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Restoring Microflora and Gut Function

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Psilociraptor

Rising Star
23yo constipated AF, polyneuropathy, dyslipidemia, chest pains, joint pains, muscle pains, tumor (benign) and so on. I'm at my wits end with this stuff. I've read all the science I can find, have had extensive testing, and am damned near 100% sure this is bacterial in origin. In fact I could make a pretty educated guess as to which species is the biggest offender (E. coli). The mechanics of what is going on in me has become fairly tangible, but what I can not do is find a way to deal with it. I've made some strict dietary changes which have helped dramatically (no dairy, legumes, grains, nightshades, etc). But the improvement has sort of leveled off. I've tried generic probiotics, soil based probiotics, fructooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides, anti-biotics (which was stupid and caused me to lose a ton of progress), anti inflammatory supplements, etc. But I'm sort of at a loss at this point. Only thing I can think to do is a fecal transplant but I'm struggling to find an adequate donor and afraid if that doesn't work I'd lose all hope. So I'm wondering if anyone here has dealt with anything similar or persistent GI problems in general and has been able to improve them? There's a lot of talk of "healing your gut" on the web but they all suggest the same things which have only been moderately effective for me. Further more it seems the recommendations on how to address the actual dysbiosis are even less effective.
 
Have you looked into/experimented with fresh fruit and vegetable juicing? It's been reported as a good way to get the body absorbing nutrition and to start reversing GI issues. I noticed you didn't mention it in your post so figured I'd throw it out there as an option.
 
I haven't strictly juiced no. I enjoy my kratom/moringa smoothies when the pains bad 😁 Is there a particular theory to it regarding the GI? I've always read that filtering out the fiber would not be good for you, but I'm open to any reasoning otherwise.
 
All that fiber requires the digestive system to process it for the body to be able to assimilate it properly. When you concentrate large amounts of fresh organic produce into a liquid form it's much easier for the body to absorb. Once the body is absorbing the nutrition in the food you are giving it rather than passing through the bulk of it undigested or poorly digested, the reparative work can begin in earnest. It will also very quickly cleanse out pollutants and the non-beneficial bacterium. It's at that point introducing the probiotics can make a significant difference in creating a healthy environment for beneficial microflora.
 
endlessness said:
Dr Rhonda Patrick on JRE podcast recommended this product:


Seems expensive though its apparently very potent. I haven't tried it myself, look into it, but if I needed I'd probably try this or some other probiotic or combination of probiotics, natural and concentrated.

Good luck!
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To add, Rhondas podcasts with Joe and her own website FoundMyFitness are gold. Lots of great information coming from those.
 
whats your diet?


i had very big gut issues as well and currently i'm still healing from it. mine manifested in terrible cystic acne and inflamed knees which were terrible to the point i couldn't walk for extended periods of time (at the worst of it). i tried everything you can think of for years and found lots of different things can help heal this but some worked more effectively than others. this by no means is me telling you to try this or that anyone else should eat the way i do, just sharing my personal experience


first i cut out fruit, nuts and seeds from my diet. i have probiotic rich food twice a day (kraut mostly). intermittent fasting - i eat only twice a day and have bulletproof coffee in the morning and feel great. lot of bone broth and organ meats, mostly liver. high fat, moderate protein, low carbs. i supplement with glutamine which isn't very expensive when purchased through amazon, eat heaps of tumeric extract capsules (don't even check how many i eat most of the time), and have a digestive enzyme and milk thistle before every meal. starting the day with coffee enemas also did wonders. most of my meals involve eating meat and veggies with eggs. while it seems like this would be severely debilitating to my calorie intake and health, i'm actually in the best shape of my life, i've experienced lots of muscle growth during this healing while combining this regimen with calisthenics.

my acne actually completely went away after just a few weeks of eating this way. lots of time i was recommended eating various anti bacterial supplements but found this hardly helped heal anything. it wasn't until i started consuming things to help heal the guy when i started to see differene.
 
I actually eat a lot of similar things. I'm on a diet called AIP which is sort of a modified paleo-ish diet. No grains, legumes, nightshades, dairy. I cut out eggs as well. I eat all lean meats (grassfed when possible), organ meats, veggies, fruits and i've added back some tree nuts as i haven't felt too much of an impact from them. I'm not convinced as of yet I need to cut out fruit entirely unless anyone can give me a good reason, though admittedly i probably rely on them too heavily as snack food being a student and all. I've been taking glutamine and turmeric lately as I've been suffering a pretty bad flare since doping antibacterial supplements (berberine) like a moron. Been experimenting currently with galactooligosaccharides and very small amounts of fructooligosaccharides. Want to be careful not to end up with SIBO or something similar, but i felt i need to give my probiotics whatever boost they can get. My last stool test showed that despite taking large amounts of probiotics and eating fermented foods my ecology is tilting heavily on the side of gram negative populations with a massive MASSIVE E coli colony. 6x larger than the high end of the reference range (which i doubt reflects a healthy gut to begin with). Oh and Im a caffeine addict. Like fuck, i've done some drugs, but nothing like catching a nice bowel movement when you're in my situation.

I've actually forgotten about fasting though. That's something I'm interested in trying. Haven't been able to find much data on humans, but it seems that at least some species experience a strong increase in microbial diversity during fasting and that even daily feeding/fasting cycles have dramatic impacts of flora composition. I don't know about a juice fast though. Dreamer do you have any primary literature on that? Or at least a blog that links primary sources? I've heard a lot of people praise it and a lot of people criticize it but haven't been able to find much direct information. I've heard the impacts on glycemic load are horrendous, though i have my reasons to doubt the relevance of that, especially for a short term trial. But still would be nice to have some tangible literature to read.

As for VSL 3, that was the first one i tried. Didn't do much for me, though i had no idea what i was doing at the time. I moved to other brands due to lack of strain diversity, but it may be worth looking into again. Thanks all!
 
Do. A. Parasite. Cleanse.

Black Walnut, Cloves, Wormwood, Apple Cider Vinegar. Ginger, Raw Garlic. You can find good herbal combinations of these things on Amazon.

You won't regret it.
 
Intezam - Things started to go bad summer of 2014. Was doing some rape' and ended up getting a tumor on my nose. Otherwise healthy until november when i ended up in the ER for chest pains which started radiating to my limbs. CVD "ruled out". By december i had a sudden onset of neuropathy. Things started to tame down after that aside from developing some mild dermatitis. I suppose you can say things really started 3 years ago. I had been dealing with chronic constipation/bloating/etc. Like most americans I just laughed it off thinking GI issues weren't a big deal. Chest pain and dermatitis had largely improved before i took the berberine binge but my metabolic markers were still horrendous. Now everything has worsened again besides the neuropathy lol.

RhythmSpring - I'm 99.999999999% sure this is bacterially related. Nerve pain is CIDP, anti-GM1 antibodies cross-reactive to epitopes of certain bacterial lipopolysaccharides. In other words, the chronic counterpart to guillaine-barre syndrome which is intimately connected to bacterial infection, typically C. jejuni, but occasionally E. coli and potentially others. All my symptoms also respond dramatically to anti-biotics. I know parasites can certainly influence the whole ecosystem, but I've tested negative for any parasites or "virulent" critters by stool. If you have any reason to believe that such a test wouldn't be adequate I'm all ears to the possibility. Parasites/fungi/yeast are far less familiar to me

I should note that right before the onset of chest pains I was pretty deep in polysubstance addiction which i have since ceased. Nothing that hardcore compared to most, but i was smoking a lot, drinking excessive amounts of caffeine, and rotating in alcohol, ketamine, benzos, etc to cope with my studies. One night I had made the mistake of starting with benzos, ended up smoking, drinking, rape', ketamine, and DMT and near blacked out after getting really sick. Certainly one of the lowest points in my life and I immediately cleaned up my act. Always had respect for these substances but the benzos/stress clouded my judgement. Two days later I had sharp pains in my intestines. Then the chest pains... and so on. I don't know how much that contributed if at all. I did a lot of unhealthy things to myself my early years of school not really grasping the consequences. Most of them socially normal. I remember my roommate and I used to joke about how the cafeteria food turned out poop green :surprised
 
Unfortunatly, peristent gut issues are notoriously hard to fix once the equilibrium is disturbed. I also had myself tested and got the same e.coli problem. I think th main issue is, that many microorganisms depend on each other...fight one and you might create a whole nother problem. There are beneficial e.coli strains (e.coli nissle) which supposedly help ericate the bad e.coli. I have not tried that but if you have not you might want to look into it.

One thing to know while supplementing with probiotics is, that these bacteria need to eat something. That is why some people supplement with resistant starches, an/or eat a broad variety of fiber (important because apparantly, each bacterial strain has its own preferences on what kind of fiber to feast on)

To my knowledge, the gut microbiome is still poorly understood, but there are new discoveries every day so fingers crossed!

I read that you don't eat any dairy, otherwise i would have suggested to try homemade kefir. It is delicious and contains just a bit lactose if that's the problem. I drink it every day now and feel that it is helping my health. Also started fermenting food...it is very easy....basically just add salt water to vegetables and put in a canning jar...wait for a few weeks (look up the exact ratios). Try carrot sticks - the taste really funny but interesting...

Good luck with your problems as they sound terrible.
 
obliguhl said:
Unfortunatly, peristent gut issues are notoriously hard to fix once the equilibrium is disturbed. I also had myself tested and got the same e.coli problem. I think th main issue is, that many microorganisms depend on each other...fight one and you might create a whole nother problem. There are beneficial e.coli strains (e.coli nissle) which supposedly help ericate the bad e.coli. I have not tried that but if you have not you might want to look into it.

One thing to know while supplementing with probiotics is, that these bacteria need to eat something. That is why some people supplement with resistant starches, an/or eat a broad variety of fiber (important because apparantly, each bacterial strain has its own preferences on what kind of fiber to feast on)

To my knowledge, the gut microbiome is still poorly understood, but there are new discoveries every day so fingers crossed!

I read that you don't eat any dairy, otherwise i would have suggested to try homemade kefir. It is delicious and contains just a bit lactose if that's the problem. I drink it every day now and feel that it is helping my health. Also started fermenting food...it is very easy....basically just add salt water to vegetables and put in a canning jar...wait for a few weeks (look up the exact ratios). Try carrot sticks - the taste really funny but interesting...

Good luck with your problems as they sound terrible.
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So this is the part that's difficult. The stool test does not give specifics on strains, simply says e coli. And in the literature very little mention is made of the specific strains that naturally colonize the GI tract. But the pathogenic ones, to my knowledge, are usually pretty self-limiting and my stool test did not identify any pathogenic microorganisms. Leading me to believe the E. coli i have are just normal commensals. Unfortunately it's not so easy to define microorganisms as "good" or "bad" and even normal commensals are opportunistic "pathogens". When diversity is lost, competitive inhibition follows and strain specific overgrowth can occur leading to loss of peripheral immune tolerance despite whether the organism is virulent or not. So without knowing anything about the strain thats present, i risk contributing to the problem by introducing more e. coli even if that e coli is a natural part of a healthy bowel flora.

As for the prebiotics I have been supplementing GOS which are supposedly highly specific to bifidobacterium and FOS in small amounts. I've been mindful of my veggies and fiber sources for a while and i think it's helped, but nothings quite giving me the kick i need.

Can't do soy kefir either as I don't eat legumes and coconut kefir in stores is full of additives I'm trying to avoid. I may try to start making some coconut kefir on my own when i get the chance. That actually sounds really delicious! 😁 It irks me how hard it is to find things made only with real food.

Intezam - no rashes. The recommendation is interesting though. Apparently it is somewhat of a predator of E. coli, though it's only been explored in pathogenic strains. I will look into that further though! Thanks
 
I went through a period of really bad health that I was sure at one point was caused by some type of bacteria or fungus. Basically most symptoms you can think of I experienced.

This site was the first step in the direction to improving my health to a level greater than I had experienced in my life.

I wouldn't say I now agree with everything on that website, but following the advice on there saved my life.

I believe she is a very smart and genuine woman, and offers great wisdom when it comes to diet and health. I suggest going through the whole site with an open mind.
 
im watching this thread closely.

i was fine as a kid.
i was fine in my 20s when i worked govt/ defense.
i was fine in my 30s ( till about 35)

about 35 i started the world tours with second husband.
food became anything anywhere.
then i got all the sick you guys talk about.

i saved myself with strict no grains, no processed food and barely any dairy, and super low sugar.
i also bolted down massive garlic, honey , and tumeric every day.
also
add 20k in dental work from food rot/ poor nutrition on tour 10 yrs.......
and "walla" im cured.

i also neem my self about once a week in the shower,
and my skin is like i am 20 again.

whole process, from "ready to die" to "basically cured" took about 4 yrs.

my basic strategy was a combo of richard simmons and elisabeth hasselbeck.
( ive NEVER been fat one second, richard just understands food IMO)

the way i figured it out was simple.
when i was on the estate and ate there, we ate real food like gods.
longer i was away from the estate sicker i got.


good luck guys, i feel ya and a cure isnt easy.
i suspect its food related , and fungi parasites.

glad i didnt need an enema, or i would have died first.

and BTW , im way past 50 now, and look about 35 ( the age people think i am usually)
the pics of me on the web were taken mid to late 30's ( almost 15 yrs ago)
i quit modeling due to a whole body of scars from a BAD motorcycle accident me and maid were in.......( both of us almost killed)

i also contribute my health to massive cannabis since i was 14 yrs old.
mental health is always a joke, but hallucinogens help that.
but hey i feel great even when im dangerous agitated!

^ consider something similar, it all worked for me.
 
"anne halonium", google pic search.

all photos by my former live in pro photographer or by the maid.

all science pics ALWAYS by me.

( and no way am i telling you guys where the porn pages are......forget it)

* the tractor girl is MH3 from topia........ive NEVER been fat.
and i do mercedes and motorcycles, never tractors, and im allergic to CORN.
( 3 guesses why she hates me, all three right, and only one is grow teks.....LOL)


lets keep on topic though.
this is important stuff and is intended to be of help to people with similar sickness.
 
anne halonium said:
"anne halonium", google pic search.

all photos by my former live in pro photographer or by the maid.

all science pics ALWAYS by me.

( and no way am i telling you guys where the porn pages are......forget it)
Click to expand...

Thanks Anne.

It's always nice to put a face to posts.

Regarding the o/p's posts, natural yogurt is full of good bacteria, a great tummy relaxer, it also helps me relax and sleep better. Maybe it would help?
 
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