Helping a Child with Tourette Syndrome
By Pamela S. Lewis

When my son, Daniel, first began to crawl, he made strange movements
and seemed uncoordinated. His pediatrician and naturopath told me
not to worry; every child has his own style, they said. When Daniel
was two, he began making odd stretching facial expressions,
especially when eating. I thought to myself, "Tourette?" I'd been an
RN for 20-some years and had never identified a case of Tourette
syndrome. I immediately went into denial and did not give Tourette
another thought for years.

Daniel developed other symptoms, such as pushing his fingers down
his throat and making himself gag. These symptoms would come
intermittently for about a year and then change into some other odd
behavior. At three, he suddenly began stuttering. This came
overnight following a stressful family trip, and I wondered about
the connection. I felt greatly alarmed, but treated it in a very
matter-of-fact manner, assuring him it would pass. Within a few days
the stuttering no longer debilitated his speech, but it reoccurred
intermittently in a milder version for some years. I felt crushed to
see my bright and verbal son struggle to communicate through his
stutters and what I now know as phonic tics.

Daniel has always expressed as a very happy person, but when he was
about four, he became clinically depressed. Because I had a history
of severe depression associated with wheat consumption, I
immediately removed wheat from his diet, and his mood changed back
to his happy norm within 48 hours. Daniel also had a small peculiar
cough, or sometimes snuffles, which would come for long periods of
time and then go away, and many other symptoms, such as mouth
biting. I suspected food allergies and eliminated several foods from
his diet. He did do better without wheat, dairy, corn, soy, citrus,
nuts, and sugar.

When Daniel reached seven, I was weary of acting as his "food
police" and decided to give him free rein to see how he would manage
his own diet. He ate free-range eggs every day and used large
amounts of honey for breakfast. Only a week went by before he began
throwing his head in a classic Tourette pattern. I could no longer
deny the diagnosis.

I talked with my husband about tics, and he confessed that he
himself had thrown his head in a like manner as an adolescent. He
had also had arm, hand, and facial tics. He had suppressed the
memory, and no wonder; when he exhibited symptoms, he was admonished
to control himself and banished when he could not-the
typical "treatment" of the time. He was not taken to a doctor, so
there was no diagnosis. Eventually my husband learned to control the
symptoms. When we talked with his mother, she recalled experiencing
uncontrollable eye-squinting as a teenager, which had been passed
off as "nerves."

Meanwhile, Daniel could not walk or see straight due to severe upper
body tics. I could hear the little bones in his neck crack when he
threw his head. The movement clearly hurt and exhausted him, and
vocal tics emerged in force. A playmate scolded him for his tics,
and Daniel experienced a despair and humiliation he could not even
verbally process because the tics would not let him.

Once I identified the syndrome, I had a focus to work with. I went
to our small city library and checked out the only book they had on
Tourette. I read words like "incurable" and "lifelong"; I read that
the cause was unknown, but that a genetic influence existed. I
learned that the disease worsened through adolescence (a
particularly difficult time of life anyway) and that the best modern
medicine had to offer came in the form of Haldol and Clonidine to
suppress the symptoms. As a psychiatric nurse, I had seen the
irreversible damage of Haldol in the form of Tardive dyskinesia. I
was aghast at the prospect of giving my child major tranquilizers. I
descended into a period of grieving, accompanied by frantic
activity.

I created an elaborate rotational diet based on specific foods for
my son's blood type. (I now believe that rotating foods is more
effective than using specific foods for blood type.) Eventually,
through a long process of elimination, I discovered Daniel's main
food sensitivities; other sensitivities have come and gone,
sometimes to reemerge. We have come to recognize them as they
present due in part to an increase in tics from those foods, and
also from his craving whatever food causes problems.

Peanuts take a very long time to digest, as long as 12 hours, and
frequently carry a toxin called aflatoxin, which can cause rage
episodes or depression. Daniel used to inhale the smell of peanut
butter and feel his tics worsen. Eggs presented another problem, and
so did most nuts and seeds. Intense sweet foods without a proper
protein back-up caused tics. (Nurses in newborn nurseries know about
the sensitivity of a baby's blood sugar. If it falls too low, the
infant can have a seizure. The nervous system has great sensitivity
to blood sugar changes.) Wheat, dairy, corn and soy all caused tics
if eaten too frequently. Food preservatives and red dye in any
amounts caused increased tics. Any food eaten too frequently became
a problem.

I learned that it takes the body 72 hours to clear 90 percent of any
food to the point where it will not cause a reaction when eaten
again. I found this to be true for many foods, but not all. My son
could eat eggs and chocolate about once every three or four weeks
without any problem. Red dye, food preservatives, and peanuts could
cause severe symptoms in any dose. Rancid or hydrogenated oils
caused the most severe symptoms, which sometimes came on two days
after the offending food was eaten and lasted for two to six weeks.
Wheat, dairy, corn, and soy seemed better given at least 96 hours
apart at first. Many commercial foods, such as ice creams, literally
poisoned Daniel.

I began the process of elimination by writing down whatever Daniel
ate on a given day on a calendar taped to the refrigerator. I kept
separate notes on symptoms. Often, as with peanuts, Daniel wouldn't
have an increase in symptoms until the next day, or even later. I
could find out what caused a problem by looking back and seeing what
he had eaten. I would test a food by giving him only foods I knew he
did not react to for several days before and after I gave him the
suspect food. I then observed the results. One pattern clearly
emerged: The foods he most desired and most often ate were the ones
that caused the biggest problems.

In Chinese medicine, the liver partly controls the phenomenon of
tics. Peanuts, aflatoxin, various chemicals, eggs, and intense sugar
changes all stress the liver's capacity to function. The hormone
storms of adolescence also add to the work of the liver. I began to
think that Daniel's tics might result from toxicity and an
assimilation defect. His nervous system simply did not get the
nutrients it needed in spite of his excellent diet. I began a more
vigorous supplementation with minerals, multivitamins, essential
fatty acids, amino acids, and antioxidants. I also began using
complex homeopathy along with classic constitutional homeopathy.
Daniel received a large dose of his constitutional remedy and lower
doses of liquid homeopathic remedies several times a day, specially
mixed to encourage digestive strength and cerebral balance and to
drain the nervous system of toxins.

Along with diet, homeopathy, and supplements, we provided movement
and kinesthetic education. In addition to neurodevelopmental
exercises to help the nervous system mature, we used the Feldenkrais
Method of Movement Education®. Because Daniel was so young, the
hands-on aspect of the Feldenkrais Method was especially valuable.
The mouth-biting aspect of the syndrome was eliminated with just one
Functional Integration lesson of the Feldenkrais Method. The
Feldenkrais movements also alleviated eye-rolling and other facial
grimaces.

Even though I felt certain of Daniel's diagnosis, I finally took him
to see a pediatric neurologist for a formal evaluation. With
Daniel's agreement, we took him off his diet for a week before the
appointment. His tics and other symptoms emerged in force. His usual
capacity for lengthy concentration and focus vanished within hours.
I felt unprepared for the emotional impact of having a formal
diagnosis of ADHD as well as Tourette syndrome. It took about three
weeks of his usual rotating diet before Daniel returned to his
previous level of functioning.

Because of Daniel's youth, there was much we could do to take
advantage of his neuroplasticity, including working with his belief
system. We never "sentenced" Daniel to having his syndrome worsen
through adolescence, and we enlisted the help of his neurologist to
reinforce the idea that he will outgrow it.

Daniel is now 12, and his tics have continued to come and go. He
manages his own diet to a large extent and tolerates many foods he
did not in the past. The tics emerge in a far milder manner now than
before we began working with diet and natural remedies. They do not
interfere with his life. Most people today do not realize Daniel has
Tourette syndrome. His many activities include martial arts,
baseball, soccer, campfire club, and music lessons. He excels at
reading and loves humor in any form. Although the syndrome is
supposed to worsen through adolescence, he already has broken that
pattern.

I believe we will see an increase in Tourette syndrome, along with
many other diseases, because of our increasingly toxic world. We
could view tics as informational messages about function. Do we
choose to see those messages as something to suppress or to listen
to? Does it work better to focus the attention on the symptom or
expand the view to the whole being and web of life? Do people with
syndromes such as Tourette and Chronic Fatigue have the role of
canaries in the coal mine? How can we look so far and wide for
exotic cures and overlook the food we eat several times each day or
the air we breathe? Food can act as medicine, but most people would
rather change their religion than their diet.

I believe in the intelligence of Nature, the intelligence inherent
in our bodies. Bodily mechanisms have purpose. Symptoms are not
capricious but a message regarding function. I view the complex
phenomenon of Tourette syndrome as grounded in toxicity, subtle
structural imbalances, and inefficient nutrient assimilation. The
elements that predispose a person to these defects seem genetic; but
then lifestyles, eating habits, and movement patterns fall into this
same category, and can change with the correct influences.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Books and Articles

Anderson, Roy. First Steps to a Physical Basis of Concentration WBC
Book Manufacturers, 1999; see www.crownhouse.co.uk.

Leckman, James F., and Donald J. Cohen. Tourette's Syndrome, Tics,
Obsessions, Compulsions: Developmental Psychopathology and Clinical
Care. John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

"CNS Spectrums." International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine
4, nos. 2 and 3 (February and March 1999).

Feldenkrais, Moshe. Awareness through Movement. Harper and Row, 1972

Goddard, Sally. A Teacher's Window into the Child's Mind and Papers
from the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology. Fern Ridge
Press, 1996.

Gold, Svea. If Children Just Came with Instruction Sheets! Fern
Ridge Press, 1997.

"Links between Autism, Tourette, and Vaccinations." Autism Research
Review International Quarterly Newsletter 13, no. 3 (1999).

"THC Alleviates Tourette Symptoms." Science News 155, no. 14: 215;
www.sciserv.org.

Organizations

The Feldenkrais Guild of North America, 1-800-775-2118;
www.feldenkrais.com.

Tourette Syndrome Association Inc., 42-40 Bell Boulevard, Bayside,
NY 11361-2820

Latitudes, PO Box 210848, Royal Palm Beach, FL 33421-0848;
www.latitudes.org.

The HANDLE Institute, 1530 Eastlake Avenue E., Suite 100, Seattle,
WA 98102; www.handle.org.

Northwest Neurodevelopmental Training Center, P.O. Box 406, 152
Arthur Street, Woodburn, OR 97071; 503-981-0635, fax 503-981-6435.

Northeast Center for Environmental Medicine, P.O. Box 2716,
Syracuse, NY 13220, 315-488-2856.

Seroyal USA, 719 Creel Drive, Wood Dale, IL 60191, 630-227-9827, fax
630-227-9820, sells (to health care professionals only) natural
supplements especially made for Tourette syndrome. Call for a
practitioner near you, or introduce your practitioner to this
company.

Pamela S. Lewis lives with her family near Eugene, Oregon. She works
as an RN and has studied homeopathy, Chinese medicine, herbology,
nutrition, and various types of bodywork. A Certified Feldenkrais
Practitioner, she teaches both modalities of the Feldenkrais Method
of Movement Education.

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