leelee,
Our former pediatrician and pediatric neurologist chose not to even look at the possibility that food could be causing our son's tics. Both pointed toward medication as a cure. We were afraid to do that as our son was only 4 at the time so we decided to do an IgG test (as suggested by a parent in an online forum) and then follow a special elimination diet. The results were positive for a wheat allergy, corn allergy, and gluten intolerance. We figured we had nothing to lose.
I recently was just told I have an allergy to wheat. I have been suffering with chronic blinking tic for about 4 years now and I am still trying out new things to cure me from this annoying problem! I am currently on lexapro but have seen no improvement. I decided to search wheat allergy and tic disorder an I ran across your article. I was extremely interested b/c I have now started a wheat free diet this week. I am in college so it is extremely hard to find stuff i can eat... but i really want to try it out to see if it will help my tic. Your article has inspired me to have faith!
There is research to prove that muscle twitches can be caused by magnesium deficiency, and you will find websites that claim a magnesium supplement will cure chronic eye blinking problems.
This is where we began with our son's treatment. We started him on magnesium supplements. (Natural Calm). They helped a little but really didn't give him the relief we were looking for. In our case it wasn't enough. (We also found this blog and found it very amusing, however the suggestions we found did nothing to help us either:
I won't belabor you with all the details of our journey to where we are now, only to say that it wasn't until we went gluten free that we really started to see his condition
stabilize. Our son was diagnosed with a chronic tic disorder, and had much more than just an eye blinking tic. I say stabilize because I don't want you to get the misconception that he is completely cured. Accidental gluten ingestion will bring on tics. Poor diet choices and over-tiredness can cause him to start blinking. What I will say is that there are a whole host of symptoms that he no longer has because we have changed his diet. And he has been stable now for nine months.
There is a lot of research out there to prove that for susceptible people gluten is a neurotoxin, as the proteins are not properly digested in the gut and cause 'leaky gut syndrome' (and malabsorption of nutrients). There is not any scientific study, as far as I know, about tic disorders and gluten intolerance. It is my hope that someday soon there will be, but in general
there aren't many studies to date about celiac disease and tics.
(Sheila Rodgers has published a book about natural cures and does touch on using a GFCF diet and also candida cleanse diet). In my searching I did find a doctor in New Zealand who has worked extensively with gluten intolerance and he has seen children with tics improve on a GF diet.
(Dr. Rodney Ford). But your case seems so mild. Perhaps avoiding gluten for a couple of months and taking some (gluten free) supplements for good CNS function is all you need to give you relief. And if it works, then you know what the possible triggers are. It also wouldn't hurt to take a good probiotic too, if you believe you may have symptoms of candida--
http://candidapage.com/cccomp.shtml. In our son's case an anti candida diet also played a role in his recovery.
Hope this helps.
Caryn
