Enzymes for Autism and Other Neurological Conditions: The Practical Guide for Digestive Enzymes, Better Health and Better Behavior

I found this a very enthralling read, especially given the real life examples the author gave of her own ailments as well as those of her boys and others.The study of enzymes is utterly fascinating, and you realise you can incorporate these in your diet without harm, with the 'Glove and hand' theory.The subject matter is very sympathetically portrayed, with the understanding that everyone is different. The boy also discusses other fringe topics like Magnesium , phenols etc and their role in daily wellbeing. I came out feeling like I had a better understanding of my own body and knew how to look at vitamin labels for what I was seeking. If you are to read one book , this is certainly IT

Gut health is the foundation for health for the rest of the body, both physically and cognitively. Hence, this book by Karen DeFelice should be considered a must-read by anyone dealing with a family member who suffers from autism, ADHD, and other conditions of a similar nature.

I bought this book because my son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, tourettes syndrome, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. In the three years after the diagnoses at age 8, he seemed to be getting worse. I had already discovered that vitamins B6 and B3 (niacin) work better for his anxiety than zoloft, plus relieved his allergies and asthma somewhat, so I expected to learn more along the same lines from this book. My son did ok in school grade-wise, but didn't speak a word all day and acted peculiar as far as not moving his arms when walking, sitting with his palms up, avoiding eye contact, etc. I was afraid he would have a lonely life. At home he threw constant temper tantrums, wouldn't cooperate with showering or changing clothes or going anywhere in the car, etc. I had discovered yeast overgrowth in a diet book a few months earlier and treated myself successfully for constant yeast infections, but I had no idea until I read this book that yeast overgrowth (dysbiosis) caused leaky gut syndrome, which results in neurological disorders in the young and over 5000 symptoms and 80 diseases in older people. This is the basic auto-immune disorder. When I read this book, I learned what the root cause of my sons neurological problems was. Also, I made the connection that my lifelong shyness, attention deficit, low thyroid, allergies, and lately constant yeast infections and worsening joint inflammation were caused by dysbiosis and/or leaky gut. Plus my anxiety was getting worse than ever along with the arthritis (caused by anti-inflammatories). I bought the enzymes for my son to take with meals, but he wouldn't take them, so I tried them myself and in two days my hip wasn't sore, and by the end of the week my anxiety was gone! My hip had been throbbing constantly for the past 2 years and I assumed that I would have to be on anti-anflammatory meds for life or get a hip replacement. Along with taking the enzymes, I dieted low carb and took nutrients to help my intestines heal faster. It took about 4 months before I could stop taking the enzymes without the arthritis or anxiety returning. I feel so lucky to have discovered this. In the end, all my son needed was the yeast cleansing and restoring beneficial bacteria. He took four small pills daily for yeast cleansing - pearls probiotic, garlic oil, grapefruit seed extract, and biotin for 6 weeks (if your child won't swallow pills, try using a tincture called wormwood complex or something similar and make sure you are giving a large enough dosage, it is hard to overdose but easy to underdose), then he took only the probiotics, a couple of them daily. After 4 days on only the probiotics, his behavior changed significantly because he was building plenty of proteins in his intestines for the first time. I would say that about 95 percent of all of his disorders disappeared. He walked and sat differently, he laughed at jokes, he quit fighting about everything and became very cooperative. He started enjoying life! All of our relatives noticed the difference. This book doesn't cover all aspects of yeast killing (like the leaky gut diet for instance), but neither do most of the other books and websites that I've read. I've learned something new from each source. I highly recommend this book as an excellent start for correcting your dysbiosis including products to use, daily maintenance and a timeline. This author could revamp the book to cover B vitamin deficiencies (B vitamins secrete from our beneficial bacteria which is compromised by the dysbiosis) and mention all auto-immune disorders and re-title it: Enzymes for Autism and Other Neurological Disorders plus Over 5,000 Diseases and Symptoms. Also, a caution. About six months after the yeast cleansing, both of us got our symptoms back and had to do another cleanse because we were eating too much sugar and breads. I did a short 2-week cleanse and then probiotics. I figured the mercury might have contributed to this and while researching about mercury detoxing, I discovered iodine therapy and infrared sauna (google them for details). Needless to say, we both did iodine therapy with lugol's iodine. It was easy and so far no recurrences. I just ordered an infrared portable sauna and I'm going to see if detoxing helps me loose weight. All of my other symptoms went away (including low thyroid) but I can't loose an extra 40 pounds. With all of the junk leaking out of my intestines for so long, I'm sure there is alot of it still being stored that might be interfering with metabolic processes. I would also like to mention that the first book on yeast overgrowth (The Yeast Connection) was published in 1982 and the concept has been rejected by the American Medical Association. It historically takes 40 years before a new concept is accepted. If the public were well aware of the magnitude of yeast overgrowth and its results so that we could treat the cause and not have to medicate the symptoms of all of these diseases, it might instigate change a little faster. But, in a conflict of interest, they would lose billions of dollars in revenue! Many think they know this and they are attempting to eliminate their competition. Lobbyists have attempted, through the FDA, to make manufacturing requirements so strict for nutritional supplements that it would put alot of companies out of business. Canada and Australia politians are trying to copy a Europe law change which allows the government to control the dosage of naturals, take some off the shelf or put them behind the counter so that you have to explain to a pharmacist why you want to buy it. They say it is to protect people from self diagnosing and prolonging effective treatment, but the truth is that national health care systems really need people to spend their money on pharmaceuticals so they can make co-payment money. Most politicians aren't aware of this. We have to be watchdogs about this, especially with so many of our leaders on the side of government-controlled medicine.

I loved this book. I have a 4 year old late talker who has had a lot of stomach issues when he was under 2. I started giving him a probiotic and omega 3's etc and the speech has slowly been developing but he is still very much delayed. I needed more answers around a root cause for some of his issues including Sensory Processing Disorder/Dyspraxia. Why is this happening and how do I avoid having to give him a multitude of supplements for the rest of his life just to get him close to functional. The author explains how digestive enzymes can be used to correct the dysbiosis that is causing all the issues in the first place. Who knows how he ended up here- vaccines or antibiotics after multiple ear infections or just bad luck. We'll never know but I am now just focussing on the solution and enzymes is definitely part of the healing for us.

I happened upon this book by accident but could not be more grateful for that accident. My son is 2 1/2 years old. He has MANY sensory issues (he is a sensory seeker), he also has apraxia of speech and autistic tendencies. He has been on the GFCF diet for over two months. It helped somewhat, but the diet is so expensive and stressful that I was very open to the idea of an alternative to that.My son has been on the enzymes for almost one month now and he has BLOSSOMED! His sensory issues are almost non-existent---and this was a child whose sensory issues seemed to control him. His speech has tripled and he is much more open to trying to say new words and is open more to seated activities such as reading, puzzles and play-doh. He stays still for much longer periods of time. His eye contact was always pretty good but now it is fantastic. He is even calling me Mama for the first time ever....if you have a two+ year old who has never called you Mama or Mommy, you come to be desperate for that...let me just tell you it has been music to my ears. He is better at identifying pictures. He even pointed to a picture of me and said "Mama" without any prompting.My son is in speech, occupational and developmental therapies, mostly b/c of his sensory issues. After three weeks on the enzymes, his speech therapist said to me, "you have a new boy on your hands". She and the OT both were shocked at how calm he was, how attentive he was to calm activities. He no longer needed to "crash and burn" during therapy, but could transition from one activity to the next with ease. A child who used to tantrum if he had to leave the sensory room was now requesting to leave halfway through the session in order to go back to the speech therapist's room!I will be forever grateful to the author of this book and to the previous reviewers that steered me towards this book. My son is a different boy who has even been able to incorporate some wheat back into his diet without any repurcussions. It is so exciting to look towards the future to see what doors these enzymes will open for my soon. I simply cannot say enough positive things about this book. It has forever changed our lives as it continues to heal his leaky gut.If you have a child with gut issues (chronic diarrhea---my son had this and it is now gone!), speech issues, and especially sensory issues, please take the time to read this book!!!!