Here is a video that documents and shows some of the symptoms and details about Provocation/Neutralization treatment, the treatment we do for Kaylee to correct her "allergies" to chemicals, foods, molds, and other allergens. I cannot stress enough how much this has changed our lives. Kaylee is happier and feels better because of this treatment instantly .
Showing posts with label P/N allergy treatment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label P/N allergy treatment. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Update Time!
I better get another post in for this month! Otherwise I will have only one for July!
I should really update how things are going with Kaylee. They are great! I have been playing detective with her though. Kaylee's immune system is "exquisitively sensitive" as her nurse practitioner in NY told me last week. For instance, if Kaylee deviates from her limited diet right now with a piece of pizza or a hash brown from McDonald's (yes we had quite a time after that) she has potty problems and an impossible attitude and her stim behaviors return.
We have also figured out that some of her allergy extract shots were not helping but hurting her progress. I wasn't sure what to do and I prayed for God's wisdom and started removing ones I felt might be the culprit and I was right! Oh the Lord doth give wisdom liberally to those who ask! (James 1:5)
If Kaylee has a good day with no dietary issues and her shots are all ok, she is a dream child. Well behaved and so talkative and easy. I have wanted to shout from the rooftops about how well she is doing! If I were to take her to a doctor today I believe that she would no longer have the autism diagnosis. She does not fit the DSM IV criteria!
Our only issues now is her catching up to her peers and making sure we keep her immune system cooling down and modulated.
What a far cry from a year ago.
I tell everyone I know about what we are doing. I hope that people will listen when I tell them my child is being healed! And there are many others! Why won't people listen? I don't understand. Living with autism has been a nightmare, one of the worst things that could happen to my child. It is harder to live with it than to try and get her better. Yes this road has been hard, all of these treatments but we are on the other side now.
I try not to get discouraged. Not everyone will hear and want to do what we are doing for Kaylee, and that's okay. But really, no one has wanted to listen.
And I feel much sorrow out there for the children who have to suffer not only physically but emotionally and mentally too.
Well thats not the best writing I have ever had, but that's what's on my mind tonight. God bless you with wisdom and strength!
I should really update how things are going with Kaylee. They are great! I have been playing detective with her though. Kaylee's immune system is "exquisitively sensitive" as her nurse practitioner in NY told me last week. For instance, if Kaylee deviates from her limited diet right now with a piece of pizza or a hash brown from McDonald's (yes we had quite a time after that) she has potty problems and an impossible attitude and her stim behaviors return.
We have also figured out that some of her allergy extract shots were not helping but hurting her progress. I wasn't sure what to do and I prayed for God's wisdom and started removing ones I felt might be the culprit and I was right! Oh the Lord doth give wisdom liberally to those who ask! (James 1:5)
If Kaylee has a good day with no dietary issues and her shots are all ok, she is a dream child. Well behaved and so talkative and easy. I have wanted to shout from the rooftops about how well she is doing! If I were to take her to a doctor today I believe that she would no longer have the autism diagnosis. She does not fit the DSM IV criteria!
Our only issues now is her catching up to her peers and making sure we keep her immune system cooling down and modulated.
What a far cry from a year ago.
I tell everyone I know about what we are doing. I hope that people will listen when I tell them my child is being healed! And there are many others! Why won't people listen? I don't understand. Living with autism has been a nightmare, one of the worst things that could happen to my child. It is harder to live with it than to try and get her better. Yes this road has been hard, all of these treatments but we are on the other side now.
I try not to get discouraged. Not everyone will hear and want to do what we are doing for Kaylee, and that's okay. But really, no one has wanted to listen.
And I feel much sorrow out there for the children who have to suffer not only physically but emotionally and mentally too.
Well thats not the best writing I have ever had, but that's what's on my mind tonight. God bless you with wisdom and strength!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Why we think this allergy treatment will help Kaylee
The immune system is an extremely underappreciated entity. We take this very complex system for granted everyday, until it fails us and doesn't perform the way we expect it to. Our immune systems are so powerful it can kill through a hyperresponse (anaphylaxis) or a hyporesponse (e.g. AIDS). There is a spectrum of reactions ranging in between these responses. Kaylee suffers from (and so do most, if not all ASD kids) both sides of reactions. She is hyporesponsive to viruses, bacteria, and yeasts and hyperresponsive to everything else. This is the earmark of immune system dysfunction.
When Kaylee was tested for what she would react to, we were surprised that she reacted to almost everything, some things more than others. This is significant because it gives us a clue into how her immune system is functioning (or better said dysfunctioning) at this time. Her mild reactions to everything shows us that her immune system is in overdrive. So when I say "allergies" for Kaylee's reaction, it's because I don't have a better term. Kaylee is reacting to everything but it isn't always an allergenic response: it's an inflammatory one.
These allergies aren't just a nuisance for Kaylee, they are causing her body to be in a chronic inflammatory state (and by the way...yeast loves inflammation). Now her immune system doesn't know what it's doing anymore, its just firing off everywhere at everything. This makes for a not-so-happy-Kaylee. I am guessing she's not feeling so well. She's extra sleepy, crabby, defiant, and more when like most kids are when they don't feel their best.
So why didn't I just use antihistamines for her allergies? I tried and they didn't work. The antihistamine drugs only took the edge off because they only eliminate one chemical pathway in this inflammatory process. In an immune system reaction there are so many pathways that are triggered by chemical messengers, such as histamines, prostaglandins, cytokines (there are lots and lots of these!), and many others. In other words, the reaction is still occuring, and the immune system is still "cued up". Neutralization treatment is the best one because it stops the whole reaction in it's tracks, therefore completely halting the inflammatory cycle.
What I love about this allergy testing is that there is no disputing that your child reacts to something; this cannot be said about blood tests. Sometimes our kids' bloodwork will not show any antibodies to an antigen, but they will still be reactive to it. P/N treatment not only accurately identifies a person's triggers, but it also gives you a way to reverse them immediately, without drugs. I think that is the best outcome I can imagine.
With all of this said, we are hoping to press the "reset button" on Kaylee's immune system by cooling it down to where it doesn't react to everything. Eventually, we hope that Kaylee will soon stop reacting on her own, without her bi-weekly injections.
When Kaylee was tested for what she would react to, we were surprised that she reacted to almost everything, some things more than others. This is significant because it gives us a clue into how her immune system is functioning (or better said dysfunctioning) at this time. Her mild reactions to everything shows us that her immune system is in overdrive. So when I say "allergies" for Kaylee's reaction, it's because I don't have a better term. Kaylee is reacting to everything but it isn't always an allergenic response: it's an inflammatory one.
These allergies aren't just a nuisance for Kaylee, they are causing her body to be in a chronic inflammatory state (and by the way...yeast loves inflammation). Now her immune system doesn't know what it's doing anymore, its just firing off everywhere at everything. This makes for a not-so-happy-Kaylee. I am guessing she's not feeling so well. She's extra sleepy, crabby, defiant, and more when like most kids are when they don't feel their best.
So why didn't I just use antihistamines for her allergies? I tried and they didn't work. The antihistamine drugs only took the edge off because they only eliminate one chemical pathway in this inflammatory process. In an immune system reaction there are so many pathways that are triggered by chemical messengers, such as histamines, prostaglandins, cytokines (there are lots and lots of these!), and many others. In other words, the reaction is still occuring, and the immune system is still "cued up". Neutralization treatment is the best one because it stops the whole reaction in it's tracks, therefore completely halting the inflammatory cycle.
What I love about this allergy testing is that there is no disputing that your child reacts to something; this cannot be said about blood tests. Sometimes our kids' bloodwork will not show any antibodies to an antigen, but they will still be reactive to it. P/N treatment not only accurately identifies a person's triggers, but it also gives you a way to reverse them immediately, without drugs. I think that is the best outcome I can imagine.
With all of this said, we are hoping to press the "reset button" on Kaylee's immune system by cooling it down to where it doesn't react to everything. Eventually, we hope that Kaylee will soon stop reacting on her own, without her bi-weekly injections.
*These are the treatment vials with the antigens we inject Kaylee with every four days*
Sunday, May 10, 2009
What is this new allergy treatment? Part 1
I have been researching for many weeks now, trying to understand the ins and outs of this treatment Kaylee is receiving so that I can share with others what is really happening maybe a little bit about how it is working.
First, let me say what this is not: this is not what a typical allergist does. They will laugh you out of their office if you ask them about Provocation/Neutralization technique. In fact I called allergists in my HMO network and I was laughed at by one receptionist, but most didn't know what I was talking about. Only doctors from the American Academy of Environmental Medicine actually perform this testing. A most famous doctor that did this is Dr. Doris Rapp.
I wouldn't have imagined I would ever try this because it seemed too good to be true. But the director at the NNY clinic recommended it to me because she has done this with her daughter, and other ASD kids at their clinic who present with the more complicated allergy issues ( Kaylee falls into that most difficult to treat subset of children!)
This is what the testing is like:
First, the nurse injects a diluted substance of whatever antigen we are testing just under the skin (intradermally). This forms a flattened bump that is measured immediately.
In a non-reactive person, the bump either stays the same size or shrinks.
In a reactive person, like Kaylee, the bump swells within 10 minutes a
nd becomes itchy and red. This means the immune system was triggered by the antigen that was injected. This makes the testing objective, because we can't rely on Kaylee being able to tell us how she feels. This is the Provocation stage.
Then, an even more diluted solution of the antigen is injected again intradermally, measured again. If this reacts, it is not the Neutralizing dose. If it doesn't react after 10 minutes, this is deemed the Neutralizing dose. It means that the body does not react to this concentraion of this substance/allergen. However, this won't neutralize the reaction yet because it has to be injected subcutaneously. Sounds like magic, doesn't it? I thought so too until I saw Kaylee get better with my own two eyes.
How exactly is this working? The lower dilution of the antigen activates T-Suppressor Cells in the immune system that, in essence, tell the rest of the immune system "It's alright, guys...this invader isn't worth going after." (a huge oversimplification.) Eventually, the immune system becomes desensitized and that specific antigen will no longer provoke a response. That is because T-Suppressor Cells tell the B-Cells in the immune system to stop making antibodies (which are the body's "invader recognition system")
Yes, this testing is time-consuming, tedious, and difficult to inject a 3 year old girl over and over and over again. She has been a real trooper, though. The doctor is over 70 miles away so we have had to make a few trips up there and break up our testing sessions. You can imagine the whole way up there Kaylee is in the backseat murmuring "No ouchie on my arm! No going to the doctor!"
We still aren't totally finished with all of her testing. So far we have tested a number of things like tree pollens, dust, dust mites, cockroach feces (it's in everything we eat apparently?), 18 different molds, glycerin, many foods, histamine, serotonin and next we will test more foods and grass pollens since those are starting to emerge now. In autumn we will address weeds when they come out.
Wow! Sorry if this is too long of a post. I feel like I have so much to say about this, I hope it is not confusing. I want to cover more about this in my upcoming posts. More to come!
First, let me say what this is not: this is not what a typical allergist does. They will laugh you out of their office if you ask them about Provocation/Neutralization technique. In fact I called allergists in my HMO network and I was laughed at by one receptionist, but most didn't know what I was talking about. Only doctors from the American Academy of Environmental Medicine actually perform this testing. A most famous doctor that did this is Dr. Doris Rapp.
I wouldn't have imagined I would ever try this because it seemed too good to be true. But the director at the NNY clinic recommended it to me because she has done this with her daughter, and other ASD kids at their clinic who present with the more complicated allergy issues ( Kaylee falls into that most difficult to treat subset of children!)
This is what the testing is like:
First, the nurse injects a diluted substance of whatever antigen we are testing just under the skin (intradermally). This forms a flattened bump that is measured immediately.
In a non-reactive person, the bump either stays the same size or shrinks.
In a reactive person, like Kaylee, the bump swells within 10 minutes a
nd becomes itchy and red. This means the immune system was triggered by the antigen that was injected. This makes the testing objective, because we can't rely on Kaylee being able to tell us how she feels. This is the Provocation stage.Then, an even more diluted solution of the antigen is injected again intradermally, measured again. If this reacts, it is not the Neutralizing dose. If it doesn't react after 10 minutes, this is deemed the Neutralizing dose. It means that the body does not react to this concentraion of this substance/allergen. However, this won't neutralize the reaction yet because it has to be injected subcutaneously. Sounds like magic, doesn't it? I thought so too until I saw Kaylee get better with my own two eyes.
How exactly is this working? The lower dilution of the antigen activates T-Suppressor Cells in the immune system that, in essence, tell the rest of the immune system "It's alright, guys...this invader isn't worth going after." (a huge oversimplification.) Eventually, the immune system becomes desensitized and that specific antigen will no longer provoke a response. That is because T-Suppressor Cells tell the B-Cells in the immune system to stop making antibodies (which are the body's "invader recognition system")
Yes, this testing is time-consuming, tedious, and difficult to inject a 3 year old girl over and over and over again. She has been a real trooper, though. The doctor is over 70 miles away so we have had to make a few trips up there and break up our testing sessions. You can imagine the whole way up there Kaylee is in the backseat murmuring "No ouchie on my arm! No going to the doctor!"
We still aren't totally finished with all of her testing. So far we have tested a number of things like tree pollens, dust, dust mites, cockroach feces (it's in everything we eat apparently?), 18 different molds, glycerin, many foods, histamine, serotonin and next we will test more foods and grass pollens since those are starting to emerge now. In autumn we will address weeds when they come out.
Wow! Sorry if this is too long of a post. I feel like I have so much to say about this, I hope it is not confusing. I want to cover more about this in my upcoming posts. More to come!
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