GSE vs Nystatin

[cara615]

Ds is on azithro 75/mgs daily. He is 6 and only 35lbs. i give him 8 drops/day of GSE (grapefruit seed extract). I was told that this was very powerful stuff and worked just as well or better than Nystatin at killing yeast. What are all of your thoughts on this?

 

Many doctors believe that GSE will not kill yeast. How do I know if i am keeping the yeast at bay in my son's gut? His tics are almost back to baseline so I am assume that if we had a yeast issue, I would be seeing more symptoms than I am currently seeing. Right?

 

Maybe I should order an OAT test to see how bad the yeast really is before I decide to switch over to Nystatin......

[beeskneesmommy]

You can do a blood test for candida. We do it regularly, along with chem screen to make sure that our 7 yr old is tolerating ongoing abx.

[rowingmom]

I'm not sure about GSE.

 

DD12 had a huge downturn with 5 drops, taken over the course of a week. And I mean HUGE. Motor/vocal ticcing ramped from 3/10 to 9/10 (this was while she was on pulsed tindamax as well). She couldn't even get a sentence out for all the vocals and neck snapping. Loss of math ability, increased urinary frequency, age regressive behaviour (she was 10 but acted about 4). A real mess. Her teacher actually called me crying she felt so bad for DD.

 

At first I assumed yeast die-off and our LLMD agreed with this, so we started curcumin and OrthoFlora yeast support, continued with allicin and raw garlic (which we have always used) did lots of detoxing (Epsom salt baths, lemon water, psyllium husk, increased japanese knotweed). The ticcing eventually resolved along with her other PANS symptoms and resumed the flare with tindamax pulse we had been previously observing. Because our LLMD is in NY candida testing was not available to us.

 

Buhner's associate's take on the GSE reaction was that it had decreased DD's ability to detox by inhibiting cytochrome P450 (ie reason for the statin/grapefruit juice contraindication). This made sense to me because I had always associated an increase in ticcing with a toxin buildup. Ticcing for DD was always exacerbated by changes or increases in abx protocols.

 

But in the last couple of weeks I have seen an increase in ticcing associated with yeast infection, and have also seen it resolve with single dose diflucan. Perhaps ticcing was associated with yeast. Perhaps it was associated with buildup of yeast toxins. Perhaps it was associated with DD's inability to detox those toxins in a timely manner. I don't know.

 

Just our experience.

Edited February 2, 2014 by rowingmom

[cara615]

Very interesting rowingmom and proof that things affect our children differently. I've had ds on GSE since July. We started out slow - 2 drops a day. After about 4 days we saw die off. It was increased ticcing but also flu like symptoms (vomiting, fatigue, sense of feeling hot without fever). That lasted for 1/2 a day and immediately following his tics went down to a new low baseline. I stayed on the GSE for 6 weeks. Then I gave him a break and did not start it up again until November when we got our dx of PANDAS and started on abx.

 

I guess I should consider nystatin or diflucan eventually. Just not sure when to start. Right now his tics are very minimal and he has no behaviors. We are in a good place but I'm constantly wondering if I am doing enough or the right things for him. you know what I mean?