Mysterious gallbladder disease - can't digest fat for no apparent reason
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I was able to increase my food intake so I'm getting 2700 kcal, 500g / 1lb of carbs consistently every day again. But I'm losing ≈1lb of bodyweight a week, despite being very inactive, doing absolutely nothing most of the days.
Also I'm experiencing shortness of breath ever since my digestion got worse.
Currently I'm eating corn (popcorn is the only form that doesn't trigger digestive issues, so I'm eating that), organic fruits and meat. No gluten, no oats, no supplements or medications except for pure pharma grade calcium carbonate powder and glucose powder.
@CrumblingCookie Which hormones should be included in the GI hormone panel?
Can very severe depression cause hypermetabolism in humans?
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@BearWithMe sounds more likely to be malabsorption in your case?
Seems to me like your main problem is stomach acid & enzymes, not digesting the food. & or lacking peristalsis
do you have a dry mouth often?histamine & acetylcholine are involved in these. and thyroid hormone
if you have a dry mouth often it could point to lacking acetylcholine
otherwise maybe low histamine (Histidine -> histamine if the production is working, supports acetylcholine for gastric acid)
or otherwise chronic gastritis can destroy a lot of the acid & enzyme secreting cells , so an immune system damage
the acid secretion activates some of the digestion enzymes.u could try taking standard digestive enzymes with each meal plus combined with an hcl supplement, for a few weeks (i'd start slow on the acid supplement though if there's damage in the stomach can worsen) (obviously encapsulated to avoid contact with teeth)
bromelain can help protein digestionbut should be products available with standard enzymes
bromelain works at high ph unlike the standard enzymes. but idk how much would be effective for how much proteinGDU = practically useless for improving protein digestion
Amylase to break down starch, doesnt work at low ph, so might want to use that first before making it more acidic
otherwise maybe the targets above -
@cs3000 I think it might be both malabsorbtion and hypermetabolism. Glucose powder should be beneficial in case of malabsorbtion? I think it is making things worse. Or not helping at best
@CrumblingCookie made pretty much the same diagnosis (lack of acetylcholine) earlier in this thread. Very cool you both figured out the same thing independently of each other. @CrumblingCookie also prescribed what seems like very sound protocol for increasing acetylcholine. I was following that protocol for more than 3 months but my condition deteriorated during that time.
I was also taking high dose Betaine HCL with high protein foods for more than 6 months, but my condition also deteriorated during that time.
I have chronic gastritis (confirmed by endoscopy) for over a decade, possibly much longer (two decades?)
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@BearWithMe could be i guess high adrenaline + cortisol can speed things for a time along with malabsorption, until the burnout crash occurs. stripping resources (including muscle & bone) to sustain some level of activity for attempts at getting to a better state. otherwise shut down to conserve & try to redirect fewer resources
u mentioned before it felt like food was sitting in stomach for ages, and constipation, so slow motility
For malabsorption:
chronic gastritis but no h pylori infection when tested a while ago
@BearWithMe said in Mysterious gallbladder disease - can't digest fat for no apparent reason:
Calprotectin: 27,78 ug/g (ref. range 0,00 - 50,00)
Candida albicans positive
Apparently having some C. albicans in digestive tract is normal? Should I assume there is an overgrowth?
Reflux is so bad that my spit is dark brown and the constant nausea is almost unbearable.Candida points to low stomach acid, people get increased growth when they take acid blockers. or the carbs sitting there for too long. reflux also points to it.
- If you didn't try B2 in those vitamins , Riboflavin might keep the candida in check , absorption saturates ~30mg orally probably wouldnt need much for this effect on candida:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9927497/
, - you took a HCL supplement but that alone wouldn't break down protein assuming you have lacking enzyme secretion too. The HCL activates protein digesting enzyme & prepares the meat for it to target
Do you have a recent or recentish blood panel for minerals vitamins? out of curiosity
- dry mouth is common with chronic gastritis (and lacking amylase secretion to break down starch for the vitamins nutrients) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30597598/
works at higher pH, and goes down with food into stomach & some to intestine from saliva with chewing (also supposed to secrete into intestine)
if not low acetylcholine, maybe a lack of b12 initiated the dry mouth / lacking secretion among other things cascading (parietal cells need to secrete something for b12 to absorb, if starch / meat broken down enough to release).
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how much starch + starchy fruit you eating compared to low starch fruit? if u assume u are lacking amylase , high starch might not do much
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if you took that GABA daily for a couple weeks did you notice it helping with the dry mouth part?
some supplements wont absorb with low gastric acid , so needs timing with it, or restored
- e.g the calcium carbonate wont break down well ph 4+ which might play a role in your teeth issue along with other lacking nutrients / high cortisol / functionally low protein breakdown
maybe something to try in evenings, eugenol / clove oil has a potent effect at lowering inflammation in the stomach of animals and good effect on mucus secretion there if u dose right.
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low doses work better than high doses which lose &then have opposite effect.
its very potent even < 10mg might work better than higher (less than 1 typical drop) -
if you dose right (low) it also might increase gastric acid & pepsin secretion, if theres enough cells around to do that, while being balanced with the mucus secretion
probably helps candida too.
i would try to get less than 1 drop of clove oil, a drop might be 30mg+ eugenol,
and i would use HPMC capsule instead of gelatin (protein) in your case, then getting some out to lower dose
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jcbn1986/10/3/10_3_161/_pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33245926/ -
Thats a lot of fiber, 60g fiber is harsh to process if you dont have proper mucus production (which you'd think would be common in chronic gastritis) but you said porncorn gives less reaction surprisingly
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i'd make sure to rinse with water each time after drinking fruit juice / eating fruit
Glucose powder it's calories but its not solving the vitamin & mineral / protein depletion issue if its malabsorption / failure to digest. its something (& isnt used well if cortisol is high)
- If you didn't try B2 in those vitamins , Riboflavin might keep the candida in check , absorption saturates ~30mg orally probably wouldnt need much for this effect on candida:
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@CrumblingCookie said:
Maybe it's time to up your scope before any more dabbling and to get an abdominal MRI to look for structural constrictions or masses and also your plasma levels of Ca, PTH, CT and a GI hormones panel at a specialized clinic.
As for GI hormones my initial thought would be to check for elevated somatostatin (constipation, lack of motility, steatorrhea; pancreatic and reciprocal gastric dysfunction). In the US they typically run a complete GI hormones panel which includes SST but it's more selective and specialized in other places. Weirdly, the symptomatic treatment for SSTomas is the SST-analogon octreotide, due to a high affinity to SST autoreceptors. You'd be a 1 in 40 millions /year case with that. Anatomically, surgical removal of such neuroendocrine tumors are far from elegant. Clearly it's better to not have one. I'd work my way forward by exluding possible causes step by step. Not sure what your state of insurance and medical services provision is like where you are (Eastern Europe). At this point I would try to (also) get a contrast-enhanced full abdominal MRI without further deferral.
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@BearWithMe
Any updates about this whole conundrum? -
@CrumblingCookie Thank you very much for asking! You are very kind.
I'm eating over 2800 kcal, 460g of sugar, 110g of protein, 50g of fat, consistently, every day. On some days, I eat over 3100 kcal and 500g of sugar.
I have gained some weight, but my weight gain is very slow considering my caloric intake; +2kg / 4.4 lbs after 6 months of ≈3000 kcal diet and almost no physical activity.
My digestive discomfort and overall exhaustion is probably worse than ever.
I'm currently experimenting with @user1's dates and soursop diet, supplemented by plenty of organ meat for protein, copper and iron. It is too soon to judge the effects as I started just 30 days ago, but my digestion is better on the days I eat soursop. It is definitely doing something.
I haven't done the GI hormones panel because no lab in my country does it, and no lab in my conutry tests somatostatin. Even places that focus solely on hormonal testing are not testing gastric hormones
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@BearWithMe wich organs? Do you eat a lot of salt?
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@user1 Chicken heart and liver, occasionally turkey heart and liver and beef heart and liver. I'm using salt sparingly
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@user1 Lamb meat is prohibitively expensive. I thought that chicken and turkey organ meat might be second best, or second least bad. But I might be wrong.
My salt intake is under 1g daily. I'm trying to keep it low-ish to avoid calcium wasting, but I might be wrong again beause salt might be necessary for stomach HCL production.
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@BearWithMe said in Mysterious gallbladder disease - can't digest fat for no apparent reason:
salt might be necessary for stomach HCL production
I don't add any salt now and cook food myself with no salt. My blood levels of CL are always showing in higher range. If I add salt my stomach feels irrtated or inflamed , it rather hinders stomach HCL production.
But a bit of pickles with a teaspoon of brine can be very helpful occasionally .
