Am I being too conservative with natural things?

[Christianmom]

We have been very conservative about supplements with my son because he is being treated by a homeopath. The homeopath feels my son only needs his homeopathic remedy, vitamin D (my son was tested as deficient), probiotics, and to avoid artificial flavoring, preservatives, colors, and MSG. We have not done anything else natural.

 

Though this may seem crazy to only be doing so little, my son basically has no stomach issues at all--even after almost a year of antibiotics. He also has no signs of a yeast infection. His overall health is excellent--no problems at all.

 

We are currently pursuing lyme treatment and he is on three lyme antibiotics--biaxin, amoxicillin, and rifampin. We will continue to pursue this for a couple of months and if there is no change will be looking into PEX. (I know, I should probably try the lyme treatment much longer, but the high dose of antibiotics required for lyme treatment is frightening me.)

 

My hope is that PEX can get my son where he needs to be and perhaps then the homeopathic remedy will keep him well. Maybe I am too optimistic about this.

 

My question is this. Am I being too conservative with the natural stuff? I hate to try too many things as it will make it difficult to tell if the homeopathy and/or lyme treatment is working.

[Christianmom]

Do you use a constitutional remedy?

 

I heard that antibiotics counteract that...,. typically you have to use one or the other?

Yes. Phosphorus. I know this is unusual, but the homeopath feels the remedy should work even if my son is on antibiotics and has treated many patients this way. We did try taking my son off antibiotics and he regressed with 24 hours and asked to go back on them. At the time he was only on one--biaxin 1000 mg.

[Stephanie2]

http://www.asdhomeopathy.com/learning/homeopathy_faq.html

 

 

For ASD cases we ask parents to continue all other supplements that the child is taking so that we know that any changes in symptoms are the result of the remedy. In fact many nutritive supplements will be synergistically supportive to homeopathic healing. In our practice, we do not consider concerns over homeopathy being contraindicated or reacting negatively in combination with other medicines to be an issue. In our experience, homeopathy can safely be taken alongside pharmaceutical drugs as well as other herbal medicine, supplements, or other forms of therapy.

 

However, there are some therapies that can potentially antidote or somehow stop or prevent the action of the homeopathic remedy. Treatment for ASD that we have seen antidote remedies (although not in every case) includes chelation therapy, IVIG therapy, antifungal drug therapy, antibiotic therapy, and anti-fever drug therapy. We ask that, if possible, parents stop or minimize these treatments to decrease the number of factors that can interfere with a remedy.

 

Other substances that are commonly known as antidoting homeopathic remedies are peppermint, menthol, coffee, recreational drugs, and immune-modulating pharmaceutical drugs such as steroids.

 

From my interactions on the homeopathy message boards, I would say that everything he says in this quote really is true, even down to the "although not in every case". Most of the time, the moms report the above therapies interacting, but once in a while we come across someone who's remedy was not affected. I will say that my boys were on 25 meds/supplements when we started and there was a definite improvement when starting their remedies, so a few supplements will not interfere. My boys are now on 4 supplements each, but I am considering adding a couple back in.

 

Oh, he left out antiviral therapy as being a possible antidote.

Edited August 17, 2011 by Stephanie2

[Christianmom]

Thank you Stephanie2 and pandas16 for your replies.

 

I will talk to my homeopath on Friday. It is not Pierre but a local naturopathic doctor. But he has treated many people who have been on antibiotics (including lyme patients) and had success. We did try to stop antibiotics (at my request not his), but my son immediately regressed. Maybe we should have tried longer, but I was afraid of going backwards as my soon is pretty incapacitated even on antibiotics. Is there anyone having success with homeopathy whose child is also on antibiotics?

[Christianmom]

http://www.asdhomeopathy.com/learning/homeopathy_faq.html

 

 

For ASD cases we ask parents to continue all other supplements that the child is taking so that we know that any changes in symptoms are the result of the remedy. In fact many nutritive supplements will be synergistically supportive to homeopathic healing. In our practice, we do not consider concerns over homeopathy being contraindicated or reacting negatively in combination with other medicines to be an issue. In our experience, homeopathy can safely be taken alongside pharmaceutical drugs as well as other herbal medicine, supplements, or other forms of therapy.

 

However, there are some therapies that can potentially antidote or somehow stop or prevent the action of the homeopathic remedy. Treatment for ASD that we have seen antidote remedies (although not in every case) includes chelation therapy, IVIG therapy, antifungal drug therapy, antibiotic therapy, and anti-fever drug therapy. We ask that, if possible, parents stop or minimize these treatments to decrease the number of factors that can interfere with a remedy.

 

Other substances that are commonly known as antidoting homeopathic remedies are peppermint, menthol, coffee, recreational drugs, and immune-modulating pharmaceutical drugs such as steroids.

 

The rest of the link says this:

 

"Despite the potential for antidoting remedies, however, there should not be an excessive amount of anxiety about the possibility. The majority of the time, even in cases where patients are doing various other therapies, there is no antidoting of the remedy. When a remedy that was working well is antidoted, the resulting decline in progress should occur rather quickly and precipitously. A remedy whose benefit wears off slowly has most likely not been antidoted, but rather requires a redose or a change in remedy."

 

 

So if I am understanding this correctly, though being on antibiotics is not preferred, it should not stop the remedy from working. Do you interpret it this way?

[mama2alex]

We are currently pursuing lyme treatment and he is on three lyme antibiotics--biaxin, amoxicillin, and rifampin. We will continue to pursue this for a couple of months and if there is no change will be looking into PEX. (I know, I should probably try the lyme treatment much longer, but the high dose of antibiotics required for lyme treatment is frightening me.)

 

 

I don't know anything about homeopathy, but I wanted to chime in on the length of Lyme/coinfection treatment. It sounds like you already know this, but I would give the treatment more than two months to start working, especially since he regresses when taken off antibiotics. Our son showed slight improvements in the first 2 months, a little more in the 3rd but then made a big leap around 5 months (after rotating antibiotics) and has made another leap recently, just a few weeks short of a year into Lyme/Bartonella/Marcons treatment. I think its better not to base decisions on fear of antibiotics (or fear of any kind). You can monitor liver function, yeast, etc as you go, and stop or change strategies if one of those becomes an issue. Our son's been on 3 antibiotics (rotating to different ones) for almost a year and he is better than ever - and no liver problems, no yeast issues.

[Christianmom]

Thank you mama2alex for your reply and concern. I know we are probably making the wrong decision, but we have decided if we see no improvement in our son by the end of 3 months we are going to go for PEX. So far it has been almost two months with no improvement at all. He has "herxed," but I am not sure what he is herxing from--the die off of spirochetes or the die off of the good bacteria that the antibiotics are killing. How can you know?

 

Yes, the lyme antibiotics are scaring me to death. And frankly I'm just sick and tired of seeing my son suffer with no improvement. He has been basically incapacitated for a year. He is risking graduating on time. Last year he earned one English credit and his transcript says "adpated" beside even that credit because I did most of the writing for him (which wasn't much).

 

If my son improves at all in the next few weeks, I will continue lyme treatment. But otherwise we are pursuing PEX. My son needs a clean start, even if it doesn't last long.

 

I'm not saying I won't pursue lyme again if my son doesn't do well (or stay well) after PEX. And I am willing even now to keep my son on the lyme antibiotics if there is ANY improvement. It's just that I'm not convinced that he has lyme either. And even if he does, if he has PEX and I can therefore reduce my son to only prophylactic levels of an antibiotic, perhaps the homeopathy can keep my son well.

 

And PEX has been offered to us and I don't want to miss that opportunity, especially when the procedure has no real risk. Because of my son's age, he may not even need a PICC line.