79. Tylenol, Leucovorin, Glutathione, & Autism
In this episode of The Nourishing Autism Podcast, Brittyn kicks off Season 3 with one of the most important conversations yet. In light of recent events, social media has been buzzing with claims that “Tylenol causes autism”, but have we missed the point?
Listen in to hear:
A refreshing perspective on controversial news from a dietitian, mother, and autism sibling.
Why Tylenol is not the full story and what research actually says.
The critical role of glutathione (our body’s master antioxidant) and how it relates to autism and Tylenol use.
What we know about Leucovorin (folinic acid), folate, and lab testing like the FRAT test.
Practical ways you can support your child's nutrient status without blame, shame, or guilt.
This episode is about zooming out and looking at the big picture. No matter if the headlines left you confused and overwhelmed, or reassured and hopeful, you’ll walk away from this episode feeling anchored in clarity, compassion, and encouragement.
📌 Show Notes & Resources:
Join the Nourishing Autism Collective community for hands-on support with expanding your child’s diet while honoring their sensory needs 👉 CLICK HERE to learn more!
Past Sulforaphane Podcast Episode: CLICK HERE to listen!
Research Studies Mentioned:
[1] Prada, D., Ritz, B., Bauer, A.Z. et al. Evaluation of the evidence on acetaminophen use and neurodevelopmental disorders using the Navigation Guide methodology. Environ Health 24, 56 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-025-01208-0
[2] Ji Y, Azuine RE, Zhang Y, Hou W, Hong X, Wang G, et al. Association of Cord Plasma Biomarkers of In Utero Acetaminophen Exposure With Risk of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Childhood. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020;77(2):180-189. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.3259. PMID: 31664451; PMCID: PMC6822099.
[3] Bobrowski-Khoury N, Ramaekers VT, Sequeira JM, Quadros EV. Folate Receptor Alpha Autoantibodies in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention. J Pers Med. 2021 Jul 24;11(8):710. doi: 10.3390/jpm11080710. PMID: 34442354; PMCID: PMC8398778.
[4] Frye RE, Slattery J, Delhey L, Furgerson B, Strickland T, Tippett M, Sailey A, Wynne R, Rose S, Melnyk S, Jill James S, Sequeira JM, Quadros EV. Folinic acid improves verbal communication in children with autism and language impairment: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Mol Psychiatry. 2018 Feb;23(2):247-256. doi: 10.1038/mp.2016.168. Epub 2016 Oct 18. PMID: 27752075; PMCID: PMC5794882.
[5] Source: Spillers NJ, Talbot NC, Luther PM, Ly GH, Roberts CJ, Ahmadzadeh S, Shekoohi S, Viswanath O, Kaye AD. Prenatal Acetaminophen Exposure and its Associated Risk for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Health Psychol Res. 2024 Nov 12;12:125267. doi: 10.52965/001c.125267.
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TRANSCRIPT
Hi, I'm Brittyn, a Registered Dietitian and autism sibling. I have a passion for helping parents of neurodivergent kids navigate nutrition and wellness for their child, one small step at a time. Here we'll explore practical nutrition tips, learn from top autism experts, break down the newest research, and share inspirational stories that will empower you to utilize nutrition to help your child feel their best and thrive.
Listen in while picking kids up from school, sitting in a therapy waiting room, taking a quick walk or wherever you find yourself, looking for some inspiration and a friend to guide you along this journey. This is Nourishing Autism.
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Brittyn: Hello, hello everybody. I am so excited to be back for season three of the Nourishing Autism Podcast. I was going to wait until later this year, or maybe even potentially the beginning of 2026, but it's just so important that I address what is going on right now that this just simply could not wait. And I tried to do an Instagram reel or share on Instagram stories.
I wrote and rewrote scripts over and over again and recorded and rerecorded, and it just wasn't enough, and I decided, you know what? This is the universe telling me I need to bring back the podcast so that I can clearly go through my thoughts and the research and address everything that has been going on this past week.
So I'm excited to be back.
Last episode that I recorded for the podcast was almost a year ago, and it was just a few days before my daughter Nora was born and she's now 11 months old, which is, so wild. And if you've been following me on Instagram, you've been seeing our journey with some eczema issues that popped up after Nora had RSV at the beginning of this year. I need to do a full in depth episode on where we started and where we are now because it has just been honestly miraculous and night and day to see the difference in her eczema. When we started treating it, in a nutrition and gut-based way, it has made all the difference and I'm excited to talk more about that.
Now let's dive into why we are all here, because this is going to be a huge conversation. I have pages and pages of notes to go through and research studies that I'll be posting for you all as well. As many of you know, last week there was a huge announcement about autism, and the main takeaway was that Tylenol causes autism, or at least that's how social media took it and ran with it, and it's just ended in a huge explosion.
And I am here to clear some of that up about what has been said and what should have been said or how it should have been said. Because there actually was some really great info that was shared that was unfortunately clouded by having a focus on Tylenol, which I just wish would've been addressed so differently.
There's been a lot of twisting of words online that has led to a ton of confusion and exhaustion, which I totally understand because all of this has been approached in the wrong way. And so I'm hopeful today that we can sift through some of that noise. And bring some clarity and maybe even some hope to those of you who are feeling so exhausted and confused that we can come out of this together being able to see, what do we truly have that is research based, what was said, what was twisted, and get a lot more clear. So let's dig in.
So at first I wasn't even sure if I wanted to do this episode, I stuck a poll on Instagram to make sure that this is something that you all really wanted, and it was an astounding yes. So it gave me the courage to create this episode because at the time when all this first came out, I felt like my opinion was not common.
And I've decided that it is so important that we address this because not addressing, honestly, it's just not an option at this point. So along with that poll where I asked you, well, if you were interested in me recording this episode, I also asked, how are we feeling? How are we feeling this week after the news? Are we feeling angry, confused, frustrated, exhausted?
And I had hundreds and hundreds of moms with kids on the spectrum who replied to my stories, and I wanna read some of that today because I hope that you can find yourself in some of these answers. It's such a combination.
“Frustrated, tired, optimistic, super defeated and confused. Hopeful, all of the above. Honestly, mixed emotions. Disgruntled, frustrated, angry. I feel more disturbed by the internet response than the train wreck press conference. In the end, hopeful. I'm glad autism is such a hot topic because being discussed is a good thing.
Frustrated, lit up, annoyed with the way the announcement came out, but it's not entirely false.” I'm excited to elaborate on that one. “Exhausted. But luckily, my feed is giving me so much counter info and positivity. So much info out of context, nervous.”
“People are having conversations and deeper dive on research and health, and that's a good thing.” I agree with that. “I feel thankful and hopeful. They're doing more research and they're actually recognizing us as moms. Super confused and defeated.”
“Initially upset, but choosing to be hopeful. Tired, frustrated. And lastly, I feel like they made this about Tylenol and not about autism.” I'm really excited to dig into that one, because I am 1000% there with you.
So between all of that, I hope that you're able to find yourself in someone that has shared their concerns, because I do feel like the loudest noises online are all sharing one emotion, and I hope that you know that there's other moms that are feeling very similar to the way you may be feeling as well, even if that's not the primary emotion that's being shared.
Now, I will chime in with many of you that I am so disappointed in how all of this was released. I think the delivery was terrible. But at the end of the day, I still have some hope lingering and that's why I wanna talk about all of this with you all.
I've been speaking to so many of you online who have said you feel so blamed and I honestly so get that. One of you messaged me saying that you spent years in therapy trying to release yourself of the blame of your son's autism. Only to come out feeling blamed all over again, which breaks my heart because that's, it shouldn't have been this way.
And hopefully I can help relieve some of that burden in how we talk about all of this. I've also gotten messages from so many of you who've said you finally feel heard and seen for the first time, but what I noticed, there's a common denominator between both of these sides, and all of you are saying that you're just disappointed at the delivery.
Now, how I'm going to address all of this. I have lots of different hats that I wear, and there are three really important ones that I'm going to talk through today. Number one, dietitian. Number two, a mom, and number three, as a sibling. So I'm a registered dietitian. I specialize in autism. I support families in helping their kids expand their diets due to limited diets and selective eating because of sensory sensitivities.
And I teach families how to honor those sensory needs and help meet their child's nutritional needs by using a very sensory oriented approach to help them get the right nutrients to feel their best and thrive. I'm also the mom of two kids and I am a sibling of an individual on the autism spectrum.
Now, first I'm gonna put on my dietitian hat, and unfortunately because this delivery was not nailed, and social media has further blown that up, I think it made us miss the point of what actually some of the important information was. Now if you take one thing away from this entire podcast, it's that Tylenol was not the point.
There's so much more to this, and I really wanna zoom out on what the big picture is and how Tylenol fits into that. So what was not said is that Tylenol is the only factor in autism. The opposite was actually said. But it was just really clouded and it was a little chaotic, and so that got buried. And so it's easy to hang on to Tylenol, and I want us to shift our focus and I'm gonna talk you through that.
Tylenol is one small possible contributor out of a large list of things from genetics to environmental factors, to the gut microbiome, to toxins and nutrients and so much more that we don't know yet.
An important thing that we have to understand before we dive into all of this is how Tylenol and glutathione are connected. Now, if you've never heard of glutathione. Glutathione is our master antioxidant in the body, and it's important for detoxification, immune function, protecting us from oxidative stress.
It supports cognitive function and neurotransmitter balance, supports nutrient metabolism, and so much more. And it's been known for a really long time and recognized that acetaminophen, depletes glutathione levels.
So what happens when our glutathione is depleted is that we're not able to efficiently detox, naturally detox, any toxins that we come into contact with on the daily. This could be poor air quality, it could be pesticides, like glyphosate, chemicals in our food, in our water. Basically, any toxin that we come into contact with, our body is going to naturally detoxify it, and glutathione is such an important antioxidant to help us do that.
Now let's shift the conversation to glutathione in autism. Now we have a lot of research that shows that kids on the autism spectrum have low levels of glutathione and folate, which is going to come full circle when we come back to this later. Folate is a B vitamin. You may know it as folic acid, but folate is the naturally occurring B vitamin. We have a lot of research about low nutrient status and autism for a variety of reasons, and we're not just talking glutathione. We're talking, like I said, folate, B12, vitamin A. Vitamin D, iron, zinc, omega-3s.
There's so much. And that's what I do for a living is help families expand their child's diet to get the right nutrients so that their kids can feel their best.
You actually can test glutathione levels, probably not through your pediatrician, but through a private lab. You can also test for other things like vitamins and minerals. Your micronutrients. You can test for folate receptor autoantibody tests, which is called the FRAT. I'm gonna bring this up later too. So you actually can test your child's levels to see what's their glutathione status, what's their nutrient status overall, looking more at the big picture.
So now we have acetaminophen and glutathione, how those are related. Glutathione and autism. Now let's talk about acetaminophen in pregnancy. So right now acetaminophen is the only approved pain medication during pregnancy and also for children under six months of age.
It's actually really interesting. One in four Americans use acetaminophen containing products each week, and it's the preferred medication for patients that cannot take NSAIDs, which stands for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.
And for years, acetaminophen has been widely accepted as one of the only pain medications that's safe to use during pregnancy. It's used by about 65% of pregnant women and is used worldwide in babies and children. The point that I wish that would've been addressed is that we should not feel guilty as mothers for taking this or giving it to our children.
Right now, it is the accepted standard of care. I believe that is going to shift after all of this. What's just shocking too is that Tylenol has addressed this in the past, and it's just wild that this hasn't been broadcast before. There's actually a tweet from Tylenol's account on X in 2017 where they say, do not take Tylenol during pregnancy.
We do not believe that it is safe, which is so crazy to me that Tylenol has addressed this, yet, it is not widely addressed as even a possible piece of caution to warn pregnant women that this could potentially be a risk.
Now, I do wanna address, it's not just taking Tylenol once or every now and then. We have a little bit of clarification , like the longer term, higher dose are going to cause more risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders down the road in our children. So it's important that we address what we actually know and what we don't know, and we'll do that in a second.
Now, I do wanna share, I'm a mom of two and with both of my kids, I've had to use acetaminophen while pregnant for various reasons. Now, I did know the risks, the increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, and I also believe that I am already genetically predisposed as autism runs in my family.
Not only my brother, but I also have cousins on the spectrum as well. On both sides. Now, when I was deciding if Tylenol was going to be the right choice for me, we had to weigh the pros and the cons, and in the moment we decided that the benefits outweighed the risks In my situation.
Now, neither of my children have neurological side effects. I did take the lowest dose for the shortest amount of time possible, and I also took NAC, which is a supplement that is a precursor to glutathione to help replenish my glutathione levels and I took NAC throughout both of my pregnancies, even before I got pregnant and still currently take it to this day.
It's important to address that fevers are dangerous in pregnancy too. We do see that having high fevers can increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. And so we have to really weigh what the research says, and the risks and benefits, and decide that with your doctor and what makes the most sense to make sure that we keep you and your baby the safest possible.
Knowing this information about the risks, it really helps us make an informed decision. This is informed consent in healthcare, which is a basic right. Now, knowing this information could help us decide, should we hold off on using Tylenol if it's not a hundred percent necessary in the situation?
Now, let me say again, the fault lies on the companies and the industries that have pushed medications like Tylenol, despite any reasons for caution, not mothers taking the advice of their doctors, and it is not our fault that we have been instructed to take a medication that we've known for a long time, has risks.
Now, I don't think that we need to panic if you took Tylenol while pregnant because the research actually shows that it is more of a concern when it's prolonged use.
They actually specified more than four weeks- using it more chronically than just acutely. It's important to understand also that not every single person is gonna be starting from the same place when it comes to our glutathione status, our gut microbiome, our immune health. Everybody's going to respond differently so we need to understand that this is not a one size fits all situation.
Now we know some. We don't know a lot. We don't know which trimesters carry the most risk. We don't know what dosages carry the most risk. There are a lot of factors that also matter, like why the mom took it. Did she have a high fever? Did she have previous chronic health issues that could have also increased the risk of the child developing neurodevelopmental disorders? So we have to take everything into consideration and there's some really interesting studies that I'll walk you through some of them in a little bit.
Lastly, let's address Tylenol and autism specifically.
Now, the biggest study that helped put all of this information together is the Harvard Study, and this just came out in 2025. And we have lots of other studies like the Boston Birth Cohort that's designed to study early life factors and their effects on maternal and child health outcomes, which specifically showed higher levels of acetaminophen metabolites in cord blood are linked to increased likelihood of autism and ADHD. Again, we see a correlation here. It doesn't mean that there's a causation, but we see a correlation.
Now the Harvard study analyzed 46 studies. 27 of those studies reported positive associations to neurodevelopmental disorders.
Nine studies showed no link. Four studies interestingly showed a protective effect. The strongest risk was when Tylenol was taken for four or more weeks in pregnancy. Now, the strongest studies showed the highest risk between acetaminophen and neurodevelopmental disorders. While the research we have is mixed, and this clearly shows it in this Harvard study, I believe that if there's any possibility of risk of increasing neurodevelopmental disorders in our children while pregnant or while they're young, we deserve to know about that. This is informed consent in healthcare.
There's so much that depends on this, including genetic factors, our nutrient status, that this is why we need to be looking at the big picture. It's not just one thing. There's so many pieces and variables that come together that affect our response to something like Tylenol.
I'll say that I know many people with autistic children who have never been exposed to Tylenol either in utero or as children, and their children still have autism. I also know many people like myself who have taken Tylenol during pregnancy, who have children, who are neurotypical. That's why understanding this biomedical backstory to all of this helps us put it all in perspective.
Now, what can we do to replenish our glutathione levels naturally? From a diet perspective, we can increase our consumption of sulfur containing foods like broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower and foods rich in vitamin C.
They contain something called sulforaphane, which we actually have a lot of really interesting research about supplementing with sulforaphane in autism and seeing improved communication and focus. It's really quite interesting, I actually have a past episode all about sulforaphane that you can listen back to.
Utilizing glutathione and NAC supplements. Again, NAC is the precursor to glutathione in the body. Your body translates NAC into glutathione, and that's another way that we can increase our glutathione in our bodies. Making sure that we're getting enough B vitamins like folate that can help this process of our bodies creating glutathione, Epsom salt baths, and other lifestyle changes that can help us improve our body's nutritional state.
Now I wanna pivot a little bit and talk about something else that was addressed. Leucovorin. Leucovorin was approached in a way that made it feel like this is a new medication for kids on the autism spectrum. This is not a new medication.
My brother Barrett was actually on Leucovorin as a kid, and Leucovorin, it's a reduced form of folate. Folate is a nutrient that we find naturally occurring in many vegetables and many whole foods.
You may be familiar with a synthetic form of folate called folic acid. Folic acid is the chemical form of folate that is the least activated. Our bodies have to take folic acid and activate it in the body, and it goes through this whole folate process. It goes from folic acid to folinic acid, to eventually methylfolate, which is the active form that our body uses. Now, leucovorin is folinic acid. So again, not that fully methylated form, but one step down. It bypasses some of those metabolic blocks like folate receptor antibodies that I've mentioned at the beginning of this episode.
There's a test called FRAT, again, folate receptor autoantibody test that you can run. Folinic acid bypasses that. It bypasses the MTHFR gene to get it to a place where your body can easily translate it into that activated form of folate that our bodies need. We do notice that many children on the autism spectrum, have higher rates of folate receptor autoantibodies and have higher rates of the MTHFR gene mutation that can impact their body's ability to take folic acid and turn it into methylfolate.
There's actually studies that show 60 to 70% of autistic children test positive for one or both folate receptor auto-antibody types.
In comparison, only 3 to 10% of the general population shows a positivity.
Now this approach using leucovorin could be beneficial for kids with what we call cerebral folate deficiency. These are kids who have positive auto-antibody tests where folate cannot get into the brain. But by using this more activated form of folate, folinic acid, it's able to get into the brain.
So for some kids, we're seeing major, major benefits like improvement within 12 weeks for verbal communication, autism severity scores, irritability, and more.
Now, to pull this all together when we do not have enough circulating folate, our bodies cannot create sufficient levels of glutathione. Folate is a very important nutrient in this whole process. It's a really complex cycle , but you at least understand the basis. Folic acid turns to folinic acid,
turns to methylfolate. That initial process of folic acid into folinic acid, kids on the spectrum have a difficult time or increased risk with that conversion. And by using direct folinic acid, putting that into the cycle, that's where it can cross, get into the brain, and it can also participate in other cycles like creating glutathione.
Now, we're a little bit unclear on who's going to be approved to use Leucovorin through their insurance. I actually have members inside of my community where they've had Medicaid pay for a hundred percent, and they're already a few months into utilizing this with their child, and they have noticed benefits.
I've also seen many families who have tried leucovorin or paid for it out of pocket, haven't noticed any benefit. And this is why we need to understand, does your child have a positive FRAT test? Do we see that they have those autoantibodies? And by using folinic acid, are we bypassing that process?
Are they low in glutathione? Are they low in folate? Also, because they have a selective diet. There's so much more to break down here.
Now, I wanna be clear on one thing: that Leucovorin is not a cure for autism. Okay? My brother and many, many of my clients have taken Leucovorin. They've seen positive benefits. They're still autistic. However, this could improve quality of life, communication, and autism severity scores as well.
Now, I wanna insert my thoughts. I'm gonna put on my sibling hat for a second. Autism makes my brother Barrett such an amazing, beautiful, human being. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen many videos that I share of him. Uncle B as he likes to be called with my son Sam, and he is just the most beautiful person inside and out, has taught me so much about life and my viewpoint on life, and is just changing so many lives in the way that he is and the way that he views the world. I will also say that autism also comes with a lot of struggles that some days I wish I could just take those struggles off of his plate and I do not wanna change him because he is so incredible.
But, if there's any research that comes out where we could improve his quality of life even more, let's freaking do it. I want Barrett to live his best life possible. And that's what I want for your kids too. And that's why I remain hopeful that from all of this, we are going to gain more understanding and more research and put more funding into autism, maybe even just putting autism at the forefront of the conversation.
And that is a good thing. It's opening up tough conversations and uncomfortable conversations that I hope are going to open the doors to understanding and advocacy for us to advocate better for our kids, our siblings, our loved ones that are on the spectrum, get them the support and resources and research that they deserve. I also hope that this helps us support mothers who have expressed these concerns before and haven't felt heard.
Now, some of my final takeaways as a dietitian, is to speak to your doctor about alternatives for Tylenol and have a curated list and supplies for yourself, should you need an alternative.
I want you to ask your doctor about FRAT testing, if you're interested in going down this route. Learning about your child via lab tests, I believe helps give us more of a voice for them to help us understand them on a biochemical level so that we can support them and help get them the right resources and medications or supplements that are going to help them feel their best and thrive.
Improving your child's nutrition is also a really important piece here. We know that up to 90% of kids on the autism spectrum struggle with selective eating, and that is due to sensory sensitivity and having a really limited diet, especially more heavy on foods that are processed or packaged because that meets a sensory need, but it doesn't meet their nutritional needs.
This is what I do for a living, and if you need help expanding your child's diet, I would love to support you in that. We have a membership and community called the Nourishing Autism Collective that I'll link in the show notes today, and if you need support with how to expand your child's diet while listening to their sensory needs and meeting their nutritional needs, I would love to support you with that.
I also hope we come away understanding that autism and ADHD are multifactorial. They're complex, that Tylenol is not the full story, that Tylenol could play a role for some kids, not for others, but that we really need to look at the bigger picture. And lastly, I don't want you to feel guilty if you've used Tylenol.
This is not about guilt and blame for mothers. The blame should be on the medical system for not putting adequate caution when we know there should be caution used in medications that could potentially increase risk of neurodevelopmental disorders.
I also wanna put emphasis on how loved your child is. Just like the way that I view my brother. I believe that he is honestly the most perfect human being to ever exist. I am quite literally obsessed with him, and I think that he is beautiful. Your child is beautiful, and I wish that they would have emphasized this even more.
I think if there's any way that we could possibly find out more information on how to help kids feel their best, let's do it.
Some of this research I think, is gonna make us uncomfortable, and I think that it could be a good thing to feel uncomfortable.
I am happy that we have eyes on autism and we're allocating funding for research. I'm choosing to remain hopeful that we are going to learn more to help our kids.
We deserve transparency. We deserve more funding for good research to be done. As mothers we deserve it. And our kids do too, and this is our opportunity to keep this dialogue open. I choose to remain hopeful for what lies ahead, and I hope you will too.
Transcribed by Descript
About Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD
Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD, is a distinguished Registered Dietitian and Autism Nutrition Expert, known for her innovative, sensory-friendly feeding approach to nutrition for children on the autism spectrum. As the founder of the Nourishing Autism Collective, and as an autism sibling herself, Brittyn brings both professional expertise and personal understanding to her work. She empowers families with her expert guidance, helping children receive essential nutrients for optimal health and development. Her strategies are tailored to the unique dietary needs and sensory preferences of each child.
Brittyn's influence extends beyond her membership site through her active social media presence and her popular podcast, 'Nourishing Autism'. Her educational content on Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms has established her as a leading voice in autism nutrition, providing valuable resources, practical advice, and a supportive community for parents and professionals.
