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- 75
Back story:
Suspected H2S SIBO over last 2 years, flatlined breath test, have run Rifaximin very recently, have not yet tried particuarly high sulfur diet so can't make to omuch comment if it was successful or not. When eating high sulfur foods, I'd get really bad fatigue and just feel exhausted and unwell, however - when eating super low sulfur, that would dissipate but there are other symptoms that would remain (which are also more long standing than the sulfur issue anyway, so suspect if H2S was/is part of problem, that's most recent.)
But ofcourse I was unsure if these other symptoms I've been trying to tackle, were part of the H2S issue or seperate. I now believe they are seperate. Following the Rifaximin, I did a 7 day water fast (water only, 0 food atall), expecting all symptoms to stop after 3 or so days and then relapse when I commenced eating, HOWEVER, this wasn't the case. To my suprise, although they may have improved by the end, throughout the course of the fast the symptoms remained.. Now these symptoms are:
- Itchy skin which comes up red and raised.. Hives/Urticarcia, can occur anywhere on body, tends to be upper body and head more than lower body oddly.
- Feeling dizzy/disorientated/spaced out.
- Severe Brainfog + Anhedonia
- Just general feeling of malaise, irritable/anxious etc.
- Some fatigue, but not nearly as intense as the suspected H2S Sulfur induced fatigue.
To my suprise, on day 5 of the water fast I had a SUPER intense bout of itching and hives/urticarcia.. I'd always put food down to be being the trigger, and although I don't doubt food contributes, the fast led me to realise there's something more fundamentally off here, and food isn't as much of a culprit as I'd initially suspected.
Now my best guess is this is some sort of histamine issue, would also make sense why hot showers can trigger symptoms, intense exercise etc. Growing up I had very severe seasonal allergies, and always had skin prone to inflaming/going raised very easily if lighly scratched or abraised.. but no itching, this only started in the last 2-3 years.
Have had all organs checked, liver, kidney, pancreas - nothing there. Lots of bloodwork, nothing to note. Did a GI map test, nothing really that noteworthy on there either (didn't show any dysbiosis issue).
However, the reason I believe it's likely gut related is:
A) Probiotics I believe made this all worse. I have every reason to believe I had some histamine issues prior to using them, but stupidly over the last 3.5 years I've gone through probably 20+ bottles of multi strain high CFU probiotics thinking they were harmless, in hindsight I can see the worsening of all my symptoms coincides with their use. Doh. I know some strains are histamine promoting, some degrading. I'm very reluctant to touch any kind of probiotic now, even the 'histamine degrading' kind, as I don't currently suspect they are where the solutions lies and naturally am incredibly apprehensive given I suspect they have played a role in this.
B) In April 2019, I had a totally spontaneously bout of incredibly urgent and intense watery like diarrhea. Totally out of the blue, wasn't sick, I actually suspect it may have been from throwing my electrolyte balance off as I was 9 weeks into a keto/ very low carb diet approach and for 4 days cut my sodium and potassium to virtually nil (which is a 'no no' on keto as you lose electrolytes much more readily), so I don't know if throwing my fluid balance off is what triggered it, but it was only 1-2 rounds of diarrhea but VERY out of ordinary for me, have always had a degree of 'IBS' but i NEVER have liquid diarrhea, bar the few occasions in my life where I've had food posioning.
The point is, after this diarrhea, ALL of the symptoms vanished. I felt AMAZING, 10/10. Even all of the itching and skin irritation stopped. I felt 10/10 for a solid 7 days, and 8/10 for 3 weeks, before it all came back quite abruptly. STUPIDLY I have run a number of courses of probiotics again since then (but not for a couple of months now) as that point I still thought they were helpful not harmful. This period of respite is the only period in the last 2 years where I've had the symptoms dissipate. I've tried all kinds of diet variation and supplements which I won't list here as it would take too long.
But, the fact that the symptoms all magically vanished immediately following that bout of diarrhea, to me suggests this is clearly something gut/bacterial related.. But what exactly, I don't know.
I've tried using Picolax and other methods to induce diarrhea (lol, I know) to see I could recreate the same effect to no avail. Ironically even using some fairly extreme methods to do it, the diarrhea that resulted even from picolax was no where even close to the urgency of the bout that occured in April 2019.
So what I'd like to ask is, does anyone have ANY suggestions on what they might do/try in my case?
I've tried a low histamine diet, probably some benefit, but not huge. I've tried using thigns liek Quercetin, Bromelain, Astralagus, Vitamin C, B6 etc which I do feel help, minorly, but again, take me no where even close to the level of well being that occured after the bout of diarrhea in April 2019. Ultimately I guess those kind of supplemetns arent addressing any route issue, just trying to help damage control the after effects.
I'm so desperate to get to the bottom of this. Any help is HUGELY appreciated. Thank you if you made it this far, sorry for the wall of text.
Suspected H2S SIBO over last 2 years, flatlined breath test, have run Rifaximin very recently, have not yet tried particuarly high sulfur diet so can't make to omuch comment if it was successful or not. When eating high sulfur foods, I'd get really bad fatigue and just feel exhausted and unwell, however - when eating super low sulfur, that would dissipate but there are other symptoms that would remain (which are also more long standing than the sulfur issue anyway, so suspect if H2S was/is part of problem, that's most recent.)
But ofcourse I was unsure if these other symptoms I've been trying to tackle, were part of the H2S issue or seperate. I now believe they are seperate. Following the Rifaximin, I did a 7 day water fast (water only, 0 food atall), expecting all symptoms to stop after 3 or so days and then relapse when I commenced eating, HOWEVER, this wasn't the case. To my suprise, although they may have improved by the end, throughout the course of the fast the symptoms remained.. Now these symptoms are:
- Itchy skin which comes up red and raised.. Hives/Urticarcia, can occur anywhere on body, tends to be upper body and head more than lower body oddly.
- Feeling dizzy/disorientated/spaced out.
- Severe Brainfog + Anhedonia
- Just general feeling of malaise, irritable/anxious etc.
- Some fatigue, but not nearly as intense as the suspected H2S Sulfur induced fatigue.
To my suprise, on day 5 of the water fast I had a SUPER intense bout of itching and hives/urticarcia.. I'd always put food down to be being the trigger, and although I don't doubt food contributes, the fast led me to realise there's something more fundamentally off here, and food isn't as much of a culprit as I'd initially suspected.
Now my best guess is this is some sort of histamine issue, would also make sense why hot showers can trigger symptoms, intense exercise etc. Growing up I had very severe seasonal allergies, and always had skin prone to inflaming/going raised very easily if lighly scratched or abraised.. but no itching, this only started in the last 2-3 years.
Have had all organs checked, liver, kidney, pancreas - nothing there. Lots of bloodwork, nothing to note. Did a GI map test, nothing really that noteworthy on there either (didn't show any dysbiosis issue).
However, the reason I believe it's likely gut related is:
A) Probiotics I believe made this all worse. I have every reason to believe I had some histamine issues prior to using them, but stupidly over the last 3.5 years I've gone through probably 20+ bottles of multi strain high CFU probiotics thinking they were harmless, in hindsight I can see the worsening of all my symptoms coincides with their use. Doh. I know some strains are histamine promoting, some degrading. I'm very reluctant to touch any kind of probiotic now, even the 'histamine degrading' kind, as I don't currently suspect they are where the solutions lies and naturally am incredibly apprehensive given I suspect they have played a role in this.
B) In April 2019, I had a totally spontaneously bout of incredibly urgent and intense watery like diarrhea. Totally out of the blue, wasn't sick, I actually suspect it may have been from throwing my electrolyte balance off as I was 9 weeks into a keto/ very low carb diet approach and for 4 days cut my sodium and potassium to virtually nil (which is a 'no no' on keto as you lose electrolytes much more readily), so I don't know if throwing my fluid balance off is what triggered it, but it was only 1-2 rounds of diarrhea but VERY out of ordinary for me, have always had a degree of 'IBS' but i NEVER have liquid diarrhea, bar the few occasions in my life where I've had food posioning.
The point is, after this diarrhea, ALL of the symptoms vanished. I felt AMAZING, 10/10. Even all of the itching and skin irritation stopped. I felt 10/10 for a solid 7 days, and 8/10 for 3 weeks, before it all came back quite abruptly. STUPIDLY I have run a number of courses of probiotics again since then (but not for a couple of months now) as that point I still thought they were helpful not harmful. This period of respite is the only period in the last 2 years where I've had the symptoms dissipate. I've tried all kinds of diet variation and supplements which I won't list here as it would take too long.
But, the fact that the symptoms all magically vanished immediately following that bout of diarrhea, to me suggests this is clearly something gut/bacterial related.. But what exactly, I don't know.
I've tried using Picolax and other methods to induce diarrhea (lol, I know) to see I could recreate the same effect to no avail. Ironically even using some fairly extreme methods to do it, the diarrhea that resulted even from picolax was no where even close to the urgency of the bout that occured in April 2019.
So what I'd like to ask is, does anyone have ANY suggestions on what they might do/try in my case?
I've tried a low histamine diet, probably some benefit, but not huge. I've tried using thigns liek Quercetin, Bromelain, Astralagus, Vitamin C, B6 etc which I do feel help, minorly, but again, take me no where even close to the level of well being that occured after the bout of diarrhea in April 2019. Ultimately I guess those kind of supplemetns arent addressing any route issue, just trying to help damage control the after effects.
I'm so desperate to get to the bottom of this. Any help is HUGELY appreciated. Thank you if you made it this far, sorry for the wall of text.
