The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program | Guest: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya | 9/25/25

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

Glenn reads an uncomfortable yet honest letter to the mother of Joshua Jahn, whose son took his own life after shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas. If you don't believe in free speech for all, you a...ren't in line with what it means to be an American. National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya joins to discuss the truth about Tylenol and its effects on children during pregnancy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's podcast, the light shines through the darkness, and this light is still worth fighting for in this country. You don't believe in free speech for everybody, regardless of what being said, whether you agree with it or not, then you're not in line with being an American. Are you in line with being a terrorist or a fascist? We explain, and Dr. J. Badacharya on Tylenol. Let me tell you about Jace Medical. When things go sideways, everyone looks for somebody who's prepared, the person who packed the extra water, the ones who has the jails. generator, you know, who knows where the flashlight is, all of this stuff. But what about medicine? When a family member gets sick and the pharmacy is closed or when infection hits, you know,
Starting point is 00:00:39 and you are hours away from care, what do you do? This is a case where you need the Jace case because you don't want to wait for the crisis. You want to get ready for one. You think ahead. You plan for what matters. Jace Medical provides emergency antibiotics and essential medications through secure online consultation with license providers. You're not just getting pills, you're getting a doctor-approved, clearly labeled medical toolkit that puts the knowledge and resources into your hands, right where they belong. Order the Jace case at J-S-J-A-S-E.com, because you never know what's going to come next. And boy, I mean, again, people are saying it could be the rapture today, so maybe you don't need the J-S-Case case. But have it just in case it doesn't happen.
Starting point is 00:01:22 Enter the promo code Beck and check out for a discount on your order. That's promo code Beck at J-A-S-E.com. Hello, America. You know we've been fighting every single day. We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you. We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it. But to keep this fight going, we need you. Right now, would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast? Give us five stars and lead a comment because every single review helps us break through Big Tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth. This isn't a podcast. this is a movement and you're part of it, a big part of it. So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this podcast to the top. Rate, review, share.
Starting point is 00:02:10 Together, we'll make a difference. And thanks for standing with us. Now let's get to work. You're listening to the best of the blest. I thought J.K. Rowling say something the other day. She gave a couple of definitions and I wanted to add to it. She said, if you believe the free speech is for you, but not your political opponents, you're a liberal. if no contrary evidence you could change your belief, you're a fundamentalist.
Starting point is 00:02:51 If you believe the state should punish those with contrary views, you are a totalitarian. If you believe political opponents should be punished with violence or death, you are a terrorist. I think those are pretty clear definitions that we should all. kind of hang our hat on. If you can't agree with those things, if free speech is for you but not others who disagree, you don't believe in liberal principles. And I mean that. Yeah, that's the thing.
Starting point is 00:03:26 The only thing I would say when you say clarity, illiberal is a term. In academic circles, people are very, you know, familiar with. But you're not. I think the average person it says, you're not truly for freedom. Right. Yeah. Okay. If, you know, if nothing will change your mind, nothing will change your mind.
Starting point is 00:03:42 nothing will change your mind. Then you are a fundamentalist. Period. So clear. State should punish those with contrary views. That's totalitarianism. Political opponents should be punished with violence or death. That's a terrorist. Those are easy.
Starting point is 00:03:59 However, if you believe every man, no matter their color, their station, their creed, their religion, they have the same right as every other man and woman. And all of the responsibilities that come with those rights, rights, such as standing up to defend others with whom you disagree, you're open to other points of view, you're willing to change your mind if the evidence or truth is shown to you, then I think that makes you an American. And the best thing about being free and being an American and about life the way it actually works is you get to choose. Those are the definitions.
Starting point is 00:04:39 You get to choose. Which one are those? Which one are you? Which one? You know, so many people don't think they have a choice, but they do. Every day you have a choice. Every day you can reset. You know, your body completely changes.
Starting point is 00:04:52 Every cell changes like every seven years. You're a completely new body every seven years. You can change your thinking and change your life so quickly. I have seen it. I've done it myself. I've seen it happen. I've seen what Charlie Kirk chose to do. I saw him when he was young.
Starting point is 00:05:11 He chose, he didn't go to college. he wasn't indoctrinating. He chose to study every day. He chose what he wanted to learn and who he wanted to be. And look at how he, because he applied himself relentlessly every day, that's a huge commitment. Look at who he turned into. Why can't you do that? Why can't I do that?
Starting point is 00:05:33 The answer is, you can. I can, you can. Change or choose your thinking and change your life. what kind of society do you want to live in do you want to live in a peaceful law-bying free society if you do then you have to choose the thoughts in your own life every day that will create that society and by saying you don't have a right to speak and i do if i disagree with you you should be killed you're not creating that your thoughts are out of line and that and that that's really what's happening because there's a there is and it's truly mental illness.
Starting point is 00:06:19 It is truly mental illness. Let me speak to those women who are chugging Tylenol because of science. You're not doing it because of science. You did it as performance. You did it to mock to score points. But the point you're making is not the point you think you're making. Because you most likely were one of the people that were demanding lockdowns. You insisted that we listened to the studies and we trust the experts, even when the experts didn't know their butt from their elbow.
Starting point is 00:06:55 When the experts continued to contradict themselves every week, you said, no, if you question this, you're killing children and grandparents. And you demanded compliance. But now the same class of officials in exactly. the same roles. Say, perhaps you should use caution with Tylenol in pregnancy. Not a ban, not a mandate. Just you should use caution.
Starting point is 00:07:25 And suddenly, it's like Adolf Hitler is telling you that you can never have a baby. I mean, it is, what? Do you see any contradiction in your actions here? Same roles, just different scientists, same roles.
Starting point is 00:07:44 What we, said was, I don't want to listen to those. I can, I see what they're saying, but I disagree with that. Then they come out, these new ones come out after you say, no, no, no, you should be, you shouldn't even be treated, Glenn Beck. If you go into a hospital, you shouldn't even be treated like a human being should be treated because you didn't follow the rules. So you're out. I'm saying this is a suggestion from the same people in the same roles, but now you don't like it. And should we treat you in the hospital if you're going in and something's happening with your baby because you took too much Tylenol?
Starting point is 00:08:23 Of course, of course we should treat you. Of course we should. This isn't principle on when you're gobbling the Tylenol on this. Don't you see the contradiction here? It's not principle. It's not science. It's just for you, it's all about power. When your side rules, then it.
Starting point is 00:08:40 it's okay. You can tell everybody you can't defy it. But if somebody else rules, you can defy it. That's not integrity. That's hypocrisy. And hypocrisy erodes so much more than trust. It feeds chaos and look around you. Look around you. As you're gobbling the Tylenol, look around you. Assassins are coming out from the shadows, acts of violence that make no sense, no sense. People being pushed. out of reason into madness, a society that is truly unraveling at the edges. We've seen this before. We saw this in Rome, final century. Politics became a blood sport.
Starting point is 00:09:24 People were cheering on other humans being eaten by lions. It was a blood sport. The Senate no longer debated things. Not in reason. It was just mobs in the streets. Dagger settled arguments when words couldn't. that's that's where we're headed vimar germany neighbors turned turned into enemies neighbors did hypocrisy turned into absolute fury and eventually total collapse 1850s same here in america
Starting point is 00:09:59 rage people calling each other all kinds of things and then we had civil war and you're still fighting the same civil war was it about states rights or was it about slavery come on man, it's not that hard. It's not that hard. Let me ask you, for those who are chugging the Tylenol, how far away are you from that breaking point? Because you seem very close. From mockery to madness is not a long road. It's not. How much hate, how much hypocrisy does it take to nudge you into one more step to violence? A week, a year, one spark? I don't know. You may not think that you would do that. But did you think you would be gobbling Tylenol to make a political point ever?
Starting point is 00:10:55 Would you ever have thought, oh, I'm going to be really proud someday. I'm just going to go on an unhinged rant and just take fistfuls of Tylenol because they said that you should be cautious with it. where is the logic in that? So don't tell me you can't get there because look where you are. The truth is only humility is going to fix this. And we all have to do it. I was wrong to demand obedience then. I'm wrong to mock caution now.
Starting point is 00:11:28 You have to be willing to stand on principle. Freedom requires consistency and honesty. And that's the only thing that will reverse the spiral. Man, are you a pawn in a performance? You're a woman just trapped in tribal rage? What is that? Become a citizen. Become a human again.
Starting point is 00:11:51 Become somebody who listens, weighs, reasons, chooses, chooses for yourself. Stop listening to the mass. Stop listening. If you're listening to me, you're like, you know what, everything he says is right. You're a moron. Form your own opinions. Who do your own homework. Study yourself.
Starting point is 00:12:10 These are my opinions. I own these opinions. What's yours? If we don't start doing that, then history tells us exactly what comes next. And I promise none of us want to live through that. And by the way, I don't know if you've heard, we have Jay Batacharya on with us next hour. We're going to talk about this Tylenol thing. Did you hear about the woman who was making the point with Tylenol?
Starting point is 00:12:38 She's now in the hospital. Overdose. We hope she's okay. Maybe we'll have an update next hour. but does that seem reasonable? Check your reason. Choose your thoughts. Choose what you think about.
Starting point is 00:13:00 Choose what you read. Understand that everything you choose to put into your head will grow whatever it is you think you want. If it's not in line with what you're thinking, what you're choosing to think about yourself and your country all the, you're never going to create a peaceful, loving, caring, united country where we can all get along. If your thoughts are constantly, I got to stop these people. And that will work for both sides.
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Starting point is 00:14:49 and we really want to thank you for listening. No, Lamentations says, is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Let me ask you something, and this is not something I'm just asking yourself, this is something I've been wrestling with, not just as a broadcaster, but as a citizen, as a dad, a husband, a believer,
Starting point is 00:15:12 a man who has spent really honestly most of my life now, trying to understand the arc of history and the voice of God through all of it. The question I've been asking is a tough one. Is all of this worth saving? This thing we call Western civilization, this project that was born in Judea, refined in Athens, tested in Rome, reawakened in Wittenberg, baptized again on the shores of our own Plymouth Rock. This is a gift that we were all handed. We didn't earn it.
Starting point is 00:15:59 We didn't purchase it. We were given it. Do we want it? Do we even want it? Because if we don't want it, what are we doing? Is it worth saving? Because if it's not, again, what are we doing? But if it is, what are we doing?
Starting point is 00:16:23 All across Europe, the streets are restless. not just with protests but with something far more ancient and it is hatred. The kind of hatred that once fed ovens and marched under banners with swastikas until now, now it just marches under flags that claim peace and chant things about a call for genocide. More violence in the streets. We are fractured. In this country, it's left versus right, flesh against spirit, neighbor against neighbor.
Starting point is 00:17:02 Truth doesn't seem to have a home. And even the church, God help us. Even the church has been found slumbering or worse collaborating with it. We're told by everybody in our society that everything has to be reset. Everything you learned in history was a mistake. It's not true. Tradition, marriage, all of it, spondage, slavery, gender. It's fiction.
Starting point is 00:17:27 Faith. That's hate. truth, hate. And the only sin left is believing in the absolute truth. And then when you take a breath, you look at the paper and you see that AI is rising and borders are falling. You look inside your home and our children are confused and they're medicated and addicted and fatherless and suicidal. The universities are mocking what little is left of Western virtue. Our national debt can't be repaid.
Starting point is 00:17:59 Our Congress is just screwing around more and more every day, it seems. Our elections no longer feel sacred. Our media doesn't inform. It just programs. Our schools don't educate anymore. They recondition. They retrain. They indoctrinate.
Starting point is 00:18:15 So I ask you again, is any of this worth saving? I ask you, in all humility, in the spirit, of a prophet standing before the ruins holding the ashes of his people in his hands. That is the only question we need to answer. Is it worth it? Because if it's not, let's stop. But if it is, can we get to work? I mean, honestly, get to work. If it's worth saving, that we have to know why. Why is it worth saving? And if it's not, then may God forgive us for what we're about to allow. So can, before we do anything in the news, can we just start with this. Let's start with what is the West? What is it? You want to save Western civilization? What is it?
Starting point is 00:19:25 Is it a location? No. Is it a race? God forbid. A flag? A constitution? No. The West is an idea. The West was an idea to escape all of the old oppressive ideas. It's the idea that man himself is made in the image of God and that liberty does not come from kings or government, but it is a responsibility from heaven, that truth exists, that evil exists, and courage is required every day. Education, self-education, not self-medication, self-education, self-education is required from each of us every day. It's the idea that a man can speak his mind and not be silenced by a mob or a monarch, that a child can dream and not be forced into slavery, whether that's the slavery of the body or slavery of the mind.
Starting point is 00:20:32 The West is an idea that reason and revelation walk hand in hand. They're not at war. that beauty matters, that kindness matters, that empathy matters, that beauty matters, that sacrifice is holy, that justice is blind and mercy is always near. That's what we inherited, and that's what we squandered. We allowed comfort to replace conviction. We allowed entertainment to replace education, pleasure to replace people, pleasure to replace purpose. We handed screens to our children instead of our scriptures. We forgot our story. We forgot
Starting point is 00:21:26 who we were. We don't think it's worth fighting for because we don't know who we are anymore. And boy, our enemies are only too happy to write an ending for us. If not now, when? When? When will it be time to get serious. If it's not now, when will it become time for you to say, I'm committed? And if not you, who? Is this worth saving? Is this worth dying for? Oh, yes. Yes, it is. And so much more, it's worth living for, truly living. It's worth saving. And this civilization, no matter how rocky it is, whatever its sins may be, was built on the blood of martyrs and prophets and poets and pilgrims and moms and dads and soldiers. They died for it.
Starting point is 00:22:39 They didn't die for the stock market. They didn't die for pronouns. Not for surveillance. Not for centralized digital currency, surely. They died for something higher, something bigger. I don't believe that's lost, not yet. because I believe resurrection is real and not just in the tomb outside of Jerusalem
Starting point is 00:23:07 but in the bones of any group of people that return to truth any group of people any individual that returns to God returns to honor returns to truth no matter how unfashionable no matter how no matter the cost
Starting point is 00:23:30 returns to truth with humility asking for forgiveness from their God, from their fellow human beings. It's not too late for any group of people that return to family, to community, to accountability, to self-accountability and responsibility. It's not too late because I have to tell you, I really strangely mean this. What an honor it is to live at this time. and after Charlie's death, I feel that way even more. We are living in historic times.
Starting point is 00:24:18 What we do now will affect the lives of generations of people all over the world. What's happening in Europe right now? It's going to be up to us. What's happening in South Korea, I urge you to follow what we're finding now in South Korea. It is, it's happening everywhere and it will come down to us. But we were selected at this time to live at this time. We were made for a time such as this.
Starting point is 00:24:55 Maybe the reason you care is because somewhere inside of you, you know that. Because somewhere inside you, you know you were called to help carry this fire. We're not called to win. All we're called to do is to stand. Is it worth standing? Is it worth saving? It's still true. The light shines in the darkness.
Starting point is 00:25:34 And the darkness has not overcome it. Pick up your torch. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. The Glenn Beck program. It was just the world has gone insane. And people are now just, swallowing handfuls of Tylenol, just to, I guess, prove Donald Trump wrong or what, I don't know what it is. It's just it's a lack of sanity.
Starting point is 00:26:07 I think we have one person now in the hospital. She was making one of these videos. She was pregnant. She swallowed a handful. And now she's on a ventilator. You know, Tylenol, we all know this. It's good for you to some degree too much. And it's really, really bad for you.
Starting point is 00:26:28 you know, and I don't understand. I do not believe that the NIH director was ever saying, you know, it's bad, it's evil, and you can't ever take it. No, it was a recommendation. And we can find out now because Dr. J. Baticharya is with us now. Doctor, how are you, sir? I'm good, Glenn. So good to be on the show with you.
Starting point is 00:26:52 Really honored by the invitation. Oh, you're doing a fabulous job. You really are, and I can't think you enough. Can you please sort through this madness on Tylenol? First of all, what you started with, it's absolutely heartbreaking. If you're listening, don't overdose. Don't take too much Tylenol. I mean, it's well known to cause liver toxicity if you overdose.
Starting point is 00:27:16 You know, if you're not pregnant and you have a headache or you have a fever, it's fine. Just take it the right dose. Don't overdo it. And certainly don't overdo it to make some ridiculous political point. It's just heartbreaking to hear that story of someone who's liver failed because of some crazy politics. The key thing that we found that led to the announcement is that there's been a whole sort of range of research in recent years that establishes that there's this association between
Starting point is 00:27:46 taking Tylenol late in pregnancy and subsequent neurodevelopmental conditions like autism, like ADHD. There's a big fight in the literature over how strong. that association is. So some people think it's really strong and other people think it's less strong. In my review of the literature, I thought that it was that there's enough there to tell people, especially pregnant women, to be careful with it. If you have a high fever and there's no other way to manage it, then yeah, you should with advice of your doctor, take some so that you can manage the fever, which itself is also bad for kids and for moms. But if you, if it's some other, if it's
Starting point is 00:28:28 less harmful than that, if there's less serious than that, then, you know, avoid taking it because it's just good medicine. I believe I have an obligation when I see something in a scientific literature that people should know about to help them make decisions in our lives that I should be able to tell people with the caveat exactly I've said. And that's exactly what we were doing in the last few days, is to tell people, look, there is this literature. Most people I've talked with don't know about it.
Starting point is 00:28:54 They don't realize that there is this. I'm looking at a Reuter story from 2013. Too much Tylenol and pregnancy could affect development. Too much frequent use towards the end of pregnancy may be linked to poor language skills and behavior problems among children according to a new study. I mean, this has not been a secret. And I don't understand why all of a sudden this is insane. Because did you ever, ever intend on saying you cannot take it? We're banning it. Or were you just saying, hey, you should be careful of this.
Starting point is 00:29:28 There are studies that show this. You should just be aware. Yeah, I mean, it's certainly the latter, Glenn. We were aiming to tell moms, you know, pregnant moms who were, that there is this evidence. And so just be careful. Talk to your doctor before you take it. Even the Tylenol label says to talk to, to be careful in pregnancy. Because there aren't great, you know, like toxicology studies were done in pregnant women before Tylenol's,
Starting point is 00:29:55 was approved for the population at large. It's an over-the-counter drug. It has its uses, but be aware of when it's appropriate to use and when it's not and be judicious. That was what we were saying. You know, I think the key thing here is it's something called Trump derangement syndrome, right? So you had President Trump, I remember during, in 2020, President Trump said we should open schools. You remember that? Yes.
Starting point is 00:30:20 And then all of a sudden, all these groups that were before, before he said that in favor of opening schools, somehow all of a sudden changed their mind, in contradiction to what the scientific evidence was saying and said, we should close schools. There's something very odd about how some people react to what President Trump. What President Trump said is a more charismatic version of what I just said. He said, don't take it unless you need to take it, unless you really need it. That's some and substance to what he said. And that's actually wise advice. If you're pregnant women, think carefully about whether you should take it, given it this evidence. I mean, I don't want five years from now, after the scientific debate's been resolved,
Starting point is 00:30:58 and maybe it turns out that it is actually directly linked to autism, that for years of people taking it, thinking that we don't know, when you could just say now, do prudent medicine, take it only if you really need it. I just don't understand how this is twisted into something fascistic. There's a post from 2017, from Tylenol that's going viral right now. It says, we actually don't recommend using any of our products, pregnant. Thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns today. A representative from the parent company said the statement was incomplete, but what was that about? Do you know? How long have we
Starting point is 00:31:35 known about any potential problems? Well, okay, so there's a, the issue here is that the company, the FDA regulates what it can and can't say, right? So it's not a lot for pregnant women, it's not a lot to say that you can take it if you're pregnant because they have never it on women formally in a way that satisfies the FDA. It's very difficult to do these kind of studies on pregnant women. You can just imagine, do I, you recruit a whole bunch of women who are expecting, you know, expecting, and then say, well, I'm going to randomize you and give some of you Tylenol and some of you placebo and we'll see what happens. I mean, that kind of study would be pretty hard to organize and kind of unethical almost. And so they don't have any evidence on this.
Starting point is 00:32:20 And so they're supposed to say, as they did in 2017, that, you know, we can't recommend pregnant women take it because they don't have evidence to document its safety to the satisfaction of the FDA. Now, the gameplay then is, like, doctors can tell you whatever they want. They're not limited by the FDA, which is appropriate, right? Doctors ought to be able to assess your individual situation and make recommendations. And so again, that's essentially what we were saying to the public, if you really need to talk to your doctor and then decide, knowing now what the literature says. This is, the president's announcement essentially was a form of informed consent for the whole public. Yeah. There's this literature.
Starting point is 00:33:04 It's worth thinking about, even if all the uncertainty is not resolved, and then be careful. Think about it when you need it when you don't need it in consultation with your doctor, especially if you're pregnant. So let me, let me, because I would imagine that this, when this, you guys decided to bring this out, it was like a Monday blip. It was just like, yeah, let's go ahead and release this. And then it's turned into some nightmare. And you have other initiatives on how you're going to tackle the autism epidemic. What are you going to? What? I mean, this was Tylenol. What are you expecting? And what's coming? Glenn, it's so weird. I mean, I'm new to the D.C., so I guess maybe I'm still learning, but like, I thought the big news from this was that we were going to, we are. The NIH has just launched this massive autism data science initiative where we've gotten a dozen research teams examining the question, a 13 actually, but research teams examining the question of what is the cause of autism? And, you know, why has it risen so high in prevalence over the coming years? These are mysteries. to medical science. I don't know the full answer.
Starting point is 00:34:17 It's going to be complicated, whatever it is. But we're finally starting to ask the questions in a way that's going to likely to produce answers. I thought that was going to be the big news out of this. There was also a big announcement about this new treatment, this treatment that a lot of doctors have found effective for some, not all, but some kids who are profoundly autistic. In some cases, I've seen case reports which restored speech.
Starting point is 00:34:41 You know, it's a drug called Lucavoren. that's been used for 40 years. It's basically like it helps bring folate of a vitamin into your brain. And the theory is that there's like folate deficiencies in some autistic kids in brain early in development in cognitive development. It's really exciting. We're telling people about this. FDA is going to make an indication change so it's more widely available.
Starting point is 00:35:02 CMS is going to make this so that Medicaid, you can get it if you have Medicaid or other kinds of insurance. It could help a lot of families. I thought those are going to be the big piece of disease. And so we got this craziest of our autism of, you know, Tylenol. Is this, do you think this was coordinated or was just just a bunch of mad people? I, it's hard to, I don't know, but it is, it strikes me that so many of the people that are sort of chiming in from the medical, on the medical side in panic over this. So the same people who pushed lockdowns and mask mandates and like, you know, toddler masking and school closures and vaccine mandates.
Starting point is 00:35:42 and vaccine mandates and all the rest. I mean, and, you know, many of them have been Ukraine war experts and Gaza war experts and who knows what else. So it's striking that we have such a great expert class in the country. I keep coming back to this is what I want the FDA to do. If the National Institute of Health and the FDA, what I want them to do is make recommendations. Follow the research and then say, hey, we recommend this. we don't recommend this. You should know this. They should have to tell you that. I don't want them
Starting point is 00:36:16 making decisions for me. I want my doctor to make the decisions. And this was the, this was the least autocratic thing I've seen in probably 20 years. And it was like Hitler himself made this declaration. I mean, yeah, I just, it's mind boggling. These, I mean, many of the same, quote, experts that are like taking this in a hyperbolic way were absolutely fine when people were getting fired over the vaccine mandates. I don't, I just don't, it's, it's, and there was no good science behind the recommendations about the vaccine mandates. The vaccine didn't stop you, COVID vaccine, didn't stop you from getting a spreading COVID. Um, so why the mandates? Like why, why, it's, I think people need to just stop and take a breath and say, look, what is actually the
Starting point is 00:37:08 evidence? I mean, I, I, I hope I conveyed it in a nuance. way. I'm not saying to you that I know for certain that this is that this is a cause. There's a scientific debate going on, but I think that there's enough evidence in the scientific literature to warrant telling people when you take it here, you should know about this. Why should we hide that from people? Seems to be a very balanced approach talking to Jay Boticharia. Doctor, can you speak a little bit about the Swedish study that a lot of people have brought up? It's about 2.5 million kids.
Starting point is 00:37:39 It said 1.33% chance of having autism without acetaminopin, 1.53% chance if you did have it during pregnancy. They did say that the effect disappeared when controlling for siblings. Is this just part of the tapestry of all the research you looked at? How do you view this data? Yeah. In fact, we mentioned it. I wrote an op-ed with Marty McCarrie and Memad Oz where we referenced this specific study because this is This is a part of the literature that's more skeptical about the link, right?
Starting point is 00:38:11 That's a big Swedish study. And as you said, Glenn, that if you just do a straightforward analysis of the 200,5 million moms, you find an increase in autism in the moms that were exposed to Tylenol. Now, the study wasn't good at measuring Tylenol. So I think only about 7% of the moms reported using Tylenol in the treatment arm. 7% of the moms supported using Tylenol. We know for a fact that it's underestimated. They were looking at like electronic health records and other things.
Starting point is 00:38:41 They didn't really get over-the-counter use. So it does have some methodological issues. But the big thing with a sibling, sibling studies are really interesting because you think to yourself, if I compare, you have a mom during birth number one, she used Tylenol, during birth number two, she didn't use Tylenol. And what if during birth number one the baby turns out to have autism, them in birth number two, didn't use time. That seems like strong evidence, right?
Starting point is 00:39:07 Because you have adjusted for the same common family environment, the same similar genes because it's two siblings, right? It's a very attractive design, but it has problems, right? So first of all, in order, you can't, you don't have two and a half million moms that have siblings like this. What you have is a much smaller sample of what I would call, what's called discordant siblings. So you have siblings, one who received child analysis.
Starting point is 00:39:33 during the birth and one who didn't, right? That's a much smaller sample than the two and a half million. You're not actually looking at two and a half million. You're looking at as much, and if you have a smaller sample, it's harder to pick up any effect, right? You're not going to be, you've got to find a specific significant effect. So just statistically. Second, the group of moms who use it in one pregnancy, doesn't use in another,
Starting point is 00:39:53 are very different from the moms using in both pregnancies or use it in one, in, don't use it in either pregnancy or who use it, you know, only have one, one kid. very, very different from each other. I don't know that the results that you find among the, because discordant siblings translates over to the other groups. Then third, this is probably most important. If you adjust a way for the genetic differences and family, sort of shared family environment differences,
Starting point is 00:40:23 you might be adjusting away for the mechanism by which Tylenol actually causes autism, right? It's, it's, it's, it's, what you're doing, you're saying, oh, I'm, I'm narrowing it to, like, only a narrow set of differences between the siblings. Obviously, there's a shared genetic environment and a shared, shared, a family environment. But what if the mechanism by which Tylenol use, or the latent pregnancy causes autism, leads through the thing that you control the way? Right. You'll mask the true effect. Jay, I would love to, I'd love to continue to do this.
Starting point is 00:40:58 I've got a network break. I have to hit. Thank you so much for everything you're doing. Thank you for being a part of the program. I appreciate it. I hope we can talk again. I'd love that, thank you. You bet.
Starting point is 00:41:08 Dr. Jay Balachari, a National Institute of Health. Fascinating.

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