PLT Test Blog

When I first connected histamine to autism, I did not realize that this might be a common problem.   The most frequently viewed post on this blog is one on histamine and autism; so at least 10,000 people out there have googled “autism and histamine”. Two years later, the therapy is still evolving and it should be said that, what works best for one person may not help in another person.  The main point is that in some people with autism, they face a summertime regression due to the effect of allergy.  So bad behaviours and aggression increase and good behaviours and indeed cognitive function decrease.  This appears to be the result of histamine and a pro-inflammatory cytokine called IL-6. For the 2015 pollen season, which started early where we live, this is what we are using:- Azelastine nasal spray, this is an H1 antihistamine that is also inhibits mast cells from “degranulating” and emptying their load of pro-inflammatory substances.  Once a day. Quercetin i...

Last summer, I wrote a lot about autism getting much worse in that time of the year and how I found that common “24 hour” anti-histamine drugs seemed to have a magical effect; but one that lasted only 2-3 hours. There were only visible signs of a mild allergy, which could indeed easily be overlooked. I did later receive a message from a reader who noticed his child’s ASD behaviours were greatly improved by Zrtec and his doctor agreed to prescribe this H1 antihistamine all year round. Recently, I stumbled upon a blog, rich with many comments of parents of kids with severer types of autism.  Here I noted some parents referring to “summertime raging”, and I thought to myself, I know what they mean.  Fortunately, I found out how to make it go away. Ant-histamine drugs The two most common antihistamine drugs are Claritin (Loratadine), its active derivative Aerius ( Desloratadine) and Zrtec (Ceterizine) and its active derivative Xyzal ( levocetirizine). The main action of an antihis...

Following requests for more information about supplements and drugs that really do seem to help with autistic behaviours, I have updated my "Top Tips" page.  Here is the updated information for anyone who is interested. You will find links to the science behind all these ideas in various posts on my blog.  Many of these are "off label" applications, since there are no treatments yet  licensed for autism. From comments received, it is clear people want "supplements" because they are available without prescription.  The rules vary widely from country to country.  A supplement in the US may be a drug in the UK and vica versa.  Or even a drug in UK is a supplement in Germany.  Just do some research on the internet.   Since I am not a doctor, this is not medical advice.  Since your doctor does not read the autism research, he/she will probably not be able to help you. Anti-oxidants Science established some time ago that oxidative stress plays a ce...

In my previous posts on histamine, you would have read that I found that Claritin appeared to reduce autistic behaviours.   Once I had got to the bottom of what was going on, I found out that histamine has a long record of stimulating challenging behaviour in all children.   It also became clear that typical anti-histamines (H1 antagonists) are all slightly different and one may be effective in one person and ineffective in another.   Each one tends to have additional secondary effects. It now appears that the secondary effect of certain H1 antagonists may actually be more important than the primary intended effect of reducing itchy eyes and runny noses. There are three generations of H1 drugs.   The fastest working and most potent is still the first generation, the second generation are non-drowsy derivatives of the first generation.   The third generation are the active metabolite of the second generation.   As you will see in today’s central paper, the t...

Having recently discovered that an anti-histamine drug like Claritin can markedly reduce autistic behaviours, I have been looking into exactly why this might be and to see if there could be any other related interventions.   Here are t he results and they pull together all sorts of related comorbidities and in the end I seem to have found a better solution for managing summertime autism flare-ups. Allergies have long been linked to aggressive behaviours It seems to be well known among allergists, that children with allergies may exhibit challenging behaviours.   It goes beyond the simple fact that the child with an allergy will be irritable and therefore behave badly; the allergy itself is affecting the behaviour.   Allergies tend to worsen behaviour and the science can explain exactly why this happens.    This applied to pollen type allergies, food allergies and even asthma. In the case of asthma, I found several studies, one is called:   Prevale...