A post to read

One of the best thing to come out of my struggle with SIBO is my friendship with this guy.  Here he outlines his treatments and the protocols used by all the major players. Thank you!

Current Protocol

Adrenals:

• Adrenal Glandular - 100mg breakfast and lunch
• Licorice Root - a few drops with lunch (helps extend life of cortisol)
• Cordycepts - one tablet with breakfast
• DHEA sublingual - up to 4 drops with meals (haven't added this yet)
•  Pregnenolone sublingual - up to 4 drops with meals (haven't added this yet)

Thyroid

• Zinc - breakfast and dinner
• Wobenzyme-N - 5-10 caps, 3 times a day on an empty stomach.  WOW!  Just looked through my notes and found that.  Wonder if she meant 5-10 separated into 3 doses or up to 30 a day!  That's a ton of pills!

SIBO/Gut Support

• Digestive enzymes with meals
• Lion's Mane at bedtime*
• Acetyl L-Carnitine at bedtime*
• L-Glutamine between meals and at bedtime
• Zinc L-Carnosine between meals and at bedtime
• Iberogast before meals
• Megaspore - 2 caps with lunch
• Orthobiotic/PrescriptAssist/Primal Defense (rotating) - between meals

H. Pylori

• Mastic Gum - 2 caps with meals
• NAC - 1 cap with meals
• Biocidin - before meals (both kills and provides biofilm disruption, contemplating switching to Interfase Plus and Allimax)

*Lion's mane and Acetyl L-Carnitine are thought to help with nerve regeneration in the small intestine.  Even though I've had lifelong motility issues I don't recall having the bloating or other issues until after the two food poisoning incidents 6 years ago.  I'm running off the assumption that they were the tipping point.  Although to be honest I don't remember a heck off a lot about my health from the first couple of years of my son's life.  My adrenals just tanked after my pregnancy and it's all a blur.

Priorities

I watched Dr. Kalish on The Digestion Sessions today. I own them but completely didn't stop and think that maybe someone had covered H. Pylori. He loves H. pylori because it causes such a wide variety of issues but is fairly easy to get rid of so patients get better quickly. Like all gut issues it can have a far reaching impact. He treats both conventionally and herbally, depending on the individual patient.  When using herbs he likes mastic gum combined with Oregano or Olive Leaf and DGL. He feels that DGL is very important to reducing inflammation, soothing and healing the gut. I'm going to go for it.  I filled out paperwork to become a patient of Dr. Ruscio over the weekend and he asks you to prioritize your health issues. You would think SIBO would be number one but it's not. Intestinal permeability trumps it all. I know, I know, you can't heal IP without getting rid of the bugs but I feel we need to do everything we can to help protect the integrity of the stomach and intestinal lining while treating. I learned that lesson the hard way!

Dr. Kalish also feels that H. Pylori can have an impact on your adrenals and often he works on adrenals for a couple of months before treating the HP.  Been there, done there. Wonder what kind of impact it has on the results of adrenal testing.  I just submitted my DUTCH test after what turned out to be a stressful week.

Here is a link to an article Dr. Keller did on SIBO and gums. However, on the Cyrex Array 10 they combine mastic gum with gum arabic so it's unclear which I am reacting to or if it's both. Oh well, if I react to mastic gum I can give it to my husband or son. My guess is one or both of them will test positive and yes I will have them both tested.  Husband could be asymptomatic and give it back to me in my comprimised digestive state.

A weekend of investigation

I've been taking Betaine HCL and so many antibacterials since starting this journey almost 2 years ago.  It seems really odd that now Helicobacter Pylori (HP) has overgrown. How and why are the questions that took over my weekend.

The stomach keeps the ph around 1.7, very acidic.  HP likes the ph above 4.  In order to accomplish getting the ph this high HP releases urease.  Part of the conventional triple antibiotic protocol is Omeprazole (aka Prilosec).  Sounds counterproductive to include a PPI but omeprazole permanently disrupts HP's ability to make urease enabling the ph in the stomach to come down to a normal ph between 1-2, an acidity which the HP cannot survive.  The chyme (food sludge) is a ph of 2 when it is transitioned to the duodenum of the small intestine.  The acidity stimulates hormone production which raises the ph, the rise in ph stimulates the release of bile acids.  HP can occupy the stomach or the duodenum or both.  Seems like eradicating it from the stomach would be easy, just lower the ph and the HP can't survive.  Getting HP out of the duodenum with it's higher ph seems a little more tricky.

This evening I had an appointment with the medical director of my nutrition certification program and asked her why Betaine HCL is contraindicated and she said that the HP strip away the protective mucosa from the walls of the stomach in order to imbed themselves more easily in the stomach wall.  This lack of mucosa leaves the stomach wall vulnerable and the acid will burn it and could cause ulcers.  I think I'll stop messing around with trying to lower the ph!

So this 30 day protocol was her recommendation:

• Matula tea - 1 cup upon rising and 1 cup at bedtime prepared exactly as instructed.  Expensive but has a money back guarantee.
• Mastic gum - 2 capsules, 3 times a day with meals (soothes the gut, I'm on the fence here as mastic gum can feed SIBO but maybe with the Biocidin would be okay)
• NAC - 1 capsule, 2-3 times a day (helps with healing)
• Douglas Laboratories Licorice Root - 1-2 capsules, 2-3 times a day 15-20 minutes before meals (soothes the gut, I'm on the fence here as DGL can feed SIBO but maybe with the Biocidin would be okay)
• Biocidin or Interfase Plus to help with any possible biofilm formation

So I was under the impression that I did something wrong to create an imbalance in my ph that allowed HP to overgrow but she said that it common to have HP along with Blastocystis Hominis and it's only when the Blasto is eradicated that the HP shows up. And it often takes 6-12 months after Blasto is gone for it to show up.  I was kind of thinking I screwed myself with the Ox Bile.  It was the only real thing I did different other than the guar.  Maybe not, maybe it is all just a coincidence.  

She also indicated that feeding is only appropriate when trying to get rid of hydrogen SIBO not methane but I know that Pimental is having his patients with methane use guar along with his Rifaximin protocols.  She also feels (and I really want to believe her) that this has been the missing piece in my healing and that once the HP is gone my SIBO will leave too. That would be nice!  We'll see.

Waiting on results....

It's been a week since my last antimicrobials and will be a week tomorrow since my breath test.  Since then I've just been sticking to a strict low FODMAP, mostly AIP diet.  The AIP part is only because so many of those foods showed up on my Array 10.

My belly still seems pretty big.  Inflammation?  Bloat?  I don't know but it seems to be slowly getting smaller.  My weight is slowly coming down.  My BM's have been spot on which is amazing since I'm not taking Magnesium at bedtime.

So what am I doing these days?

• Glutamine 2-3 times a day
• Zinc L-Carnosine 2-3 times a day
• Iberogast before meals
• Ox Bile with meals
• OrthoBiotic with breakfast
• Primal Defense between breakfast and lunch
• MegaSpore Biotic with lunch
• LDN at bedtime (will be switching to Resolor in a few days)

While waiting for the DUTCH test to arrive I have slowly (purposely) run out of all the adrenal support I was taking.  The only thing I am taking is Gaia Adrenal Health, it doesn't have additional DHEA or pregnenolone or adrenal gland, it's just herbs and I actually feel better.  It's also just so nice to be taking less supplements.

Other news...... we got a new car and a rooster.  The car is a used Toyota Highlander Hybrid, great gas mileage and will be good for camping.  Car shopping sucks and it's nice to have it done with.  The rooster was offered up on our neighborhood buy nothing fb group.  I was planning on eating him (she knew that when she gave it to me), but he's so pretty and funny and isn't crowing, so he's sticking around. Roosters are not allowed in the city, as long as he keeps his beak shut he's good :)  

A Good Article from Chris Kresser

http://chriskresser.com/why-diet-alone-is-not-enough-to-treat-sibo/

I think we do need to take out the most problematic foods to make life more liveable when discovering SIBO and possible triggers, but to be so restrictive as to remove them all could just possibly make the bacteria go dormant, which means lots more treatment with little success.  I personally would have much rather kept my diet the same if it meant that the killing would be easier, quicker and less expensive!

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.

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.

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????

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 :)

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!

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.

Mixing It Up - Adding to the Current Protocol

I'm really kicking it up a notch with the probiotics.

After breakfast I added in 1/3 tsp of Primal Defense HSO Probiotic Formula, it's supposed to be taken on an empty stomach.  It is hard to get down, like drinking gritty, dirty water.  With lunch I am still taking the somewhat controversial MegaSpore Biotic and added in Lactoprime Plus. I've had the Lactoprime a while and I really don't think it's live anymore. I tried to make yogurt out of it and it did nothing so I figured might as well use it up.  I'm trying to drink my Probiotic Tonic from the Classic Kraut with breakfast and lunch, but I don't enjoy it nearly as much as the tonic from the Firefly Kimchi (yum!).  Alas, the Firefly Kimchi drink has spicy peppers in it and they came up positive on the Array 10 so I'm trying to be good and refrain (although the rice, beans and carne asada from the taco truck today was quite spicy ;).  Just drawing the bugs out so I can kill them.  I do this on occasion.  If I had it to do all over again I'm not sure I would have restricted my diet until the bugs were gone.  I can't be sure, but I wonder if the whole SIBO diet just slowed the killing.

It's fascinating because the M. Smithii archaea are a mechanism for retaining energy (calories).  Research has shown that the archaea is very common in starving populations like anorexics and in Sub-saharn Africa.  Makes me wonder if starving the buggers with diet and even the elemental diet does a bit of good.  They seem to be quite unstarvable!  Which leads to how to get through their biofilm and get them.

After listening to Dr. Ruscio's wrap up of the SIBO Symposium I decided to add in Red Rice 
Yeast. He said that statins appear to inhibit their cell wall formation. I picked up a blend from Solaray Garlicare with Red Rice Yeast.  This yeast is a natural statin. I'm going to try this blend while I do more research since it's inexpensive.  Hoping I don't react to the garlic but if anything it will draw the archaea and bacteria out while I pummel it with Biocidin, Olivirex, and the newly added Oreganol (which should arrive tomorrow).  My stomach has stopped bloating in the middle of the night so I figured it's time to stir things up. Ha!

So about 1/2 hour before meals I am now doing:

• Biocidin 20 drops
• Oliverix - 2 capsules
• Serrapeptase - 2 capsules (I won't be buying this again).
• Alli-C - 2 capsules (almost out)
• Garlicare - 1-2 capsules*
• Oreganol - 1-2 capsules*
• Iberogast - approx 40 drops
• Bitters - 1/2 -1 tsp (depending on how heavy my protein is going to be)

* I'll likely start with one capsule and work up to two.

If you haven't checked this cookbook out yet, do it!  I picked it up from the library today and it looks AMAZING.  It seems like a lot of the recipe's can easily be modified to be low FODMAP.

Oh, and my son's ND gave him some RepairVite-SE and I have been taking a bit of it but I think the luo han guo fruit extract may have made me bloaty yesterday.  I can't think of anything else it could have been.  RepairVite-SE is pretty much the same as Endozin except way more potent and with some digestive enzymes.

I've slept more this past week than I have in ages and I'm finally feeling rested (another reason to turn the heat up!).  I'm also doing better with hydration since I started squeezing in a lime and an orange into my quart of water.  That is probably helping with the feeling of exhaustion as well. 

Enough for now!  I'll let you know in a couple of days how things are going.  Could get exciting :)  Have a fun and safe 4th of July!  I don't know about where you live but it's dry as can be around here in Washington.  No real rain in months!

Time to change things up - New Protocol

So I'm sticking with the Biocidin for now.  I think I like it.  It has tea tree oil in it which helps get into those pesky biofilms.  After looking at Bio-botanical Health's Comprehensive Cleanse program I decided to add Olivirex to the mix .  As much as I hate to, I'm keeping in the Allimed.  Everyone says you need it for methane but I wonder if it works is all.  I've taken sooooo much of it and it's so expensive.  I'm trying the tincture this time for kicks.  For those of you who dearly miss garlic, the tincture is super yummy.  After looking at all the various biofilm busters I decided to give Serrapeptase a try.  I really, really want to try Lactoferrin but the milk.  Dairy brings my digestion to a complete and utter halt.  Not helpful even if it is kicking the biofilm's butt.

So this is everything I take 20-30 minutes before meals:

• Digestive Bitters
• Iberogast - 20 drops
• Vital-zymes (2)
• Biocidin (working up to 20 drops)
• Olivirex (2 capsules)
• Allimed (15 drops)
• Serrapeptase (1)

I've also added Triphala between meals to help with my motility.  I need to do more research on this as I saw on a fb group that it can hinder T4 to T3 conversion.  That is mostly the liver's job.... hmm.  I'm still taking tumeric and fermented cod liver oil to help with inflammation.  And I am taking Betaine HCL with meals to help my body break down protein since it struggles with this.  I'm also taking LiverCare to help support the liver.  Both Biocidin and Olivirex have Milk Thistle so there is support there as well.  SIBO and the treatment of SIBO can be rough on the liver and I want to make sure I am supporting it.

At night I'm taking:

• LDN
• Iberogast
• 5-HTP

I seriously would not recommend jumping into the protocol I've outlined above.  I never experience anything resembling die off but many, many people do, not to mention I made this protocol up myself.   AND my ND at the SIBO Center pretty much told me I was crazy, especially when I said I was taking MegaSpore Biotic and eating fermented foods.  They really like to stick to things that have been researched and mostly formulas that contain few ingredients so they know what is working.  

I've been doing this protocol for approximately a week and things seem to be going well.  Feeling a bit tired but I'm losing weight which to me is a good sign.  The methane producing M. Smithii love to make you hold onto calories and therefore weight.  The fact that I'm losing little bits makes me think I'm making some headway in killing them off.  Now to decide when to test again!

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.

Starting a new protocol

So I booked my hotel and purchased my ticket for the SIBO Symposium in Portland.  It will be nice to meet several people in person that I usually only talk to online.  We are going to party it up, without FODMAPs or alcohol of course!  Ha!

I found out from my mentor that the protocol used by the nutrition program I am taking is: Biocidin, GI Microb-x, Allimax (or Allimed) and MegaSpore Biotic.  I placed the order for these items yesterday.  I already had the MegaSpore on hand so I will start that tonight. Just 1/3 of a capsule to begin with.  I'm a bit worried about the "hypo-allergenic plant fiber prebiotic" in the other ingredients, but I'm going to try it anyway. Will take them again tomorrow night and then start to add in the other supplements when they arrive on Thursday.  Back to killing the bugs!

Oh, and my ND has me eating wheat again.  Can I just tell you how gross it is.  I never reacted to wheat in the past but it just leaves me feeling kinda swollen and yucky.  One more week and I will do the Cyrex Array 3 & 4 and then I can cut it out again.  Thank goodness!  I don't think I will ever eat wheat again.