Chemar

no, sorry, let me clarify: he takes all of the supplemental antimicrobials together daily for one week every month. the rest of the month he takes his other TS/OCD/Crohn's supplements daily, and uses the antimicrobial foods daily it isnt just for the candida yeast fungus, but for other bacterial, virus, fungus stuff too when he was first dx with epstein barr a long time ago, the naturopath we were seeing suggested this as my son reacts badly to most chemicals, including prescription meds and antibiotics at that time we also had him on homeopathic antimicrobial remedies then again when my son was dx with crohn's, they started him on antibiotics for the infections associated with the crohn's and as usual, he seemed not to tolerate the antibiotics and so we developed this way of getting antimicrobials into him by another method as mentioned before, he is now 20yo and we have been dealing with one health thing or another since infancy with him, but he is doing great and has been for a number of years

he was probably more susceptible to yeast overgrowth because of his underlying GIT probs (leaky gut, Crohn's Disease) when we initially found his high candida levels we strictly followed the candida eradication diet in that book I mentioned before. Our whole family did the yeast busting and noticed a major improvement in health for all of us! my son's diet has been very pure for some years now (part of his overall natural treatment plan for the TS/OCD/Crohn's) and so he doesnt consume any refined carbs or sugars and part of his supp program is candida clear, which has lots of beneficial natural antimicrobials, especially oil of oregano, in it. He takes all of his natural antimicrobial supps (candida clear, monolaurin, olive leaf extract) for one week every month and has done so for quite some time now. We also use a lot of the natural antimicrobials in foods (turmeric, garlic, ginger, honey) The candida Clear by NOW also has caprylate in it which is an excellent yeast buster

yes, candida infection isnt only related to antibiotics a number of other things can result in the overgrowth of yeast in the GIT, including dietary factors. eg Candida is prevalent in alcoholics (alcohol sugars are amongst its favorite foods!) my son had very high candida when we tested him when younger yet had hardly ever been on antibiotics

I think it is important to also remember that where strep may be the root cause of the problems, candida overgrowth is a common symptom of antibiotic use, so it is almost expected that anyone on longterm antibiotics will likely also have "yeast" overgrowth as the antibiotics kill off the good bacteria in the gut as well, so allowing the candida to proliferate

actually there are a number of ways they get the metals in one of them is vaccinations that use thimerosal, a mercury containing preservative, as well as other heavy metal and toxic compound adjuvants it is believed my son's high mercury was also caused by my many mercury fillings that had leeched mercury into my body, and so may have impacted him in the womb!

our integrative doctor had us do chlorella for quite some time and then after the testing indicated it was safe, we did alpha lipoic acid to try to get the brain mercury caution!!! one should not use the ALA inititially as it binds the mercury and crosses the BBB so can carry more mercury into the brain the idea is to chelate the mercury outside of the brain first and then send in the ALA to get that in the brain

HRT= hormone replacement therapy

thanks for finding this old thread on the TS forum I have moved it over to PANDAS forum with a link left on TS so you can hopefully get most input to your question

so glad to hear that Bev! and big thanks to Jewels too for all the help I do hope that you see improvement with the antibiotic as then hopefully you will have a more clear direction for treatment options

thanks so much for posting that abbe I like your doctor Chung and yes, our docs feel the same and that is why we use natural antimicrobials in our diet and supplements as well as other treatments. Conventional medicine is far too focussed on the massive attack method with drugs without regard for the collateral damage that is being done while trying to fix what is wrong

high dose probiotics dont always get rid of candida albicans ("yeast") sometimes, and especially in stubborn cases, it is necessary to do a modified diet for a while (free of yeast feeding foods ) and / or to take helpful supplements like Candida Clear to eliminate active yeast IN ADDITION to taking a good probiotic there is an unscientific "yeast" test that can sometimes give an indicator of whether candida "yeast" is present if it is positive, that is a pretty good indicator that there is candida overgrowth tho if it is negative one shouldnt assume no yeast infection and then can folllow up with blood and/or stool testing. http://www.adhdrelief.com/CandidaTest.html an excellent book (with yeast buster recipes) is The Yeast Syndrome by Walker and Trowbridge

azithromycin is made from erythromycin, which in turn is made from Saccharopolyspora erythraea. aka Streptomyces erythraeus, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azithromycin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythromycin

Hi Peglem yes, as mentioned, my son has Crohn's Disease which is autoimmune my husband doesnt appear to have any autoimmune illness, but his mother had crippling rheumatoid arthritis

Hi yes, we had my son under the care of one of the early PANDAS researchers dr Tanya Murphy for over 6 months(2000/2001) when he was newly diagnosed TS as, altho we have a clear family history of TS and my son had mild tics and other neuro stuff from infancy, his sudden and dramatic onset of severe tics and OCD and depression just after his 10th birthday made me want to check re PANDAS, which I had read about on the net, in a piece about dr Murphy my son has never had strep infection that we are aware of, and all the cultures and titres etc indicated to dr Murphy that he was not PANDAS, tho they didnt rule out PITAND, as he was +ve for epstein barr (no mono) he also seems to react negatively to prescription antibiotics so not a treatment option, tho as mentioned above, he has been on assorted natural antimicrobials as supps and dietary additions for many years

I must say the recent talk here and on PANDAS forum does have me wondering too if a parent had been infected with say for example mycoplasma before a child was born, could the child become more suceptible? there is a school of thought in GI medicine that Crohn's may be caused by mycoplasma (I think the pneumoniae has been suggested?) and I know some TS can be microbial triggered, so that includes mycoplasma I had double pneumonia with bronchitis back in 1987 or 88, and my son was born in 1989. my oldest son was tiny when I got sick, but neither he nor my TS husband got pneumonia or were even sick when I got so ill. Oldest son is not TS not sure which type pf pneumonia bacteria I was infected with tho as i realize there are several I was immediately given antibiotics (injected and oral course) and seemed to make a good recovery. I seldom get colds or respiratory probs and they are over quickly when I do I do wonder tho if something in my antibodies to eg mycoplasma may have impacted my son in the womb? tho I would have thought that kind of exposure, plus him being nursed for quite a long time, would have imparted more natural immunity to him? any thoughts? My TS husband had severe strep as a very young child

my TS husband(in his 60s) had massive tic triggers and other alarming reactions to the steroids and altho he didnt get as psychotic as clonidine made him he had a "nuts" element to his reaction tho it was more massive panic/fear/phobia kind. he still feels (a year + later) the steroids altered his cognitive focus as well as the elevation of his TS tics, some that he hadnt had since childhood as an aside, and something I have posted before on the TS forum here, altho my husband has genetic TS/ OCD etc (considered "bad habits, moodiness & eccentricities" when he was a child, his grandad and dad had them too)...he does have a vague recollection of the stories his mom told of him nearly dying from a strep infection/fever as an very young child, and that he had it so bad, his grandmother put him in a tub of ice water to control the raging fever. His mom and dad are deceased now, so I cant try to get more info on that, but I wonder if that strep ? scarlet fever could have been what "triggered" my hubby's TS etc

yes, my husband had herniated discs from a car accident and was given the prednisone about a month later when he was still in severe pain from inflammation of the sciatic nerve the prednisone burst triggered tics he had not had since childhood and now, over a year later, his tics are still elevated way above pre steroid levels when my son was first dx with crohn's, the pediatric GI specialist wanted to give him prednisone too, but as soon as he heard of my son's Tourette Syndrome, he agreed that it was risky to give steroids to someone with TS because of the potential to trigger tics. My understanding is that it is because of the stimulation of dopamine by the steroids? so it isnt that steroids will trigger tics for everyone, but that they can potentially trigger tics for those in the Tourette spectrum because of the dopamine issue

sorry when I said "known" I didnt mean to the conventional medical community...I meant known from the discussions here where for years we have talked of other infections than PANDAS being able to induce tics/OCD in kids.

I think it would more be that mycoplasma can be a trigger to switch on TS. I personally dont think there is one single "cause" for tourette syndrome, but rather, that those with the genetic predisposition become vulnerable to a number of triggers, infection being just one.

Hi yes I posted on one of those threads i linked that some physicians feel mycoplasma may cause Crohn's My son showed +ve Epstein Barr (no mono) but no specific mycoplasma testing yet (long story, he wont have blood draws related to the OCD) He has never had chest/respiratory probs tho and even very seldom has had colds, sore throats. No evidence of ever having strep he doesnt just have the GIT effect from the Crohn's tho as he has had pretty serious "brain" effects from his TS(inherited from my husband) and OCD which were very severe when he was a child. so much so that I looked into PANDAS back in 2000 when he got his TS dx he is 20yo now and still doing real well with only diet and supplements and acupuncture as treatments. He has been on natural antimicrobials like Monolaurin, Olive leaf extract, garlic, ginger, honey, turmeric, candida cleanse etc for a long time tho so it's possible those have kept any PITAND component under control I guess? They had him on some antibiotics initially for infected complications from the Crohn's but as with most prescription meds, he didnt do well on them but doing really well now for quite some time with the diet & supps Has he ever been tested for Mycoplasma? Because I just read that Mycoplasma can sometimes cause Crohn's Disease. I have two nephews with Crohn's and my sil is now going to look into it. AS we talked she remembered that previous to one son's allergies starting out of the blue with Crohn's following shortly after, that he had a bad cough and when she took him to the doctor after listening to his chest they said he had cold induced asthma. He was never tested for MP. Maybe it was that after all and for him it went to his intestines instead of his brain? worth looking into, I would think. MP sounds like it can cause a range of autoimmune problems if left untreated. Angela

I edited my post above as I really dont want to sound like I am stifling any convo and seeing JT's Mom post reminded me how many people dont always read back on old threads or do searches, and so may not see back info. I am just so concerned that parents may miss looking for other things too when anything sounds like "ah! this is THE cause for TS!" that I keep harping on the diverse potential triggers for tics/OCD etc we sure learned with my son that he has multiple triggers for his disorders, plus I am still not convinced of the overall safety with longterm prescription antibiotics etc on these developing brains and bodies sorry if my post initially seemed abrupt

linking two other recent threads on the subject of inflammation for those who may not have read them http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7072 http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7075 although we dont think my son is PANDAS (tho may be PITAND, with genetic inherited Tourette Syndrome) he does have inflammation and autoimmmunity from Crohn's Disease and we can attest to the remarkable improvement from anti-inflamm diet and correct supplements. It has also helped with his overall health and so with the tics/OCD too

thanks Fixit tho this has had much exposure here over the years, including even the many candida discussions PITAND (ie infection) causes of symptoms that manifest as TS or that are triggered in people with TS genes has been a concept around for a long time (I first learned of it in 2000) however once again this is a case where, just like with strep, SOME people with TS may have developed their symptoms because of an infection with any number of microbes but it doesnt mean EVERY person with TS has an infection! just like the TMJ/Stack/Simms findings dont mean EVERY person with TS has a problem with jaw alignment it just emphasizes what we have always seen by the many posts here that represent DIVERSE triggers for TS I am relieved for you tho that you are getting answers and so hopefully effective treatment. i know how hard it is to be searching for answers while we se our kids suffering

that's a great recipe! thanks CP my son uses Ivory bar soap as most every other soap gives him a rash the Dr Bronner's peppermint castille soap is great but so pricey! so I really appreciate your recipe!

Jules could you try the epsom salts daily? that would help the detox greatly IMO also try hot lemon juice (you can add some honey to sweeten) as well as maybe Milk Thistle to help the liver during detox natural kefir is often tolerated well as a probiotic