Brain inflammation, Anita

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Hi Anita,Your post caught my eye this morning. My son's RNA oxidative stress was also through the roof. I also have no doubt that it is indicative of inflammation and I believe that we have to do an Ann Connolly test (among others) because the inflammation can be caused by PANDAS. If I understand right, the antibodies caused by a strep infection attack the basal ganglia part of the brain causing swelling and the swelling causes the PANDAS. My DS has had a strep infection before so there is an association there for us. I'm just throwing this out there as we have been giving DS many antioxidants and he is a great responder to them but I hadn't thought further then that until recently. Someone has been telling me all along to actually look up PANDAS but as new as I am to this it has been information overload. Now

I think it's time for us to test for it.Again, I'm only a year and a half into bio med and still learning and you have been at this allot longer then me but I just wondered if you have considered testing for PANDAS? If you have and know more about the testing and treatment I'd love to hear about it or similarly if I'm way off track here let me know too.Best Wishes, From: mysuperteach <mysuperteach@...>Subject: Re: Brain inflammation squashing nerves to key organs/ muscles/ larynxAutism Treatment Date: Thursday, July 8, 2010, 7:56

AM

I'm not sure that an MRI would measure the kind of brain inflammation common in autism. It can even miss the kind of inflammation that comes after some sort of head trauma like a car accident, so possibly not sensitive enough.

Normally, I think that something like C Reactive Protein is measured, which doesn't say how much inflammation is in the brain, but in the body as a whole. I'm not familiar with the test, but I think the Ann Connolly (sp?) test measures brain inflammation. For us, we've not measured inflammation directly but ds has sky high oxidative stress markers on the test from Labbio. I can't remember which one it is right now. But, oxidative stress is one of the causes of inflammation and if someone has such high levels of os, it is a very safe bet that inflammation is also very high.

Coincidentally to this thread, I have just started ds on very high levels of antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. I have long thought that his stimming and his lack of language are due to inflammation. A recent illness put his stimming through the roof--he even stimmed in his sleep. Just as bad as the stimming, his eyes look dead. So, rather than up things slowly I decided to just introduce and/or increase everything at once. DS is still stimming today, but I would say (and dh agrees, something he doesn't always do) that ds's stimming is down by nearly half. Too early to tell what, if anything, this might accomplish, but I am starting to think that some kids might need very, very high levels of antioxidants and anti-inflammatories to help break the cycle that they seem to be caught in.

DS is taking vitamin E, C, and K2, melatonin, CLO and fish oil, pycnogenol, dmg, milk thistle, high levels of B2, zinc, ubiquinol, selenium, and probably a few others that aren't coming to mind right now. He eats a diet high in antioxidants too--lots of wild blueberries, cantelope, pecans, etc,. I had previously thought that his levels of antioxidant supplements was high enough but I think I was wrong and I'm going to investigate a few more that I've not tried. I'm also wondering if any of the anti-inflammatory enzymes might be helpful for our kids and am looking into that.

There are some children who react to steroid tapers (which are powerful anti-inflammatories) or longer term steroid use by developing language. Brain inflammation is something that I would pretty much automatically assume in kids with no language.

Another thought on this topic is that while there is inflammation, the immune system cannot react properly. I believe this is part of the vicious cycle that some kids, like perhaps mine, seem to be caught in.

Anita