at the door.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:38:09]:
We want to believe it sounds good, but my parents don't want me to have a belief system. They want to have some science behind what we're doing. And there's not a lot of studies. And that's one of the things that I've always had a problem with. The American Academy of Pediatrics, they have failed to recognize and call this surge in special needs children with autism anything. They just kind of ignored it and went in other directions, looking at other important topics of the day. And that's why you're not hearing from them about anything about autism except more ABA therapy. I wish ABA therapy would cure the kids.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:38:50]:
Then I'd be out of a job and I'd go find something else to do. I could take, go back to general peds and take care of cough, cold, congestion, vomiting, diarrhea and diaper rash. Oh, ear infection, occasional asthmatic, but nobody's doing anything right now. So anyway, just be very careful the products that you buy and don't start with a big dose and read and yeah, find somebody that can help guide you through this. If you can't use a doctor, nurse practitioner or even coaches and say, hey, look, I'm not a doctor, but these are things that really work for our kids that I can mention to you that you can start utilizing today. And I think that's a good approach.
Len Arcuri [00:39:32]:
Yep. No, that all makes sense. And yeah, overall be discerning. It's easy to get caught up in claims and the excitement of a new product or a new approach. But again, just be discerning, be targeted the secret that we're revealing this week. And Dr. Jerry, I do appreciate you sharing these thoughts with our listeners. And you know, in the show notes will be links to your to where people can find out more about you.
Len Arcuri [00:39:57]:
Drjerikay.com, mendingnaturally.com but all links will be in the show notes. And again, I look forward to a future conversation with you. Thanks so much for today.
Dr. Jerry Kartzinel [00:40:06]:
Thank you for having me.
Len Arcuri [00:40:08]:
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 elevate health. Howyunavigate.com.
