Celebrity fitness guru, author, and podcaster Jillian Michaels commended Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for launching new studies into the environmental contributors to the skyrocketing cases of autism, telling Newsmax on Thursday that if “genes load the gun, it’s something environmental that is pulling the trigger.”

Michaels joined “National Report” to react to Kennedy’s recent announcement and said she agreed with the Health and Human Services secretary that the autism epidemic can’t simply be explained by genetics.

“Listen, can there be a genetic predisposition? Of course there can. But what he’s saying is, if genes load the gun, it’s something environmental that is pulling the trigger. And he wants to get to the bottom of what that is,” said Michaels. “Autism has skyrocketed over the past two decades. It used to be one in 50 20 years ago. Now it’s one in 31 kids.

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