In a world where medical diagnoses seem to be accelerating, Pilar Mora’s story invites us to pause and question an uncomfortable but essential idea: what if we aren’t always identifying the true cause?
Pilar, a doctoral-trained researcher who shared her family’s story on Dr. Ilán Shapiro’s program on La Red Hispana, was living in the United States when she received a call no parent ever wants to receive.
Her daughter, who until then had developed completely normally, was reported by her school to have severe difficulties: she couldn’t read or write, and she didn’t communicate adequately, according to her teachers.
What followed was a chain of diagnoses that escalated rapidly: first attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and finally autism spectrum disorder.
Like many families, Pilar trusted the system. She followed medical advice, accepted treatments and recommendations. However, instead of improving, her daughter worsened. At first, she was in denial, but then she understood something crucial: if she didn’t do something for her daughter, no one else would.
Pilar decided to do something unusual: question. Not out of rebellion, but out of informed curiosity. She changed the course of her academic research and began to study her daughter’s case with scientific rigor. What she found not only changed her family’s life but also opened up a much broader conversation.
By analyzing other similar cases, she identified patterns that didn’t fit traditional diagnoses. These were children with normal development who, after stressful events, began to exhibit severe symptoms. But the most striking symptom wasn’t just emotional, but physical: their eating habits.
They only wanted to eat: tomatoes, onions, strawberries, mangoes, bananas, and gummy bears. They even ate onions as if they were apples.
This led Pilar to explore a field that is gaining increasing relevance in science: the relationship between the gut microbiota and mental health.
Her research connected her with international experts and ultimately led her to a powerful hypothesis: the problem wasn’t solely neurological, but also environmental. Contamination in certain foods, combined with stress, could generate imbalances that manifest as developmental disorders.
Her daughter’s recovery, after changing her approach, reinforces a key idea: symptoms don’t always tell the whole story.
This doesn’t mean that medical diagnoses are inherently incorrect, nor that conventional treatments should be discarded. But it does raise an urgent question: we are often treating symptoms without fully understanding the causes.
Recommendations:
- Change your diet (especially eliminating “addictive” foods)
- Don’t assume that more supplements are better
- Be attentive to medication side effects
- Consider deworming your child
- Always look for the cause, don’t just treat symptoms
For parents, caregivers, and healthcare professionals, the message is: questioning isn’t disobeying, it’s actively participating in the process. Observe, ask questions, seek second opinions, and above all, understand that health—especially children’s health—is multifactorial.
As parents, we must trust our instincts, ask questions, and not settle for just one opinion. Nutrition, environment, emotions, gut microbiota, stress… everything plays a role. Every child is unique, and so is their story.
And sometimes, the answer isn’t in the diagnosis… but in what we decide to do after receiving it.
