Guidelines For Leaky Gut, High Lactate, Damaged Intestine, Celiac Disease

OP
Broken man

Broken man

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You don't seem to be getting much calcium at all. Your PTH will probably be high. Check this and scroll down to where it says "Digestive Manifestations of HYPERparathyroidism":

Digestive manifestations of parathyroid disorders

And see if that sounds like any of your symptoms. Note that cottage cheese has a calcium/phosphate ratio of less than 1.0 so is not helping to suppress PTH.
You have true that I dont have much calcium, I have egg shell calcium but I cant digest it and to be honest I am scared of everything which could lead to diarrhea because its waste of all nutrients and minerals. Thank you for your advice.
 

Travis

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In this article by Ray, he wrote that proteolytic enzymes could impair clotting system. What do you think about it?
Bleeding, clotting, cancer
It depends on the enzyme. We have trypsin and pepsin in our stomachs as proteolytic enzymes. These cannot efficiently break the proline bond, be we do have a few prolyl peptidases for that. There is one in the intestines (endopeptidase), and also one which exists naturally in the blood (dipeptidyl peptidase IV).

We naturally have these enzymes, but we can buy more online.

There are some enzymes in our body that break down the extracellular matrix. I think Ray Peat was talking about these enzymes. They can be released by normal cells, where they break down the collagen extracellular matrix during normal healing. In cancer cells, these matrix metalloproteinases are seen as defining 'invasiveness' (along with vascularizing agents such as VEGF). There is actually a few neat tests for this: researchers often incorporate gelatin into the polyacrylamide electrophoresis slab, separating, and thereafter noting if certain separations bands partially‐dissolve the gel (indicating which band, if any, contains a matrix metalloproteinase).

But any enzyme you digest should be too large to be absorbed whole. The upper limit appears to be about fifteen amino acids, although it could be a little higher (depending on permeability). Whatever the precise number, it should be smaller than the active enzyme. I think it would be unlikely for a whole (active) enzyme to be absorbed.
 
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I dont have problems and they are cheap so I am okay with them. Thank you.

Fine and good. For anyone else who is reading this thread, apples contain a lot of pectin. Pectin is a mixed bag. It increases bacterial activity as it is good food for some bugs. I think this is why it can cause bloating and problems for some.

I think they can aggravate SIBO for this reason.


Effects of apples and specific apple components on the cecal environment of conventional rats: role of apple pectin

Effects of apples and specific apple components on the cecal environment of conventional rats: role of apple pectin
Tine R LichtEmail author, Max Hansen, Anders Bergström, Morten Poulsen, Britta N Krath, Jaroslaw Markowski, Lars O Dragsted and Andrea Wilcks

Background
Our study was part of the large European project ISAFRUIT aiming to reveal the biological explanations for the epidemiologically well-established health effects of fruits. The objective was to identify effects of apple and apple product consumption on the composition of the cecal microbial community in rats, as well as on a number of cecal parameters, which may be influenced by a changed microbiota.
Results
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of cecal microbiota profiles obtained by PCR-DGGE targeting bacterial 16S rRNA genes showed an effect of whole apples in a long-term feeding study (14 weeks), while no effects of apple juice, purée or pomace on microbial composition in cecum were observed. Administration of either 0.33 or 3.3% apple pectin in the diet resulted in considerable changes in the DGGE profiles.
A 2-fold increase in the activity of beta-glucuronidase was observed in animals fed with pectin (7% in the diet) for four weeks, as compared to control animals (P < 0.01). Additionally, the level of butyrate measured in these pectin-fed animal was more than double of the corresponding level in control animals (P < 0.01). Sequencing revealed that DGGE bands, which were suppressed in pectin-fed rats, represented Gram-negative anaerobic rods belonging to the phylum Bacteroidetes, whereas bands that became more prominent represented mainly Gram-positive anaerobic rods belonging to the phylum Firmicutes, and specific species belonging to the Clostridium Cluster XIVa.
Quantitative real-time PCR confirmed a lower amount of given Bacteroidetes species in the pectin-fed rats as well as in the apple-fed rats in the four-week study (P < 0.05). Additionally, a more than four-fold increase in the amount of Clostridium coccoides (belonging to Cluster XIVa), as well as of genes encoding butyryl-coenzyme A CoA transferase, which is involved in butyrate production, was detected by quantitative PCR in fecal samples from the pectin-fed animals.
Conclusions
Our findings show that consumption of apple pectin (7% in the diet) increases the population of butyrate- and β-glucuronidase producing Clostridiales, and decreases the population of specific species within the Bacteroidetes group in the rat gut. Similar changes were not caused by consumption of whole apples, apple juice, purée or pomace.
 
OP
Broken man

Broken man

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It depends on the enzyme. We have trypsin and pepsin in our stomachs as proteolytic enzymes. These cannot efficiently break the proline bond, be we do have a few prolyl peptidases for that. There is one in the intestines (endopeptidase), and also one which exists naturally in the blood (dipeptidyl peptidase IV).

We naturally have these enzymes, but we can buy more online.

There are some enzymes in our body that break down the extracellular matrix. I think Ray Peat was talking about these enzymes. They can be released by normal cells, where they break down the collagen extracellular matrix during normal healing. In cancer cells, these matrix metalloproteinases are seen as defining 'invasiveness' (along with vascularizing agents such as VEGF). There is actually a few neat tests for this: researchers often incorporate gelatin into the polyacrylamide electrophoresis slab, separating, and thereafter noting if certain separations bands partially‐dissolve the gel (indicating which band, if any, contains a matrix metalloproteinase).

But any enzyme you digest should be too large to be absorbed whole. The upper limit appears to be about fifteen amino acids, although it could be a little higher (depending on permeability). Whatever the precise number, it should be smaller than the active enzyme. I think it would be unlikely for a whole (active) enzyme to be absorbed.
So product with proteolytic enzymes could be helpful? I am so sorry but your posts are hard to understand for me.
 

Zpol

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Hello, I am happy that I found somebody with this disease. I know that member @Blossom is celiac too. Its sad that I cant find much about this disease from Ray peat or Haidut but I know that Haidut had gut problems too and I gained alot of from his old posts. I can say that my erection problems are away thanks to him. I did small research and its too much money. I am curious, did you improve with vit. K2 or vit. E? I can say that K2 is really helpful and vit. E too even I have flare ups. I am taking them about 5 months and I see that my skin is much better, my tolerance to caffeine improved too. Thank you for your advice.

I can't say they have helped with Celia pain but I know the Vit. E has helped get me out of a vit. E deficiency per blood plasma lab work. I have been taking K2 in small doses via EstroBan, I have now added in Kuinone too but too soon to tell if it's having an effect.
Glad to hear they've been a big help for you!
 

Birdie

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Hi @Broken man... I can join in with the Celiac group sort of. Am gluten sensitive but probably not full blown Celiac.
My husband and I both avoid pectin and I see that you make cooked apples. We do that too.

I think Ray said something like that cooking makes the apples safe. Anyway, I do fine with cooked.
I've been working with these digestive issues, celiac like, for a long time. It takes forever to figure out it seems.

Then, something changes, and you have to start looking again.

Sounds to me like you are getting enough calories. For Calcium and other nutrients, Did you try coffee with milk and sugar?
I didn't quite get that part.
 

managing

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IIRC Peat likes supplements topically not orally.
Consider stopping all oral supplements for three weeks.
Then use as needed to supplement what your diet isn't giving you.
In those three weeks add in carrot salad.
Eat five to six small, easy to digest meals a day.
Not too much liquid.
If Peat said vitamin D (it is hormone like, correct) then spend time out in the sun as able. It's free and may also help your stress level.

That's a start...
Best to you.
:nailedit
 

whodathunkit

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May 6, 2016
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777
@Broken man: I had leaky gut. I don't seem to anymore. Also had IBS-D, which is definitely gone. All gut symptoms much, much improved. What follows is a rundown of what helped me the most.

Try gelatin broth (like from oxtail and knuckle bones) as a staple of your diet for a while. The proteins in gelatin are essential for building healthy gut tissue. I consider this my #1 essential for maintaining a healthy gut.

I find too much powdered gelatin, even if it's boiled and well-cooked, to be problematic. Seems to cause an inflammatory response in a fairly short amount of time. This may be because it tends to be made from stuff like hooves and horns and not just knuckle or joint bones. There might be bacteria in gelatin that's resistant to cooking. Also, powdered gelatin is hard to work with and tastes the way barnyard **** smells, even when highly flavored.

Gelatin broth made from oxtail and knuckle bones, on the other had, is deeply savory and yummy.

IMO hydrolyzed collagen is next to useless. Don't bother with it. It's supposed to be good but I never noticed any difference when using it. Powdered gelatin has better therapeutic benefit to my skin and hair than hydrolyzed collagen, even though gelatin does give me an inflammatory response in my gut when HC does not.

Your diet is very "acidifying". All that sugar, fat, and protein does not replace minerals your body needs to keep systems running smoothly. Sugar is just empty calories with no nutritional value besides carbs, and chocolate and coffee are acidic and don't seem to replace minerals in sufficient quantity to keep up with with what metabolizing them uses. Protein doesn't have much mineral value except liver, and too much of that carries its own problems. At any rate, if you eat a lot of sugar it's really hard to keep up proper mineral stores over time. You might do okay for a while, especially if you're young, but over time it will get harder and harder.

Also, if your liver can't produce enough bile to emulsify the fat you eat properly, fat seems to just cause an acidic mess in the stomach (or at least, it has done this to me).

I can't elucidate why, exactly, but paying attention to alkalizing my diet (drinking mineral water, eating fruit and starch not sugar, no coffee, limiting chocolate, limiting fat, etc.) has been extremely helpful in helping me overcome my digestive issues, especially reflux.

I've also found that using digestive enzymes/bile acids has been essential. This may seem counterintuitive if you have acid reflux and especially in light of "alkalizing" recommendations, but many of us with gut problems have low enzymes, and what causes us heartburn is not over-production of bile and digestive enzymes but underproduction. Food sits undigested longer than it should, and can then push/percolate "up" into the esophagus. Properly digested food with a good transit time doesn't do this. Improperly digested food is also a player in systemic inflammation. WRT leaky gut, I think undigested food is supposed to escape through the enlarged junctions between cells in the gut tissues, carrying bacteria and endotoxin with it.

Taurine and glycine in combo are very helpful, as well. Those two are necessary for the production of bile in the liver, and many of us are lacking in them. I found TUDCA a very helpful supp, but read up on it before trying it. You shouldn't drink while you're taking it, and there may be other caveats. I found it very benign.

Antibiotics may be helpful, as well. I was forced to go on an undesirably extensive course of abx for couple of months, and it wound up being a blessing because in combo with all the other meausres my gut problems are pretty much cleared up now. They were getting better over time, and then the abx seemed to put me over the top. Caveat is that we don't want to use abx lightly, because they kill the good flora as well as the bad. Also, I did develop symptoms of ulcerative colitis for a couple days not long after I was completely done with the abx. After doing some research I found out that UC often develops after using the same abx I was given, for as long as I was on them. I used VSL 3 probiotic and a bacterial strain called clostridium butyricum (a butyrate producing strain) that completely resolved the UC symptoms in less 24 hours. Gone. TMI alert: it was so bad that I lost control of my bowels once, due to the extreme sudden urgency, and was living near the bathroom for a couple of days because of that nasty symptom of UC. So the quick resolution from probx was verifiable and not due to anything else.

Peat doesn't like probiotics and neither do most on this board, but I believe they can play a big role in recovery of gut issues, especially after abx use. Problem is that most of us don't use them properly...pouring them into a gut that's already got a poor gut flora ratio of good:bad isn't likely to yield good results because even the good guys die and can therefore exacerbate endotoxin problems (esp. if the gut is leaky). Also, using poor quality probx is next to useless.

But I found that in a gut that's been carpet bombed with strong abx and is essentially starting out "sterile", the "good guys" (bifido and lactobacilli strains like are found in VSL 3) can really, really help in keeping the bad guys that we're bound to ingest, or the bad guys we already have that are abx-resistant, in check. Bad bacteria is everywhere, is more ubiquitous than good, and we can't live or eat in sterile labs. So if we kill all our flora with abx, we have to implement some measures to allow the good guys to recover while still living our normal lives. Transient probiotic strains like bifidos and lactobacilli can overwhelm the bad guys while simultaneously allowing our native good guys to make a comeback. I credit VSL 3 and the clostidium butyricum ENTIRELY with resolving my short-lived UC symptoms. Well, that and not eating processed crap food, which is loaded with bad bacteria.

I now believe the role for probx is probably mostly maintenance...i.e., keeping the bad guys from running amok, rather than in actually resolving any extensive flora ratio problems on their own. Although for bacterial issues that aren't that far along yet, properly-used, high-quality probiotics are probably also useful, which is why they seem to work for some people but not for others. I used probx for my leaky gut and IBS issues for years with very limited success, but using them after this aggressive bout of abx, while keeping up with good, healthy lifestyle habits, has been a very enlightening and beneficial experience. I realize now a lot of my problems were bacterial, and that Peat is entirely right about the place of abx in health recovery. I had a prejudice against abx for a long time, but no longer. It was unwarranted, and came about because of an improper understanding of how they can and should be used. I think there's a similar misunderstanding by Peat and some others around here, about probiotics. Hopefully one day it can be similarly overcome. IMO a lot of people may be missing out on probx benefits, esp. after abx use.

Worth noting is that I don't take probx every day. I did for a couple of months, but now I'm down to once per week or every couple weeks as a prophylactic measure. No evidence of increased inflammation or any other symptoms of increased endotoxin load.

Anyway...that's all about that. Hope there's something in there of value to you. I wish you luck and success with your gut issues in the New Year!
 
Last edited:

Constatine

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Sep 28, 2016
Messages
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@Broken man: I had leaky gut. I don't seem to anymore. Also had IBS-D, which is definitely gone. All gut symptoms much, much improved. What follows is a rundown of what helped me the most.

Try gelatin broth (like from oxtail and knuckle bones) as a staple of your diet for a while. The proteins in gelatin are essential for building healthy gut tissue. I consider this my #1 essential for maintaining a healthy gut.

I find too much powdered gelatin, even if it's boiled and well-cooked, to be problematic. Seems to cause an inflammatory response in a fairly short amount of time. This may be because it tends to be made from stuff like hooves and horns and not just knuckle or joint bones. There might be bacteria in gelatin that's resistant to cooking. Also, powdered gelatin is hard to work with and tastes the way barnyard **** smells, even when highly flavored.

Gelatin broth made from oxtail and knuckle bones, on the other had, is deeply savory and yummy.

IMO hydrolyzed collagen is next to useless. Don't bother with it. It's supposed to be good but I never noticed any difference when using it. Powdered gelatin has better therapeutic benefit to my skin and hair than hydrolyzed collagen, even though gelatin does give me an inflammatory response in my gut when HC does not.

Your diet is very "acidifying". All that sugar, fat, and protein does not replace minerals your body needs to keep systems running smoothly. Sugar is just empty calories with no nutritional value besides carbs, and chocolate and coffee are acidic and don't seem to replace minerals in sufficient quantity to keep up with with what metabolizing them uses. Protein doesn't have much mineral value except liver, and too much of that carries its own problems. At any rate, if you eat a lot of sugar it's really hard to keep up proper mineral stores over time. You might do okay for a while, especially if you're young, but over time it will get harder and harder.

Also, if your liver can't produce enough bile to emulsify the fat you eat properly, fat seems to just cause an acidic mess in the stomach (or at least, it has done this to me).

I can't elucidate why, exactly, but paying attention to alkalizing my diet (drinking mineral water, eating fruit and starch not sugar, no coffee, limiting chocolate, limiting fat, etc.) has been extremely helpful in helping me overcome my digestive issues, especially reflux.

I've also found that using digestive enzymes/bile acids has been essential. This may seem counterintuitive if you have acid reflux and especially in light of "alkalizing" recommendations, but many of us with gut problems have low enzymes, and what causes us heartburn is not over-production of bile and digestive enzymes but underproduction. Food sits undigested longer than it should, and can then push/percolate "up" into the esophagus. Properly digested food with a good transit time doesn't do this. Improperly digested food is also a player in systemic inflammation. WRT leaky gut, I think undigested food is supposed to escape through the enlarged junctions between cells in the gut tissues, carrying bacteria and endotoxin with it.

Taurine and glycine in combo are very helpful, as well. Those two are necessary for the production of bile in the liver, and many of us are lacking in them. I found TUDCA a very helpful supp, but read up on it before trying it. You shouldn't drink while you're taking it, and there may be other caveats. I found it very benign.

Antibiotics may be helpful, as well. I was forced to go on an undesirably extensive course of abx for couple of months, and it wound up being a blessing because in combo with all the other meausres my gut problems are pretty much cleared up now. They were getting better over time, and then the abx seemed to put me over the top. Caveat is that we don't want to use abx lightly, because they kill the good flora as well as the bad. Also, I did develop symptoms of ulcerative colitis for a couple days not long after I was completely done with the abx. After doing some research I found out that UC often develops after using the same abx I was given, for as long as I was on them. I used VSL 3 probiotic and a bacterial strain called clostridium butyricum (a butyrate producing strain) that completely resolved the UC symptoms in less 24 hours. Gone. TMI alert: it was so bad that I lost control of my bowels once, due to the extreme sudden urgency, and was living near the bathroom for a couple of days because of that nasty symptom of UC. So the quick resolution from probx was verifiable and not due to anything else.

Peat doesn't like probiotics and neither do most on this board, but I believe they can play a big role in recovery of gut issues, especially after abx use. Problem is that most of us don't use them properly...pouring them into a gut that's already got a poor gut flora ratio of good:bad isn't likely to yield good results because even the good guys die and can therefore exacerbate endotoxin problems (esp. if the gut is leaky). Also, using poor quality probx is next to useless.

But I found that in a gut that's been carpet bombed with strong abx and is essentially starting out "sterile", the "good guys" (bifido and lactobacilli strains like are found in VSL 3) can really, really help in keeping the bad guys that we're bound to ingest, or the bad guys we already have that are abx-resistant, in check. Bad bacteria is everywhere, is more ubiquitous than good, and we can't live or eat in sterile labs. So if we kill all our flora with abx, we have to implement some measures to allow the good guys to recover while still living our normal lives. Transient probiotic strains like bifidos and lactobacilli can overwhelm the bad guys while simultaneously allowing our native good guys to make a comeback. I credit VSL 3 and the clostidium butyricum ENTIRELY with resolving my short-lived UC symptoms. Well, that and not eating processed crap food, which is loaded with bad bacteria.

I now believe the role for probx is probably mostly maintenance...i.e., keeping the bad guys from running amok, rather than in actually resolving any extensive flora ratio problems on their own. Although for bacterial issues that aren't that far along yet, properly-used, high-quality probiotics are probably also useful, which is why they seem to work for some people but not for others. I used probx for my leaky gut and IBS issues for years with very limited success, but using them after this aggressive bout of abx, while keeping up with good, healthy lifestyle habits, has been a very enlightening and beneficial experience. I realize now a lot of my problems were bacterial, and that Peat is entirely right about the place of abx in health recovery. I had a prejudice against abx for a long time, but no longer. It was unwarranted, and came about because of an improper understanding of how they can and should be used. I think there's a similar misunderstanding by Peat and some others around here, about probiotics. Hopefully one day it can be similarly overcome. IMO a lot of people may be missing out on probx benefits, esp. after abx use.

Worth noting is that I don't take probx every day. I did for a couple of months, but now I'm down to once per week or every couple weeks as a prophylactic measure. No evidence of increased inflammation or any other symptoms of increased endotoxin load.

Anyway...that's all about that. Hope there's something in there of value to you. I wish you luck and success with your gut issues in the New Year!
Thanks very much for this.
 

haidut

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Hello all, I am here for some time and I can say that my health is really better but I found that my digestion/gut is not optimal. When I started with Ray Peat I jumped on cooked apples, alot of cottage cheese and chocolate. I was working from my home and was feeling very good but because of money, I was forced to change my work. After I changed my work to classic office job. My health went back so I have alot of digestive issues now again, I was trying alot of things like aspirin, gelatin, caffeine and next.... I really dont know why, of course, stress is big factor but I am trying to lower it with all supplements what I have, especially pregnenolone and cyproheptadine. Pregnenolone is not effective and cyproheptadine is hard because when I overdose, I cant work next day. The problem is that I cant quit my new work, my brain is really slow, cottage cheese is giving me phlegm build up now. I want to say What the f*ck happened to me. I was searching for Ray Peat opinion on this but I didnt find how to cure it. When I wrote him, he answered me that vitamin D could help me. This is not my native language so I apologize for errors.

My diet: Cooked apples with sugar.
Potatoes with butter or coconut oil
Cottage cheese (low fat version)
Dark chocolate
Eggs
Pork meat sometimes

I am not drinking coffee because I had issues with it and with gelatine too. I am doing all what I found that could help me.

My supplements: B1 hcl 300-1500 mg ( I found that the dose depends on how much stomach acid I have because even more than 1500 didnt help me with my lactate sometimes)
: B6 P5P version 5 mg ( this is really good thing and I hope that it will help me with stomach acid and intestine health. I was trying hcl version but I had bad response)
: cyproheptadine 4- 12 mg
: caffeine 400+- mg in divided doses
: theanine 200-800 mg
: one dose of estroban
: 5 mg of vit. K2
: taurine 2-8 g
: vit. E 400 IU

Even when I am taking all this supplements more than 8 months, my gut is very weak which I dont understand. Heartburn after coca cola. I cant do BCAA because I cant find them without bad additives where I am living. Gelatin gave me histamine reaction. So please could you help me with some guidelines for everybody who want improve his/her gut health? I would be very happy if @haidut could tell us how he healed his gut/digestion in more detailed way. I know that he was using alot of vitamin A and BCAA. Thank you.

I think @theLaw mentioned most of my "tricks". The cypro probably played the biggest role and since it also lowers cortisol it allows one to go into a more anabolic and less sensitive state, where food does not cause that many gut issues even if it is suboptimal.
 

chimdp

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Jan 22, 2017
Messages
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I checked out the egg protein and it appears to be digested readily. The egg has no proline–glutamine‐rich peptides, so the bodies enzymes can break it down totally into small fragments. Although fun to cook with, the egg yolk generally has roughly 20% linoleic acid (expressed as percentage of total fatty acids). But on the commercial market, ω−3 eggs are available. These are enriched with fatty acids which, although still unsaturated, are much safer since only linoleic acid has lipid‐hormonal actions (subsequent to arachidonic acid formation, immune activation, and prostaglandin/leukotriene biosynthesis).

@Travis Interesting stuff here. To confirm, are you saying that Omega 3 eggs are safer because they will have a lesser % of linoleic acid than their conventional counterparts?
 

Travis

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@Travis Interesting stuff here. To confirm, are you saying that Omega 3 eggs are safer because they will have a lesser % of linoleic acid than their conventional counterparts?
No! I looked into this and guess what? They don't!


Though you'd assume this to be the case, omega−3 eggs are characterized by the same amount of linoleic acid yet more ω−3 fatty acids! I can see them potentially forming less prostaglandins, since they have more of the competing ω−3 fatty acids, but they do represent eggs with more total polyunsaturated fatty acids. So it would seem better to simply use more coconut oil to cook them with (or make coconut omelets, or those with goat cheese), since adding saturated competing fatty acids could be better yet. Stearic acid is a competitor of linoleic acid in the cell membrane and has consistently found protective in cancer studies; stearic acid cannot form lipofuscin like the unsaturated competitors can (although, it might not have the ability to inhibit cyclooxygenase quite as well as oleic acid (having a straight‐chain geometry, and not the kink you'd get with a double‐bond).)
 

Zpol

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@Broken man
Sure; but I can't say this will be the best diet for you. I'm at the point where I get celiac flare ups from dairy (except ghee), rice, corn, and a few other things too, plus I have gastroparisis and GERD.
Upon waking - One or two Jennies brand Coconut Macaroon + black coffee, 1 cup (not optimal, but it's all I can tolerate 1st thing in morning at this time)
1st meal - 2 or 3 free range eggs, lightly cooked to retain the choline, plus roasted veg, usually bok choy and tri-colored sweet peppers, and a fruit usually applesauce, OJ, cantaloupe (anything easy to digest that is ripe and I'm not allergic to)
Snack - One or two Jennies brand Coconut Macaroon + black coffee, (again, not a balanced snack but it's all i can tolerate)
2nd meal - lean meat (chicken breast, steak, haddock, cod, zero fat tuna), a bit of coconut oil or ghee, or if it's tuna a bit of olive oil mayo, raw carrot sticks (which I cut lengthwise to not damage the fibers), ginger-ale (not a good choice but feels so good in my belly, I typically add a nettle leaf which is an anti-histamine, tincture to it {fyi, it's better as an infusion than a tea or tincture}), a piece of GF, dairy free, soy free chocolate. I do try to cook with bone broth or add collegen hydrolysate to muscle meat (like an arrowroot gravy or added to a sauce).
Snack - Jackson's brand potato chips, some leftover meat, red wine (sulfate free, organic)... not good I know but the coconut oil, salt, wine combo makes me sleep like a baby.

Mind you, this is not my ultimate diet plan. I am currently trying to keep my boyfriend alive who has much more severe and urgent health issues than me and I am basically his sole care-taker, plus I want to spend every spare second with him. Also, I am like you as far as work schedule, I spend about 11 to 12 hrs a day at work and commuting, don't get home till late.
I hear you when you say you would prefer to spend your valuable spare time with your girlfriend than doing food prep or other 'healthy' lifestyle things that are very isolating. I'm mean what's the point in attaining health if you have no spare time to enjoy the benefits?!?

Please do not be discouraged by RP's response. No one, including RP, can tell you what is best via 1 or 2 emails or phone consults for that matter. On that note; I do believe he was refering to sunlight Vt. D than supplement. The sun gives our cells energy. I'm hoping my incandescent light will do the same; I use it when I'm at most high stress time of day.

I personally don't bother with Cypro. It can be harsh on the liver, it can make one extremely lethargic, and it can cause constipation (those last two I have severely already).
I do Estoban, Energin, MitoLipin, Defibron, Oxidal, Kuinone, Lapodin, Aged Cascara Sagrada bark, an additional Emodin supplement, metylated b12 and folate, protease enzymes, Zyrtec, Liothyronine, Levothyronine, and Magnesium Bicarbonate water (which I make myself).
I am about to start with some Moringa powder and Artemisinin dried leaf extract.
 

Birdie

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Thank you all, @Zpol and @Birdie , please can you tell me how your diet looks like?
One big aggravation for me was glycine. I was fortunate to discover that last year when I ordered a glycine powder to help my husband's inflammation. Perhaps it is the glycine in gelatin powder that also causes me a flareup.

I avoid all the usual soy, gums, nuts, fake sugars... I use 1% milk with coffee and sugar. Oj and apple j. Eggs. Presently I need to use made up foods like chicken salad due to time restraints, but this is unusual. I usually cook broths and spend a lot of time cooking. In winter we always have soup on the stove, even now we do.

I follow all of Ray's advice that I can. Even after a few years, still important I find to keep reading his newsletters and advice. Way back, I have a biochemistry background. That helps me to evaluate and appreciate Ray Peat. The main element in my diet is to keep it very simple and try not to be hysterical and.... keep reading Ray Peat material.
 
OP
Broken man

Broken man

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@Broken man: I had leaky gut. I don't seem to anymore. Also had IBS-D, which is definitely gone. All gut symptoms much, much improved. What follows is a rundown of what helped me the most.

Try gelatin broth (like from oxtail and knuckle bones) as a staple of your diet for a while. The proteins in gelatin are essential for building healthy gut tissue. I consider this my #1 essential for maintaining a healthy gut.

I find too much powdered gelatin, even if it's boiled and well-cooked, to be problematic. Seems to cause an inflammatory response in a fairly short amount of time. This may be because it tends to be made from stuff like hooves and horns and not just knuckle or joint bones. There might be bacteria in gelatin that's resistant to cooking. Also, powdered gelatin is hard to work with and tastes the way barnyard **** smells, even when highly flavored.

Gelatin broth made from oxtail and knuckle bones, on the other had, is deeply savory and yummy.

IMO hydrolyzed collagen is next to useless. Don't bother with it. It's supposed to be good but I never noticed any difference when using it. Powdered gelatin has better therapeutic benefit to my skin and hair than hydrolyzed collagen, even though gelatin does give me an inflammatory response in my gut when HC does not.

Your diet is very "acidifying". All that sugar, fat, and protein does not replace minerals your body needs to keep systems running smoothly. Sugar is just empty calories with no nutritional value besides carbs, and chocolate and coffee are acidic and don't seem to replace minerals in sufficient quantity to keep up with with what metabolizing them uses. Protein doesn't have much mineral value except liver, and too much of that carries its own problems. At any rate, if you eat a lot of sugar it's really hard to keep up proper mineral stores over time. You might do okay for a while, especially if you're young, but over time it will get harder and harder.

Also, if your liver can't produce enough bile to emulsify the fat you eat properly, fat seems to just cause an acidic mess in the stomach (or at least, it has done this to me).

I can't elucidate why, exactly, but paying attention to alkalizing my diet (drinking mineral water, eating fruit and starch not sugar, no coffee, limiting chocolate, limiting fat, etc.) has been extremely helpful in helping me overcome my digestive issues, especially reflux.

I've also found that using digestive enzymes/bile acids has been essential. This may seem counterintuitive if you have acid reflux and especially in light of "alkalizing" recommendations, but many of us with gut problems have low enzymes, and what causes us heartburn is not over-production of bile and digestive enzymes but underproduction. Food sits undigested longer than it should, and can then push/percolate "up" into the esophagus. Properly digested food with a good transit time doesn't do this. Improperly digested food is also a player in systemic inflammation. WRT leaky gut, I think undigested food is supposed to escape through the enlarged junctions between cells in the gut tissues, carrying bacteria and endotoxin with it.

Taurine and glycine in combo are very helpful, as well. Those two are necessary for the production of bile in the liver, and many of us are lacking in them. I found TUDCA a very helpful supp, but read up on it before trying it. You shouldn't drink while you're taking it, and there may be other caveats. I found it very benign.

Antibiotics may be helpful, as well. I was forced to go on an undesirably extensive course of abx for couple of months, and it wound up being a blessing because in combo with all the other meausres my gut problems are pretty much cleared up now. They were getting better over time, and then the abx seemed to put me over the top. Caveat is that we don't want to use abx lightly, because they kill the good flora as well as the bad. Also, I did develop symptoms of ulcerative colitis for a couple days not long after I was completely done with the abx. After doing some research I found out that UC often develops after using the same abx I was given, for as long as I was on them. I used VSL 3 probiotic and a bacterial strain called clostridium butyricum (a butyrate producing strain) that completely resolved the UC symptoms in less 24 hours. Gone. TMI alert: it was so bad that I lost control of my bowels once, due to the extreme sudden urgency, and was living near the bathroom for a couple of days because of that nasty symptom of UC. So the quick resolution from probx was verifiable and not due to anything else.

Peat doesn't like probiotics and neither do most on this board, but I believe they can play a big role in recovery of gut issues, especially after abx use. Problem is that most of us don't use them properly...pouring them into a gut that's already got a poor gut flora ratio of good:bad isn't likely to yield good results because even the good guys die and can therefore exacerbate endotoxin problems (esp. if the gut is leaky). Also, using poor quality probx is next to useless.

But I found that in a gut that's been carpet bombed with strong abx and is essentially starting out "sterile", the "good guys" (bifido and lactobacilli strains like are found in VSL 3) can really, really help in keeping the bad guys that we're bound to ingest, or the bad guys we already have that are abx-resistant, in check. Bad bacteria is everywhere, is more ubiquitous than good, and we can't live or eat in sterile labs. So if we kill all our flora with abx, we have to implement some measures to allow the good guys to recover while still living our normal lives. Transient probiotic strains like bifidos and lactobacilli can overwhelm the bad guys while simultaneously allowing our native good guys to make a comeback. I credit VSL 3 and the clostidium butyricum ENTIRELY with resolving my short-lived UC symptoms. Well, that and not eating processed crap food, which is loaded with bad bacteria.

I now believe the role for probx is probably mostly maintenance...i.e., keeping the bad guys from running amok, rather than in actually resolving any extensive flora ratio problems on their own. Although for bacterial issues that aren't that far along yet, properly-used, high-quality probiotics are probably also useful, which is why they seem to work for some people but not for others. I used probx for my leaky gut and IBS issues for years with very limited success, but using them after this aggressive bout of abx, while keeping up with good, healthy lifestyle habits, has been a very enlightening and beneficial experience. I realize now a lot of my problems were bacterial, and that Peat is entirely right about the place of abx in health recovery. I had a prejudice against abx for a long time, but no longer. It was unwarranted, and came about because of an improper understanding of how they can and should be used. I think there's a similar misunderstanding by Peat and some others around here, about probiotics. Hopefully one day it can be similarly overcome. IMO a lot of people may be missing out on probx benefits, esp. after abx use.

Worth noting is that I don't take probx every day. I did for a couple of months, but now I'm down to once per week or every couple weeks as a prophylactic measure. No evidence of increased inflammation or any other symptoms of increased endotoxin load.

Anyway...that's all about that. Hope there's something in there of value to you. I wish you luck and success with your gut issues in the New Year!
Thank you so much, could you please wrote example of your diet? I find that I have some problem with gelatin from store but I am doing good on magnesium glycinate. I will buy pure glycine maybe. I am taking taurine 6-10 g about 8 months, I know that its helping but its not so big change. I am taking digestive enzymes too, its helping but they are expensive atleast for me. Tudca is great idea and I am not drinking about 6-7 months so thats not problem for me. Its bad that I cant find source of antibiotics, my doctor is not willing to give me prescription. Did you try allithiamine? I found that I am doing well on high doses of thiamine hcl but this form is weak for me. What about nicotine? I started with e cigarette, I have some friends which are doing okay with celiac disease and I think its because of smoking. Thank you again, you gave me ideas what I can do better.
 

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