CuringAutismBlog

Mike was acting really strangely yesterday. Actually, he was manic. It started right before lunch, he said, and didn't have anything to do with anything he ate or did. By the afternoon when I picked him up he was as high as a kite. Couldn't do his homework or focus on anything. At least he was in a good mood, could have been a lot worse!!

I got to wondering about his meds, the two that he is still on, Cymbalta and Clonazepam. I looked up the indications for Cymbalta, an anti-depressant, and saw that it isn't supposed to be good for bipolar. Well, I was looking at bipolar, I thought, and so I needed to email the doctor. So I emailed his doctor and asked whether he should be taken off Cymbalta.

Then I thought maybe I'd reduce his dose a little myself, just to start with, and I opened his daily pill minder. I was stunned to discover that I had forgotten to put his meds in there! Lots of supplements, but no Cymbalta or Clonazepam! He had been without them since Friday. This was Monday.

I felt really bad. At least he wasn't suffering any. So I gave him some meds last night, and this morning, and sheepishly emailed the doctor again.

Ah, well.

Time to take stock after more than six months of stuffing supplements down Mike.

Costs: considerable at first under Dr. Amy Yasko, much less in the past 2-3 months under the applied kinesiologist chiropractor. The chiropractor was able to test whether a Yasko supplement is helping. She also suggested some new supplements that do help Mike. Her testing is just a fraction of the cost of the Yasko-style urine testing. Mike is on 15 supplements now as opposed to 31 under Yasko. He is not taking the terribly expensive RNA one that Yasko's protocol called for. But I can't complain about Yasko; she got us started on this, and if we hadn't gotten started, we wouldn't have the benefits.

Benefits:
For Mike (age 15): a much smoother emotional ride each day, not such a roller coaster. Better able to focus. Still has occasional blow-ups, so is not "cured."

For me: able to abandon my no-carb diet, which I relied on for many years to keep depression at bay. When I ate carbs, I felt terrible. Now I can eat them, thanks to supplementation with P5P B6, a form of this vitamin my body apparently can't make by itself. By eating carbs, I mean eating bread! Yahoo! And pasta! Things most people take for granted. Now I can also eat the occasional sweet thing. Also, my knees are no longer swollen. I found I am allergic to wheat and have been avoiding it, and I do feel a lot better for that too.

For Shannon (age 20): much better digestion. Not sure what else.

The applied kinesiologist chiropractor isn't done working on us yet, so we'll see what else happens.

Mike has had an occasional episode in the past several weeks. But he is doing far better than before.

The applied kinesiologist chiropractor is currrently working on getting rid of retained reflexes. These are reflexes that you had as an infant that your nervous system is supposed to grow out of, and hasn't. One example you may be familiar with is that if you touch a baby's cheek, the baby will turn her head toward the touch.

Dr. C. says both Mike and I have these retained relexes. She massages the nervous system to get rid of them, basically. Having the retained reflexes can cause all sorts of nervous system problems, she says. Here is an article about it: http://www.centeredge.com/article2a.htm

I did find a supplement that helps me and might help others who are related to me, especially people in middle age or older. It's P5P B6, a form of vitamin B6. Apparently many people with autism in the family can't make B6 into P5P B6 (they lack an enzyme that does it). P5P B6 is the form the body uses. If you don't have enough, you can get all kinds of problems including confusion, depression, irritability, memory problems, migraines, eipilepsy and ADD. Here I am quoting a newsletter from www.drmarcuslaux.com that my husband's Aunt Rosemary sent me.

My chiropractor put me on this stuff and a couple of other things back in November, and poof, now I can eat carbs, after having enormous difficulties with carbs since the age of 42 Wow, what a difference!

http://organicpharmacy.org/products/Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate/SKU:PL-856 is the one I am taking, two per day. Be sure it is enteric-coated to survive the trip through the stomach acid bath into the small intestine. Also be sure you are taking a B complex vitamin too.

Might as well update you on me too. As I have mentioned, I have some big problems that came on some years ago at the beginning of middle age. They involve inability to eat any carbs without very bad consequences, including depression or fatigue. I gradually figured out how to live with it: don't eat carbs.

The applied kinesiologist chiropractor, Dr. C., has put me on several supplements. These have made a vast difference in my ability to eat carbs without bad consequences. These are:
P5P B6, a B6 vitamin
magnesium citrate
calcium citrate
"Lipotrope"


and more recently:
calcium d-glutarate

I remain on these supplements from before:

"Plus," a formula by Mannatech for hormone support
B complex with choline and inositol
cod liver oil
HHC general vitamin (Yasko)

Dr. C also informed me that I have a wheat allergy. I feel very good when I don't eat wheat. Unfortunately not eating wheat at Christmas time isn't easy, so I fell off the wagon. But now I am back on it and feeling pretty good!

Praise the Lord for answering prayers.

Well, the applied kinesiologist chiropractor has now tested all Mike's supplements, and then some. Instead of a list of 31 supplements from the Yasko protocol per Dr. Mullan, he now has 10. He also has five more supplements that are not on the Yasko protocol.

In case you missed it, the applied kinesiologist is able to get feedback from one's body on a particular supplement. In "muscle testing," the body shows muscle weakness right after being exposed to a substance, if it is bad for you. Conversely,the muscles are not weak and even strengthened if it is good for you, what your body needs.

Things seem quite a bit simpler than they were. How on earth do you keep track of when 31 supplements are running out and you need to re-order? I didn't have that one figured out. Also I was very suspicious of some of them, especially the RNA, which was unbelievably expensive, like $5 a day. I am so glad he doesn't need that. I am very relieved.

Mike seems calmer now. He did have a blow-up, hollering at me, right after my last post when I said it had been a while. Figures. So he does have some episodes. But they are fewer. He is also doing considerably better in school, but a huge factor in that is the fact that he now has an IEP, as of mid-December, and an aide to help him out in several of his classes. (He is a freshman at the local public high school.)

He is still on a somewhat low-protein diet, perhaps 45 grams per day most days.

Here are the supplements he is taking:
Multi vitamin, Neuro-Health Formula
Methyl B-12
Riboflavin 5-Phosphate
Pantothenic Acid
Quercetin
Vitamin C
Policosanol
Phosphatidyl Serine
Udo's 3-6-9 Oil
Molybdenum Piccolinate
Magnesium Citrate
Ora-Adren 80 (crushed cow adrenals)
Ambrotose
Curcumin
Yucca

Mike hasn't hollered at me for a couple of weeks, I think. This is very odd. He is usually extremely ornery and argumentative when I tell him to do something.

He is also doing much better in school, but that is partly because he has an IEP now after mid-December and has an aide and some other assistance.

I surely hope all this continues!!

We are seeing the Applied Kinesiologist chiropractor next Tuesday, after a hiatus for the holidays. I think she is going to check him for food allergies next.