Sue

Hi all, thought you might be interested in my son's (then age 28) test outcome. His SpectraCell testing showed low calcium, low oleic acid, and low zinc. His antioxidant function was at 23.8%. Of course, tics were were under control at this point. I, like many of you, am very impressed with glutathione. There are sublingual forms that bypass the digestive tract. I have taken it for about 19 months and have noticed no adverse effects. I received an email from one of you that I very much wanted to respond to but could not at the time with taxes to complete and a mother-in-law in the hospital. If you could/would please send me another email, I'll will respond. Unfortunately, I seem to have deleted the email while cleaning out my mailbox. Have any of you known of children that have tried the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (Elaine Gottschall) for tics? I’m not recommending it, just wondering. Lastly, my sister sent me this site yesterday. When tics are waxing, it would be interesting to know what’s in the air that might be aggravating allergies. <www.pollen.com> Sue

Thanks, Natalie. I found a copy of the letter I referred to in my last post (Letters to the Editor, Annals of Allergy, 56:June, 1986, p. 507). I'll note a few sentences that gave me hope years ago. Dr. Rapp stated, "I have seen approximately 30 youngsters in my office who have some aspects of the allergic-tension-fatigue-syndrome, as well as innumerable characteristics typical of the Tourette's syndrome. I am impressed that these patients' symptoms can be triggered by foods, inhalants, molds, or pollens. The symptoms frequently appear to respond to therapy, ie, allergy extract treatment and/or avoidance. There are some others who know when the children need to be retested because they begin to bark, or have a recurrence of their Tourette's associated with their allergy symptoms. I have a movie of one youngster whose symptoms can be precipitated at will by skin-testing with a number of stock allergins." You can see why I was so excited to find the letter! I'm sorry, I don't really remember how I found the doctor that did the provocative skin-testing. The allergist is now deceased. I do remember that I heard of several doctors who did this testing and just chose the one that was nearest, which was a three hour drive. I typed "Dr. Doris Rapp" in Google this afternoon and noticed that she has a Web Site. There may be something of interest to you there. Hope this helps. Blessings, Sue

I found this board while searching for information on "low lysine" in a Google search. After reading several of your posts, I've decided to comment. My son (now 30) had/has tics. His pediatrician and a pediatric neurologist said the tics would wax and wane and that short of drugs (that we were not going to give him), there was little help for his condition. We tried diet and nutritional supplements but never found anything that would help. When my son was about 12, I (then in a desperate state) researched Tourettes at a medical school library. I found a letter that gave hope; it was from Dr. Doris Rapp, to the editor of a medical journal. The letter spoke of allergy testing and tics; it spurred me on to have my son tested for allergies by an allergist who did provocative testing. After beginning allergy treatment, my son seemed to be cured; the tics were gone. Being a teacher, I have since known other children who have had their tics subside with allergy treatment. Now that my son is older, he occasionally has flare-ups with tics in stressful situations (ever two to three years, maybe). Taurine supplementation seems to take care of these (there's much information on the Internet about Taurine and tics). Taurine also lessens his anxiousness in stressful times. At one point in my son's life, I wondered if he would be able to be a "normal" adult and hold a job because of his multiple tics, now he's married, has a good job, and became a dad last week. I dnjoyed reading your comments; hope our son's experiences will be of help to some of you. Wish I had had a support group like you have when my son was younger. Blessings to you all.