Candida treatment, die-off reaction, low dopamine, low serotonin and next steps

[Melanie Cann]

Hello
I am sure I will learn more about his over the next few months.
We have been working on improving my 10 yr old autistic son’s health.
We have treated parasite infections, were able to reduce high serotonin levels so he can now sleep through the night and his aggression and violent outbursts are gone. We started him on Seeking Health Children’s multiple vitamins, digestive enzyme, Vit D, Sacchromices B., Megaspore, L-Tyrosine. Post test we added amino acids and 5-HTP. Overall he is doing much better. He is currently refusing to take his supplements at all and it is a challenge to get them into him.
His OAT #33 for Dopamine was 1.9 (borderline low), and his #36 Serotonin dropped significantly and now is 0.33. He has gone from aggressive to more sad, bordering on depressed at times. He had been on L-Tyrosine for these tests, we since added 5-HTP but if has not made significant improvement.
Any recommendations for increasing the serotonin levels up again?

His OAT #39 Quinolinic /5-HIAA Ration is elevated 8.4. I am still not sure how to help lower this.

He still has significant stomach issues with diarrhea at times and severe sugar cravings. He has been GF/DF/Dye-free for years, our family eats mainly Paleo.He was still eating corn but as he seems to get significant cravings for it and then only wants to eat it we have removed it completely for now. We have recently pulled him from school and are homeschooling and his stomach has improved (i think part of it is stress). After these tests were done in oct we tried retreating as Dr was concerned about Arabinose being higher normal and thought it could have come out post parasite treatment as biofilm broke down.(previous Arabinose on organic acid was 4, now 40) He also has very low Ascorbic acid levels, which I have been told can be from Candida. He has had a full course of antibiotics then biocidin for parasites/strep and did well, now each time I restart tx with biocidin he becomes very sick… severe pains through out his body, especially legs, very hot, headaches and very lethargic. Now that he is home I would like to retreat him but in a way that he can tolerate.
He has had low Vit D and low Iron on conventional testing. OAT #75 Phosphoric was low 961. He as snps on VDR genes per Stratagene.
His GPL-TOX came back better than I expected, especially since he has snps on MTHFR and he grew up in farming area with glyphosate all around.
On GPL-TOX elevated markers were #1 2HIB which you said is common for most people, #4 PGO and #13 NADB. I am not sure why #13 would be this high. could it be from indoor soccer fields he does not spend much time in them, or rubber chips on playground years ago? I have a far infrared sauna but he does not like going in it, he feels unwell. I think likely from heavy metals. I did not do heavy metal tests as I am sure they are high as he had fillings in almost all his teeth as a child. He still has two caps that are now loose so will be gone soon. Will advise on helping the kids detox be covered? or ways to support their systems so they can sauna and improve detoxification.
This is my son that had knee swelling as well which has been good lately. currently his oxalic levels were good.

[DrWoeller]

Melanie,
Your son’s OAT from Oct. looks pretty good overall with regards to no yeast or bacterial toxins.

The low neurotransmitters can come about, in part, from low Vitamin C. The low Vitamin C is typical as it doesn’t stay in circulation very long. A low value doesn’t mean there is a deficiency of Vitamin C at he cellular level, but that Vitamin C is best dosed multiple times throughout the day. For example, 250mg to 500mg twice daily.

The low 5-HIAA is common too and this is makes for the high ratio of Quinolinic/5-HIAA. Serotonin production is linked to Vitamin D status and with his Vitamin SNP’s keeping up on Vitamin D amounts is good idea. For most kids this is about 2000IU per 25lbs body weight per day (approximately), but some need more. The best thing to do is check Vitamin D levels about 3 times per year. Great Plains Laboratory does have a Vitamin D dried blood spot test.

New Beginning carries a Sero-Plus product that can be helpful for boosting serotonin levels. Since you are already using 5-HTP and L-Tyrosine the addition of Inositol Powder might help. A typical dose of Inositol is 500mg to 1000mg twice daily. New Beginnings carries a powder that is 700mg per 1/4 teaspoon. Dosing for Inositol is approximate. Perhaps Seeking Health has some Inositol.

Your son’s GPL-TOX actually looks really good compared to most that I see. The 1,3-butadiene is coming from petroleum exposure and sports fields are the most likely culprit. The MTBE and Styrene levels are very common, but your son’s levels are less than most too which is good.

Detoxification – we will be covering a lot of things on detox. I would suggest doing a hair analysis when you can. Also, Bioray – http://bioray2000.com carries some nice products such as Liver Life and NDF-Plus. The NDF-Plus is specifically to help with detoxification of metals and chemicals. Your son may actually benefit from an ION cleanse over sauna. The company I have used is AMD. We will be going over their material later in the course. The ION cleanse works differently than the sauna. ION generation helps with decreasing sympathetic nervous system stress, but also seems to aide in cellular processing of toxins too. They are currently involved in a research project to see its effect on chemical toxins. A previous study showed decrease in heavy metal toxins.

I hope this information is helpful.

Dr. Woeller

[Melanie Cann]

Thank you so much for the reply and options to look into.
I was also quite happy with the OAT and GPLTox test.

So do you think the Arabinose being 40 is okay and not to treat any candida? Why would the biocidin make him so sick?
For his sugar/sweet foods craving do you think this could also be related to low dopamine vs Candida?

I will check out the New Beginning and bioray products.
I am very much looking forward to learning more through this course!

[DrWoeller]

Melanie,
I think Candida is still worth trying to treat and its more likely his food cravings are from that than low dopamine. One thing to remember too is that most kids when given a chance have a sweet tooth. This isn’t just related to autism.

Every once in a while I see a child not tolerate some type of botanical. It could be a particular ingredient in the Biocidin that his body doesn’t like. Recently, there was a child who seemed to reactive negatively to Black Walnut (part of Biocidin). This was discovered when had the same reaction to black walnut as an individual remedy. The other possibility with these botanicals is their phenol content. Many herbs have some phenol as part of their chemical structure. Usually, it is not an issue, but for some really sensitive kids it might be.

Dr. Woeller

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