Why Now?

A lot of people have asked me upon finding out about Noah's improvement, "What has changed? Why has he started crawling and improving so much physically after all this time?" Though the answers aren't necessarily easy, I can sum it up in one word: physiology.

Why do I mean by physiology? Well, my handy, dandy Encarta Dictionary describes it as-- body's internal processes: the way a particular body or organism works. The oversimplification makes me laugh, but as for the way a particular body works when that particular body (and brain) has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy is: not very well.

Physiology includes, but is not limited to your breathing, digestion -- including your ability to absorb nutrients, muscle tone, circulatory systems, immune system function, hormone function, and anything else your body does. Considering every system is run by the brain, every system can and often is affected in the child with CP.

Noah is no exception. He has many digestive issues that we are working hard to overcome. Mal absorption, acid reflux, and bowel problems are just another normal for children like Noah. Spasticity is another huge issue for kids like Noah.

Until six months ago, Noah's hamstrings and adductors felt more like bone than muscle. It caused him a lot of pain, kept his left hip from forming correctly, and made it difficult for him to move.

One natural way to combat spasticity is magnesium. It is a wonderful little mineral that as many as 85 percent of people are low in. I could go into all the health benefits of magnesium, but it would take way too long (just don't run out and buy magnesium stearate. If you are going to supplement, talk to your doctor and take magnesium citrate).

Noah takes a lot of magnesium orally, but in the blood work we take to Philly, the amount in his red blood cells (RBC magnesium -- what has been absorbed into the cells) was still pretty low. One of our doctors at IAHP recommended a transdermal magnesium. You rub it onto the skin, and it absorbs into the bloodstream, bypassing that pesky digestive system that absorbs so poorly.

This is the kind that Noah uses, which we have to get from the doctor. Since he has started taking Magnesium this way, his rigidity (or tone) has decreased drastically so that those hamstrings and adductors we talked about now feel like muscle instead of bone, and have a much more normal range of motion. And yes, this is a big reason that Noah is crawling so much better.