So, yes, it's been forever. I felt pretty good for about a year, working on motility, gut healing and rebuilding my gut microbiome. Then the election happened and I won't get political but I just tanked from all the stress. First, my thyroid took a nose dive and I started pushing into Reverse T3. Worked to get that sorted out, eventually just throwing in the towel and switching from NDT (natural dessicated thyroid) back to Cytomel. The muscle cramping didn't go away and the itching came back, which are my body's major SIBO signs. I'm on so many prokinetics that I have the digestion stuff down so it's the only way my body can cry wolf. On New Year's Day I broke down and did a breath test. Hello Methane!
Baseline was so much higher than it's ever been. Super discouraging and I knew I had to know for sure. Was my IBS due to the two bouts of food poisoning I had in 2010?? I printed out the lab requisition for the IBSChek and presented it to my ND. Results came back positive on both measures meaning yes, I have had food poisoning and yes, this SIBO is autoimmune in nature. Even though the events were nearly 7 years ago I still have antibodies well over the cutoff. Drat!
We know that when SIBO is autoimmune there's not a heck of a lot you can do until the antibodies clear but I added Lion's Mane and Acetyl L-Carnitine back in to support nerve regeneration.
I opted to do Chris Kresser's SIBO protocol because I've tried many of the others. 90 days of GI-Synergy, biofilm disruptors (lauricidin and Interfase plus), probiotics (Megaspore, PrescriptAssist and Ideal Bowel Support) and hydrolyzed guar gum.
Retest last week...
A big ole... let down. Are things better? Yes! Have my symptoms reduced? Yes! Did I expect more from 90 days of protocol? Hell YES!
So for now I'm trying Atrantil as I hear for some it can really help with methane. I'm also playing around with fasting. Not elemental diet, plain old broth only fasting a couple of days here and there. I feel pretty darn good. I have a bag of the ITI ED (Integrative Therapeutics Elemental Diet) sitting in my cupboard but I've heard so many stories of "now I have SIFO" or "now I have a horrible yeast problem and it's worse than SIBO", that I'm seriously scared of the stuff. I do not tolerate carbs or sugars very well at all so there's that too. Not sure I could stomach going the homemade elemental diet again and that seems to be the only way you can control the amount of carbs.
Oh and can I just say Biohealth rocks for breath testing - Quintron machine, 3 hr lactulose, I did my test on Monday and had the results by Thursday morning. I NEVER have to go through NCNM/NUNM again. Woot! Woot!
