Complementary Therapies FAQs about EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids)

Some Answers to Questions about EFAs

From an email response on the CHERAB grouplist by Lisa Geng

It's hard to answer all the questions I am asked about EFA’s in just in one message. I can tell you that there are some questions that came up that can not yet be answered by anyone for sure (most of them!) Keep in mind it's just like anything -our children's doctors need to know so many things that they may not focus on any one, and may (probably) not have studied EFAs in medical school. In order for your child's pediatrician, neurologist, teacher, SLP etc. to take EFAs seriously, don't depend on the anecdotal emails you read here on the list. Bring them information from more accepted sources, such as research funded by the NIH, like this study: http://www.momtahan.com/mmartinez/.

I tell almost every parent I speak to that renting Lorenzo's Oil is a good thing to inspire/enlighten you about the situation I believe we are in with the EFAs. It's frustrating to realize that there would probably be more awareness campaigns and more money for research if we found the same anecdotal results from feeding our children the McDonald's Filet O' Fish sandwich than from plain fish oil alone.

I personally can't wait till they figure out how to put all the Omega 3/6 into food, for more than one reason. Many of us parents know just how great it's worked for so many "late talking" or apraxic children, Imagine when it's in stuff like ice cream and all, so that I can stop hearing so many saying their child's doctor wonders about fish oil, like it's some kind of drug. It's a food supplement – I just can't wait till it's a food. Then it will be silly to say "Dr.Smith is it OK to give Molly eggs from Eggland's Best?" Or "Brian loves fish oil Ice Cream? Should I switch him to a brand without fish oil anyway?" I know right now at least two companies that are working on developing an odorless and tasteless Omega 3/6 powder to add to foods -Roche and Ocean Essentials. And a very cool article from October 2001 is here http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/archive/2001/100301Mackerel.html. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is providing almost a $1 million to UMass over four years for this project, and nearly as much over the same period divided among the University of Connecticut,Pennsylvania State University, and Harvard University Medical School."

I appreciate that there are lots of questions about all these things we are talking about: DHA, EPA, GLA and now carnosine. When we became parents, it's not like we expected to have to study neurology and brain chemistry -or become neuroscientists or anything. Many medical professionals and academics will laugh or scoff at the research done up till now. Yes, attacks will come to most who believe in something silly like fish oil therapy - but let them laugh, our children are talking because of it. We, as the parents and professionals exploring these new therapeutic approaches, are pioneers.

When it comes to supplements or any non-traditional therapy suggested, my advice is to start one thing at a time and keep it simple, so you really know what is working, and what's not. There are various supplements or diets that are talked about here do work amazingly well for some, and some have a better success rate than others. You may want to consider trying EFAs first, since anecdotally, that generally works within days to three weeks. If you have your child on ProEFA, Efalex, or Eye Q or some other Omega 3/6 formula with no other supplements other than a multivitamin,(regular diet and no blood analysis) wait a few weeks to see if there are any positive changes in speech, motor planning, focus, and behavior. I would then recommend looking into the carnosine -- talk to your child's doctor about it.

I would again not recommend starting ProEFA with extra EPA and carnosine all at once, or you will not you know which one your child is responding to. I always suggest starting with just one ProEFA –wait a few months till there is a plateau to either introduce the carnosine, or to go up to one and a half or two ProEFA, but just one or the other. Once you are up to two ProEFA a day, instead of going to three ProEFA, I recommend adding the additional EPA. Just do it all gradually. This may take 6 months to a year to do all of the above. Why? So again you can see what your child is responding to the most. Is it the Omega 3/6? Is it from the carnosine? Is it the higher EPA Omega 3/6 formulas? For some reason, Omega 3 formula's alone including high EPA formulas are not anecdotally successful.

What I've seen with each supplement

For the most part -Tanner's had amazing surges on first Efalex and then ProEFA -still he didn't talk lots, and kept most of his sentences shorter. Since the increase in EPA and carnosine to the ProEFA, and the addition to traditional speech therapy, occupational therapy, karate, swimming lessons, cranial sacral and therapeutic listening therapy, I've seen more surges and changes. I posted that after I increased the EPA to the ProEFA I noticed an immediate improvement in syntax within the week, which stayed with him and is noticeable to all. I was calling people on the phone to let him talk to them. Tanner also was talking like a baby before this, and even though we were thrilled he was talking, he was mixing up past and present and leaving out the little words. When I looked into it, I found out and posted about SLI (speech language impairment)

When I added the carnosine, I noticed an increase in the length of speech. More imaginative speech and all around just "talking and talking". We need a new "speech" supplement that combines all this, but that doesn't exist yet. The cranial sacral therapy and therapeutic listening have both shown improvements in the smoothness in the speech. I believe that karate and swimming are beneficial for a number of reasons, including confidence and awareness of the body for motor planning reasons.

So just like for supplements, I believe observation is the best advisor for you as a parent.

Why I started using the higher EPA dosage with Tanner

I actually purchased the ProEPA to increase the EPA dosage for my son, Dakota, who has been diagnosed with ADHD by every neurological doctor and teacher since preschool. We are avoiding meds, because he is excelling in school since we started the fish oils. We have been trying various formulas of the EFAs to find the best for him to help his attention. He also does better with an Omega 3/6 combo formula.

Dakota was given all of the many bottles of fish oil that didn't work for Tanner (when I thought they were all the same), not realizing that, back then, that most were just DHA and EPA alone. More history here http://www.cherab.org/information/historyEFA.html

I started to give Dakota, my son who is suspected ADHD, the higher EPA Omega 3/6 mix based on what I heard from speaking with Dr. A. J. Richardson, one of the presenters at the First Apraxia Conference who I had the chance to speak with about her work with EPA and ADHD (today known as the Durham Trial) Even though we started giving Dakota a ProEFA/ProEPA mix, we did not at that point give the mix to Tanner.

Anyway, not knowing, my husband started to give the ProEFA and ProEPA mix to Tanner as well when the three of them were out of town. When they came home, Glenn was saying how my relatives were all commenting on how well Tanner was talking, and in just that one weekend I too noticed he was talking a bit faster and more clearly.

Once I found out that Glenn gave the mixture to both boys, I kept it up, shared this information with Dr. Agin, and watched. Keep in mind that Tanner was not in any private therapy at that time.

What we saw was a surge in about a week in speed, recall and great improvement on syntax. He was no longer "talking like a baby", mixing up past and present tenses and leaving out the little words. I was very quiet about it, because I wanted to see if this was just unique to Tanner.

I told a few other parents and the doctors about it, and let them hear Tanner over the phone -- I was so proud of him.

I still think it's best to start with just the one ProEFA capsule a day. Increase to two only after the surge isn't that great anymore. When you hit the second plateau, sometime after a few months, that's when it's good to try upping the EPA a bit by squeezing a bit in to the mix. If you do it gradually, then you can see what is working best for your child.

This is just my viewpoint. Please feel free to share or disagree. We are all in this together and have the same end goal for our children!!

More on EFAs from CHERAB

My son Tanner's page