Autism blood work rarely comes first. In this solo episode Nadia Elkhatib

explains why she now starts with baseline biology before choosing the next

specialty treatment for her son Jimmy.

For twenty years she worked on Lyme, mold, gut, mast cells and detoxification,

and that work helped. What she skipped was the foundation underneath it:

thyroid function, sex hormones, insulin and metabolic health, the lipid panel,

and nervous system regulation.

Nadia walks through the difference between a laboratory reference range and

the working targets her practitioners use, how a specialist's lens shapes the

direction a family takes, and why anxiety, poor sleep, low motivation or

withdrawal deserve a whole-body review rather than being filed under autism.

She shares her own family's numbers, including the years when Jimmy's fasting

glucose and insulin were drifting while his diet was already completely sugar

free, and what changed once they measured instead of assumed.

In this episode:

Why normal is not the same as optimal

How a specialist's lens shapes what gets treated first

Why thyroid problems can look like behavior

Why fasting glucose alone can miss the metabolic story

Why caregiver health belongs in the same roadmap

"The specialist cannot decide the entire order for us. That is our job as

parents."

NOTES ON WHAT YOU WILL HEAR IN THIS EPISODE

Jimmy's history includes IVIG. That is one family's experience under medical

care. IVIG has no FDA-approved indication for autism.

Nadia describes tirzepatide being started with Jimmy's clinical team for a

metabolic problem they had measured, and a HOMA-IR that moved from 3.34 to

1.56. Tirzepatide is approved for type 2 diabetes and for chronic weight

management in qualifying adults. It is not approved for autism. This is one

family's experience under clinical supervision. No doses and no sources are

given anywhere in this episode.

The optimal ranges Nadia refers to are the working targets she uses with her

own practitioners. A HOMA-IR under 1 is her working target, not a laboratory

reference range and not a consensus clinical guideline. Working targets vary

by laboratory method, assay, age, treatment status and clinician.

Reverse T3 is a test many integrative and functional practitioners use, and

Dr. Amie Hornaman explains her reasoning in episode 25. Routine clinical

guidelines generally do not recommend it for standard thyroid evaluation.

Dr. Dayan Goodenowe is a guest on an upcoming episode of this podcast. He

researches plasmalogens and also sells plasmalogen products. This episode

discusses his published research only.

RELATED EPISODES

Episode 25 with Dr. Amie Hornaman, on thyroid:

Episode 24 with Carole Petersen, on sex hormones:

Episode 20, solo, on weight loss and metabolic health:

Episode 10, solo, on anxiety:

Episode 5, solo, on sleep:

Episode 2, solo, on peptides and bioregulators:

RESEARCH REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE

Sex hormones and autism

Croonenberghs J, Van Grieken S, Wauters A, et al. Serum testosterone in male

adolescents with autism. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2010;31(4):483-488. PMID

20802443.

Thyroid and autism

Desoky T, Hassan MH, Fayed HM, Sakhr HM. Biochemical assessments of thyroid

profile, serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol and cluster of differentiation 5

expression levels among children with autism. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat.

2017;13:2397-2403. PMID 28979127.

Cohen DJ, Young JG, Lowe TL, Harcherik D. Thyroid hormone in children with

autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 1980;10(4):445-450. PMID 6927746. This older and

larger study found no group difference, and is included for balance.

Lipids and autism

Kim EK, Neggers YH, Shin CS, Kim E, Kim EM. Lipid profiles in boys with

autism. Nutr Res. 2010;30(4):255-260. PMID 20534328.

Plasmalogens, autism and Alzheimer's disease

Pastural E, Ritchie S, Lu Y, et al. Novel plasma phospholipid biomarkers of

autism: mitochondrial dysfunction as a putative causative mechanism.

Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2009;81(4):253-264. PMID 19608392.

Goodenowe DB, Cook LL, Liu J, et al. Peripheral ethanolamine plasmalogen

deficiency: a logical causative factor in Alzheimer's disease and dementia. J

Lipid Res. 2007;48(11):2485-2498. PMID 17664527.

PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Hunter Williams

Dr. Amie Hornaman

Carole Petersen

Nathalie Niddam

Zora Benhamou

Dr. Dayan Goodenowe

Len Arcuri

CONNECT WITH BIOHACKING AUTISM

Website: biohackautism.com

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @biohackautism

TikTok: @biohackingautism

YouTube: @BiohackingAutism

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nadiaelkhatib

SUBSCRIBE

If this episode helped you, please follow Biohacking Autism wherever you

listen, and share it with a parent, caregiver, adult with autism or

practitioner who might need to hear it. Sometimes one different question

changes the entire direction of a family's care.

ABOUT NADIA

Nadia Elkhatib is the host of Biohacking Autism. She is not a physician. She

is a mother who has spent more than twenty years learning from clinicians and

researchers, collecting data, changing direction, and working to understand

her son as a whole person.

DISCLAIMER

This episode describes one family's experience under clinical supervision and

names prescription and hormone-related products that are not approved for

autism. It is not medical advice and contains no doses, sources or treatment

instructions. Please discuss any testing or treatment with a qualified

clinician who knows the person's history.