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Taliah Drayak’s world was “turned inside out” when she was suspected of causing her daughter’s illness.

Two-year-old Beatrix had a complex medical history and had been placed on anti-epilepsy medicine but she was struggling to feed and kept vomiting.

Her daughter was taken into foster care and the family was not reunited until a year later when the case was dropped.

The question of what causes eating disorders has puzzled the medical community since “wasting disease” was first described in the 17th century. Today, researchers and clinicians agree that, in addition to psychosocial and environmental risk factors, there is a strong biological basis to these disorders. Now, new data from a Massachusetts General Hospital researcher suggests that exposure to common childhood infections, such as strep throat or bronchitis, may significantly raise a person’s risk of developing anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders.

Science is increasingly revealing that a large number of medical and mental problems are interrelated. In ways unknown to the teachers who mentored the practitioners of today, diet and exercise, community, environment, and mind are inextricably woven together.

Alison Maclaine fears some children are being misdiagnosed with autism and mental health issues when they are really suffering an infection which can be treated simply with antibiotics.

Her eight-year-old son Jack suffered distressing personality changes and “lost a year of his life”.

And she said she was left “in despair” that she and her family had “no quality of life”.

Now Alison believes he was suffering from Paediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANDAS), triggered by a streptococcal infection – a condition that can be treated with simple antibiotics and anti-inflammatories.

Cranberries are highly sought after for their tangy taste and the antioxidants they contain, but a new study published in the journal Advanced Science provides evidence that they could also help in the fight against bacteria. When treated with molecules derived from cranberries, pathogenic bacteria become more sensitive to lower doses of antibiotics. What’s more, the bacteria don’t develop resistance to the antibiotics, according to the findings by researchers at McGill University and Institut national de la recherche scientifique in Montreal.

Clinical results in this study include improved
language, reduction of developmental delay issues, increased appetite, calming of mood, heightened immunologic activity, (including some Herxheimer- type responses), and highly significant elevation of blood glutathione levels. There was also a significant reduction in succinic acid in the urine as well as significant normalization of the blood platelets. One adult had a flare of IgA nephropathy and dropped out of the study. Another adult had improvement of lung function (pulmonary fibrosis) and a reduction in pain (chronic pain syndrome).

Ten years ago, Tammi Spring’s daughter, Allie, woke up one day feeling like a different person. She was only 8 years old at the time.

“She just wasn’t herself,” Tammi says. “She moved [her hands] differently. Her eyes were dilated. She was totally sensitive to light and she had this debilitating anxiety about how she could go out, who she could be around, things like that.”