PANS/PANDAS
Traditional medicine offers little help like continued antibiotics and salt tabs, while functional medicine dives deeper into the gut and immune system. However, when it comes to PANDAS/PANS, the stress and tension often get locked deep within the autonomic nervous system, and that foundational root cause must be addressed for full and complete healing.
To learn more about this foundational step and how everything is linked together and tied to an overstressed, overwhelmed, and exhausted nervous system, check out this informative video by Dr. Andrew!
PANS and PANDAS: Looking Deeper at the Nervous System
Then suddenly, something changes.
Tics appear seemingly overnight. OCD behaviors begin consuming their day. Foods they have always eaten are suddenly off limits. Their handwriting changes. Anxiety skyrockets.
Sensory sensitivities become overwhelming. Maybe intense anger or rage shows up in a child who has never acted that way before.
And as a parent, you know.
This is not my child. Something is going on.
You may visit the pediatrician, neurologist, psychiatrist, or multiple specialists searching for answers. And for families eventually navigating PANS or PANDAS, that search can become exhausting.
At Thrive Chiropractic, we want families to know there is another important piece worth considering: the nervous system.
Understanding how your child handles and adapts to stress may help us look beyond individual symptoms and better understand the bigger picture.
What Are PANS and PANDAS?
PANS and PANDAS describe conditions involving the sudden onset of neuropsychiatric symptoms in children.
PANDAS is associated with a streptococcal infection, while PANS encompasses a broader clinical picture that may involve other triggers.
One of the most striking features for parents is often how quickly everything changes.
A child who previously seemed happy and active may suddenly experience significant challenges such as:
- Obsessive compulsive behaviors
- Motor or vocal tics
- Severe anxiety
- Emotional dysregulation or rage
- Sensory sensitivities
- Changes in eating
- Changes in handwriting or other abilities
- Sleep disturbances
- Difficulty separating from parents
The suddenness can be terrifying.
But one of the questions we ask is whether the symptoms truly began overnight or whether there were signs of nervous system stress long before the major flare occurred.
When Everything Changed for One Thrive Family
One of our Thrive kiddos experienced the kind of sudden change so many PANS and PANDAS families describe.
She had been active, involved in school, competitive cheer, and enjoying life.
Then everything changed.
Anxiety and obsessive compulsive behaviors became overwhelming. She became consumed with the fear of getting sick. She washed her hands so frequently they became raw. Eating became difficult. Leaving home became difficult. Spending time with friends became difficult.
It felt like their daughter had changed overnight.
When we met this family, their goal wasn’t complicated.
They wanted their girl back.
As her journey progressed, her family began seeing more and more of her return. Eventually, her mom shared that the transition back into school had gone even better than they expected.
Stories like hers are why we want parents navigating PANS and PANDAS to hear one thing clearly:
There is still hope.
The Infection May Be One Piece of a Bigger Puzzle
With PANDAS, strep can be an important trigger.
But there’s another question worth asking.
Why can two children encounter a similar infection while their bodies respond very differently?
This is where we begin thinking about susceptibility and resilience.
Imagine two cups sitting outside during a rainstorm.
One cup is nearly empty. The rain comes, but there’s plenty of room.
The other cup is already filled to the brim. It only takes a little more water before everything spills over.
For some children, an illness may represent that final stressor added to a system that was already struggling to adapt.
Instead of looking exclusively at what tipped the cup over, we also want to understand what filled the cup in the first place.
Could There Have Been Earlier Signs?
When a child comes to Thrive with significant neurological and regulation challenges, we take a detailed history.
We don’t only ask what happened immediately before the symptoms appeared.
We go back to the beginning.
What was pregnancy like?
What happened during birth?
How did feeding go?
Did your baby struggle with colic or reflux?
What was sleep like?
Were there constipation or digestive challenges?
Were there frequent illnesses or ear infections?
Did sensory, behavioral, or developmental concerns appear along the way?
We often refer to the accumulation of physical, chemical, and emotional stressors throughout early life as the Perfect Storm.
Not every child will have the same history, and these factors do not mean a child will develop PANS or PANDAS.
But looking at the entire story can help us understand how well that child’s nervous system has been adapting throughout life.
The Gas Pedal, Brake Pedal, and Vagus Nerve
One of the simplest ways we explain nervous system regulation is through the gas pedal and brake pedal.
The gas pedal represents the sympathetic nervous system, commonly known as fight or flight.
We need it.
The problem is when the gas pedal becomes stuck and a child has difficulty returning to a regulated state after stress.
The parasympathetic side acts more like the brake pedal. It supports rest, digestion, recovery, regulation, and other functions associated with a calmer state.
The vagus nerve plays an important role in that parasympathetic regulation and communication between the brain and many areas of the body.
This is one reason nervous system regulation is such an important piece of the conversation for us.
A resilient nervous system isn’t one that never encounters stress, illness, or challenges.
It’s one that can experience those challenges, appropriately respond, and then recover.
Why Sequence Matters
Parents navigating PANS and PANDAS often become some of the best researchers you’ll ever meet.
They’ve explored medical treatment, nutrition, supplements, functional medicine, therapy, and countless other approaches.
Many of those providers and interventions may play valuable roles in a child’s overall care.
But at Thrive, we believe there is also value in asking:
How well is the nervous system regulating and adapting while we’re doing everything else?
Think about building a house.
You can invest in beautiful flooring, new cabinets, and the best appliances available. But you still want to make sure you’re building on the strongest foundation possible.
That’s how we think about neurology.
Rather than viewing Neurologically Focused Chiropractic Care as a replacement for the other members of a child’s healthcare team, we look at nervous system regulation as a foundational piece that deserves attention alongside the other care a child may need.
How INSiGHT Scans Help Us Measure Nervous System Stress
We don’t want to simply assume a child’s nervous system is stressed.
We want to measure it.
That’s why every new patient at Thrive Chiropractic begins with INSiGHT Scans.
These neurological scans help us assess patterns of stress, regulation, and nervous system imbalance.
They give us an objective starting point and help us create an individualized blueprint for care.
From there, gentle and specific Neurologically Focused Chiropractic Care is tailored to what we find.
We also repeat the scans throughout care.
Why?
Because progress shouldn’t simply be a guessing game.
We want to see how the nervous system is adapting over time while also listening closely to what parents are noticing at home.
Parents, Trust What You’re Seeing
Few things are more unsettling than watching your child suddenly become someone you barely recognize.
If you’re living through that right now, keep asking questions.
And if your child hasn’t experienced that dramatic change but you’re noticing earlier signs such as chronic digestive challenges, poor sleep, sensory struggles, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, or difficulty adapting to stress, you don’t have to wait for things to become severe before looking deeper.
At Thrive Chiropractic in Cranberry Township, PA, we work with families using INSiGHT Scans and Neurologically Focused Pediatric Chiropractic Care to better understand nervous system regulation.
If your family is navigating PANS, PANDAS, or a complex combination of neurological and regulation challenges, reach out to our team. We’d love to learn your child’s story, take a deeper look at their nervous system, and help you understand what your next step could look like.
Your child’s story isn’t over.
And no matter how overwhelming this season feels, we’ll keep believing in their potential to Thrive.
