manitoban said:
RedFox said:
I can be a bit slow to 'get things' sometimes, and went off on a tangent after reading the Mark Hyman quote.....
I came back to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth a few days ago.
After doing some more research on this, I've started using herbs (ginger root, liquorish, enteric coated peppermint oil - I may add others to this soon) to treat for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. I'm on day two and if day one was anything to go by this is the most dramatic improvement in my symptoms (fatigue, lethargy, brain fog, apathy, exhaustion, sleep disturbance etc) I've had in a long time.
Really glad to hear it RedFox, sounds like you are making great progress in restoring your health. Keep up the good work! :)
Thanks....I just want to note my observations for anyone who may find it useful for future reference.
After a week or so of following this (and tweaking it along the way) my health has steadily (and quite dramatically) improved.
Still a way to go yet, but this is the most useful thing I've done next to cutting out all gluten/dairy.
I've been following Psyches suggestions in the
Sluggish Liver thread.....I knew mine was sluggish before due to not being able to digest/handle a lot of fat and if I had too much fat I would get abdominal pain like you would if you had gall stones (and ultra sound showed 0 gall stones). Using coconut oil and taking
caprylic acid for a few months helped my liver become less sluggish....the caprylic acid also clears up/keeps at bay any candida overgrowth.
I recently revisited Lauras quotes on the
leaky gut thread....and this helped put a few peices of the puzzle together.
So my symptoms where inability to handle much fat/(red) meat, occasional pain on my right side, sluggishness/lethergy/depression (general mild brain chemical imbalance), magnesium depletion (muscle cramps)......coupled with very occasional heart burn. I've been on the ultra simple diet for some time, so it wasn't a food allergy (or so I think).
In recent months the pain never showed up any more on my right side, but all the other symptoms persisted. Taking the herbs etc brought the pain in my right side back...but in the way it might if you where cleaning a wound.
My conclusion (which is still evolving) is that it was low stomach acid caused by/leading too a bacterial overgrowth in the stomach (H. pylori _http://www.smart-publications.com/articles/view/eradicate-h.-pylori-infection-and-protect-yourself-from-ulcers-natural/)....probably caused by chronic stress and poor diet, then exacerbated by poor liver function and malnutrition.
This leads to small intestinal overgrowth (_http://altmedicine.about.com/od/healthconditionsdisease/a/overgrowth.htm), due to lack acidity in the small intestines and food not being broken down properly in the stomach.....this also feeds candida. Heavy metal toxcicity, damage to the intestines from gluten/dairy (leaky gut), and poor liver funtion (not enough bile) also cause/exacerbate this problem (_http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/98393.php _http://www.greenridge.com.au/condition/sluggish-liver _http://www.celiac.com/articles/21842/1/-Bacterial-Overgrowth-Gut-Permeability-Tied-to-Non-alcoholic-Fatty-Liver-Disease/Page1.html).
Chronic low level infection, poor nutrient intake (from damaged intestines and food being eaten before it enters my body) leads to chronic stress/system over work leads to reduced stomach acid production, and over working the liver....causing sluggish liver (candida/bacteria can block the bile duct also). This leads to the system/brain chemical imbalances.....lack of resources due to not enough getting in, most being used by the liver...and competition in the body among systems for resources exacerbates all the problems!
All this stress leads to adrenal fatigue....depletes magnesium/vitimin C (the guts are over sensitive to everything due to being damaged so I couldn't get enough magnesium/vitimin C in that way).
The whole thing is a vicious cycle that I hadn't been able to figure out/break until I tackled several things all in one go.....before I'd been tackling one health problem at once with initial success followed by failure to fix the over all problem.
So 10 minutes before every meals I have been having digestive aids with hydrochloric acid, 1000mg of ginger root (kills bad bacteria and promotes good, aids digestion by increasing stomach acid/gastric juices, is also anti inflammatory and boost the immune system), 500mg of liquorice root (lookup DGL liquorice, as striate liquorice can cause blood pressure problems.....liquorice kills bad bacteria and heals the stomach/guts and the adrenal glands, its also anti inflammatory _http://www.regenerativenutrition.com/content.asp?id=454) , 500mg of echinacia (kills bad bacteria, boost immune response), 50mg enteric coated peppermint oil (this I only take once a day with breakfast now, due to it making me need to go to the bathroom at 4am if I have it any later in the day!), 350mg caprylic acid, 200mg Silymarin [milk thistle] (plus all the supplements mentioned in Psyches post on the sluggish liver thread at least once a day....vitamin C and magnesium through out the day). I'm also taking 5htp (100mg after lunch and 400mg in the evening).....I use to have stomach issues with taking these and got migraines when I took them in the past, but this time they are working.
Like with everything don't take my word for it and do the research first if you think it would benefit yourself.
