DAN Doctor?

[CFinEP]

Pardon my ignorance but I have read a lot of postings that refer to a DAN doctor. What is a DAN doctor?

[FranklySpeaking]

They are doctors that specialize in treating autism. Defeat Autism Now. D-A-N They use alternative approaches to treating autism. Unproven approaches. Some parents with children with Tourette's are hopeful that these alternative approaches for autism might help their children stop ticcing.

 

FS

[Chemar]

Hi

 

the DAN doctors initially specialised in treating autism, but many have expanded their testing and treatment protocols to incorporate a wide range of neurological issues, including TS

 

Here is a bit about them and other "alternative" doctors from Sheila Rogers' post above on finding medical help

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=565

 

We used Integrative Doctors....fully trained in conventional medicine yet specialised in complementary aka alternative aka natural medicine too.

DAN doctors are also Integrative, just mainly focussed on autism and similar spectrum disorders.

 

I personally feel that the treatment protocols, although still in need of scientifically verifiable research, that DAN and other Integrative physicians use, is far from "unproven".................for me the "proof" is in the vast improvements that so many many people have seen after following these treatments.

 

Our family is one of them...............where my son was diagnosed with very severe TS, OCD and a bunch of other co-morbid issues and went from bad to worse with conventional medications. yet, within just a few weeks of starting him on the treatments advocated by our Integrative physician, his symptoms became very mild and things improved dramatically for him. Now, almost 6 years after his diagnosis, his tics etc are so minimal that it is barely noticeable! His system is now so stabilised that he no longer requires any treatment beyond being careful with his diet by not eating artificial junk, and by maintaining a healthy supplement routine of just the basic vitamins and minerals we all should take for optimum health.

 

Our Integrative physician started him on a path to a healthy lifestyle and, although his TS is not "cured" as such....yet it is a negligible factor in his life now. That makes the alternative treatments that he had very PROVEN to me!!

[Giselle]

Hi there CFinEP - welcome! As you've been told DAN stands for Defeat Autism Now. I ditto Cheri (Chemar) that ours, (along with an Environmental Doctor) has completely helped my son's TS go from severe to mild. What I wanted to add to the mix is that our DAN doctor saw to test for many things that our regular docs didn't think important. Our DAN doctor used traditional blood, urine, and stool tests and found that my son had huge deficiencies in B6, Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin C - trust me, we eat really well and he shouldn't have had these deficiencies. His levels of copper and zinc were completely out of whack and he had lead levels that were a little high. We found he had really high yeast and bacteria levels in his gut. Also done was a test of his neurotranmitters - these showed strange levels as well. He had allergy testing done (through his blood not a scratch test) which showed he was allergic to gluten, soy, corn, casein, dyes, bananas, tomatoes and a few others. By addressing all of the above (it's taken a while and we are still at it) we are in a better place. My son's vocal tics are gone and he has a few motor tics but they are very mild.

 

The testing and doctor visits sound daunting don't they - but they weren't! Both doctors have only seen him twice. I go and report results and adjustments are made without him having to be bored to tears. The tests were a hoot! My son is seven and a half and peeing in a cup was fun as was taking the stool sample. The blood tests weren't fun but he got all the testing done with one stab and we used EMLA cream so it doesn't hurt -he's only had two blood tests and after each we've gone to Toys-R-Us - which he thought a good trade off.

 

We are fixing the imbalances/deficiencies that he has and we are seeing amazing results. We are not doing anything "unproven" or "untested". He is taking vitamins/nutritionals, he's taking Nystatin (a yeast killer approved by the FDA for killing yeast even in infants), he is avoiding allergens, and taking magnesium baths (Epsom salts). We did not go down the traditional medicine path but many have and have found that that is the best for them. But I was shocked to find out what was going on in his sweet little body and needed to fix those before anything else could take place. But by addressing them we haven't needed to do anything further.

 

Good luck with your sweet one and have fun looking around here, don't get overwhelmed, just take it slowly. Everyone here is so nice and helpful. Ask lots of questions and follow your intuition!

 

Giselle

 

Hey! Here's a good one for DAN: "Doing Alternative? Naturally!" Anyone else got one?

[Sydsmom]

I'm so thankful we took our daughter to a DAN doctor. Yes she still tics but not as bad. We just started this all in Jan. BUT, her depression has lifted and her OCD and ADD has greatly decreased. She started the last school year with all C's and ended the year with A' and B's. That's a huge praise report!! And she started Middle School this year and is doing extremely well both socially and accademically. The diet changes and supplements were a little overwhelming at first but the whole family is so thankful we've stuck to it. I totally encourage people to check it out. Our other option was to listen to the neurologist who said there was nothing we could do - just deal with it! I wasn't about to do nothing.

[Guest PatJewett]

I have a friend who is a DAN doctor. He became one when his son was diagnosed with severe Autism. He is also a Oncologist so he is well educated. Anyway, he used DAN techniques on his own son and now his son is no longer testing on the Autism Spectrum. He is back in school and doing great. By all means check out DAN doctors.

[patty]

Sydsmom,

 

What supplement is your dd on for OCD? Any what kind of diet restrictions?

 

Thx for your help?

 

Pat