We got the results of some of Jake's lab work this week and I am still trying to sort it all out. Here's what we know so far:
Food issues: True allergies to peanut, egg and chocolate. These are mild, but need to be removed from the diet. Moderate intolerance to soy. Very low level of intolerance to almost everything included on the IgG food test. (No wonder the kid doesn't want to eat).
Hair Analysis: Elevated levels of Arsenic and Rubidium. Extremely high levels of Gadolinium (low toxicity) and Tin.
Lowered immune response.
Significant disruption in blood-brain barrier.
Deficient in Vitamin D: This one really surprised me. He gets plenty in his diet and spends a lot of time in the sun.
Metabolic Acidosis: Ph level in the body is off balance.
Markers indicating toxicity in the blood and possible mitochondrial dysfunction: Need to do more tests for these.
We are awaiting the results of other lab work before determining the treatment plan. As much as I want to treat everything all at once, I know the best way is to go slowly and prioritize the battles. I was really disheartened by all of these results. He has so much more going on in his body than I ever would have guessed.
Until we have the full picture, here is the current plan:
Suggested supplements for decreasing anxiety: 5-HTP, L-Theanine and Taurine.
Feed the brain: Fish oil and essential fatty acids
Multivitamin/mineral supplement
Vitamin D3 supplement
Remove allergens from diet + continue with GFCFSF diet
Melatonin
No more vaccinations
*If any biomed parents out there have experience with any of the above mentioned conditions, I'd love to hear from you. I am researching treatment and prognosis for each item and would appreciate any information you have.
Friday, July 3, 2009
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11 comments:
Have you joined the autism info group on yahoo? Karen is awesome and everyone there is so knowledgeable. Let me know if you need the link! Don't be discouraged! Remember it's a marathon not a sprint!
Chrissy-
We have some similarities between Jake and Matthew. By true allergy to peanut, egg and chocolate, do you mean IgE? We've got IgE to peanut (the big one) and egg. We had slightly elevated arsenic and very high Tin. We just learned (last set of labs) possible BBB disruption too. Matthew also has mitochondrial dysfunction. (Of course among other things!) She also recommended no more vaccines for us too. We haven't addressed the arsenic/Tin yet but have addressed the mitochondria with good results.
For mitochondria she recommended Carnitine, MitoThera and D-Ribose. Within a month after starting these he went from scribbling to drawing pictures. He can now write his name.
Mitochondria power cellular energy and can manifest dysfunction in different ways (speech, cognitive, gross/fine motor coordination, etc.)
That first set of results for us really blew me away too-one of his markers was for neural injury/inflammation which really upset me probably the most. After a few visits you get used to it and the information is definitely very helpful. Sending a big cyber-hug to you...
Penny - If you have the time, I'd really appreciate that link. Thanks for your support!
Jessica - Yep, the true allergies were IgE. Thanks so much for your input. I am trying to stay positive and remind myself that these are things that can be treated. I guess I'm still in shock that there was so much (and more on the way) and it all seems so much more serious than I expected. Glad to hear that things are working well for you guys!
The Vit D could be because your body finds it hard to absorb without another vitamin. And my brain has frozen and I can't remember which one, so actually, this isn't as helpful as it might have been.
I'll work on it.
Hay! Good to see you had the test done, so much to dig into!! Here is my 2 cents (I know, who asked!) Do this one step at a time..even though you are tempted to do 5 steps at once..take it slow, why? Because by adding one thing at a time you can see which variable is making the difference. Journal, that's why i started the blog..keep track of daily progress and don't be afraid to report your mistakes! It will help you learn..
I started with one treatment then added a new one every 2 weeks or so. Now I know the diet and the yeast protocol really make the difference in D.J.
Oh and FYI on the hair annalists (sp?), I did that test also, but because kids hair picks up stuff from shampoos, playground equipment and everything else under the sun, I didn't trust it..I did a internal toxic screen an found out D.J. had high levels of lead in his body and not much of what the hair test said...
And lastly the test are expensive, so to same money I asked other parents and the DAN doctor what test they thought were the most important, which ones could wait and which ones were urgent. Hope this helped!! Happy 4th!!
You mentioned you were surprised that your son is Vitamin D deficient, despite his diet containing plenty of it and that he gets a lot of sun. What you might keep in mind though, is that if he does truly have "leaky gut" then his body is not absorbing the nutrients properly. So although, he may be getting a lot of it, its not quite getting retained in his body per se.
If you are looking for a reasonably priced Vitamin D supplement that you would not have to order online, we love Wellesse brand Vitamin D3. You can find it at Walgreens and it comes in liquid form. It's berry flavored, if I remember correctly and has no artificial flavoring or any other crap in it. Reiss loves taking this at night before bed and the added benefit is that it helps him stay asleep. The melatonin gets him to sleep. The Vitamin D keeps him asleep.
Good luck to you!!!
My son also showed a vitamin D deficiency and my DAN doc said almost every autistic patient she has ends up with that result. One of the comments above mentioned a liquid Vitamin D which I am going to check out. I have been using caplets and mixing them with fruit.
My only advice would be be careful how you interpret IgG food sensitivity results - IgG is not considered the most reliable indicator and I think those tests tend to show everyone has tons of food sensitivities that may or may not have any effect on health. It is the one part of DAN that I think is a little irresponsible.
Also, hair and urine analysis can be sketchy. If your child isn't processing heavy metal properly, then they won't show up on those tests - they oare still inside somewhere. The way to know what is in there is to do a chelation challenge and measure what metal come out then. I haven't tried this yet but it might be in the plans for this fall.
Good luck!.
I hope you don't mind that I linked your blog to mine so that people I know who read about my son can read other people's stories. I will take it off if you object.
good luck with everything you are trying!
-Emma
www.spectrumliving.blogspot.com
Thanks for all the support and info! I just got back from Walgreens where I found the vitamin D supplement on sale for 2/$8. That's much less than anything I found online. Thanks for the tip!
Emma-thanks for linking to my blog. I'm following yours as well.
Here is the link to join the autism info group. They are very knowledgeable about biomed stuff and will answer all your questions.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/autisminfo/
Enoy! I love Walgreens supps too!
Knowledge is the key to power, as they say.
We use a cod liver oil liquid that we mix with apple juice into which we also mix Monster's strattera, we call it his vinegar and oil. We give this to him via syringe with good success. Cod liver oil is a fairly benign thing to incorporate (when you can get them to take it) and is beneficial to all of us ;). According to Jepson's book (Changing the course of autism, http://www.google.com/books?id=BP86uPB3bi8C&printsec=frontcover ) cod liver oil can be a good source of Vit. D as well, so perhaps you can kill a few birds with one stone.
Also according to his book "toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, aluminum and strontium can interfere with normal vitamin D metabolism"
Be careful from where you get your supplements-many of them may have contamination with dyes, etc. in the processing.
If he won't take a solid/chewable good multivitamin, there are some liquid versions that taste pretty good and can be mixed with juice or some other food (apple sauce?).
Good luck and you may wish to check out CHARM as a way to keep track of symptoms and treatments (http://www.charmtracker.com/prelogin.sas)
I can't wait to get settled and find a DAN doctor for Monster.
I had very low Vit D until I found all my food sensitivities and eliminated them...as my system reduced inflammation and started healing, I started absorbing nutrients again, including Vitamin D. its all a part of the healing process. Good luck.
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