Category Archives: Tourettes

What Affect Does Diet Have On Tourettes Syndrome

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As more and more research is conducted which looks at the affects of our western diet on behavior and motor/sensor syndromes, white sugar and other sugar based foods are being implicated as contributing factors.  Doesn’t it seem odd that cases of Tourettes, Aspergers, and Autism are sky rocketing?  In Oregon, one in 120 children is being diagnosed with one of these problems.

Research seems to indicate that environmental and nutritional concerns are probably at the heart of this epidemic.  In particular, highly refined sugars seem to play a role in the severity of symptoms that these children experience.

Our daughter was diagnosed with Autism and later Aspergers syndrome when she was six years old.  Up until that time she had speech and language problems along with tactile stimulation issues.  We took her to a naturopath who quickly realized that sugar and simple carbs like refined wheat flour could make a difference in her.  When we changed her diet to limit refined sugar and flour and replaced it with whole foods such as green vegetables, fruit, fish, and poultry we saw a dramatic improvement in her symptoms.  These sort of dietary changes are also showing positive effects in patients with Tourettes.

Even now, our daughter is currently 26 years old, if she starts eating sugary foods or foods with highly refined grains her behavior and attitude goes down the drain.  She gets moody and very hostile.  On the other hand, when she eats a diet rich in no carb foods, she is very pleasant to be around.

There has to be a reason why over the last thirty years there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of behavioral syndromes in children.  Tourettes, Autism, and Aspergers were not nearly as prevalent before this time as they are now.  Considering all the other harm that our Western diet high in sugars and refined carbohydrates is causing, such as our obesity epidemic and diabetes rates skyrocketing, more studies should be done to explore the relationship between nutrition and Tourettes.

A Big Shock

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My life is full of things going wrong and I’m learning how to find happiness while battling an illness. I was diagnosed with colon cancer around two months ago. What a shock! A man of only twenty seven having this is just not normal. I was left with so many questions and a bunch of anger.  But I’m lucky in a lot of ways.

My fiancée is telling me all the time to find the good in all the bad. I’m not sure she knows I’m listening but I am trying. Sometimes all I hear is what can happen and it’s stressful. Every day I thank God I’m alive. Surprisingly I have outlived the age of my father death already and getting closer and closer to the age of my mother’s death as well is a scary thing. I just try not to focus on it. I have had to come up with hobbies, and ways to clear my mind.

Also leaning on those you love is key. Every second I get to hear my fiancées voice puts a smile on my face. I love the way a hug feels now a days. You feel like there is so much support and a load is taken off of you. The one thing that does bring me a lot of joy is just talking with friends. When you’re not talking about the cancer and you feel normal for just a few hours.

I’m trying to learn new games and meet people who don’t know I’m ill. I read a new joke every day and share it with as many people as I can to see their smiles. It brings joy to my heart. The doctors’ visits are hard but you learn that talking about it is harder. If you have someone strong by your side they will one day see the help they are providing to you. Enjoy life and love the ones your with right now.

Tourettes And Onychomycosis: Yes There Is One Similarity

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Most people would not put tourettes and nail fungus infections into the same category – unless they were talking about health in general.  But while they two diseases have many differences – for starters tourettes is a neurological disorder while Onychomycosis is a nail fungus infection – there are some similarities when considering the emotional effects of the disease.

Lets start with a brief description of each:

  • Tourettes: The key symptoms of tourettes are repetitive involuntary movements and vocalizations.  These “tics” are normally first noticed between the ages of 3-6.  Around 200,000 people in the US have the severe form of the disease while approximately 1% of the population will exhibit milder symptoms.  The movements and vocalizations generally worsen in stressful environments.
  • Onychomycosis – The condition affects around 1 in 10 people.  It is a fungal infection related to athlete’s foot, but instead of the skin around the toes being infected, the fungus lies underneath the nail.  If left untreated, the fungus will spread to encompass the entire nail, often resulting in its complete destruction. Initial symptoms are yellow, thickened and distorted nails.  An unpleasant smelling debris can collect under the nail. Nail fungus treatment is a protracted affair due to slow growing nails and the fact that the fungus is hard to reach.

Far too often nail fungus infections are dismissed as purely cosmetic in nature.  After all the condition is not life threatening and in early stages causes no pain or impaired movement.  But the psychological effects of having ugly looking, distorted, crumbly yellow nails are real.  Sufferers experience a real loss in quality of life with psycho-social implications that should be taken seriously. 

Tourettes, although a much more serious condition, is also generally not life threatening.  Individuals with tourettes have a normal life expectancy and often experience an improvement in symptoms as they age.  But the psychological effects of tourettes can be very severe indeed.  For example children suffering from tourettes may find the condition interfering with their ability to learn or make friends.  A compassionate setting is needed, often involving smaller classes and flexible arrangements.

Its quite common for the conventional health community to dismiss the wider psychological affects of disease, so focused are they on the condition itself and it’s symptoms.  Alternative health professionals often dismiss the lack of a holistic approach to dealing with health that can be present in wide swathes of the medical professionals.

Maintaining Health with a Healthy Diet

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We all know that what we eat is going to determine to some extent the state of our health, yet few choose to acknowledge this fact. The evidence is clear to anyone who looks at an average crowd of people and notices the large proportion of overweight and even obese members of that crowd. What is not always so evident is the number of people in any given crowd who are not enjoying perfect health.

It is not only a person’s weight which belies their state of health. Often, they can be suffering from conditions which are not so visibly obvious until you can take a closer look at their expressions of unhappiness or tightly gritted teeth against some internal pain or discomfort. Yet many of our modern maladies can be prevented simply by being careful about what we eat and, to a certain extent what we drink.

While many overweight people can take the more obvious route of going on a calorie controlled diet or signing up with a commercial diet program such as eDiets or Jenny Craig, for instance, those suffering from other conditions brought about by their diets find it more difficult to associate the condition with what they are eating. To many, their diet may seem perfectly adequate but they may be unaware of the exact nature of the constituents of the food they are eating.

Many people have been carefully led to believe that eating the many different kinds of processed meals they can buy at the store should be healthy. In fact, quite often the packaging will display an image of a healthy looking family, or even word its description to lead the buyer to believe the contents are healthy, when in fact they are not. The only way to insure a truly healthy diet is to avoid all processed foods and opt for fresh ingredients. It means cooking your own meals, which many find tedious or time consuming, but it all depends on how much value they place in their health over their time.