Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said he does not believe autism is a genetic condition, calling it instead a “modern-day phenomenon.”
"I don't believe autism is genetic. When you see the severe autism that we see, at the high rate that we see today — the repeated motions, the ticks, the individuals who are completely nonverbal, you didn't see that a generation ago," he said in an interview with Scripps News. "You still don't see people in their 60s and 70s with those symptoms — the sort of repetitive motions, the completely non-verbal individuals."
This week, federal health officials warned of the possible link between Tylenol and its active ingredient, acetaminophen, during pregnancy to autism — despite contested science.
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"The number one thing was that we found for some kids, autism is an autoimmune disease, whereby their body is reacting to the folate receptor on the brain, blocking the brain from getting this critical vitamin," Makary said. "There's a treatment called leucovorin that some kids take and have a marked improvement in their autistic symptoms."
Makary explained that he and the FDA are now investigating a theory that recent rates of severe autism are not genetic.
"There's something going on. We think the autoimmune process in the child's body may be one of the causes of autism," he said. "Some doctors will take a kid with severe autism and test them for the antibodies to the folate receptor. Some will then go on, if they have the antibodies, to treat them with leucovorin, which the FDA is about to make available for those kids."
About half of the children with autism exhibit the antibody, Makary said.
Medical experts and public health officials have cautioned against drawing causal links between over-the-counter medications and autism without substantial peer‑reviewed evidence.
The FDA commissioner also addressed the childhood vaccine schedule, COVID-19 and e-cigarettes. Click on the video to hear what he said.
