Navigating the Reality of Profound Autism with Tyler Hudson

In this episode of The Neurotrition Podcast, Dr. Z sits down with Tyler Hudson — singer, songwriter, advocate, and father of a son with profound autism — for an honest conversation about the realities many families face behind the autism diagnosis.

Tyler shares his perspective as a father and advocate, discussing the difference between autism awareness, autism acceptance, and what he describes as the growing “superpower” narrative around autism. While that language may resonate for some individuals on the spectrum, Tyler argues that it can unintentionally minimize the intense daily challenges faced by children and adults with profound autism and the families who care for them.

Dr. Z and Tyler both share personal experiences with their sons’ early regressions, including the difficult shift from typical development to severe communication, behavioral, and daily-living challenges. The conversation explores what profound autism can look like in real life, including nonverbal communication, self-injury, limited independence, neurological dysregulation, and the need for lifelong support.

The episode also discusses the importance of recognizing the wide range of needs across the autism spectrum. Tyler makes the case for clearer distinctions within autism diagnosis and advocacy so that individuals with profound support needs are not overlooked in research, funding, education, and public conversation.

Dr. Z also explores the gut-brain connection, nervous system regulation, and how many children with profound autism may live in a constant state of fight-or-flight. The conversation touches on possible environmental stressors, biological vulnerability, and the need for deeper investigation into why autism rates have risen.

Tyler also discusses the impact profound autism has on parents, marriages, and siblings, including the reality that neurotypical siblings may one day become caretakers. This episode is a candid look at grief, love, advocacy, exhaustion, and the fight for more meaningful support.

Tyler’s upcoming book, The Missing Lyrics: A Father’s Story of Autism, Grief, and a Society in Denial, releases July 15, 2026. His book launch event will be held July 29, 2026, at the Spelleller Center in Tampa, Florida.

Follow Tyler Hudson at @TylerHudsonMusic.

Learn more about the show at neurotritionpodcast.com and follow @NeurotritionPodcast on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.

This episode is for educational and discussion purposes only and is not medical advice.

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Podcast produced byJuming Delmas Studios
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome back to another episode of the Neurotrition Podcast where we give you the tools to balance the brain, optimize the body, and redefine human potential. When we think about autism, I think from a society perspective, almost a gift. Like this is a good thing that happened to this kid.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

There's a lot of conjecture about, well, is that because the diagnostic criteria has changed? And I think that contributes to a lot of the misconceptions about autism for children like ours as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

The way kids with autism, their brain gets wired, there can be gifts there, but if you can't have the regulation to utilize those gifts, what what damn good are they?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Nearly two decades and watch this slow progression happen. I mean, when we were diagnosed in 2010, it was the advocacy campaigns were all about awareness. And then we entered this phase of oh, it actually became autism acceptance. And now I would say we're we're bordering on autism glorification. We've we've s we we're inviting people to celebrate autism. People now actually want to be autistic, the reality, to not sanitize the struggles that our kids face.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Um I had just began speaking up and advocating for what life's like for us, and I've I've faced a lot of grief for it, particularly and ironically from the autistic community.com where you can listen to us on your favorite podcast platform. I'm really excited about our guest today. Today we have Tyler Hudson, a singer, songwriter, advocate, and of course, probably most importantly, a dad to a child with profound autism. Tyler, thank you. Can't thank you enough for joining us today.

unknown 2:23

Dr.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Z, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Absolutely. And, you know, I have kind of a funny story about how I came across to seeing your work and you know what you've been doing out there. Um funny enough, my mom has been sending me uh a lot of your videos and stuff for I mean, probably months, and she has been harassing me to no end. Like, you have to get this guy on the podcast. You have to get this guy on the podcast. And I'm like, I'm like, mom, you know, I I'll try, but I don't know if he'll even come on, you know, but I'll I'll I'll do my best. And then I I kid you not, um, probably, you know, a few days, probably a week or two ago, I have a patient come in who has done an interview with you, and she's telling me all about you, and I'm like, is his name Tyler by any chance? And she's like, Yes. I'm like, well, there's the universe putting this together.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Oh, I love it. It is it's a small world, and here we are. Technology makes it possible. I'm down here in Tasmania, and you're in uh it and it is the middle of winter, by the way, and you're in beautiful sunny Florida. And here we are.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, it and it's hot as hell, I can tell you that. So, you know, one thing that really resonates to me about some of the videos and stuff that you've you've done, um, and it's is exactly how I see it as you know, we're both fathers with kids with um significant um autism, and I think that's uh something we'll dig into more about how we um categorize that as a society, um autism in general. It's such a wide spectrum, right? And you know, one of my biggest frustrations, and it was so uh it was so um, it was great to see somebody else, you know, really being brave enough to talk about this, is that, you know, when we think about autism, I think from a society perspective, we really uh there's this idea that we view it as almost a gift, like this is a good thing that happened to this kid. I mean, how do you how do you kind of well think about that?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Um my frame of reference for autism uh began in 2008. My son was born, he was totally typical, perfectly happy, healthy, beautiful boy. Um, he progressed totally normal until 12 months, and you know, he had words, was saying single words, mom, dad, truck, cow, and then just overnight just stopped. Right. Um, so it's this classic regression story that you hear um parents all around the world telling. And so we eventually got him in front of uh an assessor to to make an official diagnosis, and and he was diagnosed with autism. And my frame of reference was Rain Man. Uh was a m a movie called Mercury Rising starring Bruce Willis. Um I didn't know any children with autism growing up. I I didn't even know anyone who knew anyone with autism. Um so I, in my head, I thought, okay, I've got this genius little Rain Man I'm gonna be raising. Okay, that's gonna be interesting. Um, you know, I thought no matter what difficulties he'd face it, um, government agencies would be recruiting him to crack complex codes and his superpower would save the world in some way, whatever that was gonna be, you know, I just it was my job to uncover that superpower and and let him save the world, right? This is what we do as dads. We and I think it's a reflection of what society does. We don't understand uh how to process the uh the the pain of it necessarily and all the difficulty that comes with it, so we latch on to the beautiful bright spots, uh we la we latch onto the superpower narratives as a as a means of dealing with our own grief over the process. And and by and large, I believe that that's where society is at. Um, that we are having a grief response to the autism, and I'll and I'll I'll say epidemic. Um, that these numbers that we have are it is an epidemic.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Now, there's a lot of conjecture about well, is that because the diagnostic criteria has changed? And and I think that contributes to a lot of the misconceptions about autism for children like ours as well. Yes, Asperger's was folded in in the DSM 5 in 2013, and so then what happened is you've got this flood of voices that now have come into what was typically classically understood as autism, and they are of course entitled to share their experiences. But when that that flood of voices, what it does is it actually dilutes understanding for those profoundly affected. And I just I just sat for nearly two decades and watched this slow progression happen. I mean, when we were diagnosed in 2010, it was the advocacy campaigns were all about awareness. And then we entered this phase of oh, it actually became autism acceptance. And now I would say we're we're bordering on autism glorification. We've we've we we're inviting people to celebrate autism. People now actually want to be autistic, and that's wonderful when it comes to inclusion and destigmatizing, and all of that's that's beautiful, and I would never want to take any of that away. But trying to advocate about the reality to not sanitize the struggles that our kids face. Um, I I just began speaking up and advocating for what life's like for us, and I've I've faced a lot of grief for it, particularly and ironically from the autistic community. And and I think that just highlights part of the problem is that people that are higher functioning want to dictate to me about what autism is like, yet a few years ago, these people wouldn't have even been diagnosed with autism, but now they share the same diagnostic title. And again, they are entitled to share their experience. But what about those profoundly affected who have no voice of their own? Who's speaking up for them? It's left to the caretakers and the parents to do that. So that's I'm just trying to raise that awareness.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Well, that that's that's 100% true. And you know, that that is, you know, uh when you know, my job is actually helping these kids, is that's you know what we do is we try to try to help with their, you know, whether it's inflammatory or just helping with the general disconnection that's happening in the nervous system. You know, that's what we try to do as a as a therapy and intervention in our office is try to help um them function at a higher level um where they can be more independent and do things. And how analyst a view exactly, exactly, and that's exactly what has has happened. Um, you know, it I will say that over the last few years, I think that has toned down a little bit, um, at least in my experience. I feel like there's a little bit more of like, okay, um, but you know, it's interesting, you're right. Every time that I would, you know, highlight what we do, because I think it's really important that people realize what you do. I don't I don't know about your experience over there in Australia, but definitely um here with the options I was giving when our son was freshly diagnosed, it was like, okay, this is cool, but I'm glad there's some things to try to help him along the way. But nothing, nothing really was there that I felt was really here's how we make him into an individual down the road that's going to be someone who can live independently. This is more like, hey, we're gonna help you um try to cope with his deficits. Yeah. And I guess that's a you know, there's nothing wrong with that, but at the same time, like, how do I get him better? You know, I I know that there's, you know, when I we we've had an MRI on our son's brain, and it's like, there's nothing structurally wrong with it. It's just like every other kid. So why can't I improve that? Why aren't we going to that? I mean, that's something we can talk about too. Like, why aren't we putting the investment into that research level of like, one, what's causing this increase? Because you're right. I never, I mean, you know, there was probably some kids I grew up with who were like, you know, maybe a little bit Asperger-y, you know, on that side of things, a little socially awkward, that kind of thing. I I might have been one of those kids, to be honest with you. Um, but you know, the thing is, is that no I never saw kids like my son ever. Never experienced that.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

And and it's everywhere now. And you know, my wife is an educator, and she here in Australia, one in six school-aged boys is receiving funds from the National Disability Insurance Scheme for Autism Spectrum Disorders. One in six. So that that those sorts of numbers cre you have to have a reckoning for that. Like, okay, are we going to redesign society to accommodate these these kids? Right. And this this is the sort of the arguments I try to put out to to people, not to create um contention, but to get people to honestly reflect, to have an appropriate response to this epidemic. So people say that oh, it's solely genetic, there's nothing that can be done about it. So I I I've just posed the question when an evol when has evolution ever required monetary support. If we start funding a genetic variation, when would you ever stop? You you wouldn't is the short answer. To get people to realize that something's going on with our kids, and and maybe a lot of it is maybe maybe it is for a lot of these kids the screen time, the lack of ability to have a conversation because we're stuck behind screens all day, and that and that therefore that makes uh schooling difficult because there's a a lack of human interaction that previous generations didn't face. Okay, is that is that the same as what our kids are dealing with? Or is this just social difficulties that maybe we do need to redesign society to accommodate these kids? But when one in six is taking funding that's meant to be set aside for those most profoundly affected, but there's you quickly realize there's not enough pie to go around. And and and it's not that I want to take anyone's funding away from from people that are actually struggling. It's that I want society to realize there's not enough money you can throw at this problem. You have to solve the problem at identification of causation. And and and autism is diagnosed based on behaviors, right? But what about the biomarkers that you would see? This is why we need further research, so that we can create that distinction amongst the spectrum so that we can get people the appropriate help that they need, so that we can bring more order to their disorder. And that's a lot of the grief I face is like, oh, you must be a your terrible father that you're so show ashamed of your son. I'm like, I'm not ashamed of my son. I'm trying to help my son, not so that he can be like me, so that he can be at peace and so that I can bring more order to his disorder. And until you classify that autism is scientifically a neurological disorder, and we're honest with ourselves about that, we won't ever seek to bring more order to other people.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Well, I think I think the problem is that a lot of people have identified autism as almost like a personality. Like, this is my quirky personality. And, you know, it's it's so much more than that. You know, and and I'll go a little bit further. What you said about evolution. I think that's an extremely good point. What is the evolutionary advantage of having no social skills, of not being able to integrate into a group of people? You know, if you look at really at evolution, the the critical part of survival was being able to be part of groups. If you were alone on your own, you don't you don't survive as a human. We need to be in groups uh for just pure survival. We need that. Um, and so to me, the idea that this is just an evolutionary step forward um makes no sense. And you know, when you really get into the brain connectivity and some of these kind of things, yes, they're the way um kids with autism, their brain gets wired, there can be gifts there, but if you can't have the regulation to utilize those gifts, what what damn good are they? You know what I mean? That's um if you can't if you can't use the bathroom on your own, if you can't go and dress yourself, if you can't go do the basic things you need to do to live live a normal life, what even if those gifts are there, what good are they if you can't express them?

SPEAKER_00 15:21

And you really start to see that as your child gets older. My child has aged out of cute. Um he, you know, society was very accepting when he was three, four, five, six. He's now eighteen. He's taller, stronger. Um his behaviors are are much more perceived, much more threatening because he's an adult. And you know, you talk about it's not cute anymore, right? It's no longer cute. I think there's a there's an artist named Jess Ron, she wrote a poem called When He Outgrew Cute, and that's that's the reality of it. That's that's where we're living now. And you see, so I've sat and looked back on my life, and I can see my as a parent going through all of these same stages that society has gone through about oh, it's it's a gift, and it what it's gonna be what makes him special and sets him apart. And I tell myself these stories because I'm coping with uh the reality uh of trying to handle that mystery, right? I'm grieving. And and I the stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, acceptance, and depression, or depression and acceptance. And I've seen myself go through all of those stages, and I can see that society is doing the same thing. That we talk about autism as a superpower, and to me, in my opinion, that's actually evidence of the bargaining stage of grief. You're looking for levers of control that make you feel better about their situation, and that's the irony of a lot of this advocacy, particularly from the the autistic community, that speak over the top of the parents of those who are profoundly affected. They say that there's nothing to cure and um they're just living a different experience, and we need to be affirming of that. Um and like you say, well, what if you can't use the toilet yourself? You know, and I and I asked him, I said, would you willingly swap places with a nonverbal, profoundly autistic individual? And then imagine what it would be like to hear someone else speak over the top of your life and say that you're serving your purpose. Okay. It's it's it's that is what's um minimizing people's reality. But we do it to make us feel better about their situation. I I've actually just I've come all the way through, I'm in acceptance, and I say, okay, it is what it is for my son. How can we change this for future generations? How do I make sure my daughter's kids don't experience the same path that I did? How do we leave society a better place? And to do that, you need to draw society's attention to the fact of like these pe these people struggle severely. And we need to stop sanitizing the struggles that they face in order to tell ourselves a more palatable story that we find more entertaining, such as the telepathy type. You say you ask what's the evolutionary benefit. Well, I my first thing that came to my mind is reading people's minds. Because a handful of autistic savants who have had you know, if you cover up senses, you can't see, you can't hear, your other senses are going to heighten. Right. You're going to uh possess this ability to uh pay attention to the nuance of energy in the room. And and and is that awesome? Yeah, that's awesome. And I'm completely open to the um the autistic experience and and ways it can open us up to what the human mind is is capable of, but also don't sanitize their struggles. That podcast never discusses the the the nonverbal pain that these people they feel trapped in their own bodies and they can't communicate. And uh amazing that they've figured out how to communicate with each other nonverbally. You know, whether it's true or not, I don't know. I I'd like to think it is, but I don't get caught up in the superpower stories because I'm trying to help address real world issues um so that future generations face less struggles.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Well, and when you really when you start understanding what goes on in the brain with this, is and that's something that I've really dove into. Because that was really that was really the only way I that was my coping mechanism was to try to fix it. Um and that's you know, probably the nature of my job, is that uh, you know, instead of like just be, you know, and I I went I I'll be honest, I went straight, I think I skipped denial and went straight to anger. Um I I definitely skipped some steps on that because you know, I had I was already in practice and had treated kids on the spectrum um through, you know, kind of functional medicine type stuff. And you know, I I was trying to do and I knew some I I you know I was at least aware of some of the things that I was aware of that could be triggers, different toxins, you know, um I'll even go into you know, probably the over-vaccination type of thing, um, all these other things that we could go into. But, you know, really to me, it was like, you know, what do I what can I do to prevent this? I was actually cognizant of that and I try to do all the right things, but there's just so much in our environment that I think are triggers that, you know, frankly, are tough to control everything from our food supply um to different chemicals we use that are uh essentially just ignored as a potential trigger to things. And, you know, um so when our son, and it was a I had the same story. I mean, he was 18 months old, he was saying the same words, you know, we were thinking we were going on a good, good plane, and then just like that, it stopped. Um, and it was like, and I I'm I'm curious on how your experience is with dealing with that because for me, at least here, it was like, oh, he's a boy, you know, he's gonna take a little longer to talk. I was basically gaslit for, you know, and it and honestly, I probably would have been gaslit for a couple years if I didn't if I didn't know you're full of crap and I need to go take matters into my own hands and get him diagnosed and go do the right steps. Yeah. Um, but you know, it's it's just a very frustrating um thing, you know. But you know, going into you know what we know about the brain is like all these superpowers that you talk about that are there, when you think about how the brain works, those those come and wire as a sacrifice to something else. Your brain's not designed to be hyper wired in one area um and and hyper wired in the other area. You can have this super brain. You know what I mean? Like that's not really how it works. And so usually when you have all this connectivity that gives you the quote unquote superpower, it ends up sacrificing something else that's a that's a very important skill. It's not like increase in neurology function is good across the board. You have to have balance just like everything else.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

I created a graphic a few months back. Um, and imagined like your brain is a circuit board, and just a little bit of moisture gets put on. And hey, get look at this. You know, sparks are flying over here, and uh the board's still functioning. Uh it's obviously pulling power from somewhere else, but hey, look at the things that this computer chip can accomplish. And then the next graphic I put a little bit more water on, and the the thing fried out. Like it it the circuit board caught fire. And I think those are the same, look, the same things happening. Circuit board is in disorder, different spectrum, different experience. You got that little bit of superpower, but then you've got ones that it's too much. Like the brain just completely switches into a defensive mode. And I think that some of the study we're seeing, um, there's a very interesting study, I think it's UC Davis, Dr. Naveau. He he talks about this extracellular ATP cell that acts as a as a warning signal, that you it's your body's immune system that when it recognizes a threat, it it goes and alerts the immune system to and it diverts from growth and puts in defense because it's the body doing what the body was designed to do. And you talk about uh these uh toxins and environmental exposures that we're that we are exposing ourselves to, subjecting ourselves to, living in, bathed in, any number of things. I mean, from 5G to glyphosate on the food to yes, routine injections we voluntarily sign up for or are mandated. Um and what happens is this warning signal that's coming in your body, it's always on high alert. And everything that's coming into your body, it's treating everything as a threat. Because you know what, especially when we're putting adjuvants and these things injecting directly into our bloodstream that our body in all of human history has never had to deal with, the immune system's now overreacting, and that's when boom, systems short start shutting down, and and uh energy and resources are are diverted from growth to defense, and that's hey, that sounds like a developmental delay to me because it's the body doing what the body was designed to do, which is protect it from from foreign entities that are in its body. And the intriguing uh I've wrote about this in my book, but I when the body attacks itself, it's called an an autoimmune disease. And I think we're experiencing that in the autism advocacy space that parents who of children who are profoundly affected, for decades we've been putting our hands up and saying, hey, something went wrong here that needs further investigation. And society uh treats us as the danger because we threaten everyone's sense of safety that this could happen to their child as well. So when I identify my child's regression, society tells me, no, no, no, you must be autistic. He was always this way. You just have confirmation bias or recall bias. You're just retelling a story that because you're looking for something to blame. I'm like, I'm not really looking for something to blame. I'm just saying, hey, my kid was talking and now he's not. And 17 years later, right, he still isn't. Something has gone wrong. Can we investigate this? And society does not want to hear that, so they attack me, they attack us, and that's that's a societal autoimmune disease. We're the warning signal that's trying to provide a better future for our kids' kids, but society would rather pretend like we're the threat and deal with us and silence us. And I just um got tired of being silenced, so I decided to start making videos.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Well, I'm glad you did. And you know, you you know, when you talk about the genetic nature of it, I feel like that's such a cop out because you know, every time I hear someone say that, I'm like, well, can you tell me the genetic mutation that causes autism? Yeah, and what caused the genetic.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Because it doesn't exist. And if it did what caused the gene to mutate. Right. You don't genetics becomes the great rug of mystery that everything you don't understand gets swept under. Do you know what also was considered a solely genetic issue? Lung cancer in the 1930s and 40s. Doctors had been flagging a link between smoking and lung cancer since the early 1900s, but society refused to believe it. And we see this progression happening. To think that we've reached the pinnacle of human intelligence and we've got we're doing everything properly as we're continually experimenting with schedules that go into our body and and and food that we're eating. To think that we have arrived and that we can't do this any better is just ludicrous. And genetics is the scapegoat that everything gets blamed on until you can understand it, until you further understand it, and until you discover the that mechanism of causation. Do genes play a role? Absolutely, they play a role. Sure. But they are not the sole cause. And you know, I had somebody make the comment, she's all that so if you have a genetically susceptible, um, like lower bone density, say you've got 85% bone density of normal human, and then you subject yourself to getting hit with a baseball bat every day, does that make the problem and your and your femur breaks, does that make the problem genetics? But like, yeah, they played a role, but maybe it was the fact that you kept hitting yourself with a baseball bat was the problem. And we just need to be honest about these things that we we can't we need to be doing better for for our children.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Well, I think the I think the the thing is people don't understand the difference between a genetic disease, a genetic disorder, and things like epigenetics. And I think epigenetics are definitely a factor. Epigenetics are the things that um can, but the thing about epigenetics are they are basically affected by our lifestyle, by our environment, and how our cells replicate and do stuff like that. So, yes, there are genetic weaknesses in our epigenetics that can maybe make someone more prone to autism or something like that, but there has to be a trigger to that for that to happen. You know, it's it's not like um something like Down syndrome or something like where you're missing a chromosome or you know, something like that. It's totally different. I think for the general population, the average person doesn't really understand that difference um to a nuanced degree enough to do that. So I think the genetic part of it um makes sense to them, but that also doesn't explain when you talk about this gigantic spectrum of different um kids with different experiences and what they see and how they're able to, you know, we're what we're talking about is not the kid who's going to MIT, right? And he's gonna just be kind of awkward and stuff like that. Um, you know, that would be great. I I wouldn't have any we wouldn't probably be doing this podcast if that's all that we were talking about.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

That that would be awesome. Well, we sign us up, please. We'll take the superpower style. And I think that that's this brings me to the solution. I'm about to solve autism. Watch this. I can't wait. Okay. Tell me your secret sauce. Okay. This keeps everyone happy, right? The profoundly affected, they represent six percent of current clinical um studies. So they're the most profoundly affected, but they don't represent a lion's share of the research that's going into what happened in these kids to cause this. Um, you know, right. And I I make the the equation that that would be like a detective spending 94% of his time on misdemeanors when six percent of the crime or or 25% of the caseload is actually serious crime because 25% of autism are those profoundly affected, meaning limited to no verbal communication requiring significant support. So I think we have to look at the biomarkers of the gut dysfunction, what's going on. Like my my child has never had a normal um bowel experience ever. He's his gut is in incredible disarray, and no matter what we try, we can't figure it out. We load him up with probiotics, we've had his microbiome tested. There's something in his body that does not allow healthy gut bacteria to grow or flourish. You can't our next step is his fecal transplant, right? So I can look at the biomarkers and I can see my son's gut is dysregulated and is not normal and is not capable of sustaining healthy microbiome. That's not a personality trait. That's not a behavior. No. That's a biomarker. So perhaps my child isn't autistic. He was at one stage, but maybe he's not. Maybe he has um an injury that needs to be properly diagnosed. And we won't ever do that because society just says, oh, that's just autism, slap the label on it, and away you go. And the parents then have to become the experts on how to help our children because mainstream medicine just says, eh, it's just autism. Good luck. And right, nothing you can do about it. If we can get further distinction, are these kids that have biomarkers and those that don't? Let's put those in different categories. And then they can talk about life with their personality quirks however they want, because they're not speaking over the top of us. And we can advocate about what life is like for us and try to get our kids help, and we're not speaking over the top of you. So I'm a huge fan of the idea of splitting the spectrum because it's going to allow appropriate voices of advocacy, and we'll be able to um to get the help that our kids need without risking offending the the Sheldon Coopers, the MITs, the uh the Elon Musks of the world. It's so crazy that you can be a trillionaire rocket builder or you can be a self-injurious person who's never said a word in your life and they have the same diagnostic title. That's how, how is that the world we live in in 2026?

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Yeah, and we and we call it all the same thing. And and you know, I it's interesting you say about the microbiome, and I think, you know, obviously that is a a huge factor of it. And um, you know, I'll put something out there to kind of make you think a little bit that, you know, when we look at that, and that was um my approach to it first, because I was functionally medicine trained. That's kind of how I went about helping my son. And, you know, I had a similar experience that when I was trying some of that stuff early on when he was, you know, like two, three, um, same thing. We couldn't like stabilize things. We couldn't ever get his biome and some of these other things really stable. But, you know, what's interesting when I started looking at the neurology side of things is that one thing that really resonated with me is we're actually all born with this, you know, one of the things that we talk about a lot with autism is is leaky gut, right? That's the term that we talk about. Well, we're all born with leaky gut. Like that's normal to be born with leaky gut because we're just our parasympathetic nervous system. Yeah, our parasympathetic nervous system is not developed. Um, our gut line is not developed. That's why, you know, breast milk is best, ideally, um, because we as infants cannot digest those proteins and uh deal with general food that we can when we develop and and and go forward. And so we even see this, I see this a lot when I treat uh even adult patients with long COVID. Um, they'll, you know, whether it's from, you know, some of them people were, you know, had some of these symptoms come on from vaccination or infection. And we know that the infection disrupts that gut lining and create basically creates a leaky gut too. But so if you have some sort of, you know, you have a young child and you know, we, you know, I think the insults can be multi. I don't I don't think there's one cause of autism. I think there's it's multifactorial, to be honest. Perfect storm in a lot of ways. It was for us a perfect storm of factors. Exactly. And that I think that's what it was with us too. Um, but if you have a child who's underdeveloped and those systems are not developed, and then you have this event or multiple events that causes this dysregulation in the development, then you never develop the systems. Every kid I test, we we do something called heart rate variability on a lot of these kids, but we do it orthostatically. So they go from laying down to standing up. So we kind of measure how their fight and flight responds. They're all stuck in fight and flight. All of them. Okay, especially the profound ones. And if you're stuck in fight and flight and you don't have that parasympathetic function, that gut function neurologically, yeah, you can never stabilize your gut function because from you know, everyone talks about the gut-brain axis, but I feel like there's an under-discussion of how the brain itself influences the gut too. That's a two-way street. Um, and so what I have found is trying to stabilize the gut by also trying to mature the neurology at the same time actually can be more effective to stabilize it. Because your story is is very true for a lot of the patients I see. And that makes sense. It actually makes sense when you think about why can't you stabilize the gut if you don't have the proper neurological input? I mean, the brain controls everything, and then you get these kids in these vicious feedback loops. So now they're sympathetic dominant. Guess what actually activates your immune system too? Your sympathetic nervous system. So you can have all these things that happen where you have an inflammatory event that causes this sudden delay. But now you can never get out of it because your brain is stuck in this pro this spot where it can't, even no matter what you do, whatever you do, anti-inflammatory, I don't care if it's herbs, medications, whatever, you do all these things to regulate the inflammation, but your nervous system is still telling your body, I want to be inflamed, I want to react to everything, because that's how it's programmed and wired. And I think that's something that I think needs to be discussed too as well, is that it's not just inflammation in of itself. We have to regulate how the nervous system talks to the body too.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Yeah. And I think there's the the the question of okay, you've identified how to potentially fix this problem, but can you repair an injury? Or can you just do no further harm? Are we now just regulating and managing symptoms and trying to, like you say, bring back this parasympathetic relationship? You know what sounds a hell of a lot easier to me? Let's deal with this inflammation in the first place. Let's look at what we're doing that's causing this. And and kudos to every doctor, functional medicine, whatever it is, that is uh trying to repair these connections, but far out, how much easier to not have to do it at all. And can we not look at the systems in place that are producing these things? And for us, it was a per it was a perfect storm. And that's why you can look at you can show you studies that say, oh, well, this doesn't cause autism. Well, no, that one thing doesn't. Oh, this doesn't cause autism. No, that one thing doesn't. But the idea that it's an injury that occurs after a biological tipping point has been reached, and your allostatic load of toxins that just went poop, there's your there's your moisture on the on the circuit board of your brain, you may never get that back. Like it's possible you don't. I don't I don't know, I'm not a doctor. What I want is for no further harm to be happening. And the the easiest way we can do this is to look at the optional things that have a genuine informed consent about what we are putting into our bodies that are contributing to um this biological tipping point being reached. And to be honest with ourselves, that that's what's happening. I think that we will, in 50 years' time, if we allow science to advance and we we acknowledge that injuries are occurring and we re redesign society to make a better, better, safer products that go in our body. I think in 50 years' time, they'll look back and go, what were they doing? Um I sure hope so. 72 injections between birth and 18 directly into the bloodstream.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

You're kidding me? That's what they were doing?

SPEAKER_00 39:55

That's wild. And it will be self-evident to future generations that we were can directly contributing to what we're calling the autism epidemic. That's my belief.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

No, and and yeah, and and I agree with you 100%, because you know, I may I made it sound like, oh, this this easy fix, and it's not at all. I mean, I've been treating my kid neurologically for probably almost 10 years, okay? And has it helped him improve? Absolutely. But we're still in a battle to hope we can get him to some level of independence, some level, you know, whatever that looks like.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

He you know, I'd love to know what's going on in the now, and I'd love to know what's going on with the parents, uh the brains of parents, right? I've I've seen studies that autism parents have post-traumatic stress equal to that of a combat veteran or whatever. But and and that to me is the the battle for you know, you mentioned you went skip denial and went straight to anger. Denial for me manifested in itself that when I got when we got a diagnosis, it was actually a relief because I'm like, okay, now I know where I am. It's like standing in a dark room and someone flipped the light on out the hallway. You now have a bearing for where you're going. And denial for me manifested itself in believing that I'm gonna take my child by the hand and we're gonna walk out of this dark room together. This is not life. This cannot be life for us. I'm gonna get him healed, I'm gonna get him better, and we're this this won't be our existence. And I can look back now and see, yeah, that's denial. And hope deferred makes the heart sick. This living intention as a parent of how do I have hope that I can make my child's life better? It requires a vulnerability that's extremely exposing. And most people don't want to live in that space. They want to just tell themselves a different story. That's genetic, because absolutely nothing could have been done about it. And let's just move on. But how do you, how do we, how do these parents like, we've we've tried it all, and we will continue to try things. Um, my son's 18. There's nothing between 18 and 80 for him. All we have is time. I'm gonna pursue absolutely everything I can. That requires a vulnerability on my part to live in that tension of denying that this is the fullness of his existence and that I want to create more for him. Um, and it's it's you're not just dealing with a medical issue, you're dealing with society's response to it. And and that plays into parents' emotions as well. Yeah, no, I and you're right.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

I mean, the the load on on parents, um, I mean, you know, I don't think a lot of people realize what it's like to listen to uh vocal simming um most of your your day, you know, on a routine basis. Um talk about talk about sensory overload, you know. Um the the kids the kids just don't experience it, the parents do as well. Um absolutely. And that's uh as Under talked about, you know, we I just did a podcast with my wife talking about that, you know, going through um how that affects and how it affects your relationships, how it affects you as a family, and how it affects um, you know, I have a very neurotypical, awesome daughter who, I mean, God bless her. I mean, she has been, we dub her our our live-in therapist to some degree because she's been so amazing. And I, but I I at the same time, I hate that for her, you know. I hate that she has to take that role. Um, and I don't want her to necessarily take that role. Um, but she, you know, she embraces it to some degree. Um, but I I worry about her future too. You know, like is she gonna feel obligated to take care of him as you know when we get super old? You know?

SPEAKER_00 43:51

I talk about I've got a whole chapter in my book on the siblings relationship. Um, my daughter wrote a very profound poem, and I posted it online. And um, you know, she she's grieving. She says, uh, autism is a disability, but Instagram makes his pain look sweet. Um on TikTok, it's chic. So she sees that society is using pulling out this label as a badge of honor. Whereas for her brother, she knows that when I die, she's gonna be the one to care for him because she'll be his next of kin. You know? And I mentioned that, and society lost its mind that I would make my daughters look after their brother. And I'm saying, hang on a second. Hang on a sec. You want you're just wanting us to celebrate autism. You're saying there's nothing that can be done about it, yet you're wanting his next of kin to have nothing to do with him because the reality of raising a profoundly autistic or caring for a profoundly autistic person, when it's extends beyond the parents who gave birth to that child, you immediately recognize the loss of freedom, the loss of innocence. You immediately you're immediately grieving the reality that my daughters face because they'll be the ones to facilitate, as in they I don't expect my son will live with them, but I they will know where he is. So that's what lets me know society has an innate desire to protect people from carrying burdens they didn't pick up on their own because they want to protect my daughters. And I appreciate that, and I agree with that sentiment. I wish they didn't have to worry about it, but you know what? That's the life that we live. And how much better to just address the prevalence of autism in society and have future children need less support so that everyone has the opportunity to live the fullness of life.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

100%. Well, Tyler, I you know, you you've mentioned a couple times. I really want to hear more about it. Uh tell us a little bit about your book that's coming out.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Yes, um, so my book's out July 15th. Uh, my son's name is Lyric. The book is called The Missing Lyrics, a father's story of autism, grief, and a society in denial, because that that's the main issue. We can talk about biomarkers and here, there, and everywhere, and this, that, and the other. But until society comes to the realization that we actually have a problem that needs addressed, we we won't make any meaningful progress. So I I have embarked on the unenviable task of inviting society onto a grief journey. Come on, come on, everyone, let's go grieve together. But I lay out our story through the stages of grief, I parallel it. This is exactly when I was going through each stage. These are the things that I said that manifested themselves this way in this cycle of grief. And when you actually come all the way through to acceptance, to realizing that no, this is what it is. Um, and that both things can be true simultaneously, is that right? I my child will live with me forever and is my best friend. I love that for me. Also, my child will live with me forever and I am his only friend. I hate that for him. Both things are true. I don't want to change him. I want him, I want him to have a much fuller life than living with his dad forever. Um and we just have to address the problem in society. So that's at um July 15th, and it's gonna be uh on Amazon, um, Kindle, um, and uh Audible audiobook version as well. So plenty of opportunities to have a look at that if you're interested.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

Well, I'm excited. I'm actually excited to go on that grief journey with you and read about that because um yeah, it really, you know, it really resonates with me a lot. It really does.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

Yeah, it's not for the faint of heart, but that's that's the reality, is that we're just gonna have to do it. And I'm just a dad that says, All right, all right, everyone, come on. Well, enough, enough horsing around. Let's let's let's be real about the situation. Let's leap, let's decide to make the world a better place for our kids' kids, and let's stop playing games. Uh, future generations deserve more than our denial.

SPEAKER_01 48:06

Well, and I and I really appreciate because it's not like you said, it's not the uh most uh receptive message sometimes, and it takes some bravery to go out there and do that, and but I think it's extremely important because these kids literally don't have a voice out there unless we do this kind of stuff. And so I think it's it's hugely important. And so I really appreciate doing that, and I I look forward to uh experiencing that because I think it's uh a really, really important factor for people to to realize that it's like we said, it's it's more than the superpowers. These are real challenges, and you know, you just imagine what these kids I mean who feel so dysregulated they have to injure themselves, you know.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

How how's what's going on in their bodies in that moment? Like the superfluing that they're facing. And we we just gloss over it and we're happy happy to pretend they don't exist because we like that story. We like the superpower story better. Yeah, it's just it's just a short time.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

Well, Tyler, I I really I re Yeah, it really is. It is shameful. That's that's a great way to put it. But I really thank you for coming on the show. I mean, I think this was a great episode. I think this is really important for people to realize that um, you know, where where we at as a society, and especially when it comes to autism and the the different forms it comes in. So um we thank everyone for tuning in. Oh, go ahead. Okay, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 49:24

Um and I'm gonna be I'm coming over to Florida for my book launch. I'm gonna be at the Spellers Center in Tampa on Wednesday, July 29th. Um, just I don't have those specific details yet, but if if anyone in the area wants to come um you know grab a book from me, and I'd love to meet you um Wednesday, July 29th. Just follow me on socials at Tyler Hudson Music, and um those details will be available. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

All right, man. Well, I thank you so much for coming on. I think this was a great episode, and uh maybe we can do this again sometime. That'd be cool. Come back anytime you want. All right, that's awesome. All right, everyone, thank you for joining us on this episode. Don't forget again to like and subscribe at Neurotrition Podcasts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. And go to neurotritionpodcast.com and you can listen to us on any podcast platform that you like. And we will see you on the next episode. Thank you again, Tyler, for coming, and we'll see you guys on the next episode.

unknown 50:19

All right.