Hello, just curious - has anyone gone the functional medicine route post-ADEM ? I’ve spoken with just one other person about this - he had great success with it - but looking to hear other stories if they’re out there. My son who had ADEM is seeing a functional medicine MD currently and things are looking great.
Hi MegRa,
Whats is his experience? What did they do? I want to see if this differs or can bolster what i have been doing by myself. I am very against visiting “professionals” as their chance of helping vs. hindering or exasperating issues is very low. and i’m not one to enjoy gambling without as much information and research as possible.
Now that you have sparked my interest i’m going to run through rabbit holes.
~ Grim
What exactly is a functional medicine route? Nutrition/diet ?
Hi Grim, it’s root cause analysis. Trying to figure out why someone’s body reacted the way it did, in this case why did ADEM occur. It is not a normal immune reaction so why did it happen. And then taking steps to correct the various issues unearthed by testing to optimize health. In my son’s case there were several nutritional deficiencies (Vit D, Magnesium, Omega 3s, certain Amino acids were low), he had severe gut dysbiosis (more bad bacteria than good causing leaky gut), high aluminum levels, along with vaccines that he received plus a sickness he had that pushed his little immune system into over drive. Now we work to correct those imbalances. Conventional medicine saved his life via steroids and now that’s he’s out of the woods, we want to know why it happened and how we can optimize his health. Nutrition obviously is a big part and we are on a whole-foods diet. He is doing great and I honestly would never guess he was so sick just a few months ago. But that’s also because kids are resilient and God is good. I do realize ADEM in adulthood is far more severe than pediatric ADEM. Feel free to message me for info if you’re interested and I’ll be happy to answer any questions. We are still in the treatment process.
Hi Kathy, it’s root cause analysis. Trying to figure out why someone’s body reacted the way it did, in this case why did ADEM occur. It is not a normal immune reaction so why did it happen. And then taking steps to correct the various issues unearthed by testing to optimize health. Nutrition is just one aspect of it - it is catered to the exact deficiencies your body has and, of course, is a whole-foods, nutrient-dense diet. There is much more to it than just nutrition.
Thanks for the info MegRa,
I don’t have anyone like that near me. shrug Oh well i won’t fix what is not broken.
Glad he’s doing well.
What type of medical professional would do this analysis?
Our doctor is an MD from Vanderbilt University’s medical school, he also did his residency there and is a board certified pediatrician, worked in the medical field for many years, then got interested in functional medicine due to experiencing several serious health issues in his family. I’m not sure about other doctors. I specifically looked for a highly reputable MD.