What Most Doctors Miss About Keto for Autism and PANS
In this episode, I talk with my longtime friend and colleague Dr. Julie Buckley about something she has been refining for years: a dairy-free ketogenic diet for children with autism, PANS/PANDAS, and seizures. Julie explains why dropping dairy matters so much. Because plant-based, medium-chain fats are far more ketogenic than animal fat, she can keep the ratio low enough that her daughter still enjoys nectarines, tomatoes, and cucumbers at nearly every meal. We talk about how those medium-chain fats feed the mitochondria directly, why that matters for the brain, and how a food-first approach may ease the need for supplements or medications that sometimes leave our children more anxious or agitated.
We also open up a newer conversation about peptides, and Julie shares the early, carefully tracked observations from her practice. Woven through all of it is a theme I care about deeply: food as nourishment and connection, not restriction. Julie's stories about getting children into the kitchen, and about her own daughter's wisdom and humor, are a reminder that this work is about supporting the whole child and the whole family. It is treatable, it does exist, and it takes a village.
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About the Guest:
Dr. Julie Buckley is a pediatrician and functional medicine physician in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where her practice, Pediatric Partners of Ponte Vedra, cares for children of all ages. A graduate of the University of Miami School of Medicine and the Jackson Memorial Hospital pediatric residency, she became one of the first pediatricians in the world to complete the Institute for Functional Medicine's certification in 2016.
Her work grew out of her own family. She turned to functional, root-cause medicine after her daughter regressed into autism at age four, and deepened it after her own breast cancer diagnosis in 2009. She is the author of Healing Our Autistic Children, an international speaker on autism and related disorders, and the founder of the HealthyUNow Foundation, a nonprofit building educational, therapeutic, and residential support for individuals and families affected by autism.
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Social Handles:
Website: https://pppvonline.com
Foundation: https://healthyunow.org
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/julie-buckley-b24944102
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Nancy O’Hara, MD, MPH, FAAP, FMAPS
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