Heather

EFGH, No, my son doesn't have dairy at this point but getting enough FAT is not something that I am concerned about at all. There is fat is sooo many other foods (meats, breads, etc). Calcium is the main concern with no dairy and he gets that from the coral calcium water and a calcium supplement. Jean, Yes, he watches TV and does computer on a regular basis. I do think it may have been a trigger at one point (although I am not sure) since he used to tic more when he would watch TV. Since his drastic improvement in the last 3-4 weeks, it doesn't seem to bother him at all. He never did do the eye rolling tic but he had many other vocal and motor tics. Claire, I am running out this morning for a couple of hours but will post a good thread for the NDF when I come back. Want to find the best one as there are several.

G & L mom, Glad to hear you got the results back and have something to work with now. I am not sure about the ongoing build up of metals after detoxing but from what I have read and from what my naturopath tells me, as long as his diet is improved and we reduce the toxins going in (tap water, food additives, contaminated fish, vaccines, etc.) they shouldn't build up to the point they cause tics again. My goal is to get to the point where we have no supplements or perhaps maybe just a good multi-vitamin and since I have reduced all of the toxins that caused the imbalance in the first place there shouldn't be any future problems. Of course everyone is unique and needs to be treated individually but that is our hope and our naturopath feels we are definitely heading in that direction.

Claire, Has your doctor said what he will use to get rid of the metals? I know I have mentioned this several times but I have done so much research on different methods of detoxing the metals and I believe that the NDF is the most effective and powerful substance to use. If you read some of the articles it is even found to be better than the prescription treatments. Some of the sites show comparison charts of the most common chelators. I know it is expensive....1 fluid ounce was $160.00 Canadian which I think was about $125.00 American, however, I can vouch that it is well worth the money for the quick and effective results. At a few drops a day you have more than enough to do the detox. My son is almost tic free at this point. Over this past weekend and March break there were many social situations where certain trigger foods were unavoidable (hockey party, day of skiing with friends, pizza party last day of school, etc.) Anyway, he hardly reacted at all to any of these foods which would normally set him off at least a little. He has only been on the NDF for 2 months and only at 1 drop a day (1/4 of the full dose).

I, too, worry about my mercury levels and have had various symptoms throughout my life that were always unexplained. What worries me most about myself is that I feel the mercury in me is not from vaccines but from my many fillings in my teeth. I now know a few people who have had their amalgams removed but it needs to be done by an experienced dentist so as to not cause a huge release of mercury into the bloodstream. Now that I have Will on track I am going to make an appointment for myself. Heather

There are many DAN doctors and naturopaths across the country who will support the treatements that you will read about on here who are having much success. If you decide to go that route and you need help finding one, there are people on here who can help you. BTW, my son is pretty much tic free over the last couple of days again once we got back on track with the diet after our bout with the triggering foods last weekend. Heather

Kathy, Yes, you will find this board a great place to share information!!! I just want to say a word of warning for your appt. next month not to be too optimistic about your psychiatrist (sp??) supporting the natural supplements as a method of treatment. In October, I too was referred to a psychiatrist by the pediatrician for my son's tics. In Canada we have long waits for specialists so his appt. with the psych. wasn't until Jan. 13th. By the time we visited her I was well on my way onto the road of healing with the natural supplements. Anyway, when I told her what I was doing, she proceeded to tell me that I was wasting my money and he was not healing but simply experiencing a waning of the tics. I then told her how much I had been reading about vitamin/mineral deficiencies and disease and she proceeded to tell me how she was sure there was nothing to that since she raised her son on hot dogs and he was now doing well in university. I wanted to smack her, however I kept my cool and just left. Her son apparently didn't have the genetic makeup (that our children do) to predispose him to the tics as a result of vitamin deficiencies I don't mean to knock all psych.'s since I know some are very supportive of the natural treatment and I truly hope you have found one that is but just be prepared in case you don't have a positive experience. Heather

Thanks Chemar, I guess that makes sense that I wouldn't see edit on anyone's post by my own. Once you said that I had to smile at my stupidity....wasn't thinking. Anyway, thanks for the info. Heather

Hmmmm...On some of the posts I see edit and others I do not. It doesn't seem to correspond with whether the person is a member or not???? The one above that I wanted to delete is one that I wasn't signed in I guess so maybe I can't delete it according to what you wrote EFGH, however, I do see other posts written by members that don't have the edit option in the right corner???? Heather

EFGH, We avoid malt as one of the books that I read written by a Dr. Semen, "The Power of Healing" says that malt is a major culprit in the growth of yeast. His nutritional protocol in healing disease consists of killing yeast and one of the biggies he says to avoid is malt. As Chemar said we also use more dark chocolate because of its purity as opposed to milk chocolate but in general we have a minimal amount of any chocolate. Heather

How do you delete a post???

Just wanted to add here that I too have had various spiritual signs throughout the whole process with Will. Every once in awhile something will appear in my searching that reminds me of GOD's part in all of this and here it is again. I truly believe that there is a spirtual presence that is leading us through this rough road!!! Ronna, Thanks for the prayer. It brought tears to my eyes. Heather

Chemar, Thanks for the thorough reply. I won't pursue it any more extensively with you right now privately since you gave me some good ideas. If we ever have to deal with it later, I will maybe take you up on the private email. Also, thanks for the reminder that things said on here can be triggers to some reading it. Being new to the forum and to the syndrome, I sometimes get rambling on and don't think about some of the reactions that could occur. Thanks again. Heather

I see a couple of questions here that I neglected to answer. EFGH, I am sorry...I completely forgot to ask my naturopath about the iron in the vitamins. Since she has not prescribed a vitamin to continue with at this time I completely forgot about pursuing that question at the visit. I had so many things to ask her and was focusing on the NDF and the affects of that. The multi vitamin she had prescribed before was the Genstra brand (a chewable) but I can't remember anything more about it and don't have the container anymore....sorry. I don't recall the name super orti vite though. I will look it up on here tomorrow on their site and let you know. I am exhausted tonight and going to bed now. Claire, The Threelac seems to be only available from Global Health Trax that sells over the Internet. They have many private distributers around the country it seems and I found one that sells it out of Canada. It doesn't seem to be something you can buy in stores. Also, I really can't answer the question about the TV/computer issue. Since my son was constantly ticcing when we started treating it was very hard to determine triggers. Now, TV doesn't seem to affect him but maybe it does and we just don't know it. There is definitely not an immediate response once he starts watching. At this point I have definitely mimized his TV watching but have been in a tough position to take it away entirely. As I have mentioned before, we are building a house right now and sold our house we were living in prematurely and were stuck with finding a place to live for a few months. We moved into part of my mother in law's home in a small apartment while waiting for our home to be built. There have been many delays and we have been here much longer than planned. Anyway, in this small apartment there is limited space and many of our belongings are in storage, including many of my son's toys that he enjoys playing in larger areas. There is limited space to do anything and through these cold winter months it has been difficult to spend all of our time outside. When we moved in here in the fall one of the things we bought to appease the kids over the winter in our tiny quarters was a game cube This was before I read about it being a possible trigger. Once the warmer weather is here and we are in our home (in June) it will be much easier to eliminate the TV completely for awhile and assess the situation. Anyway, as I said, right now it doesn't seem to be a trigger and he does watch TV without ticcing. It will be interesting to see if elmination of it takes the tics away. Since they are so minimal right now I haven't made the step to take it away completely since I think it would drive us crazy. When I think back to before Xmas though, his snorting was worse while watching TV. Sometimes it would be gone completely if he was building lego or playing intently with something. I thought it was gone because he was absorbed in an activity. When he watched TV it would come back but I thought it was just because his mind wasn't as focused as it had been on the activity. Maybe that wasn't the case and it really does trigger tics in him???? Anyway, regarding the metals...I remember when I first started reading on here and heard the words chelation and heavy metal detox. It really seemed overwhelming and I couldn't imagine if I had to go there. This was before I even had the hair analysis done and I just didn't see myself ever being at that point. Anyway, now that we are there it is much less frightening to me as it once was. Since we are using the natural drop to help excrete the metals and it is taken orally, it really seems no different to me than the other supplements. Back to the TV...With regard to your query about the TV trigger going away with treatment, according to my naturopath, I would think that this would change for your son. She has said to me that once the body is back in balance we will not have to avoid all of the foods and environmental triggers that we do now. I would assume that the TV trigger would work the same way. Let's hope so...for your sake.

Hi All, We had another visit to the naturopath today. She tested (using the Electrodermal testing) Will's intestinal yeast and found him still in perfect balance in that regard. I thought that would be the case since his stools are perfect!!! I know it may sound a little wacky but I am amazed at these consistently perfectly formed stools (with little odour) after years of loose, smelly bowel movements that I never even saw as a problem. Because of my daughter's chronic constipation I saw Will's loose stools as a positive thing (How wrong I was). Anyway, she feels that the most recent dispaly of tics over the last few days are due to the food issues at the hockey game on Friday night and said he definitely could still be reacting 4 days later to these foods. In her office today his allergy point showed moderately elevated as opposed to very high on previous visits. He still showed a very high allergy point when corn was tested today which makes sense with the big bucket of popcorn that he inhaled on Friday night. I'm surprised that the reaction wasn't more severe after what his friend's mom told me he ate, which is hopefully a good sign that he is on his way to healing and not reacting as severely as he has in the past. She also tested his nervous system with the electra dermal screening and it was reduced from 80 points to 66 points. The goal is 50 to be in perfect balance. She said testing the nervous system with this machine reveals the possible presence of metals attached to the CNS causing neurological symptoms. As I noted on a previous post his hair analysis did show high aluminum and moderately high lead and mercury. The testing with the machine today is just something she uses in the interim as a guideline between hair analysis tests to give an indication of the status of the nervous system. She said the drop in points shows the possible indication that the metals are being displaced and are being excreted with the NDF. We will keep working on the metals and once the nervous system reads in balance she will continue the treatment protocol with a strong multi-vitamin and fatty acid supplementation. She advised me against using any other supplements at this time while we are getting rid of the metals. Her training is based on working in stages to promote healing. I know this machine is not entirely accepted as being accurate by some researchers, however, everything that has occurred to this point in treatment has shown that this is a very effective method of determining imbalances in both my daughter and my son. The food allergies she has found have definitely proven to be triggers to the tics as shown by our previous improvement and recent setbacks. It is also very affordable to us at this time rather than going to the more expensive and specific blood tests. Our repeat visits at this point are only $55 each time to cover consultation and testing costs. If the time comes when Will stops improving I will resort to the more invasive and specific tests that the DAN doctors do but for the time being I am happy with the results we are getting with her approach. I also received Dr. McCandless's book today, Children with Starving Brains and couldn't wait to start reading. I was a bit thrown off by the title saying "A Medical Treatment" but then as I read I realized that of course she is a medical doctor and uses medical treatment in some areas of concern. For instance, for yeast overgrowth she often prescribes Nystatin (a medical prescription) as opposed to some of the natural supplements that have been discussed on the forum. She also has routinely used DMSA for chelation of metals, also available only by prescription. One of the issues with this treatment (as she outlines) is that the gut may become reinfected with yeast during chelation and she has to stop treatment to repair the gut periodically. As my naturopath says, the NDF has ingredients in it that stop the regrowth of yeast in the intestine. There is extensive information about this on various Bioray websites. If you look up NDF on a yahoo search it outlines a comparison chart of some of the main chelators (including DMSA, NDF and PCA-RX). It describes the NDF as a superior chelator and has been proven to be more effective and safer to use than the other treatments with a "minimal healing crisis" when used slowly. I am experiencing that first hand with my son. However, my naturopath warns that even though you can order this drop without a prescription, it should never be used without the guidance of a doctor who is trained in using it. Anyway, sorry to go on and on. With the book arriving today and the natoropath visit, it gave me a lot to comment on. It's pizza day at school tomorrow. My son convinced me to order a piece for him as he feels very left out when everyone else is getting pizza when it is delivered to the classroom. Once again, these social situations are my biggest hurdle. He has both milk and tomato sensitivities. Sometimes, however, it is worth the consequences, when minimal, to avoid the emotional upset of feeling different. Claire, your ideas for the snacks were great!!!!! Heather

To All, I must report that although the food sensitivities had been identified by the naturopath, I had never seen any real reaction directly related to those foods since he was pretty much consistently ticcing all the time. Now that his ticcing is so reduced I finally saw the reaction to confirm the food issue. On Friday night he went to a big hockey game with a friend that was a pretty major game in large arena with all the treats that go with it. I told the mom not to worry about the foods for just this one night as he was doing so well and had been denied so long I didn't want him to feel like he was singled out among a group of friends in not being able to eat anything. Well he had popcorn (corn allergy) nachos with cheese (corn and milk) and a Frosty from Wendy's on the way home. By the time he got home that night he was sniffing like crazy and this lasted most of the weekend. It was significantly reduced today (finally) so I did see this as a reaction to the forbidden foods after having improved so much previously. I will be more cautous next time. These social events are sooooooooooo hard. Heather

Gina, Sorry to hear of your situation. I hope that one of the options the others have mentioned will be be helpful to you. I too believe that with a little researching you should be able to find a more reasonably priced doctor that focuses on natural supplements in treatment even if it isn't a DAN doctor. There are many naturopath doctors that do similar testing but perhaps not as invasive that would at least give you a start. My son is seeing a naturopath that strictly tested for intestinal yeast and heavy metals at a minimal cost and we are seeing wonderful results under her guidance. I know how frustrating it can be that this protocol isn't more widely researched and accepted so that it would be easier to find treatment. I have had no help at all from medical doctors in my area and was told that I was basically wasting my money. As you can see, there are many people on here who will all try to help in whatever way we can. Very often, a small tidbit of info. can help in sharing with others. Heather

GL & L mom, The worsening of symptoms may be the die off reaction which occurs when supplements kill the yeast or displace the metals and the toxins are circulated in the bloodstream. This is my understanding of it anyway. It is common for symptoms to worsen initially but then you should see an improvement. Just make sure he is drinking lots of water to flush out the toxins and stay at the smaller dose until you see that improvement. It is hard when there are no doctors in the area to support you. Good to keep the consultation with Dr. Robbins going. It is a little worrisome to me when people try all of this on their own without proper guidance but I know it is also hard to find the right doctor when they aren't in abundance right now and are limited to certain geographical areas. If only the medical community would get together with the naturopaths and do some consulting with each other. We could use expertise from both fields. I think it is always good to find a naturopath that was once a practicing medical doctor. My son definitely had worsening of symptoms (tics) when I started the supplements, although they weren't Bonnies. I also didn't deal with much of the OCD so can't really help you in that area but Chemar will probably respond to that. She is the expert in that area. When you tried it before, how long did he take the supplements? Did you quit when the symptoms worsened? Heather

To All, I am curious what the general feeling is by others (friends, family) in your area about the natural supplements you are using. I have to pick and choose who I tell about the protocal I am using since some people just think I am quacky when I start telling them what is going on with my son and how the supplements have helped. I am sure many believe it would have gone away anyway and that I have just wasted my money. I believe different and as a mother, I know that it is a positive reaction to the supplements. I would love to be able to encourage others to make a visit to the Naturopath by telling them of the DAN doctors and what is happening with treatment but am unsure of how I might be received. There is a support group with the School Board in our area for parents of kids sufferring from the various PDD's (Aspergers, Oppositional Defiance, Tourettes, etc.) and I would love to start there in spreading the word. Has anyone else had extreme positive or negative reactions from the general public???? Heather

Jennifer, Thanks for the link to the article. It is about time someone takes action to stop the affects of the vaccine. I was in amazement when I came on here as saw how many claims there were by parents saying the vaccine was the cause and that there still wasn't something being done about it. Heather

efgh, I use Nordic Naturals - Kids' Arctic Cod Liver Oil. It is called Peachy Keen and it is in liquid form - 1/2 tsp daily. It is a Pharmaceutical Grade and recommended to me by my naturopath as very pure with no contaminants. I just bought it at the local health food store. I use it for tics and along with the NDF for metals and a week after I added it to the protocal the tics are almost gone. Heather

Thanks for the quick response Chemar!!!!!! It's good to know that most TSA's have the open attitude.

Sheila, Thank you for the timely link re: carpeting. We are building a house right now and we currently have plans for carpeting the upstairs. After reading of the toxicity of it on here recently I have wanted to change that plan but wasn't sure how I could convince my husband. I think the very thorough article you have provided just might do it. Thanks again. Heather

Jennifer, Thanks so much for sharing your DAN doctor visit information. My husband is just coming around to believing in all of this, although he won't read much on here. I just got him to read your post and I believe it is finally sinking in that there are experienced doctors that treat this disorder with much success. As Claire said, I agree that you are to be commended on all of the success you have experienced so far. We will look forward to reading about your future success!!! To All, Just need to report that my son has fallen asleep within 10 minutes for the last 4 nights. This is unheard of for him. As I have mentioned before regarding his habits, he has had going to sleep issues long before the tics started. I do feel that his imbalances are correcting themselves as we the metals come out. Heather

Chemar, I have read a lot about Duncan McKinley lately and he sounds like a fascinating doctor. I noticed from your post that your son has perhaps emailed him. I am curious if you know whether if he supports the natural supplement regime or has tried any of that himself? I have never been in touch with any Tourettes Associations in the area and he lives not too far from us. Any medical doctor that I have visited has not supported natural supplements at all and I even got an extremely negative opinion about natural supplements from one psychiatrist that we visited early on (basically that I was wasting my money). I have wondered how the various Tourettes Associations feel about natural supplements and I know Dr. Dunc is quite involved in the one in our area. Also, I noticed your reply to a new person seeking advice on another thread (as well as Claire) and I praise you both for all your knowledge and helpful advice to others. It has helped me tremendously in the past month. Heather

To All, Who is Doris Rapp?????? I tried to buy the book "Children with Starving Brains" (Jacquelyn McCandless) today and they said it was out of print. Does anyone have this book or know where I could get one? Heather