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GM Corn causes kidney and liver damage


Caryn

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I apologize to those who are sick and tired of my anti corn posts. I have a strong passion for this as I saw first hand in our son the healing affects of removing corn from his diet and still believe that it was the most significant factor in his complete recovery.

 

I wrote a summary of the study for anyone interested in reading about it. The findings are pretty damning for Monsanto. I am sick and tired of the corn lobbyists and the gov't risking our health in the name of profit. I hope they do another long term study like they proposed and we can start class action lawsuits against this corp.

 

http://healthy-family.org/caryn/1308/monsa...mmals#more-1308

 

We have always felt that our son's liver was sluggish and that was the crux of his problem with the neuro issues. We have known and continue to believe that his sulfation system isn't strong-- but after three years completely off of any and all corn and corn byproducts it has actually improved on its own without any other treatments. We no longer eat corn-fed animal products-- we eat pasture fed only and only organic. He hasn't ticced in a long time, so long that he doesn't remember what it was like.

 

He still will react if he gets accidental ingestion of corn in the form of dark red circles under his eyes-- a far cry from two weeks of chronic ticcing, or the chronic multifocal ticcing that he had at onset.

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thanks for posting this Caryn

 

even tho my son did not show any corn allergy when tested, he knows that corn is bad for both his tics, OCD and especially his Crohn's and he has been totally corn free for some time now and feels it is essential for him

 

I am not at all surprised to read this report. GM anything scares me along with the way corn, in some form or another, has been added into just about everything one finds on the supermarket shelves :)

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Caryn (or anyone else)

did you ever have any liver function test results on any of your son's bloodwork over the years? I ask because recent bloodwork shows my son's AST level at 41, with the normal ref range being 10-40. so not terrribly high, but up there in the range. the other liver function is the ALT, and that is fine in the mid range. The doctor isn't really worried about it, but I alsomentioned that they also found a high level of mangangese in my son too. we don't really know what this means yet, and we hve a couple of appt. this week to see if anyone does know what this may signify. this doctor said he's never had a child come up high before, so he doesn't know what they would do about it. ..... so just wondering about the liver aspect, if anyone has had numbers out of the range for AST or ALT, those are the liver tests.

 

I hear you fine about the corn, don't know if you've followed some of my postings, but my guy is off the chart with weight, so dietary right now is a really hard thing for us. I think his issues are more tangled up than just dietary or I would have seen some positive results all these years.

 

thanks for any info.

 

 

Faith

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Caryn (or anyone else)

did you ever have any liver function test results on any of your son's bloodwork over the years? I ask because recent bloodwork shows my son's AST level at 41, with the normal ref range being 10-40. so not terrribly high, but up there in the range. the other liver function is the ALT, and that is fine in the mid range.

Faith

 

 

Faith,

 

I went digging---

 

At birth our son was severely jaundiced and had high bilirubin levels. He remained jaundiced for about four weeks before it cleared. This is why I have always believed that the liver was his problem, that and a visit to an acupuncturist that also confirmed it when he was 4. At baseline when we had him tested at 3 1/2 while he was at the height of ticcing/ocd, etc..... his creatinine levels were VERY high (indicating problems with kidney function). His bilirubin levels at that time were not a significant factor. Interesting. I'm glad you asked. I might not have otherwise went back to look it up.

 

Perhaps the kidneys were more effected in his case than the liver.... At that time his neutraphils were VERY high and his lymphs were very low, a sign of infection in the body. This is what led us to pursue the PANDAS dx initially but we later abandoned that idea as we further tested our son and discovered that he had metabolic issues that were affecting his symptoms and that there wasn't a tell tale sign of strep. This is very eye opening to me now as an 'after the fact' look, because the original doc did not even address the kidney issue at all with my son.

 

I will have to look into it more in the future. I have sort of taken a break from it all over the last several months because I needed the mental and emotional break from it. We've just been enjoying life and living it to the fullest without focusing on what makes us 'unwhole'. And he has been doing so well that I haven't felt the need to investigate causes and effects. But I am so appreciative of all the help I received from people I have met online that I have an overwhelming need to pay it forward.

 

Don't stop looking until you know the cause.

 

Caryn

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Just to update, concerning the liver function results that I listed above, I had an appt. with our DAN doc (he's also an immunologist/allergist) and he didn't think those numbers were concerning at all. (but of course, I wonder).

 

I also mentioned elsewhere that my son came up with a high level of manganese in his blood testing, so we are still looking at that aspect, the DAN ordered a repeat along with other metals and we'll go from there. I'll keep you posted on that topic.

 

Faith

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Caryn,

 

What did you do to improve liver and sulfation sysems. Just food elimination? Also did your son have poor sleeping habits??? restless?? awaken at 3am in the night? just curious. thanks so much

 

 

abbe

 

 

Abbe,

At his worst he slept 7 hrs a day. It was horrendous. He would lie awake for up to two hours blinking in bed and I would sit with him in the dark and cry. He was a chronic bed wetter too, and that resolved after he was put on the anti-fungal diet for a while. Corn is a big trigger for him, hyperness, sleeplessness, bed wetting. He did have night wakings at that time but I don't know if that was so much his condition or my parenting. He was never a good sleeper and didn't sleep through the night until 6 mos old. My younger two were completely different and so was I, so am not sure if it was technique or his condition.

 

The clean diet is less taxing on the liver and kidneys. I suppose that was the main thing. We did acupuncture for a short while but he was too young and didn't really take to it so we quit. He had light symptoms after we reintroduced more foods (sweets and stuff) and so I started NAC supps at a very low dose (like 1/4 a cap a day at 100 mg a cap, so about 25mg). The symptoms stopped completely. We kind of phased out the NAC and now he is in 'remission' again. So we will continue like this until we see symptoms and then we will start with NAC and possibly more restrictive diet again. I just don't see a reason to do it now when he is fine and happy and symptom free. I must watch to see if his symptoms are a seasonal thing. That is sometimes the case with these kids. We live near a corn field.

 

Caryn

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OK ..i'm back to chiming in....you guys probably thought i was gone...no such luck (computer had a virus this time)

 

when my boy was 5 and his tic changed from eye blink to shoulder shrug his bun/crio was 42 on scale of 6-25 ....docs said don't worry about it

(isn't there a scale for areason)

 

now age 9 bun/crio 47 on scale of 6-25 doc's still say don't worry?????

ast 34 top range 32

alt 40 top range 30

 

 

this new tic onset started 4/6/09 and draw was done 4/23/09..as per previous posts we saw a doc on 4/5/09 (the day before) since ds said he didn't feel good

absolute eosinophils 661 on a scale of up to 500

 

thyroid problems run on both sides of family, my side hoshimots and low thyroid none serious lupus on other

ds' tsh was also slightly out of range

 

i've done gf/cf have not done corn elimination...are you(they) saying this corn could be affecting kidneys

 

if we go corn free...how long till we see results ..i know some say a day, but could it take longer, like 2 weeks to give it a fair trial our should we go a month?

we were gf/cf for 3 months and i don't wont to go 3 if it only takes 1 month for real results.

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Hi Fixit,

 

I'm sorry I'm not familiar with your whole story as I haven't been reading the boards much the last six months. I won't speak to the Pandas issue at all, since we didn't go that route treatment-wise.

 

If your child has a true autoimmune issue (as I believe mine does) and corn is a trigger (like a true allergy) then it is a long process of learning what has corn in it and keeping the child completely corn-free in order to get the antibody levels down to a manageable level.

 

For us it was a long slow process that took about five months on a really slow learning curve. I kept feeding my son things that he was reacting to because they had hidden corn and I didn't realize it. So if I had quit back then I would have thought that the elimination diet didn't work. In reality I wasn't doing it right. I met a few people online and found a fantastic website to help me get more effective at it. www.cornallergens.com

 

Then I started calling manufacturers regularly to find hidden corn. I started my own safe list that included gluten free too. http://healthy-family.org/safe-products

 

We started in the spring and he wasn't noticeably better until well into the fall, six months later. I think my son was pretty severe, from talking to others with corn allergies. I had to change shampoo, soap, toothpaste. Had to be careful with waxed fruit, avoid vanilla, all citric acid, all white vinegar, a ton of ingredients that you would not think are corn derived. It was crazy. Now, almost three years later he has a much higher tolerance for corn. We still stick to the diet but the few times he has accidentally eaten something he did not have the usual two weeks of constant ticcing or other reactions. It was much milder.

 

The celiac specialist said that antibodies rise and fall slowly and not meal by meal as many think. It takes months, years for a celiac to get into a normal range. I think the same principle applies to all allergies. We tested our son about a year ago and his antibodies were still elevated-- after two years. They were close to normal but still elevated.

 

The problem I find with the GFCF diet is that it does not fully address the possible fungal issues that are present in kids with neuro issues, especially Austism spectrum. It allows corn (highly fungal) and sugars in the diet in a child that is sick and reactive. I think that the sugar is better tolerated after the child is in a recovery stage but still has to be watched and minimal. It is inflammatory. Chocolate, peanuts, these are also problematic.

 

It is hard to know what the right thing to do is. Just trust your instinct.

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If your child has a true autoimmune issue (as I believe mine does) and corn is a trigger (like a true allergy) then it is a long process of learning what has corn in it and keeping the child completely corn-free in order to get the antibody levels down to a manageable level.

 

 

what are the 'antibodies' that you refer to? splain pls?

 

 

Faith

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If your child has a true autoimmune issue (as I believe mine does) and corn is a trigger (like a true allergy) then it is a long process of learning what has corn in it and keeping the child completely corn-free in order to get the antibody levels down to a manageable level.

 

 

what are the 'antibodies' that you refer to? splain pls?

 

 

Faith

 

 

Faith,

 

There are several kinds of antibodies. I'm sure you understand this but will post a link for anyone else reading this for the first time:

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/immunoglobulins

 

In the case of Celiac disease, where the body has an autoimmune 'allergic' reaction to wheat gluten, the patient begins to produce an antigliadin antibody that begins to attack the person's own tissues. It is an inflammatory disease that begins to attack multiple body systems and the symptoms vary from patient to patient. Both my aunt and my son were tested after considerable time on a strict gluten free diet and both had seen their antibody levels fall as a result of the diet. The Celiac specialist explained that the levels rise and fall slowly, over time, and rely heavily on total elimination in order to fall in a steady fashion. If you are having an immune reaction to the food and you 'cheat' on a weekly basis than you are not giving your body adequate time to heal itself and to lower those 'reactive' antibody levels to a point where they are manageable. I used to think that my son's sensitivity was always going to be heightened and that eating out would be a major issue, etc.... After all in the beginning we had to give it up because he would puke or get explosive diarrhea (antibodies were high back then). Last spring, after doing this religiously for two years, he ate a Dunkin Donut and the only thing that happened was a bit of constipation. A far cry from the old days. His body had healed. The celiac specialists will tell you that this is common in recovered patients but that eventually, if they fall off the bandwagon, those antibodies will slowly build again until the disease state returns again.

 

Another example, my friend has Lupus. She went on Doug's Antifungal diet last year and 'recovered' after about two months on it. She was doing great for about six months. Then she began to 'cheat' a little here and there. She increased her sugar intake until finally, after five months, her symptoms returned again and she had to go back on the diet.

 

Now, on the issue of corn. It is my firm believe that we are sitting on a sleeping 'giant' if you will. I think that because of the corn refiner's assoc. in the States that there has been a real absence of 'anti' corn testing, etc..... I would not be surprised if in the next 10 years we discover that there is a similar autoimmune disorder like Celiac plaguing folks with corn intolerance. A century ago there was much data on Pellegra as a harmful disease associated with too much corn in the diet. Corn is not nutritive. It is harmful, especially now that the gov't has made it legal to genetically modify it by fusing DNA from weeds into the man-made seeds.

 

So to answer your question, no-- there isn't a named disease associating Corn with a specific autoimmune disorder like Celiac. I will tell you this, a growing majority of celiacs in the States are finding that they can no longer eat corn because it does the same thing to them that gluten does. Go figure.

 

So I step down from my stump. Sorry for the long lecture. My passion just gets the best of me sometimes.

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Oh my goodness Caryn

 

For us it was a long slow process that took about five months on a really slow learning curve. I kept feeding my son things that he was reacting to because they had hidden corn and I didn't realize it. So if I had quit back then I would have thought that the elimination diet didn't work. In reality I wasn't doing it right. I met a few people online and found a fantastic website to help me get more effective at it. www.cornallergens.com

 

Then I started calling manufacturers regularly to find hidden corn. I started my own safe list that included gluten free too. http://healthy-family.org/safe-products

 

.

 

i know certain things hide gluten....but that corn list in rediculous.....

Did you elimate all of that? was is ok at minimal levesls.

 

did you just eat potatoes and meat.......no frozen stuff either.....

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Oh my goodness Caryn

 

i know certain things hide gluten....but that corn list in rediculous.....

Did you elimate all of that? was is ok at minimal levesls.

 

did you just eat potatoes and meat.......no frozen stuff either.....

 

I am chuckling at your post. Yes. It is ridiculous. But it worked. Hats off to Jenny Connors who really pioneered things for corn allergy people with that website. You have no idea the work involved in that. A lot of those folks read U.S. patents to find hidden corn. I think that is how they discovered that in America it is in 100% of iodized salt. We only use sea salt.

 

Meat is tough, too, because the beef in this country is from corn fed feedlot animals and their diet is pretty much corn based. They are not healthy stock. As a result the corn allergic folks advocate buying only organic grass fed. We didn't do that in the beginning but we do now, through a farmer direct and so we pay a lot less than the prices at Whole Foods. I am telling you, if you have a kid who is reactive to corn this is what works. It is crazy but it works over time. I knew a woman who had a child with behavior problems and depression and after they found out about her corn allergy and went corn free she really improved. In their case she had to make her own homemade toothpaste. We use silly strawberry from Tom's of Maine. Some kids are more reactive than my son was.

 

To get the antibody levels down you have to eliminate all known sources and stay that way for as long as possible. Corn is tough so there will be a lot of accidents along the way but eventually you learn and then it is really not so bad. Food is totally not an issue here anymore. We do buy and use a lot of frozen fruit and veggies. We eat home cooked food every night. We avoid all fast food and all processed foods. We have included some jellies and other condiments lately with residual possible corn byproducts (like pectin and citric acid) and he did not have a reaction. He also ate a regular candy cane at school this past holiday and got a couple of red shiners under his eyes for about a week. So if you give the body a chance it will heal itself over time, but 100% avoidance is the only way to get there and stay there.

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Now, on the issue of corn. It is my firm believe that we are sitting on a sleeping 'giant' if you will. I think that because of the corn refiner's assoc. in the States that there has been a real absence of 'anti' corn testing, etc..... I would not be surprised if in the next 10 years we discover that there is a similar autoimmune disorder like Celiac plaguing folks with corn intolerance. A century ago there was much data on Pellegra as a harmful disease associated with too much corn in the diet. Corn is not nutritive. It is harmful, especially now that the gov't has made it legal to genetically modify it by fusing DNA from weeds into the man-made seeds.

 

So to answer your question, no-- there isn't a named disease associating Corn with a specific autoimmune disorder like Celiac. I will tell you this, a growing majority of celiacs in the States are finding that they can no longer eat corn because it does the same thing to them that gluten does. Go figure.

 

So I step down from my stump. Sorry for the long lecture. My passion just gets the best of me sometimes.

 

Ok if you look up Pellagra ,the same definition as your spelling, it shows related deseases.

 

and it talks about Caries which affects the jaw????? and if untreated affects the brain!!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caries

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