Can Natural Treatments help Alleviate a Chronic Multifocal Tic Disorder?
This is basically what happened to us two years ago when we took our then almost 4-year-old son to a neurologist after he began to exhibit noticeable ticcing behaviors during the Christmas holidays. This is our story, and I attempt to tell it in hopes that other folks who find themselves reading this narrative may find a bit of usable knowledge and above all else, hope.
About 20 percent of children may develop tics at some point during their prepubescent years. Usually mild cases involve eye blinking or nose scrunching and are pretty benign in nature. I was never aware of them, quite honestly, until my oldest son developed tics about two years ago after we took him for his preschool vaccines.
Since the fall and winter of 2006, I’ve noticed that mild tics are fairly common in the public. Most kids who develop them are pretty good at creatively making them a discrete part of their lives. Most folks who have kids with tics notice that they wax and wane in unpredictable cyclic fashion, often times correlating with allergy seasons or viral and bacterial outbreaks. Some see waxing and waning correlate with diet. For others there is no known correlation between tics and environmental or dietary influence. Others claim that stress is a major factor in the development of tics. If you pay attention to folks while at the airport or a crowded shopping mall you may find one or two twitchy ones passing you by.
In our case what we saw was an increase in tics that seemed to pick up speed and intensity, like a snowball rolling down hill, over the course of three months. What started with a chronic sniffing that we originally missed as a tic, was soon combined with a mild, benign eye blinking tic. When the sniffing and eye blinking was accompanied by a slow exaggerated blink and shoulder shrug we knew we had something serious we were dealing with. More movements and sounds followed: teeth grinding, lip smacking, sleeve pushing, grimacing and neck twitching. Now our son had whole host of dysfunctional movements and sounds that began to impede on his daily activities. He began to develop very real fears, anxieties, and routines that seemed uncharacteristic of his little developing personality. Article continues on next page…
This article is exactly what I needed to start with in trying to figure out how to help an adult loved one with occasional tics. It is greatly encouraging to know that there are means to help them so they don’t have to tough it out on their own. Your family’s approach to your son’s tics and the steep learning curve that everyone has reached and shared with so many of us are truly inspiring and moving.
yes the love you had to your son is very inspiring. i also want to share this links to you.
http://www.mercola.com/downloads/bonus/Dangers-of-Mercury/report.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/04/16/latitudes-interview.aspx
if you have time you can read the articles, i hope this could help you. thanks for sharing this article. it really gives a big help especially to those experiencing this problem.
Thanks Mercola,
I agree that mercury poisoning is a very real problem for many kids who tic. Surprisingly, in our case, our son had no heavy metal poisoning. The only element he was high in was copper, which is also dangerous and can cause depression. He was also anemic, which is puzzling to doctors. Unless, of course, they are familiar with celiac disease. Then it makes sense.
I think it is important for parents to get their children tested for heavy metal toxicity, to either rule it out as a possibility or identify it as a possible trigger. Mercury is present in a select few vaccines still (and we were careful not to give any for our son, by the way), and are also present in CFL lights and thermometers. We originally had a real fear that our son had heavy metal poisoning. But surprisingly, in our case, that wasn’t so.
My 17 yr old son hasAsperger’s, OCD, anxiety, a few processing disorders, and started with vocal tics when we had to take him off of Risperdal d/t elevated liver enzymes and A1C, as well as prolactin. He was also on Lexapro. He is now on Clonidine and Zoloft with minimal, if any success. He stared with verbal tics when he got off of the Risperdal that lasted 2 wks. Now 2 mo. later he has had them again for 2 wks – though yesterday and today they have decreased. We have considered going to the Pfieffer treatment center, but in talking to them it sounded like they had not had success with tics. Your story gives me hope! His tics increased when he went up to 200 mg/day of Zoloft so now we have cut him down to 100 mg and the tics seem to be lessening after a week. The dr. was talking of changing him to another antidepressant or putting him on topamax or some other drug. I don’t want him on any! But he was so bad 5 yrs ago we could hardly talk to him because of the constant praying and anxiety.
Hi Debbie,
I can’t really relate with your experience on mood enhancing medications for OCD, tics, and anxiety. I do know of a forum called Braintalk which could be very helpful but the server is being moved at the moment and it is down since March 31. Your son’s tics could be the result of the medication, possibly– but without more than just a research knowledge of medication for tics/OCD I am not much help in that regard.
I will tell you that there are many natural treatment options to boost seratonin naturally in the body. We have utilized many. We have also used supplements that helped stimulate the liver to make it function better.
There are many tests available that can assist you in determining which treatment route you want to take. You also need to find a good support group that knows the ins and outs of drug interactions and natural treatments. I know that sometimes the combinations of natural supps and prescription meds are dangerous when combined.
In your research you will quickly learn that medical doctors know little about holistic approaches and natural treatments. This is not a slight on medical professionals. Many are very willing to try alternatives when they are supported by research and studies.
In our experience the tics were immune related. Our son had undiagnosed celiac and leaky gut issues that seemed to correct itself when we put him on a special diet. It took a long time. Pfeiffer was great for creating a baseline for us to go on. The many lab tests helped us to pin point where we needed to go with treatment. We did do additional tests that they didn’t offer. We have also used Enterolabs with our whole family to determine sibiling risk for Celiac and also to do annual checks on gliadin antibodies in our dxd son to make sure he is in the normal range continually. Great Plains Labs has a series of tests for Tourette Syndrome, Autism, and OCD that check for viral, bacterial, and yeast overgrowth in the gut. They also measure nutrient levels in the urine and test for allergies via blood. There was a holistic approach to healing our son. The combined treatments over a long period of time helped to repair his immune system and put his symptoms into remission. If you would like to speak with someone that has personal experience coming off of Clonidine with her teen son I can refer you to her (with her permission).
Here is a list of threads on different studies related to OCD and Tourettes and issues with digestion:
healthy-family.org/forum/index.php/board,8.0.html
Here is a website that lists most possible drug treatments and their side effects:
tourettestreatment.com/list-of-treatments.php
Tics can be the result of an allergic reaction. Many families report increase in tics during allergic seasons and also after ingesting certain foods. Dairy and Corn are biggies, followed by eggs and wheat. Fungal issues also play a major role in neuro issues. Gluten intolerance/celiac has been linked to Autism, OCD, and to schizophrenia. Pfeiffer has done studies on OCD and schizophrenia and nutrient deficiencies. It makes sense. In these cases the person is nutritionally starved even though they are eating heartily, because the intestines are stripped and so the nutrients do not absorb properly and thus it affects the person’s mood and behavior, and over time can effect the neuro system as well.
Caryn,
Thanks for sharing your story and your countless hours of research to help others! Our story is surprisingly similar to yours. We bought Sheila Rogers’ book several months ago and with the help of an Environmental Physician have finally found answers and relief for our son! We’ve found that gluten, corn, yeast, & tomatoes are major tic triggers for him. When we eliminated these foods and started supplements, we began to see dramatic improvements! I’m still amazed when I think about it.
We love your website! I especially love your product reviews and your recipes. There is nothing more frustrating than driving all the way to Whole Foods, spending a fortune on acceptable foods, spending more time cooking, only to have your family take 2 bites of a meal and to see the rest go down the garbage disposal because nobody liked it. My family has started asking when I make a new recipe if it is a “Caryn recipe.” They know that means it will taste good! We appreciate what you are doing! Keep it up!
The Smiths
My granddaughter, now 8, started excessively clearing her throat at age 5. Last year, she started jumping and blinking her eyes. She does it all her waking hours, there’s never a day that she gets any relief! I feel so bad for her. Her mother is in denial and refuses to do anything. She has taken her to a neurologist, but as I’m sure you were told, there’s no cure. They gave her a prescription for a medicine that the pharmacist told her might cause blindness so she won’t give it to her. She says that I’m the only one it bothers. You have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to hear and see these tics. They are terrible. I watch her every day and it breaks my heart to see her like this. Please help!
Jacqueline,
Without your daughter’s willingness, there isn’t much you can do, unfortunately. You could suggest eliminating dairy and supplementing with Kids Calm magnesium at night for a few weeks to see if she gets any relief at all. Magnesium relaxes muscles and if the diet is high in calcium there may be an imbalance there. Some families get relief just from doing this simple step. For us it was just the tip of the iceberg. We had to go so much further for relief. If your granddaughter does improve a little you can then pursue the idea of testing her for food allergies and vitamin mineral levels in her blood work. You can also test for gut imbalances like fungal overgrowth or bacterial overgrowth. Many of these kids have digestive problems. My son used to burp a lot all day long. Our alternative doctor said that was a red flag for digestive problems.
There are many, many, possible causes for the ticcing and without proper testing the treatments you try are really only going to be doing guess work at best. But a little relief after a couple simple changes may be enough to convince your daughter and granddaughter that it is worth looking into. I understand your daughter’s position, too, to a point. She probably needs to feel that you love and accept her daughter just the way she is, tics and all, without trying to ‘fix’ her. Not all kids get cured. But the alternative treatments to alleviate symptoms quite a bit for many. I was told by the neurologist to ‘ignore’ the tics too. So you have to understand that conventional medicine tells patients and their parents this. It is very hard for a person to reach out past conventional medicine to try alternative treatments because the doctors generally make you feel like a fool for considering it. I mentioned using vitamins and magnesium to my neurologist and she said it would not hurt my son in the least bit but that it would do nothing to cure him. That’s not encouragement, on the contrary, it does more to convince you not to try. The best kind of doctor to seek out is a DAN doctor (Defeat Autism Now). They are conventional doctors who have additional training in alternative medicine and are willing to do holistic testing and natural treatments. That is the route we took.
Our son started ticcing in 2007, and after changing his diet and using natural treatments to heal his gut it took 1 1/2 years before the symptoms went away completely. He last ticced while in kindergarten. He is now going into 3rd grade this fall. We eat as organic as possible with him, gluten free, low sugar, no artificial colors or preservatives, and plenty of water. He does not drink pop or eat anything with high fructose corn syrup. And he’s really pretty happy with the way things are. Oh, and we no longer see that neurologist at all ;>)
Dear Caryn,
I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to find this article. My daughter, age 6, has been having progressively worsening tics since early winter of this year. I could write her story, but it is actually about exactly what you have written above regarding your son. The details of similarity are stunning to me but you’re probably not surprised… sniffling/clearing throat was first (also missed as a tic) and quickly progressed to be multifocal, which it still is currently. I also received the same stories with the doctors that everyone receives. She is also gluten and corn intolerant. I have always believed in alternative medicine and have had them (my 4 yo son also, with Chronic Lyme) in an excellent set of alternative practitioners for about a year. The tics progressed to her jumping up and down repeatedly to where she couldn’t perform many simple duties without much frustration. I recently had a nurse of a specialty field explain the brown ring around her otherwise beautiful green eyes is not a good sign!
I know we are on the right track – exploring things that come to mind, food sensitivities, vitamin deficiencies, regular adjustments, etc. They take Kid’s Calm Multi and Natural Calm as well as a host of other supplements as needed. I am going to request a heavy metal test at her next appointment and was thinking of exploring the DAN Doctor option, but I was wondering if you could recommend any other steps right away that were maybe a bit of a “breakthrough” during your son’s care. If we don’t have to see another doctor, especially with the potential of travelling, it would be helpful since there is a lot of doctor seeing in our house lately.
Thank you so much for anything you can offer! Your note about not seeing a complete change for 1 ½ years is also helpful to know that the right track can still take plenty of time.
Amanda,
The tics can be a direct result of Lyme disease, too….. Has your daughter been tested, treated for Lyme? I don’t know much about the Lyme treatment protocol, but do understand that the ticcing is only a manifestation of various systemic problems in the body. The causes can differ as much as the treatments do. A systemic fungal infection (candidiasis) will cause similar ticcing symptoms, for example, but will worsen with antibiotic treatment, whereas they will lesson with a child suffering from Lyme induced ticcing. There was a dissertation written that supports the idea that tic disorders are an autoimmune reaction in the body. Thanks for sharing and keep us updated on what you learn! BTW, we are still 100% tic free over here and still managing his condition with diet and supplements.
Caryn