Supplements for Tourette Syndrome

Taking supplements for Tourette Syndrome is a fairly new concept. For years, doctors rarely diagnosed Tourette Syndrome in patients; the main criteria includes a cycle or multiple cycles of motor and vocal ticking over a one year period. Doctors and medical researchers believed that the only medications that could help to control ticking were muscle relaxers. This attitude changed in the 1980s and 1990s when neurologists began to examine the impact of anti-seizure medications, and obsessive-compulsive disorder medications on adults with Tourette Syndrome. But supplements? Most doctors agreed that supplements for Tourette Syndrome were ineffective.

Tourette Syndrome, in many ways, is the "male face" of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Recent research shows that the same mechanism that created OCD in girls comes out as Tourette Syndrome, or TS, on boys. TS looks very much like a blend of ADHD and OCD. Children with TS struggle to sit still as their muscles force them to move or twitch. Motor and vocal ticking combined produces behaviors in children with TS such as barking, burping, humming, or coughing. Boys with Tourette Syndrome can be labeled "disruptive" when in fact their behaviors are not under their control. They are neurologically-driven behaviors, as random as an epilepsy seizure.

Medications designed to calm the area of the brain where ticking impulses begin have been helpful, but their use on children is not well-studied. This is where supplements for Tourette Syndrome come in. The same neurobiological pathways that drugs target can be modified through the use of certain amino acids and minerals in the form of supplements.

Doctors have identified four key ingredients:

1. Taurine. Taurine is an amino acid that helps reduce ticking and the neurological impulse that produces motor and vocal tics.

2. Magnesium. Magnesium is one of the supplements for Tourette Syndrome that helps the muscles to relax, making ticking less intense in the body.

3. Potassium. Like magnesium, potassium helps the muscles to relax and reduces motor ticking.

4. Omega-3 fatty acids. Cod Liver Oil and Flaxseed oil provide these fatty acids, which help with brain development and ticking regulation.

None of these supplements interferes with traditional prescription drugs, so they can be viewed as a complementary therapy that can be used in addition to prescription drugs. These supplements for Tourette Syndrome could make a difference in the life of any person with a TS diagnosis; as with taking any supplements, consult with a medical professional before beginning any sort of alternative therapies.