Latest / Age Defiantly with Mark Young / [Ep 33] FDA Red Dye 3 Ban — What Parents Should Know | Shane Taylor

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[Ep 33] FDA Red Dye 3 Ban — What Parents Should Know | Shane Taylor · Age Defiantly with Mark Young

0:00
Welcome to Performance Driven Living, the podcast where we question everything.
0:05
We don't tip to around tough topics, we walk right into them, not to provoke, but to
0:11
get closer to what's real.
0:13
You might not agree with everything you hear, and that's okay.
0:17
The show isn't about being right, it's about being real.
0:20
These conversations are meant to stretch your thinking, challenge assumptions, and spark
0:25
something deeper.
0:26
The views shared are those of our guests and may not reflect those of the host or team.
0:32
And while we dive deep into health, performance, and transformation, this is not medical advice.
0:38
Talk to your doctor before making changes to your health or lifestyle.
0:42
Take what lands, leave what doesn't, but whatever you do, don't stop questioning.
0:56
We are back on the Performance Driven Living podcast, where we learn new things all the
1:00
time on potentially random topics.
1:02
But the idea is that I get to learn and thus share information with you and thus you get
1:08
to earn.
1:09
So I like to have inspiring stories from people who are just thought leaders in their
1:14
space and equally providing value to me and to the world because as we discuss all the
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time, currency of success is impact.
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And I want to introduce you today to my friend, Shane Taylor, and he's a guy who's having
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an impact on the world.
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So Shane, thank you, thank you so much.
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Our producers put together.
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I'm going to read out what they've put here as your bio.
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So don't be offended if anything's wrong.
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It's not my fault.
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You can blame them.
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Of Shane Taylor is a veteran special education teacher and founder of iepcentral.org, a platform
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that helps parents, educators and students navigate the individualized education plan
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process with confidence and clarity.
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That's right.
1:57
That's right.
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Perfect.
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Perfect.
2:00
So, Shane, I appreciate you coming in today because you've got a unique story.
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And I've known you for quite a while and I've watched that story kind of bounce around
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a little bit.
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But I can say that it's ended up in exactly where I thought it would be.
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So not much of a surprise there, but if I can correct me on these details if I'm wrong,
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but to set this up for the audience, you're a married man.
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You work.
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You were a school teacher with a master's degree in special education.
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And you worked with students who were mostly on the spectrum, but special needs students
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in in the classroom, mostly elementary education, correct?
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Yes.
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And a little bit of middle school too.
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A little bit of middle school as well.
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So here you are, a single guy.
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You were a school teacher, got married, you had a child, now you have two, but your first
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born child, Jason, just turned five, was diagnosed with autism.
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Absolutely.
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Yeah.
3:00
There's an irony to that situation.
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Yeah.
3:04
Yeah.
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That's a pretty interesting story.
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How you even got into that, but yeah, correct.
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And so there's an irony to it, but one that I find amazing, to be honest with you, because
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the irony, of course, is like you've chosen a career field and then ended up with an
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autistic son.
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Yeah.
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And I, what normally what I find for people and where I think you're bouncing a little
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bit has taken place that I've been able to witness just in the years of knowing you has
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been that for most people, I use the phrase that most people's purpose is found in their
3:34
pain.
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Right?
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That in the pain we find our purpose and then that purpose drives people.
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You'll see people who go through addiction and then their whole purpose in life is to
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help people out of addiction or, you know, people who were abused and not become, you know,
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child advocates.
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Like you see a lot of that take place, but the weird thing is, is that your pain came
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after your purpose.
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This is true.
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You picked a purpose and then the pain showed up, not to call Jason a pain, I don't mean
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that, but I mean, like, no, I got it, you mean, yeah, that's exactly, that's
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super accurate.
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But it's, there's irony to it almost, it's like you, you chose a career in special education,
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you had an empathy or parents who were dealing with special education, children.
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And it's so, I mean, I want to personalize this a little bit because you worked in this
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field and then all of a sudden you get a diagnosis that your, your own child has autism.
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And I mean, I remember the struggle with that, yeah, but can, can you verbalize that for
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us?
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I mean, I have to imagine there was almost say this can't be real.
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Oh, yeah, that was, you know, I didn't even detect it.
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So the funniest thing about the whole thing was, it was my wife that really was like,
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I think we should get them checked and I'm, I'm every day, I'm going, working with kids
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with, with ASD and I didn't pick up on it.
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So it was around the 10 month, um, um, second time, time for my wife was like, hey, we
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got to get them checked out.
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And then I started looking, I, oh, I cracked up in my old textbook because I had just graduated
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with my master's and special ed, like before this.
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And I'm like, you know what, she's right.
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She's absolutely right.
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So yeah, the pain came after and I've already completed everything, all, you know, all
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my credentials prior to that.
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So yeah, you're, yeah, absolutely.
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And like I said, I mean, there's irony to that in some respect.
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It's like, you know, it's the, well, this can't happen to me like, oh, I, and again,
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I don't mean to minimize this in any way, but it's almost like, you felt bad for everyone
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else with their struggles.
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And then all of a sudden, you're like, whoa, like this just came home literally now.
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It's me.
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And I have to imagine like there's a grief and everyone I know who's got a child with
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autism goes through a grieving period, you know, and it's not the grieving over the child
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because the child's amazing.
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Yeah.
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In many cases, it's, it's a grief that takes place because of the future that you would
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imagine.
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Yeah.
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That isn't his future now.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah.
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So many times and that's, that's one of the challenges in navigating it.
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I remember when I first started, I mean, almost every IP meeting, which is just a meeting
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that we go and see their strengths or weaknesses evaluated and set goals for the next upcoming
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year.
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So every IEP meeting, it was always the same thing.
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You know, we'd have parents who come in there and the first thing said to their child,
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yeah, yeah, their child is, they come in and the first thing they would just burst into
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tears.
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It's just kind of like a natural reaction.
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So it's definitely, there's that pain element and they love their kids.
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And I love Jason, obviously.
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And it's just kind of like, yeah, the pain is definitely real with this experience.
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So just to unpack for the audience, if anybody's not familiar with what an IEP is, an IEP
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is kind of like those three letter words that we use for an individual educational plan,
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which just simply means that this child has needs that are not going to be met by the
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classroom curriculum that's being taught.
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Like according to the syllabus, this child is going to struggle and because of that,
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we put together individualized plans that will be effective based on a child's specific
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needs or special needs as often gets referred to.
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So it just means how do we come up with a plan that's going to help the child be successful
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because in a quote, unquote normal classroom environment, which I would argue is not
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normal anyways, but in a normal classroom environment, this child's not going to succeed.
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So we come up with IEPs now and that can be ADHD, that can be autism, that can be any
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number of, you know, mild down syndrome, like any number of things can trigger that specific
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plan.
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Absolutely.
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And I've got teacher friends who literally have entire classrooms with IEPs, which is
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crazy, but welcome to the public school system.
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Yeah.
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So Shane, like, I want to get into what you're doing now, but I want to go backwards
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a little bit because you've worked in this area of special needs and autism for a while.
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And I'll use the word ironically again, but maybe coincidentally in this case, our first
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interview on this podcast was actually with Del Big Tree.
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Oh, well, so and one of the conversations that Del and I got into on the podcast was
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actually, you know, Del Big Tree is right.
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So he's CEO of the Maha movement, formerly he had produced the film Vax, formerly he
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was the producer on the TV show, the doctors, blah, blah, blah.
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And I've been a big Del fan for a long time.
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He has very, very, very strong convictions on the topic of autism specifically.
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And one of the statistics that he had thrown out in our conversation was that statistically
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back as far as just say the 70s, right?
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Like I was born in 1975.
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And one of the comments that came up was when I was a kid, like I didn't know any autistic
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people.
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Yeah.
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And I have people in my life who were autistic.
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I didn't know people who were autistic and statistically one in 10,000 people was diagnosed
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with autism.
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Yeah.
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Today, the number is one in 31.
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Yeah.
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And if you're a boy in California, the number is one in 12, yes.
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And I mean, and there's been an argument, I'll say one side versus the other side, whatever
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we want to call those things.
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And there's been an argument that well, we just didn't diagnose it back then.
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Yeah.
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And I wanted to add to that.
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So I work with a veteran teacher.
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She's been teaching for I think 37 years.
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So and she graduated with her bachelor's in special education.
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Autism wasn't even a part of the curriculum.
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Like we couldn't imagine now not having a part of the curriculum.
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That's also a fact that when they did, when they did special education, just, you know,
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40 years ago, it was not there.
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Well, and let me ask you because I mean, this is your specialties.
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I'm the novice in this conversation, but I do homework ahead of time.
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But when I talk about this, did it exist?
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Like there is the belief that well, mental illness has always existed.
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We just didn't, you know, we just used to call it demon possession or whatever.
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Like sure, I get it.
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Like sometimes we just didn't have words for things and we didn't know what to do with it.
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But when it comes to things like 80 or 80 HD, I would say like, all right, I remember
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being a kid and there was always that one kid that was always in the corner, right?
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Like maybe we'd have called him ADD today, you know, and maybe it was the same cause.
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But this is like one in 30 children, like literally that's almost to the point that
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like everybody has an autistic grandchild, yeah, pretty much.
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And everyone knows someone with autism now when you didn't know anyone before in my generation.
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I knew nobody who was autistic, not friends, not children or friends and so on.
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It's like, and when Del and I were talking, we had this exact same conversation.
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I'm like, except my best friend's son is autistic.
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My sister has an autistic daughter.
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My dad's best friend has an autistic child.
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Like we're going through and it's like, why do I know so many people with, I mean, Jason's
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like, I mean, I can list for you a dozen people I know with autism.
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Now, great.
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I probably know more people today than I used to know when I was nine, but nevertheless,
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the prevalence has statistically gone through the roof.
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Absolutely.
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Thanks.
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You're a special ed teacher.
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What's going on?
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So there, this one kind of branches out a little bit out of my field, but I, from me
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as a parent, just the interventions, because sometimes you can work your way back from
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the interventions.
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So you go for my son in particular, we cut out KC and we cut out gluten, we cut out
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certain products and we see a behavior that, you know, more mimics a typical child.
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We start cutting out, you know, red dye and I have a whole story on red dye, but we start
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cutting out some of those artificial foods and we see a regression in negative behaviors.
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So then if we just put that in, you know, Ford, we put that where it belongs.
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I think it's more of a society that has invited pollutants and these pollutants cause massive
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inflammation throughout the body.
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The young body can't handle that as efficiently as, you know, an adult and now we're getting
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these kind of mass brain inflammation.
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That once we had, once we kind of use a therapeutic approach, they tend to, you know, subside
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actually substantially.
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So we see that.
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So I love that.
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I don't, I don't love that it's happening.
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Yeah.
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I love that you're so connected into that functional space of nutrition.
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Yeah.
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I mean, there, there is and when autism, I was reading something and then Dell had even
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mentioned something about it that is autism, by and large, they've connected in many ways
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to childhood and cephalitis that when Simulance actually exists, that makes the brain inflame,
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the brain only fits so big in a skull and then you end up with permanent damage because
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you're, you're stretching it further than it can, right?
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Yeah.
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Which again, all of that makes sense to me is like, yeah, I mean, the brain, the skull's
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only so big, right?
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And if the brain starts to swell, that there's going to be a problem and that's going to
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lead to damage and ultimately that may be the cause of that.
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And I know Dell got into a whole conversation about vaccinations and, you know, maybe vaccinations
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because side effects of vaccinations are known to be in cephalitis and maybe this is a connection
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not always, I'm not, I'm not advocating one way or another, where I do have a problem
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with our current culture right now is we've got an RFK health department.
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We've got a Dell big tree run, a Baja movement, we've got a Marty McCarrie led FDA, we've
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got a, we've got a Dr. Oz, we got the buzzwords all over the place who are really in my opinion
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and, you know, and I will say that like I know a lot of these people like we work with
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them in a lot of ways.
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And while I'm not on, I don't think any of them are on a witch hunt.
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And I think that they're, we're on a, there's this polarization that's taken place.
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And I'll specifically say, Maha because I'm curious your thoughts on this, but this
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Maha movement about making America healthy.
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And I'm like, why is anyone against that?
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Like, you know, like Maha is unfortunately turned into, you know, Trump supporters.
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And it's like, no, I don't think that's the case.
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I think there's a lot of people who are like, yeah, I think Bobby Kennedy moving his
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support over to Trump.
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I think actually helped Trump win the election because there were such a huge group of
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people that are like, look, we don't care who's president.
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We want a healthy country.
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And if Bobby's going to do that, then let's go follow Bobby wherever he goes.
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And to add to that, the, the world population of kids with autism, so the world general,
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there's about 1% of the population in the world has autism.
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But in, in United States, that is 3%, 3.24% now, now with the way he says.
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So it's, it's like, why are we three terms?
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Yeah.
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Exactly.
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And what bothers me with it is that when we talk about, I mean, autism's turned political.
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And I can't wrap my head around that, to be honest with you, like, and I don't, I don't
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care what side of the all year on it.
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If you're making autism political, knock it off, like that, that's my belief.
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And I mean, I saw a thing recently with Elizabeth Warren, and I don't like Elizabeth Warren
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anyways.
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But, you know, and she's like, I, you know, we love autistic people.
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And I'm like, sweetheart, I love autistic people too, but it doesn't mean I want more
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of them.
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Yeah.
15:50
Exactly.
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Like, no one's mad at the people who already have autism.
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I mean, I love people with cancer too, but I'm not wishing it on anybody else.
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Exactly.
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Why is this even, why is that even a talking point?
16:01
Yeah.
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Well, it seems to be, as we dig deeper into it, there, there seems to be a class of people
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because I often spend time so I can, you know, better serve the community that I, that
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follow me, whatever.
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I look at a lot of Facebook forums and oftentimes you see parents who, there's like two groups
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where they have a level one autistic child, which was formerly known as Asperger's.
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And then you have the two and three's.
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So the level ones, it's the two different worlds, the little, one is the social skills,
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one lives in diapers.
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And the exactly.
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So when you see those two components, oftentimes when you see autism, it's, it's the one of,
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you know, the love on the spectrum.
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So you see them and you're like, oh, they just want to be accepted like everyone else.
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But the challenges that, that usually the people on the other side are, are, you know,
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our lives are extremely difficult, right?
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And before these interventions are, that we put in place with Jason, that was, that was
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our life.
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Or was how do we navigate this?
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How do we still, you know, not feel guilty when we're upset for, you know, for not being
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there are not mentally being there like we would, but the typical child for our son
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and we have to take those mental breaks, like how do we still navigate this whole thing?
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So I think there's just those two components.
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And once we realize that, then I think we can isolate why everyone's saying, well, autism
17:31
is fine, you know, because they just say, oh, it's just a little corky thing.
17:34
When really it's a big giant spectrum, where on the other side of the spectrum, there's
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people who are suffering and then it's not just the children.
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Well, I mean, I'll give you an example, my dad's best friend from high school.
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His son is like institutional level three, like he's a giant kid now and he's in his
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20s.
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And it's like every time his parents pick him up, like he nearly beats his mother to death.
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Like Emily has just gotten abused by him because if you do anything he doesn't like, he
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just physically lashes out and he'd always been like like their house was always a shambles
18:08
because there wasn't anything in the house that Christopher hadn't, hadn't destroyed out
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of some kind of whatever because there was zero emotional control, right?
18:19
And it was, he wears headphones all the time because just auditory stimulus is just more
18:23
than he can, than he can take.
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So he just, he goes around life with headphones like he's, you know, his facial affect is
18:30
very off.
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So he's clearly this, you know, level two, level three autistic as opposed to an Asperger's
18:37
person, right?
18:38
Like Asperger's, I have friends who I'm convinced have Asperger's, right?
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And it's just like, then you just kind of tease about their, their inability to pick
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up social cues, right?
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So, yeah, I agree with you.
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There's a big spectrum.
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I know the word Asperger's is no longer supposed to be used and we're supposed to strike that
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from the language to it's been, it's been canceled, you know, whatever.
18:56
But you're right, there's a wide range of variants here, the same with cancer, right?
19:02
Having a mole removed is very different from having pancreatic cancer that's aggressive.
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Like we also can't speak about that on a spectrum too.
19:11
Exactly.
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You've got to be realistic about this.
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But my question to you is, what do you see in the school systems?
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And I want to get into a conversation about IEP central and what, what you're doing there
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because I want to, I want to steer this back to in your pain as your purpose.
19:29
Yeah.
19:30
But what are you seeing in the school systems as it's responding to this?
19:34
I'll say overwhelming amount of children that are being brought into the school system
19:39
that the school system wasn't designed for.
19:41
Yeah.
19:42
Well, I mean, so what I do, my job every day is a sport facilitator.
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So I have plenty of kids on my case load that have ESD.
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But what comes with that is I have a morning duty, right?
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So that means I'm just going around and I'm monitoring this particular area.
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And in the next area with the next group of teachers that are dealing with, they have
20:04
this morning area and it's literally about, I would say 20, around 28 chairs and that
20:13
houses our ASD cluster.
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And this is going to be from, I would say first grade all the way to fifth grade.
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And it's 28 kids completely there.
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And I always think that's a lot of kids.
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I'm 28 right there, not to mention my son's class because he goes to school with me.
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My son's class, whenever they go to the playground, that there's like 50 kids on the playground.
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And I'm like, that's a lot of kids that all have ASD.
20:44
They're all diagnosed.
20:45
They're all on some level, whether level, we usually don't house level three's, but one
20:51
or two, they all have ASD.
20:54
So that's what we're seeing when we were in the 1500 kids that are at that school, 50
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of them are in a special ed class.
21:04
Over 3% of the population, I don't like those odds.
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And that's multiplied through most schools in our county.
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So this is not just our school.
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This is the school down the street, the other school across the road schools having the
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same issue.
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And then the hardest thing, the biggest thing that's facing it is that there's not
21:26
enough professionals.
21:27
There's not enough people to train.
21:28
There's not enough people who are willing to do that because ultimately you're signing
21:33
up for a whole different job when you're dealing with a cluster situation, which is a self-contained
21:39
classroom.
21:40
That's a whole different job than what you think of teaching is.
21:44
So you'll go to school and you'll say, okay, I'm going to do this awesome lesson.
21:48
And then all of a sudden, you look at your clientele and that lesson may never happen.
21:54
And you may almost act as feel like a babysitter where you're just pushing the needle on certain
22:00
behaviors instead of actually teaching.
22:02
And that's kind of how it looks when it comes to the cluster level.
22:06
Now when you have, in the school system, there's three levels.
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You have your general education, you have your supported, and then you have your specialized.
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So the specializes where we have all the kids in the cluster and then they're in that
22:21
safe self-contained, then there's the inclusion process where which is where I come in and
22:26
I support the teacher in developing the IEP and then also implementation.
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So we implement it.
22:33
So I'll see the kid and we'll do certain activities either behaviorally or academically
22:40
to help that student maintain their position in an inclusion classroom.
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And then you'll have your general ed where those kids are usually not in those areas.
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But sometimes they might.
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So I hate to see, but the school systems have gone into a segregation model.
22:58
Ultimately, we've done, we've taken all of the outliers and put them in a room by themselves.
23:04
And it doesn't matter if they're first or fifth grade, we just put them all in one room,
23:08
which sounds like a penal colony.
23:09
So I'm not sure how I feel about that.
23:11
But unfortunately, they're the neurodivergence and aren't allowed to be with the other
23:17
children and then we say it's for their own benefit.
23:21
You mentioned Jason, and how you have been able to, and I love that when I said his name
23:26
you smiled, but you mentioned how you and your wife have been able to help mitigate certain
23:34
negative behaviors to diet and nutritional changes.
23:38
You said you got a great story about red dye number four.
23:41
Oh, yes.
23:42
And by the way, I mean, this is a very topical, timely conversation because of all the fruit
23:46
loops conversation that's taking place in Congress and the Senate hearings over food
23:52
dyes and RFK's which hunt for them and everything else.
23:55
I can be out.
23:57
What in the world?
23:58
So this was great.
24:00
It was, we looked back at it and laughed, but it was, it was a crazy time.
24:04
But overall, we went to Georgia.
24:07
We're up in the mountains in Georgia and it was great.
24:09
We had a great week.
24:10
And on the way back, we ran out of juice.
24:12
We went to Walmart prior, got enough supplies the last week, but we ran out of his juice.
24:18
So we went to an amusement park and all they had was juice with red 40.
24:24
So we were thinking, okay, what do we do?
24:26
So we decided to dilute it and give it to him.
24:29
So within 10 minutes, 10 minutes, he just changed into a completely different child.
24:34
So you're just screaming non-compliant, completely non-compliant.
24:38
And from that point, we had, we hadn't given any juice with red 40 in it.
24:43
We once, like he said, he was diagnosed at 10 months old.
24:46
So from that point on, it was, you know, zero light.
24:50
It was different interventions immediately that we started implementing.
24:53
And we started to see changes.
24:55
He was on an ABA pretty much two months after that.
24:58
And once we realized it, we really pushed the needle for the pediatrician
25:03
who didn't want to give us a diagnosis.
25:04
And I'm like, I had to say, I'm sorry, but I'm the authority in the room when it comes to this.
25:09
I had to use those words to kind of push the needle.
25:12
So once we finally got everything approved,
25:15
and then he started full-time ABA, I would say that was when he was 14 months old.
25:21
So, you know, six months after when we initially noticed,
25:25
he was already in the full 30, 35 hours of ABA.
25:29
And then from this point on, now back to Georgia,
25:33
we give him the red 40 and he was completely non-compliant.
25:37
My, you, we had to go into a plane.
25:40
So now he's, I mean, he's in there in the plane, kicking, screaming.
25:44
The whole ride there.
25:46
So it was about two hours of just kicking and screaming.
25:49
Once we, once we hit the deck, then we had to stay in the plane for another 40 minutes.
25:56
They had to wait for another plane to go.
25:58
So it was, it was insane.
26:00
And he ended up, he ended up that day falling asleep on his feet.
26:04
So he was so exhausted, just fell asleep on his feet.
26:08
And it took about two days for all of those negative side effects to kind of, with their way.
26:13
So we, we've tried it again.
26:15
We're like, maybe it was just us.
26:17
Maybe he just had a bad day.
26:18
So we would go give him a tiny amount.
26:21
And within minutes, those same symptoms just come roaring back.
26:28
Someone asked a stupid question.
26:31
So pardon me for being ignorant on this.
26:32
But we talk about health a lot on this, on this podcast.
26:37
So if, if giving red 40 is causing these problems,
26:41
and obviously has a level of toxicity for your child,
26:45
yes, why would we give it to any child?
26:48
I have no idea.
26:49
And that's, that's the obvious thing.
26:51
I mean, there's studies that just came out that said,
26:55
just reducing some of these junk foods,
26:58
will are just reducing some of these dyes,
27:00
reduces ADHD by like 50%.
27:03
So that's 50% of the kids who can't stay in their seat
27:07
by just correcting some of these small issues.
27:11
So I'm not, not making it as colorful, I guess.
27:15
That's correct.
27:16
Like really all groups aren't going to be as colorful
27:18
and the kids may not want to eat more fruit loops.
27:20
So sugar owns.
27:22
But I can't, I really, and I mean,
27:26
I'm not even trying to exaggerate.
27:27
Like I literally can't wrap my head around it.
27:29
Because I'm like, if we know this is toxic,
27:32
why do we keep producing it?
27:33
And why do we make it amazing for children?
27:36
And why do we try to do this?
27:37
And I can't wrap my head around it.
27:39
I mean, other than corporate greed,
27:41
I'm going to, I'm a capitalist, you know that.
27:44
Yeah, but I don't understand.
27:46
I would never try to make money
27:47
at the detriment of somebody else in this particular time.
27:51
I'm usually like, the big man is the problem.
27:53
But in this particular case, it's, it's the people.
27:57
I mean, if everyone decided,
27:59
yes, we're not buying this anymore.
28:01
And it stayed on the shelf.
28:03
You could just one week, one week of not buying any of the products
28:06
that have that, it would change instantly.
28:09
I agree with you.
28:10
It would literally take a week, maybe a month
28:12
for some, some companies.
28:13
If nobody brought fruit loops anymore,
28:14
there wouldn't be fruit loops on the shelf.
28:16
That's just, that's it.
28:17
Capitalism works.
28:18
And that's it.
28:18
So they are already holding with their feet.
28:20
Yeah, they already have healthy versions of these products.
28:23
Yeah.
28:24
So they can put it in every other country, but here.
28:26
Exactly.
28:27
So I really, I really blame us as a society
28:30
for not recognizing danger and steering away from it.
28:33
But we're just kind of charging full speed into it.
28:37
I ask you a dumb question.
28:38
And you've noticed that, that the food,
28:43
that, that you give to Jason effects.
28:47
Yeah.
28:47
Do you ever wonder if it's causation?
28:50
Or do you think it just exacerbates what already existed?
28:53
The food causes more of any stimulus
28:56
that are given to children are causing the rate of,
28:59
because if we're at one in 31 children,
29:01
we have autism right now.
29:03
It's not red forties fault.
29:05
Yeah, yeah.
29:05
And I mean, I don't think that we're,
29:07
we're intravenously giving red 40 or in utero,
29:11
you know, somehow giving red 40.
29:13
And I do believe that there's something to be said
29:14
for the diet of the mother.
29:15
Mm-hmm.
29:16
Yeah.
29:16
You know, because no different than we found out
29:18
that mothers who carry children
29:20
who actually have mercury amalgams
29:22
are causing mercury toxicity
29:24
and neural inflammation in the children they're carrying.
29:27
Yes.
29:28
Got it?
29:29
Like, and again, I'm ignorant to it.
29:30
I just had my amalgams removed not six months ago.
29:33
Like, I didn't even realize that I had them.
29:36
Yeah.
29:37
But again, I mean, we can talk about in utero.
29:40
We, I mean, all of this kind of stuff
29:42
we can have these conversations.
29:44
And I think part of it is that we're reaping
29:46
the consequences of what we did a generation ago.
29:49
I don't think this is a, today there's a problem.
29:52
I think the problem was even a generation ago
29:55
and now the children are paying the price
29:58
because the mothers of yesterday
30:00
who didn't do the right things
30:01
are now having the children
30:03
who are genetically having the consequences.
30:05
That's why we're seeing this sunrise.
30:07
There is a coincidental spike.
30:12
I will say, and I'm not saying it's correlation
30:15
or causation or whatever,
30:16
but a coincidental spike at 1998
30:19
when there was changes in vaccine laws
30:21
that actually allowed pharmaceutical companies
30:24
to be completely hold harmless
30:28
for the results of any vaccine.
30:29
Suddenly autism started spike into the roof
30:31
in around 1998.
30:32
Yeah.
30:33
So, okay, like did we take away the consequence
30:36
and now there's no culpability
30:38
and that's maybe there's a connection.
30:40
I just, I think it's a complicated topic.
30:42
I'm excited to see what they come back with.
30:44
What is it in September when they're saying,
30:46
you know, Bobby's saying
30:47
that they'll have some kind of result for it.
30:49
But yeah, my question to you is
30:52
knowing what you know about Jason,
30:54
you have another child.
30:55
Yeah.
30:56
Are you adhering to the same standards with her?
31:00
Well, yeah, we're going to completely different route
31:03
when it comes to her.
31:03
We are focusing on nutrition very early.
31:07
Even my wife, we really honed in
31:11
on making sure she's eating whole foods
31:13
when she was pregnant.
31:14
She's breastfeeding now.
31:15
We with Jason was like, oh, we could breastfeed.
31:19
We could do that.
31:20
And it's like, no, this is not an option.
31:22
So she left her job.
31:23
That's one of the main reasons.
31:25
It was like, we need to make sure that you can do that.
31:28
We, you know, you can be there
31:31
and provide that nutrition.
31:34
And the baby formula
31:36
is all filled with high fructose corn syrup.
31:38
Corn syrup solids.
31:39
It's the first ingredient.
31:41
What are you doing?
31:42
Like we're giving, we're telling women
31:44
that formula is better for the child.
31:47
I grew up on formula.
31:48
Like I was from a generation
31:50
that, you know, we went to the opposite taboo with breast milk.
31:53
And it was like, we grew up on formula.
31:55
It's like, but now we're finding out
31:56
the kids who grow up on formula
31:58
have a higher rate of metabolic dysfunction and obesity.
32:01
Absolutely.
32:01
Well, why is your feeding them sugar from the teeth?
32:04
They're born.
32:05
Exactly.
32:05
And to go back to some of the things
32:09
you're talking about, the brain and the environment,
32:11
how that affects, you know, kids with autism.
32:15
So Jason has a specific type.
32:16
So another thing that's not talked about
32:18
is there's many different types of autism
32:21
are the occurrence of autism.
32:23
Some can come through seizures
32:24
and other things like that.
32:25
And that's where it is.
32:27
But Jason's in particular, it's a cerebral folate deficiency.
32:31
A cerebral folate deficiency essentially.
32:34
It's where he produces an M sign and F-R-A M sign.
32:39
So this M sign is kind of like little scissor.
32:42
And what it does, it blocks toxins
32:45
from getting into the brain into this cerebellum.
32:47
So the negative side effect of that
32:51
is that it stops folate from going in there as well.
32:54
So there's folates not able to enter
32:56
as well as other toxins.
32:58
And it's believed that that sometimes is developed
33:01
because it's the environment was so toxic.
33:04
So the brain is like, we didn't need to create this M sign.
33:07
This M sign is to protect the brain ultimately.
33:11
So in that particular case,
33:14
one intervention that really helps us
33:16
fall on the leg acid, which takes a different pathway.
33:19
So instead of going, so your brain is here,
33:22
the folate normally comes on this side.
33:24
Right.
33:25
The faunalic acid goes around and goes on the top
33:29
into the same part of the cerebellum.
33:31
And then, yeah, through a different neural channel.
33:34
So that's where we're seeing a lot of the benefits.
33:37
So he's been taking that as well.
33:39
But ultimately, why was the M sign created in the first place?
33:43
And it could be something as simple as environmental toxicity
33:47
that you weren't even aware of.
33:48
Exactly.
33:49
So that's why now moving on to our second child.
33:53
It's like, we need to make sure that those toxic elements
33:56
are not there so that she's able to thrive.
34:00
Particularly, I mean, I think about that kind of stuff
34:02
with like environmental toxins and stuff like.
34:05
And particularly at risk populations.
34:08
Like, we take a look at like inner city populations
34:11
or at risk for people who are impoverished and so on.
34:13
So it was like, the last damn thing
34:16
they're thinking about is environmental toxins, right?
34:19
Like, the amount of mold that exists in low income housing,
34:23
like all of this kind of stuff.
34:26
And again, we can't fix the world overnight.
34:28
No one's recommending that.
34:29
But it's like, I think that there's an educational awareness.
34:33
And I'm excited because I'm actually
34:34
seeing it happen right now that we're talking about this stuff.
34:37
Like, this is not a taboo topic right now.
34:40
Like, whether or not we like it, it's in the news.
34:43
Like, we're talking about autism.
34:45
We're talking about environmental toxins.
34:46
We're talking about food guys.
34:48
Like, we're talking about seed oils.
34:50
Like, we're talking about glyphosate.
34:51
Like, it's all on the table now.
34:54
And now it's a matter of, we may not like it.
34:56
It may look really messy.
34:58
But we can't just put the genie back in a bottle right now.
35:00
Like, this conversation is started.
35:03
Yeah.
35:04
And I'm excited to see where that goes.
35:07
But also very sensitive to the fact that there's
35:09
a lot of people out there that even though we're bringing it
35:11
to consciousness right now,
35:13
they're still dealing with the actual day to day impact of it.
35:15
Yeah.
35:16
The environmental toxin perhaps then
35:18
ended up causing caused Jason's blockage to fully.
35:22
If that's what happened to the caused his autism,
35:25
I'm so glad we learned about it.
35:26
And I'm glad that your next child
35:28
doesn't have to have that exact same experience.
35:33
But you're still impacted by him.
35:34
Yeah.
35:35
That still is a neurotypical experience for him to have.
35:42
And then also as his parents, you're dealing with that.
35:44
And I think I want to kind of steer us in that direction.
35:49
That is, again, we started with this conversation
35:51
about how your passion then became pain.
35:55
And then went back into passion, which is interesting.
35:58
And before we get into the unpacking
36:02
of the IEP central organization that you've started,
36:06
because I wanted you to have some time
36:07
to talk about what you're doing there.
36:11
But I happen to know you personally.
36:13
So I know that even after you were a special ed teacher,
36:17
then you became a parent of a special ed child,
36:20
you were like, I'm done with this industry.
36:22
I can't be a teacher anymore.
36:23
I'm going to go become an IT programmer.
36:25
I'll become a nurse or I can't do this.
36:29
Yeah.
36:30
And now your knees deep.
36:32
Now you are 100% back into I'm a special ed teacher.
36:36
But there seem to be this fight or flight response at first.
36:39
And flight started taking a little bit more dominance
36:42
than that conversation.
36:45
Yeah, no, there was a year, actually, I love teaching.
36:49
So it was because of that, I just felt like I can't be a part
36:57
of this.
36:57
I already have to deal with it at home.
36:59
I don't want to have to deal with it all day.
37:01
So it kind of came to this head.
37:03
So I actually ended up becoming a director of a foster agency.
37:08
And that was a good job.
37:11
But the challenges, I really couldn't escape it
37:14
because then we had clientele that still had ASD.
37:19
And one of the things that was great
37:21
was that the clientele that had ASD,
37:24
they would send them to me because I would say,
37:26
oh, I know how to deal with this.
37:27
Oh, this is how we do.
37:28
And I would be able to train the staff.
37:30
Here's what you need to do to make sure you're
37:32
effective with this.
37:33
So I was still doing my job.
37:35
I was running away, but I was still
37:37
doing part of my job.
37:39
So ultimately, and then when COVID hit,
37:43
then it was kind of like, now we need to restructure
37:46
and see what's the best solution for us, where should I go?
37:50
So ultimately, I landed back in teaching.
37:53
But yeah, it was definitely this period of time
37:56
where I was like, yeah, I just want to,
37:58
I just kind of want to get away from it for a while.
38:00
And then like you said, overall, it was like, no,
38:04
let's get back into it.
38:05
And let's actually see what we can do to make it better
38:08
because when I look around and I see how far,
38:13
for example, Jason has speech therapy
38:16
and the speech therapist says, wow,
38:18
I have to update his yearly goals every month
38:21
because he's making that much progress.
38:23
And I'm like, yeah, I mean, isn't everyone doing that?
38:26
And ultimately, you look around and you're finding
38:29
that no one knows this information.
38:31
This information is not public.
38:33
And when I talk to my colleagues, I'm like, wait,
38:35
you didn't know that you could do this.
38:37
And this will have an impact here.
38:39
And so I decided I need to take all the knowledge I know
38:43
and then just kind of use it to impact as many people as well.
38:46
And in fairness, like you're a unicorn in so much as like,
38:50
I mean, I know a lot of people who get into special ed
38:52
because they had a special ed child, right?
38:54
Or you know, this happened then this.
38:57
Yeah.
38:57
And like I said, I mean, the irony of your story
38:59
is that you actually started in special ed,
39:01
then had a special ed child,
39:04
then kind of ran away from special ed
39:05
only to find yourself back in special ed.
39:07
And I believe that people's purposes are often, you know,
39:12
discovered rather than decided.
39:15
Yeah.
39:16
And I think you didn't decide on this.
39:18
This was a discovery in some ways.
39:19
Like this wasn't purely onion at the center.
39:22
We found the core of who Shane is, which is beautiful.
39:25
But what I find interesting in this is
39:28
because you've got a very unique perspective
39:30
because most parents of special ed children
39:33
don't have your background.
39:35
Yeah.
39:35
So you end up almost being the perfect parent
39:38
for a child with special eds because you clearly already
39:42
understand this, you know, even though you didn't notice
39:44
it at first, but Amanda notices it.
39:47
You get the task you take charge in a pediatrician visit.
39:51
Yeah.
39:51
You immediately start making nutritional changes.
39:54
You've found triggers that trigger negative
39:56
behavior of outputs and, you know, aggression.
39:59
Yeah.
40:00
All of that stuff, like Jason is born into the perfect family.
40:04
Yeah.
40:05
If he's, you know, if he's going to struggle with this,
40:07
like what a great way to struggle.
40:08
Yeah.
40:10
But at the same time, you've, you've now launched
40:12
an organization called iepcentral.org.
40:15
I encourage anybody to go check it out.
40:18
Whether or not, I'm going to say it on a one to 31 student
40:21
or one to 31 children.
40:23
I mean, autism, if you don't have a child with autism,
40:25
you know someone who does.
40:28
iepcentral is kind of your way of having a broader impact now.
40:31
Yes, but it's not you talking to a parent
40:34
because they're your student.
40:35
And it's not you with, if he's students in a cluster
40:38
in the classroom, it's not you dealing with, you know,
40:42
a foster child with special needs.
40:44
This is your way of having, and I used the borrowed phrase
40:48
that the currency of success is impact.
40:51
Yes.
40:52
And this is your way of having a broader impact
40:56
on a group of people, parents and children alike,
40:59
who were being affected regardless of the root cause.
41:02
The effect is already here.
41:04
Yeah, the effect is here.
41:06
And how can we mitigate that effect?
41:08
But I love that you're taking a global response
41:13
to a very personal issue.
41:14
And that's where there's pain, there's purpose.
41:17
Tell us what got you to iepcentral.
41:19
I think that's kind of obvious in some ways.
41:21
But what is it doing?
41:22
What is your dream for it?
41:23
How can people support this?
41:24
Yeah, no.
41:25
So like I said, the inception ultimately
41:28
came of just just recognizing that there's
41:32
this mass ignorance between the parents and the teachers.
41:36
And they're just not able to figure out
41:39
what is the best course of action when you have a child
41:42
with ASD?
41:43
What is the nutritional options?
41:44
How can we make sure that, you know, although we have ASD
41:50
are at a level three, how do we improve every day,
41:53
make small improvements so that at the end of the month,
41:56
we're looking at a child who now doesn't do this
41:59
or does something that they didn't do before.
42:01
So Iepcentral is really geared to that.
42:04
And even today, I was on Facebook looking at a comment.
42:08
It was a grandmother going into her IEP meeting.
42:10
And she said, they're going to eat me alive.
42:12
And it's just kind of like, no, you shouldn't feel like that.
42:15
You shouldn't feel like you're going to go into,
42:19
it's almost like their opposite force is the teaching,
42:22
the teachers, and then the parents are opposite forces.
42:24
One really, it's a team.
42:26
And together, we're moving forward, you know?
42:28
So her even attitude going into it was,
42:31
they're going to tear me apart.
42:33
And it's like, no, it shouldn't be like that.
42:35
It should be we're working as a team.
42:36
She's even going in non collaboratively.
42:38
Exactly.
42:39
We're going as a team and we're going to figure out
42:41
what is wrong with that.
42:42
What I encourage parents to do is when you're going into an IEP
42:47
meeting, when you're going into a meeting with a teacher
42:50
and you have a kid with a disability,
42:53
really hear what you're trying to say
42:54
and make your voice known.
42:56
So make sure you know, they know what that she knows
43:00
you're talking about.
43:01
So go in, get educated as much as possible, know your child,
43:05
and then offer solutions.
43:07
Don't just say, teacher, what are you doing?
43:10
Do as much as you can to make sure that on your end,
43:14
you're able to help with your child's success.
43:16
So IEP Central, this is a resource cluster I am assuming
43:19
that this is a resource center for parents
43:22
as a discussion forums, I assume as well.
43:24
Yes.
43:24
So discussion forums, research, science,
43:28
or do you accept contributors who are giving you stories?
43:32
And I'm assuming, so I always use the phrase
43:35
that when you've got a neurodivergent child,
43:38
everyone who has a neurodivergent child is your community.
43:41
It doesn't matter who's white, black, gay, straight,
43:44
whatever, like you're all part of a community now.
43:46
Exactly.
43:47
In that story, like I'm assuming there's
43:49
a networking component to that as well,
43:52
educational resources, both for families,
43:54
as well as teachers, I would imagine,
43:56
because you stand on both sides of that conversation.
43:58
Exactly.
44:00
I would love to introduce you to so many people
44:02
I know in the nutritional, as well as Maha kind of space.
44:07
I would love to give a shout out for the organization
44:09
and see if there's any way that we can support.
44:13
Absolutely.
44:13
I think that's an incredible resource.
44:16
I'm unfamiliar with anything else like it that exists.
44:18
But again, I'm a novice in the area,
44:20
because it's not a pain point of mine.
44:25
Yeah.
44:26
How can people reach out to you?
44:29
Or obviously they can go to iepcentral.org,
44:32
and that will be in the show notes here also.
44:35
But how can they reach out to you?
44:36
How can people support you?
44:38
So there's multiple ways.
44:42
The obvious one is IP Central.
44:44
There's also the Facebook community group
44:46
where you can ask questions, and one of our moderators
44:50
will get back to them.
44:51
And then there's also consultations and advocacy.
44:54
So if you're really not sure going into a meeting,
44:58
what you should do, or if there's a big issue,
45:01
there's an advocacy component,
45:04
and there's also a tutoring component.
45:05
So if your child is completely stuck
45:08
on this particular issue, we offer Zoom tutoring
45:11
and all those things like that.
45:12
So that's all on the website as well.
45:15
That's amazing.
45:16
And all non-profit.
45:18
So literally just doing this for the sake of supporting
45:21
and showing, I mean, people can financially support.
45:23
Oh, yeah.
45:24
There's a donate button on the...
45:26
I love on C3?
45:28
Yeah, in process, or it's in a process.
45:30
In process, got it.
45:31
That's okay, but it's time this comes out.
45:33
Maybe it'll already be approved by them,
45:34
but I think that's fantastic.
45:35
Shane, you're on the front line of a pandemic.
45:38
Yes.
45:39
I mean, the truth of the matter is,
45:40
when one in 31 students, and again,
45:43
getting into the statistic even like boys in California,
45:46
one in 12, like my God, like, how is that normal?
45:50
And part of it is because California says,
45:52
well, we're just more rigorous about the way that we test,
45:54
and it's like, or maybe there's something going on
45:56
that's causing a greater likelihood.
46:00
But nevertheless, this autism spectrum disorder
46:05
is clearly affecting our youth.
46:08
And I'm sorry, but I'm a firm believer that,
46:10
for whatever reason, we can say it,
46:11
but there's a war on our young people
46:13
because that's how the future gets shaped.
46:15
Yeah.
46:16
And I just can't imagine the case that one out of 30.
46:18
Like, those are terrible odds.
46:20
Yeah.
46:21
Like, if I were to put 30 bullets on the table,
46:23
and, you know, tell you, you're one bullet on the table,
46:25
until you get 30 shots.
46:27
Like, how many times would you pull that trigger?
46:29
Yeah.
46:30
Like, one in 30, I'm not sure I would pull it once.
46:31
One in 10,000, sure I'll take those odds,
46:35
but one in 30.
46:36
And not to mention the spike just in the last,
46:39
you know, 15 years, it was one in 100, not too long ago.
46:43
And then it just went from one in 100 to one in 30.
46:47
Looking at a statistic here that since the year 2000,
46:51
which is only 25 years ago,
46:52
there's been 178% increase in cases.
46:56
Yeah.
46:57
How does that happen?
46:58
Again, I can go back to like, it was in 1970, one in 10,000,
47:02
but by 1995, one in 1,000 by, you're 2,000, one in 150.
47:12
It's like, literally, we're getting,
47:14
we're taking zeros off.
47:16
Yeah.
47:17
By 2035, the estimate is going to be one in three.
47:21
One in three children has autism by 20, 30, 10 years.
47:25
Yeah.
47:26
Right.
47:27
And Elizabeth Warren's going to tell him,
47:28
we're just going to love everybody.
47:29
Sure, but the problem is, again,
47:32
the problem is that we have children that are hurting.
47:34
I mean, that's the first and foremost problem.
47:36
But like, how do you have a society that functions
47:39
when one in three people are disabled?
47:42
Yeah.
47:43
How does that society even economically function?
47:45
It really can't, ultimately it can't.
47:47
It doesn't.
47:48
And we can literally talk about, you know,
47:51
I don't want to get into conspiracy theories,
47:52
but the truth of the matter is,
47:54
is there's clearly problems that we need to address.
47:57
So Shane, I appreciate that you've been here with us.
47:59
Thank you for being a high performer
48:01
who doesn't just see problems, but see solutions
48:04
and who also has found his purpose and his pain.
48:06
And I just love that story watching that unfold through you.
48:11
Super excited.
48:11
I encourage anybody listening, go to iepcentral.org.
48:15
Again, perhaps you don't have a family member
48:17
or loved one who is struggling with autistic spectrum disorder.
48:20
But you probably know somebody who does.
48:23
And my encouragement is, get as really intervention
48:26
as possible as Shane mentioned, even through nutrition.
48:29
But go to iepcentral.org to learn more
48:32
about how you can be having those conversations
48:36
about your children with your teachers and so on
48:38
in the show notes.
48:39
We'll have links that you can go to to learn more about that.
48:42
And again, thank you for being part of our performance driven
48:45
living family as we continue to learn
48:49
as much as we can about what's going on in the world around this.