A child may understand an instruction and still struggle to get their body to respond. Dana Johnson, PhD, an occupational therapist and researcher, joins me to discuss what she calls whole-body apraxia and the gap between intention and movement.

We talk about motor planning, unreliable speech, sensory processing and the role of vision. Dana shares her theory about toe walking and her observations with therapeutic lenses, then explains how she approaches AAC, RPM, Spelling to Communicate and the Spellers Method. We also address the debate around prompting and independent communication.

The conversation connects these questions with sleep, overall health and caregiver co-regulation. Dana’s examples describe her clinical experience working with particular clients and families.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Whole-body apraxia and apraxia of speech

• Planning, starting, coordinating and stopping movement

• Nonverbal, nonspeaking and unreliable speech

• Visual processing, depth perception and motor control

• Dana’s observations about toe walking

• AAC and different spelling approaches

• Prompting and independent communication

• Sleep, biology and supporting the whole family

JOIN THE BIOHACKING AUTISM COMMUNITY

Keep learning alongside other parents and caregivers:

https://biohackingautism.circle.so/checkout/charter

FIND DANA

https://drdanajohnson.com

https://spellerstampa.com

Share this episode with a parent, caregiver or professional who would benefit from a closer look at communication and motor planning.

Your kid is anxious about everything, bouncing off the walls at 10 pm, and can’t focus, can’t sleep, can’t get through the school day. You are exhausted at 9 pm and wide awake at midnight. Those two things are the same problem: looking energetic and having energy are two different things.

This is the short, parent-friendly version of my conversation with Dr. Scott Sherr, a board-certified internal medicine physician who specializes in mitochondria and cellular energy. His model in plain words, for the person with autism and for the caregiver in the same house.

What’s in it:

1. Four definitions: alarm mode, rest mode, the battery, and the spiral of doom.
2. What running on empty looks like in a kid and in a parent.
3. Energy first, then calm, and why calming tools so often work for a week and then stop.
4. GABA and glutamate, the paradoxical effect, and what happened when I supplemented GABA for Jimmy.
5. What to do for the person with autism, and what to do for the caregiver.
6. Methylene blue in two minutes.

You don’t need to do ten things this week. Three are plenty: pick a bedtime and a wake time and keep them seven days a week; subtract one thing from your own day; morning sunlight, outside, together.

Newsletter and community wait list, with the labs-to-start-with checklist: https://biohacking-autism.kit.com/d9c8b01fd7

The full conversation with Dr. Scott Sherr: https://biohackautism.com/podcast/anxious-and-exhausted-at-the-same-time-the-energy-first-approach-autism-caregivers/

I’m Nadia Elkhatib, the mother of a 22-year-old with autism, and I apply longevity and biohacking science to autism and to the caregivers behind it. We don’t treat the label. We work on the biology underneath it.

Biohacking Autism is educational. Nothing in this episode is individualized medical advice or a recommendation to start, stop, or change a treatment. Work with a qualified clinician who knows your history.

You can be completely exhausted and still unable to switch off. Most parents I talk to live there, and so do a lot of our kids. In this episode Dr. Scott Sherr gives me a different explanation for it: the nervous system is not just over-activated, the body no longer has enough cellular reserve to recover. And the fix runs in the opposite order from what most of us have been told.

Dr. Scott Sherr is a board-certified internal medicine physician, certified in health optimization medicine, a specialist in hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and the chief medical and health education officer at Troscriptions. He calls the pattern the sympathetic spiral of doom: chronic stress activation and failing mitochondria feeding each other.

What we cover:

1. Stimulation is not energy. A kid running around hyper, or a parent who can’t sit down, can be running on cortisol with empty mitochondria underneath.
2. Two people in one house, two doors into the same spiral. The caregiver enters from the outside (years of vigilance). The child enters from the inside (direct mitochondrial stress).
3. Energy first, then calm. If you try to down-regulate a nervous system that has no floor to stand on, it falls through the floor. Scott builds the energetic floor first, then works on regulation.
4. GABA and glutamate, the brakes and the accelerator, and why giving more GABA can backfire in some kids. I share what happened when I tried it with Jimmy.
5. Sleep, trauma, and the elephants in the room: why years of broken sleep leave a pattern in the caregiver that talk therapy alone rarely fixes.
6. Co-regulation. Jimmy can feel my nervous system. Scott explains why working on yourself is working on your child.
7. The parasympathetic edge: what a regulated nervous system actually feels like, and how to get a first taste of it with vagus nerve devices without making them a crutch.
8. Subtract before you add. For caregivers, the shift is taking things out of the day, not stacking thirty things into the smoothie.
9. Methylene blue: what it does in the mitochondria, why quality and sourcing are everything, and why you do not buy it on Amazon.

What I would do this week: pick one thing to subtract, get morning sunlight with your kid, and keep the same bedtime and wake time every day even if the sleep is bad. Then talk to your practitioner about mitochondrial support.

Find Dr. Scott Sherr

Website: https://drscottsherr.com

Health Optimization Medicine and Practice (nonprofit for clinicians): https://homehope.org

Also: Troscriptions and OneBase Health

Join the newsletter and the community wait list

Get the labs-to-start-with checklist and be first to know when the private community opens: https://biohacking-autism.kit.com/d9c8b01fd7

Related episodes

Autism Biology From a Completely Different Point of View (thyroid, hormones, insulin resistance): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8fnI3xC0ts

The 6 Step Healing Order for Sensitive Autism Kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEbHibq0q9g

I’m Nadia Elkhatib, the mother of a 22-year-old with autism, and I apply longevity and biohacking science to autism and to the caregivers behind it. We don’t treat the label. We work on the biology underneath it.

Biohacking Autism is educational. Nothing in this episode is individualized medical advice or a recommendation to start, stop, or change a treatment. Work with a qualified clinician who knows your history.

My son was nonverbal. I was told he would never speak, and that if a child does not talk by five, he never will. Jimmy started talking at eight. This is the 11-minute version of my episode on autism recovery: the stories you never hear, what recovery means, how Jimmy started talking, and the five things it takes.

THE FULL EPISODE (26 minutes)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib0cyR6MJCE

Podcast: episode 40, Autism Recovery Explained, in the Biohacking Autism feed

THE LABS TO START WITH + THE COMMUNITY WAIT LIST

https://biohacking-autism.kit.com/d9c8b01fd7

One sign-up. You get the exact baseline panel from this episode in one email, the episode summaries every week, and, if you tick the box, a place on the wait list for the private community.

IN THIS VERSION

The recovery stories you never see on social media, and why

Two sons, same house, same protocol, one recovered

What recovery means and what it does not (the truck analogy)

Where Jimmy is today, 22 years in

The speech window I was given at Stanford, and why there is no window

How Jimmy started talking at eight: Dr. Klinghardt and Babesia

The five things it takes, in order

Three things to do this week, not five

WHAT YOU WILL HEAR

Jimmy is not recovered. We have made real progress, and the work continues at 22.

Artemisinin was one herb used under Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt's care alongside pharmaceuticals, for an infection that had been identified. No doses or sources are given, and this is not a recommendation to buy it.

The recovery stories are what parents told me directly and what I saw myself. They are not a study.

RELATED EPISODES

Autism Biology From a Completely Different Point of View (the baseline): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8fnI3xC0ts

The 6 Step Healing Order for Sensitive Autism Kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEbHibq0q9g

MENTIONED

Jenny McCarthy, Louder Than Words · Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt · Dr. Dayan Goodenowe

FURTHER READING

Fein D, et al. Optimal outcome in individuals with a history of autism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2013;54(2):195-205. PMID 23320807.

Kang DW, et al. Long-term benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms and gut microbiota. Sci Rep. 2019;9:5821.

CONNECT

biohackautism.com · nadia@biohackautism.com · Instagram @biohackautism · TikTok @biohackingautism · linkedin.com/in/nadiaelkhatib

If you know one parent who was given a deadline and zero tools, send them this episode.

DISCLAIMER

One family's experience and what other parents told me directly. Not medical advice, no doses or treatment instructions. Please discuss any testing or treatment with a qualified clinician. I'm not a doctor. I'm a mother who has been doing this for more than 20 years.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Recovery is possible. I've seen it.

1:24 Why you never hear these stories

2:31 Two sons, same protocol, one recovered

3:09 What recovery means

4:24 The truck analogy

4:51 Where Jimmy is today

5:33 How Jimmy started talking

6:06 Dr. Klinghardt and Babesia

7:19 The five things it takes

8:39 What to do this week

10:06 For the caregiver

10:25 The wait list

Recovery from autism is possible. I’ve seen it, and my own son isn’t there yet. This is my honest answer after 22 years: the families who got there, why you never hear about them, what recovery means, how my son started talking at eight, and the five things it takes.

THE LABS TO START WITH + THE COMMUNITY WAIT LIST

https://biohacking-autism.kit.com/d9c8b01fd7

One sign-up. You get the exact baseline panel from this episode in one email, the episode summaries every week, and, if you tick the box, a place on the wait list for the private community.

IN THIS EPISODE

The recovery stories you never see on social media, and why

Two sons, same house, same protocol, one recovered

What recovery means and what it does not (the truck analogy)

Where Jimmy is today, 22 years in

Why there is no one protocol for recovery

How Jimmy started talking at eight: Dr. Klinghardt, Babesia and artemisinin

The five things it takes, in order

Three things to do this week, not five

WHAT YOU WILL HEAR

Jimmy is not recovered. We have made real progress, and the work continues at 22.

Artemisinin was one herb used under Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt’s care alongside pharmaceuticals, for an infection that had been identified. No doses or sources are given, and this is not a recommendation to buy it.

The recovery stories are what parents told me directly and what I saw myself. They are not a study.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE

https://youtu.be/Ib0cyR6MJCE

RELATED EPISODES

Autism Biology From a Completely Different Point of View (the baseline): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8fnI3xC0ts

The 6 Step Healing Order for Sensitive Autism Kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEbHibq0q9g

MENTIONED

Jenny McCarthy, Louder Than Words · Dr. Neil Nathan, The Sensitive Patient’s Healing Guide · Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt · Dr. Dayan Goodenowe

FURTHER READING

Fein D, et al. Optimal outcome in individuals with a history of autism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2013;54(2):195-205. PMID 23320807.

Kang DW, et al. Long-term benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms and gut microbiota. Sci Rep. 2019;9:5821.

CONNECT

biohackautism.com · nadia@biohackautism.com · Instagram @biohackautism · TikTok @biohackingautism · linkedin.com/in/nadiaelkhatib

If you know one parent who was given a deadline and zero tools, send them this episode.

DISCLAIMER

One family’s experience and what other parents told me directly. Not medical advice, no doses or treatment instructions. Please discuss any testing or treatment with a qualified clinician. I’m not a doctor. I’m a mother who has been doing this for more than 20 years.

Caregiver burnout, chronic stress and brain health: the core conversation in a 34-minute Essentials edition for caregivers who want a focused starting point.

Dr. Tom O'Bryan joins Nadia Elkhatib to discuss neuroinflammation, the gut-brain axis and the caregiver's long-term health. Nadia brings her family's experience with Alzheimer's disease and more than two decades of parenting her son Jimmy, who has autism, into a conversation about the person doing the caring.

This shorter edition follows Tom's framework for the stress response, systemic inflammation versus brain immune activity, blood-brain barrier function, LPS and beta-amyloid. Nadia asks about testing, patterns across years of health records, APOE4 and family history. The conversation also raises questions about overlapping biology in autism and Alzheimer's.

Tom's recurring theme is learning the big picture one hour a week, rather than looking for one magic answer. For the extended discussion of food sensitivities, gluten, FODMAPs and everyday exposures, continue with the Full interview.

FULL INTERVIEW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTmiaKBItGk

ABOUT THE GUEST

Tom O'Bryan, DC, CCN, DACBN, CIFM, is a functional medicine educator, founder of TheDr.com, and author of You Can Fix Your Brain and The Autoimmune Fix.

BOOKS AND EDUCATION

You Can Fix Your Brain:

https://thedr.com/you-can-fix-your-brain-book/

Book and audiobook formats (Tom narrates the audiobook):

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/592179/you-can-fix-your-brain-by-dr-tom-obryan-foreword-by-mark-hyman-md/

The Autoimmune Fix:

https://thedr.com/autoimmune-fix/

The Inflammation Equation, series registration:

https://theinflammationequation.com/

The Gluten Summit:

https://thedr.com/the-gluten-summit/

Certified Gluten-Free Practitioner training:

https://glutenfreepractitioner.com/

CONNECT WITH DR. TOM + ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Website: https://thedr.com/

Email: info@thedr.com

Consultations (paid service):

https://thedr.com/consultations/

Root-Cause Health Deep-Dive + Readiness Form (program-fit form):

https://thedr.com/rootcause/

Healthspan vs. Lifespan (commercial testing/consultation packages):

https://thedr.com/healthspan-vs-lifespan/

Mentorship for practitioners, nutritionists and coaches:

https://thedr.com/mentorship/

MORE RESOURCES FROM THE FULL CONVERSATION

The Inflammation Equation workbook/guidebooks and access packages, including paid options:

https://theinflammationequation.com/thank-you/

Showerhead-cleaning handout:

https://thedr.com/shower/

The Stress of Life by Hans Selye (library record):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/7605231/

Truly Free Home: https://trulyfreehome.com/

Glass-storage retailers mentioned:

https://www.mileskimball.com/

https://www.amazon.com/

https://www.costco.com/

PectaSol is also mentioned in this edition. Product mentions are not a recommendation to copy a regimen.

BIOHACKING AUTISM

Website and episode library: https://biohackautism.com/

Follow the show in your podcast app and share this episode with another caregiver.

DISCLOSURE

This episode is not sponsored. Biohacking Autism received no payment or free products and earns no affiliate commission from these links. Tom founded TheDr.com and wrote You Can Fix Your Brain and The Autoimmune Fix; some linked resources are paid offerings. In the Full interview, he describes a friendship with the founder of Truly Free.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER

This episode is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health protocol or your child's protocol. Guest perspectives and emerging hypotheses are discussed, not established as universal explanations or individual diagnoses. This conversation does not establish that caregiving causes Alzheimer's disease. No product or program is a promised treatment or cure.

Caregiver burnout deserves more than being dismissed as "just stress." When you've spent years caring for someone else, what questions should you be asking about your own brain health?

Dr. Tom O'Bryan joins Nadia Elkhatib for a full conversation about chronic stress, neuroinflammation and the gut-brain axis. Nadia brings her family's experience with Alzheimer's disease and more than two decades of parenting her son Jimmy, who has autism, into a discussion about the caregiver's long-term health.

Tom shares his framework for understanding the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, systemic inflammation, the blood-brain barrier and brain immune activity. The conversation also covers LPS and beta-amyloid, APOE4 and family history, food sensitivities, gluten versus FODMAPs, and why he reviews patterns across years of test results.

The practical thread is his "one hour a week" approach to learning and making gradual changes, rather than searching for a single answer. His explanations include guest perspectives and emerging hypotheses, not a diagnosis of the listener or proof that caregiving causes Alzheimer's disease.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Tom O'Bryan, DC, CCN, DACBN, CIFM, is a functional medicine educator, founder of TheDr.com, and author of You Can Fix Your Brain and The Autoimmune Fix.

BOOKS, SERIES AND HANDOUTS

You Can Fix Your Brain:

https://thedr.com/you-can-fix-your-brain-book/

Audiobook, narrated by Tom (publisher's format options):

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/592179/you-can-fix-your-brain-by-dr-tom-obryan-foreword-by-mark-hyman-md/

The Autoimmune Fix:

https://thedr.com/autoimmune-fix/

The Stress of Life by Hans Selye (library record):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/7605231/

The Inflammation Equation, series registration:

https://theinflammationequation.com/

Workbook/guidebooks and access packages, including paid options:

https://theinflammationequation.com/thank-you/

Showerhead-cleaning handout:

https://thedr.com/shower/

The Gluten Summit:

https://thedr.com/the-gluten-summit/

CONNECT WITH DR. TOM + ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Website: https://thedr.com/

Email: info@thedr.com

Consultations (paid service): https://thedr.com/consultations/

Root-Cause Health Deep-Dive + Readiness Form (program-fit form):

https://thedr.com/rootcause/

Healthspan vs. Lifespan (commercial testing/consultation packages):

https://thedr.com/healthspan-vs-lifespan/

For practitioners, mentorship:

https://thedr.com/mentorship/

Certified Gluten-Free Practitioner training:

https://glutenfreepractitioner.com/

HOUSEHOLD RESOURCES MENTIONED

Truly Free Home: https://trulyfreehome.com/

Retailers mentioned for glass food storage:

Miles Kimball: https://www.mileskimball.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/

Costco: https://www.costco.com/

Vitality C, PectaSol, B vitamins, fish oils and essential oils are also discussed. Names are provided for identification, not as a recommended regimen.

BIOHACKING AUTISM

Website and episode library: https://biohackautism.com/

Subscribe and share this episode with another caregiver.

RELATED EPISODE

MCAS Explained with Dr. Debby Hamilton:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KI678um1GY

DISCLOSURE

This episode is not sponsored. Biohacking Autism received no payment or free products and earns no affiliate commission from these links. Tom founded TheDr.com and wrote You Can Fix Your Brain and The Autoimmune Fix; some linked resources are paid offerings. He also describes a personal friendship with the founder of Truly Free.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER

This episode is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health protocol or your child's protocol. Guest perspectives and emerging hypotheses are discussed, not established as universal explanations or individual diagnoses. No product or program is a promised treatment or cure.

This is the Essentials edition, a 25-minute cut of our conversation with Dr. Uli K. Chettipally, MD, MPH, an emergency physician, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and father of Siri, a non-speaking young woman with autism. For the full conversation, see the full episode of Biohacking Autism in this feed.

In this edition: what an intensive exercise program did for Siri after she aged out of school at 22, why Uli believes movement acts on the brain through neuroplasticity, how a VR-based exercise system developed for stroke rehabilitation became Cognitive Sensorimotor Therapy, what the n=9 feasibility study measured and what it did not, why a non-speaking person may be able to spell but not speak, how Siri reached the dean's list at College of San Mateo, and the AI Uli is training to reduce the dependence on a trained communication partner.

The full episode adds Uli's story of becoming Siri's father, the outcomes study he is planning, how he uses the AI day to day, the touchless letterboard in development, and his smart-home vision for independence.

Connect with the guest

Sirica Center: https://www.siricacenter.com/

Dr. Uli K. Chettipally on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulichettipally

Disclosure

Dr. Chettipally is the founder of Sirica Therapeutics, which develops the exercise system discussed in this episode. The system is currently used as an exercise machine and has not been evaluated by any regulatory body as a treatment for autism. The research discussed was a small feasibility study measuring tolerance, learnability, and enjoyment, not outcomes.

Medical disclaimer

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Nothing in this episode is a recommendation to start, stop, or change any treatment or medication. Please work with your own qualified healthcare professionals when making decisions for yourself and your child.