The whole acetaminophen is bad thing isn't a new one. It's part of a crack pot theory of oxidative stress and autism. The only problem is that oxidative stress is one of those very broad terms. The air you breathe can cause oxidative stress because of various types of pollution. Eating bacon can cause oxidative stress. Particular fertilizers used to grow a wide variety of plants can cause oxidative stress. Literally not getting enough sleep can cause oxidative stress.

It's a really broad terms for random free radicals of oxygen in the body, which strip electrons, etc, etc, etc... It's also what brings about antioxidants. Chemicals that take the oxidative "blow" for your cells. And this is all sound science, but everyone experiences oxidative stress and not everyone is autistic, contrary to what apparently RFK believes by trying to pander this bullshit.

Also, just right out the gate. The whole thing doesn't make sense for how it's supposed to work when we have fraternal twins who one is autistic and the other isn't. Which gets into the whole "likely a genetic thing" seeing how identical twins where one is autistic, the other usually is as well. And the difference in rates between fraternal twins and identical twins suggests a strong genetic link rather than environmental. But that doesn't rule out environment.

But the thing is what RFK is pandering isn't new. There's been a ton of studies that associate oxidative stress to autism. But as the saying goes, association isn't causation.

Also at the other end is their recommendation of folinic acid. Which, I can't, it's just Vitamin B bullshit stuff. The various B Complex is important in development for a child. This is why folic acid is given out to pregnant mothers. But there's no evidence to support that any formulation of Vitamin B prevents, slows, reverses, or cures autism. I just don't understand that segment of medicine where they've gone deep end with Vitamin B. It's important, don't get me wrong, but eating quintuple dosing of it isn't "curing" cancer so much as causing irreversible liver damage and possibly sending you into a seizure.

It's whatever. Any form of legitimacy in the HHS disappeared with RFK. I think people are going to look at this as "oh yeah confirms my life long held bias" or "RFK is nut job." But as for moving the needle, this isn't going to move anything. Most doctors will not care that HHS made this announcement and will continue to act as if it didn't exist. Because there's a mountain of evidence that this is just crackpot theory shit.

Someone must be getting kickbacks for leucovorin.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…/2817406

Findings In this population-based study, models without sibling controls identified marginally increased risks of autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) associated with acetaminophen use during pregnancy. However, analyses of matched full sibling pairs found no evidence of increased risk of autism (hazard ratio, 0.98), ADHD (hazard ratio, 0.98), or intellectual disability (hazard ratio, 1.01) associated with acetaminophen use.