Upcoming online Summit

The Healthy Oil Summit is coming up May 11.  There are a lot of doctors speaking.  Can't wait to hear what they have to say about the use of oils to treat illness.  Dr. Axe is one of the speakers.  I love his approach.  Might be worth checking out!  And it's free!

Bio-individuality

Bio-individuality is the most annoying and coolest thing ever.  How can we all be the same but different?  How come what works for me doesn't work for you?  Or in my case, works for everyone but doesn't work for me? Life would be so much easier (but less interesting) if it was one size fits all.

I am thinking about this because I was taking the EO combination of Thyme, Oregano, Sage and Lemon Balm (Melissa) and all it did for me was cause swelling and what appears to be a ton of water retention.  It has worked for so many other people in the form of Candibactin-AR.  It could be that my formula was different or it could be that I was reacting to one of the components, my guess is either the Sage (which the kind I was using can have hormonal effects) or the Lemon Balm.  I stopped taking it and within 4 days I lost 3 lbs and a full 2 inches off my waist.  Clearly my body did not like it and my immune system was telling me so.

It all made sense when I listened to Michelle Corey on High Intensity Health, episode #59.  Wow, she's a fast talker! She talked about how consuming things that don't suit your body cause inflammation and weight gain.

So, when you are cruising web pages, blogs, fb groups and the like, always keep in mind what is a wonder elixir for one person could be a poison for you.  (BTW - that doesn't mean they are wrong and you are right or vice versa.)  And unfortunately sometimes the only way to know for sure if something is going to help you is to try it for yourself.  Always do so cautiously, starting slowly and keeping a journal so you can see how your system is responding, hopefully quicker than I do!

Changing it up

I have been doing the Candibactin AR formula in my own doTERRA essential oils - Thyme, Oregano, Sage and Lemon Balm.  I've been doing it 7 days so it was time to change it up.  Yesterday at lunch I took a capsule with Melaleuca, Thyme and Rosemary.  Not sure if it was coincidence but by late afternoon I started feeling better than I have in a while.  I took did the same combination at dinner.  Today I will switch to Cinnamon, Clove and Myrrh.  We'll see how it goes.

I'm down a pound and a full inch around my waist.  In yoga a couple of nights ago I barely recognized my ankles and feet, they were so puffy.  Thankfully the excess water seems to be leaving my system and I'm returning to my normal self.

If you haven't checked out Mike Mutzel's podcast High Intensity Health, you should.  I've listened to #6, 7 and 73.  #5 is up next.  I always start with the gut related podcasts for obvious reasons :)  Have a notebook on hand, you may need to take notes!

Up, Up, Up...

For the past 10 days I have been packing on the pounds, like 8lbs!  I haven't changed my diet except for eating jasmine rice 3 or 4 times, maybe a little more honey than I should (still well under 2 tsp a day), certainly not an extra 28,000 calories :)  I've been walking less than usual too, now that I think about it.  I usually walk 2 miles every day.  I've been taking days off here and there.  I'm sitting more with school - watching videos, taking notes, studying. So overall less active.  Still attending 5 or 6 yoga classes a week.  Still not sure that should add up to that much extra weight and when I measured last night I was a full 2" bigger around my belly. Yowza!  No wonder I feel like crud.

The other thing I have done is discontinued the T3 and added in the Adrenomend, Thyrocare and Adrenal PX.  Seems like hormones more likely are having a bigger impact than the above.  I added back in the T3 two days ago as my temps have been too low again (although my temporal thermometer just told me I'm at 100.00 degrees!).  Wonder how long it will get everything to normalize??

And the 3rd thing is the festering infection in my face that I mostly ignored until it started traveling down my neck and up my face. This last screw is a bugger. It just won't heal and I'm sure I'm getting food trapped in the wound so I've become diligent the last several days about using my Hydrofloss after every meal and then oil pulling with MCT and a few drops of OnGuard, Melaleuca and Clove.  I made a topical formula that I am rubbing on the outside of my cheek and on the bottom of my feet every couple of hours.  Thankfully it is resolving because my husband was about to drag my butt to the doctor.  That kind of physical stress can provoke a cortisol response which further messes with hormones.  I have one week to get it completely healed and then they place one on the other side. Hopefully I've learned my lesson with this one and will do better next time.

I think I've got things back under control again and was down 1/2 lb this morning, the first drop I've seen in weeks.  Phew!

The sucky part is with all the new herbals for adrenal and thyroid (6), and the anti-inflammatory supps (3) I've added I am up to more than 20 pills with breakfast.  There is only ONE capsule that is a SIBO killer.  ONE!

Jasmine rice, my friend

So far, so good.  First attempt last week, I had one tablespoon of jasmine rice with dinner.  It may have been coincidental but the intermittent stomach pains that I had been having went away.  They came back during my accidental sugaring of myself and my experimentation with potatoes (that were far too old) and a banana (which has a high ferment potential).  So no idea if somehow the rice helped those pains or if they were just on their way out anyway.

Last night I tried again and had 2 tablespoons of jasmine rice with dinner.  So far so good.  I made the Butter Chicken recipe from My Heart Beets.  It was really good, the husband even approved.  This morning I woke up quite stiff and sore but I did a very different yoga class than usual yesterday, then got a massage.  Both activities targeted the shoulders so I don't think it was the tomatoes, peppers or the jasmine rice.  But it's still something to keep an eye on.

I've been having a lot of cramping down the right side of my neck due to a new screw that was placed in my jaw.  My massage therapist said the whole right side of my neck was tight and there was puffiness along the spine. It doesn't seem like it should impact the muscles but the screw is so high up above my teeth that it pushes into my cheek and a little crater has to form and then heal, the ball head of the screw nestles in the crater.  I get spasms in my cheek for up to 2 weeks while this happens and I fight infection as the food gets trapped in there.  It's not fun and I do not recommend it.  Alas things are healing and I ate actual stir fried vegetables today, such a treat after trying not to chew for 2 weeks!  I've been eating mostly creamed vegetable soup and mashed squash alongside fish and scrambled eggs.

My freaking temp has gone back down below 98 so it looks like I'll be going on another T3 taper, increasing dose every 6 days and then decreasing dose every 3 days.  Waiting to hear back from Dr. Keller.

I've been using Melaleuca/Rosemary/Thyme for a couple of days to treat my SIBO.  The melaleuca is pretty harsh so only a couple of days and then I'm going to switch to the same formula as in Candibactin-AR (Thyme/Oregano/Sage/Melissa).  I may stay on it a full 7 days, we'll see.  Disclaimer - please don't try this on your own, if you are interested in trying anything like this, talk to your healthcare provider.  For all you know I could be burning holes in my gut and ruining my health and not killing anything (or worse yet, killing everything!).

Less than 10 pills a meal??

What has the world come too?  It's been months and months since I swallowed so few pills. I'm taking my Multi, Magnesium, Fermented Cod Liver Oil, Resvertrol, Vit C, Zinc, Vit D drops, Digestive enzymes (currently Spectrazyme and Metagest) and one capsule of essential oils.  That was with breakfast, when I take most my supplements.  It's so weird not to have a huge pile of antimicrobials.

So I went through all my essential oils book but in the end found my doTERRA "Modern Essentials" book the most helpful to find out which essential oils would be best for treating my SIBO.  Now I'm not saying you should run out and follow with I am doing because I am definitely not a doctor of any kind!  And I'm not trying to get you to join doTERRA.  I just found their book the most useful and I like their oils better than Young Living because they pour better and the bottles are prettier.  Silly I know but I think the quality of the 2 are quite comparable (and doTERRA is less expensive).  Please not, if you go to a health food store to buy essential oils they are all going to say on the bottle "do not ingest" or "for external use only", a good sign of their quality, lacking.  I don't know about you, but if I can't put it in my body, I'm not putting it on my body where it goes through the skin into the blood stream bypassing any cleansing by the liver.  Anyway, I kind of digressed a bit there....

The "Modern Essentials" book list each oil and tells which other oils complement it.  Not as important if you are diffusing but definitely important if you are putting drops in a capsule and swallowing them.  I've heard that you should rotate your oils at least every 10 days to prevent bacterial resistance so I made a list of combinations I may try.  I feel like I should run them by my ARNP first but she's such a pain to see (you sit in the waiting room for what feels like eons!).  I am currently taking Cinnamon/Clove/Frankincense.  Sometimes I throw in a Melaleuca blend to bust up biofilms but I found Melaleuca to be a little harsh so I only use it occasionally.  I may try the Candibactin-AR blend as well - Thyme, Oregano, Sage, Melissa.  Many people seem to have good luck with it.


Some Essential Oil research:
http://www.curezone.org/blogs/fm.asp?i=1735341
http://aem.asm.org/content/78/11/4057.full#
http://jmm.sgmjournals.org/content/56/4/519.full

Where to go now??

I'm about to wrap up my latest protocol and I'm not sure where I want to go from here. The last protocol was messed up a bit by the lack of Parabotonic Select and my accidental addition of a tiny amount of sugar to my diet.  I am highly sensitive to cane sugar so have been having an itchy stomach for weeks.  Thought my gut had become permeable possibly from using Melaleuca internally but then discovered the sugar in my vanilla extract.  And of course I haven't replaced it, I've kept right on using it.  I'm going to dump it in the sink right now to stop the insanity :)

I'm currently listening to a call from Dr. Rachel Fresco who is the creator of Biocidin.  I'm currently doing FDN program and they are big on Bio-Botanical Research products..  She's been consulting with Dr. Siebecker a bit and will be attending the SIBO Syposium. I like that they offer a product to take in between meals to mop up and remove the dead bacteria to help reduce die off symptoms.  It's called GI Detox and contains clay and charcoal.  Haven't tried either of these products because I worry about constipation but I've heard from others they can be beneficial.  Reed Davis had some interesting input about the use of prokinetics since he firmly believes in discovering the root cause and not just treating symptoms. It really seems that you should keep things moving while you work to discover the root cause and in many cases it's not that easy to figure out or fix. Will be interesting to learn as the course goes along how to discover the root cause of issues.

I've got a couple of days left on the current protocol.  I'll let you know once I decide what I'm trying next.  I have my appt with Dr. Keller next week as well to go over the results of my ASI and I have 2 kits to send off to the lab for the FDN course, although they hang on to the results until after I've finished the 5th lesson, which could take me a while! 

New Protocol - Month One (Part two)

Some of this is based on research and some is just a whim.  (Which means, do your own research and don't follow along on my crazy ideas!).  I'm more prone to trying things because I usually don't experience symptoms of unwellness with any of the supplements I take, most people are far more sensitive, so always start slow with any new supplement.  

As you may remember I saw those interviews with Dr. Ruscio and decided to try some of the products he was using with his patients.  I just ended with Oil of Oregano and GI  Microb-x.  Next up is supposed to be Orthoflora Yeast Support and Parabotonic Select.  I can't get ahold of Parabotonic Select without asking one of my NDs to order it for me and I don't want to. So I'm doing some essential oils that I've looked into a bit (again, not saying you should!).

So, here goes.  Again, I've deleted those things not related to SIBO or digestion.

AM
Bitters (1/2 tsp)
20 drops Iberogast

Breakfast

Cinnamon (1)/Thyme (2)
Allimed (1)
OrthoFlora (2)
Digestyzmes

Before Lunch
Bitters (1/2 tsp)
20 drops Iberogast

Lunch
Digestyzmes
Cinnamon (1)/Thyme (2)
Allimed

Before Dinner 
Bitters (1/2 tsp)
20 drops Iberogast

Dinner

Cinnamon (1)/Thyme (2)
Allimed (1)
OrthoFlora (2)
Digestyzmes

Bedtime
LDN
Magnesium Citrate (as needed)

Erythromycin 50mg (as needed)

After this I will do a lactulose breath test and see where I am at.  I am feeling really good these days and hope my numbers reflect it.

Dr. Keller recommended a probiotic enema, so I tried it last night with less than a full capsule of PrescriptAssist and water in a little 7.5ml Fleet enema.  So far, so good.  Haven't noticed anything different, although I did feel quite euphoric while laying in bed, which was really weird.  It didn't change my bowels, give me gas or make me bloat so that's good sign I hope.

Next up, white rice.  Maybe.  My ND wants me to try it.  I really don't want to.  Maybe I'll start with white potatoes since my husband just pulled a ton out of the garden.

New Protocol - Month 1

I listened to a podcast with Dr. Michael Ruscio on Underground Wellness and was impressed.  I had skipped his interview on the Digestion Sessions because his talk was about diarrhea and I have no issues there.  I went back and listened to it after the podcast and thought why not give his protocol a try.  It seems to cover all bases - bacteria, parasites and yeast.  I have tested negative for parasites and yeast but decided to do it anyway.  If you don't know what is in your gut I would definitely start slow with this protocol to avoid killing off too much too quickly.  

Because I tolerate both fermented foods and probiotics I will be working them into my meals.  I am a little skeptical about probiotics only because I question how active the bacteria is in them.  I have a bottle in the refrigerator.  I used a capsule in coconut milk to make yogurt and nothing happened after keeping it warm for 24 hours. I then squirted a bit of liquid from my fermented carrots into the coconut milk and again kept it warm for 24 hours.  Now it tastes like yogurt.  My son has a very typical limited kid diet and I squirt some fermented liquid into an empty capsule for him.  More beneficial bacteria and more natural if you ask me. 

For the next 2 Weeks:

AM (before breakfast)

GI Microbex (2 capsules)

Iberogast (20 drops in water)

Bitters (1/2 tsp)

Breakfast

Oil of Oregano and Melaleuca Essential oil (1-2 drops each in capsule)

Digestzyme (1-4 depending on how heavy the protein is)

Allimed

Before Lunch

Iberogast (20 drops in water)

Bitters (1/2 tsp)

Lunch

Oil of Oregano and Melaleuca Essential oil (1-2 drops each in capsule)

Digestzyme (1-4 capsules)

Allimed

Before Dinner

Iberogast (20 drops in water)

Bitters (1/2 tsp)

Dinner

Oil of Oregano and Melaleuca (1-2 drops each in capsule)

Digestzymes (1-4 capsules)

Bedtime

LDN 4.5mg

GI Microb-x (2 capsules)

I'm not entirely sure if I will extend this to a month or change things up. Dr. Ruscio recommends a month and his plan actually calls for Oil of Oregano in pills but I figure why spend the money when I already have the essential oil. I may change my biofilm buster to Serratase (talked about by Dr. Olmstead in Healthy Gut).  I'll post when I get closer to starting.

Healthy Gut Summit - Day 3

If you have time today, watch Dr. Olmstead!  I strongly believe that biofilms protect the nasty SIBO bugs and that's part of the reason test results go up and down with treatments and it's really hard to completely kill them all off.  I've used both Lipophos EDTA and Interfase Plus off and on for months and didn't notice much benefit at all so gave them up in the fall.  I'm currently using 2 drops of Melaleuca* in a capsule with MCT oil about 30 minutes before meals. I'm about to change up my protocol and will post when I start it to let you all know what I am doing.  After listening to this interview I'm considering trying Serralase and will definitely be working on getting more probiotics in my diet. I think I'll make coconut yogurt today and throw some carrots in a jar to ferment.  I'm avoiding nightshades so a yummy, spicy kim chee is out for now :(

*Note - if you decide to ingest essential oils please use a reputable brand like DoTerra or Young Living and for goodness sake do your research first!  I don't sell either and use both brands.

What I Eat

I tried to take pictures over the last week to give you all an idea of what I have been eating.  I am feeling good, no bloating (I started measuring) and pretty good motility.  I usually have a veggie soup with one meal, mashed squash with one meal and sautéed veggies with one meal.  I don't like eating vegetables singularly so I find sautés and soups work better for me.  I try to vary my protein but always get a bit of offal in my diet.  I'm so in love with sardines and offal muffins right now. 

Blended vegetable soup (broth, carrot, zucchini, green beans, green onions, garlic infused coconut or olive oil, spices, coconut milk and either kale or spinach).  Vanilla fudge fat bomb 

http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/white-chocolate-healthy-paleo-fudge/  I decreased the sweetener to just a touch of honey and some stevia.

Squash mashed with coconut oil and coconut milk, Liverwurst from US Wellness Meats, Offal Muffin http://petra8paleo.com/2014/05/05/victorious-offal-muffins/ , white fudge (recipe link above.

Veggies sauteed in garlic infused oil, coconut aminos, fish sauce and rice vinegar.  Berry Fat Bomb http://petra8paleo.com/2014/07/18/pbj-ice-cream-cupcake-fudge-aip-walhspaelo/

Turkey Meatballs http://www.marthastewart.com/875683/turkey-meatballs modified to be low FODMAP (substitute a bit of coconut flour for bread crumbs, green onion for onion, single spices for italian seasoning), mashed squash and a berry fat bomb.

When I am really short on time (usually at breakfast), I eat a nut butter patty (1 cup mac nuts, 1 cup walnuts, 2-3 T almond butter, 1 cup coconut oil, 4 tablespoons Bulletproof Collagen, cinnamon, vanilla, a touch of stevia, and a touch of honey (less than 1 tablespoon) ground into a nut butter in the food processor and frozen in a silicone muffin tin).  This weekend I am in the midst of a 10 hour yoga workshop so for lunch I added the extra protein in the form of summer sausage (homemade with just salt, pepper, liquid smoke and the preserving salts) and a bit of Liverwurst. I had a nice mug of hot water on the side with 2 drops of peppermint essential oil.

Essential Oils

Did a search on essential oils and SIBO tonight and found this and this.  The bacteria tested isn't exactly what we are fighting but I've had great success in the past treating infections with essential oils so I might consider giving it a go.  What can I say, it's something that I haven't tried (aka - bright and shiny).

I watched this and I'm intrigued at using Melaleuca as a biofilm buster.  None of the other biofilm busters I have used (Interface plus, Lipophos EDTA) made a difference.  How much money have we wasted on supplements that don't do what they are supposed to??

Before I change course however I feel like I should do a breath test.  I've been following the protocol my ND set up for a little over 3 months.  I should have seen some change in the numbers, right?  Or am I just focusing on the numbers too much like he says?  He wants me to wait until March.  Maybe I should stay the course until I get the thyroid stuff settled out??  Arg!

And sadly I haven't had any avocado (usually a daily treat) and my digestion has been better.  Sprouted rice protein powder is definitely a no go too.  I added it to my smoothie last night and I didn't think it was ever going to leave my stomach.  I started having the same reaction to pea protein a while back.  Guess I'm just going to have to stick to a bit of collagen protein or have a hamburger patty or tin of sardines on the side.