How It Works

Please keep in mind that I am not a scientist so I will be speaking in laymen terms. After about 30 years of trial and error (lots of error) I have figured out what foods to eat and what foods not to eat. Like any other diet it’s simple in theory but hard to execute because most people aren’t patient enough and disciplined enough to see the results of their efforts. I am not a patient person by nature. I have learned to become patient and disciplined. Ok enough chatter now on to the diet.

Overview

First of all, I and a small minority in the world believe that the healthiest diet is a basic diet that is moderate in carbohydrates, fat and protein and rich in fruits and vegetables. This is my staple diet. I’m not going to go into all the details of nutrition because it would be too lengthy. Besides if you are interested in this kind of nutritional therapy than you should read several books about the subject so you can get a better understanding of basic nutrition. I will say however that I would stick with diets that are from cultures that are forced to live closest to the land like the Hunzas in northern Pakistan who are some of the healthiest people on earth, (or at least they were before westerners started introducing their foods to them), for those are the diets that will keep you in the best health. I personally have never found any fad diets to be of any value.

The Diet

Within the framework of a good diet (i.e. the Hunza diet because that’s basically how I eat) the following is a synopsis of what makes my tourette spasms better and worse.

Although I don’t have the capacity to explain this scientifically it seems to have something to do with blood sugar levels. Sugar is absolutely my worst enemy whereas whole grains such as brown rice are my best friend. For example, if I wake up in the morning and don’t eat all day say until 6pm my blood sugar has dropped and I have more spasms. If the first thing I have is a soft drink and a piece of candy I have yet more spasms. If I then go have a beer having had nothing else but the soft drink and the candy I get worse still. Now if instead of waiting all day to eat and around 10 am I had some steamed or boiled, not fried, rice I’m a little calmer and then if I eat again around 3pm and have more of the same I remain calm and then later a piece of salmon still I have less spasms. The point here is that if my blood sugar goes way down from not having eaten I get a little worse and if my blood sugar goes way up from the food I choose I get a lot worse. This effect is multiplied by how many days in a row I continue this practice. Now the tricky part is that for a long time I thought just eating a “Hunza” diet was good enough but it wouldn’t work all the time. That’s when I figured out that I could eat all the good foods in world and still be horrible unless I had my carbs and fat and protein in the right amounts and from the right sources. Balance is the most important element is this diet. Now I know this sounds confusing but don’t be discouraged. Playing the guitar or the piano seems complicated at first but with practice it gets much easier.

Carbohydrates

Ok, so here’s the deal with the carbs and the sugar. The following process is what affects the spasms the most. In laymen terms, of course, when you eat carbohydrate foods your body handles them differently depending on the complexity of the carbohydrate. For example, when you eat steamed or boiled whole grain brown rice which is a complex carb your body converts it to glycogen which is a type of fuel that is stored in your muscle cells. Your body then burns the glycogen you have stored up when you exert energy. When you eat a candy bar which is a simple carb your body does not convert it to glycogen but rather burns it immediately. It’s sort of like throwing paper or an oak log on a fire. The paper burns right up while the log takes a long time to burn. Now I can’t explain why this affects the tourette spasms but it most certainly does. If your diet consists of a variety of complex starchy carbohydrates the spasms lessen and if your diet consists of lots of simple sugars the spasms increase. The tricky part is that there is a big misconception in the medical world about what a complex carb is. Almost all of the mainstream doctors and nutritionists consider pasta and bread and fried potatoes complex carbs. This is only partly true. They are more complex than fruit or sugar but not as complex as steamed or boiled whole grains and large potatoes. The temperature at which the food is prepared affects the complexity of the carbohydrate. When a carbohydrate food is baked or fried it is rendered less complex. In my experience with tourettes when I don’t have steamed or boiled whole grains and large potatoes as my staple (main source of) carbs I get worse over time and keep getting worse with each meal of simple carbs or sugars. In addition to the complexity of the carbohydrate the starch content is also a factor. Again, I don’t know why but if I have complex grains like millet or buckwheat, which are very high quality grains and yield a lot of energy per calorie but are low in starch, I tend to get a little worse if I make them my staple carb. I will eat them because they are so good for you but that is why I make brown rice my staple carb. Note, white rice, par broiled rice and fried rice (like in Asian restaurants), fried potatoes, baked potatoes, hash browns, breads, pastries, pastas, refried beans etc… though they are starchy are not complex enough to produce the calming affect on the spasms because of the temperature at which they are prepared. Legumes (beans and lentils etc.) are also a good source of complex carbohydrates and starch. These are an important part of my diet as well. All varieties of legumes steamed or boiled not fried or refried aid in minimizing the spasms. Remember though that you don’t need to over eat grains and legumes. A moderate portion a day will suffice. You won’t get better by eating more of them. There is a limit to the reduction of the spasms. The key with carbs is to have more of the starchy complex ones and less of the sugary simple ones. It is the most important part of the “Tourette Diet”. It takes discipline. It takes time. For a long time it really bothered me that I couldn’t have sweets and candies and cakes and ice cream but over time I learned to enjoy the foods that made me feel better. I don’t want the side effects of medication so to me it’s a very small sacrifice.

Fruit

Fruit is a simple carbohydrate. It does not affect tourettes anywhere near as bad as sugar but they can cause more spasms if your diet does not have a good balance of complex starchy carbs. I absolutely eat a good portion of fruit because your body absolutely needs it. I’m just a little cautious as to how much and when I eat it. For example, if I have fruit first thing in the morning I’ll get a little worse. I think because my blood sugar is low in the morning and then shoots up after eating the sweet fruit. However, its effects are not as bad as sugar from a doughnut and a soft drink nor do they last as long. If I have a starchy meal soon after the fruit like a steamed russet potato or some boiled brown rice and lentils I will then return to a calm state. If I have fruit with a meal that includes complex carbs I don’t seem to have any negative effects. This is not the case with refined sugar, even organic brown sugar. Its effects last much longer than fruit and are much more severe. It doesn’t matter if I have sugar with or without a meal; its effects are always bad. So it’s ok to eat fruit. In short, as long as your diet is well balanced with your staple carbs being complex starches then you shouldn’t notice any effects from eating fruit.

Fat

 Fat doesn’t have much effect on tourettes unless you have a very low fat diet in which case you will get a little worse. I have a descent amount of fat. I just make sure I get my fat from good sources like olive oil, avocados, cheese, nuts and seeds. Although I’ve eaten plenty of fried foods when I was younger I have never in my life made them my staple (main source of) fat so I don’t know the effects of that. I don’t think it would matter too much but I wouldn’t recommend eating a lot of fried foods just for general health reasons.

Protein

Protein foods include beef, pork, poultry, seafood, dairy and eggs. I have been a vegan and a carnivore. In my extensive experimentation with diet I have tried many combinations of foods. One of the things I have learned is that moderate protein diets work well for tourettes. I personally don’t recommend being a vegan because I believe the body works better and is stronger and healthier with the inclusion of some animal protein. I also don’t recommend a high protein diet. Protein, especially from beef, gives you power and strength. When I was a heavy meat eater I was very strong and had lots of energy however I was also more aggressive, quick to anger, easily agitated and impatient. The tourette spasms were increased and I could never seem to relax. When I was a vegan I was very relaxed as long as I ate carbs as described above but I felt weak often. So after much trial and error I discovered it was best for me to have a moderate amount of protein in my diet. I have a good variety of protein from only the best sources. I always try to buy fresh fish instead of farmed. I also buy meat, poultry and dairy from animals that aren’t fed hormones. I don’t know if this in itself has a particular effect on ts but my experiences tell me that the less of those kinds of contaminates the better. As far as soy products go I will eat them but it hasn’t helped me to make tofu and tempeh my staple protein. Also as a side note, if you have a weight problem you won’t gain a lot of weight by having steamed and boiled whole grains and potatoes but you probably will if your staple carbs are bread, pasta and fried potatoes. I mention this here in the protein section because of the popularity of the low carb high protein diets which I strongly disagree with for reasons of general health and its effects on Tourette syndrome.

Vegetables

I have never had a problem with any vegetable I’ve ever had. Raw, boiled, baked of fried they don’t seem to have an effect one way or the other except cooked spinach. I don’t have any idea why but cooked spinach helps me calm down just a little bit. Keep in mind that all of these little bits I refer to add up. I include lots of vegetables in my diet both raw and lightly cooked. Since they have no effect on me (except cooked spinach) I choose to eat them often for good heath reasons. If you don’t want to it’s up to you. It probably won’t make a difference in the spasms but I would recommend you eat them regularly for your own good health.

Alcohol

Alcohol will make you have more spasms, period. If you want to drink it’s up to you but you will get worse with every drink you have. Unlike sugar though the effects will wear off when you sober up.

Coffee

Coffee like alcohol makes you worse with each cup. I don’t drink coffee.

Sugar

I cannot stress enough how bad sugar is for someone with tourettes. And not just sugar. Any form of sweetener like aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, molasses, brown sugar, white sugar. Basically if it’s sweet it’s probably going to affect you very negatively. Unfortunately sugar is in just about everything. Soft drinks, canned foods, ketchup, bbq sauce, cereal, yogurt, soy milk, crackers, bread etc… And of course the obvious ones like cake, candy, cookies and ice cream. You name it they put sugar in it. So you see how easy it is to inadvertently make sugar your staple carb instead of steamed or boiled whole grains and potatoes. Don’t be discouraged though; if your diet is good and balanced you can have a little bit of sweetener. I personally choose to have honey because it doesn’t affect me as bad as sugar. With some trial and error of your own you will figure out how much sweetener you can tolerate but let me tell you it isn’t much and sometimes you will have to stay away from it completely.

Condiments and Seasoning

Salt, peppers, mustard, mayonnaise, oils, vinegar, hot sauce and such are all ok as long as they don’t have sugar. Ketchup and bbq sauce are ok if you can find ones without sugar.

Vitamins

The only time I’ve had any problems with vitamins is when I tried taking mega doses. I’ve tried many times and the same thing seems to happen. I have more spasms and can’t relax very well. I think I have it narrowed down to the b vitamins. I don’t have any problems with vitamin c. I used to take a lot of c. I don’t have any problems with minerals either. I haven’t tried every single vitamin individually but you will notice that most multi-vitamin bottles have an extraordinary amount of vitamin b (sometimes 3000% of the USRDA). B vitamins which include thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pyridoxine (B6), folic acid (B9), cyanocobalamin (B12), pantothenic acid and biotin aid in the process of making energy and every time I have multi-vitamins with high doses of vitamin b after a few days I have more energy and more spasms. This has been my experience. I can’t say for sure it is the vitamin b but when I have multi-vitamins with moderate doses of vitamin b I’m ok. I currently take a little fish oil, 2 grams of vitamin c a multi-mineral without iron that has about 100% of the USRDA and a multi-vitamin with about 100% of the USRDA. I do this for my own good health. It does not affect my spasms except as stated above.

Chemicals, Dyes and other Preservatives 

I stopped having artificial additives in foods so long ago that I can't honestly remember which ones do what except MSG. I can tell immediately when I've had MSG because my spasms get worse and I get a headache. I remember cutting them all out of my diet because it was one of the circulating theories at the time as one of the triggers of tourettes. There are numerous similar theories now. I haven't experimented with this lately because I choose to keep them out of my diet simply for the reason of maintaining good health and I'm sure having them wouldn't help me in any way. I agree with the current theories that these additives make the symptoms worse and I would advise everyone to stay away from them as I do.

 Summary

I have created this web page for people who, like me, don’t like the idea that there is nothing to be done for tourette syndrome except taking medication. I have never seen anything about the effects of diet on tourettes so I thought I would share my knowledge of the subject for free. I am not selling anything. If anyone has any questions I will answer them to the best of my knowledge. Please keep in mind that I am not a doctor and I don’t expect your doctor or any other doctor to agree with my findings. The things I have learned over the years do not fall between the lines of orthodox medicine or nutrition but they work very well for me. I am not in remission. The severity of my tourettes is of the highest and I will slowly revert back to that if don’t continue to eat the way I have described. This is not a quick fix for tourette syndrome. There is no magic food that will make you or your child better. This diet will not cure tourettes. It is difficult to learn and to get used to in the beginning. Do not be discouraged however; the benefits far outweigh the difficulties in my opinion. You will be able to do anything you want and live normally with only relatively few spasms to deal with. I have met a few other people with tourettes who were taking medication and I have always found that I had less spasms and more control than they did. You will never need to take medication and you will be extremely healthy for the rest of your life.

It is important for you to always remember to be patient. This remedy for tourettes takes time to learn. You will have good days and bad. You will get frustrated. But once you get the hang of it you will understand why I adhere to it.

Mental Control

This section has nothing to do with the diet I have described except that in cannot be practiced without reaching a level calmness achieved by the diet itself.

If you have tourettes you will understand this. There are certain times when you have to and can exercise control. For example, when you’re holding a very sharp knife you don’t cut yourself. You may have before but you somehow learned to control that. When you’re standing next to a huge cliff you don’t fall off. If you have before you’re not reading this. There is a self preservation trigger that overrides the urge to have a spasm. The calmer you are as a result of the diet I have described the more you can exploit that trigger. It takes a lot of continued practice and it’s very difficult but it can be done. There is also a habitual patterned response to situations. For example, you can “teach” yourself to be worse when you are in a crowded room with lots of people. I don’t know if it’s the nervous energy affecting the brain or what but if you were in the same room by yourself you would most likely be ok. The point is that if can achieve a certain level of calmness you can, by exploiting the trigger mechanism and by recognizing the patterned response to the situations you find yourself in, “talk yourself into” having even less spasms and sometimes none at all. You don’t hold the spasms in, so to speak, but you try to convince yourself that it is not real and therefore not necessary. It’s a very relaxing way to suppress the spasms but also very difficult to remember that it can be done for some reason.

 I absolutely do not recommend that you expect your child to do this. This is a very advanced technique that I have discovered only recently and I’m trying to find out how far I can go with it. If you expect your child to convince him or herself that the spasms are not real I would expect nothing less than psychological disaster. I would say this is something for someone already well adjusted to having tourettes.