Boy with ADHD and OCD

Foreword – and Reminder

I am not a licensed medical professional and there are strict laws where I live about “appearing to practice medicine”.  I am safe when it is “academic models” and I keep to the language of science, especially statistics. I am not safe when the explanations have possible overtones of advising a patient instead of presenting data to be evaluated by a medical professional before implementing.

I cannot tell people what they should take or not take. I can inform people items that have better odds of improving their microbiome as a results on numeric calculations. I am a trained experienced statistician with appropriate degrees and professional memberships. All suggestions should be reviewed by your medical professional before starting.

The purpose of this post is to educate on how to use the site.

Backstory

  • This is a child with autism
  • His major issue is his severe repetitive OCD behaviors, asking same questions 25 times a day, non-stop scripting of latest things that interests him. Watching and doing same things over and over again that he likes, very severe OCD with opening closing doors since age 3
  • ADHD symptoms, can’t sit down still can’t focus on anything.
  • Speech at 10 percentile, can understand well but cant express much, Recently started asking more what and when questions 
  • Several type of tics. Started him on Mag citrate and Pure B complex his blinking tics vanished.
  • Sensory seeking, likes to press chin and cheeks on me, jumping on me, rubbing his head and face on me
  • General anxiety 
  • Low muscle tone, mito issues
  • NO aggression, NO head banging or self-injury, sweet friendly kid
  • No socialization, does not know how to play or even talk to other kids, unappropriated behaviors 
  • Smart kid can do advance math, was able to read since age 2 and a half, however comprehension and understanding of context is low 

Currently he takes following daily; Zinc picolinate 25mg, Klaire labs Benfotiamine 150mg, Pure B6 complex, Metagenics Ultra C, Designs for health Magcitrate powder, Vitamin D and high EPA fish oil, B12 injections twice a week.12 –

We did a 90 days gut-reset (killing and repopulate phases) with a functional doctor last year in November. And then we did 3 weeks of Sporonox. There was no improvement in his symptoms after finishing the protocol. Still have bloated belly.

Analysis

The usual health analysis raised nothing outstanding. Remember we are comparing a child against adult standards knowing that the microbiome change greatly during childhood. The sole medical condition raised in Acne, a very common condition. High counts of Bacteroides fragilis and Parabacteroides. Dr. Jason Hawrelak recommendations came in at the 56%ile, so a little concern.

The percentile chart came in reasonably balance with no major shifts

KEGG (Genomes) based Suggestions

Nothing showed up — which cause me to look at the raw data. There are measurements on 1834 compounds. 415 of these compound were over 90%ile. One would expect 10% to be over 90%ile, i.e. just 183 compounds, not 415 compounds… hence the conclusion that it is not under production of compounds but over production. For Enzymes, his numbers are in line with expectations (203 out of 2045, i.e. the expected 10%). For end products (an old estimate from ad hoc data), he had nothing over 90% or under 10%.

Getting that information required me to go to the data directly and do some manipulations. To make life easier, I created a new section on the [Research Features] tab, shown below.

I then went to to check his bifidobacterium levels — because most kids with these types of conditions, especially autism, have sky-high levels here. This was NOT the case here, this sends up a red flag that this kid is atypical — and thus treatments that help others may have no effect or make him worst.

We happen to have an OATS test result also included. So on the Research Features, we went to see what would be suggested for actual levels (as reported by OATS) versus modelled levels (which found nothing).

On the [Changing Microbiome] tab

We found that most of the items that were out of range were in a direction that probiotics could not help. Of the few that the shift was actionable on we got the following suggestions:

Most of the suggestions had lactobacillus acidophilus in common — so if none of the above is available consider a probiotic that is L.acidophilus only

Pro Forma Consensus Building

This appears to be the best course here. I am going to do the usual, and then add some advance one that are specific for symptoms:

I then went to Research Features tab / Fine Tuning of suggestions. and picked OCD

9 Bacteria were selected that match the profile. One that was selected was Lactobacillus

I repeated for ADHD – no bacteria were selected.

Consensus Report

Going thru the list, filtering for what would likely be acceptable for a child:

On the avoid:

I would say do no probiotics (75% of them are on the avoid list). That would only increase lactobacillus which has a reported association to OCD. The one possible exception with a weak positive impact is saccharomyces cerevisiae (probiotics)

OCDKid_ConsensusDownload

Looking at Vitamins…

I see Vitamin B12 injections — Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B-12) came up as an AVOID for suggestions and OATS shows no issues. Was there documented evidence for these or was this a MD saying “lets try this”?

What came up in the suggestions were: vitamin b7 biotin (supplement) (vitamin B7) (which is in agreement with the OATS results of low biotin), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6) and vitamin b3 (niacin). The following came up as avoid: vitamin d, vitamin b2(Riboflavin),fish oil with others being mild avoids: Vitamin C (ascorbic acid).

Again, the question to be resolved by you — are the some of the supplements being taken based on a clinical lab finding deficiency OR ad hoc suggestions received from people. Remember, we found an abnormal over production of many compounds above, pouring more compounds into his body without a clear lab verified need — may not be in his best interests.

Leave a Reply