Friday, May 09, 2008

Food allergy and stuttering

A reader wrote to me:
I’m 38 and started stuttering very late at about 8. I went to speech therapists etc and generally lost respect as the “techniques” never worked or helped me. After a conversation with a friend, I tried a different approach about 3 years ago. I got anti-anxiety meds that helped me greatly. I realized I had some “wires” crossed and started to dig deeper.

I saw various doctors and tried various homeopathic pathways. Which were hitting around the problem, but never got super close to answers. I was tested last fall for food allergies and the results were astounding; I was allergic to food and a diet change transformed my life. My speech improved very quickly and I also felt better. I was still having ups and downs but they were less severe. I went to see a couple gastroenterologists to explore the food allergy further. I would, at times, wake up with a headaches for seemingly no reason. My fluency would have ups and downs (however less severe) even when I would eat “safe” foods. My gastro said I might have an enzyme deficiency and prescribed some Creon (enzyme) for me. The Creon also changed my life.

I probably have never digested food well. When I eat, my body could not cope and it would ultimately engage my sympathetic nervous system instead of my parasympathetic nervous system. Thus, I would immediately go into fight or flight anytime I ate. This would increase my overall body tension and create an ever moving target with regard to my fluency. Good days, bad days, always unexplainable. My body became more and more averse to certain foods and I became more and more allergic to foods b/c of my difficulty in digesting them. This tension/anxiety would focus in my neck area and I would stutter. I cannot explain how much changing my diet and the digestive enzyme has helped me.

I would be really interested if anyone else out there has pursued this avenue

6 comments:

O said...

Would be a good post for NutritionStuttering's Simona...
: - )

Tom & Kris said...

I know of someone who stutters noticeably more if they eat anything with eggs, due to their egg allergy.

Anonymous said...

A few years ago I noticed that what I ate most certainly did affect my stuttering. I live in Korea and went to restaurant and ate what they call Kimbop (rice, ham and various ingredients rolled up in dried sea weed) and dwinjong soup (soy bean paste soup), and after eating this combination I just could talk my head off. Something in it just went directly to the voice center of my brain. There is certainly a connection between food and stuttering. I actually food is the complete cause and cure. Stutters apparently react abnormally badly so some things and can respond well to other. The lack of an enzyme really intrigues me. I'm going to look into that.

Pascal said...

Have you found anything about the same ?

Anonymous said...

i stutter more after eating eggs,apples & mangoes.i think these foods increase dopamine level in brain.

sss said...

raw foods improving fluency