Damn Dairy

I cut out the Resolor (lactose) a couple of nights ago and the itching has all but gone away. The little bit of residual itchiness is just due to dry winter skin something I've always dealt with.  As much as I really want to incorporate dairy in my life it's just not going to work.  I think I can probably handle ghee on occasion without consequence but clearly daily consumption is just out.  My Cyrex testing all came back completely negative for dairy but I hadn't eaten it for 4 years prior to testing.  However, there were some foods that came back positive on the Cyrex testing that I have never, ever eaten.  Quite interesting.

Energywise I am hanging in there.  I ran out of thyroid hormone a few days ago.  I will get the results of my thyroid testing back in the week and meet with Dr. Pomeroy to go over results.  My new adrenal supplements will be here tomorrow so I will add glandular support this week. 

I'll post my updated supplements in the coming week for anyone who is interested.

Ghee fail

I've become progressively more congested in the sinuses and itchy as I've continued experimenting with ghee so I've had to let it go.  I really want to incorporate dairy in some fashion as it can be so healing for the gut but I need to come to terms with the fact that if I am reacting it's not a healthy for me.  Bummer!

Which brings me to Resolor which is produced with lactose, the stupidest thing ever.  The first enzyme you generally lose in a compromised gut is lactase.  Duh!  I itched all night last night even though I took it with lactase.  I may need to go back to LDN or switch to LDE then back to LDN.  My motility is spot on as long as I don't vary my diet AT ALL.  Not the best way to live and be healthy.  

Love and Be Kind to Yourself

Most all of us take our body for granted.  It struggles and we just keep eating what we want even though it sends us signals, quiet and loud, not to.  I say this as I drink a cup of Jasmine tea which is making me nauseous.  It only does this sometimes so I keep drinking it.  It has even made me puke once, at a child's birthday party.  Embarrassing!  Why do I keep drinking it?  I love it.  I wasn't reactive on the Array 10 (some excuse).  The only other thing I really drink is water.  How boring!  But clearly, CLEARLY I shouldn't be drinking jasmine tea. My body has been kindly asking me not to and I'm a bitch and ignore it.  

I've been thinking a lot about this today as I have been so itchy and yucky feeling in general, knowing I have flagellated bacteria burrowing into the lining of my digestive tract does not help (have you SEEN the pictures???).  I need to listen to my body.  I'm not digesting protein well (haven't for eons and duh keep eating it) and I can't really chew it properly in the first place so I need to work on decreasing my consumption while increasing amino acid support insert *gag* here.  I need to be eating more soups, green juices and I need to try smoothies again with perhaps ginger or cinnamon to make them "hotter".  In Ayurveda they said cold foods dampen digestive fire and I really don't need my ability to digest dampened at all. I've been afraid to try hemp but I've got to do better about giving my body an opportunity to heal.

No plan yet but you can be sure it will include drinking cabbage juice.  Which Katie swears is delicious.  Okay, not so much.  I've got several digestive health books on request at the library.  I've perused them all before but need to take another look.  Hoping to formulate a plan and start slowing incorporating some things over the next week.  I probably should do it before my weird outrageously expensive African tea gets here.  That supposedly can cause some mucho bad reactions for a short period of time.  I am just so done.  I was contemplating going elemental and just climbing into bed.  Instead I will get my butt outside and walk the dogs.  Just keep moving forward!

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!

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 :)

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.

Idaho camping recap

Let me just start out by saying HOLY SMOKES!  Forest fires everywhere.  I really didn't understand until I drove to the eastern part of our state and there is just a trough of smoke coming out of the Chelan/Methow area.  Wow!  I don't have cable tv and don't watch the news.  I browse the newspaper every day but there really hasn't been much printed.  We only had one day where you could smell the smoke strongly and woke up the next day with ash on the car.  The rest of the time it was sufficiently windy that we could see it but not really smell it.

So this is what I ate for breakfast just about every morning while camping.  Hamburger patty, grilled green beans, 1/2 avocado and hot chocolate. Oh, and a shot of probiotic tonic (sauerkraut juice).

This was my usual lunch (more like a snack) - Pemmican, kale chips and macadamia nuts. We were really bummed that our US Wellness meats order arrived the day we left so we couldn't pack beef sticks (same as pepperoni but without the spice).

I ended up needing to get rid of veggies in the refrigerator before we left so I ended up with a few days of the usual sauteed curry vegetables I eat at home, usually with grilled chicken. 

I ate salmon the first night we were there and broke out in a belly rash.  It was the first time I have tried it since it came up positive on my Array 10.  I pretty much remained rashed and just a bit itchy because I ate eggs too.  

Wine, oh wine.  I really don't miss it but we drank it 3 nights.  One night my husband and I split a whole bottle while sitting around the fire pit at the ranch we stayed at in Cle Elum.  It was so nice to have a fire and we celebrated.  My digestion transitioned to great and stayed there.  I tapered off of all my antimicrobials while camping as I ran out.  I switched from Kal Garlicare with Red Yeast Rice to Jarrow Formulas Red Yeast Rice + Nattokinase.  I should have kept track of the switch but didn't.  It happened sometime during the trip and could be responsible for some of the increase in motility.

And the potatoes....  gained yet another 2 lbs eating potatoes.  I know I shouldn't but I love the skin of baked potatoes and my son and husband do not.  I can't stand to see they get tossed so ended up eating them a couple of different nights.  And the potato chips, I consumed more than my fair share of those!

The last night I tossed thinly sliced carrots in ghee, sprinkled them with salt and roasted them.  I called them carrot fries so the kids would try them and they liked them. Yay!  My husband said they were better than sweet potato fries.  I beg to differ but then again I actually love sweet potatoes and he doesn't even like them :)

The plan for now is to try to add the OrthoBiotic back in and add some Motilpro.  Probiotics and Prokinetics.  I think the bloating I was experiencing before I left was due to the sauteed kale and not the OrthoBiotic.  I'm still not very good at chewing sauteed kale, I do better with dehydrated because it just breaks apart when you chew it.  I continued to bloat off and on during the trip but I also ate kale (and potatoes and wine and waaaaay too much chocolate) throughout the trip.  So we'll see how things settle out over the next week.

Off to buy school supplies.  Where did the summer go???

Elimination Time

In my last Skype appt with Dr. Keller we talked about my Cyrex Array 3, 4 and 10 results.  She wants me to eliminate all Out of Range foods, obviously, but she always wants me to eliminate all the Equivocal foods for at least 6 weeks and then slowly reintroduce them.  She said that many of these reactions are because the foods are FODMAPs and should resolve with the SIBO but the others are just causing inflammation in the body and we need to reduce that.  Could be due to intestinal permeability, that would be my guess, but I never eat things like cooked tuna or squid and those certainly aren't FODMAPy, so who knows.  She really cautioned me about the Aquaporins and said the response to them should be taken seriously.  She said she would send me a spec sheet about it.  All the Google links lead to long research articles that I really don't feel like reading right now.

Out of Range:

• Sesame
• Teff
• Corn
• Rice Cake
• Wild Rice
• Kidney Beans
• Celery
• Corn + Aquaporin, cooked
• Popped Corn
• Pea, cooked
• Pea Protein
• Tuna, Cooked
• Squid, Cooked
• Thyme (wonder if this means I can't do Candibactin-AR)
• Clove
• Beta-Glucan (polysaccharide)
• Gum Tragacanth (polysaccharide)

Equivocal:

• Oats
• Tapioca
• Egg White, cooked
• Wheat + Alpha-Gliadins
• Garbonzo beans, cooked
• Soybean Agglutinin
• Brazil Nuts
• Artichoke, cooked
• Chili Pepper
• Lettuce
• Onion + Scallion (raw and cooked)
• Pumpkin + Squash, cooked
• Tomato + Aquaporin
• Tomato Paste
• Apple Cider
• Apricot
• Kiwi
• Mackeral, cooked
• Salmon, cooked
• Tilapia, cooked
• Trout, cooked
• Shrimp, cooked
• Parvalbumin
• Lamb, cooked
• Gelatin
• Paprika
• Mastic Gum + Gum Arabic

I'm definitely going to have to hang this list to avoid some oops!  Most of the foods listed I don't even eat so it's not a big deal really.  But I did like to eat salmon, shrimp and eggs on occasion.  And I love spicy, so the chili peppers make me sad.

My notes from SIBO Symposium

I should preface this by saying that on Thursday I received my son's results for the Cyrex Array 3 & 4.  Turns out he was off the charts sensitive to both wheat (interestingly enough the lectins way more than the gluten) and dairy (casein but not whey).  My family loves their bread products and dairy products and they are a staple in our home (I don't eat them of course due to SIBO and dairy sensitivity).  We talked on Thursday evening and Friday morning after they guys left I cleaned all the dairy and wheat out of the house, jumped in the shower and left for the symposium.  Needless to say all this was heavy on my mind during the weekend since I didn't know what the results actually meant in terms of autoimmunity. Our ND can't see us until July.  Thankfully I ran into the Cyrex Rep at the Symposium and she talked me through the results.  Not specific to him or diagnostic but what each value measures, translates to (eg - wheat germ agglutanin is a lectin), and how symptoms may manifest in the body for people.  After talking with her I was able to breathe because I think that Celiacs and IBD are likely off the table. Phew!

Dr. Pimental spoke first about the Underlying Causes of SIBO.  He has teamed up with the military to study IBS because the majority of soldiers get food poisoning on deployment, as if they don't have enough stress!!!  In these studies they have found that 10% of soldiers returning have IBS from one deployment. You can imagine the rates for soldiers going through multiple deployments! They ruled out stress as a cause by asking question such as - did you fire a weapon, did you shoot another human, were you injured, etc. Through these studies he has determined that IBS is not caused by stress (and therefore is NOT all in your head).  His belief is that the majority of SIBO is caused by food poisoning.  Based on a study, 60%+ cases of IBS are caused by SIBO.  They determined this using both duodenal sample and the breath test.  This number is likely low because if the breath test was positive and the sample negative they said negative for SIBO.  Dr. Pimental mentioned that the duodenum is just a small sample of the upper small intestine and often the bacteria is lower down so this percentage is likely low.

Dr. Pimental has done A LOT of work looking at how food poisoning causes SIBO.  He found that when you get food poisoning often from Campylobacter Jejuni, E. Coli, Salmonella or Shigella they can all cause SIBO.  The bacteria produce CDT (Cytolethal Distending Toxin).  The toxin attaches to the wall of the small intestine and the our immune system creates antibodies (Anti-CdtB and Anti-Vinculin), these antibodies go to attack the CDT and in the process destroy the vinculin which in turn damages the Interstitial Cells of Cajal (ICC).  These ICC cells are responsible for motility.  Dr. Pimental found that if you remove CDT from bacteria before injecting it into the mice they still got gastroenteritis but did not get lasting intestinal damage or SIBO.  This is where Dr. Pimental's new test comes in that measures these antibodies. It's his first step in finding a way to cure SIBO. These antibodies - cause SIBO, the greater the antibody the greater the SIBO so can predict treatment length and if we measure antibodies perhaps we can learn how to decrease them and heal the ICC/motility.  Dr. Pimental stated that if you remove the antibodies the body will heal in 3 weeks.  He also said it is imperative for people with SIBO to NEVER get food poisoning again.  He advises some type of antibacterial while traveling with every meal (of course he said Rifaximin but that's only because it's his weapon of choice and he's rumored to get kickbacks, personally I will stick to Biocidin).

Other takeaways from his talk:

• 10 times more people with IBS have an abnormal breath test than normal people.
• Methane slows transit time in the small intestine 69%.
• You are 5 times more likely to get IBS if you have had food poisoning.
• Also, the breath test is not good at measuring methane under 3 so if your hydrogen is elevated and you still have constipation assume it's positive for methane and keep treating.
• If the breath test shows methane in the colon it's still a positive because you shouldn't have methane produced anywhere!
• Stomach acid (and Betaine HCL) slows motility but kills bacteria so take it if you need it!!
• PPIs increase motility but they are NOT recommended because the decrease acid (which kills bacteria)

Dr. Pimental and Dr. Siebecker then presented Elemental Diet Treatment for SIBO.  Dr. Pimental noted that he only has a 50% success rate with methane producers using Vivonex.  Sometimes people don't feel better until 10 days after they stop the elemental diet.  It's important to reintroduce foods SLOWLY, starting out with soups.  Antibiotics don't work during the elemental diet because the bacteria can hibernate.  The elemental diet is effective in 80% of people in 2 weeks, 85% of people in 3 weeks, there is no benefit in going longer.  Thrush can be a side effect of Vivonex due to "all the nutrition being swished in the mouth".  There have been no studies yet on Peptamen but it appears to have the same effectiveness.  Dr. Siebecker has done no formal studies on the homemade formula but she has found virtually the same effectiveness as Vivonex and says she has found it is effective with Methane.  You can find the recipe here.  Can I just say she is so tiny and absolutely adorable?!?!

I skipped Dr. Pimental's presentation on Rifaximin.  Been there, done that, wouldn't do it again, wouldn't recommend it.  I've found herbals much more effective.

Prokinetic Prevention of SIBO presented by Drs. Pimental, Weinstock, Siebecker, Keller.  I didn't take any notes on the prokinetic discussion because I've used most of them :)  The only one I haven't tried is Resolor because it's expensive and you have to get it from Canada.  Dr. Siebecker does a good job outlining prescription options here.  Dr. Pimental likes Resolor the best.  Dr. Weinstock talked about LDN. Dr. Siebecker seems partial to Iberogast (even for kids).  Dr. Keller presented on Motilpro.

Herbals include:

• Iberogast 20 drops with meals and/or at bedtime
• Motilpro - no instructions provided
• Ginger - 1000-1500mg daily

They all seemed to feel that there may not be a benefit to starting prokinetics early.  Often the methane overrides the benefit of the prokinetic and you are just wasting your money.

Steven Sandberg Lewis and Dr. Shaver presented on Beyond the Breath Test: Other tests for SIBO patients.  My takeaway from this was that a provider should never assume it's just IBD, or Celiacs that if the patient doesn't get better they should always check for SIBO (and in some cases vise versa).  Dr. Shaver indicated she likes to r/o celiacs, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, do food sensitivity testing and a stool test.  Celiacs and SIBO often seem to go hand in hand.  Food sensitivity testing helps you identify and remove foods causing symptoms and/or inflammation, stool testing can help identify parasites/pathogenic bacteria/fungus, bacterial imbalance, inflammation, and sIgA ("a key marker of humoral immune status").

Larry Wurn presented on Physical Treatment for SI Obstruction and all I have to say about this is if you feel like surgical scarring/adhesions are an issue for you, you need to check them out.  I have a friend that has been to their clinic and had treatment and it changed her life.  There technique has been well studied and it's no bull!

Sunday was a bit more of a blur.  The conference started at 8am and the presentation was done via video (for an hour and 15 minutes).  It was hard to follow along.  My friend Tim will do a much better job of summing up Dr. Mullin's presentation and I will link it when he does.  Dr. Mullin spoke on a wide variety of topics, one was using D-Limonene 1000g daily as a prokinetic. I don't recall timing but prokinetics are usually at bedtime.  He also talked about use of the Smart Pill to measure PH in various parts of the digestive tract, in addition to measuring motility, pressure and the ICV.  Sound intriguing!  I also wrote down S. Boulardii increases SigA (which is a good thing!).  I think I tossed mine out long ago however so can't add it in now and again.  He spoke about adding in fermented food but I glazed over :(. His uses the garden metaphor, first kill all the weeds (SIBO), support the soil (gut) so good plants can grow, then reseed (pre- and probiotics).  I'm on the probiotics, the prebiotics still scare me a bit!!  Oligosacchararides promote bifido and lacto, discourage growth of clostridia, prevent constipation, etc.  Sounds kind of important.  Oligo's are found in artichoke, asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, fennel, garlic, leek, onion and cabbage. It was interesting, Dr. Mullin seems to be willing to try anything and if I am remembering right he talked about patients ending up in the hospital (one due to use of biofilm buster EDTA) and said "we discontinued use of that treatment" a handful of times. Which is both awesome and frightening.  We need strong SIBO fighters but I'd hate to end up in the hospital!  He has a new book tomorrow!

Dr. Weinstock spoke again about leaky gut and SIBO.  The feeling is that pretty much everyone with SIBO has leaky gut and if your intestinal permeability test comes back negative it's only because the SIBO has eaten all the lactulose/mannitol before it leaked through to the blood and could be measured.  I believe he said they use 10g of lactulose for the breath test and only 5g of lactulose/mannitol for the intestinal permeability test.  Other ways you can look at intestinal permeability is butyrate, lower levels imply impaired barrier, the other ways, measuring LPS (lipopolysaccharide) is difficult, Anti-LPS only shows in acute phases and the endotoxin test requires measurement in the portal vein.  Bottom line, assume intestinal permeability and support repair using the following supplements:

• Serum Bovine Immunoglobin (SBI) - binds and removes microbial components
• Zinc (I use Endozin) - supports tight junctions between cells
• Glutamine - nutrition to support mucosal integrity
• Curcumin - reduces inflammation
• Probiotics - increases zonulin

The Lactulose Breath Test Interpretation was fascinating and we all pulled out our breath tests to follow along.  It went really fast though.  The only takeaway I had was that you want to see a double peak, the dip between peaks indicates that you have moved from the small intestine to the large intestine.  

That pretty much sums it up.  Phew!  Let me know if you have any questions!

Cyrex Array 3, 4 and 10

There was a package deal on Cyrex and I fell for it hook, line and sinker.  Everyone drools over the Cyrex tests because they think they will get some magic piece of the puzzle.  I'm not sure that's the case.

My Array 3 shows I have no issues with wheat.  I came back equivocal on Transglutaminase-3 IgG, which is a negative but a little on the high side so it could possibly be a positive.  

The Array 4 (wheat cross reactives) showed I have issues with sesame (which I knew from previous testing), teff and corn.  Guess I'll have to clean the cupboards and get rid of all those products with teff!  Ha!  The corn hurts a little because on the Array 10 I can up positive for popcorn as well.  *sniff*  Not that I was eating it because it's hard on the ileocecal valve but I had hopes of sitting in a dark movie theatre snacking on popcorn again.

The Array 10 showed the I react to the following:

• rice cake (not rice or rice protein, just rice cake)
• wild rice
• kidney beans
• sesame
• celery (yuck! thank goodness, now I have an excuse!)
• corn
• popped corn
• pea, cooked
• pea protein (makes sense since sometimes my smoothies sit in my gut like a brick)
• tuna (just cooked, not raw - phew!  I love sashimi and eat it when I know it's been sustainably fished)
• Squid (calamari), cooked
• thyme, raw (wonder if this has to do with all those essential oils I took??)
• Clove, raw (I was rubbing this EO on my liver for awhile, seems related)
• Beta-Glucan (some kind of gum)
• Gum Tragacanth (some kind of gum)

The good news is that coconut came back okay, as did chocolate and green tea.  These are my priorities :)  Ha ha!

There were a number of equivocal items as well which can happen if you eat something all the time.  Thankfully most of the stuff that came back are items I never eat.  

Update - just got back from Costco and all the organic sausage like meat products have celery as a natural form of nitrates/nitrites.  Uh oh!  Looks like I'm going to be making my own sausage!

Where have I been???

I started my new protocol a few days ago.  This is not to say that you should try this and especially at these amounts.  I am fairly tolerant of all the protocols I have tried, have never experienced anything I would call die off and I think my bacterial levels are now pretty low so I had no concerns of a reaction.  That said, I have been more tired now that I have all the supplements on board.

Before meals:

1. Biocidin - 10 drops
2. Gi Microbex - 2 capsules
3. Allimed - 2 capsules

With lunch:

1. Megaspore Biotic - 1 capsule

Bedtime:

1. LDN - 5mg
2. Mag Citrate - as needed 

I'm taking resveratrol and fermented cod liver oil with breakfast and lunch, turmeric with all meals for inflammation and Endozin on days when I have some belly itch.  If you don't recall Endozin has zinc carnosine in it, this supplement helps to support tight junctions in the digestive tract.  I also put doTERRA DigestZen on my belly when it itches.

I'm taking Restorative Formulas Adrenal PX Balance and Adrenal PX DHEA to help support my adrenals and hopefully restore normal pathways.  I am also taking Restorative Formulas Thyrocare in hopes of stimulating my body to start converting T4>T3 more efficiently.

Over the next week I plan to start adding fermented veggies back into my diet.  The only reason I stopped is because I was having trouble chewing them (braces/open bite) and I don't really need to add any fuel to the fire.

I've been working with my ND and toying with my T3 medication.  I'm trying to see how low I can get it and still keep my temperature stable.  I wish I didn't need it but I crashed when I stopped.

Still haven't done my Cyrex tests.  My son is having them done too and we are waiting on his serum kit so we can do them together.  He's 9 and more than a little frightened about having a needle put in his arm but his sigmoid colon was swollen and the doctor is concerned if we aren't better about his diet (no gluten/diary) then he's going to develop problems.  Thought best to check for immune response to foods before we eliminate them.

So that's prettty much where I've been and what I am up to.  Things are going good, plugging right along.

Food Sensitivity

Ever wonder why you go on an elimination diet and suddenly react violently to foods that you thought you were okay with?  We all speculate. Have we lost the enzymes to digest that specific food?  Many people hear this happens and don't want to do an elimination diet for this very reason.  I stumbled across an old podcast from the Paleo Mom where they talk about gut health.  In a nut shell she says the body has several immune responses, among them one that reacts to the food and another that dampens that response.  When you eliminate a food the immune response that dampens goes away more quickly then the immune response that reacts.  So when you reintroduce that food the reaction is there in full force but the dampening has been reduced so you really feel the full effects of the immune response.

Here is the podcast if you want to listen for yourself.  The first 20 minutes are just banter which you can forward through if you just want the information. 

http://www.thepaleomom.com/2013/05/tpv-episode-39-show-notes-gut-health.html