DR. McCandless and LDN

[Guest guest]

Post below was written by J. McCandless. Dr. McCandless was

answering a question regarding LDN, yeast & speechlessness.

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Hi, : You are asking good questions that I am

unable to fully answer. I would be happy for others

to try - we're all learning together here. We see

different patterns with the children; a certain

percent do seem to get an instability of the immune

system very quickly that manifests in yeast overgrowth

or other pathogen outbreak upon starting LDN. The

actual mechanism of this is not known as yet;

Binstock calls it a " perturbation " but without

speculating as to the cause. These outbreaks are

usually short-lived; I have found that they are

usually shorter lived when the child is taken on up to

the full 3mg right away, but of course there's always

the exception. I suspect that if kids were started on

a strong natural antifungal a couple of days before

starting, that this disturbance might be less

noticeable.

However, I would say that anytime I see what you call

" yeasty " no matter what the inciting cause I would

immediately overload with high potency probiotics and

give natural anti-fungals such as grapefruit seed

extract, lauricidin, candex, etc. There is no way

that LDN " CREATES " fungi or viruses - these have to be

already in the body to proliferate, but a drop in

immune functioning allows the usual guards to go down

and while the dip is going on the bugs can multiply

and usually temporarily until the immune system rights

itself. How you handle it has to do with your level of

tolerance of the pathogen overgrowth; this happens to

many of our kids periodically anyway, and I think we

should all be prepared to deal with these outbreaks.

One of the best ways is to adhere to a restrictive

diet, keep rotating natural anti-fungals, give lots of

high-potency probiotics, and give enzymes with every

meal to help assure that large peptides are not left

in the gut for the " bad bugs " to feed upon. I also

would make sure all sugar as well as soy is removed

from the diet as well as gluten and casein, and

possibly corn too. These are the 5 main offenders.

The fact that your child is still non-verbal would

lead me to suspect that he has inflammation, both gut

and brain, and is probably susceptible to a drop in

immune functioning which the LDN does seem to incur in

some kids. If your DAN! agrees, I think I would push

the probiotics, treat the yeast, and go for the whole

dose. I believe the full dose gives the immune system

the best chance to recover its instability and then

start the process of improving. Especially in a case

as in your boy where the neurohumoral benefits are so

noticeable, I wouldn't want to abandon it too soon.

Most kids do get benefit and you really can't know for

sure unless you give it the full try. However, I

fully accept that parents all have their limit as to

what they can endure. BTW, there is no

contraindication to the use of chelation and LDN

simultaneously; many hundreds of kids are doing both.

If LDN should be just too intolerable for you, you

might want to consider Actos, which is also immune

enhancing and anti-inflammatory. Best wishes, Dr. JM

--- egerpatt <egerpatt (DOT) com> wrote:

> Hi everyone,

>

> My name is and I am from Ohio. Have a son

> with autism, will

> turn 5 in March. Non-verbal. That is our main issue

> with his

> progress. Otherwise, lots of GI issues, still

> battling yeast, but

> that has gotten better lately. GFCF. Good gains with

> the diet.

> Allergies. Doing NAET for that. Also working with a

> DAN doctor near

> here. Starting up DMPS soon, as soon as we find out

> whether he is a

> responder to LDN or not. Just started TD LDN, ultra

> low dose, 8 days

> ago.... and here are my questions. Any

> advice/information/ suggestions are so appreciated! !

>

> I am trying to understand how LDN affects

> viruses/gut bugs or yeast.

> I started TD LDN on my son on the 1/1/07 and stayed

> on the 0.1 ml

> (lowest) dose for three days. I saw increased

> happiness, better

> mood, calmer, better receptive and cooperation for

> about 3 days. I

> increased the dose to 0.2 ml day 4. My son woke the

> happiest ever,

> laughing, giggling, extremely tuned in....and he had

> the best school

> day of his life! He is non-verbal but this day he

> made so many

> successful word approximations that the therapists

> at his school

> were blown away!! I was, too! The social and verbal

> gains were

> awsome! However, we begun having problems the next

> day (still 0.2)

> with urinary accidents and YEAST!!!!! Red butt,

> worse appetite,

> chewing on clothing a bit, hyperactive, and very

> sensory seeking.

> However, verbals were awsome, socially great,

> receptively great! 2

> accidents that day. That night we decreased the

> dose to 0.15 ml.

> Stimming was better the day after, verbal and social

> gains stayed,

> but urinary accidents kept happening (2 times) and

> YEASTY butt....

> appetite poorer. A bit more clingy to me. So Dr said

> to lower the

> dose that night to 0.1 ml, so we did. Today is the

> next day - my

> son's social gains have decreased, eye contact

> decreased, verbals

> somewhat decreased but still there. Not as good

> following directions

> as before with the higher dose. More screaming

> today. YEAST is

> still an issue in the GI tract, red bottom, sensory

> seeking

> behaviors decreased but not the stimming. One

> urinary accident

> today, so that got a bit better. GREAT appetite

> today!!

>

> Other than I don't know what to do - continue or

> discontinue, I am

> seeking some information about LDN in general. I

> don't quite

> understand the relationship between yeast/viruses/

> bugs and LDN yet.

> I read some of the posts from Dr McCandless but I am

> still not

> clear. The full dose would probably further worsen

> the GI yeast for

> us, yet I so want to try to go up becase the gains

> were unbelievable

> while we did the 0.2 ml for a couple days. But the

> yeast and

> accompanying behaviors scare me. If LDN was working

> on viruses just

> like the antivirals do, or in a similar fashion,

> then why not try to

> counteract yeast by Diflucan or something else??

>

> It is my understanding that our DAN dr would

> probably want to

> discontinue LDN, with the side effects noted, but

> allowed us to try

> some more with the 0.1 ml, then reevaluate and

> decide about

> continuing or discontinuing, probably by the end of

> this week.

> Gosh, I so want to continue since I have never seen

> such beautiful

> skills and engagement in my son ever before!!

>

> I was wondering if anyone could help me understand

> the above issues.

> I also read another post from Dr J. McCandless re.

> LDN and how it is

> important to go up to the full dose and bear with

> the side

> effects ...that they will get better....as LDN

> levels out in the

> body.....so maybe the yeast I am seeing is temporary

> and it would

> decrease later with the higher dose? Or, is the

> yeast there perhaps

> because the LDN is already working on some viral

> issues and thus the

> yeast??? never understood this one....if anyone can

> shed light on

> this one for me, I'd appreciate it!!!!

>

> Thanks for all your input!

>

>

>

>

>

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