B (4:59)

Fantastic. Yeah. No, and so, and I'll bottom line it in my own language, right you have right now pediatricians or medical doctors who largely in the conventional world just aren't equipped, don't have the tools, can't even come close to kind of really serving the needs of these kids. And so when you talk about people, newbies coming over, we're talking about practitioners of all kinds who want to become educated, knowledgeable, skilled, to be able to have approaches that actually meet these. These kids and young adults where they are.

A (5:35)

Absolutely. I can tell you we actually went to the American Academy of Pediatrics as an exhibitor. They had us come. And since we do have this specialty area of the complex medical cases, I have to tell you, it was so disturbing. I mean, so disturbing, because we went there thinking that we were going to be able to recruit physicians to come over. And instead, what happened? The vast majority of the physicians actually came to us and said, can we send you our patients? We don't know what to do with them. We only have 15 minutes with them. We have 10 minutes, start to finish, to help these kids. We don't know what to do with this. We don't know what these kids. We think they might have pans. So they were starting to believe this. You know, pans exist, but they didn't understand that there are tips that they could take away and help those kids to get started on the right, you know, path to healing. And instead, they wanted to just send them all to us. They were basically like, oh, great, you're the database. And we were like, oh, my gosh, no, no, no, you can come. And they were like, we can't come. We don't have enough time to help these kids. So it's like this. But if you had a few of our clinical pearls from our conference, you actually could. So it was a little sad for me to see, like, almost every pediatrician say the same thing. You know, occasionally we'd get a few that were like, I love what you're doing. I'd love to learn. But the vast majority were like, we just don't have time for these kids, and that just can't happen.

B (6:59)

Well, can we hover on this a little bit and talk about. And talk about perhaps the why? And I'm not here to indict anyone. I'm not trying to assume anything, but the fact that you had that type of reaction, which basically is saying, not, hey, how can I help these kids? But, hey, somebody else, you take it. Right? So it comes down to what's the motivation? And that's where, again, I don't want to say anything negative about anyone, but I could say something very positive about you. Your organization, the MAPS Practitioners, and Leadership. Every single person cares about one thing, helping these kids and will do whatever it takes to accomplish that mission. And that means, you know, sharpening your skills, your capability and the like. I think that is the unifying, you know, the consistent element that practitioners have is that they own and feel a sense of responsibility to get better equipped as opposed to, let me find who can handle this, let me find someone else to do this.

A (8:08)

I think that it's incredible because some of our physicians that are pediatricians, and I do have to say, like, we do have a lot of, obviously two on our board, Dr. O' Hara and Dr. Mufford, American Academy of Pediatrics, pediatric pediatricians. So, you know, we have a ton of the AAP pediatricians, but we don't have enough. Usually it's like general practitioners that really come in with a more open mind. I don't know how or why to explain that completely, but it is really disturbing because some of them will come in and I love the fact that they find their way to us. And sometimes I'll ask them, you know, I'm actually pretty wise with how I identify people that walk into our conference. I give everybody a specific colored lanyard and. And so anybody with a white lanyard, it means that they're a first time attendee. And my goal is to go up and say, hey, how did you hear about us? I'm so happy you're here. Let me introduce myself to you. And upon doing that, I always say, how did you hear about us? And there's actually a lot of them that are in these physician groups that have shared with me that they will have a, like, large, you know, discussion within one of the forums of this child has something I think might be pans. What does this look like? And they're all looking for answers of how to treat this. And so a lot of them were like, oh, well, you should probably head over to the MAPS group. And it's so funny because, you know, they'll be like, what is maps? And then they'll find out about it. And they're like, oh, they kind of specialize in anything outside of the norm. So it's really kind of beautiful, right, that, that we're being known as that. But then some of the doctors that do come, it actually is a little heartbreaking because it's all so new. They're like, we didn't learn anything, any of this in medical school. None of it. Like, some of them are deer in headlights. Some say it's just really overwhelming and too much because they don't know how they would ever incorporate it into the practice. And so that's where, you know, we do have a whole fellowship and a mentorship program. We record everything for the doctors to be able to go back to and look at if they're a member. And we're trying to make it as a nonprofit, as easy as possible for them to have the tools to not feel so overwhelmed. Right. But it. It just has shown me. And, And I have to tell you just a two, my background. You know this, but some of your listeners may not. But prior to me jumping into this world of maps, I was in parent support, much like yourself, for 20 years. And I did the National Autism Conference, and I threw the east coast conferences for parents Fritaka. And the thing that's really incredible, and I wasn't expecting was that when I took over at maps, I jumped in, you know, full force. And what was crazy is that when I jumped in, it was like, for every five hits to our website for were parents looking for a MAPS doctor. And I was like, oh, my gosh, like, we're getting more. More parents on our website than we are physicians. Like, this is a problem. The parents are knowing more than the doctors. So I felt like after 20 years, I'd done my due diligence, passed the ball over to a ton of people like you, which I'm so grateful for. And you've been around, you know, much longer than that. But the point is, is that these parents have needed this growth for a long time. Time. This is not some. This is just. We're just seeing it really loud and really clear. And our kids are getting older. My twins are 25. And with that age, I don't know what's going on with our community. But right now, you know, puberty and, you know, you know, adulthood is really throwing some wrenches into our children with some complex issues. And a lot of these pediatricians and these GPs are like, you know, these kids start having seizures. These, you know, you know, these kids are having catatonia. Like, things are happening outside of their norm. Even though they don't know enough, they're. They're. It's even outside of our norm. So it just proves that the need is great and we need to get even bigger and recruit more physicians, because the more that get in there, they typically then will be like, hey, what are you doing about this? Cause this is what I'm seeing in my practice. And then somebody brings it up and we put it on the docket, and then when we do a call to abstract, we almost always get somebody mentioning, treating, whatever that was. So we tend to put the most pressing issues that the doctors are facing with or the physicians, healthcare workers. You know, we take nurses, naturopaths, you know, we're all encompassing, you know, nurse practitioners. We welcome any healthcare practitioner. But the goal is, is to ensure that at every conference. It's something that's really prevalent right now in our community that we want you to know about. Like, that we want all of the healthcare workers to what do you need to know about this? So, which brings us to our up and coming conference is gonna be all things toxins, which is great right now with what's going on in the current administration. So the whole Make America Healthy is not anything that we're new to. It's kind of been our expertise, their maps is expertise for like 20 years. So I am, like, thrilled because I feel like this is literally. It's like a megaphone for what we do.

B (13:10)

Thank you for talking about all that, but especially with this upcoming conference in the spring in my backyard in Charlotte, again, for practitioners and the theme, you always have a theme. So the theme on this one is toxins. And, you know, I know you go back and forth and some people may be listening, just saying, okay, yeah, toxins, I get it, they're not a great thing. But, like, really how this comes into play is that even though your road, you know, as a parent with, with. With your boys was autism, that's the case with my son. It really doesn't matter what the diagnosis is because again, there's a lot of challenges out there, a lot of diagnosis out there. But the key is really ascertaining what is the root cause that's going on, that's contributing to however your child's presenting, whatever's holding them back. And that's why toxic exposure, other, whether it's in the past or currently, is a huge root cause. Which is why that theme, that, you know, why you're packaging it, is that it's not like a side issue. It's actually the core issue. And I know depending on the year, there's different toxins that seem to be more discussed this year. Is there any particular whether it's mold EMFs, or is it really just kind of everything in terms of what the focus of the conference is? Like some of your speakers, as an example.

A (14:28)

Yeah, no, I mean, we're hitting everything. I mean, one of our board members, Dr. Gaetanis, he was chief of neurology at Brown, previously chief of neurology at Tufts. Hugely well known and respected in our autism community and beyond. Like, he's talking about, like, the health costs of agricultural chemicals, you know, like glyphosate. Right. We're going to talk about pesticides, we're going to talk about, you know, acetaminophen. Dr. Parker is one of our. William Parker is from Duke. 28 years from Duke. And he's been involved in our organization for a really long time. And he's going to be discussing, you know, everybody's talking about the Tylenol buzz, right? Well, he's one of the most published researchers on it, so. So he's considered the expert. You know, we're talking about like all the overload from, like, metals and toxicants, from environmental insults. But we're even talking about things like sugar as a toxicant. Right? So like, how critical? Like, you know, I've always learned this. Like, you know, sugar's cancer is candy. Well, what does it look like in a child? So we're bringing in everything. Ammonia, indoor environmental, hidden, you know, pollutants that you might not know that you even are being exposed to. Right? Like, you know, radon. I know that I bought my house in Pennsylvania and they were like, oh, you need a radon and mitigator. And I was like, what's radon? Like, there are things that we don't even know about, right. That could be potentially hurting us. So we're going to talk about, you know, everything that can impact you. We're going to talk about plastics, we're going to talk about where this all ties into, like, causing like, anxiety. It's going to talk about how this can alter your immune system. System. You know, everything that we can think of, we have brought to the table, like fluoride, you know, all these little things, they're not just, you know, for autism. Right. So every child has the ability to only withhold so much before their bucket gets overloaded and they start having significant issues. So this is going to be applicable to all children and development and it goes all the way up, right? Because like I just said, we have 25 year olds now dropping from seizures or catatonia. So what is tipping them over? Right, so we gotta have all hands on deck. Toxins. What are we looking at? What are we missing?

B (16:39)

Great. No, thank you for explaining all that. And yeah, again, it's wildly unique for every single individual. What toxic exposure or what toxins are problematic. Right. It's also so personalized. So that's great. So the conference coming up, three days, practitioners all about toxins dynamite speakers, some of which are going to be hanging around for a parent day first Parent day on Sunday. So talk a little bit about what thought you put into that, what you're hoping to accomplish and why if someone's listening who's a parent, why in the post Covid era would they consider getting up and traveling to Charlotte for an in person conference? And I know you have a virtual option, but otherwise make the case for the parent listener.

A (17:26)

Yeah. So. Well, first of all, you know, I come from that world, right? So I came from the world of throwing the conferences. So in 2022 I threw the National Autism Conference and when I walked away, nobody picked up the ball. So even right now, you know, the largest, one of the largest conferences on the east coast was also Taka and they're not doing an east coast one right now either. So, you know, I really felt the need. I'm a mom, this is my community and I see the good that MAPS has done for my children and I want it everywhere. So, you know, we did make a virtual option, but I have to tell you, I am not a virtual person. And I believe us as a community, we need to be with our people. I think what kept me my head in the game, you know, my son was critical in the move of the Spellers movement and he would have never been where he was today if I wasn't surrounded side by side with like minded moms that were just like me saying let's go, what's next? So I feel like being with the energy and the vibe of the parents is critical. So yes, we're kind of, we say we're kind of tiptoeing into this, this round because again, our area of expertise are practitioners. So you know, I beg every parent out there if you know an open minded practitioner. We do have something on our website, it's invite your doctor to maps. It's under our parent tab. We want to get every open minded doctor that wants to help these children to come to a conference. But you know, it's critical too that the parents then know if their doctors are learning about, you know, plastics and about fluoride and about, you know, anything like pans, pandas, seizures, you know, autoimmunity, immune dysfunction. It's critical that the parents are learning it as well because what this, these physicians are saying, it's going to make so much more sense. Right? So my mindset was, well, we got to have a paranormal that's really going to be just heavily medical. We're not going to do anything else you know, address like autism, adhd, allergies, all the autoimmune issues, you know, pans, pandas, seizures, toxic psychology, anything that's, you know, neurodevelopmental, you know, relative to a child and young adult's brain. So we're gonna have a full day conference dedicated to just that on Sunday. So our physicians were already in the area. I'm like, it won't be that hard to piggyback, but we've always, I have always done something in several of the organizations I worked with prior for parent support, where we also do this is critical. And we also do a live parent roundtable. And in person, if you will, speed dating. And you know, where we will have like, I believe right now we have 11 tables and we're going to have one for like GI issues, we're going to have one for seizures, one for like diet, nutrition, you know, mitochondria functioning like we have, we're going to like put them everywhere, like, you know, chelation and detoxification because we're talking about toxins, right? Mitochondria issues and support Lyme disease. You know, we're going to have a speller's table, we're going to talk about mold at one, we're going to talk about vaccines. Because now President Trump just mentioned it, we want to discuss it, right? So that's going to be our roundtables. And I know that you will be there and you will be helping parents to discern, you know, what they really need to focus on, what they need to pay attention to. And the thing about those roundtables is it's going to be two hours from 6:30 to 8:30. And I always tell parents, just go ahead, pick four top things that are on the list that you really want help with, right? Pick four things that are the most prevalent. Like some might not have Lyme disease, some might not need to know about detoxification, and some might not need pans. So they can pick their four topics of choice. And then every half hour we switch. So they'll have two hours to go through whatever four is, the most pressing for their child. And then the next morning, Sunday, we hit the ground running at 8am, like hardcore 7:45 is our intro. And then we just hit the ground running with everything that we feel like parents really need to know right now. That's the most pressing in their area.

B (21:19)

Fantastic. Just to clarify, so the parent day is on Sunday, March 15th. This is 2026 in Charlotte. And the night before the Saturday Evening on the 14th is this two hour roundtable. So if you're considering this conference, which I would highly recommend, if you come in person, you could participate in that roundtable and get that, you know, one on one direct access, depending on the topics most interesting to you. And so really the experience for parent did come to Charlotte would be that roundtable and then the full day direct access hearing from dynamite practitioners and speakers. And if they were to do it virtually though, that would just be for the Sunday, for the parent day agenda.

A (22:04)

Yeah, yeah. And so I feel like I needed to mention this Saturday because you and I were just talking about the rubbing the elbows. But it's really good because sometimes I'm telling you that, you know, I say we're just starting with this, right? So we're, we're just getting our, and as you said, like getting our feet wet a little bit. Like we're, we're dipping our toe in this, right? Because we, if there's really a need, you know, the plan is come fall we make it much bigger, right? We might have to have like, you know, we're going to cap this one at a couple hundred and. But come fall, I mean, we could essentially, you know, we could have a thousand parents. We actually already secured our venue. We are planning on going bigger. We are looking at doing two days for the parents, two full days, you know, like all day Saturday, all day Sunday. And this though is like kind of a, you know, it's more of a teaser, if you will, maybe for the community. Right? How much do you guys need this? How much do you want this? How much do you as parents want to be rubbing elbows? But sitting next to those roundtables truly is one of my favorite things ever. Because you might be like listening so intently to what the speaker is saying that you might not be thinking of the next question, but three people at your table might be asking at the same time. And you're like, yes, that's applicable to my child too. So the roundtable is critical. I mean, that will always follow us wherever we go. But that in and of itself I think is like, it's truly one of the most powerful, fantastic, you know, events that we could be doing. So yes, the full day online virtual, absolutely worth it, no doubt about it. But the bonus is the Saturday if you come in person, yes, you get this incredible opportunity to ask your questions of anything pressing. So the next day you'll learn. Hopefully. It's going to be obviously for first timers, it's going to be for people that have been doing this forever. Because Again, I have 25 year old kids and I have to meet people that are like, oh, I've been doing this forever. I've been doing biomed, seeing a Dan doctor, you know, maps doctor. But they haven't really gotten any updated content. And the thing that's really crazy is that our content changes every six months for our own physicians. So these parents really need to stay on top of what's changing. Because I always tell parents what you learned five years ago, what you learned 10 years ago, and especially what you learned over 10 years ago was a black and white TV. What we are presenting now is a smart TB. I mean, we're using DNA, we're using like genetics to guide. I mean, this is a lot of, how do we get there quicker, faster? What's more complex? What do we miss? Why are these kids not responding? You know, I think that it's, it's incredible to have the opportunity to have these elite, you know, top tier physicians being willing to do this for our community, for our, you know, beautiful families that are just hanging onto their every word. And I think it is really important to note too, too our speakers don't get paid. I mean, these are like the humanitarians trying to help our community. I mean, I know you know that, but a lot of the parents might not know that, but none of our board members get paid, none of the medical doctors that fly out. I mean, we literally like, hey, we'll pay your flight and your, your airfare, but the rest is on you. Like, and they still come. And we have hundreds trying to bring the most latest research because they get so excited when they found something that healed a child or they realize something that the rest of the community needs to know. It's just truly beautiful. And a lot of those physicians, we are not letting the parents and the physicians track cross because we have strict CME guidelines. But what's crazy is that we are being inundated with physicians that are like, hey, could I stay and help some of the parents? It is so beautiful. I'm telling you. I wake up every day and I just praise God that I'm allowed to be in this job. These are the most beautiful humans and I loved the parent support, but I realize now that these are my people because now I'm with the heroes, right? I'm with the ones that want to save those that I served for 20 years. And there, there's nothing that brings me more joy than having a doctor reach out to me with extreme excitement because they hit the nail on the head. With something and they need to share it with the rest of our community. And they're asking me how to do so. It is just like, it's surreal. It's just incredible. I love it. I love these people.

B (26:24)

Well, I love everything that you just said. I love your heart. And you touch on so many key concepts, but I just want to touch on two of them. One is that the landscape is constantly changing. The only thing that's. Neither of these situations are a good thing. If you have a doctor who's not curious and basically just doesn't have many tools in a toolbox, that's not a great thing. But even if you have a doctor who may claim to be kind of functional or biomedical or whatever the case may be, if their protocol hasn't changed in 20 years, that's also not a great thing. So the doctors who are curious, who want to remain current, who want to keep learning, you know, that's, that's an intrinsic quality that sometimes parents miss when they, when they think, who do I want to be my, my guide? And that curiosity, that desire to constantly learn is so key. Which is why, yeah, keeping up with the changes is, is absolutely essential. But then the other comment I wanted to make, yeah, it is critical. But the other comment I wanted to make was on this concept of community, because I don't know what you were like very early on, I didn't want to be at conferences and in community. You know, it seemed like a waste of time. It didn't seem like it would be that helpful. And that's why for parents who haven't been right, you can't really describe the power of being in community in proximity. And sometimes the most powerful insights you might get out of a conference are what happens in between the presentations when you're connecting with doctors or other, other parents. So it is powerful in a way that I can't really adequately describe.

A (28:00)

I agree 100%. I always, you know, a lot of times I'll be in the hallway and I'll be hearing, you know, I would be hearing a parent talk about, oh, he just spoke about seizures. And you know, I'll use my one son for an example. I mean, he's like a kind of a famous seizure kid now, but he was a make a wish recipient had life threatening seizures. And people are like, I tried that leucovorin and it didn't work because they heard somebody on stage. And then I can walk over to them and be like, hey, yeah, but what was the dose? Go back, revisit it. It might change the trajectory of your child's future. Because, you know, in our case, like we perfect example, we were taking leucovorin for autism and language. And then my son started having these life threatening seizures and everybody was like, oh, does he have a cerebrofolate issue? Does he, you know, need leucovorin? And we were like, he's on it. And then my MAPS doctor kept pursuing and pursuing and pursuing and then she made me go get a spinal tap and it determined that he absolutely had a significant cerebral folate deficiency and he needed a much higher dose of leucovorin. So changing the dose, he's 15 years this month, seizure free. And that's the kind of thing that a lot of the doctors aren't going to share on the stage. They're going to talk about, right? They're going to talk about the Leucavorin and how great it is. But then in the, in the like, to your point, you're going to be in the hall and you know, somebody's going to overhear something, they're going to be like, hey, do you know honey story? Or I'm going to be like, hey, but what's your dose? So it's just really incredible. You get so much more when you're surrounded by those people that are in it with you. I mean, you just can't deny it. You can't. Like, it's like if you were to run a marathon all by yourself with nobody surrounding you, or you're gonna run a marathon with like 30 of your best friends, which one's gonna be more successful? I mean, I'd have to thank the ones with the 30 friends. Cause you're all like, let's go, we got this. So I feel like everybody pushes everybody a little bit more with the gentlest, most loving, you know, camaraderie. Because we're all there for the right reasons and the same reason. So yeah, I love being in the hall with everybody.

B (29:55)

Wonderful. I think that's a fitting way to end the discussion. Just people are interested, you wanna tell them where to go? Of course there'll be links in the show notes where you can go to register for the conference to learn more about apps. But is there any final thoughts that you would have for parents or any suggested next actions that you would recommend?

A (30:14)

Nope. Just sign up, Sign up quick. If you're going to come in person, sign up as soon as possible because it will sell out. We already know that we're getting a lot of registrations, but if you can't Obviously, attend virtually. That's wonderful as well. And again, I can't stress it enough. I mean, it's www.medmaps.org and you can click on the parent link and that will take you down to our parent content and our information and how to register for the conference. But we also really want to encourage, we really want to encourage every parent to find like a doctor that kind of understands what you're saying then, right? So I found 18 local doctors in my community that I was like, hey, I know you have a heart to help these kids. Can you just come see what Maps is about? And a couple of them, I had to encourage them multiple times. But when they came, then they were amazing. And now that just serves so many children. So I would just truly encourage the parents. Obviously, final word is that, obviously, sign up. You're not gonna be disappointed. But invite your doctor friends. If you know a doctor that's open minded or if you know somebody, just tell them, hey, I'm going to this parent conference. Could you maybe look into, you know, potentially going because they're going to be the ones to strengthen their community. Right? Just like you do. Just like I did. I mean, I was just a mom. I'm just a mom. I really am just a mom. Deep down. That's my first and foremost, number one badge of honor is I'm a mom. And if I meet a doctor who has a beautiful heart, the first thing out of my mouth is, you should really look into coming to maps. This is what we're. It's all heart. It's all heart. It's the people that care. But MAPS needs to be the standard of care, and we need to make this known to all people. Like you said, things are continually shifting. We shift with it, right? Tylenol was announced. I haven't touched Tylenol in 20 years because my doctors had already told me Leucovorin was just announced. My kid's been on Leucovorin for 18 years because my doctors knew about it. We just need to get louder. So we're like, we need all parents rope these doctors in so that they can help their children. Because the more doctors that know this, the more it becomes common ground and the more their conversations in the hallway become the norm, right? And pretty soon everybody's going to be like, hey, this kid had a seizure. And someone's going to be like, oh, does he have autism? Have you tried Leucovorin? And that's going to be the norm, right? It's already happening. So I just would like to encourage all parents keep up the hope because there's so much happening and you know, these doctors want to learn, they just don't sometimes know where we're here. So it's time to get loud and call all hands on deck. Parents, doctors, come to the conference.

B (32:53)

Absolutely. And yes, I mean in terms of expanding, achieving the mission of having more practitioners and doctors who are equipped to help these kids parent. You are the key in terms of sharing this information, getting it out there, attending the conference so you get better educated as well. And yeah, don't underestimate the power of community, of being with this, this group of people. And it's the same thing for the any practitioner that you send, that you recommend, they go to maps, they'll have the same shift when they're in community and things really do shift and that's the case to travel, to get in proximity with people. And if you can't do that, virtual is great too. And love that this conference coming up for the parent day on the 15th of March, you provide both options. So thank you for putting this together. I'm so looking forward to it. And again, thank you for all you do and the entire MAP organization.

A (33:51)

Thanks, Len. I love having you in the folds as we run faster and harder and get louder. It's awesome. Thank you.

B (33:57)

Your child needs you running on all cylinders now. And the fastest way to rise is with personalized one on one support. Get started today. Go to elevatehowyounavigate.com.