Zinc and copper deficiency after zinc supplementation, please help

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Hi all,

I signed up for this site a couple of weeks ago, and have been

trying to keep up with all the posts as there is so much experience

here to learn from. I did buy 's book, which is great.

Background

My 11 year old son sees a DAN/EM doctor and we go to Pfeiffer

outreach clinics. He doesn't have neurological symptoms at this

time, but a number of immune issues, presumably emanating from

elevated mercury and low antioxidants/glutathione. He never had ASD

symptoms, but he did have transient tics, which started us on this

course. They were only there for a few months and have been

completely gone for almost 18 months now. I found that his

underlying issues were virtually identical to many on the ASD

spectrum, so I think I am following the same path as many here. Oh

yes, Pfeiffer showed mild pyrolura and undermethylation.

Zinc/Copper

In October he was supplementing zinc picolinate/zinc citrate (alt

days) 25 mg/day and the Labcorp blood test showed his zinc was 70

and his copper was 97. (ref ranges 70-150 for each). Pfeiffer wanted

the zinc to be more like 120, and wanted us to supplement 70 mg/day

of zinc picolinate, but I did 50 mg/day zinc picolinate instead (I

am more conservative). No copper or manganese with the zinc, per

Pfeiffer's instruction. Other than that, lots of balanced

supplements, B-complex, minerals, antioxidants, omega 3s and

probiotics. He is gluten-free, casein-free (except cheese, which

doesn't cause problems). His recent act tests showed no more

issues with gluten/casein, but I keep them away anyway, at least

until summer when I may experiment.

Anyway, his recent 6 month check showed his zinc dropped to 65 as

did his copper. Both in the clearly deficient range. Oh dear! Now I

am trying to get things back on track.

Has anyone experienced this, and if so, what did they supplement to

bring it back in control? I have read that sometimes copper helps

with zinc absorption, though the Pfeiffer doctor said she hadn't

read that (odd because one source quotes Pfeiffer as saying this).

Right now they just say add more zinc and don't add more copper

until they fully analyze all the test results. In the past, our

DAN/EM doctor doesn't like more than 25 mg of zinc/day, and thinks

he should have 1 mg of copper with it, though I can't review this

with him until Pfeiffer sends me the test results back.

Symptoms

I will say that my son has had a recent recurrance of fatigue, and

he has been highly irritable and reacts poorly to stress right

now. But he also had his yeast overgrowth shoot way up in March

(Great Plains showed 280), which may contribute. (I have read that

copper and zinc are important to controlling yeast, although 2

rounds of antibiotics a couple of months ago may have affect his

yeast also).

Enzymes

As for enzymes, he has been taking Houston Nutriceuticals AFP

Peptizade since early November, and their no-Fenol for 2 weeks in

January (during the antibiotics with nystatin to try to prevent

yeast) and 2 weeks with a new round of Nystatin for the elevated

yeast. As of 3 days ago, I am adding Zyne Prime, per Pfeiffer's

instructions. I don't know if this is relevant, other than that

someone here might naturally suggest that I try the enzymes, so you

should know that I already do them.

What to do?

Right now I am adding 2 grams of copper to the 50 mg of zinc. But I

don't know if that is enough copper to correct an actual

deficiency. And I am really curious if anyone supplemented zinc and

found there zinc levels lower afterward and what they did about it.

Pfeiffer simply didn't have an answer for me. So I would appreciate

any specific experience. I will clear everything with our DAN

doctor at our next appointment, but I am not sure that think his

expertise is in copper/zinc balancing.