Gut!

[neil_l]

Hello,

Just thought I'd post up about this, as I believe it is fundamental to my illness and hopefully recovery.

When I first started getting ill 16 years ago, I was in a high pressure job. I was 22, and the first signs of illness were IBS and nausea

This continued as just being these symptoms for about 7 years until I got a flu, which then started spiralling into CFS.

I have never been bed-ridden and I have always worked full time through the illness.

I have been doing Gupta for about 13 months now, and have not noticed a huge difference to be honest. I find the techniques good in certain situations, but my underlying health patterns of good days and bad days has remained about the same. I still follow the program where possible though, and the meditiation every day as I think it is very good for me.

However, the one constant has been gut problems. I still suffer from IBS and I still have problems digesting food particulaly just after I've eaten. it seems to me that if I could address my gut problems I would be well on the way to recovery. I also notice than my gut is the first thing to get affected when I am getting tired.

I have done all the allergy testing/elimination diets I am ever going to do and they leave me miserable and do more harm than good IMO.

Has anyone succesfully treated these kinds of gut problems? I've tried all the usual things - fibre, changed diet, IBS pills etc.

[mermaid]

Hi there. I am 57 with ME/CFS and only finally sorted out my gut problems last year. I have had IBS since I was around 18 and tried a lot of things over the years. I knew that changing my diet was key but could never quite have the belief or courage that for me this was the most important thing.

Even being diagnosed with gastritis only made me modify my diet rather than completely change it.

About 2 years ago though my symptoms began to go into freefall with a few days stomach pain followed by migraine. I then began to look at ways to help it and later that year had the mitochondrial dysfunction blood tests done by Dr Sarah Myhill and she sent me a book with the Stone Age Diet outlined.

Since changing to that in a slightly modified form I have had virtually no problems at all - it is a great relief. I have cut out wheat from my diet apart from a small amount of Spelt that I can tolerate. I have very little sugar. Almost no processed food. I do eat plain yogurt as I can cope with that. So a plain basic diet with plenty of veg, fruit and some meat and fish.

Sounds like you have tried the change of diet though and it didn't work? Look up the Stone Age Diet on Google and see what you think.

Sadly though the IBS is only part of my problem. I started ME/CFS around 5 years ago and now worse after horrible virus. I am now going to try Gupta.

[neil_l]

Thanks for replying.

Tried the stone age diet about 14 years ago and then a year after. Unfonrtunately it didn't do anything for me and I hated having my food restricted.

Good luck with the programme. The fact that I still use all the techniques 13 months on and am finding them useful, means I am happy to recommend it even though I haven't seen a massive recovery. But then I'm a lot fitter than most CFS sufferers anyway

[Sylvia]

You can buy this

http://www.vpnutrition.com/product_info ... cts_id/260

Or just the book for 20.

In a nutshell, try this for a couple weeks and see how it does you.

Eat only raw fruit until noon (raw fruit juice, raw fruit)

Lunch/Dinner Have only protein with cooked vegetables and raw salad. Have only carbs/starches with cooked vegetables and raw salad. Do not have a protein with a starch. No hamburgers, sandwhiches, pasta with meatballs etc.

With each cooked meal have a digestive enzyme. I suggest this..
http://www.iherb.com/best-digestive-enz ... ps/12?at=0

In Kindness,
Sylvia

[mermaid]

Sorry to hear that the Stone Age Diet didn't help you Neil. I do agree that restricting diets is horrible and didn't think i would ever agree to it! It is such a relief for me to not have the pain and migraines that it has stuck this time.

I hesitate to mention LP on here - not sure if it is banned on this forum, but I know they claim that the method cures food intolerance. Rather expensive way to solve it though, and not one I would recommend I hasten to add. Not even sure I believe it anyway.

Thanks for the Gupta encouragement. I have only just come on this forum so I am going to look at the threads on it. My symptoms were OKish until January, and I was working but I got whooping cough and it's kind of reset my immune switch and I keep feeling ill all the time instead of every few weeks or so! Keep catching colds too, so maybe Gupta will help.

[niaholt]

Hi Neil,
I tried every diet too.I stopped shooting in the dark and had the Metametrix stool test done......best move I have ever made in my life. Found lots of gremlins, like Salmonella. It is around $300 but well worth it. Dont even attempt to get one done thru your Govt medical system....they are not finite enough. I had one done in a private lab here in OZ and they did not find as much as the US one.
My friend who I talked about here on a post had every MRI CAT, ate a radiated sandwich for a test, stool test and still they found no problem.....down to 100lbs and literally dying and they sent her to a shrink 3 wks ago.

She sent a stool test to Metametrix and they found heaps...including helico bacter pylori which she had had stomach biospy here and found to be negative. What they found in her was just staggering. She was being eaten alive inside by three lethal parasites. Doc said you usually have one variety and she had 3. My argument is....you can say a million STOPS STOPS but it wont kill parasites and bacterial infections....a big part of CFS problem. The gut makes 70 % of our neurotransmitters and if the gut is infected, it affects the brain and turns up adrenaline. You can PM me off line for more info if you wish.

[neil_l]

Very Interesting Nia.

I'll do some research.

Since you found out the problems in your gut how have they been treated and has this improved your health?

Also thanks for the dietry advice above.

[niaholt]

Hi Neil,
I am being treated with a probiotic from Germany, 1 a week for salmonella......very powerful that....no details here.
A special herbal tab to kill parasites., candida....plus coconut oil as parasites hate it.
A very good naturopath line Multiflora probiotic. to kill the other bugs

Friend told me she had trouble with her gut and her Doc told her to make pine needle tea. She said she had amazing results. Go to You Tube and put in pine needle tea....a woman there demonstrates how to do it.

[loop]

Nothing earth shattering to add given your previous investigations but I seem to have shaken my gut problems with a combination of dealing with candida, discovering I was gluten intolerant and thus cutting out gluten and taking L-gutamine. I'm so much more comfortable in the guts but I don't thnk it's really moved on my basic ME/CFS dysfunctions.

[caro16]

Neil,

I've had gut problems for so many years recently got so bad, bloating, burning (like gnawing), and trapped gas etc I don't know if it's the same for you. But I think that it's all diet related, and here's what I did:-

1. Try to establish regular bowel movements (once per day at least, and the same time each day). This may take a while (week or two). Use a bland diet, no (or very little) sugar, no white refined processed foods (cakes, biscs, bread), and no wheat for a while. You might think this difficult but have a rice or oat based breakfast, a sandwich or soup or gluten free bread (Genius from Sainsburys) or ryvita's, and a normal meal in the evening i.e. rice (brown), chicken, fish, vegetables, jacket potato. Do not over eat. This regime will be kind to your digestive system to help it get into some sort of healthy state. Use digestive enzymes (more help for the gut), aloe vera gel or juice, lots of linseeds on everything, peppermint oil and anything that you think will help digestion to stop it overworking, and calm it. Lots of unsweetened probiotoc yogurt on your breakfast.

2. If you think you have a candida overgrowth, stay on this regime and introduce some caprylic acid suppliments (to kill the yeast) and other antifungals if needed such as oregano oil capsules, extra virgin coconut butter, Also drink a tablespoonful of Organic cider vinegar in water before each meal to aid digestion. A good multivitamin/multi-mineral would be a good addition too. It's trial and error Neil, so all the while listen to you body, eat small meals, and note what your gut feels like after each meal for two hours and don't keep pushing more food down (particularly sweets). Eat bland foods. Rest after food if possible or use a meditation cd (Ashok Gupta's is a good one). No alcohol. Do not expect miracles, keep persevering. Eventually it will come right. Dont worry if you fall off the wagon, just continue again the next day. Soothe and heal the gut, it has been stressed and is not digesting properly and the gut flora is wrong. It can heal. Try to organise and eat meals and foods that you actually like. Look in supermarket and find things you will enjoy that fit the dietary requirements, otherwise you will get fed up of it and grab a cheeseburger or something.

3. If improvement is happening you will notice your symptoms are getting better. Now, finish the course of caprylic acid if you are taking it. Monitor (be conscious) all the time with regards to WHEN is the best time for you to eat, and the type of balance of foods i.e. not too many carbs at once (balance vegetables and carbs evenly) and not too much refined carbs (white rice) or fatty foods like chips. Small amounts. Keep registering how you feel after food, keep calm.

4. Finally re-populate the healing gut with probiotic suppliments of the highest quality. Keep taking a maintenance dose if necessary. Re-introduce wheat, bread, occasional treats, but not an overload of refined (white rice, bread), processed, sugary (choc bisc cakes), alcoholic, or the like. Keep listening to your body. Keep trying whatever you think might help. Only introduce one new supplement at a time and give it a week trial, otherwise you will not know what helps and what doesn't.

5. Threelac is a product that is supposed to help with candida, gives a 60 day money back if it doesn't work, and has been reported to be very helpful by targeting the candida and eating it. Also charcoal capsules help get trapped gas out.

I did the above and am very slowly (after years of wrong eating) getting no more bloating and a symptom free gut. Imagine the gut as a long twisted pipe that gets blocked up like a sink if you put too much into it and it can't cope. Just give it a rest and then be kind to it via the above, and then finish the supplement and keep to a good careful diet, have a naughty day each week once you're better!! I don't think there is a miracle cure.