Autism and Cannabis: What We’ve Discovered – with Unity Formulas Founder Jerrik Keller

John Malanca  0:02
Welcome back, everybody, John Malanca here with United Patients Group Be Informed. Be Well.  You probably recognize his face Jerrik Keller, how are you doing Jerrick?

Jerrik Keller  0:12
I’m doing really good. Thanks for having me back.

John Malanca  0:15
Yeah, I want to welcome Jerrik back. So if you saw the first one podcast we did on his company Unity Formulas, which you see on his chest there. But our podcast, you know, I ended it because I wanted to do a separate podcast on what Jerrik is doing for the autism community. And he’s been working in the autistic autism community for quite some time and has partnered with some great companies, not only with United Patients Group, but autism safe haven, which is Janna Champagne’s organization. And she’s a nurse, who you probably have seen, not only on the podcast, but a few of the other Docu series I’ve done. And I’ve worked with Janna, for probably about eight or nine years. So it’s a great partnership, welcome back. Thanks for being on here. Just want to give a brief introduction about you. But Unity and why unity stands out. I know there’s so many choices out there. Nowadays in the cannabis world, the CBD world and all the other cannabinoids that are popping up, what makes one standout over the other. And this unity is something that I I personally take, I share with my family I share with my friends and I share with the family, a lot of families that have autism. And there they are finding success. So Jerrik Welcome to the show. And if you can share a little bit intro about unity. And then we’ll talk about why your formulas. You’re seeing success with your formulas with the autism community. Yeah, so

Jerrik Keller  1:44
what makes unity formulas different is that our products are all targeted. So there are specific formulations, you know, whether it’s for sleep or pain, or in this case, we’re speaking about autism. So how we achieve that is by, you know, combining different ratios of cannabinoids terpenes, making it very specific using ingredients that are research back to provide support in these areas. And how I got into that was working with Jana, that you mentioned earlier. And she has a lot of passion around autism being a mom to an autistic daughter. And so working with her working with her daughter, and then working with others that she was seeing at the time is how we develop these formulas. And so yeah, we have a lot of specific passion in that area. And it really came you know how Jana and I came together was this shared bond for putting the patient first trying to improve outcomes. And I think the the areas where CBD may see, you know, the least amount of positive outcomes are in more delicate or sensitive cases, as many of these in in when it comes to autism are. So we saw an incredible increase in the positive outcomes. In these cases, once we move towards targeted formulations, and getting really specific and into the nuances of the cannabinoids.

John Malanca  3:33
Yeah. Excuse me, you mentioned targeted formulas for your patients. And I applaud you for that. And so, as I mentioned in the last podcast, who Jerrik don’t let his youthful look. I guess pushes puts you off because he comes he’s wise. A lot of wisdom comes behind this and a lot of years of farming, perfecting this plant, and what he’s done with families and their children. And that’s how we met because I have shared quite a few of the families that I work with on a regular basis. Just trying to find that sweet spot. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it stops working. And so what Derek and his company have done is not only answer phones but also emails, but work with the families work with the patients and work with the doctors when they’re trying to find that perfect formulation. It’s not a one size fits all. We’ve seen this many times with a lot of female patients that when it comes up to their menstrual cycles, everything is thrown out out the door. I mean, we’re going Perfect, perfect, perfect. That time of the month comes and the parents are calling Jericho would I do that we are seeing this whole change. Can you share how important that is to watch the journaling but also at that time of month for a lot of families to go through and it’s difficult difficult like to see your child just completely change. And then the parents are like, what did we do? What’s going on? Do we need to change something? Is that the medicine? is, you know, is it? Is it affecting something in a negative way? So can you talk about that, please?

Jerrik Keller  5:14
Yeah, so definitely, you know, when we’re interacting with the endocannabinoid system as we are with cannabinoid products, you know, we’re dealing on working on such a large scale in the body. And so we’re interacting with all the other systems as well. And so definitely that hormonal cycle, whether it’s a man or a woman, or, or even a child, you know, entering into puberty. You know, in a lot of these autism cases, the way I approach those situations is that oftentimes, these individuals are a lot more sensitive to transitions to changes in their environment to changes in their routine. And so that is one common disruption, you know, with the, with the menstrual cycle. And so yeah, we just tried to arm you know, the parents with as much information as possible. And then also, maybe, you know, a couple different formulas, or, you know, during that time, sometimes there’s just a need for additional support. So, yeah, it’s definitely something that we try to plan around. And I think the biggest, the biggest, you know, going back to the targeted formulations, one of the biggest reasons is really all health is individualized, that, especially when it comes to cannabinoids is, you know, every individual interacts differently. And it’s great to see science, you know, starting to give us better starting places more information. And so we go off of the latest research. But then once you’re speaking to a parent or to an individual, yeah, we got to hone in on to the nuances of how does their bodies specifically interact with these cannabinoids. And that’s what we really saw, you know, the majority of the CBD industry is, you know, pretty generic, you know, one size fits all, maybe you can change your dosage a little bit. But yeah, there, you know, these cases, require a lot more time spent on the phone, a lot more communication, a lot more paying attention to that individual feedback. And that’s a process that I personally am always willing to go through with a customer. And that really sets us apart in that regard, as well.

John Malanca  7:54
You and I thank you for that. Because the feedback that we receive after referring them to you has been very positive. So thank you, and they say forgot, finally someone listens. They care about my child, my individual. Yeah, when I say child, you’re talking about science, the stock lot of science, there’s a lot of science. It’s funny, I you know, I don’t say funny, because it’s serious, because I have a handful of friends there whose children are experiencing autism. And I think the study now shows one out of every 44 children. male dominant actually, it’s funny, I don’t know why my men have it over. Boys have it over girls, but one out of 44. And why is that? Do you know that from from working with Jana and a bunch of families, and why is it more prevalent now than it was? At least when I was growing up? Have you? Have you ever done a study on that or heard

Jerrik Keller  8:56
why? Yeah, you know, obviously, the it’s a great question. The answer, I would say is not totally clear. You know, depending on who you’re talking to, I’ve I’ve heard a lot of different theories thrown out there. But I would just say, in general, I think, you know, especially here in the West, we’re exposed to a lot more toxicity, you know, there seems to be a very clear link between inflammation and an autism and, and not even to say that, you know, certain inflammation causes autism, but it definitely exacerbates it. And so, and that’s the thing we use this one word, we call it autism. And what we’re speaking about is the way someone can present you know, 1000s of different ways that are fit into the same category, which is another reason you know, inside the community. As you know, parents seek to gain more support and more understanding. They reach out and communicate to each other Other, which is a great, great way of pooling resources together. However, you know, what works for one almost never works for another unless the cases are very similar. And so it really does require that individual touch. And no, it’s our formulations. It’s a great starting place that they’re targeted. But yeah, it’s It’s incredible how, how prevalent it is almost everyone I know and work with has, you know, a friend, a family member that experiences you know, one form of autism or another. And so, yeah, it’s a massive area that needs addressed and supported. And yeah, that’s definitely part of our mission,

John Malanca  10:47
you know, and having support nowadays with groups that you can join online. Pair parents aren’t alone, because that must be the biggest fear for for a parent to see what’s going on with my child, my perfect child what’s going on. And I’m certain years ago, they didn’t have a Google, they didn’t have a Facebook or online chats, or even podcasts talking about this. And so you know, it does help and every little tidbit of information does help as well. You talked about, you know, your formulas, what makes you guys really stand out, I know, you know, we’re combining like two podcasts here, because you spoke about unity the other day, and I asked you to come back today. You’re in Oregon. It’s organic. And so the Oregon climate is wonderful for cannabis, but not all year round. But with your formulas, what what makes the Oregon climate perfect for for for your product?

Jerrik Keller  11:51
Yeah, in terms of Oregon, yeah, nice, hot, dry summers. You know, all of our plants are grown outdoors here in Oregon. And so, yeah, I think that’s some of the highest quality possible. And if you can’t produce an extraction or a product that is somehow better than what you started with. And so you have to start with the best if you’re shooting for that high quality. And so then, you know, along those same lines, you know, we do in all organic ethanol extraction, we believe that’s very important. Some people call that a full spectrum extract, we like to call it a whole plant spectrum. Because it’s, it’s not just a full spectrum of cannabinoids, and terpenes. As you know, some other extraction methods also produce like co2. But if the, you know, there’s hundreds of other constituents in there as well, and we’re extracting it in the ratios that the plant produces. So we really think we’re harnessing that wisdom from nature. You know, it’s combining, you know, the technology, obviously, it’s great to concentrate it up. But then really letting the, the natural wisdom of the plant come through. And, you know, there’s been studies done comparing isolated formulations to, you know, full spectrum extracts. And it’s not even close in terms of dosing, you can take a much lower dose and achieve the same results using, you know, an extract like ours. And then also, what we see is that there’s a much more narrow therapeutic window with isolated formulations. Which means, you know, trying to find that perfect dose, which is very important for an individual is very hard. Whereas, with Rs, you know, you can start low, and you can work up slowly, and you can, you know, find increasing support or increasing results as you work up, which is very important, you know, especially, you know, going back to autism, it’s important in all cases, but especially there where we’re dealing with heightened sensitivity, it’s important to be able to start on the low end and workup and see, you know, more of a linear return in the effects versus this bell curve. We’ll see with that with the isolated formulations, where you see almost no success. If you happen to hit that little window, you might see a spike in success. And then if you try dosing up, you start seeing diminishing return very quickly. So yeah, that’s a very key component to what we’re up to.

John Malanca  14:48
So So for our audience that may have tried cannabis, or tried another another product or even tried to Epidiolex Can you share what formulation Is that I know you have a beautiful sight. And with a lot of information on there, but what what formulations besides CBD Are you putting in there what other type of cannabinoids keep talking about the different cannabinoids, how they’re beneficial, and also the terpenes a year out as well. And what a terpene is?

Jerrik Keller  15:18
Yeah, for sure. So yeah, so we use beyond CBD like you’re saying, we use acidic forms like CBDa, or CBGa. Some people call those the raw form, that the plant produces the cannabinoids in before they’re heated and converted into CBD or CBG. So we use all of those as well as CBN. And, you know, specifically around autism CBN has been a revelation of sorts, in many of our cases. Seeing great support, there’s also there seems to be a higher level of tolerance, maybe like a dose that you and I would take, we have a formula called Sleep calm, and that has our highest amount of CBN in it. And it’s great for sleep for, let’s say, you and I, but it can be incredibly powerful during the day for more behavioral outbursts that may occur. In some cases, that’s a very common feedback that we get. And so that’s been very important. And then yeah, we do and also other terpenes, you know, things like linalyl, which is found in high abundance, and lavender, that’s a you know, it’s a known an anti anxiety calming, you know, things like Mersing, or beta caryophyllene is on some of our products. And when we add, I just want to say when we add additional terpenes. We know terpenes have been removed in our extraction process. And so we’re enhancing the formulation or tailoring it a little bit more powerfully or more specifically into an area. But it’s not meant to replace the terpenes already in abundance and found naturally in the plant. So we’re just we just pick strains that already have the highest level content of these terpenes. And then we, we build off of that. And terpenes, I guess for the audience is or terpenoids. They make up the large majority of what we think of as essential oils. And what’s so beautiful about cannabis is that it produces some of the widest variety of terpenes in the entire plant world, which is why it’s not very informative to speak about cannabis essential oil. Because it’s such a wide variety of terpenes produced so one cannabis essential oil would have a completely different effect and another one and that’s why in the in the cannabis world, we talk more about the individual terpenes themselves that make up these essential oils. And it’s far more informative to know the effects that a particular formulation may have on the body.

John Malanca  18:28
You know, for audiences Well, there’s about 140 different cannabinoids and they all play a role of THC and CBD are the probably the most two popular ones I guess because they get the most the spotlight on them. But CBN CBG CBGa which Jerrik was speaking of these are all different cannabinoids that all play a role CBN which Jerrik was mentioning, is known for sleep so the kami portion, I knew know your products have a combination for the entourage effect, neuro calm, which has 600 milligrams of CBD and 60 milligrams CBN neuro left which is 300 milligrams of CBD G and 300 milligrams of CBD, and then sleep calm, which is 500 milligrams of CBD and CBD as long as well as 300 milligrams of CBN. Why have you made white? What Why are you seeing success with those and those products really stand out over your whole line. But those three products really stood out and have stood out for your autism, families and patients.

Jerrik Keller  19:40
Yeah, so generally what we’re wanting to accomplish or target with using these formulations, kind of two ends of the spectrum sometimes and probably most commonly we’re wanting to call them sometimes there’s an A I’m an epilepsy component as well, and a lot of our autism cases. And so maybe we’re wanting to address seizures as well. And so generally something a little bit more CBD oriented, and then getting into the CBN with the neuro calm in the sleep calm, very powerful for, again, helping to smooth some of the spikes in either behavior, or sometimes we’re dealing with very energized individuals. So helping calm some of that, you know, we’re never wanting to go down the road of like sedation or creating, you know, individuals who are not engaged in their environment. And that’s why so many people do reach out to us saying, Hey, we don’t want to go down this, this route of sedating our child and in these other ways, so they’re looking for alternatives to that more natural alternatives. And so we’ve seen a lot of success with those in terms of like the neuro lift, or even our elevate formula, both which contain a little bit more CBG. A lot of what we’re trying to target with those is more speech development, focus, engagement, you know, maybe even more on the AD D ADHD side of the spectrum, trying to get individuals to engage a bit more. And that’s been a very common feedback that we’ve had success in those areas. Just as a disclaimer, I’m not saying any of these things are guaranteed, or that you will see these results this way, I’m just speaking toward, from listening to feedback, spending 1000s of hours with hundreds of people telling me they took a particular product and what they saw as a result. And so that’s where this information I’m sharing is coming from,

John Malanca  22:02
I won’t hold you to that. I know you’re not able to make any claims either. But, but what I can do with the United States group, and my name and reputation is that I’ve seen this product work, his products work, and I don’t say over others, but in a lot of cases, yes, over others and not downgrading any other company out there. There’s some great products, there’s great companies out there, you know, but they all work differently, for some reason. And there might be I don’t know if it’s the the sunlight and or love you put in the product, but that or the terpenes or even the different strains and hopefully one day with the medical community, you know, be they’ll be able to really take this plant as a serious form of medicine. I have some dear friends that have been battling Eisah battling if you want to say he has autism for 22 years of reach out to Amelia Hi, Amelia. I use Amelia. So Amelia not only has been incorporating cannabis for the past five years, but has really been her whole life working with trying to find a sweet spot for autism one the majority of her life with medications. But like I said the past, you know, four or five years, I introduced cannabis and hey, have you ever looked at cannabis and they hadn’t so they had tried a few different things and had success and failure success and failures. But the one thing they do on a regular basis is go down to UCLA. Hospital and get EKGs and the doctor thank goodness was on board let’s let’s see what we’re doing here. I know nothing about it. And they have done EGS not only on other cannabis brands, they’ve done EGS with Epidiolex and they’ve done EGS with jerks company unity and I have to say you’re I’m thank you because you’ve changed their life of where they are. And I know Amelia and her family can attest to this attests to this that that is something that has been very beneficial. So thank you and that’s why I you know, I’m proud to have you on the show and in project to you know, share what you’ve done with not just a million but all the families out there that that are going through this on our website. There’s an Autism Center that we’ve chose chosen to do so one with with Jeric but also Jana and we found this very beneficial not only some information on autism information on certain videos, but with Jana helping and also Jana champagne, also known as nurse Janice, she’s been working with United patient group for Gosh, I wonder like I said eight, nine years 10 years So I have someone I not only trust with my health I trust to trust her with my family’s health. But all the people that we do recommend that as well. Janet runs an organization called Autism safe haven 15% of the proceeds and Jeric has over their unity of formulas goes right to autism safe haven. Because of that, I also said I’d match 50% of our proceeds with the sale of Gerrits products on the United Patients group site. Goes goes right back to autism safe haven. So if you haven’t had a chance to look at us, go to United patient group.com and go to the Autism Center. Go to Jeric site at Unity unity formulas.com or GeneSight autism safe haven one thing Jeric I want to say thank you to for our audience Jeric has given a 15% promo code, U P G 15 up GE one five, and that will give you 15% off and jerk Natalie is great at answering phone calls, but emails. But if you place an order by noon, is it it’ll go out that day? Yeah, Monday through Friday. And so, but I wanted to share that as well. But I thank you, and I appreciate you coming on. And you know, one time I’d like to do a live podcast that you may we do something on Facebook Live and really draw in some of the families that that have questions. So if you do have questions, you can email me write them in the comments. And I’ll make sure my so Janna or Jerrik answers. So thank you, Jerrik, can any any closing words you want for the audience?

Jerrik Keller  26:42
Yeah. Reach out. I am here to help in any way I can. And that’s what I’m committed to. That’s why John and I are on the same page, Ghana. We’re all here to help in any way we can. So thank you very much.

John Malanca  27:02
I appreciate that. And lights on that go off on you.

Jerrik Keller  27:06
Yeah, they just turned off. So anyway,

John Malanca  27:10
everyone’s yet Jerrik, I appreciate you being on everyone. This is John Malanca. With United patient group, be informed and be well and wishing you all a blessed day as well. Thanks, Jerrik. And thank you. We’ll talk to you soon. Have a good day everyone. Bye bye.