Sometimes I need a treat..

I eat chocolate ALL the time, like almost every meal.  I love it so much.  With leaky gut though, those every day repetitive foods can sometimes become a sensitivity because they don't stay where they are supposed to be and the assault is relentless.  So I kicked myself in the butt and made an old favorite recipe from my Raw Energy book.

1 cup walnuts
1 cup pecan (you can use all walnuts or even sub in some yummy mac nuts)
1 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
a touch of sea salt

Whirl it all together in the food processor to the consistency you like and form it into balls. I'd opt for small ones if you are concerned about FODMAPs and the carbs in the honey. I'm feeding so I scarfed on waaaaay too much!  Ha!  No wonder I'm a lil porker these days :)

Day 9 - Feeding and killing

I have been bloating something awful but that is to be expected when you drink guar gum twice a day.  I drink it with the morning and afternoon doses of kill supps (biocidin, Olivirex, allicin, oregano, Candibactin-BR).  After dinner I just can't stomach it so I make sure I eat carbs with dinner to feed the little buggers.   Feeling hopeful this morning as there was a dip in my weight even after eating a ton of french fries with dinner (which would usually put me up at the very least 1/2 lb).  Fingers crossed.  Once I run out of supps I will take a breath test which arrived in the mail yesterday.  But ya, feeling hopeful today, which is a nice thing. Could be the probiotic/resistant starch enema I did at bedtime too.  Who knows :)

Oh and for those of you who use NCNM for breath tests (or your providers use NCNM), this new resource may have a much quicker turnaround time and I believe they use Quintron.  It's $20 more than NCNM but if you need fast results it may be worth it to you.  I have not used them, just heard about them through one of my groups.  For Lactulose breath test provider has to request, of course, but I think it's as easy as making a call.  My ND was complaining to me at the last visit about how NCNM constantly changes their procedure and he had to just through hoops to get tests (make an account, print a form, then fax it in) when he used to simply pick up the phone and make a call.

Not saying you're fat

but there's another summit that starts today and the lists of guests is good.  Sometimes there are some valuable nuggets in the most unlikely places.  About to listen to Dr. Datis Kharrazian.

http://www.metabolismweightlosssummit.com/

Ox Bile

If you listen to the interview of Dr. Siebecker on Dr. Ruscio's podcast you may have missed the little tidbit of Dr. Ruscio saying he has patients with constipation add in Ox Bile (Dr. Siebecker thought it was a great idea).  It's not a prokinetic by any means but it will cause loose stools if you take more than your body needs and it's antimicrobial.  And, you know me, I'm all about experimenting.  I gotta tell you it's not expensive, I think I paid less than $10 for a bottle of 100 500mg caps at my local Super Supplements and it's made my bm's nicer, easier, especially while carbing and killing, both of which tend to bind me up. Not that you wanted to know that!

Listen to the Holistic Oral Health Summit this week and found the chart he presented sooooo interesting. The dentist (Gary Larsen) said that when he pulls root canaled teeth he has been surprised time and time again how patients come back and report resolution of other health conditions (autoimmune, heart arrythmias, psoriasis, etc).  He presented a chart similar to this one.  Pretty interesting stuff and I'm definitely going to compare my root canals to the chart.  Not saying I'm going to yank any teeth out but would be interesting to see if any symptoms correlate with the teeth I have canals in.  According to him, teeth are porous and live teeth constantly weep (sort of) to flush out microbes.  When you root canal the teeth they lose this ability and can become a festering mess that you can't really feel because the nerves to the tooth have been removed. I have had a lot of dental issues so hoping to learn some things this week about what I can do to support and resolve them.

Nausea

Switched to the herbals yesterday and by dinnertime I was nauseous.  Not like "oh crap I'm going to puke" just queasy.  I skipped the post dinner guar gum, took everything and went to bed.  This morning I got queasy again but before I had taken all the herbals and after I had take the L-Glutamine.  I switched from capsules to powder which is much, much stronger.  Clearly they use quite a bit of filler when they make capsules in factory as opposed to when you make them at home out of pure L-Glutamine.  Need to back off and ramp up a little more slowly.  At least I quickly figured out the culprit!

Lot's of chatter yesterday about Atrantil amongst my SIBO friends on fb.  Seems that that small study may have been done using employees of the company??, and that some practitioners are reporting bad reactions like dry heaving.  And for those it did help they rebounded bad once they ran out of samples.  No thank you, not that desperate yet.

So this whole timing thing with all the various supplements I am taking is making life difficult.  Thank goodness it's only temporary.  I've decided to take my kill supps between meals with guar gum.  So it's even more coordinating of spacing meals, spacing kill supplements from probiotics, taking my bitters and Iberogast 20 minutes before meals.  Not taking too much at once and getting nauseous.  Bedtime can be the worse.  One night I had 16 pills out, plus the guar.  Need to space the nightime stuff so it's not so much at once.  Maybe dinner before 6, kill supps and guar around 8 and then motility/gut healing supps at bedtime.  We'll see!

R&R

I had a 2 hour Results and Recommendations appointment with my mentor yesterday.  We went over the results of my adrenal tests and she has concerns over my patterns and the fact that with supplementation my DHEA has gone through the roof and my cortisol into the toilet, my sex hormones aren't where they should be given the supplementation as well. There seems to be some conversion issues that the DUTCH test can help clarify.  If you have been here a while you will remember back in February when I got my first adrenal test that this was the one I wanted but didn't do because of the expense.  Now I've paid for 2 adrenal tests and still need the DUTCH test.  Pretty annoying.  Sometimes we should just listen to our gut!!!  LOL!

So, it's pretty much stick with adrenal support and work on stress reduction, light exercise until I have the test done and we can see what's going on.  She recommended UltraLife Mucosa Max but I explained to her that these types of products often feed the SIBO and she thanked me for the information.  She admitted that she doesn't know a heck of a lot about SIBO and that given that I have gone through it I probably know much more than her.  To me this is an indication of a good practitioner, someone willing to admit their lack of knowledge and either listen to information you've gathered or refer you to someone with more expertise.  She doesn't like that I am taking Betaine HCL given that my last H. Pylori test was a little over a year ago.  I'm not that concerned but she wants me to test.  With all the crap I swallow I don't see how I could have acquired H. Pylori!

The other advice she gave which was surprisingly similar to an exercise my yoga teacher wants us to do is make a list of things that essentially take away your power/energy, make you feel stressed, etc. and do what you can to reduce those things.  There are going to be things of course that you can't get rid of (my biggest stressors are physical -  SIBO and my orthodontics) so for those you need to see if there is a way you can better deal with those stressors, deep belly breaths if you are stuck at your desk, meditation, EFT or something else when you are home and have make the time.  My yoga teacher also had us make a list of those things that feed us, give us energy and try to make time for more of those things.

So today I start:

• 1 tsp guar gum in 8 oz of water
• 20 drops Biocidin
• 2 capsules Olivirex
• 2 tablets Candibactin-BR
• Oregano essential oil in a capsule
• 2 capsules allicin

I'm doing it on an empty stomach this time after breakfast, after lunch and after dinner.

Oh, and my belly pain seems to be gone for the most part. Yay!  Love my visceral manipulation.

This is interesting

I've never tried Atrantil but this study while REALLY small looks intriguing.

Good appointment, horrible commute!

My ND may be super hard to get an appt with, but his prices are reasonable and he gets the job done.  I walked in and he asked, "what are we doing today?".  I explained that I was having lower abdominal pain and so he did visceral manipulation.  He was so great about describing what he was doing on a picture of the body - sort of pulling my uterus away from my rectum (sorry, TMI I know!) and making sure they was proper movement in the tissue down there.  It's not uncomfortable at all.  He also showed me a spot on the colon where the nerves from the small intestine branch in and he wants me to massage it to stimulate it daily.    He asked about how my SIBO was and I said would like a prescription for Resolor and a breath test.  He hadn't heard of Resolor, which isn't surprising because his focus is not SIBO but did not hesitate to give me a prescription after I explained what it does and the dosing that is on Dr. Siebecker's site.  After I explained what happened with Dr. Keller (increasing prices to $500/hr with a 1/2 hr skype appt required to receive breath test results) he happily logged on, set up an account and ordered me a breath test even checking the box so the results come directly to me.  So nice!  It takes at least 3 months to get just a follow up appointment with him so it's nice that he realizes he doesn't want the hassle of having to send out test results himself. He was pretty shocked that Dr. Keller raised her prices that high.

So on to the guar gum.  It is still gross but if you stir quickly and chug it goes down fine.  I've been eating FODMAPs too and honestly I'm suddenly feeling pretty darn good, not sure if it's because my bugs are fed and happy or if it's because they are dying.  Either way, I need to do a probiotic/resistant starch retention enema tonight to help the good guys in my colon out. 

I've also jacked up my prokinetics so that could be helping.  I was in Seattle for my appt yesterday so decided to splurge and eat something I normally wouldn't.  I was contemplating Thai even though last time I ate it I felt like crap for days.  Hunger led me to gluten free, vegan, aoili pizza at the Flying Apron.  I had to stop in to pick up a couple of donuts for my son and just couldn't resist.  Not what most people would consider a cheat! But seriously, how easy is it to find gf/df pizza without tomato sauce that's actually edible!?!

So I'm currently taking Rifaximin, Allicin, and Oregano with guar gum 3 times a day - breakfast, mid day and bedtime.  For prokinetics I'm doing Iberogast with meals, Motilpro mid morning, and Motilpro, LDN and Magnesium at bedtime.  Resolor is supposed to be the strongest prokinetic so I am eager to see if I can reduce some of the other stuff by adding it slowly in (I asked for a script for 0.5mg pills).  Once I'm done with the Rifaximin I'm going to add in Biocidin, Olivirex and Candibactin-BR and continuing with the Allicin and Oregano.  Not sure if I'm going to continue with the guar at that point or just eat FODMAPs.  After I'm done I'll test and see where we are at.  If I'm not clear at that point I may just give up :) Not really, but I'll definitely need to give my good colon bacteria a break.

After my appointment I raced down the freeway only to get completely stopped by the President of China.  They completely closed the two highways he was traveling, waited for them to clear and he drove down them, during rush hour. What a freaking mess! There were police on every single overpass. It would have been much cheaper, not to mention less disruptive and more efficient, to put him in a helicopter!  45 minutes to Seattle, 3 hours home.

Also got a call that our stolen vehicle has been recovered. It was in the process of being stripped but the sheriff's office put it back together and drove it out of the woods. The thief left behind their key, and their kid's booster seat and their tools. Who takes their toddler out with them boosting/stripping cars????

Where do I get me some of them Bifidobacterium????

This is my report from the American Gut Project.  They are a pain in the behind.  Since it's donation based it seems like they aren't really concerned much about person sending in the sample.  They are sloooooooowwww!  Here is my preliminary findings.  It's all greek to me :) but shouldn't I have more Bifidobacterium???  Also, I think it's helpful to see that there are no M. Smithii in my colon (they are the methane producers).  This seems to indicate that I don't have a problem with my colon bacteria moving up into my small intestine but rather a lack of stomach acid/sweeping motion to keep the small intestine clean from top down.  Right??

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family	Genus	This is
Bacteria	Bacteroidetes	Bacteroidia	Bacteroidales	Bacteroidaceae	Bacteroides	25.68
Bacteria	Verrucomicrobia	Verrucomicrobiae	Verrucomicrobiales	Verrucomicrobiaceae	Akkermansia	12.56
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Lachnospiraceae	---	10.03
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Ruminococcaceae	Oscillospira	7.61
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Bacilli	Bacillales	Bacillaceae	Bacillus	7.44
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Ruminococcaceae	---	6.15
Bacteria	Bacteroidetes	Bacteroidia	Bacteroidales	---	---	5.08
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	---	---	4.32
Bacteria	Bacteroidetes	Bacteroidia	Bacteroidales	Porphyromonadaceae	Parabacteroides	3.21
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Betaproteobacteria	Burkholderiales	Alcaligenaceae	Sutterella	3.12
Bacteria	Bacteroidetes	Bacteroidia	Bacteroidales	Rikenellaceae	---	2.70
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Lachnospiraceae	Blautia	1.32
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Lachnospiraceae	[Ruminococcus]	1.00
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Erysipelotrichi	Erysipelotrichales	Erysipelotrichaceae	---	1.00
Bacteria	Bacteroidetes	Bacteroidia	Bacteroidales	S24-7	---	0.91
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Gammaproteobacteria	Enterobacteriales	Enterobacteriaceae	---	0.77
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Lachnospiraceae	Coprococcus	0.74
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Lachnospiraceae	Dorea	0.74
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Clostridiaceae	---	0.65
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Ruminococcaceae	Ruminococcus	0.64
Bacteria	Tenericutes	Mollicutes	RF39	---	---	0.60
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Clostridiaceae	Clostridium	0.41
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Deltaproteobacteria	Desulfovibrionales	Desulfovibrionaceae	Bilophila	0.39
Bacteria	Bacteroidetes	Bacteroidia	Bacteroidales	[Paraprevotellaceae]	YRC22	0.32
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Lachnospiraceae	Roseburia	0.31
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Veillonellaceae	---	0.25
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Erysipelotrichi	Erysipelotrichales	Erysipelotrichaceae	[Eubacterium]	0.24
Bacteria	Bacteroidetes	Bacteroidia	Bacteroidales	[Odoribacteraceae]	Butyricimonas	0.20
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Lachnospiraceae	Anaerostipes	0.18
Bacteria	Cyanobacteria	4C0d-2	YS2	---	---	0.11
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Bacilli	Bacillales	Listeriaceae	Listeria	0.10
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Veillonellaceae	Megamonas	0.10
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Veillonellaceae	Megasphaera	0.09
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Erysipelotrichi	Erysipelotrichales	Erysipelotrichaceae	Holdemania	0.09
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	[Mogibacteriaceae]	---	0.09
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Christensenellaceae	---	0.09
Bacteria	Actinobacteria	Coriobacteriia	Coriobacteriales	Coriobacteriaceae	Eggerthella	0.08
Bacteria	Bacteroidetes	Bacteroidia	Bacteroidales	Prevotellaceae	Prevotella	0.08
Bacteria	Synergistetes	Synergistia	Synergistales	Synergistaceae	---	0.07
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Betaproteobacteria	Burkholderiales	Oxalobacteraceae	Oxalobacter	0.04
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Clostridiaceae	02d06	0.04
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Alphaproteobacteria	RF32	---	---	0.03
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Gammaproteobacteria	Thiohalorhabdales	---	---	0.03
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Lachnospiraceae	Lachnobacterium	0.03
Bacteria	Actinobacteria	Actinobacteria	Actinomycetales	Corynebacteriaceae	Corynebacterium	0.03
Bacteria	Actinobacteria	Coriobacteriia	Coriobacteriales	Coriobacteriaceae	---	0.02
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Gammaproteobacteria	Enterobacteriales	Enterobacteriaceae	Pantoea	0.02
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Betaproteobacteria	Rhodocyclales	Rhodocyclaceae	Uliginosibacterium	0.02
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Betaproteobacteria	Burkholderiales	Oxalobacteraceae	---	0.02
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Gammaproteobacteria	Enterobacteriales	Enterobacteriaceae	Serratia	0.02
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Betaproteobacteria	Burkholderiales	---	---	0.02
Bacteria	Lentisphaerae	[Lentisphaeria]	Victivallales	Victivallaceae	---	0.02
Bacteria	Actinobacteria	Actinobacteria	Bifidobacteriales	Bifidobacteriaceae	Bifidobacterium	0.02
Bacteria	Actinobacteria	Actinobacteria	Actinomycetales	Actinomycetaceae	Actinomyces	0.02
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Betaproteobacteria	Methylophilales	---	---	0.01
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Erysipelotrichi	Erysipelotrichales	Erysipelotrichaceae	cc_115	0.01
Bacteria	Bacteroidetes	Bacteroidia	Bacteroidales	Rikenellaceae	Alistipes	0.01
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Veillonellaceae	Dialister	0.01
Bacteria	Tenericutes	RF3	ML615J-28	---	---	0.01
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Gammaproteobacteria	Xanthomonadales	Xanthomonadaceae	Stenotrophomonas	0.01
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Gammaproteobacteria	Pseudomonadales	Pseudomonadaceae	Pseudomonas	0.01
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Gammaproteobacteria	Enterobacteriales	Enterobacteriaceae	Erwinia	0.01
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Gammaproteobacteria	---	---	---	0.01
Bacteria	Proteobacteria	Betaproteobacteria	Burkholderiales	Comamonadaceae	Leptothrix	0.01
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	SHA-98	---	---	0.01
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Ruminococcaceae	Anaerotruncus	0.01
Bacteria	Firmicutes	Clostridia	Clostridiales	Lachnospiraceae	Lachnospira	0.01

Dr. Siebecker with Dr. Ruscio

A must listen all about SIBO.  Best comment from Dr. Siebecker, "there's no one diet and there's no one treatment, you just have to keep tailoring to find what works."  It's also the worst news because for those of us who struggle to keep symptoms in check while we chip away at killing the SIBO we just want that one answer that will fix everything.

http://drruscio.libsyn.com/rss

I'm like, almost dead or something

As part of the nutrition certification program I am doing we had to run a Biohealth 205 (adrenal hormone test) on ourselves.  I'm feeling pretty okay most of the time these days but when I spit in my tubes for the 205 I was in a pretty good low, feeling really incredibly beat.  My assumption was it would impact the results.  I  received them via email this morning and it basically said I have barely enough cortisol to keep me upright.  I exaggerate of course but it was shockingly low (morning, noon and afternoon) and that's after months and months of supplementing and taking it easy.  WTF!  I have a 2 hour meeting with my mentor on Friday to go over a plan but she already emailed me a draft and it's everything I'm already doing and to be honest she knows nothing about SIBO so not sure how beneficial it will be.  One recommendation was BioMatrix Support Mucosa, no way in hell I'm taking anything that is going to increase mucus production until my bugs are long gone.  We ran the Biohealth 101 as well which looks at Urinary Indican and a couple of liver measures.  My Indican was positive, don't need a test to tell you that would be the case, since positive = gut dysfunction.  My Urinary Bile Acid sulfates were elevated.  Again, duh, gut dysfunction + 18 months of on and off (mostly on) various kill protocols.  Poor liver just can't keep up.  Recommend testing for intestinal permeability.  Ya, no thanks, I can tell you my gut is permeable without testing based on multiple food reactions and occasional itchiness still if I get into something I shouldn't.  She is also recommending another stool test and breath test.  Um, had 2 stool tests, last one clean so I'm not sure that's necessary and as for the breath test I'm trying to get my hands on one.  I think it may be pricier to do it through my nutrition program because I have to go through the medical director and I don't think they use Quintron which is what all my other tests have been through.

Oh, and my husband's vehicle was stolen from the front of our house Sunday night.  Interesting to wake up to a missing car on Monday morning.  What a way to start the week!  We had to laugh because really what else can you do, and it was just a falling apart 20 year old vehicle.  Everyone in the neighborhood have been really apologetic.  I'm thinking, jeez it's not like we were carjacked.  That would be terrible and scary.  But to sleep peacefully through a crime.  That's a blessing really.  Truly bad things happen to truly good people all the time, just tune into the world news.  This was nothing in comparison to what others are going through.

All this typing to avoid taking my guar and bedtime supps.  I increased again, so I'm now at 3/4 tsp in 8 oz of water.  It's really going to be hard to get down.  A straw makes it easier but damn it's thick.  I thought for the morning I would mix it in my hot chocolate but I think it would be pretty undrinkable at the thickness it would make it.  Still might give it a try.  Haven't noticed any bloating or other SIBO weirdness yet.

Guar Gum is disgusting!

Just took my second round of Guar Gum, Rifaximin and Allicin.  Holy crap the guar is so disgusting.  It doesn't have much of a taste it's just really hard to drink gel.  Blech!  I'm up to 1/2 tsp after starting with a 1/4 tsp this morning and having no reaction.  Probably didn't need the guar since I just devoured a burger patty with cheese (first dairy in prob 3 years) and avocado with a huge plate of sweet potato fries.  I usually don't go out to eat but my dad is in town so I decided "F" it, I'm going and I don't care what I eat (within reason).  The additional 7 lbs I'm lugging around these days doesn't make me any more rational!  I tried really hard to stay away from my Array 10 foods but my step-mom was going to let them toss her salmon nuggets so I ate them.  Salmon is a no-no.  Wanted the fish tacos really bad but I'm scared to death of the whole tomato/aquaporin thing and how the heck do you eat a taco without salsa or tomatoes???  (Obviously easy to do at home, harder to improvise in a restaurant and still get the flavor).

Received Biocidin and Olivirex in the mail today, 10 days worth.  I will start them when I run out of Rifaximin.  Ordered Candibactin-BR to add.  I'm too scared to do the AR because of the thyme and gelatin (both positive on Array 10).  I'm probably going to mess around with some essential oils as well.  Try to hit it from every angle possible.  We'll see how it goes!

A handful of Betaine...

We arrived on Friday night after dark to our campsite so we had to set up in the dark.  When I finally climbed into the tent I took my nighttime (mostly prokinetic) supplements by dim headlight.  Imagine my surprise the next morning at breakfast when I discover that I took all the Betaine HCL I had packed and not my prokinetics.  That plus french fries was not a good combination on my poor sluggish digestion.  I can tell you for certain that I do need my prokinetics and Betaine doesn't function as a prokinetic at all :)  Ha!

Planning to start killing tomorrow.  A bit nervous...

Hmmm, the pain is back

My journey (soooo tired of that word!) into SIBO started with pain, bloating and constipation. The pain was resolved with visceral manipulation. It's been eeking it's way back into my days as of late, at first infrequently but now more often than not.  It's not the crushing double over pain or the long term in bed all day pain that you hear some people with SIBO complain about.  It's just a small transient pain that comes before bowel movements.  Like my body saying, "hello, you will need to find a bathroom in the next few minutes!".  If I can't heed the call for some reason, the pain sometimes becomes bad, pale in the face, doubled over bad.  It's funny cause the pain is the same whether the bowel movement is small or large.  You would think there would be some correlation with size but there hasn't been that I have noticed.  So I think it's bowel and I think it's scar related from my c-section, given the timing and location.  I have an appointment with my ND for visceral manipulation on Wednesday.  I'm also going to ask him his thoughts on the Candibactin protocol since both Gelatin and Thyme came up on my Array 10 and they are both in the AR formula.  I recently went through all my supplements and was quite surprised how few actually were gelatin caps.  I purchased some vcaps that should be here today so I can transfer the supplements that are in gelatin.

I'm really glad we have this trip planned this weekend, otherwise I fear I may have hastily plunged into ordering the Candibactin formulas and started taking the Rifaximin :)  Can't tell you how much money I have wasted on supplements by buying while feeling a bit on the irrational side :)

Bloat

Poor planning led to me to eating too much nuts and chocolate for lunch which of course led to bloating and now itching.  I think I'm going to take the remainder of my Rifaximin (5 days) with guar gum and then switch over to Candibactin AR/BR and take those until they are gone.  Clearly I'm not done yet.

This should be fun.  A friend of mine tried it and ended up puking her guts out.  If you are going to try this, start slow, don't down a full tsp of guar gum the first go around.

Breakfast, 3pm, Bedtime (from Mona Morstein in the SIBO Symposium Clinical Pearls)

1 tsp guar gum in 8 oz of water

Rifaximin

Allicin (I don't have Neomycin and don't want to acquire any)

I'll start this Monday since we are going camping this weekend, likely in rain.  Stay tuned!

This is what my Sundays look like..

Putting together my supplements for the week.

Sauteeing up my vegetables to go on the side with dinner.  Looking forward to the change in seasons and hoping I will tolerate winter squash since there is a ton of it in our yard!!  My husband will kill me if I can't eat it ;)

Guar Gum

Why guar gum?  Who the hell chose it?  Why couldn't it be eat a package of red vines or bag of M&Ms then take your Rifaximin??  It seriously should be something that is at least a treat.  Perhaps- Mix your guar gum in KoolAid or Coke or better yet wine and enjoy.  We all know there are tons of other tasty FODMAPs that SIBO eat.  So curious to know the how and why they settled on guar gum in water...  Haven't we suffered enough!?!?

Don't judge!

Clearly a cheat or treat meal, whatever you want to call it.  I'm sure I followed it up with a homemade reese's peanut butter cup.  Still paying for this I think!

I have definitely been hankering for hot dogs.  Avocado is a suprisingly good substitute for mayonnaise!  I don't particularly care for grilled zucchini but eat it anyway.  Kind of glad summer squash season is coming to an end.  Was thinking the same about green beans and then picked up an organic bag of fresh green beans at Trader Joe's, so clearly I'm not ready to let them go yet.

Chris Kresser with Dr. Pimental!!

Chris Kresser interviewed Mark Pimental

Talking about the guar gum :)

Today I don't care..

I'm waaaaay heavier than I should be so I'm saying screw it and opening this salsa to go with my lunch.  No tomatoes (and those scary aquaporins) although there is tomatillos and they are related to tomatoes, not to mention garlic, onions and all sorts of peppers.  We're talking like a tablespoon so how bad could it be??? Oh well, here we go!

Back and forth...

It's so hard to stick with any course of action with SIBO because your day to day experience can fluctuate so dang much.  I woke up this morning looking 6 months pregnant and up a pound.  What the hell did I do?  Nothing different really.  Indulged in a bit more chocolate than usual but it was early in the day and doesn't warrant that kind of reaction.  The other thing.  I broke down and make some banana muffins with almond flour, coconut flour and flax eggs.  Flax just a tablespoon spread between 8 muffins.  It can't be that really?  

Since bingeing on potatoes the last month or so off and on (not true bingeing, but cautious SIBO bingeing ;) I have been craving more carbs.  Which is why I made the muffins.  I should probably just stay the hell away from it all since it just seems to turn me into a wild eyed crazy carb monster.  Maybe my husband will make the connection and stop frying up potatoes in delicious beef tallow and putting the plate RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.  And if you haven't tried it, please don't.  You will not be able to stop and before you know it you are shopping for a Fry Daddy.  Also Tom O'Bryan mentioned something about issues with potatoes and lectins in recent research here. "I have three articles I was just reading today about white potatoes may cause permeability because of the lectins. People who have a lectin sensitivity, if your food has lectins in it, it will cause permeability." Surely I'm okay with lectins...  not sure I want to know!

Which leads me to my whole point which is, all the doctors say if you are still having symptoms you should keep treating unless your test is negative then you really need to look into other causes.  My friend Tim had similar numbers, no symptoms.  Look at him go! Definitely an inspiration.  And then there's Katie a woman in a couple of the fb groups I'm in. She worked her ass off to kick not only SIBO but H.Pylori only to continue having symptoms.  Thankfully she continued to question and has an awesome ND who discovered a cyst on her ovary. Her blog is so funny.  Hoping for a speedy recovery for her!  Which leads me to, I need a damn breath test already!  I have an appt with my ND on the 23rd but he's so busy he doesn't have time to get me kits whenever I want.  I have a local ND that I really like and she's great about billing our insurance and using labs that our insurance covers (my son saw her), but how much does she understand about all this?? Does she even have to understand all of it to be helpful??

Still tapering off my thyroid medication.  I saw my general ARNP on Saturday and when I said I was on T3 she said, "you just need to take iodine".  Um, wow!  She hadn't looked at my labs, asked my symptoms, nothing.  Not to mention that you can't just add iodine to your supplement regimen without adding selenium. 

Still messing around with adrenal support.  Clearly I need a new ND :)

It's always something!!!

I have been itching after every meal.  I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on.  Last night I was putting my vitamins into organizers and I grabbed the Milk Thistle.  I had ordered it online not realizing that in addition to the milk thistle it had other liver support ingredients and contained Tilapia.  Tilapia???  WTF!?  Of course it's one of the things that popped up on my Array 10.  So I stopped the milk thistle and lo and behold, no itchiness today.  It amazes me how little it takes for me to react.  

Still haven't got back to a regular yoga practice.  Day one of school I went to visit my grandma, who is almost 98.  You have one body and mind people, take care of it because you never know how long you are going to live!  She had surgery for colon cancer years ago and I believe she has SIBO as a result.  Lots of gas and a mucho fickle digestive tract, vascilating from constipation to horrible diarrhea.  She is old school to say the least (spent part of her life Christian Science) so it's hard to even get her to take a vitamin.  Now that she's forgetful it's even more of a battle.  Thank goodness we finally got her into assisted living.  PIcked up the kid from school and he had a sore throat.

Day two I got a lot done around the house, harvesting veggies - the last of the green beans, more peppers (bell and spicy) and tomatoes, cooking and cleaning.  We let our son sleep in this morning, took him to school a few minutes late, he seemed good but then had a low grade fever when I picked him up so tomorrow is a wash.

Saturday we are supposed to head to Idaho for the weekend.  It doesn't seem likely at this point.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.

New Protocol - Repair

Just to remind all of you, I am not a healthcare provider of any kind.  I just do a little research and add what I feel works for me.  SIBO is such a strange animal so you have to figure out (hopefully with a qualified provider) what works for you.

I've decided to work on gut repair and motility since my reactions to foods are mostly in the form of belly itchiness which I contribute more to permeability and not SIBO per se.

I should also note that there is a bit of a brouhaha right now about FCO (fermented cod liver oil).  You can read about it here (and in many other places).  I am opting to continue with my bottle but not sure I will buy it again.  It's fairly difficult to keep fish oils from becoming rancid and they are expensive.  It's better to include some fatty fish in your diet a couple of times a week.  If you've been following along you might remember that on my Array 10 I am reacting to salmon, tilapia, trout, tuna, squid, and shrimp.  I did not react to sardines but for some reason they are making me nauseaus when I eat them.  My guess is it's a placebo thing.

Pre-meals     
Bitters (2 droppers)

Iberogast (2 droppers)

Red Yeast Rice       

LiverCare

Serrapeptase

Breakfast    
Multivitamin (2)

All-zyme

Magnesium Glycinate

Betaine HCL (1-2)

Fermented Cod Liver Oil

Vit C

Vit D 4000 iu (2 drops)

Vit K-2

Thyrosol

Adrenomend (2 capsules)

OrthoBiotic (every other day)

                  

9-10AM
T3 – 22.5mcg

Primal Defense (on days when no OrthoBiotic)

L-Glutamine (1)

GastricSoothe (2)

                  
Lunch           
Multivitamin (2)

All-zyme (1)
Magnesium Glycinate

Betaine HCL (1-2)

Vit C

PrescriptAssist (1)

Adrenomend (2 capsules)

Adrenaplex (2 capsules)

Dinner         
Multivitamin (2)

All-zyme (1)

Betaine HCL (1-2)

Magnesium Glycinate

Fermented Cod Liver Oil

Thyrosol (1 tablet)

Turmeric

9pm             
LDN – 5mg

Motilpro (3)

GastricSoothe (2)

L-Glutamine

Lion’s Mane (2)*

Magnesium Citrate (PRN)

*I haven't added the Lion's Mane in.  I added in the Motilpro last night and will add the GastricSoothe in tonight.  I've been taking Endozin for a while so shouldn't have a problem with the L-Glutamine and GastricSoothe since it's the same ingredients.  In a few days if all goes well I will add in the Lion's Mane.