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This popped into my social media feed today, and I thought it was very interesting. http://mentalfloss.com/article/65710/9-nervy-facts-about-vagus-nerve

Cytokines and inflammation are discussed! "There are several ways in which a severe reaction to airborne allergens might tip the scales for someone at risk for suicide, but here’s one. When a speck of pollen from the air comes into contact with immune cells in the nose, the cells release cytokines—molecules that cells use to communicate messages to one another. Postolache and others believe cytokines might drift through the nose to enter the brain. There, the cytokines might disrupt the brain’s delicate chemical soup, shifting the balance from feel-good chemicals to toxic ones that may trigger anxiety and impulsive behavior. Besides the nose, cytokines might also influence the brain by traveling through nerves, or by prompting immune cells to mistakenly attack healthy brain cells. These cytokines, then, may play a role in the angst and impulsiveness that drives people to take their lives. Indeed, Postolache and others found elevated cytokine levels in the brains of suicide victims." https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/04/the-troubling-link-between-allergies-and-suicide/523608/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

Another neat summation via Mental Floss: http://mentalfloss.com/article/65710/9-nervy-facts-about-vagus-nerve

A few of us have discussed the vagus nerve before. This popped up in my FB feed this morning. http://mentalfloss.com/article/65710/9-nervy-facts-about-vagus-nerve

The Chronic Lyme Disease Summit http://chroniclymediseasesummit.com/ is a free online conference starting today. There are many great speakers and topics lined up, and I encourage anyone still looking for answers, even if you've ruled out Lyme or don't think it's a possibility, to check it out. Much of it will be relevant to PANDAS/PANS, whether or not Lyme is involved. Speakers include Dr. Horowitz, Lee Cowden, Scott Forsgren (Better Health Guy), Kenneth Stoller, and Joseph Mercola, just to name a few. Topics include mitochondrial dysfunction, brain conditions, stress and emotional trauma, treating anxiety and panic with tryptophan and GABA, energy medicine, Chinese medicine, trigeminal neuralgia, IV vitamin C, rife, infrared technology, sugar, mold, nutrition and detox, gut microbiome, biofilms, GAPS diet, ketogenic diet, grains = inflammation, cancer, heavy metals and more. They have several speakers each day and you have 24 hours to watch their talks for free.

DS (18) is doing well behaviorally, academically, emotionally, etc. He's developed a physical symptom, however, that we're having trouble identifying. We're actually planning to make a doctor's appointment in the morning, but wondered in the meantime if any of you have come across a similar issue? DS's arms and trunk have taken on a pinkish tone, and when you press down, you get the white spots where your fingertips had applied pressure, and they last a few seconds before the pinkish tone returns. Interestingly enough, while his arms, stomach and back all display the same reaction, there's no pink tone or atypical response to pressure on his legs. It looks like inflammation/edema to me, but he's not feeling unwell overall, no fever, he's still taking omegas and quercitin (anti-inflammatory) regularly, and he regularly eats an anti-inflammatory diet, as well (in fact, we just had a chicken curry last night). He's not recently been exposed to any new foods, soaps or laundry detergents, either. Any similar experiences? Any ideas? Thanks!

HI Everyone, I wanted to share something that I believe has really helped my teenage son. During a flare he gets intrusive thoughts (and in a non-functioning fog), can't sleep, urinates frequently and has one tic. Out of a flare, he doesn't have these symptoms. We just finished IVIG about 8 weeks ago (and he had a 2 week flare in there). . Motrin and Tylenol (and to some extent the one time with did prednisone) don't seem to help during a flare ... I think those antibodies have reared their ugly heads and it takes 2-4 weeks to go down. However......good news and want to share it with you all However, we have always, always given fish oil but primarily an EPA heavy Nordic Natural fish oil. About 3-4 weeks ago, I switched to Nordic Naturals DHA heavy formulation based on this article (daily about 1.2 grams of DHA and .3 of EPA). I think there were a couple of times he was going to flare... and it felt like the DHA stopped the inflammation cold in its tracks!) Curious to hear if any of you had experience. I have a pandas doc who says that dha has been know to manage the inflammation in certain illnesses. Here is the article that initially got me thinking...it is basic, but I would say it has been a winner in our arsenal and wanted to share it with you all.... Of course this could be IVIG success to date (and who knows a big back regression may be forthcoming, but I am still thinking that DHA is a big find for us...Note it is the amount of DHA and that it is a higher ratio than EPA (3-1 vs. 1-3). Something about what it does with macrophages seems to strike a bell. I believe my son is more PANDAS vs. PANS. Thanks, Califamily Scientists show how DHA resolves inflammation Date: July 1, 2013 Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Summary: Chronic inflammation is a major factor in problems from arthritis to cardiovascular disease, and DHA is known to help. New research in The FASEB Journal, explains why DHA is important in reducing inflammation, and provides an important lead to finding new drugs that will help bring people back to optimal health. Researchers found that macrophages use DHA to produce "maresins," which are the "switch" that turns inflammation off and switches on resolution. The FASEB Journal, helps explain why DHA is important in reducing inflammation, and provides an important lead to finding new drugs that will help bring people back to optimal health. Specifically, researchers found that macrophages (a type of white blood cell) use DHA to produce "maresins," which serve as the "switch" that turns inflammation off and switches on resolution. "We hope that the results from this study will enable investigators to test the relevance of the maresin pathway in human disease," said Charles N. Serhan, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. "Moreover, we hope to better understand resolution biology and its potential pharmacology so that we can enhance our ability to control unwanted inflammation and improve the quality of life." To make this discovery, Serhan and colleagues deconstructed the biosynthetic pathway for maresin biosynthesis and found that human macrophages are responsible for converting DHA to the novel epoxide intermediate "13S, 14S-epoxy-maresin." Then, they learned how to synthesize the molecule and found that maresins caused macrophages to change their "type" so they no longer caused inflammation (switching them from M1 to M2 phenotypes). "We've known for a long time that DHA tames inflammation, now, we learn exactly how DHA works: via new substances called maresins," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "We encounter inflammation almost daily, but our body has ways of turning it off. This is an important step toward understanding exactly this happens. You're likely to be hearing a lot more about maresins if, or when, new therapies arise from this discovery."

I really did not understand what this was until I made the connect with another post. When my son became sick back in December 2010, I kept taking him back to the doctor because of a severe headache. The next symptom was the scalp pain and then his symptoms kept getting worse after each illness. On a recent test, the Kynurenic Acid showed up high and out of range 22.1 normal range (10.6-19.7) My son's worse symptoms are his headache and scalp pain. So I'm having a hard time of understanding why an immunologist doctor will not do some more testing in this area or is this a neurologist field. This can cause encephalitis. and I believe encephalities is treated more agressively. My son was checked for a few different types of encephalities on a panel 2 years ago but I am concerned about the NMDA Receptors Antibodies Encephalities. Is anyone on the forum dealing with this type of encephalities? I was also wondering if anyone was being treated for high Kynurenic Acid levels.What is the treatment? I have asked for my son to be checked for the NMDA encephalities but are there any other new forms of encephalites that have been found in the last couple of years? I have sent my cardiologist the following articles on Kynurenic Acid and thought you might want to see them also. Our cardiologist has been great about running new test to try and figure out what is causing my son's postural orthostatic tachycradia syndrome. With all this new testing, it does seem like it is immune related. Here are the articles. Happy reading. http://www.corporamed.com/documentos/organix/articulos/Quinolinate-Kynurenate.pdf http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-4159.2008.05241.x/pdf http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/57250142/vivo-effects-antibodies-from-patients-anti-nmda-receptor-encephalitis-further-evidence-synaptic-glutamatergic-dysfunction http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_276791_en.pdf

DS, 13, was a total crab tonight. He just wanted to argue about everything and no it is not typical teenager behavior. His cheeks were very red and his face just looks puffy, especially around the eyes. He is a big boy, so I gave him 600 mg of Advil and the redness went down but the irritability remained. We are scheduled to see Dr. J and Dr. B on the 15th of this month. If this trend continues, how will I make it to the 15th? His scrip of Augmentin ran out about a week ago and could not be refilled because we had not seen the Dr. since October. He is still taking his allergy meds, Biaxin, Rifampin, and Nystatin. About three weeks ago, I did something I hope I don't live to regret. We went to another immunologist for a second opinion to justify getting him IVIg with the insurance company. He said that we had to give the Prevnar to see what the strep titers would do. I'm not sure why, but I agreed and we did it. We can't test for another week to see what happened to the antibodies. Every year at this time, we go through he** because of spring pollen and open burning of yard waste/fields. Every year, he gets mean/angry, cries a lot, and has school refusal. Last year, we had to have a steroid taper to bring him back from the brink. It worked wonderfully. I am hesitant to do another steroid taper because of the Bartonella/possible Lyme and endocrine side effects, but I will if it gets him to a better place. Any ideas?