Soluble fiber + Resistant starch = light stool?

[bizzoc]

@bizzoc , I'd like to point out that a lot of health articles that claim some sort of optimum something about human health probably only apply to a subset of humans. Some stated factors might be human average, ignoring the variations in healthy individuals. For a given diet, one person's optimally healthy stool is pale and soft, while another's is dark and firm. We're all different, and the important thing is to find out what is optimal for you as an individual. Does food x make you feel better or worse? For long-term health effects, I suppose we have to depend on good clinical studies, modified if necessary by individual reactions to foods.

Is there an optimum level of bile pigments for everyone? Probably not.

I take psyllium daily. I don't care what it does to stool colour, but I haven't had to strain to pass a stool since taking that supplement. Less wiping needed too, since they slide out cleanly. I hope some study doesn't come along saying that psyllium is harmful.

I agree with the variation in everyone's response, likely related to genetics, biome diversity and other health factors, but I'm basing my dark brown stool color baseline off of 30yrs of bowel movements with a similar amount of carbs.

I'm hoping the fact I resolved my loose stools and they mostly sink now suggest the inflammation is low, but the 3 bloody villous polyps got me pretty concerned. If I eat 75g of fat in a day (eggs, avocado, olive oil, etc), and my stool sinks, that tells me I have enough digestive enzymes and bile to prevent having a stool with excess fat that typically floats. I even tried drinking the olive oil to test at 100g of fat in a day, no issues, still sank, likely due to my year or gallbladder flushes. So I clearly have a "sufficient" amount of bile, so the math doesn't add up, where is it going! 150billion BSH-enzyme producing strains with great adherence traits implanted via colonics can't be lost or diminished, and the study info I mentioned above proves the high fiber diet works, so something else is going on.

 

[bizzoc]

So, done some digging, and as the saying goes "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results", so I don't want to do my current protocol anymore without seeing at least a little bit of progress. I have found two alternative theories that explain this condition and I'd appreciate some input on.

I know I had significant biofilm in my colon, since I cleared out 80%+ but with no change. I also tested positive for SIBO and there are studies showing a link between biofilm in the small intestines and SIBO. There is also a high likelihood of biofilms in both if the colon is overrun. Targeting the small intestines is my next goal.

Since the color shift is so instant and not progressive, i think it is more likely to do with undigested carbs feeding whatever pathogen that eats my stool's bile, preventing it from being deconjugated? All i can think of is small intestine biofilm or pancreatic insufficiency, specifically with amylase. The latter is easy enough to prove, I have piles of digestive enzymes I was using while I was figuring out the yellow stool and it made no difference. Also makes sense given my weight loss and difficulty putting on weight.

Anyone have experience with small intestine biofilm removal? I know chelation helps as it's a phase 2 biofilm disrupter, but I've been doing that with DMPS for months and no change. I was reading about drinking Epsom salt in water to "flush" your system daily for a few weeks at a time, but that doesn't sound like fun and I'll save that as a last resort. I could try the bismuth trick, but it's a metal too so I'm hesitant. Next meal I'll pop a bunch of digestive enzymes while I read more about biofilms in the small intestines. Only other alternative is a jet wash endoscopy?

 

[bizzoc]

I was thinking about the amylase theory, and it makes sense since certain biofilms (yeast for instance) are 25% carbohydrate rich matrix composed of polysaccharide carbohydrate glucans and chitins.

If amylase is effective at breaking down biofilms, does that mean the biofilms might absorb some of my amylase causing undigested or incomplete digested carbs? That would explain what's feeding the pathogens in the colon.

 

[Wishful]

150billion BSH-enzyme producing strains with great adherence traits implanted via colonics can't be lost or diminished,

I wouldn't be so sure of that. Biology has plenty of surprises, so for most things someone says "can't possibly happen" probably do happen. What if you get a particularly virulent phage targeting that strain? Is it really impossible for another strain to outcompete the desired one? If the strain depends on something produced or maintained by the body, well, such mechanisms do fail, which is why we have ME.

I think I've lost a very common strain for the second time. I certainly wouldn't have expected a temporary blockage, if that's what that was, to eradicate a strain. Bacteria are supposed to be difficult to eradicate intentionally, so why does it happen accidentally? Before losing that strain, I too would have believed that "it can't be lost or diminished" without using antibiotics or whatever.

Maybe you still have a healthy population of those strains, but I just recommend not taking the loss of them off your list of possibilities.

 

[bizzoc]

Maybe you still have a healthy population of those strains, but I just recommend not taking the loss of them off your list of possibilities.

Yes, definitely possible to lose them, and I am supplementing with them still, I just meant that a significant amount of CFU's can't be lost or diminished when compared to taking them orally, especially when you decimate the population first to "make room", correct the colon pH, and chelate heavy metals. I think if you account for all of that, you are at your maximum likelihood of success for colonising. But I also don't think that if I've done this consistently multiple times without seeing incremental improvements, it's not the root cause of the issue.

I'm going to try messing around with the digestive enzymes for biofilm again, see how that goes as I was missing a few good ones.