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Why my son may have recovered so fast on Flagyl


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I was sitting here preparing questions for our doc for a follow up call. One of the questions that perplexed me so much for an entire year is why Flagyl worked so well (he responded in the first 24 hours) for my son's acute OCD/tics in 2009. Flagyl (metronidazole) is prescribed as a "heavy hitter" for C. diff. and other anaerobic bacterial infections of the gut, as well as parasitic infections like Giardia (giardiasis). I found this below. I just wonder if some of you who are not responding well to the usual cast of antibiotics would benefit:

 

 

Metronidazole is an antibiotic especially effective against anaerobic infections (infections that grow without the presence of oxygen.) Unlike many antibiotics, metronidazole is able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and treat central nervous system infections. It also penetrates bone, making it especially useful in oral/dental infections. In addition, it has anti-inflammatory properties in the large intestine and is a very effective anti-diarrhea medication. It is an effective antibiotic against certain protozoal infections, especially giardia.

 

A common use of this medication would be the treatment of colitis, which may or may not be caused by inflammatory bowel disease.

 

I am certain, as ill as my son was, that he must have had a breach, and actually had CNS involvement.

Edited by Phasmid
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Great Post..thank you!!

 

I was sitting here preparing questions for our doc for a follow up call. One of the questions that perplexed me so much for an entire year is why Flagyl worked so well (he responded in the first 24 hours) for my son's acute OCD/tics in 2009. Flagyl (metronidazole) is prescribed as a "heavy hitter" for C. diff. and other anaerobic bacterial infections of the gut, as well as parasitic infections like Giardia (giardiasis). I found this below. I just wonder if some of you who are not responding well to the usual cast of antibiotics would benefit:

 

 

Metronidazole is an antibiotic especially effective against anaerobic infections (infections that grow without the presence of oxygen.) Unlike many antibiotics, metronidazole is able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and treat central nervous system infections. It also penetrates bone, making it especially useful in oral/dental infections. In addition, it has anti-inflammatory properties in the large intestine and is a very effective anti-diarrhea medication. It is an effective antibiotic against certain protozoal infections, especially giardia.

 

A common use of this medication would be the treatment of colitis, which may or may not be caused by inflammatory bowel disease.

 

I am certain, as ill as my son was, that he must have had a breach, and actually had CNS involvement.

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[/i]I am certain, as ill as my son was, that he must have had a breach, and actually had CNS involvement.

 

Wow! It will be interesting to hear what the doc says. Are you thinking that your son had an infection in his brain or central nervous system, or are you thinking that there was an infection in his body with anaerobic bacteria that caused a breach in the blood brain barrier and allowed anti neuronal antibodies to cross?

 

I am wondering if you have an idea where the infection was - was it gut related?

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Thank you so much for this post. I just copied your entire post into my list of what to discuss with our doctor on Friday!

 

My son has never shown a full, or even dramatic, improvement with antibiotics. The best we've been able to do is 75% better with IVIG, then we lost ground. So maybe this will be our answer. I'm just trying to follow up on every avenue until we get him healed.

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We've seen incredible results with flagyl as well. That stuff is powerful! My dd suffers from recurrent clostridia infections. We also saw huge gains from hyperbarics for the same reasons. We always have a regression after stopping though...... I can't seem to get the clostridia to stay away. We're about to start the flagyl again on friday. :)

 

I was sitting here preparing questions for our doc for a follow up call. One of the questions that perplexed me so much for an entire year is why Flagyl worked so well (he responded in the first 24 hours) for my son's acute OCD/tics in 2009. Flagyl (metronidazole) is prescribed as a "heavy hitter" for C. diff. and other anaerobic bacterial infections of the gut, as well as parasitic infections like Giardia (giardiasis). I found this below. I just wonder if some of you who are not responding well to the usual cast of antibiotics would benefit:

 

 

Metronidazole is an antibiotic especially effective against anaerobic infections (infections that grow without the presence of oxygen.) Unlike many antibiotics, metronidazole is able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and treat central nervous system infections. It also penetrates bone, making it especially useful in oral/dental infections. In addition, it has anti-inflammatory properties in the large intestine and is a very effective anti-diarrhea medication. It is an effective antibiotic against certain protozoal infections, especially giardia.

 

A common use of this medication would be the treatment of colitis, which may or may not be caused by inflammatory bowel disease.

 

I am certain, as ill as my son was, that he must have had a breach, and actually had CNS involvement.

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I was sitting here preparing questions for our doc for a follow up call. One of the questions that perplexed me so much for an entire year is why Flagyl worked so well (he responded in the first 24 hours) for my son's acute OCD/tics in 2009. Flagyl (metronidazole) is prescribed as a "heavy hitter" for C. diff. and other anaerobic bacterial infections of the gut, as well as parasitic infections like Giardia (giardiasis). I found this below. I just wonder if some of you who are not responding well to the usual cast of antibiotics would benefit:

 

 

Metronidazole is an antibiotic especially effective against anaerobic infections (infections that grow without the presence of oxygen.) Unlike many antibiotics, metronidazole is able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and treat central nervous system infections. It also penetrates bone, making it especially useful in oral/dental infections. In addition, it has anti-inflammatory properties in the large intestine and is a very effective anti-diarrhea medication. It is an effective antibiotic against certain protozoal infections, especially giardia.

 

A common use of this medication would be the treatment of colitis, which may or may not be caused by inflammatory bowel disease.

 

I am certain, as ill as my son was, ahe must have had a breach, and actually had CNS involvement.

 

i've also sent this to my dan doc and posted in doc t 's site to see if he has any thoughts...

Thanks Again!!!

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Ok, so here is how our follow up phone appt. went:

 

Although my son has made great gains in general behaviors (less ODD, happier, more motivated to do other things outside gaming, slightly), no headaches, better exercise tolerance after one month of azithromycin (actually taking a martial arts class and says he feels he has a lot of energy), he continues repetitive behaviors (like the mice that pull their hair out!) including pulling eyebrows out (all gone again :) ), and failure to control the care of bodily functions. Our doc (I LOVE HIM) says that this is indication there is still brain inflammation. He says this is common in autism.

 

Regarding my question about flagyl, he stated that it does cross the BBB and can have anti-inflammatory properties. More than these, he felt that quickly getting rid of the infection (whatever it was) helped reduce the number of circulating antibodies.

 

He told me that my son's regular pediatrician must not have read Cunningham's paper, since he made a statement about invalidity and clinical irrelevance (I LOVE HIM), and said that he really feels strongly that having a high CaMK number indicates an abnormal clinical condition (I LOVE HIM)...

 

He said based on his continued psych. symptoms, he will probably need IVIg, but wants to try 30 day tapering prednisone therapy first. I said I would be willing to give it a try. He will switch from systemic diflucan (antifungal) to the non-absorbed Nystatin, stay on Azithromycin until course finished, and continue with Omega-3 fatty acids and probiotic caps.

 

So, we continue to hold on and ride this out to the finish line.

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Wow!! You really hit the jackpot with that doctor!

 

Now I understand the crossing the BBB better - for reducing inflammation... Very interesting!

 

I'll be anxious to hear how your steroid burst goes. 30 days is a good amount of time, so if it is going to do something... you will see it!

 

Best of luck - Please keep us posted!!

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Thank you for this post. getting out the Flagyl as I type.

 

Nancy

I was looking it up and besides some pretty serious potential side effects, I found this warning...

 

WARNING

Metronidazole has been shown to be carcinogenic in mice and rats

 

So please talk to your doctors! I will definitely bring this up to see if something worth trying.

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I was sitting here preparing questions for our doc for a follow up call. One of the questions that perplexed me so much for an entire year is why Flagyl worked so well (he responded in the first 24 hours) for my son's acute OCD/tics in 2009. Flagyl (metronidazole) is prescribed as a "heavy hitter" for C. diff. and other anaerobic bacterial infections of the gut, as well as parasitic infections like Giardia (giardiasis). I found this below. I just wonder if some of you who are not responding well to the usual cast of antibiotics would benefit:

 

 

Metronidazole is an antibiotic especially effective against anaerobic infections (infections that grow without the presence of oxygen.) Unlike many antibiotics, metronidazole is able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and treat central nervous system infections. It also penetrates bone, making it especially useful in oral/dental infections. In addition, it has anti-inflammatory properties in the large intestine and is a very effective anti-diarrhea medication. It is an effective antibiotic against certain protozoal infections, especially giardia.

 

A common use of this medication would be the treatment of colitis, which may or may not be caused by inflammatory bowel disease.

 

I am certain, as ill as my son was, that he must have had a breach, and actually had CNS involvement.

 

I wanted to know if anyone could share some feedback about the long term use of Diflucan. My son is on a daily dose for at least as long as he is on azythromycin (^ weeks at least). I am worried about the potential risks involved and if anyone has has any negative experiences with this type of regiment. I plan on asking Dr. Lin as well and will report back. <_<

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Typically, diflucan is used short term (1 month) then nystatin, which can be used indefinitely since it is not absorbed into systemic circulation. The worry with Diflucan is liver function.

 

(Dr. Lin is our doc too!)

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my son was put on flagyl for Crohn's in 2006 and had a pretty ick reaction as his tics skyrocketed, and his digestion got mega messed up. It could have been a die off reaction but it was so intense that he refused to ever take it again

 

he has always seemed hypersensitive to most chemicals, including meds, so that may have played a part as well

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Phasmid,

 

I think this is very important too.

 

I found some research in relationship to psoriais/ strep that I find pretty interesting (and believe it may well be what happened to me after a skin infection).

 

If this is correct, it seems these antibodies may be stirred up by fungus or yeast, too.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P...ei0105-0079.pdf

 

Antibodies from patients with psoriasis recognize N-acetylglucosamine terminals in glycoproteins from Pityrosporum ovale.

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Phasmid,

 

I think this is very important too.

 

I found some research in relationship to psoriais/ strep that I find pretty interesting (and believe it may well be what happened to me after a skin infection).

 

If this is correct, it seems these antibodies may be stirred up by fungus or yeast, too.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P...ei0105-0079.pdf

 

Antibodies from patients with psoriasis recognize N-acetylglucosamine terminals in glycoproteins from Pityrosporum ovale.

 

 

I tried reading....and i'm not sure if i get what you are stating...

Just that you had a skin infection and it trigger psoriaisis

Or that yeast and Fungus can trigger a pandas reaction....

 

Thanks kim

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