Severe Gastrointestinal Distress
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@BlueMeth Sorry you feel that way.
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magical thinking is the best way though
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What were the antibiotics that you took, and their dosages?
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Bone broth, vitamin D, carrot salad/button mushrooms/bamboo shoots, cascara, systemic antibiotics and antifungals if necessary. Don’t consume starches, be careful about high amine, oxalate, alkaloid (nightshades), nitrite, sulfite containing foods. Also going dairy free may help. Do an elimination diet.
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@cornwallis said in Severe Gastrointestinal Distress:
After suffering from severe health issues characterized by severe gastrointestinal distress, cognitive impairment, and various other symptoms, I'm reaching out to the bioenergetic community for insights and recommendations on potential treatment protocols. Despite a comprehensive approach including pharmaceuticals such as Rifaximin, Nystatin, and a suite of herbs and supplements (caprylic acid, allicin, berberine, oregano oil, FC-cidal, bismuth subsalicylate, methylene blue, undecylenic acid, various medicinal teas), alongside high-dose vitamins (B, C, and D) and several biofilm busters, relief remains elusive. My symptoms—including abdominal distention and bloating, alternating constipation and diarrhea, brain fog and cognitive impairment, and muscle pain—have significantly impacted my quality of life, as I've been more or less housebound for several months now. The most recent set of clinical tests didn't indicate any specific condition; the SIBO breath test came back negative, and bloodwork showed no glaring nutritional imbalances.
My current regimen is set to include probiotics (Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938) and postbiotics (tributyrin) in hopes of addressing what I suspect to be SIBO, SIFO, colonic dysbiosis, or gastric infection. My diet has been carefully curated to support this treatment path, focusing on fruit, sourdough bread, raw A2 milk, bone broth, and ground meat.
Available but yet unused in my arsenal are doxycycline, prucalopride, and thyroid hormones (T3 and T4). The complexity and persistence of my condition suggest an underlying imbalance that might require an integrative, uncoventional approach.
If you have dealt with similar health challenges or possess knowledge in this area, your insights into effective treatments would be invaluable. Personal experiences, especially with antibiotics, probiotics, postbiotics, or any of the medications I have, would be particularly appreciated.
can you tell us what preceded your gut symptoms? it might provide some useful context that point to appropriate treatments.
I notice you didn't list cyproheptadine there, it can be a wonder drug for some people with GI problems.
Lactoferrin might be worth experimenting with too:
https://twitter.com/Outdoctrination/status/1750903148678459426 -
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Thank you, friends, for your insights and recommendations!
@noodlecat59 Based on my reading of both research and personal accounts from various forums, it seems that probiotics don't always yield as consistent results as other gastrointestinal treatments. There's a broad range of responses among patients, and the specific probiotic strain and dosage, which are crucial for effectiveness, are often not listed on probiotic products. I'm currently exploring specific strains of L. Reuteri like DSM 17938, DSM 17648, and ATCC 55730, thanks to your and other users' suggestions.
Tonight, I'll give cyproheptadine a try and share any changes in my symptoms; it's about time I cracked open that Idealabs bottle gathering dust in my cupboard. For now I'm holding off on trying BCP-157; while the anecdotes are overwhelmingly positive, the results are borderline incredible (in the sense of being unbelievable) and lack compelling scientific support. However, I'll keep it on my list of supplements to consider going forward.
Lately, I've noticed a persistent metallic taste in my mouth and a newfound sensitivity to certain smells; for example, the familiar saline aroma of my vacation home now seems overly pungent and off-putting. Additionally, my saliva production has significantly increased in recent months, exacerbating my oral thrush and leading to persistent bad breath, which not even the most rigorous brushing and tongue scraping can eliminate, often accompanied by a foul taste.
@Logan Last summer, I went through two rounds of Rifaximin treatment while under medical supervision, using US-compounded drugs at the standard dosage of 500 mg thrice daily. No other medications were administered concurrently.
Since the onset of my symptoms, I've tried various elimination diets and continue to cut out different food groups (like starches, dairy, and fruit) to see if there's any improvement, but so far, dietary changes haven't helped. Over the last couple months, I've also explored the possibility that sulfurous foods and amino acids were aggravating what I suspected to be an intractable case of hydrogen-sulfide SIBO. However, after no improvement from taking 2g/day of bismuth subsalicylate (a potent scavenger of enteric and colonic free sulfur ions), I decided to abandon that theory. Still, I value your advice and will consider it as I adjust my diet further.
@Hando-Jin The etiology of my condition remains a mystery. My symptoms began two years ago during a time when I was following a very restrictive, low-calorie diet. Around then, I had also discontinued finasteride treatment, a decision that has been reported by some patients to cause GI discomfort due to post-finasteride syndrome (PFS); the exact biological mechanisms linking PFS to chronic GI issues remain unclear. However, I've come to hypothesize that the primary cause of my issues was inadequate caloric intake, which led to chronic constipation and subsequent pathogen colonization in my GI tract. Furthermore, until last March, my diet consisted of what's often considered "healthy" by American standards, yet was heavily processed and full of additives; I was not then aware of alternative dietary approaches.
I'm now taking lactoferrin, specifically apolactoferrin. This was added to my regimen after recent blood tests showed elevated serum iron and low levels of ferritin, copper, and ferroxidase, all within the normal reference range; I suspect a minor imbalance in my iron homeostasis system (subclinical hyperferremia and hypoferritinemia). Unfortunately, after 15 days on 750mg-1.5g/day of apolactoferrin, I've yet to see an improvement.
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Two suggestions:
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Rifaximin is not a systemic antibiotic. It acts locally, and it’s not a broad spectrum antibiotic. If I were you, I would consider a combination of two amongst these four classes of antibiotics: penicillin, macrolides, tetracyclines, nitroimidiazoles (flagyl).
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Don’t do elimination diets. Do one proper elimination diet. Cut out everything and start with white rice and meat. Give it time, observe the differences in your body. When you think it’s time, add one thing to your diet, and observe. Make notes. You can read about how to do an elimination diet by researching it on search engines. Ray himself was a proponent of doing an extensive elimination diet to figure out what you should eat and how your health is.
Give home made bone broth, vitamin D, vitamin C, bamboo shoots/button mushrooms/carrot salad, and cascara sagrada a good try.
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Some antibiotics are not worth the risk
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It might be worth reading about heavy metals, these can cause gut issues, not the case for everyone but just worth exploring.
Look at our citrus pectin thread for how to do a 'poor mans' heavy metal test.
