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Bontech vitamins -- help!


Rick43

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Hello everyone.

 

I may be a bit unusual here, as I am actually an adult male 43 years old with TS that has had it since about age 8 or 9. I have just recently (3 months ago) moved to Bontech supplements to try and help me. Prior to bontech, I was on everything from clonodine to finally moving to tetrabenazine (atypical antipsychotic). I was really loving the tetrabenazine, until almost out of the blue i started getting some strong OCD symptons. I finally had to add citalopram in conjunction with the tetrabenazine to combat both TS and OCD. After putting up with the side effects of mixing these two meds (extreme exhaustion - almost unfunctional at work) for almost a year, I finally had to drop the tetrabenazine and just deal with TS. Well, it finally became too much. I decided I had to try something else and move to bontech.

 

the first two months were great - I couldn't believe that after all these years I finally found a "cure". Well, after about 2 months it's now about the worst its ever been. I am now again getting desperate to find a combination that will work for me, as I some times feel pretty upset about the fact that somehow I wasn't one of the kids that escaped this TS as I moved to adulthood.

 

I was very hopeful and excited about bontech working for me, and I'm trying to not give up yet. I have done just about everything her site recommended in terms of diet (I believe).

 

I should note that I finally dropped the citalopram as I started getting strong OCD when bontech was working for TS and her husband recommended I add isonitol to combat OCD. I have found that this works great so far (using it about 1 month). 20 pills a day.

 

I am convinced that for me anyway, my body switches gears between OCD and TS. I never seem to be able to have both under control.

 

finally, to my question --

 

Is there something I could do to improve TS with bontech that I am not doing right. I take the 20 pills/day of TS-control, 3-4 pills a day of mag taurate, 2-4 pills a day of EPA/DHA and 1 pill a day of the Grape-X. And I am super careful to follow her recommendation on diet -- eat well, minimal tyramine, no artifical sweeteners, limited sugar, no cured meats. I will do whatever else anyone says to try, as I don't care if I am only allowed to eat bread and water the rest of my life - whatever it takes is what I'll do. when I add up all the pills I take a day, its beginning to approach 50/day. Like I said, I don't care, I'll do 100/day if I have to.

 

Thanks for reading - I continue to remain optimistic that there is a solution for me.

 

Rick

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Hi again. I wanted to add that I suspect that I still need to do more food elimination. I am reading about people removing cheese, wheat , milk, and soy. Also I read removal of artificial flavor/color. Very happy to do that as well, but wow -- these kinds of foods are found everywhere. I only drink flavored mineral wAter now, and am somewhat surprised to learn the lime flavor could be an issue. I did an allergy test and they found no allergies. Any thoughts?

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Hi Rick

 

sorry things are usually quieter here over weekends, so more responses will likely come Monday as well....

 

I cant post long now, but have a link in my signature below on what helped my (now adult) son. I started that thread in 2003 when he was 2 years into the natural treatments and recently updated it again

 

that link you see with the TS & OCD is what is known as tourettic OCD, when tics and OCD kinda "morph" into each other, and seems to always be the most troublesome symptom for many people with TS.

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Hi Rick

 

sorry things are usually quieter here over weekends, so more responses will likely come Monday as well....

 

I cant post long now, but have a link in my signature below on what helped my (now adult) son. I started that thread in 2003 when he was 2 years into the natural treatments and recently updated it again

 

that link you see with the TS & OCD is what is known as tourettic OCD, when tics and OCD kinda "morph" into each other, and seems to always be the most troublesome symptom for many people with TS.

 

Hi Cheri

 

I really appreciate your response. I didn't realize things were so quiet over the weekends here. I read your entire list and have renewed excitement about taking on the plan that worked for your son.

 

I have been suffering with this for too long. Unlike many of your children here who have great family support, back in the 70s when I was a kid there was nothing done for me, and i just assumed something was just odd about me (and apparently the adults around me did too). It's amazing to state this looking back, but I didn't even know I had Tourettes/OCD until I was almost 30 years old - I had no idea there were other people out there like me.

 

In fact, before my wife found bontech and this supplement approach, I had just given up all hope, as my neurologist told me she had no idea why the tetrabenazine and citralapram were having such a fierce reaction together, and her only solution was for me to try the older antipsychotics --- but I couldn't get myself to do it, as she put the fear of God in my about it leading to tardive dyskenesia.

 

Anyway, I can't wait -- I am making on your son's program today and will let you know how things go.

 

very appreciative and excited about the future -- Rick

 

 

 

The plan doesn't seem too far off from Bontech, but definitely has differences.

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Hi Rick,

 

The advice I might lend is that you see if you can find a doctor or someone with appropriate training to help you out as you start to supplement. Have you looked into the "alternative" dr. route? I believe there's a link here with helpful info. That's how I found our dr. (I'm here to post about our recent visit.)

 

Regarding the difficulty of eliminating problematic foods, you're right, they're everywhere. But don't be overwhelmed. Eliminating bad foods becomes manageable. Not easy, necessarily, but worth the extra effort.

 

Good luck

Chris

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Chris,

I have not thought yet about finding an alternative dr. That's a very good idea. I'll check out the link.

 

I noticed that Cheri didn't call out tyramine as an ingredient her son avoided. I don't yet understand what tyramine is exactly, but it apparently exists in bananas, cured meats, cheese, and many others according to wikipedia.

 

Thx for dr. Suggestion. I'm getting overwhelmed already and I believe this additional guidance will be helpful.

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Hi again. I wanted to add that I suspect that I still need to do more food elimination. I am reading about people removing cheese, wheat , milk, and soy. Also I read removal of artificial flavor/color. Very happy to do that as well, but wow -- these kinds of foods are found everywhere. I only drink flavored mineral wAter now, and am somewhat surprised to learn the lime flavor could be an issue. I did an allergy test and they found no allergies. Any thoughts?

 

Hi Rick, welcome! Just wanted to add that classic allergy testing will not necessarily show food sensitivities or intolerances so an elimination diet may be helpful. We found our ds9 was intolerant to wheat, dairy, soy and all artificials, and preservatives this way. He also needs to eat organic as pesticides cause reactions as well. The other thing we found was purified water, our town water had chlorination which we now know is another trigger for him. I wish you the best and as Chris suggested a good enviro doc or naturopathic dr is a big advantage.

 

Megan

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Thanks. I'm starting now with full food elimination. Had brown rice and water for lunch and looking to expand based on everyones advice.

 

Dumb question, I suppose, but is coffee and alcohol out?

I

usually have one cup of coffee in the AM and one beer in the evening. Bontech said no red wine so I cut that long ago. (tyramine in red wine is what I hear as the reason)

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Hi Rick, caffeine can definately be a trigger...not that I would want to give up my morning coffee! And my husband still finds beer is a trigger for him even though his tics are generally transient and mild by this stage. Our naturopath pointed out that beer is not gluten free, hops and wheat...he seems okay with the odd scotch at night or for him red wine is fine. It will probably again be trial and error. Good luck!

Megan

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Hi Rick, caffeine can definately be a trigger...not that I would want to give up my morning coffee! And my husband still finds beer is a trigger for him even though his tics are generally transient and mild by this stage. Our naturopath pointed out that beer is not gluten free, hops and wheat...he seems okay with the odd scotch at night or for him red wine is fine. It will probably again be trial and error. Good luck!

Megan

 

Thanks for your reply Megan. In reading your screen name I had assumed it was your children who had the TS vs. your husband. I only bring that up because in my limited time here I had assumed that there weren't many adults with TS on here, as most of them either outgrew it or had this all figured out by now.

 

I had black decaf coffee today - because I just didn't want to take any chances. I definitely did not love it, but that's the way it goes. Luckily, I was only a 1 cup a day person, so hopefully moving off of it will be fine. I think you and others are saying it's a big trigger, so I'm suspecting I may not be able to add it back in later and not have it trigger TS - but of course, we'll see.

 

Thanks for the point about beer. My plan remains to move off everything this week and slowly introduce items as everyone has suggested. I may re-consider adding red-wine first vs. beer, as I had been avoiding that all summer due to tips from Bontech in regards to tyramine in red wine.

 

Thanks again everyone.

 

 

Hoping for great results in a week via this diet coupled with the bontech program.

 

Rick

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Hi Rick, I'm sorry I shouldn't have assumed you know our story. I mainly post regarding our son who is 9. My husband definately had/has TS. He has largely outgrown most of his tics but there are still some that as I said are mild and more transient, mostly due to stress and once again beer is an obvious one for him. Much to his distress! :( Our son's diagnosis is Chronic Vocal Tic Disorder and his vocal tics are very similar to what his dad had at his age. My husband was never diagnosed and in fact did not even know what he had or what to call his tics until we started researching our son's "symptoms". So far only our oldest son has this, but his next sibling a sister has presented with transient tics, although changing her diet as well has so far eliminated any tics, fingers crossed. We'll have to wait and see for the other two girls but hoping a clean diet etc. may be preventative....you never know...again good luck with the elimination diet, it is a bit overwhelming, but the results for us were soooo worth the work!

 

Megan

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Hi everyone.

 

It's been a week now of the elimination diet. I know, not alot of time just yet. I have been extremely good at sticking to it. I have not had any coffee. Or alcoholic drink or dairy, wheat, soy or any artificial/preservative. Yes, it's tough, but I am encouraged by e eryone here who has made it work. At first, it was going great, but my tourettes (motor/verbal) exploded this weekend. My wife was worried it was the tomatoes from my organic salsa. So I cut that too.

Note that I Am on the bontech supplements, which seems like a good place to at least start while I figure out what I need to tweak. I'm also on inosotal, as it seems to help with OCD.

 

I plan to keep pushing on the diet, but wanted some help in better understanding the stress trigger. I am starting to wonder if my explosion over the weekend was simply stress. I have been very good with the food elimination.

 

I have 3 young kids, and believe me I love being with them, but now as I sit here feeling fine again finally (everyones in bed) I'm wondering if stress is setting me off and if so how do I control it. I didnt think I was stressed, but I admit that 3 kids (5,3,1) can be a handful. If it is stress, I clearly need to find a way to make sure I'm not stressed - but not sure what to do to fix that. I obviously want to be with my kids and not hAve stress setting my tics off

 

Rick

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Hi Rick,

 

Was wondering if you exercise daily or a few times a week? This would help produce more seratonin in the brain helping keep stress down. I sometimes feel more stress the first couple weeks during Lent when I give up coffee, so you may feel better soon if it is from the body adjusting from the coffee.

 

Did you fine out about the tyramine? I know it produces dopamine, and when my son took a B vit that was made with bovine and porcine, I believe the bad trigger he had on those vit were because the tyramine was too high. He did real bad on that vit.

 

My husband also has TS and beer is a trigger... coffee not so much.

 

CP

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Hi Rick,

 

Was wondering if you exercise daily or a few times a week? This would help produce more seratonin in the brain helping keep stress down. I sometimes feel more stress the first couple weeks during Lent when I give up coffee, so you may feel better soon if it is from the body adjusting from the coffee.

 

Did you fine out about the tyramine? I know it produces dopamine, and when my son took a B vit that was made with bovine and porcine, I believe the bad trigger he had on those vit were because the tyramine was too high. He did real bad on that vit.

 

My husband also has TS and beer is a trigger... coffee not so much.

 

CP

 

CP,

 

I do exercise about 3-4 times a week, as I know that is a stress reliever. I also just started (yesterday) the epsom salt bath. will probably ensure I take that bath at least 2x a week (unless someone tells me more often is needed).

 

I'm currently only on the bontech vitamin plan, and she has stated that tyramine is not good, so I doubt there is tyramine in her supplements. And I avoid all foods that contain tyramine. I used the list on wikipedia as a guide to foods with tyramine.

 

I don't think it is the coffee, as I was pretty minimal on the coffee to begin with. OF course, I realize I've only been on this diet a week, so maybe I need to give it more time.

 

However, any thoughts at all on what I need to add to keep stress under control will be much appreciated, as I know that is a big trigger for many (myself included). My concern was that I didn't think I was stressed this weekend, but maybe I was, and just didn't realize it.

 

Thanks

Rick

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Rick

 

my son finds nightly epsom salts tubs, or when no time for a tub, a footbath, very important! he is already 21yo and been doing this for years.

 

also, have you looked at the article on tic triggers on the main page here? The lists of triggers are near the bottom

http://www.latitudes...ng_triggers.htm

 

Sheila's book may be helpful to you as well

http://www.latitudes.org/book.html

 

stress is #1 on my son's list of triggers. He has found the aromatherapy of jasmine oil one of the fastest "instant" soothing things. We read about research on this, and got him a bottle of jasmine oil (we got the one by NOW) and he either just smells it from the bottle or puts a drop on each wrist and smells on that as needed.

 

another helpful thing (if you aren't allergic to any of the flowers in it) is a few drops of Bach's Rescue Remedy under the tongue for calming when feeling stressed

 

think outside the box re what could have triggered you this weekend

 

did you mow the lawn? have contact with pesticides/fertilizers? go anywhere with lots of fluorescent lights or flashing stuff...eg movies

any paint work or woodwork done?

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