Are tics worse different times of year for you?

[JCWolfe]

Hello everyone. I'm Jason. I am 31 and have had Tourette's since I was 14. Eye tics constantly, occassional chin jutting (possible vocal tic of throat clearing though that may be from smoking). I have been reading the boards for awhile but haven't posted or registered till today. I have learned quite a lot from your posts and would like to thank everyone for their info. I have not done testing yet as I can't afford it yet, but plan to go to an environmental doctor or DAN doctor when I have the cash for lab tests. As of now, I'm trying dietary approaches and supplementation to some extent (though without the testing it's a crap shoot and a waste of money). But we do what we can right? The important thing is to have faith. Faith that I'll find something eventually that will work. It took me a long time to understand that this isn't some psychological thing. That there's not something "wrong" with my mind. Physically or psychologically. I now fully believe that it is caused by something I'm putting in my body (toxins, wrong foods, parasites) or something I'm not putting in my body (vitamin/mineral definciency etc...). In fact I believe that all ailments are caused by this. And this site gives me much hope and faith that I will eventually find help.

 

Anyway, what I wanted to ask is if different seasons are worse for tics for you (or your kids)? I can't really think of whether mine is or not. It is worse at times but I don't have the objective perspective to see it. But I figure you moms and dads probably can tell with your kids. Is it worse in summer or spring? Winter? A researcher I'm talking too asked me and I'm not sure. I can't figure it out doing a search here or on the net. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Jason

[Chemar]

Hi Jason and welcome

 

for my son it has always seemed that his worst tic phases have come in the Dec/Jan period, although he does also seem prone to some waxing in Spring too

 

he doesnt have seasonal allergies so we ruled that out as a cause.

 

It isnt as noticeable now that his tics are so mild, but when he was still in severe mode, he also seemed to have a lunar influence on his tics & OCD. strange but true

 

gotta run! hope we will hear more from you here

[JCWolfe]

Thank you for your reply Chemar. I was going to wait till I got more responses before posting but they never came. Guess maybe it's not something anyone else notices, besides you and your moon cycle. I've seen you post about that before and it sounds interesting (and weird at the same time which always gets my attention!) Any thoughts on how the moon cycle could effect tics? I've heard of circadian rhythms (I think it's called) in regards to health. Maybe it's along those lines. The guy who asked me was trying to compare it to epilepsy which he (and I) were theorizing that epilepsy is just a different symptom of the same cause of tourette's. That is to say they are both conditions of the same issue because they are so similar. Anyway epilepsy seemed to be worse one time of year or another. So he was wondering if tourette's was. Thanks for your input.

 

Jason

[kim]

Jason,

 

I hated to see that sad face! It certainly wasn't that your question was not one that I haven't wondered about too. Last winter my oldest son had really terrible itching all over: scalp, arms, back etc. mostly at night. His tics were pretty bad at that time. He was also feeling very "out of sorts" having a really hard time with school work, short tempered, miserable. The Dr. said it was winter dry skin, or it could even be something in the vitamins I was giving him (we had just started Bonnie Grimaldi's vitamin program -he was against this) and blew it off. I reminded him that this started before the vitamins.

I gave him benedryl and started running an air cleaner in his room, finally, I took him to an allergist and he had some pretty heavy duty reactions to 2 types of dust mites, mold, trees, grasses, cat-which we have never owned, and just about everything else you can test positive to. He was given 3 allergy meds, but I have only given him 1, Zyrtec. Don't know if the tics would have been worse this summer without the Zyrtec or not. He had one short flair of head shaking. I did notice he would seem stuffed up and had a few bloody noses when the cottonwood was flying, but no tics like we have seen in previous summers. I'm hoping the vitamins, fish oil and digestive enzymes are strengthening his immune system and we will be able to discontinue the zyrtec as time goes on. We'll have to see what happens this winter.

New Dr. for the boys told me to get zylitol in the form of a nose spray for both boys. He said Nasonex, which was the 1 out of 3 meds that had been prescribed for youngest son that I chose to give, was a steroid and would irritate any problems that may be going on in the digestive system. I hadn't thought of that, nor had I ever read of zylitol being used for nasal congestion/allergies. He feels the weakened immune system, tics, and allergies are all connected. So I think there probably is a pretty strong possibility that allergy flairs, illnesses etc. can trigger tics.

As Chemar said, hope you decide to keep posting. As the kids are back to school, I'm sure others will have more time to respond.

 

Kim

[ad_ccl]

Only have a minute but wanted to add to this thread.

We noticed a pattern of "eye tics" two years in a row at the same time, both times I took him to the doctor, the doctor looked under his eyes which were fire red - he was given antihistimine eye drops and both times there was a significant improvement within a day or so and the 'tics' were gone within the week. This summer he also had a "nose squinching tic" it lasted a week or so when my husband asked how his nose felt he said itchy - we put him on aerius allergy medication and within 24 hours there was an improvement and within the week this "tic" was also gone. In the winter he had chapped lips a couple of times, each time he had a mouth stretching "tic" would come too, again with some chap stick this "tic" also went away. I put "tics" in quotes as it seems like for my son an irritation results in tic like behaviour. The biggest "tic" like thing he had was from ages 3-6 - prior to the PANDAS outbreak, he had an ongoing cough, throat clearing, I had been told it was probably a transient tic, behaviour thing. I just accepted that info and did not research any further. Due to PANDAS I have now done lots of research and found amazing info right here on this site, probably the most valuable and life changing for my son and the whole family. Anyway, my son's cough remained until we removed milk from his diet - it is now 100% gone and has been for about 6 months. This cough was so regular for years, sometimes once a minute. So food allergies had caused this "tic" My son is currently tic free - he had a slight flare up over the last couple of weeks and we were trying to figure out why - then one day one of my kids came down with a high fever and vomiting , a few days later the next one had the same, then finally my son with the PANDAS came down with a fever - the day his fever broke his tics pretty much disappeared and he has been essentially 99% tic free, maybe there were 2 yesterday that were subtle that no one would notice. So for him with his PANDAS and PITANDS, any attack on his immune system causes a flair up. By removing all foods he showed he was allergic to, and supplementing we too feel his immune system will soon be strong enough to not show these signs during illness.

 

Good Luck -

[kim]

ad_ccl,

 

Both of my boys have had the red chapped lip thing repeatedly over the years. The mouth stretching only happened with my youngest son, but the head shaking always seemed to get worse for both when this was happening. We go NO WHERE without an arsenal of lip stuff when that starts, it's only youngest son now and he knows enough not to let it get out of hand. He even had the dry lip problem once this summer, when the humidity was really high.

I wonder if the dry burning lips are more of a dehydration type of thing that our kids may be more prone to for some reason? Maybe allergies are flairing during this time, and they do more mouth breathing? Or it could be just what you said, the irritation alone brings on the tic like behavior. I just found it curious that other tics seemed to intensify at the same time.

 

Kim