Dr. Oz on Trump's advice about Tylenol

I didn't know any. I didn't know any either. Secretary Kennedy often recounts that he's never known anybody that his age group. And so where are all the 60-, 70-year-old autistic people? There seems to have actually been a real change. And then the question is, what gives? What's going down? And when we were asked to look into this, we broke the silos down between the FDA, Marty Makary, who's been on this show many times, Jay Bhattacharya of NIH, myself at CMS, and we did the best we could to figure out, looking at the best science out there, what are the clues? And we figured two out. Now, there are going to be more. This is evolving.

And these are clues, not conclusions. These are clues, signals. These are things that we believe that if you're fully transparent about, you will rebuild trust with the American people. Just tell people what you know, like a doctor.

And the two clues are? That we believe that kids with autism spectrum disorder have a problem getting folate into their brain, in some cases. That's a problem that could be treated with a medication. That's a prescription drug that a doctor has to prescribe for you, by definition, called leucovorin. FDA is going to change the label on this drug over the next few weeks that will free up state Medicaid and CHIP services, which may ensure most kids in America, to allow children and their moms to get access to this medication. Because there are some small data sets that say this could be helpful, leucovorin. There are about 250 kids in different trials. But the key question is if you, as a researcher, on those trials had a child, would you give that child leucovorin? And when I asked the doctors involved in those trials, they said yes. In fact, academic centers who are researching this, I got the same answer. So we don't have all the answers, but we feel obliged to tell the American people this, who really was passionate about this as President Trump. He said, if we know this is a possible tool, why would we not tell the American people? Tylenol, same story. The Tylenol issue is whether or not we should warn moms who are pregnant today about a problem that we may not know fully the answer to, Is Tylenol a problem during pregnancy? for another five years. Well, what about the kid today? Are you going to take the Tylenol or not? And I think the answer, the best prudent answer, is, of course take it if a doctor says you need it. But don't take it on your own without thinking twice about it.

Respond to this. This is something that came from the Coalition of Autism Scientists, saying, "It alarms us researchers," meaning what the president said, "who have committed our entire careers to better understanding autism. The data cited do not support the claim that Tylenol causes autism and leucovorin is a cure and only stoke fear and falsely suggest hope when there is no simple answer." They believe that we should keep secret these clues until we have all the definitive studies done. I'm an academic doctor. I was a professor at Columbia University. Now I'm emeritus. Jay was a professor at Hopkins-- rather, at Stanford. Marty, a professor at Hopkins. These are three top-tier institutions. all of us tenured faculty. I know what academic research is. But what are you going to do with the mom right now? In our moment of need, we cannot be surrounded by intellectuals. You have to have people who can make decisions, people of action. The president said, I will not wait one more day if we have a clue that the researchers themselves believe would change their actions. And so we are guarded in saying, we don't have all the answers. But if it's my family, I'm not going to have my pregnant daughter take acetaminophen if she doesn't need to be on it without certainly talking to a doctor about it. And if I have a child that's autistic, I'm going to try this prescription drug leucovorin. Try it for three months. If there's an improvement, keep going. If no improvements, stop it. These are the research tools that we have developed. We've written about it, and we've published it. And you believe, Dr. Oz, this provides clarity, does not add to confusion? If people want to be confused, it's easy to find a path to get there. I come on shows like yours because I think what I'm saying is understandable. There are political reasons why people don't want to understand it. And I want to highlight this reality. If you mix politics and medicine, you know what you get? Politics. You kill medicine. This is not to be a politicized issue. Let me ask you the big question, Major. Why would the president talk about this? There's no political benefit to him. He did it because he cares deeply about these children, and he doesn't want the American people hurt. And most importantly, he wants to be transparent about what we know, which is why he sent us out there, knowing that it was five years before we have the final answers that those researchers who are looking for the ultimate perfect result are expecting. But as a surgeon, you have to act in the moment. That's what we did.