The gut conection.

[Folk]

Hi.

For aprox 8 years my only symptom was pain, it started slowly and it grew worse slowly. The dgnx was "looks like fibromyalgia" (of course, lack of sleep and constipation were always there...)

During that course I took very few medicines (abx when cold flu, one shot at lyrica for a month, and muscle relaxants some time)

This year I decided to try Cymbalta. After the very first pill I had a severe diarrhea for almost 2 weeks. (I don't know if it was the Cymbalta or something I ate).

I got better, and started Cymbalta again. Took it for 4 months, too many side effects (none in the gut). For some reason, I started taking Green smoothie every morning and that made me 50% better in less then a week. So I stopped Cymbalta.

Then I started having bloating and abdominal pain. It grew worse and worse. I was reacting to beets, bananas, garlic, onion and the list goes. Along with that came a lot of stress. My body pain got worse again. And then I started having vision/brain fog problems wich I've never had.

I took a lot of suplements and some anti fungal (a dr said it was candida). It got better.
I stopped reacting to most foods, even though I didn't try them all. I still get bloating and pain but much less.

The thing is, even after getting better most things persisted. I was always constipated before and now I go to the bathroom everyday in the morning. Normally with loose stools. My body pain persisted and the brain fog too. I experience much more fatigue now than ever.

I'm not sure what is happening.
But I'm having a hard time understanding that gut connection.

 

[Beyond]

The gut is not everything man, but is basic. The thing with the GI tract/leaky gut is that it needs ongoing treatment. Ongoing means years of no casein no gluten etc and taking stuff. Insane for someone like me that likes eating. I havent been able to keep up over the years but I plan to go hardcore. Thats one thing. Now there are other systems that can and are affected, Immune (like half of it based in the gut), Thyroid, Adrenals, the Brain (cns) and the whole lot of hormonal glands (HPTA axis). Maybe something else, detox pathways such as methylation . These things are interconnected, and if one of these are screwed having a decent digestion wont make for example sleep restoring again (that is huge) so the other systems need healing as well to bring some significant progress.

The gut is simply the single most important thing for treating chronic disease, period, but just treating it won´t heal you because of the reasons above. The immune system for example when it goes into an imbalanced response like for lack of better explanatory models th2 (autoimmune) or th1 (allergic) polarization that chronifies so you are fucked and healing the gut will greatly help but that doesn´t guarantee that the fragile and complex homeostasis of the immune system will realign completely ESPECIALLY in the CFS model that so commonly is associated with a chronic infection such as Lyme or what have you.

Getting out of a chronic disease is a freaking heroic journey.

 

[Folk]

I'm happy to hear you say that it requires years of stuff like gluten and casein.... Cause I've been off that for something like 4-5 months and I'm not sure I had any result since so much has changed I don't know whats going on...

I was more likely to try to understand what was the gut role in making me get so worse, not actually about the factor healing it/heal all hehe

 

[Beyond]

I am not a doctor unfortunately (I´d like to) nor you have posted any test results of cytokines etc but the gut if it is bad enough to cause obvious symptoms can be a cause or contributing factor to pain or whatever as it triggers immune responses from leaky gut dynamics. Many studies prove that leaky gut causes autoimmunity etc.

To heal the gut you need diet but also supplements tailored to individual needs, be it optimizing digestion, lowering inflammation or repairing the intestine walls.

I wrote all that stuff to try to explain why when your gut gets better you dont get better or why diet a lot of times doesn´t help at all. In reality it does help, but other systems are down so you dont notice improvement. There are other factors but if you are chronically sick and a history of blatant digestive issues then that needs treatment all the time.

 

[andre79]

I'm happy to hear you say that it requires years of stuff like gluten and casein.... Cause I've been off that for something like 4-5 months and I'm not sure I had any result since so much has changed I don't know whats going on...

I was more likely to try to understand what was the gut role in making me get so worse, not actually about the factor healing it/heal all hehe

In my case, diet has been a primary factor. After onset I was bedridden for about 3-4 months, and i had a ton of neurological symptoms. I quit gluten and dairy and within a month i was out of bed, recovered my ability to speak coherently, and the anxiety was less. I guess for some people the process is longer, but I encourage you to keep the gluten and dairy free diet. Also, i had constipation, which was relieved with the diet and taking fiber, probiotics, and magnesium. So, healing the gut may not be the ultimate answer but it is a big part of it, specially if you have autoinmune diseases. I think most of our inmune system cells are produced in the gut.

 

[SickOfSickness]

Try probiotics or prebiotics.

Corn, soy, and peanuts also destroy the gut lining.

Gluten and casein can be hidden in many shampoos, other toiletries, processed foods, and non-gluten grains.

A lot of people are sensitive to bananas. There is a thread about banana intolerance.

 

[Beyond]

I am sensitive to bananas for what is worth!

 

[Folk]

Bananas was one of the first things I reacted to... But now I can eat them again with no problem

It's so strange I can even put the first pieces togheter...