The Plan B Field Guide
Every treatment, deconstructed.
The hardest part of PANS is the moment you stall — when the standard path stops working and no one tells you what’s left. This is what’s left. Every treatment, laid out honestly, so that when you hit a wall you know the search isn’t over — there’s a Plan B. Each guide answers the same things: what it is, the research, the real risks, how to actually get it, and how to vet a practitioner.
A note from Rachel — before you scroll
This map took me two years to understand. You don’t have to. Plan B already knows it — better than any human ever will.
So if this page tightens your chest or makes you want to close the laptop — do it. That’s allowed. Let Minta do the work; that’s exactly what she’s for.
I’m a control freak — I need to see the gears turning behind the curtain. So I’m pulling it back and showing you the basics. Fair warning: even the basics are honestly a lot. Take what helps, skip the rest, and let the system carry what you can’t.
— Rachel
★ Read this first — the whole picture
The Map
The whole journey for PANS — at a glance. Tap any branch to open its treatments. Every guide below is one limb of this map.
Open the Map →1 · Start here
Understand it, then begin.
Start here: understand this first (plain English)
The simplest possible explanation for a scared parent with zero biology background. Four plain ideas — genes are the blueprint, methylation is the maintenance crew, mitochondria are the batteries, the infection is what lit the fire — and the one thing that matters most: the order to do things in (understand & find → support the engine → THEN the deep kill), so your child gets better instead of crashing.
Read →Where to Start — The Testing Map
Where do I even begin with testing? A tiered, scaffolded map: cast a wide net ONCE (Tier 1), then follow only the branches your results flag. Elevates the two tests almost every family misses — a comprehensive methylation panel and an organic-acids (mitochondrial) test — even two years in.
Read →How to actually use a genetic test
A genetic test like 23andMe is a blueprint — it shows what your kid might struggle with, but on its own it's just a spreadsheet of letters. The whole value is the read: a practitioner like Yasko interprets it — and Minta does it free, then overlays the bloodwork that shows what's really happening now. Plus the 3 simple steps to order both.
Read →The Protocol
Where everyone starts — anti-inflammatory + a targeted antibiotic, the doses, how long, and what to do if your child slips.
Read →2 · Check the engine first
Before you try anything else. If your child is undermethylating, detox is clogged, or the mitochondria are drained, treatments can BACKFIRE — this is the engine no specialist owns, and the bottleneck Plan B was built around.
Methylation, Detox & Energy
The body’s cleanup-and-power engine — methylation (the maintenance crew), detox/glutathione (the drains), and the mitochondria (the batteries), all one connected system. Why genes only say the crew might be short-staffed and blood tells you if it actually is, Naviaux’s Cell Danger Response, and why pushing a kill before the engine is running can make a sensitive kid worse.
Read →Read your raw SNPs — free
Drop your 23andMe file and get your methylation genetics read through three frameworks (Yasko · Lynch · Kara Fitzgerald) — tendencies, not prescriptions. Free.
Read →3 · Support & regulate — the daily foundation
The layer that runs alongside everything — nourishing the body and steadying the nervous system so the medical work is tolerable. Alongside it, never instead of it.
Diet & Nutrition
Food as a real PANS lever — the anti-inflammatory foundation, which specialty diet fits your kid’s pattern, and how to find triggers without over-restricting.
Read →Nervous-System Regulation
Calming a fight-or-flight brain — vagus-nerve work, HRV, limbic retraining — the layer that makes everything else tolerable.
Read →Brain Retraining for Kids
DNRS (Annie Hopper) as the lead, plus the kid-native tools (tapping, SSP, co-regulation) that make detox survivable.
Read →Screens, Dopamine & the Point System
A real family's carrot-and-stick reset for a screen-obsessed, dopamine-driven kid — points to grow good behavior, strikes (a written reflection) to deter the bad — that calmed their whole home.
Read →4 · Find the root drivers
If the protocol isn’t enough, this is where the answers hide.
Infections
PANS, PANDAS & Strep
How strep triggers sudden OCD, tics, and behavior changes — the molecular-mimicry mechanism, what to test, and why a negative throat swab doesn't rule it out.
Read →PANS and Lyme
The tick-borne connection — how Lyme and co-infections drive sudden OCD and rage, why standard tests miss them, and what to test and do next.
Read →Lyme & Co-infections
Antibiotics vs herbals (research-backed), the kill-menu, per-bug dosing, and how to find a Lyme doctor.
Read →Parasites & Behavior
The overlooked driver — pinworms, protozoa, and helminths that drive night-waking, teeth-grinding, rage, and OCD-like behavior, the full-moon pattern, and how to treat them.
Read →Testing for Parasites
Why a single stool test misses most parasites, the tape test and serial-sample protocols that actually catch them, and which labs to ask for.
Read →High anecdotal success, low research — run in the background
Biomagnetism
Low-risk, low-cost magnet therapy (the Joan Randall Protocol). Formal evidence is thin, but the risk is near-zero and families credit it with real turnarounds. Once you know what you're targeting, run it in the background — in parallel with the real work.
Read →Homeopathy
Safe, gentle, contested in the studies — but with real recovery stories, including OCD and intrusive thoughts resolving. One PANS therapist's daughter, who had failed O'Hara / IVIG / antibiotics, came back 100% on homeopathy. Once you know your targets, weave it in and let it run in the background. Start classical.
Read →Muscle Testing (self-testing)
How parents "ask the body" yes/no — the sway test, the O-ring, the arm test, step by step. Honest about the thin evidence (it's subjective), but low-risk and free. Use it only AFTER a thorough functional-medicine workup — then, once you know your targets, to help choose and sequence in the background. Never a substitute for labs.
Read →Environmental
Gut & mast cell
Gut & Microbiome
Which stool test (and which to skip), the gut-brain link, and how to reset it.
Read →Yeast & Candida
The behaviors it drives — the giddy "drunk" affect, OCD, sugar cravings — and a gentle, low-and-slow protocol for the super-sensitive kid who can't take die-off.
Read →MCAS & Histamine
The tests an MCAS doctor runs, the treatment cocktail, and why the patch alone is not the cure (find the root).
Read →5 · Immune treatment
Calming, steadying, or supplying an over-reactive immune system.
IVIG & Immune Treatment
Who qualifies, the infusion day demystified, the studies (what it clears vs not), and the insurance fight.
Read →Serum Immunoglobulins (SBI Protect)
Powdered, oral IgG (serum-bovine immunoglobulin) that binds toxins and calms gut immunity — not IVIG. The gut-barrier and endotoxin-binding research, who it helps, how to dose, and the honest evidence.
Read →Intranasal Immunoglobulins
Immunoglobulins delivered to the nose — a far gentler, lower-cost cousin of IVIG aimed at the olfactory route into the brain. What it is, why it’s not IVIG, the early evidence, and how families access it.
Read →LDN — Low-Dose Naltrexone
Jill Crista’s lead “regulate immunity” tool: a tiny dose of an old drug that rebalances an over-reactive immune system and quiets neuroinflammation. How it works, pediatric dosing, the honest evidence — plus colostrum and the rest of the immune toolkit.
Read →6 · The deep menu
Most families never need past here. When the standard path is exhausted, this is what hasn’t been tried — grouped by what it targets. Caution is reserved for the few that carry genuine risk.
Oxygen & energy
Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBOT)
Pressurized oxygen for neuroinflammation — hard vs soft chambers, the honest (mixed) evidence, the cost, and the easiest antidote on the map.
Read →Hyperthermia & Clinics
Heat that kills Borrelia — the clinics, who qualifies, the real risks, and what it costs.
Read →Methylene Blue
Mitochondrial + anti-biofilm support — and the serotonin-syndrome warning if your child is on an SSRI. USP grade only.
Read →Red Light Therapy
Photobiomodulation for the inflamed brain — what near-infrared light does for mitochondria and neuroinflammation, the honest (early) evidence in autism and PANS, and at-home vs clinic.
Read →Gut reset
Brain & nervous system
Neurofeedback & Biofeedback
Training the dysregulated brain and nervous system directly — what neurofeedback and biofeedback are, the evidence in ADHD and autism, and how to find a real provider.
Read →MeRT
Magnetic e-Resonance Therapy — EEG-guided TMS aimed at the autistic brain. What it is, how it differs from standard TMS, the evidence so far, and how families access it.
Read →Targeted kill
Disulfiram for Lyme
The best human persister-remission data — and a real toxicity ceiling plus an absolute no-alcohol rule. Eyes wide open.
Read →Phage Therapy
Viruses that kill bacteria and spare the gut — the real providers, how to access, and how to spot a quack.
Read →Peptide Therapies
TA1, BPC-157, LL-37 and more — what each does, the honest evidence per peptide, and why sourcing (not the molecule) is the real risk.
Read →⚠ Real risks — expert supervision only
Ozone Therapy
Oxidative therapy for chronic infection — the routes, the honest (thin) evidence, the gas-embolism rule, and why Plan B steers away from the IV forms in kids.
Read →EBOO (Blood Ozonation)
The most intensive ozone form — "ozone dialysis" for refractory chronic Lyme/mold. Experimental, invasive, adult-studied; a deeper-menu option, never first-line, and extra caution in kids.
Read →Bee Venom Therapy
Melittin kills Borrelia in the lab — but anaphylaxis is the headline: EpiPen on hand, test-sting first, never for young or allergic kids.
Read →