Get ready to learn as our totally knowlegable guest Martha Herbert MD PhD author of The Autism Revolution shares epigenetic information and the following ten tips for helping your loved one with autism (reprinted with permission).

1. Go for the extraordinary. Rejoice in your child’s often remarkable strengths and shore up their vulnerable spots; don’t try to “fix” them.

2. Know what you can’t control—and what you can. 
You can’t change your child’s genes, but through lots of small choices you make each day—about food, products, and activities—you can build resilience and lower your child’s Total Load of stressors. Make their genes sing, not cry.

3. Repair and support cells and cycles. The health of your child’s cells is the solid foundation for your child’s whole body and brain health. Nourish them well and protect them from injury so they become more energetic and efficient.

4. Get gut and immune systems on your side. Our digestive and immune systems connect the insides of our bodies with the outside world. Cultivate their health for your child and your whole family and enjoy how much better life becomes for all of you.

5. Build better brain health. Healthy bodies give the brain the energy and nutrition supplies it needs to be all it can be. An irritated brain retreats from the world. Through better food, fewer toxins, and reduced stress, your child’s healthier brain will give zest for new experiences.

6. Calm brain chaos. Problems with sensory integration, sleep, seizures, speech, language, and other brain-based issues increase stress. Reduce overload by understanding the challenges to your child’s brain. Your child will feel safer, calmer, and more curious, and will learn better.

7. Join your child’s world. Look for hidden reasons behind your child’s most challenging or bizarre behaviors. See them as signals of problems inside their bodies or in the world around them. Learn the code and find solutions. To fix their behavior, fix their environment.

8. Love, rejoice, and make breakthroughs. Enrich their experience. Teach them simple things step by step without judgment. Help them channel their special interests into skills. Build bridges between your ways of experiencing and theirs. Help them expand their comfort zone.

9. Lead the revolution! Keep track of what you learn, and share it to help others, too. Advocate for research that helps support better treatment. Your thoughtful observations and insights can help us all take a revolutionary new look at autism.

10. Do it for yourself, your next baby, your family,
and your world. Learn to look at autism as something that develops, not something that is destined. This frees you to find ways to make it milder—or even dial it back. Your autism challenge can teach you how to better support the health of your whole family, your future children and the world.

And the above tips combined with Dr. Herbert’s wonderful words of wisdom and science are The Great Guest Giveaway.

Lynette originally found Dr. Herbert after visiting the Autism Society’s website and reading her 2009 article on chemicals and autism. Given some of the recent information she couldn’t wait to interview her. You will NOT be disappointed.

In Stories From the Road we meander through the idea of chemicals and behavior only to rediscover how connected they are to each other.

Today’s question: Created more even more questions worth pondering.
Today’s answer: There is more to know!