GraceUnderPressure

Our Dr. told us to use the loading dose of 2 caps 3xday for 10 days, then use a maintenance dose of 1 per day (going back up to 2 or 3 pills when or if needed, but we never needed to) It was kind of like a gradual drying up so it's hard to pinpoint, but within a couple of days, it seemed to be doing the trick & by day 3 or 4 I think it was, I was pretty certain that I was getting relief (I tend to be very cautious before giving credit to supplements) Here's a website that has detailed info on D-Hist http://www.healthdesigns.com/ortho-molecul...0-capsules.html Though I have found it the cheapest here http://www.myhealth-store.com/524120.html There is also a chewable form for kids who can't swallow a capsule, but it doesn't taste so good - my then 3 yr old wouldn't take it, & though he's generally not that easygoing about supplements, I can usually find a way to persuade him. I generally like New Chapter's stuff, we have used their mushroom & salmon oil supps, but be aware that their Histamine Take Care has at least 4 ingredients that are most likely corn based. I have seen several posts over at a GAPS diet forum that I have been frequenting where the moms were talking about how much quercetin helped reduce their kids food issues as well as environmental allergies (which is interesting given the recent article about a histamine connection to all this stuff). They are using quercetin long term rather than just seasonally - one mom said over a year. Given our increasing food intolerances, I think we may just try it that way as well. If we can afford it along with all the other stuff, sigh.

Pat, we have used a product called D-Hist which is stinging nettles combined with n-acetylcysteine & vit C, quercetin & bromelain. We have not used Zyrtec or any of the other Rx or OTC antihistamines so I have no ability to compare, nor have we tried nettles alone, but I can at least tell you that D-Hist worked well for us - in fact, I am online about to reorder some now. ~Grace

Hi Laurensmom & all! I just posted this news over at the Tourette's forum & Chemar kindly directed me here! I am very excited about this info, too, because the more I research the function of H3 receptors, the more I see an almost perfect clinical picture of my son's issues! Turns out that there are a number of both histamine (H3) agonists AND antagonists going thru research & development right now - for Alzheimer's & other cognitive disorders. This seems to be an issue for people with an attention deficit as well. I have 5 kids - only my oldest (18yo ds) has Tourette's, but the others have food intolerances & some ADD/ADHD issues, too. (My 3rd child has issues that would qualify him for a PDD-NOS diagnosis if we went that route, but I had a dental amalgam replaced while I was 5mos pregnant with him & now that I have seen the research, I am convinced that was the source of his brain injury) While the genetic disorder discussed here is believed to be rare, anything that throws a monkeywrench into the brain histamine pathway would theoretically have the potential to create a similar effect. Since histidine requires a methyl group to be converted to histamine, that seems like a potential clue for whether a person's tics would be related to low brain histamine? My son's B6 & B12 levels are both low, though, & he has always had symptoms of both overmethylation & undermethylation so I've never been quite sure what to make of that. I'm still digging trying to find out as much as I can about this stuff & hopefully make sense of it all. I'm still inclined to think that it's an autoimmune type disorder & I suspect that anything we can do to reduce reactivity or at least keep those histamine levels steady rather than fluctuating (similar to insulin in a type I diabetic) is bound to help minimize our kids' issues. I will continue to watch this discussion with great interest & I also will add here anything more that I can find! Thanks so much for sharing your opinions, insights & experiences everyone! I am praying this will be the key that opens the door to a chance at a normal life for our kids! ~Grace Perhaps this explains why antihistamines have been helpful to some with PANDAS? GREAT info at nutripedia > http://www.nutripedia.com/Amino_Acids/L-Histidine.html There are some natural health practitioners who have used L-histamine for ADHD etc. Seems they may have been ahead of the "science?" http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/Ingred.../lhistidine.htm ( A helpful food list at the link as well). Histidine Food Sources Bananas and grapes, meat and poultry, and milk and milk products are high in Histidine. It is also found in root vegetables, wheat, rice and all green vegetables, though in lesser quantities. Sorry gang, I'm excited about the potential this research merits and wanted to create an information dump (if you will) as I do more digging. Thanks for your patience with me.

Thank you, Chemar! I'll wander over & start catching up! P.S. Thanks so much, too, for all the wonderful info you have provided here!

(Normally I just lurk here since I don't usually have anything worthwhile to contribute, but I was so excited to see this news today & I would love to hear what others think about it. I looked up histamine receptors in the CNS - H3 receptors - and everything connected to that relates to my son's problems! I had no idea that brain histamine affected levels of serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine & norepinephrine. And the body uses methyl groups to convert histidine to histamine. It would explain why seasonal allergies & upper respiratory bugs send his tics & other issues into overdrive. While I doubt that my son has the genetic abnormality discussed in the article, I am wondering if he might have developed an autoimmune response to something related to the histamine pathway. Please let me know what you all think about this! ~Grace) Mutation Could Point to Tourette Treatment By AMY DOCKSER MARCUS Researchers identified a rare genetic mutation that may open a new avenue for treating Tourette syndrome in a study published Wednesday that examined a family in which the father and all eight children suffer from the neurological disorder. The family's mutation affected a gene required to produce histamine. Pharmaceutical companies are already developing drugs for other conditions that target the brain's histamine system. The study's researchers are planning a clinical trial of adults with Tourette to see if those drugs would help control the motor and vocal tics that characterize the condition. Tourette syndrome is believed to affect 1% of the population. The condition is not life-threatening but can be debilitating. The tics, which can involve eye blinking, grunting and shouting, often appear initially in mid-childhood. Scientists don't know the disorder's cause but believe it has a strong genetic component. Current treatments, such as the antipsychotic drug Haldol or the seizure drug Klonopin, are mainly used to control symptoms. But the drugs have side effects, including weight gain and drowsiness, and doctors said there was widespread recognition that better therapies were needed. The study, published by the New England Journal of Medicine, said the gene mutation appeared to be very rare. "It gives us a very critical window into at least one known genetic disruption that leads to Tourette syndrome," said Laura Mamounas, a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes in Bethesda, Md., which is funding Tourette research and is part of the National Institutes of Health. The study, led by Matthew State, co-director of the Yale Program on Neurogenetics and an associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine, looked at a family in which the 47-year-old father and all eight children, ranging in ages from nine to 23, had been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. The 45-year-old mother, her parents and members of her extended family did not have the disorder. Dr. State's lab took DNA samples from all family members and was able to find one region of the genome that everyone with the disorder shared. By analyzing all 51 known genes in the region, the researchers identified a mutation in a gene required to produce histamine. Histamine plays a role in allergic reactions, but is also a neurotransmitter that influences brain functions, including sleep and cognition. A 2009 paper in Drug Discovery Today cited efforts at pharmaceutical companies, including Abbott Laboratories and Pfizer Inc., to develop therapies to increase the release of brain histamine to treat conditions including Alzheimer's disease, sleep problems and schizophrenia. Spokeswomen for both companies confirmed they have histamine compounds in clinical development. Regarding the drugs' possible use with Tourette, Melissa D. Brotz, a spokeswoman for Abbott, said the company "would evaluate potential research avenues as the science evolves." Anabella Villalobos, Pfizer's interim head of neuroscience research, said the Tourette finding was intriguing, and the company was interested in learning about the planned study "and the role of histamine in the wider Tourette syndrome population.'' Lawrence Scahill, a professor of child psychiatry and nursing at Yale who treats people with Tourette syndrome, said he and Dr. State have applied for a grant to launch a two-year trial involving 20 adult patients. He said the Yale researchers were reaching out to a number of companies, which he declined to identify, to see if they could obtain histamine compounds to try with Tourette patients. Kevin McNaught, vice president for medical and scientific programs at the Tourette Syndrome Association, a patient advocacy group that connected the family in the study to the Yale lab, said there are many continuing genetic-research projects, including a brain-tissue bank. The NIH is funding a project involving thousands of people with Tourette syndrome in an effort to find more common genetic variants that may cause the disorder. One of the key questions the study raises is whether the findings will have implications beyond this one family and a small subset of people who eventually turn out to have this particular rare mutation or will provide a new therapeutic option for many people with the disorder. Yale's Dr. State said that after finding the mutation in the family, his team examined the DNA of 700 other people with Tourette syndrome to see if anyone else had the same mutation "and we couldn't find any.'' James Lupski, a professor of molecular genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said that even if the mutation turns out to be very rare, the finding could have broad therapeutic implications because treatments developed to address it could apply to other mutations. Write to Amy Dockser Marcus at amy.marcus@wsj.com