2024 Documenting Conference Videos – Full Package Including Bonus Lectures

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Parent Track Presentations

Intuition’s Role in Healing: Accessing and Training Your Innate Intuitive Power

Dr. Laura Ellis Graye

Using quantum theory, Consciousness, and innovative mind exercises, Dr. Laura Graye explains what intuition is and how it can facilitate root-cause healing. This lecture will help identify your specific intuitive strengths, how intuition works, how to intuitively train energy and manifest optimal health, and how to elevate your consciousness so you can more deeply attune and empower yourself and others to heal at the root cause level. This deeper intuitive connection leads you to more accurate diagnosis, easeful decision-making, and a more holistic approach to your and your family’s health. Imagine the impact on your life if you were to open your mind to your intuitive powers-it would be brilliance beyond.

The Biology of Attachment Pains and Repair: For Ourselves & Our Children

Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

This lecture explores the beautiful internal world of attachment, what happens when it goes wrong and the 6 attachment pains that can develop. By understanding these attachment pains and how to recognize them, parents can become powerful agents of change. We’ll discuss practical strategies to address the primary pain. This knowledge empowers parents to create environments where their children can feel safe enough and thrive. By recognizing and addressing attachment pains, we open doors to more secure attachments, improved emotional regulation, and healthier relationships. Remember, it’s never too late to start the journey of repair and connection and often, healing begins with us.

Panel: Empowered Parents

Dr. Laura Ellis Graye and Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

This panel discussion emphasizes the importance of mindfulness, co-regulation, and foundational regulation skills in addressing trauma and developmental challenges in children. Dr. Apigian highlights the necessity of pausing and somatic work, while Dr. Graye underscores the impact of biochemical imbalances and early movement patterns on a child’s regulatory system. The conversation also touches on practical strategies for managing trauma within family dynamics and the need for clear boundaries and intuitive, empathetic interactions to facilitate healing in both adolescents and younger children.

The Gut, Brain Allergy, and Autism

Pejman Katiraei, DO

Environmental toxins compromise the gut, the micro and mycobiomes. If infants or genetically vulnerable individuals are exposed to any additional or excessive toxin load, such as environmental mold toxin exposure, this collective load disrupts the gut and causes it to enter a perpetual cycle of dysfunction and inflammation. This ultimately leads to the activation of microglia and mast cells, along with chronic endotoxemia and abnormalities in histamine. These combined events can alter neurophysiology and chemistry and lead to anxiety, OCD, abnormalities in the fear response and sensory pathways, and thus the manifestation of autism. This presentation discusses these events and offers a simple treatment to improve the clinical findings associated with autism in this subset of individuals.

Supporting Self-Regulation in Children with ASD, ADHD, PANS/PANDAS, OCD & Anxiety: A Parent’s Guide

Roseann Capanna Hodge, EdD, LPC, BCN, LLC

This discussion covers a range of practical interventions tailored for these specific conditions:

• Nutritional and Dietary Adjustments: Strategic dietary choices can positively impact brain function and emotional health.
• Physical Activity and Structured Routines: Regular exercise and predictable routines can enhance mood, reduce anxiety, and improve cognitive function.
• Brain-Based Therapies: Targeted therapies such as neurofeedback, PEMF and biofeedback can be relevant.
• Psychotherapeutic Techniques: Certain therapy modalities can foster emotional management and self-regulation skills.

Panel: Autism and PANS/PANDAS Q&A

Pejman Katiraei, DO and Roseann Capanna-Hodge, EdD, LPC, BCN, LLC

Dr. Capanna-Hodge and Dr. Katiraei provide insights into personalized medicine, emphasizing the importance of genetic testing and understanding individual sensitivities to supplements and environmental factors. They discuss conditions such as autism, epilepsy, OCD, and ARFID, highlighting the role of inflammation, diet, and neurofeedback in managing symptoms. They also stress the need for comprehensive diagnostic approaches and therapeutic interventions, such as Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) and neurofeedback.

Making Our Children Well: Empowering Parents to Raise Healthy Children with Homeopathy and Nutrition

Michelle Perro, MD

Homeopathic and nutritional tips are featured in this parent empowerment talk. The focus will be on common missteps that occur while raising children with special needs and how to correct/redirect them back to health using homeopathy and tools found in the kitchen. Dr. Perro’s favorite tricks of the trade for picky eaters/challenged kids as a give-away preview from her upcoming next book, Making Our Children Well: Empowering Parents with Homeopathy and Nutrition!

Children’s Microbiome/Seeding Microbiome

Mary Ruddick

Mary Ruddick focuses on the significant health impacts of the microbiome and its alteration due to modern medical practices, particularly antibiotics and C-sections. She highlights the historical context of the microbiome’s role in human health, pointing out that disturbances in the microbiome can lead to numerous chronic conditions. Ruddick emphasizes the urgent need to restore and maintain our microbiome through natural means and lifestyle changes to ensure the health of future generations.

Panel: The Microbiome

Michelle Perro, MD and Mary Ruddick

In this panel discussion, Dr. Perro and Mary Ruddick discuss various strategies for enhancing the microbiome and overall health through the use of specific probiotic strains, dietary changes, and herbal remedies. They emphasize the importance of personalized approaches to health, particularly in addressing issues such as chronic illnesses, Lyme disease, and the impact of C-sections on newborns’ microbiomes. Additionally, they highlight the historical and cultural practices that could be beneficial today, such as the use of wet nurses and the importance of a relaxed and supportive environment for new mothers.

Compromise of Vision by a Neurological Event Affecting Development, Learning and Rehabilitation

William V. Padula, OD SFNAP FAAO FNORA

This lecture explores the visual process and its two modes of organization: the focal process delivering consciousness and attention and the spatial process. The spatial visual process is often overlooked. It is the platform of the higher seeing process. Research is presented to demonstrate an evidenced-based model and approach to diagnosing and treating visual processing dysfunction. This lecture provides an understanding of how compromise of the visual process causes interference with development, learning and motor function as well as how treatment through lenses and prisms can provide a means to reorganize visual processing.

MIND OVER MOTOR: Understanding Sensory Motor Differences and the Impact of Neurological “Noise”

Dana Johnson, PhD, OTLR

Recent research on autism and other motor disorders points to neurological “noise” that impacts efficient and purposeful movement in the population. These differences result in a disconnect between the brain and the body triggering the sympathetic nervous system and causing prolonged fight-or-flight responses. Dr. Johnson discusses the current research on motor differences in autism including the sympathetic and parasympathetic responses to stress and how it applies to the nonspeaking and unreliably speaking autistic population. Specific ways to support the brain and body disconnect, regulation, and how to build purposeful motor skills including communication will be discussed. Nonspeakers who have contributed to the growing body of knowledge on motor differences and regulation will also be highlighted.

Panel: Vison and Communication

William V. Padula, OD SFNAP FAAO FNORA and Dana Johnson, PhD, OTLR

In this panel between Dr. Padula and Dr. Johnson, they explore visual-processing issues in children with autism, emphasizing the importance of addressing visual-spatial-processing rather than just focal vision. Padula highlights the role of neurovisual postural therapy in improving spatial organization, while Johnson underscores the benefits of developmental optometry, particularly for children who exhibit toe walking. The panel also touches on the challenges of using visual aids for communication, with Johnson explaining the distinction between motor learning in spelling and functional use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices.

Get Relevant Help for Your Child Now!

Maria Rickert Hong

Maria Rickert Hong discusses various resources available to parents on the Epidemic Answers, Documenting Hope and Healing Together websites. These are tools for education, empowerment, and healing of children with chronic health conditions. She highlights support mechanisms such as the practitioner directory, health coach training, success stories, monthly webinars, and comprehensive guides on symptoms and diagnoses. Additionally, she informs about ongoing efforts to streamline these resources by merging these websites and underscores the availability of additional educational materials.

Lyme on a Dime

Teresa Holler MS, PA-C

This presentation is designed to help parents understand the scientific rationale for herbal treatments of Lyme that are both cost effective and efficacious. The information will be presented in an easy-to-digest manner, and participants will leave the presentation with the knowledge of simple, safe, and effective treatment options to discuss with their practitioners.

Why Herbal Therapy Should be More than Just an Alternative for Treatment of Chronic Lyme Disease and Similar Chronic Illnesses

Bill Rawls, MD

The human body is made of cells. The health of the body is directly related to the collective health of the cells that make up the body. When cells are stressed or injured, symptoms occur. Symptoms become chronic when cellular stress is chronic, the two are directly related. Medical therapies often fall short for treating chronic illnesses because medications treat manifestations of chronic illnesses, but do not address underlying cellular stress. This also applies to treatment of chronic Lyme disease and similar illnesses (including PANDAS) with antibiotics, because antibiotic therapy does not eradicate dormant intracellular bacteria and other microbes. This lecture explores why herbal therapy is uniquely positioned to address all aspects of cellular stress, which promotes actual healing in the body.

Panel: Lyme and Coinfections

Teresa Holler MS, PA-C and Bill Rawls, MD

These two experts in herbal medicine discuss Lyme disease treatments, emphasizing the benefits and safety of herbal protocols for both adults and children. Participants inquire about transitioning from antibiotics to herbal remedies, managing severe psychiatric symptoms, and identifying and treating flare-ups. The overall message highlights the importance of understanding herbal mechanisms, remaining patient through treatment processes, and considering both broad-spectrum approaches and specific symptoms for more effective care.

Genetic Testing Reveals the Primary Cause of Autism in Most Cases, Allowing for Personalized Treatment

Dr. Richard Boles

Dr. Richard Boles, with extensive experience in genetics and neurodevelopmental disorders, emphasizes the important role of genetic testing in diagnosing and treating autism, advocating for whole-genome sequencing to uncover primary diagnostic variants and actionable pathways. Through case studies and research, he demonstrates the potential for significant improvement in autism symptoms using targeted supplements and medications. Boles also addresses the environmental factors contributing to autism prevalence and the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to therapy.

Demystifying PANS/PANDAS: Assessment and Treatment Specifics for Parents

Nancy O’Hara, MD, MPH, FAAP

PANS & PANDAS are complex autoimmune diseases that require a multi-system approach. PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep) involves antibodies from a strep infection reacting with brain tissue (specifically the basal ganglia) and triggering immune dysregulation and movement, learning and behavioral problems including OCD, anxiety and tics. With PANS (Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome), other infectious etiologies (especially Borrelia, Bartonella and Babesia as well as COVID, viruses, & more), toxic exposures, and mold are among other potential triggers. Dr. O’Hara discusses the assessment and treatment of these devastating but recoverable illnesses in our children.

Panel: Metabolism and Genomics

Dr. Richard Boles and Nancy O’Hara, MD, MPH, FAAP

Dr. Boles and Dr. O’Hara discuss various health strategies for children, addressing topics such as ADHD, autism and sleep disorders. They emphasize the importance of diet, avoiding toxins, and addressing potential underlying issues such as gut health and tick-borne diseases. Additionally, they share specific advice on environmental factors, social media impact, and sleep hygiene, offering both natural and medical interventions to improve children’s well-being.

Ion Cleanse® and Detoxification

Terri Hirning, NHD

It is well known that heavy metal toxicity can wreak havoc on one’s health. However, there are many other toxins and toxicants that are affecting the health of our children as well as adults with chronic health challenges. Terri explores and compares the different methods of detoxification, the charges of toxicants, and then dives into the often misunderstood science of ionic footbath detoxification.

Removing Blockages Through Homotoxicology

Mary Coyle, DIHom

Learn how Homotoxicology can ignite the healing from within through supporting the bioenergetic system, and detoxification pathways. This gentle, yet deep-acting mode of healing, is designed to assist the immune system in the removal of toxins and pathogens that may be compromising your child’s development and progress.

Panel: Detoxification

Terri Hirning, NHD and Mary Coyle

Terri Hirning and Mary Coyle discuss the use of foot baths and homeopathic remedies for detoxification and overall health improvement in children, particularly those with autism and other health concerns. Terri emphasizes the importance of starting slow with foot baths and monitoring children’s reactions, while Mary explained the mechanisms and benefits of homeopathy in enhancing cellular function and detox pathways. They also address practical questions about combining treatments and shared insights from clinical experiences and studies.

Healing Our Children by Healing Ourselves: End the Cycle of Pain by Transforming Your Legacy

Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD and Brianna Ladapo, MLA, CHC, DAIS

Dr. Joseph Ladapo and Dr. Brianna Ladapo emphasize the significance of intuition, personal healing, and addressing trauma for making impactful decisions and raising well-rounded children. Their journey includes transitioning to homeschooling during the pandemic, exploring alternative health practices, and dealing with inherited stress responses. They advocate for integrating spiritual insights with scientific approaches to transform personal legacies and enhance public health efforts.

The Microbiome

Elisa Song, MD

Dr. Elisa Song emphasizes the important role of lifestyle choices—hydration, sleep, movement, and stress management—in maintaining gut microbiome health, impacting overall well-being and reducing exposure to toxins. She highlights the importance of nurturing children’s microbiomes from preconception through childhood, integrating practices such as diet optimization and emotional support to foster resilience. Practical recommendations include consuming diverse and nutrient-rich foods, reducing processed-food intake, and engaging in activities that stimulate the vagus nerve for enhanced physiological health.

Workshop: Get to the Root of Your Child’s Condition: Decoding Your Child’s Unique Story and Building a Pathway to Healing

Lauren Stone, PhD, MS, CNS and Luminara Serdar

Lauren Stone and Luminara Serdar discuss practical strategies for handling common parental challenges, emphasizing environmental awareness and detoxification techniques. They introduce muscle testing as a method to aid decision-making about health and emotional wellbeing for both parents and children, and highlight the importance of community support and responsible supplement usage. Key takeaways include understanding and managing the impact of environmental toxins, using binders effectively, and the significance of maintaining a positive and informed approach to holistic treatments.

When Nothing Works: The Missing Link to Your Child’s Healing

Tony Ebel, DC

Many parents feel helpless when their child faces chronic health issues, having tried every therapy and treatment without breakthrough and lasting success. In this presentation, Dr. Tony Ebel explores a vital, yet often overlooked, factor in healing: understanding the “healing hierarchy” and doing less, not more, but in the right order. Discover how focusing on “foundational neurology” first can unlock profound improvements and lead to optimal recovery. Join us as we dive into what could be the missing link to your child’s healing journey.

Nutritional Therapy Association Table Topics

Jamie Belz, FTNP, MHC and NTA Coaches

Key topics of this discussion include personalized medicine and dietary supplements, with Jamie Belz and Mike Belz discussing the importance of nutrition in addressing children’s chronic health conditions. The session highlighted practical approaches for managing food sensitivities and gut health through dietary changes, functional lab testing, and the Nutritional Therapy Association’s educational programs. Emphasis was placed on early nutritional interventions, proper supplement dosing for infants, food sensitivity testing, and empowering parents with knowledge for better family health outcomes.

Documenting Hope Research Summary and Wrap up

Beth Lambert and Heather Tallman Ruhm MD

Dr. Tallman Ruhm highlights the importance of parents sharing healing success stories to inspire others, particularly those dealing with autism, and emphasizes meticulous documentation of the autism journey through tools and journaling. She encourages community participation in programs such as Healing Together and highlights the benefits of self-care for parents in co-regulating their children’s emotions. The FLIGHT™ Study, aimed at understanding the cumulative impact of environmental and lifestyle factors on children’s health, underscores the significance of documenting health transformations to challenge existing paradigms around chronic illnesses.

Professional Track Presentations

Blending Motor Planning and Neurodevelopmental Optometry to Access Communication

Dana Johnson, PhD, OTLR

Our movements rely heavily on our vision and ocular motor control, yet vision is often overlooked as an integral part of successful motor function. Vision gives information about our body position in space and feedback to refine movement accuracy. It enables us to react to changing environments and adapt on the fly. Several studies have outlined the ocular motor and vision differences among the autistic population (Caldani, et al., 2019, Schmitt et al., 2014), however, interventions targeting both vision and motor planning to support volitional movement and communication are limited. This presentation will follow a case study of one nonspeaking patient who was assessed by neurodevelopmental optometry and participated in both a vision therapy protocol and a functional movement-based program to support communication using the Spellers Method. The discussion will highlight the individual differences seen in autistic patients to warrant a functional-based movement and neurodevelopmental vision program.

The Extracellular Matrix

Theoharis Theoharides MS, MPhil, PhD, MD, FAAAAI

The extracellular matrix, critical for neuronal donnectivity, is broken down by the enzyme metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in the brain of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but can be inhibited by the flavonoid luteolin. Brain extracellular matrix in critical for neuronal communication. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is an enzyme that breaks down the matrix and disrupts neuronal communication.MMP-9 is elevated in the brains of children with ASD and is released from microglia. Luteolin inhibits the release of MMP-9 from cultured human microglia activated by either bacterial polysaccharide (LPS), the mycotoxin Ochratoxin A or the stress peptide neurotensin.

The Basics and Beyond of Healing Lyme Disease

Myriah Hinchey, ND

This lecture offers a detailed look at Lyme disease and other vector-borne illnesses, challenging prevalent myths, and clarifying issues with symptom identification and diagnostics. It connects Lyme-induced immune dysfunction and inflammation to conditions like ASD, PANS, and PANDAS, while exploring the biological mechanisms of Lyme disease and the effectiveness of various herbs and supplements in treatment. This talk also highlights how infections and lifestyle choices impact susceptibility to illness, promoting a comprehensive treatment strategy that combines conventional and alternative methods, particularly for the pediatric population.

Science Behind Autism: The Future of Diagnosis and Management

Richard Frye, MD, PhD, FAAP, FAAN, CPI

Autism is a behaviorally diagnosed disorder with unclear underlying etiology in which effective treatments are lacking. Neuroimaging, neurophysiology, genetic, molecular and metabolic studies have provided evidence for some of the basic pathophysiological mechanisms underlying autism. Other studies focusing on medical co-morbidities have highlighted the many organ system associated with autism suggesting that autism manifests as a multisystem disease in some patients. This evidence has started to provide an emerging picture of how biology drives behavior and has pointed to novel promising approaches to treatment.

Where’s Bifido? Missing Bifidobacterium, Impact on Child Health, and Restoration Strategies

Star Edwards, MS, RDN/ LD

The gut microbiome in the first 1,000 days plays a critical role in human health and lifelong immune development. Existing literature supports that gut dysbiosis in this phase of life can increase the risk of developing inflammatory, immune-mediated, metabolic and neurological conditions later in life. One of the key commensal taxa that is increasingly depleted in the western industrialized world – primarily from overuse of antibiotics and modern lifestyle changes – are Bifidobacterium. It is especially alarming when a recent paper showed that B. infantis, a key infant gut symbiont, is missing in 90% of infants across the United States. This presentation provides a walkthrough of Bifidobacterium’s essential role in an infant’s developing microbiome, factors that contribute to this disappearing microbe, the connection between missing Bifidobacterium and the rise of chronic conditions, and finally highlighting strategies for restoration, showcasing successful case studies in clinical practice.

Microbe Dormancy: A Plausible Explanation for Why Chronic Lyme Disease and Related Illnesses Are So Hard to Treat

Bill Rawls, MD

Chronic Lyme disease and similar chronic illnesses (including PANDAS) are notoriously refractory to treatment with antibiotics and a range of other therapies. For chronic Lyme disease, biofilms are an often cited reservoir of bacteria that resist treatment, but biofilms don’t explain the symptomatology of chronic Lyme disease and similar illnesses. Intracellular dormancy is an often overlooked reservoir of bacteria and other microbes that aren’t affected by the immune system and are completely resistant to antibiotics. This lecture explores intracellular dormancy as a mechanism of persistence for the Lyme bacteria, coinfections, and beyond. The content provides a preview to potential treatment strategies.

Plasmalogens and Advanced Brain Nutrition in Autism and Rare Childhood Diseases

Dayan Goodenowe, PhD

The brain is not a “black box”. Much is known, but little is implemented. Whatever the peripheral cause (s) of autism may be (genetic or environmental), the proximate cause is always biochemical insufficiency. Using plasmalogens and advanced brain nutrition even the most severe terminal diseases of the brain can be reversed. Examples of reversals and recoveries in rare diseases and autism will be presented.

Genetic Testing Reveals Recurrent Pathways that Predispose Towards Autism: Implications for Personalized Treatment

Dr. Richard Boles

Dr. Boles presents findings from a study where a 68% diagnostic rate was achieved, significantly higher than the typical 14-28%, by focusing on unreported or minimally reported genetic variants. He emphasizes the role of whole-genome sequencing, including de novo mutations and comprehensive data from non-coding DNA, in understanding and treating autism. He highlights the importance of targeted treatments and supplements for pathways affected in autism, such as mitochondrial function and cation transport, leading to significant clinical improvements.

Trauma Biology: What’s Happening In The Body And How To Support Our Patients

Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

This session aims to elucidate the body’s innate steps of the trauma response on the cellular and systemic levels. Key focus areas include the cellular-level biology and physiology of trauma responses, distinguishing between stress and trauma states, and the crucial role of the vagus nerve in trauma response Dr. Apigian explores how trauma response involves bypassing the sympathetic nervous system, signaling from the dorsal vagal nucleus, and the mediation of stress hormones. The Polyvagal Theory’s perspective on chronic health symptoms as protective responses to perceived threats is discussed. Additionally, she examines the Cell Danger Response and its need for time, energy, and safety to return to homeostasis.

The Impact of Light on Human Health

George C. “Bud” Brainard, PhD

Light profoundly impacts consciousness through the stimulation of the visual system, and powerfully regulates rhythms, hormones, and behavior in humans. These physiological effects of light have broad regulatory impact on virtually all tissues in the body. This presentation will touch on topics ranging from how light regulates the human pineal gland, how NASA has used that fundamental information to change the lighting onboard the International Space Station, and how advances are being made towards changing the lighting in places where we live, learn, play, and work. The door is open to understanding the impact of light on all levels of human health.

Endotoxins and Brain Inflammation

Pejman Katiraei, DO

Environmental toxins compromise various organ systems including the gut, the micro and mycobiomes. If infants or genetically vulnerable individuals are exposed to any additional or excessive toxin load, such as environmental mold toxin exposure, this collective load disrupts the gut and causes it to enter a perpetual cycle of dysfunction and inflammation. This creates an environment that is highly conducive to bacterial and fungal dysbiosis. These combined events lead to chronic microglia and mast cell activation, endotoxemia, and abnormalities in histamine. These combined dysfunctions alter neurophysiology and chemistry, and can lead to severe states of anxiety, OCD, abnormalities in the fear response and sensory pathways, etc., and thus the manifestation of autism. This presentation discusses these events and offers a simple treatment to improve the clinical findings associated with autism in this subset of individuals.

How To Use the CHIRP™ Survey In Your Practice

Beth Lambert

The CHIRP™ Survey, a comprehensive environmental health survey, was initiated in 2018 to understand factors influencing children’s health. The study provides participants with personalized reports highlighting potential health stressors and actionable insights to improve their child’s health. Although the study is temporarily paused due to software migration, it will reopen soon, and Lambert encourages practitioners and parents to participate and spread the word.

Arsenic: The Environmental Toxin Causing the Most Chronic Disease

Joe Pizzorno, ND

According to the CDC, arsenic is the number one toxin in N. America. A huge amount of research has documented it as a primary cause of many chronic diseases. Although humans are good at eliminating arsenic (half-life typically 2-4 days), virtually everyone is constantly exposed though drinking water, foods (especially rice and chicken), cigarettes, some residential areas, old wooden climbing toys, occupational exposure, and cosmetics. Approximately 1/3 of the population suffers levels known to induce disease in humans. The main diseases are surprisingly diverse, such as the major cancers, diabetes, gout, herpes zoster and cardiovascular disease. Average levels are increasing and flavonoids protective against arsenic are leaving the food supply due to chemical farming techniques. This presentation provides clinicians with research documenting the problem and clear guidance on assessment of arsenic toxicity and ways to decrease exposure and support safe elimination.

Case Study: Compromise of Vision by a Neurological Event Affecting Development, Learning and Rehabilitation

William V. Padula, OD SFNAP FAAO FNORA

Dr. Padula discusses the intricate case of a young boy who was initially misdiagnosed with psychological issues but later found to have multiple health problems including Lyme disease. Through a multi-disciplinary approach involving stem cell therapy and visual/motor rehabilitative techniques, significant improvement was achieved, highlighting the importance of proper diagnosis and tailored treatment plans. The boy’s mom shares her empowering journey of advocating for her child’s health and expresses gratitude toward Dr. Padula’s integrative and hopeful treatment strategy, encouraging other families to seek the right support network.

Case Studies: Demystifying PANS/PANDAS: A Functional Guide on Basal Ganglia Encephalitis

Nancy O’Hara, MD, MPH, FAAP

PANS and PANDAS are complex autoimmune diseases that require a multi-system approach. PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep) involves antibodies from a strep infection reacting with brain tissue (specifically the basal ganglia in the brain) and triggering an abrupt onset of immune dysregulation and movement, learning and behavioral problems including OCD, anxiety and tics. With PANS (Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome), other infectious etiologies besides strep (yeast, viruses, other bacteria, parasites), toxic exposures, and metabolic abnormalities are among other potential triggers for the immune dysregulation resulting in an abnormal autoimmune reaction and negative behavior, physical, and cognitive changes. Dr. O’Hara discusses the latest research in the assessment and treatment of these devastating but recoverable illnesses in the context of several illustrative case studies. Participants will learn the research-based functional medicine approach to the care, diagnosis and treatment of these children.

Case Studies: Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs (MAPS): Recovering Health in the Child with PANS and Mycoplasma; Neuromodulation for PANS; Demystifying PANS/PANDAS: A Functional Guide on Basal Ganglia Encephalitis

Teresa Holler MS, PA-C, John Gaitanis, MD, and Nancy O’Hara, MD, MPH, FAAP

These three practitioners each discuss complex, integrative treatments for conditions such as OCD, PANS/PANDAS, and tick-borne diseases in pediatric patients. Emphasizing personalized medicine and holistic approaches, they highlight treatments involving dietary adjustments, supplements, herbal therapies, and advanced medical interventions such as IVIG and deep-brain stimulation. Through detailed case studies, the speakers demonstrated the importance of persistence and comprehensive care in achieving substantial, long-term patient improvements.

Case Studies: Reversing Autism: Recent Case Reports and a Call to Action to Help Expand the Evidence Base for Reversal of Chronic Conditions among Children

Chris D’Adamo, PhD and Angela Taylor DCN, CNS, LDN, IFMCP

This session describes the findings from two recent case reports demonstrating dramatic reversal of autism symptoms with:

1. A broad intervention focusing on reducing the total load of lifestyle and environmental stressors, and,
2. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet

In addition, the CARE guidelines for case reports will be presented to help enable attendees to compose their own case reports on reversal of autism symptoms and other chronic childhood conditions.