The healthy gut contains both yeast and good bacteria, in balance with each other. In many AS, however, one or the other can be out of balance. For example, yeast can overgrow and be too prevalent. Bacteria can overgrow, or there can be a complete lack of bacteria. Also, bad bacteria can develop, rather than good bacteria.
You can read Dr. Shaw's book [Great Plains Lab] online here -- Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD.
Symptoms of yeast and bacteria imbalance
For my son, yeast causes symptoms similar to phenol symptoms -- hyper and giggling, and sleep problems. Sometimes he would spin himself around in circles. For other children, it can cause red ring around the anus, "spaciness", anger and aggression, headache, head banging, sound sensitivity [holding the hands over the ears] and other similar issues. Also, my son's bms went from being firm and solid, to looking "airy and fluffy", similar to sponge cake. Also, it looked like it had strings of melted cheese in it. But sometimes my son's bms did not look any different than normal.
For bacteria overgrowth or "bad" bacteria, parents report their child had poor eye contact, tantrums, hand flapping and stimming, frequent [5-10 per day] and nasty bowel movements ranging from real soft to liquid. For my son, his bacteria bms looked like diluted cottage cheese.
There are several different types of yeast, including candida, which appears to be the most common variety. There are also several different types of "bad" bacteria, including clostridia and Citrabacter F.
My son never had a yeast or bacteria issue so far as I know, until I began chelating with ALA, when he did develop his first yeast issue. Because ALA excretes metals thru the gut, it does tend to increase the possibility of a yeast issue in yeast-sensitive children. Some people also report an increase in yeast issues when using DMSA for chelation.
There is also an increased tendency to develop a yeast issue if your child has to use antibiotics for ear infections or other issues. So if you choose to give your child antibiotics for something, be sure to use one of the OTC remedies indicated below, or ask your child's doctor for a prescription for an anti-fungal medication to use along with the antibiotics.
Lauricidin and other anti-virals can also cause yeast. With chelation [removal of heavy metals], my son's tendency toward yeast was entirely eliminated for about a year, until I started anti-virals. When I started Lauricidin with my son, his viral issues significantly reduced, but his yeast significantly increased. More information on this below.
Yeast can be in other places besides in the gut. Yeast can be in the mouth [thrush], or on the skin [diaper rash area or feet/toes or other skin area]. See ideas under OTC methods for addressing these yeast issues.
Testing
Testing for these issues can be performed at any competent laboratory, altho many parents report that "standard" laboratories did not detect their child's yeast and/or bacteria issues. Here are two laboratories with sites on the internet for your information.
The Great Plains Laboratory -- Testing
Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory
Dietary treatment options
During the "die-off" phase, when the excess yeast and/or bacteria is dying off, toxins released by the dying organisms can [altho not necessarily so] cause very severe negative reactions, so it is best to progress slowly, to minimize this die-off effect. Giving activated charcoal about 45 minutes after any yeast treatment can help absorb the toxins of die off.
The first thing to do is eliminate or at least drastically reduce the consumption of yeast, sugars, and carbohydrates. This includes using yeast-free breads and other baked goods. Sugars include cane sugar, fructose, honey, molasses, fruits, maple syrup, high fructose corn syrup, and other sources of sugars. Check supplements, especially chewables. A "little" sugar is okay, but you need to be aware of, and monitor, the total sugar intake.
For reduced carbohydrates, consider your child's consumption of wheat, rice, potatoes, corn, and other grains. There is a specialized diet called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which removes from the diet the carbohydrates which feed the yeast, allowing the body to rid itself of yeast on its own. For information on SCD diet specifically for autism, click here.
Some kids need removal of these carbohydrates AND removal or at least reduction of sugars as indicated above.
Over the counter treatment options
After considering dietary interventions, it is best to first try supplementing with probiotics, which is good bacteria and "food" for the good bacteria. This will not only help the good bacteria, but it also helps yeast issues because these bacteria will then kill the yeast themselves. Unfortunately, my son does not tolerate any probiotics that I have tried, even with enzymes. So you should choose a probiotic product and then start slowly, watching for effects. It may be that the probiotic is tolerated, but is causing die-off effect, so it is difficult to know if any negative effect is intolerance to the probiotic, or die-off. With my son, I started probiotics when he did NOT have a yeast issue, so I know it was intolerance and not die-off effect.
Here is a very comprehensive description of what are probiotics, and a list of the different types of probiotics and what they do.
Probiotics short course and strains
Probiotics are cultured in some sort of "medium", including milk and apples and possibly other things. If you are trying to stay gfcf, be sure you select a probiotic which does not contain milk and is not cultured in milk.
You can find many probiotics at any local health food store. You can also purchase probiotics and yeast control at Kirkman Labs, Vitamin Research Products, and Culturelle.
Other over the counter [OTC] remedies you can find at most health food stores, that you can try, are GSE [I use this for yeast] and olive leaf extract and colloidal silver [for bacteria]. Other yeast remedies you can consider, are garlic, oil of oregano, uva ursi, and biocidin.
I use GSE [grapefruit seed extract] for my son's yeast issues. It works GREAT! Eliminated his yeast issue in 2-3 days. I use the concentrated drops from Nutribiotic, which I buy at my local health food store. There is available a capsule form of GSE, but I have never used that so I do not know if it is equally as effective. There are a few potential negatives to GSE that I know of, one is that it does have phenol effect, so start with 1-2 drops in the morning, then watch to see any phenol-type reactions. Also, if your child is using SSRI medication, then you should not use GSE, because it slows down liver metabolism and affects levels of medications like SSRIs. And in individuals with liver metabolism which is already slow, they would want to avoid GSE, or if for some reason GSE is required, it is recommended to avoid strong-flavored foods and spices, and that will help.
Some parents have found similar dramatic results for their child's bacteria issues by using colloidal silver. There is some information that it should not be given long term, but over a period of 10 days, along with Culturelle, and then continuing with Culturelle alone, produced dramatic positive results for several people. There is a possibility of argyria, which is silver deposits under the skin causing discoloration, so do consider potential negatives as well as positives, and do not use it long term. My son's bacteria issue was not as bad as some kids, so he did well with olive leaf extract, which is an anti-bacterial and an anti-viral.
Yeast can be in other places besides in the gut. For yeast in the mouth [thrush], using GSE or other method can help. For yeast on the skin [diaper rash area or feet/toes or other skin area], you can put a diluted GSE on the skin, or go to your larger grocery store and purchase Lotrimin cream.
There are enzyme products now available, that will digest the yeast cell-wall and allow either the body's own system [along with probiotics] to eliminate the yeast, or if given along with GSE or other anti-fungal, the enzymes will cause the anti-fungal to be much more effective. These enzyme products are No-Fenol from HNI, Candidase from Enzymedica, and Candex [don't know the manufacturer for this one].
Prescription treatment options
There are several medications available for yeast and bacteria issues. One benefit of these options is that you and your doctor can choose a medication which targets the specific type of yeast or bacteria which is at issue. Medications for yeast include Nystatin and Diflucan. Medications for certain bacteria issues include Bactrim, Vancomycin, and neomycin [specially compounded oral suspension].
Lauricidin and Yeast
Lauricidin is an anti-viral over-the-counter supplement. I am using it for my son's viral issues. However, even tho it is not *supposed* to, it does cause yeast for my son, even tho he had not had a yeast issue since about round 50 of ALA chelation [chelation of heavy metals generally also helps resolve the underlying cause of yeast issues for many kids]. Because Lauricidin is *supposed* to be effective for yeast issues, my theory is that it is the viral die off which is triggering the yeast issue, and the yeast it causes is different than the traditional "gut-yeast" of many kids. My son's yeast from use of Lauricidin is not "gut-yeast", because it does not manifest in the bms at all, only in his behaviors.
I used GSE for yeast before chelation removed the yeast problem, but GSE did basically nothing for my son's yeast issue which was caused by the use of Lauricidin. I tried oil of oregano, which appeared to work better on this yeast, but not as well as I would like.
Then someone I know, whose child also developed yeast with Lauricidin, had her child tested and she sent me his test results. The results indicated that her child had two strains of yeast [albicans and parapsilosis] and those strains were susceptible to the OTC yeast killers uva ursi and garlic. So I tried those instead of GSE and oil of oregano, and my son is much better now.
It has now been just over 2 months since Beamer started taking AF-X and PCA-Rx.
I have to say when the spray first arrived, and I read I had to spray it under his tongue and have him hold it in his mouth for 2 minutes, I almost cried. To be so close to something that I believed might help him and not be able to give it to him, was beyond belief. I quickly called your 1-800 number and pleaded for help. How was I going to get an autistic child who was not even 2 yet to co-operate with this method of administration. I was very relieved to be assured that this was not a worry. As long as I could get the spray in his mouth, that was all I had to do.
Everything I believed would happen has happened. Beamer is a completely different little boy. Before the spray he had no words at all. I had taught him sign language to try and ease his frustration. This was working well, but speech was our goal. He no longer grits his teeth and grunts. He actually talks, and I mean understandable words. He is not just mirroring our actions, he knows what the words mean, and uses them appropriately. After about 2 weeks of using the spray the words started. I awoke one morning hearing him call mama over his monitor. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was Beamer calling me. How my heart soared, he knew who I was and he called me. I had a name.
From this point on more and more words followed. I had been using Baby Bumblebee video's with him, and now he lets us know that he has learned everything on them. He knows his whole alphabet, and can say each letter. He knows his colors, he knows his numbers to 12.
Speech was our big goal, but we have seen so many improvements, since starting with the AF-X and PCA-Rx. He plays pretend now. We love to watch him playing with his little plastic Pooh, Tigger and the whole gang and giving Pooh rides on Eyore's back. He plays with all his little farm animals and makes all the sounds they make. Now when he watches his video's, you see the understanding in his smile's and laughs at the appropriate times I might add.
He no longer only eats round, brown, foods. He is willing to try more and different foods. He even tried celery.
Every day he says many new words. This morning he was playing with his Pooh figurines, and ask for Poohs house. It came so easy to him, he just looked up and said house please. He was playing with Playdough this morning and he and Papa made some balls. He dropped one and couldn't find it, he kept looking and then shouted there it is as plain as could be. He takes directions now. You can tell him to look behind and he does. If you say it is under the chair he will look for it. If you ask him to get something from another room, he runs off and gets what you have asked for. The other day after watching Beauty and the Beast, he initiated a game of the Beast chasing him. He ran through the house with his little Hot Wheels suitcase of cars, dragging behind him yelling beast, beast, and laughing.
He comes for hugs, for no reason at all. He will be playing and walk over and give us a hug around the legs, just to let us know he cares. I could go on and on, about the changes, but I think I have told you enough to get the message across that he is doing wonderful. The other night when I tucked him in to bed, as I was leaving I said love you, as I always do, only this time he responded with a love you. I think that says it all. He knows who we are, he knows who he is, he feels emotions, not just anger, and frustration, but happiness and love.
To any one that has doubts if these products work, I say try them you have nothing to lose and a whole new world for your child to gain. I don't know how long he will have to keep using these sprays, but it really doesn't matter. Time is on our side now. We are winning. By the way Beamer is 2 now, and I don't think you could pick him out in a group of children as the one who has a problem.
Wonderful Update To 'Beamer's Progress - 2/15/2005
I just wanted to give you an update on Beamers progress.
He continues to take his AF-X and his PCA-Rx, and he keeps progressing in leaps and bounds.
We had testing done on him by a speech therapist, the test results were amazing. He is now in the 94th percentile group. Translated that means that only 6% of children his age have a larger vocabulary. 50% is the average range. So his vocabulary is larger by 46% than most normal children. Not bad, considering he was completely non verbal in Sept., that is only 41/2 short months ago, unbelievable. That is his spoken level, his comprehension level is much higher. He is putting 2 and 3 words together at a time. Not only can we understand him, but so can perfect strangers. Sometimes this leads to a few embarrassing moments, such as when he saw a man in the store with a white beard and he insisted it was Santa. Strangers often comment on just how chatty he is, we just smile and say yes he is, and we love it. His speech therapist,( who he only saw 3 times) feels there is nothing she can offer him, because he is progressing at such a rapid rate.
We have seen great improvements in other areas also. I can't remember when he had his last temper tantrum. We have just returned from a long trip to Florida. His first time since he was 6 months old in an airport and through security (which can be trying to the best of us)and a long flight. We were prepared for some transition problems, but were very surprised when there were none. We encountered no problems in going from one hotel to another, he settled in with no adjustment problems at all. We had been very apprehensive about this trip, and were just blown away at how easy it was. It was like traveling with a seasoned traveler. He has come a long way from that little boy; it sometimes took us upwards of a half hour to get out of his room.
Since we have been home, we have looked at videos taken of him last summer. I don't think we realized how silent he was. It is quite heart wrenching to watch those videos and know that without the AF-X and the PCA-Rx; he would still be that silent lost little boy. It is with great joy that we move on to the recent video's and listen to him chatter, and watch him play and run from one animal to the next, at Disney's petting zoo, saying gentle, gentle, as he pets the animals. He loves to watch himself on the videos, and comes and asks for Beamer, and then tells you which he wants to see. We have many for him to pick from, all filled with his laughter, and chatty little voice.
The only sad note to all this progress is that we wish that there was some way of getting this information out to more people. It is upsetting to think that there are so many children out there suffering needlessly, because their parents don't know about these wonderful products. We will continue to tell everyone we meet about them. Because we know without them where Beamer would be, sitting silent, emotionless, and sad. How we celebrate every noisy, fun filled day we have with him now.
Nice to hear from you. How is Beamer doing ??? Where do I begin? He is just the most amazing 3 year old little boy. He is very high on life and sings and plays all day. He is never quiet; he has a great deal to say.
We are always happy to contribute in any way we can, to help get the information out there, to let others know that there is help, and that your products really work. I am attaching a couple pictures of Beamer. They show him as he is, a happy, content, normal little boy.
He has been going to a junior kindergarten program at a university preparatory private school, since last February. He has done amazingly well. I will share the remarks from his report card with you.
"Beamer shows such obvious curiosity and competence in so many areas of development that I felt compelled to assess his development from ages 3-6 years of age. He is a pleasure to have in class. Beamer displays cognitive ability well above normal expectations. His social/emotional development is also noteworthy. Every day spent with Beamer reinforces how privileged I feel to be a part of this formative time in his life. I look forward to spending another year with Beamer and guiding his learning."
This is a story his teacher shared with me on this report card. She entitled it, "A Precious Moment."
I sat on the lawn watching the children at play. Beamer stood next to me. His body stood straight. His head was level with mind. "Miss Vicki, will you be my queen?" he asked. "Of course," I replied. "But couldn't I be the princess?" "No" was the answer. "E -- is the princess. I want you to be my queen. I am a knight. A very nice knight and this is my sword." He made a fencing motion with an iris leaf. "I will protect you, Miss Vicki."
His head mistress added this comment. "This lovely story is surely indicative of the creative and compassionate character of Beamer."
Thanks to his PCA-Rx and AF-X, he is developing to his full potential. Without everyone at Maxam Labs, this story could never have happened. We will be forever grateful, as will he, when is older and fully understands.
Everyday is a new experience with him. Right now, his big love is the Cars movie. We have been to see the movie twice and he is collecting every car. The other day he bought a Cars watch. He was on his way to his sand box and he looked down and said "My watch will get dirty. We better take it off." He amazes me with the way he thinks ahead and realizes the consequences of his actions. He also bought the Cars sunglasses and they are magic. When he wears them, he is able to tolerate loud noises that would normally bother him. His imagination is unbelievable. We are all named different cars these days. He, of course, is Lightning McQueen, faster than fast, quicker than quick, he is Lightning, and he has all the lines memorized. I am Sally, his girl friend, and Papa is Tow Mater, his best friend. He watches the movie trailers on his computer, which of course he operates completely on his own. He can do things on the computer that I don't know how to do.
My husband and I are going to start taking NG-Rx to try and keep up mentally with Beamer. He is already very quick to correct us when we make a mistake in naming dinosaurs, or in re-telling a story not quite the way he knows it should be. It is quite scary to be corrected by a 3 year old, especially when he is right!! It is also wonderful to know that he is so quick and so bright.
Thanks again for all your help with Beamer and now with Ethan. We are looking forward to getting him started.