My appetite is BACK after 4 years! A cocktail of Augmentin + Lactoferrin + Famotidine + S.boulardii cured my mystery gut issues (H. pylori?)

[Korven]

Something went terribly wrong with my health back in 2018-2019.

The worst symptoms that have been plaguing me:

Constant nausea and a "sickness feeling", wonky digestion, extreme fatigue, unintentional weight loss, chest pain on and off, exercise intolerance/CFS-like symptoms (post exercise malaise), rosacea, red dry eyes, breaking out in hives... and NO APPETITE.

I still don't know why I got so sick. It may have been due to untreated celiac disease, or a stint of carnivore in 2018 which wiped out my good gut bacteria, or a case of food poisoning from drinking raw milk in 2019. Or maybe all of them? Or bad luck?

Anyways I have managed to improve about 90% through different diet and supplement experiments.

However - what I couldn't seem to figure out was the complete loss of appetite. It was driving me nuts never being hungry or wanting to eat. I had to force feed myself to not lose any more weight.

I started suspecting SIBO and/or H.pylori as culprits. Natural antimicrobials like mastic gum, Pylopass, lactoferrin, kefir, oregano oil, etc did help some, but it was never a full cure.

So I decided I was going to go after the gut critters with a combo of Augmentin + Lactoferrin + Famotidine + S.boulardii.

Why this cocktail?

• Augmentin (amoxicillin + clavulanic acid) 500/125 x 2 daily

Basically to kill the bugs! Augmentin contains clavulanic acid which is an beta-lactamase inhibitor, preventing drug-resistant bacteria from destroying amoxicillin.

• Lactoferrin 250 mg x 2 daily

I had already been taking this for 1 year prior and seen awesome results. Chelates iron and steals it from bugs. Powerful antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agent, most importantly has a synergistic effect when taken together with antibiotics:

"However, the synergism effect of LF with antimicrobial compounds (antibiotics) after optimising the MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) based tests were found to be remarkable. To specify some of the phenotypic effects of LF in synergism with antibiotics: the isolates producing ESBL (extended-spectrum β-lactamases) had turned non-ESBL; quinolone resistant isolates had turned susceptible; MRSA (methicillin resistant S. aureus) had turned MSSA (Methicillin susceptible) and vancomycin resistant Enterococci (VRE) had turned susceptible. The results were found to be totally reproducible each time." Effect of Synergistic Action of Bovine Lactoferrin with Antibiotics on Drug Resistant Bacterial Pathogens

"The most striking observation is that Lf increases the inhibitory activity of penicillin up to 4-fold in most penicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus strains, whereas this increase was 4- to 16-fold in penicillin-resistant strains. Indeed, Lf reduces beta-lactamase activity in S. aureus strains producing this enzyme." Utilization of lactoferrin to fight antibiotic-resistant mammary gland pathogens - PubMed

Use of lactoferrin for Helicobacter pylori eradication. Preliminary results - PubMed

These results suggest that lactoferrin could be a new, effective agent when added to antimicrobial therapy for the eradication of H. pylori. This treatment schedule could be proposed for larger trials of H. pylori eradication therapy, focusing on the excellent preliminary cure rate, good...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

• Famotidine 20 mg x 2 daily

Raises intragastric pH in order to wipe out H pylori

• S. boulardii 5 billion CFU x 2 daily

Reduces risk of C.diff infection

I herx'ed pretty badly the first couple days (but really nothing in comparison to the years of suffering I've gone through) but managed to endure 8 days. Knock on wood it's been a few days since doing this protocol and I have been consistently hungry for my meals, which is a wonderful feeling!

This is not medical advice. Try at your own risk. If you start this and haven't taken lactoferrin before I would suspect the herx symptoms would be awful.

Cheers, I just wanted to share this if someone else has similiar mystery gut issues and loss of appetite.

 

[Dutchie]

Wow.... congratulations!
Did you ever do a stool test or such to asses if and what kind of dysbiosis (bacterial,mold/fungus/candida,parasites) you got going on?

 

[Blossom]

Fantastic @Korven! I’m so happy for you and appreciate you sharing your success.

 

[Korven]

Wow.... congratulations!
Did you ever do a stool test or such to asses if and what kind of dysbiosis (bacterial,mold/fungus/candida,parasites) you got going on?

Thank you @Dutchie !

I did get one stool test done in 2021 which wasn't very helpful. I didn't have any bad bacteria if I remember correctly, but I had ZERO good gut bacteria like bifido, akkermansia, e.coli. So I spent a year trying different probiotics, prebiotics, kefir, to build back my microbiome. Took another stool test in 2022... still zero good gut bacteria

Maybe I should have gotten a more comprehensive stool test done? The one I had access in Sweden was pretty barebones in terms of showing parasites, fungus, pancreatic enzymes, etc, compared to other I have seen.

I stopped going to doctors at some point, I was so fed up with them telling me I'm "stressed". But I think maybe it would have been worth visiting a gastroenterologist for some H pylori or SIBO testing.

 

[Korven]

Fantastic @Korven! I’m so happy for you and appreciate you sharing your success.

Thanks, yes me too!

You and others here have been a great support in figuring out why I got so sick (and have been my entire life more or less).

My main hypothesis is that untreated celiac (or non gluten celiac disease), together with a bad case of food poisoning, is what caused SIBO and all the rest of all my symptoms.I do best with zero gluten in my diet.

 

[Dutchie]

@Korven hmm, the 'false negatives' and/or lack of proper measurement is why I held offdoing such a costly biome test as well.
Though I'm also curious, bc I can't seem to get some issues under control.

It's speculation,but I doubt a gastro would've been helpful. I've seen so many on Sibo forums complain about being dismissed by their gastro.

 

[Korven]

Found this note on my Cronometer from 31 Oct 2020:

"Feels like I've hit "rock bottom" with my health. Feeling like Im disintegrating slowly, feeling poisoned or toxic 24/7, no energy, can't sleep/wake up all the time, very tired and can't walk or exercise = symptoms become worse , skin issues still flaring, feeling weak and sarcopenic, have lost 15 kg, do not have energy to talk or think, blue anemic cold hands, impossible to do anything pretty much, low grade depression"

Damn I was pretty messed up

 

[Korven]

@Korven hmm, the 'false negatives' and/or lack of proper measurement is why I held offdoing such a costly biome test as well.
Though I'm also curious, bc I can't seem to get some issues under control.

It's speculation,but I doubt a gastro would've been helpful. I've seen so many on Sibo forums complain about being dismissed by their gastro.

I think they can be quite helpful, but the problem is that you have to do them somewhat regularly to assess if you're heading in the right direction. And if each biome test is 100$ that is a lot of money (potentially down the drain).

edit: I think one viable strategy is to focus on getting back 'keystone species' like Bifidobacterium or Akkermansia. Through cross‐feeding these bacteria can then re-populate the gut with other healthier bacteria strains. But like I said, I tried really hard to do this without any results...

 

[Dutchie]

I think they can be quite helpful, but the problem is that you have to do them somewhat regularly to assess if you're heading in the right direction. And if each biome test is 100$ that is a lot of money (potentially down the drain).

Hmm....the ones I've seen cost even more than €100

 

[Blossom]

@Korven, thank you for this timely post. I recently started making homemade yogurt and I find it really helpful. I discovered a recipe in the book Super Gut (Disclaimer: I don’t agree with everything he recommends) that calls for a long fermentation time of 36 hours at 106 degrees Fahrenheit to increase the amount of viable organisms compared to taking a probiotic or eating store bought yogurt. I’ve been trying a lot of things over the past several years to help me expand my diet so I figured I’d give this a try.

 

[Hermes]

@Korven

Thanks for sharing your positive experience with this combination. I'm in a similar boat, I can totally relate to your journal entry on the chronometer. It actually sounds like you were experiencing severe depression at the time. Probably SIBO is a much bigger problem than a supposed lack of diversity in the gut microbiome. I've had good results with ACV and lactoferrin. Curious to try your combo myself, only the famotidine is a bit hard to buy for me. Anyway, repopulating with good microbes doesn't seem like an easy task. Any ideas on what might work?

The thing is, all that fibre is usually more problematic than helpful in SIBO. Probably get SIBO under control first, then it makes sense to work on a good balanced microbiome. Maybe a balanced microbiome isn't all that relevant to begin with, totally unsure about it, tough.

 

[Ben.]

wow awsome. good job korven! hope this remains consistent for you!

if i understood correctly your still on the cocktail?

 

[Korven]

wow awsome. good job korven! hope this remains consistent for you!

if i understood correctly your still on the cocktail?

...I suck at explaining things

What I tried to write is that I took the Augmentin and so on for 8 days. During the antibiotic course I did notice some improvements but my appetite was overall pretty bad due to herx symptoms.

It's been a few days since I stopped this protocol and my appetite has went through the roof. Probably because there is no acid suppression from the Famotidine.

And thank you Ben!

 

[Korven]

@Korven

Thanks for sharing your positive experience with this combination. I'm in a similar boat, I can totally relate to your journal entry on the chronometer. It actually sounds like you were experiencing severe depression at the time. Probably SIBO is a much bigger problem than a supposed lack of diversity in the gut microbiome. I've had good results with ACV and lactoferrin. Curious to try your combo myself, only the famotidine is a bit hard to buy for me. Anyway, repopulating with good microbes doesn't seem like an easy task. Any ideas on what might work?

The thing is, all that fibre is usually more problematic than helpful in SIBO. Probably get SIBO under control first, then it makes sense to work on a good balanced microbiome. Maybe a balanced microbiome isn't all that relevant to begin with, totally unsure about it, tough.

Yeah I was having a pretty rough time mentally. It's difficult for me to relive and put into words tbh.

I did spend a lot of time and money in trying to repopulate my gut with healthy microbes, but it never helped much or moved the needle for me as far as symptoms goes. As I mentioned I did several stool tests and just wasn't able to get back any good gut bacteria despite my efforts. Maybe it's pointless to do so if you have a raging bacterial infection? Eradicating SIBO or H.pylori, or whatever bad bug you have, should lead to improvements in the microbiome because you don't have a bunch of bad bugs eating all the leftover food/fiber.

Starchy foods and most fiber made me feel terribly sick before. I was forced to eat a starch-free diet of mostly milk and meat and some berries. I remember following advice on how to restore bifido by taking inulin and getting insane chest pain and body inflammation. However now I can most starches with no symptoms (no gluten though). I guess that is a sign of a healthier microbiome?

One caveat is that some report that taking specific prebiotics or probiotics is what cured their SIBO. So I guess sometimes it's not as simple as "kill bad bug".

 

[Korven]

@Korven, thank you for this timely post. I recently started making homemade yogurt and I find it really helpful. I discovered a recipe in the book Super Gut (Disclaimer: I don’t agree with everything he recommends) that calls for a long fermentation time of 36 hours at 106 degrees Fahrenheit to increase the amount of viable organisms compared to taking a probiotic or eating store bought yogurt. I’ve been trying a lot of things over the past several years to help me expand my diet so I figured I’d give this a try.

That sounds cool, do you need any specific yogurt bacteria to get started? I have read about L reuteri yogurt being pretty good

 

[Dutchie]

@Korven, thank you for this timely post. I recently started making homemade yogurt and I find it really helpful. I discovered a recipe in the book Super Gut (Disclaimer: I don’t agree with everything he recommends) that calls for a long fermentation time of 36 hours at 106 degrees Fahrenheit to increase the amount of viable organisms compared to taking a probiotic or eating store bought yogurt. I’ve been trying a lot of things over the past several years to help me expand my diet so I figured I’d give this a try.

That's the Sibo yoghurt...the one that's recommended to be made with BioGaia l.reuteri, right?

 

[Blossom]

That sounds cool, do you need any specific yogurt bacteria to get started? I have read about L reuteri yogurt being pretty good

He does specifically recommend L. Reuteri and some others in the book. I bought one of the multiple strain probiotic capsules he mentioned as good for using as a starter and it has L. Reuteri in it. I’ve noticed L. Reuteri is talked about positively a lot in longevity circles as well. I do find the yogurt is helpful for me for sleep and improved BM’s. Those were really my only two remaining issues that I still felt weren’t where I’d like them to be since my floxing and focusing on replenishing good bacteria was the only thing left to try besides FMT (which I really don’t want to do)!

 

[Blossom]

That's the Sibo yoghurt...the one that's recommended to be made with BioGaia l.reuteri, right?

I believe so. He also mentions something I’d never heard of called SIFO for short for fungal overgrowth. I do okay with symptoms as long as I follow a limited diet but I’d really like to incorporate more foods again.

 

[Korven]

He does specifically recommend L. Reuteri and some others in the book. I bought one of the multiple strain probiotic capsules he mentioned as good for using as a starter and it has L. Reuteri in it. I’ve noticed L. Reuteri is talked about positively a lot in longevity circles as well. I do find the yogurt is helpful for me for sleep and improved BM’s. Those were really my only two remaining issues that I still felt weren’t where I’d like them to be since my floxing and focusing on replenishing good bacteria was the only thing left to try besides FMT (which I really don’t want to do)!

Thanks that sounds great! I will definitely try making my own L. reuteri yogurt. It should be a good opportunity for me to start a new healthy society of gut critters.

 

[Dutchie]

I believe so. He also mentions something I’d never heard of called SIFO for short for fungal overgrowth. I do okay with symptoms as long as I follow a limited diet but I’d really like to incorporate more foods again.

Yeah,I've seen Sifo being mentioned a couple of times on Sibo boards.
Ofcourse there are many types of funghi, but I wonder if Sifo is partially just a new trendy marketing name for what once was called Candidiasis/Candida overgrowth, to make a buck of people.