84: Gut-Brain Synergy: Nurturing Autistic Children for Enhanced Vitality and Entrepreneurial Success

Discover the surprising ways your child's gut health could be steering their brain development and behavior. As Jeffrey Mort guides us through the intricacies of the gut-brain connection in autistic children, we unveil a layer of understanding that holds the key to unlocking greater vitality and success—not just for our kids, but also for us, the entrepreneurial parents. We dig into the prevalence of gastrointestinal issues in these children, how disturbances like leaky gut and IBS can shape neurological function, and why tackling these problems through an integrative health approach can lead to transformative results. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for families seeking to enhance the well-being of their children and, by extension, their own entrepreneurial endeavors. (Note: if you prefer blogs over podcasts, click here to read more.)

Wrapping up this enlightening series, we focus on the pivotal role of personal well-being in achieving entrepreneurial success—especially when parenting a child with autism. You'll be motivated to embrace the power of an integrative approach to health as a vital component in balancing business and family life. By weaving together conventional and natural therapies, targeted supplement

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:58

Welcome entrepreneurs and seekers of wellness to episode number 83 of the Breaking Boundaries for Entrepreneurs podcast. I'm your host and personal integrative health practitioner, jeffrey Mort, and today we're delving into a topic that's close to the hearts of many entrepreneurial parents nurturing success through understanding the gut-brain connection, particularly in children with autism. Keep listening, hello. I'm Jeffrey Mort. If you're like most entrepreneurs, you're busy taking care of business, yet who's taking care of you? If you're ready to take your energy and performance to the next level in your life and your business, then this podcast is for you, because today you're going to start breaking boundaries of your mind, body and business with integrative health, and when you do that, your possibilities are limitless. I'm grateful you're here yes, always grateful for you joining me here today on the Breaking Boundaries podcast, and I invite you to also check out our blog post that accompanies this podcast episode over at loveandagwellnesscom. Slash learn that's our learning center over there on our private wellness practice webpage and you can check out all the blog posts over there on our private wellness practice webpage, and you can check out all the blog posts over there, and I will link those up in the show notes as well as the research from today's podcast episode, which there'll be quite a bit. And, of course, when you subscribe to the Breaking Boundaries podcast on your favorite podcast platform, please be sure to leave us a review so that we can help more people. Now, entrepreneurship, it isn't just about financial success. It's also about personal fulfillment and well-being, and for so many of us, that includes the health and the happiness of our loved ones, especially our children. Today, we're going to explore how understanding and embracing integrative health can not only help our children, but also contribute to our success as entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Now, before we dive in, I want to give you my disclaimer that I'm not providing any medical advice. I don't claim to treat, diagnose or cure any diseases, but what I can help you do, my friends, is get to the underlying root cause of the issue. So let's dive into the heart of the matter the gut-brain axis. Recent research has shown that the health of our gut microbiome profoundly influences brain function, and in the context of autism, this connection is particularly significant. Studies have revealed a high prevalence of gastrointestinal that's, gi issues among children with autism, and this underscores the importance of addressing gut health to support neurological function. Now, one of the key players in this connection is leaky gut, also known as intestinal permeability, and it's a condition where the integrity of the intestinal barrier is compromised, and what happens is this leads to inflammation and immune system dysregulation. Now, research has also linked leaky gut to autism spectrum disorder, and this highlights the need to address gut health as part of a comprehensive approach to managing autism, and this is often overlooked in the conventional realm. But it's not just leaky gut syndrome, known as IBS, often coexists with autism and further emphasizing the complex interplay between gut health and neurological function.

Speaker 1: 5:49

Now, as entrepreneurs, understanding these connections is crucial not only for the well-being of our children, but also for our own success in business, and what I mean by that is the challenges of raising a child with autism can undoubtedly impact our personal lives. The emotional toll, logistical challenges and financial strain can all take their toll. However, by prioritizing our children's health and embracing integrative health practices, we can mitigate these challenges and create a nurturing environment that's conducive to personal and professional growth. Now, integrative health offers a holistic approach that combines conventional medicine with evidence-based natural therapies. That's why we call it integrative health. This is not alternative medicine here, my friends call it integrative health. This is not alternative medicine here, my friends, this is integrative. And, of course, there's things that we need conventional medicine for. Now, by addressing the root causes of autism and gastrointestinal issues, rather than just managing symptoms, we can empower our children to thrive and succeed. From functional lab testing, dietary modifications to targeted supplementation and lifestyle interventions, integrative health protocols offer clinically proven strategies for promoting optimal gut health and neurological function, especially in children with autism. By harnessing the power of integrative health, we can cultivate resilience, vitality and success for our families and for our businesses.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Now you might be wondering, jeff, what would you recommend for a family member who came to you for help with their autistic child? Well, that's a great question and right away I would be going for the big three. This is a functional lab, advanced at-home functional lab testing bundle that I recommend to my clients that often have neurological issues or gastrointestinal issues, things like that. And the big three comes with what's called the food sensitivity test. So we're looking at over 190 foods that potentially could be causing inflammation in the body and an immune response as well. So that's the food sensitivity test. We're also going to be doing the candida metabolic and vitamins test. So this is looking at gut, gut function. It's looking at metabolites coming from the gut which we can tell if there's an overgrowth of yeast or bacterial or fungal overgrowth in the gut. We can also look at neurotransmitter levels. There's so much information there that we can look at.

Speaker 1: 8:32

And then also the bacteria and parasite test. This is very, very important because we want to know if a person is secretly harboring these parasites and it's really no joke, parasites are. You know, one in three people have parasites. So there's a good chance that you know, if I don't have it and you don't have it, that the person that you know maybe has that. That autism disorder does have it. And then also the bacteria plays a big role in that as well. And then, if we can, if we can, we're going to be doing the hair tissue mineral analysis, and this is a very important lab as well, because we're looking at mineral deficiencies and imbalances, as well as heavy metal toxicities, which can all play a role in neurological function.

Speaker 1: 9:19

So after that, what are we doing? After we do some testing we're waiting for the lab results we're going to be doing a 21-day elimination diet. Now, this is a little bit different than a functional medicine detox, and the reason why I wouldn't go for a functional medicine detox is typically we're talking about a child here and if they're under 17 years old, their body's still developing, their liver is still developing and we're just not going to go through that regimen of a functional medicine detox. We're going to go right for a 21 day elimination diet so we can start to eliminate some of these foods that could be causing some of these neurological issues because of the intestinal permeability and then later on, after we heal and seal the gut, we can start reintroducing those foods to see if there's any reactions. That may happen 12, 24, 48, 72 hours after consuming those foods.

Speaker 1: 10:12

So while we're doing that, while we're still waiting for our test results, we're going to be working through the de-stress protocol. So we talked a little bit're going to be working through the de-stress protocol. We talked a little bit about diet. Of course, de-stress is an acronym for diet, exercise, stress reduction, toxin removal, rest, emotional balance, science-backed supplementation and success mindset. We're going to be working on that success mindset, that we are going to get to the underlying root cause. There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to find something through the lab testing. So we talked a little bit about diet exercise. We want to make sure that this person is moving.

Speaker 1: 10:45

Now, of course, a child can be anywhere from. You know we can work with children anywhere from three years old to the 105 year old child and but but you know I say that kind of tongue in cheek because we can really help anybody. But if we're talking about children from three to 17 years old, you know we can do these lab tests with anybody um, in that range. And exercise plays a big role in neurotransmitter production. So we want to make sure that, first of all, the person has enough energy to be able to exercise and if that's just simply walking, fantastic If we can be doing. And not every child's going to be going to the gym. But we want to make sure that they're getting their exercise on a regular basis, that they have the energy to play and run and do those fun things and climb and all those things that children love to do.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Now, stress reduction we want to make sure that they're living, you know, stress-free life and they're. They're not letting their health condition get them stressed. We also want to make sure that we're not inducing stress through things like environment and then, of course, being on screens late at night, so that can elevate cortisol. When we're talking about stress, we're talking about cortisol levels and we want to make sure those cortisol levels are coming down in the evening. So you know, stress reduction plays into how much screen time is this child getting and is that playing a role in them not getting a good night's sleep, which plays into the rest part of the de-stress protocol? And of course, I want to give credit where credit is due the de-stress protocol. You know I didn't create that. That was part of my training at the Integrative Health Practitioner Institute created by Dr Stephen Cabral, my mentor. So a big shout out to him and all of the 5,000 integrative health practitioners that he has trained, much like myself in the world of integrative health.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Now we talked a little bit about toxin removal and how we're not going to be doing a functional medicine detox. But there's so much more that we can do for toxin removal. We can do dry brushing, we can do rebounding, we can do Epsom salt baths. There's so much that we can do. We could probably do, depending on the child's age and weight. We could probably do, depending on the child's age and weight, we could probably do a daily detox support capsule or maybe two capsules, depending on, like I said, their age and the weight. That could help with them. Emotional balance we want to make sure that you know they're happy and they're functioning properly in society. Of course, science-backed supplementation we can talk a little bit more about that and then so that's the de-stress protocol, and then we get the lab results back and what we do is we create a personalized wellness plan, specific for this individual. That's what we call bio individuality. We look at what the lab results say and that determines what path we're gonna take.

Speaker 1: 13:26

Maybe, maybe the bacteria and parasite test came back showing parasites. So then we're gonna go into the children's para-support protocol so that we can eradicate those parasites. Now, if that comes back clean, but it shows some bacterial overgrowth, or we saw some yeast and fungal overgrowth on the candida metabolic and vitamins lab test then we're probably going to go into something called the children's CBO protocol, which is a candida bacterial optimizer protocol. There's one made for adults. It's a little more, it has a little bit more strength to it, and then the one that is made for children is certainly adjustable for their age and their weight. And then, after we do the CBO protocol, we're going to go into something called the CBO finisher. So the process here is to drive out the overgrown bacteria, repopulate the gut with the good bacteria and then heal and seal that gut wall with the CBO finisher. And then, of course, we'll round things out with the children's heavy metal detox protocol.

Speaker 1: 14:27

If we did the hair tissue mineral analysis test, the minerals and metals lab, and saw heavy metal toxicity which you know, chances are most people have some level of heavy metal toxicity so we'd be rolling into the children's heavy metal detox protocol after that, and that's pretty much how the program works. So see, you don't even need me, you got it right there. It's exactly what you do, but I'd be happy to help. I'd be happy to help. So, as entrepreneurs, we're no strangers to challenges, but by embracing integrative health, we can navigate the journey of raising a child with autism with grace and determination, determination that we will get to the underlying root cause and that we will reverse these conditions and these syndromes and these, you know, dis-eases of the body. Our children are our greatest treasures and by prioritizing their health and happiness we sow the seeds of success, not just for our families, but for our businesses and our communities.

Speaker 1: 15:28

Well, that's all for today's episode of Breaking Boundaries for Entrepreneurs podcast communities. Well, that's all for today's episode of Breaking Boundaries for Entrepreneurs podcast. If you're ready to unlock the transformative power of integrative health in your journey as an entrepreneur and as a parent, I encourage you to schedule a complimentary consultation over at our private wellness practice, loveenergywellnesscom, and together we can embark on a path of healing, of growth and of boundless possibilities. I appreciate you for listening today and until next time, keep breaking boundaries and creating your dreams. Bye-bye, everybody.