Stephanie2

Vicky, interestingly, Carcinosin is one of my son's "backup" remedies (meaning if his first chosen constitutional remedy does not work, then we will try carcinosin). At this point, his first remedy is working pretty well, to the point where it can clear an actual strep infection/pandas exacerbation, but he has many complications so maybe at some point we will be going to carcinosin. Also, maybe you already know that Amy Lansky (author of impossible cure) cured her son of autism with carcinosin. Good luck and let me know how it goes! MaggiesMoons, you are welcome to friend me on FB and I will get you in touch with some other homeopathy moms (I will pm you my contact info). Maybe one day we can meet up as I tend to visit Ft. Myers and Tampa area from time to time. As far as a good classical homeopath, I highly recommend ours who practices in NYC, but she does skype appts so you don't need to fly up there. She has helped many many pandas kids. She is getting good at it, too! Homeopathy is not easy to do, but it is easier than what we were doing (antibiotics, steroids, ivig, ibuprofen and a slew of supplements) and more effective. Her name is Angelica Lemke, ND, and you can contact her here: www.asdhomeopathy.com Oh, and someone asked if you need to see a homeopath to use arnica. No, it is available at the healthfood store, I recommend a potency of 30c, but if the exacerbation is severe then do 200c. I do not, however, recommend this for long-term daily use at all (besides, over time it would probably stop working if overused). For long-term use, the child needs to be on a carefully selected constitutional remedy and guided by a homeopath.

Oh, I also wanted to mention that the Specific Carbohydrate Diet has a long history of healing leaky gut. I have not tried it, but many within the autism community find amazing benefits from it. Also, the latest is Camel Milk. We just started it here for the purpose of healing my 3yo's not only leaky gut, but inflammatory gut and dysbiosis. I'll add you to the group on FB in case you want to learn more. The professor from isreal who is leading this research is active in that group. Warning: it's quite expensive. And I'm giving it to both boys... I also think their remedies have helped quite a bit, as I have seen them tolerate more foods.

eljomom, I have not really been following this or the other thread but I did see you mention that maybe you have pandas. I can tell you that I have suspected for over a year now that I have pandas, and recently was presented with some situations that absolutely confirmed in my and my husband's minds that yes I do have pandas and it can be quite debilitating for me until I get treated, just the same way it is for the kids. Just thought I would mention it, I suspect that many of us on this forum do have it and don't know it cuz we blame our own "fallout" on the kid's pandas...

For those not familiar with my story, we use classical homeopathy, diet, supplements and now juicing and camels milk (a whole nother post ladies LOL) to manage/cure pandas and it is going fabulously well, we are 7 months into it. I know many on this forum are not ready yet for classical homeopathy, but I found a quick fix the other day that I felt I just had to share here for those of you who may have days when you are desperate to try anything. Arnica, it's a homeopathic remedy that can be found at Whole Foods or a health food store (heck, i think they might even carry it in some walgreens in cream form, but that won't work for this purpose). When I say quick fix, I mean temporary, kind of like ibuprofen, although I suspect that for some kids you may even get a couple days out of one dose. Here is what happened and why I think it worked. My son was due for a dose of his regular constitutional remedy yesterday morning, but he was riding his bike so I was just waiting until we were going to go inside to give him his remedy. The reason I say he was "due" for his remedy is b/c he had been displaying several pandas symptoms all morning (some mild ocd, frequent crying, not playing nice with the neighborhood kids, wanting to be in charge and control everyone, etc.). Well, before I could get him inside to dose him, he fell off his bike and took a pretty bad hit on his arm. He acted a bit more dramatic than usual, being in pandas-mode and all, so I decided to give him a dose of arnica, which is what I do anytime there is the chance that an injury will either be a fracture or a big bruise (or they are in great pain). I gave him arnica 30c (that's the potency, but in severe cases I would give a 200c). 15 minutes later not only was the pain gone but all pandas symptoms were gone and have been ever since (this is the end of the second day since that dose of arnica). I never did have to give him a dose of his regular remedy! Teh experience reminded me very much of the days when I would give a dose of ibuprofen for a quick pandas fix, except it was even more of a rapid response and much more long term. Ibuprofen would turn him around in 30 minutes and last about 5 hours, where arnica worked in about 15 minutes and has lasted for 2 days now. So, arnica is primarily used for injuries, wounds, any type of trauma to the body. It is also sometimes used to prevent bruising, or after surgery to speed up healing. My cousin's plastic surgeon had her use it when she was getting injections for spider veins. There are many many uses for arnica. And to give you an idea of how effective it can be, when my other son broke his foot 5 months ago, he was screaming bloody murder. I gave him arnica 200c and he stopped screaming within 3 minutes and I never heard another peep about it again! He also did not bruise and the swelling was minimal. This is off of ONE dose; I had no idea that I could have dosed it several times over a few days and prevent swelling all together. So my theory as to why arnica worked to clear pandas symptoms yesterday? Well, strep antibodies attack the basal ganglia. So the basal ganglia is under trauma, it is "injured" and there is inflammation. If arnica stimulates the body to heal this "injury" then I suppose it can speed up the reduction of inflammation from a bout of pandas. I also wonder if it works to heal the blood brain barrier that has been comprimised during pandas, allowing antibodies in to the brain. Now I can't say for sure how one would respond to arnica if he/she were not also receiving a constitutional remedy. Maybe for my son they worked in conjunction, I have to believe that is the case b/c his remedy is very good at clearing strep infections, I am pretty sure that arnica will not stimulate the body to clear a strep infection, but it CAN stimulate the body to bring down/prevent inflammation. The other thing to know is that homeopathic remedies cannot work to their full potential when antibiotics are on board, but I do imagine that it could be used to help as a quick fix here and there. I certainly do not recommend using it long-term, or doing any type of homeopathy long-term without the guidance of a homeopath. By the way, I tried it on my 3yo tonight (arnica, when he seemed a bit clingy and in need of his remedy). I have no idea if it worked b/c he was brought to bed right after, but I might know in the morning. Hope this can help someone...

I don't know, I have been juicing for the boys and for myself lately. They say that by juicing you are releasing the nutrients/enzymes into the most absorbable form. I have no proof, but I did see a detox reaction with my younger son's skin when I started, so he must be getting something from it. I, personally, get a major energy/mood boost when I drink the juice...

I'm so sorry, I hate to say it but when you described your daughter a year ago...well, I just figured. And I remember the feeling of shock. With my second son, it wasn't even on the radar cuz he was only 15 months old and I thought his eye tics and sudden tantrums were seizures. Silly me, I almost fell over when the local neuro brought up the possibility of pandas (and he didn't know my older son had it, too)! And I can so relate to how your mom reacted. My whole family thinks I am nuts to think that my children have this rare disorder. It has really affected our relationship, I have not seen her in months b/c I just can't take the way she reacts to my children, I just lose my cool every time.

Great news!! Welcome to the Ignatia-Junkie club! By the way, after you told me about the "holding the remedy in your hand", I decided to try it, as I was due to move up to 1m of Ignatia and was kind of scared. So I sat on the couch and held it in my hand. I was in a rotten, no-motivation kind of mood when I started and within 30 minutes I was a new person! I think I held it too long b/c I actually got kind of jittery (plus my hand and arm started to get weak and tingle) like I had strong coffee or something. But it was a great kind of jittery cuz I got up off that couch and cleaned this house like I haven't in ages! LOL. I was also laughing and joking around with a friend. It was awesome! The effect only lasted about 8 hours, but it gave me enough courage to take 1m by mouth the next morning (which has been awesome! love that darn Ignatia). You are my 3rd Ignatia friend now! (not including my ignatia son!) I told my other two friends about holding the remedy and one of them tried it and she got the same "jittery" feeling but she said it made her tackle a pile of papers on the counter that she has been wanting to get to. So weird!

i just have to shake my head in sad disagreement with you. funny -- we're the 'lucky' ones, huh? I think we are the tip of the iceburg... When is the AAP going to take this seriously and send out a mandate to the peds to assess for this beast? Like they did with autism in recent years? Shame on AAP, so damn worried about making big pharma happy and letting down the little ones. If people only knew who they were trusting with their children.

I wish I had better news for you, but my two neices (my brother's girls) had a clear-cut sudden-onset textbook case of pandas a few years ago. separation anxiety, sensory sensitivities, dramatic meltdowns, you name it. and these are generally easy peasy girls to deal with. It hasn't happened since, but now my nephew (who has since been born) has clear-cut OCD, separation anxiety, etc. My brother had kawasaki as a child (isn't there a relation to strep/pandas?). Now my suspicions of pandas for myself. It's apparently tied to the mother in my case. Oh, and there's more...my aunt (mom's sister) went completely mute as a child for 6 months; her daughter developed sudden anorexia (which mysteriously disappeared after a year); her other daughter gave birth to a child who appears to be autistic, but DEFINITELY has OCD/Tourettes. These are all on my/my mom's side of the family. Just like in alzheimers, do these things mysteriously and coincidentally occur in clusters or is my family rampant with pandas? Yes, I had my first dramatic hysterical meltdown while pregnant...started during the month of sept, which was the 3rd trimester. These meltdowns occured until I gave birth. Angelica chose Eli's remedy (and now mine) largely based on these meltdowns. All I can say, pandas16, is that you are "one-up" on me cuz you still have time to cut this crap off at the source!

PANDAS16, so is that your endorsement? That I do have it?!! I was hoping you would chime in! You are probably right that I may have had some underlying immune issues. My mom, in her own words, had me on antibiotics every time I sneezed, and I know now looking back that I suffered from yeast due to the abx. It was all a big storm a-brewin that came to light while I was in college (prior to that I had no issues with depression or anxiety, just a little subclinical ADD). Interestingly, I battled with Reye Syndrome after chic pox+aspirin (giving away my age here) which resulted in confusion and hallucinations until the swelling went down. I have yet to research the possible connection btwn that hx and my sons' current issues. Probably doesn't matter, just a bunch of similar susceptibilities. Encephelitis... S and S, I too thought that when the boys issues went away I would get better...no such luck. I think now in light of their improved health, it is only more apparent that I also have some issues to contend with. This is probably the first strep infection where I get the boys under control, then I get strep, then I go into pandas symptoms. I had no one else to blame it on. No one else around me was falling apart, just me. And the sudden onset nature of it took me by surprise! Wow. Anyway, I am feeling fine now, physically and mentally.

I wanted to add here that this morning I was thinking back to my very first "panic attack" which occured in college after a series of Hep B vaccines (oh and it happened in August, no surprise there if it is strep-related). Am I just another vaccine-injured "kid" with pandas, just late-onset? I don't believe in coincidences anymore. When are these doctors going to start listening to us moms?

No, I didn't have any tests done, but the experiences I have had in the last month have confirmed my suspicions about myself having pandas. Where do I start LOL!? So, in the past I have always become OCD/depressed/etc when my boys were in a pandas exacerbation. Well, I have always assumed that it was because of the stress of the boys tanking that would lead me to such depths. Logical conclusion, right? But as each strep infection came our way, I started to wonder if there was more to it. Now I know there is definitely more to it. In mid August my boys brought home what I believe to be strep. I didn't have cultures done, as some of you know we do homeopathy so I didn't need (nor want to see the dreaded thing) a culture. BUT after a fabulous summer, all four of us developed sore throats, congestion yada yada. And of course the boys had sudden onset pandas symptoms. I pulled my oldest son out of it within days, my youngest was more of a challenge, but he was pulled out of it eventually. Fast forward to a week ago, and both boys are getting sick again. Both exhibiting pandas symptoms again. I get the boys out of pandas again with their remedies, but here is where it gets interesting. A couple days after the boys "normalize", I start to get whatever they had last week (have to assume strep). At first it's like a cold, but by the next day it's a full blown sore throat, severe flu-like symptoms, congestion, etc. Halfway through the day, the thought enters my head: what if herd-immunity levels drop so low that the vaccine exemption program gets cancelled and we are all forced to vaccinate our children...will we have to up and move to another country to avoid forced vaccination? and what if they alert customs and we can't get out in time? So this thought completely takes over my head to the point that I want to get on the internet and start researching other countries, or I want to call my husband and find out the details about a transfer overseas. I start to realize that this is a very extreme reaction, especially when I am literally too sick to move. I simply can't put these thoughts out of my mind, I'm almost in a panic! this goes on for an hour. I decide that I probably need a dose of my remedy (which happens to be the same remedy that my oldest pandas son takes for pandas) and within 30 minutes my mind is relaxed (and my sore throat is gone)! (editing to say that even though my sore throat was gone immediately, all other symptoms stuck around for another day and I had to take another dose of my remedy the next day when anxiety set in again) So I have to assume I have pandas. Sudden-onset obsession about (somewhat) irrational fears during an acute illness?

Well, my homeopath says that she does not think that mint is a big factor. Unfortunatley, I went on to continue using it, to later find out it had menthol in it. That would explain the 2 month backslide I had over the summer... :/ I now use Nature's Gate Anise flavor, but if you REALLY want to be safe there is a toothpaste made by Boiron that is specifically formulated for people undergoing homeopathic treatment. It is sold in WF. My children use Tom's of Maine, strawberry flavor. And texascatholic, congrats, that is amazing!

Michael, I'm not sure about specific books about homeopathy and the immune system, I read impossible cure by amy lansky and also "the science of homeopathy" by George Vitoulkas. That's an interesting thought about the bioengineered lyme. I don't doubt that for a second, I wish I did... As far as the natural killer cells and case studies, again I am just not that well-read on this (I thought I was until YOU came along - LOL - j/k). You may be able to find case studies online. I know there are many stories about lyme disease and classical hpathy, I just dont' know where to find the documentation. I'm not sure what to make of the gut bug issue. I can say that we have turned yet another corner with Eli, who had the severest of severe gut issues (rages with klebsiella, etc.) and he is basically normalizing before my eyes. Like I said, I don't know if he will ever be able to go without his remedy, but then again, I would imagine part of that will depend on what type of life he chooses to lead in the end. If he abuses his body, like all of us, he will suffer the consequences and need his remedy again. I just wonder if his gut will ever go back to baseline, and if it doesn't I suppose he will always need SOME sort of probiotic, even if just some cultured milk or kefir, and maybe his remedy.

I have been wondering where you went?!! So glad you are seeing progress...

S and S, one more thing. Doesn't your daughter also have autism? It has been my observation that with children who's remedy was chosen based on the autism features, sometimes pandas gets worse (path to healing goes from mental to emotional to physical and then out the body). Pierre and Angelica take the approach of prescribing an "acute" remedy when pandas flares in that situation. Then when pandas is managed the child goes back on the constitutional remedy. For some reason with my boys this has not happened and we have been able to manage pandas mainly with their constitutional remedy (although when strep comes into the house, often times I have to dose it as much as every 20 minutes for a couple hours to nip it in the bud). I have to say that Angelica seems to have really gotten a "handle" on pandas since she started working with it in Jan. She has come a long way in the 6+ months I have been working with her on my boys' cases. She has many more tricks up her sleeves. I'm not trying to talk anyone into seeing Angelica, here, but personally I would not trust my pandas boys to anyone else, maybe not even Pierre!

No no no! You didn't come across wrong at all! I just want to make sure people really understand the complexity behind homeopathy! I wish I could say it is easy, I really do. I mean in some ways it is b/c overnight I could see that my boys were no longer headed for the psych unit anymore, but that was just the beginning. I just want people to understand that it takes a lot of research, perseverence and maybe even several homeopaths. It's not much different than the conventional approach to pandas in that sense. Nothing is going to be handed to us moms, unfortunately. I had just as hard an August with strep as the next mom, the difference may be that I was able to manage it without abx, steroids, etc., and the healing was faster and more complete than any other approach I have taken with strep. But believe me, there were still days I was cursing pandas from here to the moon! LOL! You, also, have persevered in so many ways for your daughter and I respect YOU for that! Please don't feel bad for giving your experience. Honestly, I would rather people go into it knowing that it may not work, or that it is going to be really hard possibly, or that the first remedy, or the first homeopath may not be the ticket. People need to know what they are getting into no matter what the approach!

Oh yes! The remedy still works with probiotics, no doubt! When my boys started their remedies they were on 800 billion cfu's and 1 trillion cfu's (for those not familiar with probitoics, this is a MASSIVE dose of probiotics which costed us $450 per month to maintain), PLUS they were on two capsules per day of culturelle. The remedy brought both of my boys from a state of psychotic, violent rage to calm (one of them overnight, literally, overnigth) while they were on this amount. But keep in mind that with homepathy, the goal is not simply to "manage" pandas but to overhaul the immune system permanently. Correct the autoimmune response, cure the child. Right now, I can see in some areas we are "cured" (sound sensitivity for example) and some areas which are still being "managed" (symptoms come back when they are due for a dose of their remedy). As far as massive amounts of probiotics, it is MY opinion that they do interfere with the remedy's ability to "get" to the chronic gut infections that were/are residing in my sons' guts. Angelica does not agree with me and feels that probiotics are a natural supplement that only helps the remedy. It has been my experience that my boys do about the same or better without the probiotics, actually. I dose them if I think a stomach bug is in the house, but that is about it. (although theyare still taking one capsule of culturelle each, which is only 10 billion cfu's...a drop in the bucket compared to the numbers they used to be on). The weaning process, by the way, was not easy. Each time I reduced my 6yo's probiotics he would get a major gut flare (clostridia, yeast, klebsiella) and I would then give an extra dose of his remedy and it would clear it. It took me about 4 months to wean him off b/c I was always so hesitant to deal with the gut issues. It is almost like ripping off a bandaid and allowing the remedy access to it. The "ripping off" part is painful! You may be right that probiotics are immune-modulating but maybe not to the extent, or in the same way, that say IVIG or LDN are (or even Larix, an herb similar to echinacea). I think they mimic the body's own immune-modulating activity, but that is just my opinion. I, personally, don't think that anythign can mimic the variety of strains within the gut-flora that we were born with (or were supposed to be born with). Each strain has a different function within the body, definitley affecting the immune system. The question I have for my own boys is whether or not homeopathy can stimulate their bodies to resurrect those strains that have been killed off with all the years of abx. I hope so, but I am prepared for that to not happen, simply b/c I have to wonder if some of them were left at all to multiply. Will they always be dependant upon their remedies for gut health (and would that be "pseudo" gut health?)? Like I said, in 6 months I will know more. There is a new movement within the autism community to perform "fecal transplants" for children whose guts have been severely compromised. The idea behind this is to literally "transplant" the healthy gut flora of another individual into your child's gut so that he can then maintain it. This is not something I really care to do for my boys, but in the end I feel lead to this extreme, I will look into it.

I LOVE your story Stephanie, I really do- Just curious, have you heard of any success with classical homeopathy with healing Lyme diesease? Truly erradicating it, with no relapse? With constitutional homepathy? P.S. I'm not considering this path for us, we are at where I believe we are suppose to be, but I haven't heard anything about it 'curing' Lyme...it such a tricky *&^%** I have one friend who's son had documented lyme (igenex lit up like christmas tree) and her son is fully recovered from autism/pandas with homeoapthy. There is a school of thought that believes that 90% of autism cases are lyme induced, and many who seek out homeopathy get some level of efficacy from it, so I have to believe that it works for lyme (in fact, it would take me all day to explain why, but I honestly think that lyme is one of the major reasons why homeopathy works so well, it allows the immune system to "rise up" in a way that can allow the body to overcome, or live symbiotically with, lyme).

I'm so sorry you are going through it again! I just wanted to say about the name changing thing...I sometimes suspect that the 4 year old across the street has pandas. And she changes her name each time a neighbor walks by and asks what her name is. It's always a different name. Hmmm...

You all know my experience so I won't go into it here, but I will say this. According to Angelica and Pierre, the following will interfere, even as far as cancelling out entirely, with the remedy: antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals (even natural antimicrobials), and any immune-modulating herbs, drugs or treatments. And then there are the things that most of us know will antidote: menthol, coffee, camphor, mint to name a few (I found out the hard way about menthol when I realized it was in my toothpaste for 2 months!). With my youngest son I attempted to combine his remedy with first azith and then augmentin. Neither one was able to clear the strep b/c not only do antibiotics prevent the remedy from working, but the remedy prevents the antibitoics from working as well. On the culture report, his strep showed up as "highly sensitive" to augmentin, yet augementin was not able to clear strep, not even for a day. We ended up with a positive culture 2 days after augementin was over and he had a highly unusual response to it - no response at all in terms of pandas symptoms. That had never happened before. As far as Michael's experience, my own personal homeopath (not my boys) was the same one as Michael's second homeopath. At first she told me all these things would not interfere with my remedy, but in the end I discontinued them and found that they were indeed interfering majorly. Homeopathy is not easy. There are many rules to follow, and at the same time dosing frequency and potency requires an intuitive "skill" that one develops over time. I can easily see why people are timid about giving up the antibiotics and not giving it a fair chance. I can also see why it doesn't work for some, if their homeopath doesn't understand pandas, or if the parent simply can't grasp the dosing aspect of it (or if the correct remedy is not found, of course). The reason it has worked so well for my boys is b/c it was literally our last resort before institutionalization. We were running out of sanity, patience, money. It HAD to work or my children were doomed (and so were we, of course). I made it work...Angelica made it work. I read tons of books, followed several forums of moms doing the same for their children. Spent hours studying the approach, just like I did with biomed and with conventional medicine for pandas. Like I said, I can understand why some would move on. But I have to say that many are willing to give conventional medicine years and years to see if they can make it work, yet only give homeopathy a couple months. I'm not saying that it will take years and years for homeopathy, but in my case my youngest child was not an overnight responder, but that was partly due to the fact that I was not quite ready to give up the abx, and even when I did I did not follow my homeopath's instructions. My oldest was an overnight responder, but even with him I continually have to adjust dose, potency, frequency. I am so not trying to sound condescending here. Like I said, I HAD to make this work, literally "life and death" in my book, as all other treatment options were taken off the table. It was not easy, it is still not easy but my boys have a life now and so do I. I just wanted to clarify some of this for anyone else in the future who may come across this thread. It's ashame that there are not more homeopathy moms on here with pandas kids. There are loads of them out there having tremendous success, they are just on other forums.

Pandas 16, I researched Houston before going with angelica. If you want you could get one of the practitioners on the phone for free to ask questions. They are very expensive $500-800 per person per month and I don't think they have a very high success rate, they claimed at the autism one conference that they had only 80 reversed autism cases in all the years they have been in practice...? As far as probiotics, my boys continue to take theirs (culturelle, and from time to time custom probiotics). You can do both. I just wonder if I can ever cure their guts after all the antibiotics, meaning can all of the different species grow back that were destroyed or will only some of it grow back? I will have a better idea at the 1 year mark. All signs point to gut healing here, but I wonder if they would ever survive without their remedies, that remains to be seen.

Alright ladies, you know I have to say it. When my boys couldn't tolerate antibiotics anymore, I formed a yahoo group aimed at parents of pandas kids who were interested in natural treatments. I figured if I was going to find my answer, it would be amongst these women. I announced this new yahoo group far and wide, before you knew it I had a couple hundred members. I told my sorry story about my boys and I received the email that changed my life, a woman named Beth (not the "out of the fog" author) who told me about Pierre Fontaine and how her pandas son is off antibiotics...and the rest is history. We've done it all, seen it all, spent it all when it comes to our 2 autism/pandas boys(tens of thousands on IVIG, DAN docs, steroids, a slew of antibiotics, LDN, spironolactone, a slew of supplements, and in the end risperdal and tenex, etc). My oldest was on the verge of hospitalization b/c he was so violent. And never have we gotten the results that, in the end, we got with a simple skype appt which costed us $500 each child and the homeopathic remedies arrived in the mail for free within a few days. Didn't even have to leave the house. BTW, at one point I did the homeschooling thing, too. They still got strep :0, I'll never understand THAT! I have to believe it was God/the universe telling me that isolation was not the answer, keep looking, etc.

Yay! Congrats! Maybe you can add a few anti-inflammatory supps to nix the rest of the OCD! My boys, when they come out of pandas, they come out 100%. No left-over habits, but maybe cuz they are younger...?

I didn't read your whole post but I can say that up until now yes they have been more of a burden than a joy (they each have/had multiple special needs), I have been more of a nurse than a mom, my marriage has many times reached rock bottom and it still remains to be seen if it will recover, and we are close to broke due to medical expenses and lost wages. Now that things are better I am finally seeing what the joy of parenthood is all about for the first time, so I guess I have to say that if I had to do it all over again, yes I would have had my boys. I love them both deeply. With all that said, I do think that you are in a position to prevent or reduce the severity of any pandas or disability your children may have: clean water (no fluoride, chlorine, etc.), organic food (as much as can be afforded), non-toxic environment (including minimizing or not vaccinating while pregnant or the children), keeping EMFs in the house low, add supplements to support the immune system right from birth, and not to mention an infant can be given a homeopathic remedy to help prevent issues. I would suggest going to Dr. Mercola's website and signing up for his newsletters, he does a tremendous job of bringing to light what is healthy and what is harmful.http://www.mercola.com Also, the homeopath that we discussed just posted the following on a question and answer session pertaining to pregnancy, passing down disease. If you can wrap your mind around homeopathy, this is a very interesting concept (BTW, I'm pretty sure this person had me in mind when answering this one!): Question: Does homeopathy resolve inherited family disease or patterns of behavior? If I got pregnant, would it help to get treated homeopathically to prevent patterns of disease being passed on? Answer: The answer to this question is –absolutely yes – we do seek to do that. We very much take into consideration the family patterns of disease – or miasms – in homeopathy. That is one of the greatest things about it – it can actually strengthen the family line generation after generation. Patterns of illness get passed down through generations, and if they are not ‘healed’ by the body or instead are in some way ‘suppressed’ – the pattern of illness gets can be passed on in a chronic or even more ‘concentrated’ way to the next generation. For example, one pattern that I sometimes see in cases is: The ‘Grandparents generation’ was abusive, alcoholic, depressed and neglectful to their children creating an unsafe household for a child to grow up in. Out of that household comes the ‘Parents generation’ - these parents manage to survive their childhoods, get to college and they start to get depressed as a result of their upbringing, their physical health starts to worsen. They then take pharmaceutical drugs to suppress those feelings – like antidepressants, as well as drugs to suppress any feelings of pain, and may have taken these drugs during pregnancy. The next generation of kids – our patients – have an inherited pattern that is even more concentrated – with a very specific pattern of grief or anger or insecurity that can be linked back generations. The toxicity in the environment that these kids receive just serves to exaggerate the pattern even more.