Dopamine!

For those of us doing alternative medicine to recover our kids, knowledge is power. The Drs. involved in this alternative medicine share a wealth of knowledge. Particularly Dr. Bernie Rimland (founder of Autism Research Institute and cofounder of DAN! --- passed away recently) and Dr. Amy Yasko. I have been following both protocols very closely. However, I have really learned about the biochemistry of the human body from Dr. Yasko's work.

Dopamine (from Wikipedia) is a chemical naturally produced in the body. In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter. Dopamine has many functions in the brain. Most importantly, dopamine is central to the reward system. Dopamine neurons are activated when an unexpected reward is presented. In nature, we learn to repeat behaviors that lead to unexpected rewards. Dopamine is therefore believed by many to provide a teaching signal to parts of the brain responsible for acquiring new motor sequences, i.e., behaviors.

Movement
Via the dopamine receptors D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5, dopamine reduces muscle contraction. Shortage of dopamine can cause Parkinson's disease, in which a person loses the ability to execute smooth, controlled movements. The phasic dopaminergic activation seems to be crucial with respect to a lasting internal encoding of motor skill.

Cognition and frontal cortex
In the frontal lobes, dopamine controls the flow of information from other areas of the brain. Dopamine disorders in this region of the brain can cause a decline in neurocognitive functions, especially memory, attention, and problem-solving. Reduced dopamine concentrations in the prefrontal cortex are thought to contribute to attention deficit disorder.

Yasko's protocol focuses on looking at DNA-based genetic predispositions that may cause chemical imbalances in the body and uses supplements to by-pass these "mutations", correct the methylation cycle so that the body can function properly (e.g., fight viruses and bacteria, detoxify from metals and environmental toxins immediately to prevent accumulation, etc.). In Jonathan's case, he is genetically predisposed to having low dopamine in his brain (COMT L136L +/- and VDR/Taq +/+). And because he has a high load of toxic burden in his body, his methylation cycle cannot function properly enough to make enough dopamine and the rest of the chemicals needed to function.

So, in my opinion, low dopamine may be a big reason why our kids have low attention, stimmings, strange movements, memory problems, etc. We pay little attention to supplementing to increase dopamine. I am going to order Yasko's Nerve Calm and Mood D RNAs which theoretically help with dopamine in the brain.

In the following sequence of photos, you can see how Jonathan is all over the place as he plays Bingo with Daddy. He really wants to play, but he wants to watch TV and he wants to move around and simply cannot concentrate. We are seeing this trend more and more lately. I am going to send a post to Dr. Amy for her advise on what to do here.

He is excited as he sees that wheel turn

Daddy prompted him a couple of times to check his board for a match. He found a match.

Lost focus and started watching TV. Daddy called his name several times.

He got excited to play again .
This picture clearly illustrates how he is not concentrating on what he is doing. With his right hand he is covering the matching number while he is staring at the wheeling waiting to turn it again. He ended up covering the wrong number. The irony is that his biggest obsession is numbers and letters. Something is clearly going on his his little brain.

Despite the lack of concentration that he is showing lately, he had an excellent day at this OT class today. The therapist indicated that he was able to play with shaving cream without issues for the first time. And that he also completed other activities that he hated in the past.

We went shopping and he enjoyed being inside the cart's car with Vanessa. This is a huge thing. He did not tolerate feeling pushed or be so close to Vanessa and we had to use 2 carts. So again, some regressions while we see improvements.