Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Brain Inflammation and Candida

Candida is a fungus that we all have in our stomach, but if it overgrowths, it creates many health issues because it produces about 180 chemical toxins. Toxins in general pool the trigger for brain inflammation, which is very common in kids with Autism. Many of the symptoms for candida overgrowth are the same symptoms for Autism. Here are some symptoms of candida/Autism:
  • Fatigue and loss of energy/motivation
  • Inability to concentrate
  • Irritability
  • Bloating and gas
  • Diarrhea or constipation
  • Inappropriate laughter
  • Unexplained intermittent crying episodes
  • Belly aches
  • “Fogginess”
  • Lack of attention
  • Anger, aggression
  • Increased self-stimulatory behavior
  • High-pitched squealing
  • Increased sensory defensiveness
  • Climbing/jumping off things
  • Confusion
  • Inability to potty train, or loss of this skill
  • Eczema around the mouth
  • Food sensitivity or food allergy
We started to treat Candida overgrowth in June, 2014. We have been working hard in controlling Tommy's candida overgrowth/brain inflammation. We will retest Tommy for Candida to see if it has improved. Even when we don't have the test results, I have seen some improvement:
  • Less issues with Diarrhea
  • Flatter belly, so it looks less bloated.
  • Better auditory processing, so he is not getting so irritated with some noises. He jumped two digit span in Auditory processing without working on it, so auditory processing is a little faster than before. Every time he is able to process to a higher digit span, the closer he gets to auditory processing as a child of his age. 
  • More energy
  • More awareness at school
  • Better attention
  • Skills he lost are coming back without the involvement of therapy. For example: He is able to eat with the fork again, looking at books, blowing his nose.
  • Less aggression/irritability.
Treating brain inflammation has to be on hand with treating candida. So it is hard to separate on from the other. Reducing brain inflammation is the ultimate goal because it is what it causes many of the Autism issues. If we heal the gut; then, we heal the brain and vice-versa. Brain/gut is one system rather than separate systems as is commonly believed. 

Diet plays a huge role in controlling brain inflammation/candida overgrowth. So we have eliminated foods that feed the candida and foods that increases dopamine,which is resulting in A happier child because he is not engaging in self hurting behaviors anymore. Tommy's diet is not as complicate as many people think; howsoever,  It is not junk food or empty calories food. Here is a list of some of the organic vegetables, meats and spices/herbs Tommy's eats that work to treat candida overgrowth and brain inflammation:

VEGETABLES
- Spinach
- Zucchini
- Onions
- Garlic
- Asparagus
- Carrots
- Cucumber
- Lettuce
- Ginger Root
- Kale
- Swiss Chard
- Chard
- Green Peppers
- Red Peppers
- Yellow or Orange peppers
- Celery
- Sweet Potatoes
- Scallions

FRUITS
- Avocados

- Purple Grapes
- Pineapples
- Cantaloupes
- Bananas
- Apples
- Lemons
- Grapefruits
- Kiwis
- Mango
- Blueberries


HERBS/SPICES
- Thyme
- Oregano
- Turmeric
- Cinnamon
- Kelp Powder
- Ginger Powder
- Cayenne Pepper
- Parsley
- Bay Leaves
- Basil
- Black Pepper
- Sea salt

GOOD FATS
- Olive Oil
- Coconut Oil
- Flaxseed
- Cod Liver Oil
- Coconut Butter

MEAT/PROTEIN
- Chicken
- Bison
- Turkey
- Eggs (He overcame his food sensitivity to egg, howsoever, we don't give it to him regularly).

GRAIN (I could them from scratch, so I don't have enough time to cook them regularly).
- Red beans 
- Lentils 
- Quinua
- Brown Rice

I just listed some food, but the variety of food Tommy's eats is very extensive. Even at school, they are very surprised of the extensive variety of food Tommy eats because that it is not the norm for most kids of his age. So he truly doesn't have issues with what type of food he eats because he is not a picky eater. He has learned to eat really good and it became a life style for him to the point he quit eating cookies. Even when the cookies were really tasty and he could eat them because they were gluten, dairy and egg free, he just suddenly didn't like them anymore. 

As I mentioned above, TOXINS pool the trigger for brain inflammation. So it is not enough to control toxins that are produce inside Tommy's body, we also has to pay attention to the toxins that come from the environment. Once environmental toxins are in his system, his body struggles to get them out and all these toxins travel to brain increasing the neuro-immunity/brain inflammation as well as interfering with the normal function of the mitochondria. So now we are in the process to control toxins in his environment, we also has revised that there are environmental toxins that promote candida overgrowth, which are commonly found in tap water and swimming pools,  those are: Fluoride and Chlorine. So we will quit swimming lessons after April 2015. He is also not very interesting in the swimming lessons anymore, so I think it is time to take a brake. Instead, I will take the adventure of swimming in the lakes in our neighborhood which were designed for swimming and they are not treated with chlorine as the swimming pools. We will use sodium thiosulphate for the bathtub and water filter for cooking. 

There is a lot of changes that we will have to make in our lifestyle; howsoever, my son deserves we tried everything to help him to overcome his challenges due to his Autism diagnosis. He is the one that gives me hope when he shows me in one way or another that he is capable to learn more than what people think. He cannot verbalize it, but I discovered that he understands the concept 2D and 3D shapes and he can identified a large cylinder, short cylinder, sphere, pyramid, cube, cone, rectangular prism, triangular prism and hexagonal prism. He is here to change people's mind!

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT!

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