Severe Gastrointestinal Distress
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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.
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Try injecting BPC-157 peptide for a few weeks. I had very bad IBS due to drug addiction and after 2 weeks of BPC-157 I haven't had any issues since.
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B brad moved this topic from Case Studies on
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@AryanRaypEat they could just drink it for the gut effect
@cornwallis when did these issues start?
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@noodlecat59
These issues started over two years ago. Over that period, I’ve tried almost every conventional form of treatment (some of which weren’t listed in my original post), save for high doses of specific probiotics.
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in my experience cyproheptadine is almost immediately helpful for stomach pain but sometimes the dose needs to be pretty high, like 12mg+ plus at once. I have found that the more a patient “needs” it, the more that can be taken. I’ve seen almost immediate acute relief with it used this way.
Emodin can also give relief within half an hour or so. It causes watery stools but even if it continues to make you go to the bathroom it should soothe the GI tract on the way out. 150mg-200mg can give great relief.
Minocycline can be really helpful because of the antimicrobial anti-inflammatory effect.
When you feel more resilient, getting accustomed to aspirin can be protective because, after the initial introduction period, the GI tract actually becomes more resistant to further insults.
In any illness recovery protocol I think niacinamide and thiamine are good to try. Creatine can be quite helpful for stomach issues as well, and I’ve seen a case report of a patient with pretty serious stomach issues treated solely with it. Nicotine might help but it also might make you feel more nauseous. Smoking tobacco can be helpful too but probably isn’t the most ideal thing to rely on.
aside from that I’d get some ginger candies, they actually do really work well for nausea.
I’m not sure I’ve ever found a probiotic that did much. Natto has bacillus subtilis which could help. Florastor might help with the loose stools. Bifido infantis at least didn’t do anything bad for me. Human milk oligiosaccherides might help you, I’m not sure.
May I also ask, did you ever get weird smells or tastes in the period leading up to experiencing these GI issues or have you at any time during?
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I second the minocycline suggestion.
I had severe stomach distress for years, to the point where I was doubled over in pain at times. I ended up having a gastroscopy which revealed severe gastritis and the H. Pylori bacteria. I took the standard course of very heavy antibiotics for one week (including the PPI even though I know they are horrid and not recommended), and my stomach problems were completely healed.
It was shocking to me. I'd gotten so used to the distress, it was a way of life. It's been 5 years, and I haven't had a single digestive issue since then, and I can seemingly eat anything.
Have you been tested for H. Pylori?
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@cornwallis said in Severe Gastrointestinal Distress:
Taking the risk of being accused of "spamming" again by @BlueMeth, the self appointed Controller of the Content, I'll just provide a link with no comment.
https://www.hormonesmatter.com/sibo-ibs-constipation-thiamine-deficiency/
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@BlueMeth I saw a paper where like a half dozen or so h. pylori positive patients tried mixing a tablespoon of vinegar in 3 meals a day and something like all but 1 or 2 ended up only needing that to control the H pylori
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@BlueMeth haha I'm just trying to let you know that it gets really tedious if you slap that beri beri stuff onto every post. Thinking it's the be all and end all has a touch of magical thinking about it. This forum ought to be more sophisticated than the last one. Also, those people advocating for high dose thiamine (Overton et al) also think that sugar is evil, and people need to switch to a carnivore diet. If they're dead wrong about sugar (and they are), maybe, just maybe, they've got it wrong about thiamine....
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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 -
This post is deleted! -
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.
