elevated manganese?

[faith]

I've recently been to a new pediatrician, thinking about switching, and on the first visit last week, he took some blood. He called and told me my son was showing a slight elevation of manganese. and I'm a little nervous here, because he said something that the liver is showing some toxicity, (didn't quite get if he thought it was from the manganese or just in general). He beleives that manganese can cause neurological symptoms. I know we've discussed that here and am already enlightened on that. however, I'm wondering how my son's level could be elevated? I don't give him that? where would he get that from? He asked if we live near industrial or factories? don't think so, altho my husband works at the airport, he wonders if that could be a factor. I also know that a couple of years back, our naturopath gave us a mineral kit and I gave him drops of the different minerals that he seemed deficient of, and I know manganese was one of them. I told him this and he said "oh, that's not good"... This doctor seems to be a little clued in on tourettes and at least he didn't just wave me off and want to give me a prescription, at least he seems to have some things he likes to look for before he jumps and treats with meds. He mentioned also that allergies could contribute to tics, so he was looking at the blood for allergies as well. Interesting, because my ped would have balked at that suggestion, and the only other place I could get that done was thru a DAN doc, which I did a few years back, but it was not a blood test, it was with the needles.

 

He also knows of PANDAS. he did do our titers testing again because I havn't done that in a few years, but it seems the results came in normal yet again. I basically wanted to have a strep test done with someone local, (as some of you may know I am looking into PANDAS as well at the present time and just wanted to see if my son's recent behaviors could be attributed to an asymptomatic strep, however it was, as usual, negative as well). Regarding PANDAS, I did not mention at this visit that my son was already on two months of antibiotics, for I wanted to get his take on all this first. , heavens, what if the liver toxicity is from that? I'm scared. He is going to call me back to give me a rec to see a doctor of metabolic issues? not sure who or what yet.

 

Anyone have any ideas, or know anything about what you do in a case like this? Anyone come across anything like this before? This doctor is kind of a fast talker, so hard for one like me who has a million questions.....

 

thanks

Faith

[Chemar]

I honestly dont know much about manganese Faith but I know some doctors suggest using it with zinc and B6 for pyroluria

 

I found an old thread where Claire spoke of it possibly aggravating tics

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=947

 

you said tho the doctor said slightly elevated so surely it shouldnt have too dramatic an effect

 

the references I have suggest excess will not be absorbed by the body so pretty much self limiting?

 

also wondering what made him suspect liver toxicity? did he run liver enzyme tests?

 

here is info on manganese but it only refers to it being needed rather than what too much does. it does give foods rich in manganese tho so you could check if maybe your son eats a lot of those

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=n...ent&dbid=77

 

here is more

http://www.traceminerals.com/products/manga.html

 

not sure if that helps at all but that is what I have on it

[trggirl]

Faith,

 

My daughters manganese was elevated on the hair samples and then her blood test showed an elevated bilirubin. AST and ALT were normal though. After doing much searching, I could not come up with anything. I hope someone else chimes in.

[faith]

thank you Cheri, all those manganese rich, and oh what a surprise, he basically eats none of them,... (he's the underweight guy, remember?)

 

trq, wht is bilrubin indicative of? does your dd show any focus/attention problems?

 

Now the doc didn't get back to me today yet, so I couldn't clarify anything. I am not sure I understood correctly about the liver toxicity. don't know if he said it showed hi liver enzymes or that it could due to the hi manganese. I guess I'm not clear on if these are one issue or two different. I will clarify this and let you know.

[trggirl]

Faith,

 

Bilirubin is an indicator of liver function. The liver processes bilirubin, so if the bilirubin is elevated that could mean the liver is not processing correctly.

 

My daughter does have focus/attention problems. As a matter of fact, your post quite some time ago about your son and his homework could describe my daughter.

[faith]

thank you Cheri, all those manganese rich, and oh what a surprise, he basically eats none of them,... (he's the underweight guy, remember?)

 

trq, wht is bilrubin indicative of? does your dd show any focus/attention problems?

 

Now the doc didn't get back to me today yet, so I couldn't clarify anything. I am not sure I understood correctly about the liver toxicity. don't know if he said it showed hi liver enzymes or that it could due to the hi manganese. I guess I'm not clear on if these are one issue or two different. I will clarify this and let you know.

 

 

hi all, just wanted to get back to this subject and update as I said I would,....

 

it looks like the liver function (AST) was one point above the range, so the doctor was not concerned. I also showed these results to our DAN doc and he said it was nothing.....'garbage',,....ha,ha,....

So basically, the liver stuff is okay. sorry, I did mention I wasn't quite sure what the doc was referrring to on the phone.

 

Re the manganese:

we had the manganese level repeated, as the doc wanted to make sure it was not any lab error. the second one came back also high, but the lab claimed the doc did it wrong and didn't put it in a certain kind of tube, so we did it yet again. this last time, the lab never got to it and the blood wasn't fit to test. So instead of pricking him again, we were referred to a neurologist. The neurologist didn't think it was crazy high, but high nevertheless. We had an MRI to rule out anything, and all was normal. Apparently I think they wanted to see if there was evidence of manganese deposts, but it was all normal.

 

In the meantime, our DAN doc did some other bloodtests for lyme and some immuno workups, and included the manganese in it. This test came back in the normal range. All other tests were normal as well..........

 

thank you for your attention.......... ............