CarolynN

Hello! I wanted to share some things that I think may be helpful to understanding a part of the puzzle, for some, with Tourettes and also OCD. Many years ago I was an active member on this forum. My son, Daniel, has Tourettes and I have OCD. The very good news is my son is now 19 years old and honestly you would never know he has Tourettes. He is doing amazing. Once in a while I see a little eye tic but that is it (but barely only when he gets nervous. What a difference from when he was 7 to 10 years old). But I want to share with you some insight that may help some of you that I have learned. I know there is so much information out there and our bodies are so complicated that it is not a one size fits all issue. I have found out that there is something in our family that is definitely an issue that was influencing my son's tics and also my OCD. It is histamine intolerance. Meaning that in my family our bodies are getting too much histamine in our bodies and it is affecting our neurotransmitters ultimately in my son's tics and for me obsessive thoughts. There are many, many articles out there about histamine intolerance and what to do but this is a tiny synopses. Histamine occurs naturally in many foods. Also, some people just do not have the right enzyme base to break it down or their bodies are just poor at processing it and what happens is your get this build up of histamine that ultimately changes the way your neurotransmitters are working. Histamine actually has multiple functions in the body not just affecting the neurotransmitters. Just do a Google search on "Histamine Intolerance or Mass Cell Activation Disorder" and you will get lots of info. When I was doing my research many years back for Daniel I kept coming back to histamine being a problem and how it affects the neurotransmitters (especially how it affect dopamine which drives the tics). So I have known about this histamine issue for some time but now it has become even clearer for me. When Daniel was younger I would give him supplements him B6, magnesium taurate, glycine (which helps with the neurotransmitters), zinc (do not take on empty stomach), vitamin c. These things all really helped him but I really did not understand why back then. So to take this a step further about 3 years ago my OCD was getting bad enough I spent the money and went to the Mensah Medical (I live in Arizona but they come here periodically but they also do phone consultations. They are based in Illinois) and it was verified that I indeed have this histamine intolerance along with a copper overload. I have been on a compound the Mensah Medical had formulated for me to lower this histamine response and deal with the copper overload and I feel soooo much better I cannot tell you. It really made a difference. The Mensah, unfortunately is pretty expensive, but I learned a lot and I learned that these obsessive thoughts (that I would take to personally that it was a reflection of who I was as a person) is something I could now separate myself from and realize this is part of a situation where my body is processing things biologically incorrectly due to this histamine issue/copper issue and it was not a reflection of who I was as a person ( OCD obsessive thoughts always goes after what you value most in life which is the most frustrating part of OCD). I was at the point back, when I decided to go to the Mensah medical, where I was obsessing about obsessing if that makes sense. I am Christian and I had prayed for an answer for my OCD and through a series of events I got my answer and it was the Mensah medical. So fast forward to now and my daughter who is 15 has been getting depressed, has bad migraines, and complaining that her stomach hurts all the time. It dawned on me the other day about this histamine issue and I thought I wonder if this could be going on in her but in a different way (when I started researching all her symptoms are symptoms of histamine intolerance). So the last few days I started giving her supplements to control the histamine more in her body B6, Magnesium Taurate, Quercetin, B2, Zinc, and NAC and also stopped giving her foods that are high in histamine and guess what her stomach is feeling better, her mood has changed, and her headaches are better! That is just after a few days. My other son, Zach, he is 18 and he has pretty bad digestive issues and I think this is what is going on with him too. That is the interesting thing with this histamine intolerance is it can affect people in different ways. So to tie this together even more, this past year 4 of our family members, one being Daniel, decided to do " 23 and me" genetic testing. Well if you purchase the 23 and me kit that shows your health traits you can see a lot of genetic things that could influence your health. When you pull up the "23 and me results" they show you all kinds of DNA health traits. But there are some DNA things they do not show and I found a website called Genetic Lifehacks. The lady who started this Genetic Lifehacks has an article that is called "Histamine Intolerance and genetics check your 23andme raw data". What I did is I opened up Daniel's 23 and me results (again you had to have the health traits ordered not just the ancestry results to do this") and also had this webpage up at the same time (I toggled between the two). The lady who created this has a list of links you can click on, in this article related to how histamine can be genetically influencing you, and you can click back and forth and see what your genetics can tell you about how you process histamine in your body (again if you look at just the standard 23 and me results you will not find this. You have to go to this extra step to find this. To no surprise I found out that Daniel's body has issues with processing histamine. I looked at my mom's and my husbands results and I found the exact same thing. What it is looks like is my children inherited from both sides of our family genes that make histamine a big issue for our family. So they got hit from both sides of our family genetically with histamine issues! My husband has had tinnitus the past few years and I had come across an article a while back about how histamine can be a huge influence on tinnitus (ringing in the ear or other sounds). My husbands tinnitus came out of now where and it is both ears. For some people they get tinnitus because of loud sound exposure but this was not my husbands case and so we had a mystery on our hands as to why. Well what I found out is that antihistamines (like Claritin or Zyrtec) they do not stop the histamine from being made they just block it. As a matter of fact what I read is the longer you are on those kind of antihistamines the more histamine your body makes it is just being blocked but it can cause tinnitus in some people. My husband has been on antihistamines since his 20s (he is now 53). So we took him off those over the counter drugs and he started taking vitamin c, quercetin (which is like a natural antihistamine) , zinc, nac and guess what his tinnitus has gone down significantly. It is not completely gone (I think it is because he still eats a high histamine diet and also there are foods/beverages that block the enzymes that break down histamines (like coffee and he drinks a lot of it). The other thing I want to mention and I cannot stress this enough is research hidden names of MSG! My son and i both REALLY react with our nervous systems to MSG and it is not just Chinese food. It is in so many products. Daniels tics would be way worse even with a little amount of MSG. MSG is a frustrating thing because it has to do with the molecules being excitatory. It is hidden under different names because what these food manufactures do is they take a food, like yeast or soy, and they cook it for a long period of time to enhance the flavor. In the midst of that long cooking process the molecules change to an exictatory state. . So when you see a product like "autolyzed yeast" or "hydrolyzed soy protein" they have an excitatory property in it for someone who has nervous system conditions. Wihen Daniel's tics were really bad (about 10 years ago) I did a ton of research on "hidden names of MSG" and we started avoiding those food (this also includes artificial sweeteners). I also found that foods with high fructose syrup and food dyes (especially red) affected him and me too. One time I ate a lot of Red Vines and my anxiety levels were off the charts. So I know I put a lot of information out there. There are doctors who specialize in histamine disorders (some call it Mass Cell Activation Disorder) (like the Mensah Medical I went to). The 23 and me health traits with doing the link between that other website I told you about might give you a lot of clues too but just do some research on histamine. I came across an scientific article last night when I typed in histamine and tourettes and it came up with this very complicated article about how histamine can be the driving force behind Tourettes. Again this many be an answer for everyone by any means but it is definitely something worth looking into. I really hope this can help someone out there in their quest to find answers. What is so interesting to me is the other day I prayed and asked God to show me what was going on with my daughter (her migraines have been so bad) and this histamine issue is what came back up after I prayed. That is when I started doing my research for her and it brought this thing full circle again). God is so amazing to me!

Hi there, I just wanted to encourage you. I just did a post to another person on this forum and thought it would help you too. Here is what I posted to her regarding her son's battle with sexual thoughts and he is nine. I think this will give you some insight on some of the things you can do for yourself. So anyhow, here is is what I posted: I know how distressing it is to deal with OCD. Especially when it is your child and all you want to do is help him stop. I have had OCD since I was around 6 or 7. But I have learned so much through the process. My son started exhibting signs of OCD and I took him to a counselor. That really seemed to help him. But also what has helped him is being on the right set of supplements. What I have found is that OCD is not just a psychological issue. Believe it or not, this comes from A LOT of research, is it has a lot to do with allergies and vitamin/mineral deficiencies. What happens is when our bodies are not processing foods correctly and have deficiencies, such as with magnesium and B vitamins, ultimately it affects the brain. My son has Tourettes/OCd and I can tell you for 5 years I have found that SOOOOO much of this can be controlled by getting the body back in balance. A really good Naturopathic Doctor would really be able to help you in this area. Biologically OCD is rather complicated but one part of what is causing problems is histamine, which is what the body releases to fight allergies. Histamine also happens to be what is called a neurotransmitter. You probably have heard of Serotonin which is another one of the neurotransmitters. Histamine will affect serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain. There are many ways you can help get this in balance and I have done many posts on this forum on how I have helped my son get all this back in balance. I would be happy to share this with you if you are interested. Here is a post I did not that long ago where you can read more up on what I have done for my son http://www.latitudes...&st=#entry45324 (just scroll down to my posting in this link). Also I have found an amazing system that has helped reduce his allergy load and you can read that at this link http://www.latitudes...?showtopic=8265 . I have found with my own OCD that when I take the right set of vitamins, mainly magneium (you want to make sure to use the right kind of magnesium I typically use either Magnesium Taurate or Magnesium Citrate) and B vitamins it really helps calm it down when I am consistent. Basically it helps to settle down that fight/flight response in the body that gets sets off over and over with these obsessive thoughts. Another very helpful thing I have found that helped my is reading a book called "Brain Lock" about OCD. It does not by any means approach OCD from the nutritional angle, the Dr. who wrote this book has a different theory, but the book really helps you understand how you can use other parts of your brain to get around these OCD thoughts. The author is Jeffrey Schwartz. Think on this if I told you under no circumstances do not think about a pink elephant what would happen? You would start thinking about the pink elephant of course. He is telling himself he cannot under no cirucmstances have these thoughts. So he is setting himself up for HAVING to think about it. He is trying to get around the way our minds are designed. You can not tell yourself to "unthink" something. This is why you have to get truth going in your mind or you will be in an continual cycle of trying to do something that is not possible. That is, trying to forget you ever had these thoughts in the first place just drives the thoughts even more! He just simply cannot do that. He was not created to forget those things you find unpleasant. But again being thankful, speaking truth, and having realistic expectations of himself will help incredibly. There is a really interesting thing that really helped my son's anxiety which is called EFT which is done by a trained couselor. It is hard to explain it but the counselor has the patient close their eyes and think on the distressing thought. The counselor taps, in the case my son's hands, and somehow it helps the brain to process the emotions of the experience in a much more logical way. I am telling you it really helped my son get through some things that were very distressing to him. The lady I went to was a Christian Counselor. I am sure there are many counselors that do it. I wanted to give you some of my personal insights on OCD that I have learned over the years that might give you perspective and I think might help your son. Also what your son is dealing with, battling unwanted sexual thoughts, is SUCH A COMMON OCD issue. If you look on this website you will see it referenced quite a few times by many others in distress over their own unwanted thoughts. Anyhow here are some things to consider: 1.) What he is battling is not the thoughts themselves but the emotion, ANXIETY, that is connected to that thought. It is the uncomfortable feeling it is generating. This feeling is coming from his fight/flight system getting so freaked out because he is trying to get himself out of the cycle of thoughts but feels trapped. 2.) The BIGGEST thing that has helped me, with unwanted thoughts, is to start thanking God for whoever I am obsessing over or thanking God that I would not do (x,y or z) to a certain person. It absolutely deflates that big fear balloon of emotion. A thankful heart goes a very, very long way! "Enter His gates (prayer) with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (Psalm 100 verse 4) . "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Phillipians 4:6) 3.) He needs to accept he is not going to be a perfect thinker. I have dealt with this for a long time in thinking I have to think perfect thoughts. How ridiculous if you really think about it! This is impossible. The only person who ever was a perfect thinker, who walked this earth, was Jesus Christ. I am humbled by the fact that because we are NOT perfect this is why Jesus had to come and redeem us. 4.) One trap I have found over and over again is I can be thinking perfectly "normal" thoughts and then start reflecting back on a previous obsession and all of a sudden those emotions come flooding back. Once I feel that sinking feeling in my stomach again the fear of that obsession hits all over again. I am then back in the trap of thinking about it again for sometimes days and days. So what I have learned is to start warning my emotions. I have even started saying, in my mind of course, "warning, warning, warning I am thinking about an old obsession but don't panic it has already been defeated." One thing I am learning about emotions is they are so unpredictable and they truly are not smart. That's why you can go to a really scary movie and feel absolutely afraid to even go home after the movie is over. Your emotions are believing something is true when in reality it is far from truth. 5.) Fear does not think logically. So when I get thinking irrational thoughts its the irrational fear that keeps driving it because logic is not being interjected. 6.) Anxiety does not equal truth! As a matter of fact, I have found anxiety is not even interested in truth. It just breads on itself and feeds itself. That is where you have to get truth speaking over the lies. 7.) Accepting that thoughts of someone you love and disgusting thoughts about people are just periodically going to collide in your mind. That is just part of being human. It is impossible not too. But what happens with someone with OCD is they obsess over the fact that they even had the thought. They you get in the trap of desperately trying not to think the thought. 8.) My OCD always gets worse when anxiety is in my life. I have found often my obsessive thoughts start up when I am under a lot of stress at school (when I was in school that is), work, or just having difficulties in life. It is almost as if the anxiety of another event sets this stage up for an unwanted thought to occur. 9.) My unwanted thoughts ALWAYS revolve around someone I care about and/or something I just cannot emotionally handle. When I can defeat the "thought" with truth it no longer matters to me and the thought goes away. 10.) Ask God for direction on this. He ultimately knows the answer for you. He has been so faithful to me and showing and guiding me that I know He will do the same for you. There is a great website I wanted to share with you for one particular reason. There is a great part about how our emotions work. Go under the "Real Answers" section and then go under the categories and topics sections. You will see both emotions and fear listed. I just love Bob George. I have learned so much from him. Well he is at http://www.realanswers.net/ . Well God Bless, Carolyn

Hi there! I know how distressing it is to deal with OCD. Especially when it is your child and all you want to do is help him stop. I have had OCD since I was around 6 or 7. But I have learned so much through the process. My son started exhibting signs of OCD and I took him to a counselor. That really seemed to help him. But also what has helped him is being on the right set of supplements. What I have found is that OCD is not just a psychological issue. Believe it or not, this comes from A LOT of research, is it has a lot to do with allergies and vitamin/mineral deficiencies. What happens is when our bodies are not processing foods correctly and have deficiencies, such as with magnesium and B vitamins, ultimately it affects the brain. My son has Tourettes/OCd and I can tell you for 5 years I have found that SOOOOO much of this can be controlled by getting the body back in balance. A really good Naturopathic Doctor would really be able to help you in this area. Biologically OCD is rather complicated but one part of what is causing problems is histamine, which is what the body releases to fight allergies. Histamine also happens to be what is called a neurotransmitter. You probably have heard of Serotonin which is another one of the neurotransmitters. Histamine will affect serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain. There are many ways you can help get this in balance and I have done many posts on this forum on how I have helped my son get all this back in balance. I would be happy to share this with you if you are interested. Here is a post I did not that long ago where you can read more up on what I have done for my son http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5891&pid=45324&start=&st=#entry45324 (just scroll down to my posting in this link). Also I have found an amazing system that has helped reduce his allergy load and you can read that at this link http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8265 . I have found with my own OCD that when I take the right set of vitamins, mainly magneium (you want to make sure to use the right kind of magnesium I typically use either Magnesium Taurate or Magnesium Citrate) and B vitamins it really helps calm it down when I am consistent. Basically it helps to settle down that fight/flight response in the body that gets sets off over and over with these obsessive thoughts. Another very helpful thing I have found that helped my is reading a book called "Brain Lock" about OCD. It does not by any means approach OCD from the nutritional angle, the Dr. who wrote this book has a different theory, but the book really helps you understand how you can use other parts of your brain to get around these OCD thoughts. The author is Jeffrey Schwartz. Think on this if I told you under no circumstances do not think about a pink elephant what would happen? You would start thinking about the pink elephant of course. He is telling himself he cannot under no cirucmstances have these thoughts. So he is setting himself up for HAVING to think about it. He is trying to get around the way our minds are designed. You can not tell yourself to "unthink" something. This is why you have to get truth going in your mind or you will be in an continual cycle of trying to do something that is not possible. That is, trying to forget you ever had these thoughts in the first place just drives the thoughts even more! He just simply cannot do that. He was not created to forget those things you find unpleasant. But again being thankful, speaking truth, and having realistic expectations of himself will help incredibly. There is a really interesting thing that really helped my son's anxiety which is called EFT which is done by a trained couselor. It is hard to explain it but the counselor has the patient close their eyes and think on the distressing thought. The counselor taps, in the case my son's hands, and somehow it helps the brain to process the emotions of the experience in a much more logical way. I am telling you it really helped my son get through some things that were very distressing to him. The lady I went to was a Christian Counselor. I am sure there are many counselors that do it. I wanted to give you some of my personal insights on OCD that I have learned over the years that might give you perspective and I think might help your son. Also what your son is dealing with, battling unwanted sexual thoughts, is SUCH A COMMON OCD issue. If you look on this website you will see it referenced quite a few times by many others in distress over their own unwanted thoughts. Anyhow here are some things to consider: 1.) What he is battling is not the thoughts themselves but the emotion, ANXIETY, that is connected to that thought. It is the uncomfortable feeling it is generating. This feeling is coming from his fight/flight system getting so freaked out because he is trying to get himself out of the cycle of thoughts but feels trapped. 2.) The BIGGEST thing that has helped me, with unwanted thoughts, is to start thanking God for whoever I am obsessing over or thanking God that I would not do (x,y or z) to a certain person. It absolutely deflates that big fear balloon of emotion. A thankful heart goes a very, very long way! "Enter His gates (prayer) with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (Psalm 100 verse 4) . "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Phillipians 4:6) 3.) He needs to accept he is not going to be a perfect thinker. I have dealt with this for a long time in thinking I have to think perfect thoughts. How ridiculous if you really think about it! This is impossible. The only person who ever was a perfect thinker, who walked this earth, was Jesus Christ. I am humbled by the fact that because we are NOT perfect this is why Jesus had to come and redeem us. 4.) One trap I have found over and over again is I can be thinking perfectly "normal" thoughts and then start reflecting back on a previous obsession and all of a sudden those emotions come flooding back. Once I feel that sinking feeling in my stomach again the fear of that obsession hits all over again. I am then back in the trap of thinking about it again for sometimes days and days. So what I have learned is to start warning my emotions. I have even started saying, in my mind of course, "warning, warning, warning I am thinking about an old obsession but don't panic it has already been defeated." One thing I am learning about emotions is they are so unpredictable and they truly are not smart. That's why you can go to a really scary movie and feel absolutely afraid to even go home after the movie is over. Your emotions are believing something is true when in reality it is far from truth. 5.) Fear does not think logically. So when I get thinking irrational thoughts its the irrational fear that keeps driving it because logic is not being interjected. 6.) Anxiety does not equal truth! As a matter of fact, I have found anxiety is not even interested in truth. It just breads on itself and feeds itself. That is where you have to get truth speaking over the lies. 7.) Accepting that thoughts of someone you love and disgusting thoughts about people are just periodically going to collide in your mind. That is just part of being human. It is impossible not too. But what happens with someone with OCD is they obsess over the fact that they even had the thought. They you get in the trap of desperately trying not to think the thought. 8.) My OCD always gets worse when anxiety is in my life. I have found often my obsessive thoughts start up when I am under a lot of stress at school (when I was in school that is), work, or just having difficulties in life. It is almost as if the anxiety of another event sets this stage up for an unwanted thought to occur. 9.) My unwanted thoughts ALWAYS revolve around someone I care about and/or something I just cannot emotionally handle. When I can defeat the "thought" with truth it no longer matters to me and the thought goes away. 10.) Ask God for direction on this. He ultimately knows the answer for you. He has been so faithful to me and showing and guiding me that I know He will do the same for you. There is a great website I wanted to share with you for one particular reason. There is a great part about how our emotions work. Go under the "Real Answers" section and then go under the categories and topics sections. You will see both emotions and fear listed. I just love Bob George. I have learned so much from him. Well he is at http://www.realanswers.net/ . Well God Bless, Carolyn

Hi there, All I can say is the results I have seen have absolutely been amazing. Not only that but, for example, I spoke with a woman in Dr. Foster's office who had to wear a mask for years because she was so sensitive to perfumes, fabic softners, and just anything that was just chemically smelly. She would get very ill from it. She literally carries her mask in her purse to prove to people how well the treatments have worked for her. Another person I know, through my son's orthodontics office, started taking her son who is 2 because of SEVERE eczema. She literally cannot believe the difference in him. She said people who have know about his severe eczema are asking her what have you done to make such a difference. My mom has had IBS for years. On her very last treatment, that was for molds and fungus, for the first time in 17 years she did not have issues the very next day. Now in her situation it started coming back some but the fact is it made a sizeable change in her bodies behavior. Another one of my friends was very allergic to cats. Now she can literally have her face by a cat and not react. Another lady I know was literally in tears about 2 months ago because her children's allergies has gotten so bad. One of my friends told her about Dr. Foster and she went out of sheer desperation. She literally told me two weeks ago it is an absolute miracle. She cannot believe the difference in her children. It literally has changed their lives. I met a Chiropractor, who lives in Denver, in Dr. Foster's office who was bring her daughter to him because she had heard what good results Dr. Foster was having. I also met another family who traveled from Texas to bring in their 3 children. I know when I have been in the office I have been told people have been flying/driving in from many different places. I feel very blessed to live so close by to his office. I am telling you that these cannot be a coincidence. Between my experinence and the experience of others I know there is something to it. Does it work for everyone, I don't know. Perhaps there is a population of some people who would not respond. But in my families situation and these others it has made a difference. I will tell you there is another woman who took her daugther to Dr. Foster for, I think 6 treatments, and did not see a sizeable change at all. But she did not finish the treatments so it is hard to say off of that situation. She did start using Bonnie Grimaldi's vitamins and really started noticing improvement. I am sure a lot of the success of the treatment depends on how the treatment is administered and if it is done correctly. Dr. Foster has really studied how to make this the most successful treatment possible with the BAX 3000. As a matter of fact, the company has apparently asked him to help educate other doctors on how he does it because he has had such a good success rate. Anyhow, I don't mean to go on and on but I can only tell you I literally am so blown away by this treatment. Does Daniel still have tics, yes he does. He just turned 10 and he is at the PEAK age of tics. I feared this age so much because I knew it could really get bad for him. But I cannot say how well he is doing compared to when he was 5 and we started trying to figure out what to do for him. But now what I see for him is the food induced part of the tics seem to be GREATLY reduced. His tics still come on though when he gets really upset or really excited. I don't think that part of his tics will ever be able to be "treated" per say but using the right set of supplements (magnesium taurate, B6, glycine, etc) really helps. Carolyn

Hi Faith, I am so sorry, I was just realizing I never got back to you Faith regarding your question. The allergy treatment treats for all kinds of allergies. Daniel is mainly sensitive to food products so that is where the majority of the treatments have been. But it also treats for environmental. But so far he has been treated for dairy, grains, corn (this includes the all famous high fructose corn syrup), MSG/food dyes, minerals to name some of them. It is interesting when you go in for a treatment, say for dairy, that treatment will help clear all kinds of dairy allergy. The next treatment, say for grains, will be for all the kinds of grains. They do not mix and match what you are treated for in a day. It is for a specific category. But I can still report he is doing amazingly well. I truly find this one of the biggest blessings of my life. It has made such a difference. My daughter, who is 5, just this past week started doing some tics. I could not believe it. I thought you have got to be kidding me. Although, I should not be totally shocked since it runs in familes. Daniel was 5 when his tics really started being really obvious to me. His actually started at 3 but at 5 it was more constant. But anyhow, I am taking her tomorrow to have her treated. If I can get a leg up on her tics, I want to right away. Sorry again for the delay in getting back to you! Carolyn

Hi Flower, I sure hope you get the same results we did. Like I said in my original post, from what my doctor said, a lot depends on the order the doctor does the treatment. So prayfully your doctor understands this aspect. Keep me updated! By the way you are fortunate, our cost per treatment is $100 and the first visit is $250!!!! Carolyn

Hi Abbe, The pen light he uses on his wrists, earlobes, all the way down his back and I believe on the forehead. Whatever, he is doing it really is making a big difference. Have a great evening, Carolyn

Hi there everyone, It has been a long time since I last posted. But I wanted to share some exciting news with you all. Daniel, who is now 9, is doing really, really great since I took him to see a Chiropractor with an allergy treatment system called the BAX-3000. It is very similar to NAET but it takes it to a much, much higher level of calming the allergies/sensitivies down. We had done a system very similar to NAET prior, called NEAT, but never could we tone down his sensitivies to MSG, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and Food Dyes using that system. So I was so excited to find out there was something much more advanced. The reason I went to the doctor, here is his website www.becomeallergyfree.com/chiropractic.aspx , is Bonnie (aka ilovedogs on the forum) had a friend's child who went to him with severe allergies and got great results. I also knew a gentleman in my community whose son could not eat any egg at all. Even the small amount of egg in a cake would bother him. After his son got treated by him, he could eat eggs every day and have absolutely no problem. A woman I know who was severely sensitive to cats went to him and know has no problems at all. So I took Daniel to see how it would do for him. I was skeptical because, as I mentioned earlier, his sensitivities are to food dyes, MSG, high fructose corn syrup etc and not a true, true allergy. It is purely a high sensitivity with gives him tics and anxiety. After about 4 treatments I could really, really see a difference. I have been able to cut his supplements down by 1/3 at least. I cannot remember the last time I had to give him an Epsom Salts Bath or use Magnesium Cream on him which I was doing quite a bit before. I think we started these treatments about 5 months ago. I really wanted to wait to post until I could confidently say it worked for him. Well I can say it has worked for him. The question is how long will it last and I do not know the answer for that question. So why is it working to help reduce the tics. When the body gives off histamine to fight an allergen, the histamine works its way to the brain and also serves as a neurotransmitter in the brain. So when you get elevated histamine your dopamine levels get off which ultimately will help drive up the tics. So by reducing the histamine levels, by eliminating the allergen, is a huge part in controlling tics for many people. Now this doctor in Arizona, Dr. Foster, told me that for this system to work effectively it has to be done in the correct order. I don't know that all doctors do it in the same manner he does. So I would certainly get some testimonials from patients who used the system from the doctor you are looking at to make sure they are getting the same type of results as Dr. Foster. I know Dr. Foster told me of a couple that flew in from Oregon to have him do the allergy treatment for them because they just could not get the same results with their doctor in Oregon using the same piece of equipment. So how it works is they use a computer and a laser on a pen light to desensitize. Daniel has had at least 9 visits and will probably have a total of about 13. The first visit was $250 and then the other visits were $100 each. It is very expensive but for the results I have seen with him it has been well worth it. I still am careful with what Daniel eats. We still limit his food dyes, MSG, high fructose corn syrup. But when he has had it I have seen literally no reaction. I cannot say how excited I am for us. By the way, I am going on vacation later this week so if you post to me and I do not answer it is simply because I am gone for a week and a half. Well I hope this helps someone else find a new system in dealing with allergies. Carolyn

Hello, I wanted to share that my son is VERY, VERY sensitive to MSG/free glutamate. Most people think MSG is just in Chinese Food but it is hidden under many, many different names. It is actually considered to be something called "free glutamate". For people with nervous system conditions when it enters the body it can be of real problems. Here is a posting I did about it a while back http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...d&pid=17225 . What I have learned since is to give my son B6 and Glycine to settle his body down after accidently coming in contact with something that has free glutamate in it. I give him an additional 100 mg's, on top of his already 50 mg's he takes a day, for a least 3 days. Then I give him up to 10,000 mg's of glycine for up to 5 or 6 days. Usually I only have to do this for about 2 days and his body snaps back. Daniel standardly takes around 4,500 mg's of Glycine a day. If you decide to do glycine just read up on it because I know there are some people who can have issues with it. My son, a few months back, started having a lot of tics again. It was as if he had come in contact with MSG/Free Glutamate. I did some research and was able to figure out it was the Evaporated Milk. In evaporated milk is something called carrageenan. When I read up on it I found out that people who react to MSG/Free Glutamate will have a similiar reaction to it. Again it is the way the food enters into the nervous system. I would definitely look into various names of free glutamate. I think for people with tics this is a huge part of the puzzle only because I know how difficult it is on the nervous system. As a side note, once I figured out all the products that has MSG/Free Glutamate in it. It took at least a week to get it out of Daniel's system. But once I started doing the B6/Glycine combination it was much faster. Carolyn

Hello, I just wanted to encourage you that you are on the right track. When my son was 3 he started with vocal tics. They progressed and at 5/6 years old they got to the point where I started him on a bunch of different supplements and changed his diet (he is highly sensitive to artificial foods MSG, food dyes, corn syrup). Anyhow, he is doing just great now. Yes he still has tics, including repeating certain words, but overall he is so much better then when he was 5. What is amazing is he is getting to the peak age of tics which is between 9-11. He is 9 1/2 right now. So just keep up the investigating it will be worth all the effort and you will learn so much you will be amazed. Carolyn

Hi Char, We have not used MSM but we have used N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine which, from my understanding, works similarly. The NAC helps the body process out toxins due to the lack of sulfate ions in the liver that my son has. I have to say it certainly seems to help him also I know several others on the forum tried it and it seemed to help them too. Daniel, who is 9, takes up to 1,200 mg's a day (600 mg's in the morning and 600 at night). When his tics are minimal I back down to 600 mg's. When the tics are not there at all then I do not use it at all. We also use a magnesium sulfate cream, by Kirkman, to put on him when his tics get going. I also do the Epsom Salts baths. I have to say I think the Epsom Salts baths seem to be a little more effective then the cream. Have a great evening, Carolyn

Hello, The magnesium taurate has been of great benefit to Daniel. I buy the brand Cardiovascular Research at the Vitamin Shoppe. Not many places carry it so it is nice that they do. I agree with Chemar you really need to have him on magnesium. It is a calming agent to the nervous system plus it is used in so many ways to even mention within the body. Once your body is drained of it you will have a much greater likelyhood of tics. Just remember to buy a magnesium that ends in "ate" like magnesium citrate, glycinate, or taurate and not one that ends in "ide" like Magnesium Oxide. The ones ending in "ide" simply do not absorb in the body. My preference, by far, for my son is the Magnesium Taurate. Carolyn

Hello, Regarding the Bonnie Grimaldi TS-Plus, my son has been on it for about 3 years now. The ONLY thing I figured out for him that hid the taste was peanut butter. I would mix it in it and make tiny little peanut butter balls and he would eat them. I would also roll the peanut butter balls in raw sugar and that helped hid the taste even more. I think it is the B vitamins that make it taste so bad. I finally was able to convince him to not chew the little ball but to swallow it. That is all it took and all of a sudden he could swallow the pills. I know some have mixed the TS-Plus in smoothies. That may work for some but my son would just gag on it. But it has been a great product and I really do recommend it. Carolyn

Hello, My son has been on Magnesium Taurate for almost four years. It has helped him a lot. I have never come across any safety concerns about the product in my reading. But I may have certainly missed something. Bonnie Grimaldi does sell Magnesium Taurate. You can also buy it through the Vitamin Shoppe website. They carry a brand called "Cardiovascular Reasearch". Carolyn

Hello, First I understand your frustration. My son's tics bother me way more then my husband. I really think that is quite a common theme I have seen on this forum. Typically it is the mom that takes charge in figuring out answers. I don't quite get why it does not bother the men as much as the women. I also wanted to mention, I looked for the posts but could not find them, that I read two posts on this forum of children who tested negative for strep/Panda's but in the long run they found out they were actually postive for it. So I would certainly explore that area if that seems to be a realistic possibility. I am so sorry for your discouragement. I had put together my theory as to what was ultimately going on with my son's tics and why I thought Daniel was reacting to food chemicals a while back. I had put together my theory as to what was going on with why I thought Daniel was reacting with these food chemicals back in January. Here is the link http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2946 . Here are some follow up posts to that posting http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn+N\ and http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...hl=Carolyn%5C.N . We have been dealing with tics with my son since he was 3. I have posted on here many times about all the supplements he is on. The only thing I can say is he is almost 9 and pretty much tic free now as long as we keep up the supplements and he mostly avoids those things that bother him. He is heading into the peak time for tics for his age and with all of the supplements and diet change I truly believe his intestional track and liver are getting what they need now to help process out what he could not do by himself prior which was food chemicals (MSG, food dyes, high fructose corn syrup). It takes time for the body to heal once on the right supplements. B6 has been a HUGE part of what helps Daniel. He gets anywhere from 50 mg's to 100 mg's a day. He get the 50 mg's from Bonnie Grimaldi's vitamins TS-Plus. Anyway when Daniel's tics get going I always give him an additional 50 mg's. Speaking of the TS-Plus vitamin for Daniel it has helped him so much. He has been on it since he was 5. I did not realize how much it was helping him until I tried switching to a different product and within a month his tics came back full force. Another time I tried cutting his dose in half, just to save some money, and he seemed fine for a while. Then again I think his body became depleted of the vitamins and minerals, from not getting enough, and the tics have came back. So I realized I could not "cheat" and try to save money. He is on the recommended dose for his wieght now and doing great. It is an expensive product but well worth it. The biggest pain is it is so many vitamins for him to take but it is such a part of his life and he realizes now the benefit of the vitamins which makes it so much easier. Another thing that has been sooo helpful too is Glycine. Glycine helps the neurotransmitters run more smoothly. He gets anywhere from 2500 mg's to 5000 mg's a day. When he is has really bad tics I give him 10,000 mg's for several days in a row. I use Carlson brand glycine. Also when his tics get really going I increase his B6 to up to 150 mg's a day for about 3 days. Then I go back to the 50mg's a day. Another product that he takes that has been really good for him is NAC (N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine). I buy the Vitamin Shoppe brand generic form. He currently is on 600 mg's a day along with 1,000 mg's of vitamin C a day. The vitamin C is helpful when taking NAC to help prevent kidney stones from building up from what I have read. Although my doctor told me this really is not too great of a concern. But the NAC helps the body remove chemical toxins and other toxins from the body. It supplements the liver. The vitamin C is important one way or another for many reasons. But one primary reason is to lower histamine levels. Back to the NAC I know of at least 2 other people on the forum who had really good success with the NAC. It certainly would be something to run by your doctor. Have you tried giving her Benadryl or some other anti-histamine to see if his tics reduce? I know I and many others have seen a reduction in tics with Benadryl. Some people, however, will have an increase in tics when taking it but not for most. My thought is if you see a reduction in tics you know that his histamine levels are elevated which more then likely they are elevated one way or another. The other thing that really helps is taking Epsom Salts baths. Use 2 cups of epsom salts in a bath and soak at least 20 minutes. I noticed with my son that I don't see a sudden reduction in tics after the bath it is usually a couple hours later. Carolyn N.