My Doctor wants me to go on the SCD diet but I might just taking Resistant Starch instead?

[ChickenBear]

So after YEARS of weird inflammatory symptoms, I think I'm finally circling the wagon of a diagnosis and a treatment model.

The diagnosis? MCAD/MCAS brought about by a general gut dysbiosis ( I was never breast fed) that increased in childhood after having to take multiple rounds of antibiotics for repeat UTIs. Years later I did 6 months of intravenous ABX 2x daily for a 'Lyme' diagnosis that I think might've been bogus.

I know I probably have all kinds of other stuff going on as well- maybe parasites, low stomach acid/h.pylori, some heavy metals, etc. Recently I also tested positive for EBV. And because of all the ABx, I *definitely* have Candida- like the really intense, progressed hyphae kind.

But the core of all it is the gut. I know that now. I'm now working with a local Dr. who I went to mainly because she specializes in kids with autism. So I thought she'd be very progressive and clued into the microbiome.

Instead, I find that she wants me back on the Nystatin (which has been doing nothing for years) and suggested I take Gastrocrom. She also wants me on the SCD diet.

Now, although I believe I have leaky gut and gut dysbiosis, I actually don't have many stomach symptoms, knock on wood. The SCD seems more geared towards people who have stomach issues are their primary complaint. Also, you can eat foods like honey and medjool dates but NO plain Greek yogurt? WTF? To a person with Candida, that's crazy talk. I did the diet her way for a week and started leaning on the honey and dried fruits for quick energy because my beloved yogurt/carbs were gone. Lo and behold, I started to get really..um...itchy.

My final grievance is that I already have to be on a LOW HISTAMINE DIET and then she wants SCD on top of it for at least 3 months. In the Venn diagram of foods I can eat on both diets, I don't think there's gonna be much left...

Instead of stressing and starving myself (I'm worried about my already damaged adrenals) for 3+ months and trying to drive out the bad bacteria through deprivation, couldn't I just start eating resistant starch to strengthen the good guys? Many online say that RS is a huge game changer- that you actually don't really need anything else to fix gut dysbiosis.

I would obviously do it in conjunction with Viome or Ubiome so I wouldn't be shooting in the dark about what strains I was trying to grow and/or suppress.

Thoughts? Thanks guys!

 

[Hip]

One shortcut method which I think might offer some of the benefits of a specific carbohydrate diet, but without needing to do the diet, is described in this post. There is some more discussion in this post.

Basically, the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) is designed to stop partially digested carbohydrates reaching the colon, where they can feed bad bacteria.

So my shortcut method is to eat as normal, but take the appropriate digestive enzymes that break down carbohydrates in the small intestine, so that hopefully no partially digested carbohydrates will make it to the colon. The enzymes that break down carbohydrates are the brush border enzymes, which you can buy as a supplement. So by taking this supplement with every meal, that might achieve the same result as the SCD.

 

[Thinktank]

A better option even is to go on an elemental diet for 2 to 3 weeks. That's way more effective than the SCD diet.

 

[ChickenBear]

Thanks guys- those both seem like interesting suggestions. But I guess I also need to clarify what I said up top and ask:

Do I really need to be on any kind of special/elimination diet *at all*?

Why not just eat normally (but reasonably- for me this means paleo-ish, with dairy) and proceed right to the RS?

I mean everything I'm reading about in these elimination diets seems to be designed for people with SIBO.

I haven't been tested yet but I do not think I have SIBO. I don't have any of the traditional gastro symptoms, I do well on probiotics and I can eat foods like broccoli and cauliflower to my hearts content without issue.

What I think I DO have is a gut that leaks, candida and gut dysbiosis.

According to much of the research online, RS is supposed to address *all* of those things.

Leaky gut= it heals and seals....I've heard?
Candida= The plethora of new fed bacteria drives out the bad guys and balance is restored
Gut Dysbiosis= Well, obviously...


If you aren't worried about feeding an overabundance of bacteria in your small intestine and you just need to make more bacteria in general, why would focus on starving out the bad guys when you could just send in the cavalry with RS and outnumber them with good guys?

I guess that is my real question!


P.S- I looked up the Elemental diet and it looked interesting but again, it looks like more of a SIBO thing and Chris Kresser said it fed his yeast. That would be cause for concern, for me.

 

[overtheedge]

Been feeling outstanding on SCD myself, just started it around two weeks ago for the second time, began to feel real good 2-3 days in. Started SCD the first time nearly two years ago, my doc did a hydrogen/methane breath test on me which showed mild sibo so I went on the SCD for 16 days but continued to take all the supplements I was already taking with only a few taken out cause they were specifically forbidden on the diet according to the big websites on SIBO. This time around I discontinued all the supplements I was taking with the exception of taking a tablespoon of Ghee each day since Ghee is allowed on the SCD diet and is supposed to be really good for the gut as it increases butyrate which aids in the support of the gut wall. I’ve been taking Ghee a while so I figure it is unlikely to have caused this great reaction I’m getting, the supplements I discontinued right before starting the diet this time I had only been taking a short time and had thoroughly tested in the past so it probably wasn’t them either. Like you, I don’t have many gut symptoms, the only thing I could say is that my stools have been consistently lighter in color since coming down with this most recent version of CFS four years ago, a sort of beige color, only a few times in the past four years have my stools been of regular color. In addition, when I came down with CFS four years ago I was only having bowel movements every third day or so, taking DGL corrected that, I started out taking 1 to 2 tabs of DGL a day and id have a movement each day, after a year of taking it I stopped it to see what would happen and the regularity continued so by some means the DGL cured me as far as regularity is concerned.

Anyway, I feel fantastic, probably better than I’ve ever felt in my life on a day to day basis and improving by the day, feel good in ways I’ve never felt before, my energy levels are far up too, nothing great yet but vastly improved and that too seems to get better by the day. I’ve taken supplements that have antimicrobial activity in the gut before such as berberine, Mastic gum, and NAC which have made me feel similarly good but then stopped working after not too long a while, between a week and a month in each case that is, also, these were separate events, I didn’t take the three together. I’m really hoping this diet doesn’t give out too but so far it has been much more consistent than those supplements which would work some days and not work others. This diet has also given me much more in terms of good feelings and energy. You know, before I started this diet I would have to eat around two times as much as I find myself needing to eat now. I would always feel something like nausea when eating before the diet and would not reach a state of real fullness and so would feel somewhat hungry all day.

You mentioned enzymes & stomach acid and all, I had severe chronic constipation and CFS six years ago, my doctor at the time put me on pancreatic enzymes and betaine HCL and within a few days the chronic constipation completely went away, don’t know whether both supplements were responsible or just one, I was too scared of the problem returning to stop and test them individually at the time, within four or five months of starting those two supplements my CFS completely disappeared. Word of caution, the CFS I developed four years ago happened within a week of me testing the Betaine HCL at higher levels, although, I was burning out from overwork at the time as well which might have had a good bit to do with it too. My illness was dragging me down and I was desperate to find a fix, I read that Betaine HCL needs to be increased in dose until you feel a burning sensation during the meal you take it with and from there decrease the dose by 1 tablet until you no longer feel that burning and you will be at your optimal dose, thought this might be just the issue that was keeping my energy in the gutter, that is, still insufficient stomach acid despite years of taking a tablet of the stuff with every meal, so I increased the dose by 1 tablet each day until I’d increased the dose to 9 tablets with a single meal, didn’t feel any gut burning, just got this tingling all over my body and felt really off, within a week I had to quit work and return to the life of an invalid. When I talked to my doctor about betaine hcl recently she said she had a patient in the past that came to her with a destroyed esophageal sphincter from taking too many betaine hcl tablets, so if you decide to try and increase you stomach acid by adding acidic things like Betaine HCL don’t take too much

 

[ljimbo423]

Like you, I don’t have many gut symptoms, the only thing I could say is that my stools have been consistently lighter in color since coming down with this most recent version of CFS four years ago, a sort of beige color, only a few times in the past four years have my stools been of regular color.

Congrats on your success with the SCD! That sounds like it could be a lack of bile causing the light colored stool. Ox bile supps might help with that. Have you tried them? The other thing ox bile would help with is fat digestion.

Jim

 

[ahmo]

GAPS diet, built on a doundation of SCD, was life-changing for me. Initially it was eliminating gluten. But over time, I believe Natasha Campbell McBride's theory of fat healing and sealing the gut, and nourishing the brain was also critical to my healing. When I first heard the name, 'gut and psychology syndrome', I thought this must be for me. It was terrifying, including adding meat and animal fat to my diet. I knew I had to try it. I still have ME, but w/ diet, detox, supplements, I'm no longer in misery. And I still can't tolerate histamines or sulfur. good luck.