KGeorge

I went to a natural health doctor in Schaumburg, IL years ago. He now has a web site www.mercola.com He does independent testing on all the supplements he recommends. The fish oil he recommends is Carlson's fish oil and Carlson's cod liver oil. He had these tested for Mercury. I use the liquid (the pills do not seem to help me at all). He now recommeds krill oil for omega 3's. I tried them (they are pills) and I don't like them.

My son had started having eye tics over a month ago. He is almost 7. The eye movements seemed to go away but I suspect that he is using extreme facial gestures to cover up a tic. He is licking his lips a lot and he will stick his tongue to push out his checks and lips. Anyway, things aren't obvious but he is not the same before this all started. He is also moving around a lot more. (He can have a temper, but this is not new.) When I went to the doctor he agreed to do some tests to rule out a few things and I just spoke with the nurse today. I still need to talk to the doctor but I need some help. The nurse said that the tests came back negative for celiac, heavy metals, but one blood test showed that he had had a strep infection. My daughter had strep in March or April of this year but my son was not sick. I don't understand about this PANDAS thing. Is there a test for PANDAS? If antibiotics are the only way to get rid of PANDAS and people test negative and then positive and how do you know if it's there or not? Does this strep linger in your body forever until it is gone from antibiotics? Can strep go away on its own? How do you know which antibiotic will work? How do you know strep remains in part of your body? How can you have a strep infection and not be sick? If my son does not test positive for strep throat culture is the strep gone? How can a blood test show you HAD a strep infection without there being an infection now? If it is PANDAS is this strep infection causing damage and can the damage be reversed? In reading about PANDAS I keep seeing info about OCD. My son shows no sign of OCD. If all this mess was from a strep infection and my son gets treatment, and the treatment works, can the problems just go away? HELP

Hello, I am VERY new to tics in that my son just started displaying them about a week ago. Everything I have been reading has been sooo confusing. However, I am not new to trying to heal myself using the traditional medical paradigm. I have celiac disease and it was a long hard battle to deal with and I am still learing new things. It gets much easier though. Way back at the start of my problems I have had several different types of allergy testing, which showed many different types of results. In the end, it really didn't matter though if I was allergic to a food or sensitive to it. It only mattered what my reaction to the food was. It is a very tedious and long process to figure out how and to what you react to but it is very important to do. Stay away from a food for at least three weeks and then add it back and watch for reactions. Then the process will have to be done again to verify the reaction (unless it is a severe reaction, of course). The celiac disease caused all sorts of havaac with my digestion and at one point I was reacting to most foods. I am allergic to dairy and found that I crave it tremedously, especially after I eat some. The craving does go away after I haven't had any for 3 or 4 days. My point is that I went to several allergists with different philosophies about allergies and each one thought the other was a quack. We go to doctors and believe that they have the answers but they don't. You really need to trust yourself and help your daughter to learn to trust herself in dealing with this. I believe that the body has a natural tendancy to heal itself as long as you give it what it needs and do not over load it with toxins. I believe that health is a combination of physical, spiritual, mental and emotional aspects and that all of these need to be in balance and they all need to be addressed for good health. I did want to add that at one point I was allergic to onions and I stayed away from them for years. I have been working on healing my digestion by eating grass feed beef raised without hormones and antibiotics (I will not buy supermarket beef), eating as much organic produce as possible, cutting out processed food as much as possible, drinking water only (hard to do with kids, but persistance is starting to work with my 11 year old daughter), and keeping things like McDonald's to a minimum. There's more, but in my healing, I am now able to eat onions without a reaction. With Celiac disease I do have to stay away from gluten for life, but the rest of my food allergies and sensitivities are getting better. I think that it is important to test for Celiac because it is so hard to diagnose but if there is a problem with gluten, your daughter will never get better without being off gluten for life. I have been reading the book "Celiac Disease, a hidden epidemic" by Peter H.R. Green, MD and Rory Jones and find the information valuable for diagnosing celiac disease. I had a biopsy done 6 months after I had been off gluten and when it came back negative my doctor didn't know that I had to be on gluten in order for the test to show positive if I was sensitive. Anyway, I hope I make sense. I just wanted to add that allergies to food can change. My son just started with tics and I have been looking for a corelation with celiac disease and have not found much info. Celiac disease has helped me to understand health and has given me the gift of a wealth of information about myself. I take things easier and enjoy life much more than I ever did. I found out what was important in life. Knowing all this though, doesn't change the fact that I still want "the magic pill" for my son. KGeorge

Thank you so much for both of your replies! I will definitely start with Omega 3 supplementation and will look for a good multi for my son. I will also look for the book mentioned. I also think that keeping a log is great idea. (I think that the greatest gift is having an outlet to vent and to get recommendations from others going through similar things!) I really can't thank both of you enough. It is really hard for me to slow down and I really need to. I will continue reading and I'm sure that I will have many questions. KGeorge

Hello, I have a son who is almost seven years old and he started have eye tics with a slight head tilt backwards last week. I took him to the doctor and the doctor said that it could be transitory and to bring him back in 6 months if he is still having tics. (Sooner if he starts vocalizing with tics.) The doctor has a 30 year old son with tourettes but I just don't know how much the doctor knows about nutrition. I have been reading WAY TOO much and am very confused. I have a hard time just waiting. I went through IBS problems about 10 years ago and ended up diagnosing myself as having a gluten intolerance (and I've been doing great ever since). It was a very difficult time (doctors do not know a lot about nutrition) and now I am terrified of going through ###### with my son. Do I just wait the six months and see? Should I stop ALL video games and TV? Shoould I stop taking him swiming to the condominium's pool (Chlorine)? Should I push to start having tests done now? Or should I stop obsessing? My son will also push his tongue on the side of check and in front of his bottom teeth. Is this related? When I ask him now about his tics he says that he can wait longer until he blinks. Please help. KGeorge