[tri-med] Re: EFA

Would EFA's be beneficial for someone as old as Elanor?  

Jennifer, mom to Elanor-3 1/2, full T18; and Arwen-5 1/2; caregiver to
Joe-25 cerebral palsy & spastic dysplasia; wife to Andrew-32 and
wonderful! 
Boise, Idaho USA


-----Original Message-----
From: tri-med-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tri-med-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Karen
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 1:30 PM
To: Tri-Med
Subject: [tri-med] EFA

EFA 
A very quick spiel about EFA.
EFA is our friend around here - and while its used for many reasons we
use it for praxis and I personally think all tri-ers should be on it
once they hit the 12 month mark.
EFA stands for Essential Fatty Acids, also known as Omega's, long chain
fatty acids, good fats and so on.

I started using it long before it became trendy after I researched the
work of Jacqueline Stordy and also autopsy reports of babies with T-18.

Autopsy reports on the brains of babies with T-18 (sorry if I am
upsetting anyone who has an angel) show that children with T-18 often
have poor myelination of the brain. Myelin is the sheath that covers the
nerves. Its the myelin that conducts the messages down the nerves. 

Lack of myelin, or more accurately the loss of myelin is what you see in
Multiple Sclerosis. If you are missing myelin then the message through
gets disrupted. 

I believe (and its my own personal belief) that most if not all of our
kids suffer from praxis in some form or another and that the effects of
praxis can be taken as retardation (if you cant get the message from
your brain to your muscles then you can't differentiate between whether
the brain can or can't) I am NOT saying that our kids are not
cognitively disabled - just that they may seem more so than they are.

Back to EFA's
I believe that EFA's encourage the myelination of the nerves. They
cannot test specifically to see if thats the case in people (because it
would mean taking brain samples which you can't ethically do) but
testing in mice says yes it does. And outcome research says yes too.
Thats Jacqueline Stordy's work - she has shown great benefits in EFA's
with conditions such as oral motor dyspraxia and ADD, ADDHD. All
conditions associated with poor myelination.

Over recent years Dr. Stordy's work has been validated by her peers time
and time again - to the stage where the US FDA now adds EFA's to many
infant formulas. 

Personally I would like to see a branch out study to see if Tri'ers on
EFA's suffer less apneas, walk earlier etc.

The reason I said 12 months earlier is that most EFA's that you get over
the counter are made from fish - which is a high allergy risk. So you
can start earlier just do it under the guidance of a ped and start with
plant based EFA's.

Personally we use Efalex, which I understand is not available in the US
anymore. Jude can tell you the US substitutes. Efalex is the one Dr
Stordy developed and has the right blend of Omega, 3's, 6's and 9's. 

The most obvious benefit to Alex from EFA's was his talking (his lack of
speech was a praxis issue) and he still takes it to aid in
concentration. 

Even if you don't want to use EFA's don't short change babies on fats -
they need them.

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some
poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning,
middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the
moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen
next. Delicious ambiguity."
- Gilda Radner -

Keep Looking For Rainbows!!
   _--_|\
 /Karen \
 \ _.--._ /
          v Karen, Mum to Alex (8 years, T-18 Mosaic)
http://members.optushome.com.au/karens


                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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