Thursday, February 21, 2013

Rescuing my son: Testing for biochemical imbalance in the brain (Part 2)

After we got the results of the neurotransmitter test, our nutritionist explained to us the next step was to get Tommy into a neurotransmitter treatment ASAP. So we started with the this treatment on October 16, 2012. What make me confident about this treatment is that it is not invasive, it is safe for kids and it was the first thing our nutritionist brought up when I was just about to ask her. She read my mind! 


Our son's treatment was established according to the recommendation of clinicians from the top leader in neurocience treatments with the direction of our nutritionist. The treatment does not involved any type of medical drugs. The treatments consist in vegetarian capsules, medical food and oral spray. We have to give 3 pills, 2 sprays and a formula in the mornings as well as 2 sprays at noon, a formula at the afternoon during the afternoon snack and 1 pill and 2 sprays in the evening.

The propose of this treatment is to protect  his GABA neurotransmitter. I cannot get over that his GABA is in a perfect level. I always STUDY about everything in my action plan before trying with Tommy. When I was in my search of what was happening to Tommy and how to help him, it came across Ginkgo Biloba, which is well know among parents with a child with Down syndrome because scientist researches show that Ginkgo Biloba leaf extract can enhance memory and learning because it increases the GABA. This works perfect for an individual with GABA deficiency. When I asked our nutritionist about Ginkgo, she said she understood the reason, but she didn't advise to give it to Tommy. I am glad I followed her advise because neurotransmitters should be in optimum level. I don't doubt about what scientists have found about GABA deficiency in people with Trisomy 21 and the supplementation of Ginko Biloba to increase GABA receptors in people with Trisomy 21. Because this scientist discovering doesn't apply to my son's GABA test results, I am wondering again, Does Tommy have Moisac Down syndrome? For know, I will keep focusing in my action plan.

The main focus of the treatment is get DOPAMINE, NOREPINEPHRINE, EPINEPHRINE and GLUTAMATE into balance or at least near to normal. Specially GLUTAMATE because this nurotransmiter itself is a neurotoxin if there is in a high level in the brain. The treatment does not target SEROTONIN, but getting all the other neurotransmitters in balance will help to lower SEROTONIN. There is not a concern on high levels of SEROTONIN right now. But It doesn't improve, in the future, I will ask for a second opinion. Why? All neurotransmitter should be in balance for the brain and body to work properly.  High levels of SEROTONIN may not affect so much a typical person, but I see it as a red flag because of Tommy's genetic disorder and high levels of SEROTONIN may cause serious disease if it remains high. This is another reason Ginkgo Biloba is not recommended for Tommy. Ginkgo increases SEROTONIN, so there is not need to increase his levels. The more I read about neurotransmitters and trisomy 21, the more I understand the connection between many health issues our kids face due to biochemical imbalances. This treatment works also to improve muscle tone, which we are starting to see because Tommy is getting muscle tone faster in his cord as well as other areas of his body (oral muscles). I also think it is a mixture of the treatment and therapies.


Our nutritionist also incorporated a detoxification treatment to support the liver's normal function to realize toxins, which will help to lower GLUTAMATE faster. She also recommended epsom salt baths, which is other non-invasive way of helping the body to realize toxins. In our last appointment on February 18, 2013, she suggested to incorporate detoxification food in Tommy's diet such as: cilantro and parsley. Tommy already likes cilantro and it is part of our daily meals, just because we use a lot of cilantro to cook in my country, Panama.

The neurotransmitter treatment main goal is to protect Tommy's brain because, in a long term, this can cause irreversible damage to his brain cells, the same damage than drugs do. Before it was believed that brain cells couldn't regenerate, but today's neuroscience has found that they do regenarate. So the main benefit of this treatment will be seen in cauple of years when Tommy's brain cells will start the regeneration process. A scientist research  found in 2011 that neurons can regenerate with high brain stimulation which seems promising for people with Parkinson and cognitive impairment. 

Nutritional Intervention
It has been a year since we started the nutritional intervention. Tommy's recovery has been a long process that started with the nutritional therapy followed by the neurotransmitter treatment. We have weakness how this have improved his health by getting ripped off the asthma label. It feels so good having the note from the pulmonary doctor saying Tommy does not have asthma symptoms. This proves that  traditional medicine treat symptoms and not the cause. Tommy had viral asthma instead of classical asthma, but the available treatment in traditional medicine is for the classical asthma, so they just loaded him with steroids and drugs.  Having a patient with X label is more lucrative for the pharmaceutical investors. The doctors are just stock in the middle, they apply what they have been thought, so they do not know there is other way. When we got Tommy out of the hospital, they sent Tommy home with medications for asthma even when he wasn't diagnosed yet. We paid about $100 for those medications and every time we have to get the medications it was more and more money and Tommy was not showing real symptoms of asthma. Because of the label of asthma he had to get the most expensive flu vaccine. When the effective method for the viral asthma is lowering the internal inflammation, which is what we did thru nutritional intervention.

In our appointment on August,  our nutritionist was wonder why Tommy's anxiety was so high even when we were already supplementing with Omega 3, I decided to revise Tommy's nutrition because I was concern we were missing something. As I said, I STUDY everything that I am doing in my action plan, I read three books about nutritions and its effects in the body —so I got armed with a lot information.  I revised Tommy's nutrition from what he eats, the quality of water he drinks to supplements. So I made some changes:

Omega 3: Even we were supplementing with omega 3, the supplement we were giving to him didn't have high levels of EPA. So we got a high potency Omega 3 which has high levels of EPA. If you would like to know more about Anxiety and Omega 3 click here.

Water: The state where we live has a good quality of water and it is among one of the best in the country. But it is not complete free of toxins such as: lead, mercury, etc. So we get a water filter so all the water we use for cooking and drinking is filtered water. This will help to reduce the amount of toxins getting into his body. This will take work out of the liver because it won't have to work so hard in getting ripped off the toxins that are already in the system and new toxins.

Pills: Tommy just take one pill for hypothyroidism.  I asked to his ENT doctor if we could exchange his pill to one with less chimicals. She agreed and he is in a dye free pill. I am looking into organic replacement hormone pills, but it will take a while until we do this, because I need more time to study about it, but I alredy found a doctor to work with.

Zinc: We added zinc supplement to his diet, even when we didn't do a blood work. But we will request it a zinc test in his coming annual check-up. The reason we supplemented without the test is because Tommy had pretty much all the symtoms of zinc defficiency. My husband found a zinc supplementation that helps with absorption as well as keeps the zinc in optimal levels, so the zinc doesn't get poisoning. Two weeks after we started sumplmenting with zinc, Tommy's appetite began to improve and began to drink plain water without too much struggles.


Everything Organic: We are not 100% organic as I would like to, but we are moving forward. I will say we are between 60% and 70% organic. We are also trying that his supplements are also organic. Why everything organic? Because the organic label means free of contaminants if they are certified 100% organic, so this will help to reduce toxins getting into Tommy's baby. For fruits and vegetable to be certified as organic, the whole process of cultivating them have to be organic starting with the soil, following by the seeds. Then, the filtered or spring water  to water them as well as organic fertilizers and organic pesticides. As a consumer, you and I are not advise that chemicals from the pesticides in fruits and vegetables we eat go to the brain once they get into our system. So I feel I am slowly killing my kids if I keep giving them non-organic food. The more we, the consumers, demand organic food the more the organic food prices will be affordable for everybody and we will have a healthier society.


THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!


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In my next post, I will talk what is happening to Tommy after the first 4 months of treatment. 

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