Does "boosting the immune system" even make sense for PANS?

[Wombat140]

While waiting for tests to be done, my PANS doctor prescribed me various things that are supposed to boost the immune system (colostrum, Agaricus blazii, probiotic). After I'd been taking them for a week I was considerably worse so in desperation I stopped them again. (That was a few days ago. I couldn't say whether stopping them has helped or not.)

 

What I'd like to know is, why would "boosting the immune system" be a good thing in someone who's suspetced of having an autoimmune condition? Surely that's the exact opposite of what you should be doing? I've heard of children with very bad and refractory cases of PANS actually being put on immunosuppressants with some success. My instinctive feeling, and my mother's too, is that it doesn't make any sense, but I don't know. Can any of you give me a bit more background on this? Heard any explanations, in either direction? I need to e-mail him soon about supplements so I'd like to have more idea what I'm talking about before I do.

[Wombat140]

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I will post this on any more threads I post, too, just to be sure, I'm not relying on everyone on the forum seeing this one, that would be silly of me.

I'm sorry, I know that this is something you're absolutely not supposed to do, but after what happened last time, I really don't think it's safe for me to use this forum any more otherwise, and I really don't think we can manage to work out what to do if I can't use it; it's become absolutely indispensable to us.

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[LNN]

Wombat - I don't know of there's an easy answer to your question about boosting the immune system. Some people would agree with you and say that activating the immune system in someone who has an autoimmune disease is a bad idea. Others would say that if that autoimmune issue is caused by an infection, then activating the immune system would ultimately be a good thing, albeit a course that held risk for lots of inflammation while your body fought the infection in a more aggressive manner.

 

One approach would be to take things that helped your body fight inflammation for a time and then, keeping those things as part of your daily routine, you could then slowly add things that boosted the immune system. If you started to feel worse, you could then back off the immune boosting piece or you could increase the things that reduced the inflammation - or both.