MonkeyMan
Senior Member
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- 405
I wanted to share an interesting and TRUE story, and I hope it's not "TMI"! For the first time since my ME/CFS began 35 years ago, I'm having consistently normal bowel movements. And it's thanks to one thing: "filmjölk". (In case you don't know, "filmjölk" is basically the Scandinavian version of kefir (kefir being the yogurt-like drink that is packed with healthy bacteria)).
A little background: My ME/CFS is rooted in the tetracycline I took when I was a child and teenager. This over-usage caused severe intestinal candidiasis, which in turn caused my ME/CFS. As a tasty way to improve my gut flora, I've been drinking kefir daily for about 18 years, and home-brewing it myself for about 8 of those. But despite the kefir, my bowel movements have always been hit-or-miss, although they were even worse before I began drinking kefir.
Then one day recently I ran out of starter for my kefir. In this situation I always go to Whole Foods and buy a bottle of kefir, then use that as the starter base. This time, however, I noticed a bottle of "filmjölk", which I'd never seen before. Now, I have relatives who live in Sweden and whenever I visit them I enjoy drinking "filmjölk". But I'd never seen it in a store. So, out of curiosity -- and because the bottle said "10 billion probiotics" -- I decided to buy it and see if it would work as a starter base. Turns out it worked like a charm.
Normal bowel movements every day; haven't had this since I was a kid.
And as a bonus, the "filmjölk" tastes a whole lot better than the kefir did.
Incidentally, I did a little research online and it seems that while kefir contains yeast, "filmjölk" does not. I'm sure that's why I prefer the taste of "filmjölk": it's much less sour, much milder. Drinking "filmjölk" is almost like drinking whipped cream or even a milkshake.
What I wonder is, whether the yeast in the kefir is what prevented the kefir from "working" to restore my bowel movements. (Keep in mind that tetracycline overusage caused the severe intestinal candidiasis that caused my CFS).
I understand some health advocates say yeast in food can inflame the gut, maybe because of histamine production. Whether that's true or not, given that antibiotic-induced-intestinal-candidiasis was what led to my ME/CFS, it would seem quite plausible that I have at least a mild sensitivity to yeast. Speculating further, maybe therefore the yeast in the kefir counter-acted the beneficial effects of the bacteria that it also contains (a sort of "2-steps-forward 1-step-back" beverage, if you will).
A little background: My ME/CFS is rooted in the tetracycline I took when I was a child and teenager. This over-usage caused severe intestinal candidiasis, which in turn caused my ME/CFS. As a tasty way to improve my gut flora, I've been drinking kefir daily for about 18 years, and home-brewing it myself for about 8 of those. But despite the kefir, my bowel movements have always been hit-or-miss, although they were even worse before I began drinking kefir.
Then one day recently I ran out of starter for my kefir. In this situation I always go to Whole Foods and buy a bottle of kefir, then use that as the starter base. This time, however, I noticed a bottle of "filmjölk", which I'd never seen before. Now, I have relatives who live in Sweden and whenever I visit them I enjoy drinking "filmjölk". But I'd never seen it in a store. So, out of curiosity -- and because the bottle said "10 billion probiotics" -- I decided to buy it and see if it would work as a starter base. Turns out it worked like a charm.
Normal bowel movements every day; haven't had this since I was a kid.
And as a bonus, the "filmjölk" tastes a whole lot better than the kefir did.
Incidentally, I did a little research online and it seems that while kefir contains yeast, "filmjölk" does not. I'm sure that's why I prefer the taste of "filmjölk": it's much less sour, much milder. Drinking "filmjölk" is almost like drinking whipped cream or even a milkshake.
What I wonder is, whether the yeast in the kefir is what prevented the kefir from "working" to restore my bowel movements. (Keep in mind that tetracycline overusage caused the severe intestinal candidiasis that caused my CFS).
I understand some health advocates say yeast in food can inflame the gut, maybe because of histamine production. Whether that's true or not, given that antibiotic-induced-intestinal-candidiasis was what led to my ME/CFS, it would seem quite plausible that I have at least a mild sensitivity to yeast. Speculating further, maybe therefore the yeast in the kefir counter-acted the beneficial effects of the bacteria that it also contains (a sort of "2-steps-forward 1-step-back" beverage, if you will).