I think I may have finally fixed my digestion

[dogtrainer]

I have been struggling for almost four years with really horrifically bad digestion. Long story short, my symptoms have been:

belching, perma-bloating, constipation, slow motility, loss of appetite (fatigue, dizziness, hair loss)

These symptoms came on suddenly after a year of intermittent fasting and never went away. It was determined early on that I was negative for both parasites and H Pylori.

I tried heroic doses of antimicrobials as well as pharma antibiotics. Garlic, allicin, oregano, berberine, cat's claw, ginger, mint, lactoferrin, pau darco, carrot salad (oh my god so much carrot salad), iodine, high dose thiamine, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12 in every possible permutation, elemental diet, monolaurin, caprylic acid, activated charcoal, high dose sodium, potassium, magnesium, taurine, thyroid, aspirin, digestive enzymes, Betaine HCL, inosinee, low fodmap, low carb, low fat, low protein. These things worked, kind of sort of? But only for a few days at a time before I was miserable again. And I was giving myself orthorexia and probably many other mental health problems taking 40 pills a day. I couldn't lick the back of a spoon to taste something I was cooking without taking 5 stomach acid pills and 2 digestive enzymes. I worried that heating the coconut oil for my carrot salad would cook the carrots and make them feed bacteria. I was popping ginger pills like candy.

I never had a "calm" settled feeling in the gut. It was more like "wow I took 4 grams of thiamine today and managed to fart twice - success!!" I'd have to take absolute boatloads of everything just to feel some semblance of normal. The only antibiotic that worked was Xifaxan, and only for 1 time. Subsequent times it never worked. I refused to take Neomycin or Cipro. Since I wasn't eating much I wasn't sh***ing much, so it was a vicious cycle where I couldn't eat enough to run my digestion, then my digestion would back up, and I would become bloated and full, so I wouldn't eat much. Take magnesium until I ***t water, then repeat.

The feeling of never hungry and never empty is terrifying.

I refused to take a SIBO breath test because I was convinced the lactulose would make me more bloated. The way I saw things, I was bloated from just water, bloated from plain chicken. What would lactulose do to me? I just assumed I had it. Problem was I had already tried everything they recommend for SIBO. Most people on forums don't have stellar results with antibiotics.

This December 2021, I was at my lowest point. couldn't eat anything on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Horrific hopelessness. Just feeling very very very bleak. So I started researching the candida angle more. And started trying other things. Found some writing on an old patent medicine called Wondro that had a cult following for gut problems and other ailments. Made that. Tried it. Got a massive headache. I've had headaches before in conjunction with other antimicrobials. Thought, hmmm maybe I have candida issues instead of SIBO. Took for a few days and felt a little better, but it is ******* heated flax oil and grosses me out to think about ingesting that long term.

So I started taking SF 722. Took that Jan 1-14. Felt alot better. Less bloated no belching. But still not very hungry and stools not great.

Started taking Vitamin D consistently and sitting under a sun lamp. Took cod liver oil for the retinol.

Got a stool test back. Turns out I have leaky gut. Zonulin is 10x what it should be. What could cause leaky gut? I dunno. Bacterial overgrowth, candida, Vitamin A deficiency? I dunno.

So I make a powder with slippery elm as a base. To coat the intestinal lining. Slippery elm isn't supposed to be "Peaty" but I was desperate. I add high dose MSM to it, because I read it can be antifungal in high doses. I added glutamine because I heard that is helpful for leaky gut. Took that a few days. Got a killer headache and was very thirsty. I consistently took it and started to feel better. Passing loads of gas. But it's passing. Yay! Hunger is returning.

Started taking PHGG, because I read it can increase transmit time. There are some studies saying it helps with bloating. Stools eventually become normal. Not "sh***ing water because I took magnesium." Just normal! I take it with homemade yogurt. Bloating went away. I take this alongside a homemade yogurt.

I had 1 or 2 bad days this month. That's it! My stomach is so flat it's crazy. I know that it's too soon to say I'm cured, and no one wants to say cured anyway. Especially in SIBO world. You're coached to expect relapses for the rest of your life until you figure out the "root cause."

Now I feel very normal, energetic, happy, light. I just don't think about my stomach much. My diet is still limited mainly due to my extremely significant food fears/PTSD, but is expanding slowly. I eat garlic and onion now. Green beans, pineapple, eggs, yogurt, OJ. Can hardly believe it.

TL; DR

Struggled for for years. All anti-microbial approaches failed. Now I've been mostly better for a month.

Now taking the following and feel much better:

-high dose msm, in a slippery elm gel
-1 scoop PHGG (Perfect Pass)
-2 cups homemade yogurt (Custom Probiotics D Lactate Free)

 

[Ben.]

Nice man. I hope the sucess will last long/be permanent!

Since you didn't include it in your TL;DR, the vitamin d and the sun lamp ... did that do much or anything for you?

with msm you mean Methylsulfonylmethane?

The food fear goes away with time, simply by eventually having something and noticing it isn't problematic anymore from my experience ... believe me i know, i was there in 2019 scared of eating anything because alot of stuff caused literal pain.

---

This thread reminds me of another member who used ozone enemas and oral probiotics to fix his year long issues with success.

 

[dogtrainer]

Nice man. I hope the sucess will last long/be permanent!

Since you didn't include it in your TL;DR, the vitamin d and the sun lamp ... did that do much or anything for you?

with msm you mean Methylsulfonylmethane?

The food fear goes away with time, simply by eventually having something and noticing it isn't problematic anymore from my experience ... believe me i know, i was there in 2019 scared of eating anything because alot of stuff caused literal pain.

---

This thread reminds me of another member who used ozone enemas and oral probiotics to fix his year long issues with success.

I can’t be sure on the Vitamin D. I did have my blood test come back as deficient in Nov so I’m just taking it to correct that. I took it all December about 10K IU daily and just didn’t feel much of anything. But it’s possible that because I wasn’t eating much, I wasn’t absorbing it. Who knows.

Yes methylsulfonylmethane. There’s a naturopath who writes about it curing her gas and bloating. She makes a powder with it and sells it. Kathleen Janel.

 

[conrad0602]

This is amazing, congratulations! Of the items that helped, which do you think was the most pivotal for speeding transit and passing gas? Thinking of pulling the plug on some slippery elm... Thanks

 

[ecstatichamster]

it's very promising...now please PLEASE keep updating us. A month or two out would be ideal. Without that follow through it isn't meaningful but I'm happy for you for coming this far.

My best stomach tip has been 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of MCT oil with 25mg of powdered progesterone. It seems to really counter stomach issues including those I am getting when I eat spicy food (that previously I was fine with).

But it is nowhere near anything that would help you with your issues, congrats for at least getting this far and also thank you so much for sharing your journey, it is SO helpful @dogtrainer

 

[golder]

Can’t agree enough with the above. Please keep us posted with as much detail as you can, as we’re all routing for you (and everyone else’s) improvement!

 

[Tzheng2012]

I've also struggled with sibo for 3 years. Incredible gas and bloating and pain from pressure in the afternoons, and then finally release of that gas in the evening. Sometimes it would go on all night.

The antimicrobial approach with herbs worked for me along with 4-5 day fasts between each treatment. But while I'm mostly cured, I still get bloating and gas from beans, lesser so with onions and garlic, which is high fodmap.

I've addressed leaking gut (I'm hoping) with powder supplements that target mucosa health as well as taking ion biome which counters zonulin.

Do you think the pghh is the last thing i need to fix my bloating from beans (never had this problem before sibo btw)? I do have msm but didn't bother to take it. I may start now.

 

[dogtrainer]

This is amazing, congratulations! Of the items that helped, which do you think was the most pivotal for speeding transit and passing gas? Thinking of pulling the plug on some slippery elm... Thanks

PHGG & yogurt definitely. You’ll want to build up to a full scoop of powder. I mix ito yogurt, bowls of soup, coffee, etc. it’s essentially tasteless. Once I got to a full scoop I cut out my cascara and reduced my magnesium from 10 pills to 4. Stools became Bristol 3 or 4, Easy to pass and feel complete. whereas with osmotics, it was just watery diarrhea, with incomplete feeling. (This is bad for mineral status, btw). And these days I don’t have cramping, I don’t even have a noticeable sensation of motility. I just go right after coffee in the morning like a normal person, pass gas a few times throughout the day, and forget about my stomach. Before, I had a noticeable sensation of fullness/pain that I was always trying to get rid of with ginger. That has went away.

PHGG has been studied clinically for slow transit and bloating, you can look these up. It is even used as an adjunct to antibiotics and makes rifaxamin work better.

I have tried a few random probiotics in pill form but it just seems the benefit is negligible. For me, making yogurt was essential. Plus it’s tasty; has calcium, can add maple syrup, etc. You can research what strains to use. I like stuff from custom probiotics. I have also made yogurt with BB536 and that helped a ton but it wasn’t cost effective. Every other batch of pills would be dead on arrival. Bifido species are generally going to be able to be cultured in milk.

But would it have worked without a strong course of antifungals, gut healing attempts prior and during? That I can’t be sure. I started everything at roughly the same times.

 

[Perry Staltic]

Got a stool test back. Turns out I have leaky gut. Zonulin is 10x what it should be. What could cause leaky gut? I dunno. Bacterial overgrowth, candida, Vitamin A deficiency? I dunno.

Research butyrate + leaky gut

 

[Tzheng2012]

I'm using Larch prebiotic (precursor to butyrate) and also tributyrin. I can say that tributryin gives me a lot of gas

 

[dogtrainer]

I've also struggled with sibo for 3 years. Incredible gas and bloating and pain from pressure in the afternoons, and then finally release of that gas in the evening. Sometimes it would go on all night.

The antimicrobial approach with herbs worked for me along with 4-5 day fasts between each treatment. But while I'm mostly cured, I still get bloating and gas from beans, lesser so with onions and garlic, which is high fodmap.

I've addressed leaking gut (I'm hoping) with powder supplements that target mucosa health as well as taking ion biome which counters zonulin.

Do you think the pghh is the last thing i need to fix my bloating from beans (never had this problem before sibo btw)? I do have msm but didn't bother to take it. I may start now.

I really don’t know what will help you. I don’t eat beans haha. Beans are digested by a specific bacteria (whose name I cannot remember) but you could try to approach it microbially. There’s also an enzyme for beans.

PHGG has been studied specifically for bloating. And it works very well. As I have researched this more I am convinced that SIBO should be reframed as small intestinal dysbiosis. They didn’t just one day start overgrowing in the small intestine for no reason. Not all bacteria can grow all places. Temp, pH, oxygen tension, and motility are the main drivers of what grows where. And what’s already growing there affects what can grow there in a bidirectional fashion.

High oxygen leads to oxygen loving species. Low oxygen promotes normal species. I won’t even use the “good bacteria” word; I know people are allergic to that phrase lol. Any assault to the normal digestive process (Including fasting) can induce permeability. Antibiotics can easily kill large populations of the sensitive anaerobes that make SCFA. More oxygen, more oxygen loving species, more inflammation, more bloating. Colonic becomes less acidic, which induced more pathogenic overgrowth.

 

[dogtrainer]

it's very promising...now please PLEASE keep updating us. A month or two out would be ideal. Without that follow through it isn't meaningful but I'm happy for you for coming this far.

My best stomach tip has been 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of MCT oil with 25mg of powdered progesterone. It seems to really counter stomach issues including those I am getting when I eat spicy food (that previously I was fine with).

But it is nowhere near anything that would help you with your issues, congrats for at least getting this far and also thank you so much for sharing your journey, it is SO helpful @dogtrainer

I will absolutely update my progress in a month good or bad. I’ve had periods of improvement before but hopefully addressing the colonic milieu, gut lining, and fungus will help stabilize things for good.

 

[Tzheng2012]

Interesting about the oxygen idea.

I have tried the bean enzymes alpha galactodase or something, beano product. It seemed to do nothing at all for the gas after beans. I almost wonder if it's something else and not the specific starch or whatever not being digested.

 

[dogtrainer]

Interesting about the oxygen idea.

I have tried the bean enzymes alpha galactodase or something, beano product. It seemed to do nothing at all for the gas after beans. I almost wonder if it's something else and not the specific starch or whatever not being digested.

Gas after beans is pretty common even for regular folks unfortunately. You could sprout them a bit and see if that helps. Or reduce your quantity, etc.

You might also look into the fungal side of things.

 

[dogtrainer]

Research butyrate + leaky gut

I’m becoming convinced lack of butyrate producers was my problem.

 

[GreekDemiGod]

Is PHGG a specific product? Does guar gum powder work?

 

[revenant]

Interesting. I think my issues may be more fungal than bacterial, but recently I've found berberine and saccharomyces boulardii somewhat helpful. I've also tried most things on your list but not PHGG.

 

[InChristAlone]

I always felt like guar gum caused bloating. I mean the stuff found in things like ice cream and cream cheese. And isn't there a risk of a blockage with that stuff? I may be thinking of a different gum but just be careful with it!

 

[dogtrainer]

Is PHGG a specific product? Does guar gum powder work?

No.

Regular guar gum can actually cause a bloating or blockage due to its extremely high viscosity.

PHGG is guar gum that has been (as the acronym would suggest) partially hydrolyzed. This makes it less viscous and you can take a lot of it without risk of blockage. It didn’t cause bloating for me and usually doesn’t for most people.

 

[dogtrainer]

I always felt like guar gum caused bloating. I mean the stuff found in things like ice cream and cream cheese. And isn't there a risk of a blockage with that stuff? I may be thinking of a different gum but just be careful with it!

Yes you shouldn’t take a lot of guar gum, but the tiny amounts found in cheeses likely aren’t going to block you up.

PHGG is a different thing. Yes I’m definitely going to watch my symptoms closely. At the end of the day everything has some level of risk (including doing nothing and continuing on not being able to eat). Let’s hope this doesn’t give me bowel cancer in 20 years ?.

In all seriousness, I’m not, like, LOVING the fact that I take an industrial powder every day from a weird bean plant lol but I am loving that I’m finally able to feel normal again. I hope I’ll be able to get off it once my microbiome(??) or gut lining(??) or colonic pH(??) is restored or improved.