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I have lurked these forums and the internet for about 6 years, so I think its about time I share my story and what has worked for me in the hope that I can help someone else with similar symptoms and maybe get advice from others to help further improve my well being.
My story is long but I will keep it as short as I can. 6 years ago, carrying my infant son around in his carseat, I developed a deep burning muscle pain in my shoulder blade which I thought was physical. It led me to spend over $20k in doctors and medical devices. Foam rollers provided temporary relief as did acupressure matts. Hot showers and hot tubs also provided relief for when I was in them. This pain consumed me. It then began to spread to my arms, I couldnt text on my phone without pain. Arthritis, pins and needles, muscle tightness on my right side midsection, the pain and symptoms started increasing. Dry eyes, extreme fatigue led to depression and feeling miserable. Doctors simply want to prescribe pain killers or muscle relaxers, thats if they arent just looking at me funny and thinking its all in my head. About 3 years ago I was finally able to connect my symptoms to diet. Eating a large piece of ice cream cake almost instantly brought on severe symptoms such as blurred vision, muscle tightness in my chest and back and severe brain fog. I figured sugar was the main culprit. I cut back on sugar and started feeling better, but not full symptom relief. It took another year and a half to connect dairy to my muscle tightness. Within 2 days off dairy, my right side muscle relaxed as did my shoulder tightness. The hemorrhoid I had for over 10 years, gone like a miracle. My research eventually led me to NCGS (non celiac gluten sensitivity) but that didnt last long as it just didnt make sense as gluten caused worsening of symptoms, but most grains and carbs did to some degree. Then I stumbled upon SIBO and this forum along other helpful blogs and resources. I was finally able to start connecting the dots however I cant find a single doctor in south florida that can give me a SIBO test. I just went ahead and started taking herbal antibiotics. Heres what has helped me along the way ...
Helpful
Diet. Going completely FODMAP results in huge symptom relief. Avoiding carbs especially wheat and added sugars help. The less carbs I eat, the better I feel. a FODMAP diet is not sustainable. An elimination diet should be a starting point for everyone with any health related concern. Its amazing how many health problems can be connected to diet and its amazing to see results so fast usually within days. Start with the usual problem foods such as grains, dairy, soy and eggs. Many people have a hard time buying into this, I know it took me a long time to be convinced.
Lifepak vitamins. I dont know why. When I took these, it was a time of desperation. I saw my 3rd different chiropracter and on my way out there was a lady with a machine that scanned me to tell me how depleted my vitamins were and that taking their super expensive vitamins will cure me. I took the cheaper ones for $70 a month because at that time, I was willing to give anything a try. About a week in my father was visiting, so I completely stopped doing my work on the computer, was focusing on doing a lot of stretching at the time and noticed a huge improvement. The burning shoulder blade pain was 90% gone, I was so thrilled, I thought all the stretching I was doing was paying off. Eventually, i stopped taking the lifepak and ordered some cheap $10 vitamins from amazon. Slowly, my pain started coming back despite how much stretching I was doing. I made some calls to actually sell my business because I was so mentally exhausted I couldnt focus and just wanted to lay down in bed. I remembered the lifepak vitamins how they gave me energy, so i went and ordered the nano version from amazon. In 5 days my energy was sky high and my pain was again virtually eliminated. I praised these vitamins and recommended them to every person in my life suffering from any sort of ailment. I still take these today and I am afraid to ever go off them, though my symptoms started spreading despite taking these vitamins religiously, I am afraid of how I might feel if I went off them.
Prescript Assist SBO. I have a good story behind taking these. I had ordered these like I order many things off amazon, anything that can remotely help or has been suggested, I will order and try (I have spent thousands in vitamins over the year and none have ever worked). I had these sitting in my vitamin cabinet, but decided to not take them because I recently took hyperbiotics probiotics which contains the usual blend of Lactic acid producing bacteria and experienced worsening of my symptoms. So I figured, probiotics are probiotics, right? At this time I was also convinced I had SIBO so reading a post by someone who claims they had been cured with a high dose of multiple antibiotics, said taking probiotics for SIBO is adding fuel to the fire. Eventually, I read some post of here regarding D-Lactate and how having an overpopulation of D-lactate producing bacteria can cause a buildup of lactic acid in your muscles. After doing some internet research, I saw some diagram showing how D-lactate usually builds up in the shoulder blade and causes pain. This connected with me instantly, as well as other pieces of information, dots were connecting and starting to make sense. I also read that soil based bacteria sometimes help in those situations so I raced downstairs and cracked open the prescript assist and took one. I suffered with minor constipation for a week and while on a cruise with my family, I noticed after eating unhealthy, the usual pain and flareups did not happen. I was still constipated, but the pain was virtually gone. It was a miracle. I still cant have dairy or chocolate (chocolate is the worst for me, my guess is that its a major prebiotic for Lactic acid producing bacteria). I dont believe these bacteria are simply a cure, but rather they are disrupting the d-lactate producing bacteria to the extent of having a positive impact on my symptoms. I by no means am pretending I have anything figured out, all I can do is research everything and use myself as a guinea pig to figure out what helps and what doesn't.
My symptoms are probably fibromyalgia related. Going off the PA probiotics for 2 days led to symptoms rapidly returning. I have recently ordered mutaflor and another soil based probiotic based on a thread on these forums called Clostridium Butyricum. I look forward to posting my experience with these two on here as well.
The one symptom not helped by lifepak vitamins or prescript assist is leg cramps, especially at night. If I eat chocolate, the leg cramps and muscle tightness is severe. I had this all my life, I can remember waking up in the middle of the night screaming in pain from a pulled muscle cramp in my leg, my father had to help me stretch it out. I tried bananas, magnesium and nothing has helped this. I figure whatever I had, I have had most of my life, and its now starting to spread and get worse as I get older. I have always been skinny and ate very unhealthy, ice cream every day, no fruits no veggies. After eating out at restaurants, usually I have to race home to use the bathroom, I always coughed this up to having a "fast metabolism" but now its probably just IBS which is related to all my other problems.
I look forward to one day FMT's being commonplace where you can go in and have most of your ailments treated twice a year by a healthy dose of bacteria. I am very convinced that most health issues are gut and bacteria related.
My story is long but I will keep it as short as I can. 6 years ago, carrying my infant son around in his carseat, I developed a deep burning muscle pain in my shoulder blade which I thought was physical. It led me to spend over $20k in doctors and medical devices. Foam rollers provided temporary relief as did acupressure matts. Hot showers and hot tubs also provided relief for when I was in them. This pain consumed me. It then began to spread to my arms, I couldnt text on my phone without pain. Arthritis, pins and needles, muscle tightness on my right side midsection, the pain and symptoms started increasing. Dry eyes, extreme fatigue led to depression and feeling miserable. Doctors simply want to prescribe pain killers or muscle relaxers, thats if they arent just looking at me funny and thinking its all in my head. About 3 years ago I was finally able to connect my symptoms to diet. Eating a large piece of ice cream cake almost instantly brought on severe symptoms such as blurred vision, muscle tightness in my chest and back and severe brain fog. I figured sugar was the main culprit. I cut back on sugar and started feeling better, but not full symptom relief. It took another year and a half to connect dairy to my muscle tightness. Within 2 days off dairy, my right side muscle relaxed as did my shoulder tightness. The hemorrhoid I had for over 10 years, gone like a miracle. My research eventually led me to NCGS (non celiac gluten sensitivity) but that didnt last long as it just didnt make sense as gluten caused worsening of symptoms, but most grains and carbs did to some degree. Then I stumbled upon SIBO and this forum along other helpful blogs and resources. I was finally able to start connecting the dots however I cant find a single doctor in south florida that can give me a SIBO test. I just went ahead and started taking herbal antibiotics. Heres what has helped me along the way ...
Helpful
Diet. Going completely FODMAP results in huge symptom relief. Avoiding carbs especially wheat and added sugars help. The less carbs I eat, the better I feel. a FODMAP diet is not sustainable. An elimination diet should be a starting point for everyone with any health related concern. Its amazing how many health problems can be connected to diet and its amazing to see results so fast usually within days. Start with the usual problem foods such as grains, dairy, soy and eggs. Many people have a hard time buying into this, I know it took me a long time to be convinced.
Lifepak vitamins. I dont know why. When I took these, it was a time of desperation. I saw my 3rd different chiropracter and on my way out there was a lady with a machine that scanned me to tell me how depleted my vitamins were and that taking their super expensive vitamins will cure me. I took the cheaper ones for $70 a month because at that time, I was willing to give anything a try. About a week in my father was visiting, so I completely stopped doing my work on the computer, was focusing on doing a lot of stretching at the time and noticed a huge improvement. The burning shoulder blade pain was 90% gone, I was so thrilled, I thought all the stretching I was doing was paying off. Eventually, i stopped taking the lifepak and ordered some cheap $10 vitamins from amazon. Slowly, my pain started coming back despite how much stretching I was doing. I made some calls to actually sell my business because I was so mentally exhausted I couldnt focus and just wanted to lay down in bed. I remembered the lifepak vitamins how they gave me energy, so i went and ordered the nano version from amazon. In 5 days my energy was sky high and my pain was again virtually eliminated. I praised these vitamins and recommended them to every person in my life suffering from any sort of ailment. I still take these today and I am afraid to ever go off them, though my symptoms started spreading despite taking these vitamins religiously, I am afraid of how I might feel if I went off them.
Prescript Assist SBO. I have a good story behind taking these. I had ordered these like I order many things off amazon, anything that can remotely help or has been suggested, I will order and try (I have spent thousands in vitamins over the year and none have ever worked). I had these sitting in my vitamin cabinet, but decided to not take them because I recently took hyperbiotics probiotics which contains the usual blend of Lactic acid producing bacteria and experienced worsening of my symptoms. So I figured, probiotics are probiotics, right? At this time I was also convinced I had SIBO so reading a post by someone who claims they had been cured with a high dose of multiple antibiotics, said taking probiotics for SIBO is adding fuel to the fire. Eventually, I read some post of here regarding D-Lactate and how having an overpopulation of D-lactate producing bacteria can cause a buildup of lactic acid in your muscles. After doing some internet research, I saw some diagram showing how D-lactate usually builds up in the shoulder blade and causes pain. This connected with me instantly, as well as other pieces of information, dots were connecting and starting to make sense. I also read that soil based bacteria sometimes help in those situations so I raced downstairs and cracked open the prescript assist and took one. I suffered with minor constipation for a week and while on a cruise with my family, I noticed after eating unhealthy, the usual pain and flareups did not happen. I was still constipated, but the pain was virtually gone. It was a miracle. I still cant have dairy or chocolate (chocolate is the worst for me, my guess is that its a major prebiotic for Lactic acid producing bacteria). I dont believe these bacteria are simply a cure, but rather they are disrupting the d-lactate producing bacteria to the extent of having a positive impact on my symptoms. I by no means am pretending I have anything figured out, all I can do is research everything and use myself as a guinea pig to figure out what helps and what doesn't.
My symptoms are probably fibromyalgia related. Going off the PA probiotics for 2 days led to symptoms rapidly returning. I have recently ordered mutaflor and another soil based probiotic based on a thread on these forums called Clostridium Butyricum. I look forward to posting my experience with these two on here as well.
The one symptom not helped by lifepak vitamins or prescript assist is leg cramps, especially at night. If I eat chocolate, the leg cramps and muscle tightness is severe. I had this all my life, I can remember waking up in the middle of the night screaming in pain from a pulled muscle cramp in my leg, my father had to help me stretch it out. I tried bananas, magnesium and nothing has helped this. I figure whatever I had, I have had most of my life, and its now starting to spread and get worse as I get older. I have always been skinny and ate very unhealthy, ice cream every day, no fruits no veggies. After eating out at restaurants, usually I have to race home to use the bathroom, I always coughed this up to having a "fast metabolism" but now its probably just IBS which is related to all my other problems.
I look forward to one day FMT's being commonplace where you can go in and have most of your ailments treated twice a year by a healthy dose of bacteria. I am very convinced that most health issues are gut and bacteria related.