Enhansa reactions/ side effects

[nicklemama]

Just received the Enhansa DS's doc wrote a script for (and my insurance paid for). I am planning to give him the first 150mg on Sat. What should I expect or be looking for?

[BikeWP]

My DS is currently taking it. He is now up to 400 mg. We started the dose at 150 mg.

I really am not sure if it makes all that much of a difference with my DS. It's hard to say because of the waxing and weening.

The bigger the dose, the bigger the pill so we have been kind of fighting that battle of the the pill being too large to take (DS is 11).

No side effects that we have noticed.

[LNN]

Timely post. I started this for my son last Friday - 150mg once per day - while awaiting candida albicans antibody test results. The first 5 days, I didn't see much change (he's in a flare, so hard to interpret good hours/bad hours). So I increased the dose to twice a day on Wed. On Thursday (yesterday) OMG - horrible anger, rages, bossiness, mood swings, depression, tears and rapid mood cycling all day long. I ended up only giving the morning dose and not the dinner dose. (so he only got two pills on Wed, yesterday back to one dose). Today I'm not going to give it because the yeast test came back negative and that was our primary reason for starting the Enhansa.

 

Last night, I searched Enhansa on this forum and came across one of my posts (how ironic) from a few weeks ago when I was hip-deep in analyzing DSs 23andMe data. I had posted about how curcumin/tumeric is an MAO-A inhibitor (which is what anti-depressants are). MAO-A is the gene that regulates degradation of serotonin and secondarily the other neurotransmitters. My DS is MAO-A+, meaning he degrades serotonin/dopamine more slowly. He has another gene mutation that also regulates neurotransmitter degradtion more slowly (COMT - the worrier/worrier gene). So he's prone to being flooded with dopamine and serotonin and more likely to experience sudden anger, aggression and overwhelmed by his emotions - like a slightly clogged sink, his body doesn't process/degrade these neurotransmitters as quickly as other people and it takes him longer to control his upsurge of emotions.

 

If Wikipedia is right and Enhansa can be an MAO-A inhibitor, I think the double dose Wed. made this flood of rollercoaster emotions even worse. What I might have interpreted as a herx could instead be a negative reaction to Enhansa itself. I'm stopping it and will see how he does. I still have a flare to deal with so I'm feeling kinda stuck but I need to take this out of the picture and see if things calm down a bit. Maybe it isn't the problem. IDK. I know for some people, Enhansa has been awesome. So hopefully that will be true for you. Just figured I'd share where we're at to give you something to keep an eye on. Some people might say my son's strong reaction suggests it's getting at some underlying problem, like a biofilm or virus. Maybe. But we can't live with another day like yesterday. So I'll have to find some other angle of attack.

 

Wishing you a totally different experience!

Edited April 19, 2013 by LLM

[WorriedDADNMOM]

From my understanding, which is basic, it is a natural anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and promotes detox. My kiddos started this post Pandas/Pans diagnosis. Due to family history of inflammatory diseases.....arthitis, ulcerative colitis, mental disease, alzheimers and cancers, etc.......... I am 40ish and I started taking it when I came down with what I think is infectious arthritis in both thumb joints at the wrist. My understanding is this can be caused from bacterial or viral infections and initiates an immune response, thus causing inflammation and joint damage. (other family has this same artheritis) I have never had this in my life before and I am active. Inflammation after workout or sports or injury is one thing. This was an entirely different inflammation. Very concentrated and very painful. I started an off brand of curcumin. It is not like advil where you get pain relief fairly quickly. For me, I noticed an overall bodywide lowering of inflammation in neck, knees, back and especially my thumbs. I noticed that after basketball or whatever, the overall feeling was that I did not hurt as much. There was also quicker recovery and not a need for as much advil.

 

Granted, it is very subtle for me and I am taking 1200mg per day of the cheap stuff. My kiddos all get 600 mg per day. Honestly, I don't know how much it is helping. What I do know, is that I have started many of the same supps that the DAN prescribed, and I feel better both physically and mentally and I kick colds better. Probitics, Fish Oil, curcumin, anti-histamines, vitamins and minerals..................., zinc and vit C upon illness.

 

Additionally, I have other family members with similar issues that have been taking vitamins and minerals for years. They swear by them. I do too now.

[Mayzoo]

I am taking 500mg twice a day for joint inflammation, and I have noticed a great deal of improvement. I also seem to have more energy, and my headaches are fewer and easier to treat with OTC meds. I am also experiencing a runny nose more now, which is a possible side effect.

 

My daughter is up to 400mg twice a day, and I cannot say I see a lot of side effects or improvements, but she has had some issues since before starting this that we cannot seem to get past. So if this is exacerbating her issues, I would not know. She has emotional liability, decreased energy, and worries a lot.

[nicklemama]

Thanks everyone. LLM, I fear a reaction like you describe. We have not done 23 and me yet, so I don't know his status. I read on autism sites that hyperactivity is common. I'm going to start it on Sat and go slowly and see how it goes. He is doing pretty well right now.

[LNN]

Nickelmama - don't fret too much. Today I didn't give him any Enhansa and aside from one 60 second burst of anger out of the blue where he pounded a pillow, he's been great. Yesterday, to get them out of the house, we went to Target and bought tennis raquets and then went to the town park to volley some balls on the tennis court. He was horrible. Cranky, blamed everyone for every mistake - made Ivan Lendl and John Macinroe look like Ghandi. Today, we went again and he was in a great mood - even laughed at himself when he hit the ball into the next court. So if it was the Enhansa, it blew over quickly - and remember - I didn't see obvious bad stuff until we went from 150 to 300 mg.

 

From what everyone else says, its worth trying. if it works, it may do really good things for you. If it's bad, it seems like you can recover fairly quickly once you stop or back down. Of course, the day's not over.....

[Mayzoo]

I had what could be called hyperactivity for the first week, but it was a refreshing change from feeling like a cross between a slug and a sloth, so I never complained . It was not a bad type of hyperactivity. I now only have more energy than I had before starting, and that could be because I simply feel better.

[nicklemama]

Thanks LLM. I am forging ahead. Just wanted to try and be prepared. Mayzoo, DS already has more than enough hyperness. Lol. I am considering asking my doctor to write a script for it. I could use a little hyperness myself .

[Dedee]

My daughter took it with no problems. We aren't taking it now because we were having problems with our new insurance paying for it but I think we have that worked out and are about to get more shipped out. We started out slow with just one of the 150mg capsules a day for one week and worked up till she was taking it three times a day. It really seemed to help with her yeast.

 

Dedee

[smartyjones]

nicklemama and LLM -- any more updates? thanks!

[LNN]

After the one day of child from h*** when we upped the dose to two pills, I stopped it completely. He's been way, way better. Just posted an updated about a zinc/copper experiment I've been conducting this week - thought of you as I posted it. Enhansa is a big No for us. But short of looking at genetics, I think it's a try it and see type of thing. The change was pretty rapid in DS's case, so aside from the new wrinkles I now own, no real harm done from trying it.

[Hopeny]

I kept DD on 150MG for the first month and did not see any major herx. I was concerned because on the website it says to expect a herx. She is now on 300 and I believe it really helps. With Enhansa and Quercetin her asthma, though mild, seems much improved.

[nicklemama]

Timely. Tomorrow is one week since we started enhansa at 150mg. No herx. No hyperactivity that I have read about. Could be because I was giving him Meriva SR form of curcumin before we started enhansa. I am upping the dose to 150mg twice a day on Sat. He's falling asleep when I am reading to him at bedtime. It could be the iron we started supplementing over a month ago or a combo of the two. Unheard of for him. He's had sleep issues that require us to give him melatonin since this nightmare started in 2009. I am dropping him down from 2mg to 1 mg tonight to see how it goes.

[nand]

This is interesting...I was searching this topic because my 19 yr old son had started biaxin and valtrex about a week ago with pretty dramatic decrease of rages and OCD. I added curcumin in this weekend and the OCD is back and he has had 2 rage incidents. I have been trying to figure out what might be different and the curcumin is the only thing that has been added.

I am stopping it now and hope to see a return of the calmer kid I had last week.