RE: Apraxia research - contact me if interested

June 4, 2006

On Jun 4, 2006, at 9:48 PM, wrote:

> Many of you have also read my theory that for those kids responding as

> remarkably as my son to omega supplements, I suspect some fatty acid

> metabolism disorder is involved. I have several collaborators - one an

> expert in fatty acid metabolism - but again past work was in sickle

> cell,

> and another looking at oxidative stress (who already has data

> collected on

> kids with autism, who is interested in the apraxia question). To

> start, I'm

> wanting to look at amino acids, cytokines & fatty acids in the red

> blood

> cell (reflects brain biology) and within the plasma, and also study

> the

> Glutathione pathway - which is disrupted in many conditions, including

> autism. Glutathione in your cells is one of the pathways that keeps

> all the

> inflammation/oxidative stress in balance. If it is deficient, then

> cells are

> susceptible to oxidants and toxins without defense. I'm really

> oversimplifying things here.

Hi ,

I just wanted to make a comment off list regarding the direction of

your research.

My older daughter currently takes EFAs as do I. She takes it for OCD

symptoms, and it also makes her less moody (she's 13). I also take it.

I've become a real believer in the whole concept (and I'm a skeptical

person by nature). I have a son with Tourette syndrome and sensory

issues as well as an auditory processing disorder. We are working to

find some type of EFA that he will tolerate as it has been shown to

help with the sensory issues and possibly the tics. (I'm also working

to get my daughter who we suspect has Apraxia taking the EFA).

I give all that info to get to my point which is that I've done a lot

of research on EFA, and I am not thinking that certain subgroups of

people have some type of metabolic problem that causes them to need

more EFA, as much as I am convinced that all of us *need* more EFA than

we are getting. (Thus the word *essential*). What I've come across in

my research is that due to changes in how food is produced and

marketed, foods that used to be relatively high in EFA are not any

more. Therefore many, many people are deficient in EFAs and are

reacting to that deficiency in a variety of ways.

Anyway, I find all this research fascinating.

Jeanne

jwestpha@...

NBCT - Exceptional Needs (2000)

June 4, 2006

I agree with you completely - ie a little (or maybe a lot) of fish oil is

good for all of us. But apraxia is neurologically based motor planning

disorder - there is more to it than just a deficiency. Many people are

deficient and do not have problems talking. In general, apraxia is rare,

even with the increase in numbers. Abnormal fatty acid metabolism

(depending on what enzyme and which metabolite is abnormal) can manifest in

many ways. Adrenoleukodystrophy is probably one of the most severe fatty

acid metabolism disorders I can think of (Lorenzo's oil). It gave me chills

to watch the way they portrayed Lorenzo's deterioration - because when he

was talking (or having trouble talking) - he sounded just like my apraxic

child. No that's good acting. And the coordination problems - mild in the

beginning - similar the the dyspraxic child. The bottom line is that normal

fatty acid metabolism is important to speech production and coordination,

can impact tone etc (among a very long list of other things).

For apraxia this is more than just a nutritional deficiency, although for

whatever reason there is an increased requirement. There are many possible

causes of an increased requirement of DHA or EPA.

In our case, my son doesn't eat any transfats. Because of all his food

allergies, he doesn't eat processed food at all, and never did. He was

nursed until age 2, and GF/CF his whole life. (I eliminated it from my diet

while nursing with dramatic improvement in his nonstop screaming and

apparent abdominal pain, vomiting, and choking...his older brother paved the

way and what took us years to figure out with lots of suffering on his

brother's part, was quickly identified withing the 1st 2 weeks of life).

Pretty healthy in that sense - fresh fruit and vegies etc.

The high doses of omega we are using are superphysiologic. Something is

causing the deficiency - so an enzyme that's not working, or transporter not

doing its thing, that signals are getting scrambled from the brain to the

mouth or limbs. There isn't any other condition that presents with this

scenario of symptoms. Many of these kids seem to have allergies as well, so

an immunologic or inflammatory cause is also a possibility. For example

inflammation/oxidative stress could turn off or inactivate a key enzyme in

fatty acid metabolism. Many possibilities. The membranes of the red cell

reflect the membranes of brain cells - there's been plenty of studies

showing abnormalities in red cell membrane fatty acid make-up and disorders

like schizophrenia, and there's data in dyslexia and other developmental

disorders as well. Fatty acids are key components in cell membranes. And if

the membrane make-up is scrambled, so is the message being transmitted. So

the red cell is potentially a window to the brain as far as fatty acid

research. Although this has been studied in other disorders, there's nothing

out there on apraxia. -

Re: [ ] Apraxia research - contact me if

interested