Curcumin

"Recent studies have demonstrated that curcumin has a wide range of beneficial pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory [3], antioxidant [4], antiviral [5], antiangiogenic and antitumori- genic [1] effects."

http://www.gotdownsyndrome.net/Jiao_2006_FRBM.pdf

Curcumin is the natural yellow product extracted from the Indian herb turmeric. It is currently used as part of many different protocols for our children that makes it's pure benefits unclear (in my opinion) because it is combined with other non-natural components such as psychotropic drugs.

Curcumin has properties of an iron chelator which is huge in the population of our children who tend to have high iron loads, as Lucas does. Things like cancer and tumor growth need a good supply of iron, it is their feeding source. In fact, the attached article demonstrates the ability to track development of cancerous tumors and other diseases by monitorring iron loads over time. Allowing excess unbound iron in the system will lead to devastating results. 

Curcumin impairs tumor and cancerous cell growth - both of which need iron to grow, in addition it is an antioxidant and free radical scavenger.

Are any of you using curcumin as a supplement? What reasons did you decide to do so?

A Summer Rose

A last minute decision to run an errand - on an unusual day for errand running - led me to a beautiful Summer Rose that I otherwise would have missed. I know it's blossom will be spectacular simply because of the love with which it was being cultivated. This journey has taught me to keep my eyes open for miracles, they are everywhere.

School is Starting (Along with cold and flu season)

Tomorrow is a very exciting day, Lucas has his preschool conference with his teacher and gets to see his room so he's already to start on Tuesday. Noah and Ryan, although they will tell you they are not, can't wait to go back and see everyone they have been missing through the summer. You know - telling stories, hi-fiving, sharing pencils, hanging out in the locker rooms, around the drinking fountain - yeah, you know where I am going with this! There's a reason tissues and antibacterial wipes are on the school supply lists.

Last year was our first full year following our anti-illness plan with stellar results. All the boys made it through unscathed - including Lucas. (Ironically I was the only one who got really sick right around Christmas time - it was fabulous.) Although I am certainly not in a position to recommend any course of treatment, I found that providing the whole family with increased vitamin D, good probiotics, elderberries (powerful antivirals - I boil them down in a touch of water and stir them into yogurt!), natural multivitamins, bioplasm cell salts and krill oil kept the boys on track.

The other component to our strategy was monthly visits to our pediatric chiropractor. A few energy releases later and the kids were clearing any congestion that may have been present. My oldest son woke up with a pretty bad ear infection in January, after seeing our chiropractor the first day he couldn't believe how pain-free he was in the car on the way home. That night he slept soundly, and that was the end of it.

The real evidence for me was the boys bringing it up today - "Hey mom, when are we going to start our plan?" We have all set the goal for a second consecutive year with no illness. None of the boys have been on antibiotics for years, I can't even remember when.

I even practice the old wives tales, I figure if chicken soup helps a cold, perhaps it can help prevent one. Our family eats a variety of organic soups 4-5 days of the week in the winter - mostly because I can make it early in the morning and it's ready whenever someone needs to eat around homework, sports, and meetings. I have become very crafty at adding nutritionally dense ingredients with little resistance from the kiddies - mostly because they have no idea!

My question for you is what strategies do you employ? What "resolutions" do you have for this new school year, and what is your action plan?

I can't wait to hit the ground running - it's going to be a good year!

That Time a Year Again - Please Read - Please Consider!!!!!

http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3261680

The new edition of Toys R Us's "Differently Abled Catalog" Is out. Wow, shockingly a child with Down Syndrome is featured on the cover. I can't even blog, as a mother, an occupational therapist, and an equal rights advocate I am outraged. WHY do so many parents think this is good???

The following is a formal post I made, it sums it up. I am seriously considering the impact of involving the media. This is discrimination in it's highest form and the very people responsible think they are making great humanitarian efforts and perpetuating yet another label on our kids as well as promoting a segregationist mentality among the very people - our children's typical peers - we are struggling to achieve equality and acceptance with.

Post:

I am sorry, but as a mother of a child with Down Syndrome and and Occupational Therapist, I find this catalog extremely offensive and inappropriate. I have looked through them since their inception looking for toys which have been adapted for children with special needs and are therefore worthy of a separate catalog. I have found none. The exact same toys that appear in the usual catalogs are there with beautiful children who have yet another label pinned on them and publicized - by a toy store - "differently abled." Are not all children in fact differently abled? Why not include the icons telling what skills each toy works on (the reason we give any toy to any child) in one big catalog and include models representative of all children? How can we stand for a toy store imposing another label on our children? How does that fit in with our mission here? What message does this catalog send to the families and parents of our children's peers who we are struggling to gain acceptance and equality with? Just because "differently abled" sounds nicer than the "R" word, the outcome is the same. Separate and not equal.

Altered Cerebella

Just an interesting thought on an article a friend shared on fb:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/uocd-rfa082411.php

It states that a researcher found that the brains of children with Down Syndrome have "altered cerebella." The cerebellum is primarily responsible for balance and coordination which are obviously two things with which our children have difficulty. The researcher goes on to state that he studied the eye movements of the children and discovered there is an incoordination in the eye movements as well. He ultimately concluded that there was a disturbance in the "optikinetic" link, but then somehow decided this was related to early Alzheimer markers and a drug trial for Alzheimer medication.

In all of the research the Institutes have done, they stress over again how all children with a brain injury have difficulty with their visual pathways, most notably near point convergence which develops at the midbrain level somewhere around 5 months when the baby begins to crawl and creep; hence our focus on creeping, crawling and cross patterning. If the visual pathway can not accurately assess distance, accomodation, convergent focus etc., how might that faulty information affect the development of the cerebellum? Structure from function?

Anecdotally, the main area of major response to our consistent patterning over the past two months has been coordination and balance. Again, I think these research findings are important, and I am certainly glad they are being done, but how in the world would a drug to slow the advance of alzheimer's affect positive changes in the brains of our children?

Nutritionally Based Thyroid Approach - MUST READ and Forward

Many have asked about forwarding the information I come across, this is by far the best article I have found to forward to practitioners. It outright asks the question why we would supplement thyroid function with a synthetic hormone (synthroid) for life which can pose risks, rather than treat the thyroid through nutritional supplementation that is preventative, effective and poses no long term risk.

Fantastic article!
http://www.healthresearch.com/downsyndromethyroid.htm

Information Regurgitation

As I am diving into metabolic physiology, I thought it may be helpful to pass along information as I learn it.  Turns out, there is a lot of information, but I came across some very interesting correlations.

The Relationship between Thyroid and Mitochondria
This relationship is very interesting and concerning. It seems that The thyroid function is dependent on the efficiency of the mitochondria and the efficiency of the mitochondria is dependent of the health of the thyroid!

Basically:
-Mitochondrial Function (Phosphorylation) is dependent on two processes
1. The citric acid cycle (anaerobic - no oxygen needed)
2. Electron Transport chain (aerobic - oxygen dependent)

-The efficiency of these two cycles is regulation by RESPIRATION

-Respiration is determined by the Basal Metabolic Rate

-The Basal Metabolic Rate is regulated by the THYROID.

If you wish to read the full text:
http://www.ceri.com/mito2.htm

I can't help thinking about all the things I have been questioning about our kids. First of all, our kids tend to have a shallow breathing pattern combined with the phenotypical low tolerance to activity. Even the open mouth breathing, aside from congestion issues, can be a mechanism to increase oxygen intake. In addition, when we began studying Lucas's blood, his levels would dramatically drop as soon as we introduced a physically demanding activity. I mentioned in a previous post that I thought it was interesting that as soon as his Bun/creatine ration went up (a measure of how our kids' muscles eliminate waste), the thyroid level was off. When we provided nutrients in converted forms to take the stress off the mitochondria, the thyroid level returned to normal.

The above article makes the statement that it is a distinct possibility a positive feedback loop exists that healthy function of the thyroid is dependent on efficiency of the mitochondria.

Further- The following abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16366737

suggests poor mitochondrial function is responsible for neurodegeneration. (How long have we heard our kids' brains degenerate and fail to form dendritic and synaptic connections?) Further, it is thought that by introducing certain nutrients and antioxidants, neuroREgeneration is possible.

Strikingly, the list of vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants are similar in both theories:
B Group vitamins
Vit. E
Vit. K
ALA
CoQ10 (instead of the common ubiquinone we had to give the converted ubiquinol to make it easier for Lucas's mitochondria to use)
Acetyl-L-Carnitine
Iodine and Selenium

Many of these are in the commercial vitamin therapies for T21 (Nutrivene and Nutrichem).

When Lucas was 6 weeks old, my husband and I traveled to Baltimore to meet with a doctor who researched some of these issues. His opinion was that parents who wait and see will find the predictable problems, introducing this approach then will not yield the results it would have if the child's neurological and metabolic systems were allowed to develop with the supports. That was good advice - I have no way of knowing if it was the metabolic supports or if Lucas would have developed this way without them.

What I do know is that no one in my house can beat him in State and Capital memory! He soundly beat me 11 matches to 2. (Nevermind I am in love with the way he says Lanalulu!)