Suggestions for low stomach acid, yeast overgrowth?

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Mar 28, 2021
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I have been struggling with a digestive problem that manifests mainly in the upper GI (stomach bloating, belching, nausea, etc).

I also suffer from fatigue (especially after meals), brain fog, and sleep issues (no problem falling asleep but wake up 4-5 times throughout the night).

I have been on a low carb diet for about 3 years at this point and all my symptoms immediately started after an extended fast (6 days, the final 3 of which were without water).

TSH is 1.77, but I suspect there is a problem with the thyroid even though the lab numbers look okay (most of the time my underarm temperature is 97.5 F). My stomach acid was tested, and it was very low. I want to reintroduce carbs into my diet, but it was also found I have a yeast overgrowth (stool test) so I was advised against this.

I am currently working with a functional medicine doctor who has me on a slew of supplements (adrenal, thyroid, stomach acid, and antifungal agents) but after 4 months there is little improvement.

My diet right now is essentially lamb, occasional seafood, liver 2x a week, occasional berries, coconut oil and bone broth. Recently added in carrot salad or white mushrooms at every meal. Due to food antigen testing I was advised to cut out beef, dairy, and eggs.

I was also told to cut out coffee due to the adrenal test (which looks fine to me) but I am incapable of getting any work done without it so I have been drinking it recently.

Maybe dessicated thyroid or T3 next? Is there a way to reintroduce carbs into my diet? Is aspirin safe to use or will it make my stomach problem worse?
 

Wen

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Mar 13, 2021
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Your condition sounds similar to mine. I haven’t been on low carb but was a few years back and still haven’t fixed the issues. I also sleep a long time every night and don’t feel refreshed upon waking - how about you?

I read here that glycine and taurine are good for stomach issues so have been taking that recently. Also make sure you chew everything thoroughly to aid your stomach acid.
 

EIRE24

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I'd try adding gelatine to your diet. It has helped me massively with digestive issues.
 
OP
Outdoctrination
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Yes I did have the problem with not feeling refreshed upon waking. Have you checked your thyroid labs? Surprisingly, once I started drinking coffee again my sleep improved where I could get up and be ready to go.
Your condition sounds similar to mine. I haven’t been on low carb but was a few years back and still haven’t fixed the issues. I also sleep a long time every night and don’t feel refreshed upon waking - how about you?

I read here that glycine and taurine are good for stomach issues so have been taking that recently. Also make sure you chew everything thoroughly to aid your stomach acid.
 

ursidae

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Feb 12, 2020
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what test did you do to diagnose your low stomach acid? B3, B1, histidine, zinc, salt have helped some people here who have this problem (personlly I still have it)
 

ursidae

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I did the heidelberg stomach acid test with my functional med doc. I am eating probably 2 pounds of red meat per day so B3, zinc and salt are good but maybe some thiamine could help.
What did your functional med doc prescribe you?
 

Wen

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Joined
Mar 13, 2021
Messages
70
Yes I did have the problem with not feeling refreshed upon waking. Have you checked your thyroid labs? Surprisingly, once I started drinking coffee again my sleep improved where I could get up and be ready to go.
I definitely have thyroid issues, my temperature is always low but haven’t been able to fix it. Coffee doesn’t help me like it does you either. I’m still working on it.

Anyway I didn’t want to hijack your thread, just wanted to see if you also had the issue I did since your symptoms seem similar to mine.
 
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Sam321

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Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
652
I have been struggling with a digestive problem that manifests mainly in the upper GI (stomach bloating, belching, nausea, etc).

I also suffer from fatigue (especially after meals), brain fog, and sleep issues (no problem falling asleep but wake up 4-5 times throughout the night).

I have been on a low carb diet for about 3 years at this point and all my symptoms immediately started after an extended fast (6 days, the final 3 of which were without water).

TSH is 1.77, but I suspect there is a problem with the thyroid even though the lab numbers look okay (most of the time my underarm temperature is 97.5 F). My stomach acid was tested, and it was very low. I want to reintroduce carbs into my diet, but it was also found I have a yeast overgrowth (stool test) so I was advised against this.

I am currently working with a functional medicine doctor who has me on a slew of supplements (adrenal, thyroid, stomach acid, and antifungal agents) but after 4 months there is little improvement.

My diet right now is essentially lamb, occasional seafood, liver 2x a week, occasional berries, coconut oil and bone broth. Recently added in carrot salad or white mushrooms at every meal. Due to food antigen testing I was advised to cut out beef, dairy, and eggs.

I was also told to cut out coffee due to the adrenal test (which looks fine to me) but I am incapable of getting any work done without it so I have been drinking it recently.

Maybe dessicated thyroid or T3 next? Is there a way to reintroduce carbs into my diet? Is aspirin safe to use or will it make my stomach problem worse?
1. Have you had a sibo test?
2. 1000 mg of charcoal and 485mg of cascara has flushed a ton of candida out of me and sped up my motility (also good for reducing bacteria and endotoxin)
3. In my experience, when I clear up the bacterial infection, the burden on my liver that was caused due to it having to filter all the endotoxin lifts. This allowed my liver to convert t4 into t3 (there was nothing wrong with my thyroid) and my temp and pulse went up and started to respond to increased sugar.
4. If you deprive candida it actually just roots into your intestine and increase the likelihood of a systemic candida infection in the blood (aka, dead in a week).

Ray has basically told me, increase thyroid (assuming t3 in my case to speed up peristalsis) and carrot salad/mushrooms to slowly clean out gut environment over time. The idea is if you can bump your metabolism up enough and clear out some of the baddies in your gut, the candida will be killed off by your immune system (if the candida is actually causing a problem in the first place since its always present to some degree in the gut.

Godspeed.
 

Sam321

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I did the heidelberg stomach acid test with my functional med doc. I am eating probably 2 pounds of red meat per day so B3, zinc and salt are good but maybe some thiamine could help.
Thiamine is also crucial for metabolic energy production as well as producing stomach acid.
 

golder

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May 10, 2018
Messages
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1. Have you had a sibo test?
2. 1000 mg of charcoal and 485mg of cascara has flushed a ton of candida out of me and sped up my motility (also good for reducing bacteria and endotoxin)
3. In my experience, when I clear up the bacterial infection, the burden on my liver that was caused due to it having to filter all the endotoxin lifts. This allowed my liver to convert t4 into t3 (there was nothing wrong with my thyroid) and my temp and pulse went up and started to respond to increased sugar.
4. If you deprive candida it actually just roots into your intestine and increase the likelihood of a systemic candida infection in the blood (aka, dead in a week).

Ray has basically told me, increase thyroid (assuming t3 in my case to speed up peristalsis) and carrot salad/mushrooms to slowly clean out gut environment over time. The idea is if you can bump your metabolism up enough and clear out some of the baddies in your gut, the candida will be killed off by your immune system (if the candida is actually causing a problem in the first place since its always present to some degree in the gut.

Godspeed.
This is a great post, thanks for the level of detail here. Out of curiosity as you have experience here, if the SIBO test comes back positive, in your educated opinion what’s protocol would you use here to eradicate it?
 

Sam321

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Jan 27, 2021
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652
This is a great post, thanks for the level of detail here. Out of curiosity as you have experience here, if the SIBO test comes back positive, in your educated opinion what’s protocol would you use here to eradicate it?
Depends on the type of sibo. Thats why you get a sibo laculose test. Also try to get a stool test for candida and h pylori. If you have the money, you want to know what you are dealing with as certain antibiotics are better than others.

I am dealing with hydrogen and methane producing sibo, the most difficult to get rid of, so I can only speak on that.

I think it makes sense to leave antibiotics for last, since they can **** your ***t up especially if you have a candida issue (don't care how much praise people give them, penecillin got me to where I'm at).

1. Cut out all the stress you can out of your life and pursue things that make you feel happy. You stomach acidity is crushed under stress and bolstered by positive mental states. You can't digest properly when you are in a hormonal state created for running from predators.

2. Support stomach acidity so you don't feed the bacteria. ACV, coffee, bitters, Betaine hcl, salt, b vitamins can help. I think T3 will also help.

3. Carrot salad and mushrooms with 1 tablespoon refined coconut oil and vinegar splashed on top. Cascara sagrada to speed up your molitility so bacteria has less time to produce endotoxin and your gut has less time to absorb it. Taking charcoal at the same time seems to be dragging alot of biofilm out of me.

Give this some time. Like a couple weeks or a couple months? Pay attention to see if symptoms subside.

If they dont...

Then and only then would I move onto antibiotics.

Seems like the most successful antibiotic course for methane sibo is pairing rifaximin and neomycin. Rifaximin alone has been shown to be like 50% clinically successful at resolving methane sibo, but paired with neomycin the success rate bumps up to the 80% range. I am planning to keep up the carrot salad, charcoal, and cascara during this course to make sure the stuff that is being killed off if pulled out of me and hopefully candida is kept at bay. When finished take megasporebiotics to repopulate the large intestine to crowd out opportunistic candida.

You might not need to go this nuts if you only have hydrogen sibo and could maybe use a more mild antibiotic approach were that the case.

Thats all I got right now. Heh. I'll post how I manage to rid myself of this demon in my gut.
 

Sam321

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Joined
Jan 27, 2021
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When do you take charcoal? Morning empty stomach, evening empty stomach, or other?
2 hours after any meal with carrot salad or mushroom and cascara. It could be me but my sleep has improved too. Speeding up motility is giving that ***t less time to sit in me and hence less time to release die off toxins. I kinda overlooked it when I would hear Ray talk about the importance of optimal bowel movements and stuff, but man, its probably one of the more important pieces of the puzzle in my experience.

Candida is gross man.
 

golder

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Joined
May 10, 2018
Messages
2,851
2 hours after any meal with carrot salad or mushroom and cascara. It could be me but my sleep has improved too. Speeding up motility is giving that ***t less time to sit in me and hence less time to release die off toxins. I kinda overlooked it when I would hear Ray talk about the importance of optimal bowel movements and stuff, but man, its probably one of the more important pieces of the puzzle in my experience.

Candida is gross man.
Couldn’t agree more with the emphasis on digestive health. It’s definitely the biggest piece of the puzzle for me too, and many others I imagine. Do you think (assuming you’re eating 3-4 times a day), that 1000mg charcoal 2 hours after every meal is safe long term, so 4 grams a day? I really want to get on top of it, but that sounds like quite a lot?
 

Sam321

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Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
652
Couldn’t agree more with the emphasis on digestive health. It’s definitely the biggest piece of the puzzle for me too, and many others I imagine. Do you think (assuming you’re eating 3-4 times a day), that 1000mg charcoal 2 hours after every meal is safe long term, so 4 grams a day? I really want to get on top of it, but that sounds like quite a lot?
Oh no hah, I meant 1000mg once a day. Start out with 500mg to make sure you tolerate it. 500mg might actually be enough.

Maybe do the charcoal for a few weeks only? A week everyday. 2nd week every other day. 3rd week every third day?
 
OP
Outdoctrination
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
53
1. Have you had a sibo test?
2. 1000 mg of charcoal and 485mg of cascara has flushed a ton of candida out of me and sped up my motility (also good for reducing bacteria and endotoxin)
3. In my experience, when I clear up the bacterial infection, the burden on my liver that was caused due to it having to filter all the endotoxin lifts. This allowed my liver to convert t4 into t3 (there was nothing wrong with my thyroid) and my temp and pulse went up and started to respond to increased sugar.
4. If you deprive candida it actually just roots into your intestine and increase the likelihood of a systemic candida infection in the blood (aka, dead in a week).

Ray has basically told me, increase thyroid (assuming t3 in my case to speed up peristalsis) and carrot salad/mushrooms to slowly clean out gut environment over time. The idea is if you can bump your metabolism up enough and clear out some of the baddies in your gut, the candida will be killed off by your immune system (if the candida is actually causing a problem in the first place since its always present to some degree in the gut.

Godspeed.
1. I have had the sibo breath test and it came back negative
2. Where did you get the charcoal/cascara?
3. Are you taking a thyroid supplement? I've been on @haidut's tyromix (4 drops a day) still with little improvement. Going to try cypro next, looks like there's some promise for it with "IBS"
4. Yeah I'm back eating 250-300 g carbs per day, mostly from honey, OJ, white potatoes and some fruit
 
Joined
Feb 4, 2021
Messages
15
Depends on the type of sibo. Thats why you get a sibo laculose test. Also try to get a stool test for candida and h pylori. If you have the money, you want to know what you are dealing with as certain antibiotics are better than others.

I am dealing with hydrogen and methane producing sibo, the most difficult to get rid of, so I can only speak on that.

I think it makes sense to leave antibiotics for last, since they can **** your ***t up especially if you have a candida issue (don't care how much praise people give them, penecillin got me to where I'm at).

1. Cut out all the stress you can out of your life and pursue things that make you feel happy. You stomach acidity is crushed under stress and bolstered by positive mental states. You can't digest properly when you are in a hormonal state created for running from predators.

2. Support stomach acidity so you don't feed the bacteria. ACV, coffee, bitters, Betaine hcl, salt, b vitamins can help. I think T3 will also help.

3. Carrot salad and mushrooms with 1 tablespoon refined coconut oil and vinegar splashed on top. Cascara sagrada to speed up your molitility so bacteria has less time to produce endotoxin and your gut has less time to absorb it. Taking charcoal at the same time seems to be dragging alot of biofilm out of me.

Give this some time. Like a couple weeks or a couple months? Pay attention to see if symptoms subside.

If they dont...

Then and only then would I move onto antibiotics.

Seems like the most successful antibiotic course for methane sibo is pairing rifaximin and neomycin. Rifaximin alone has been shown to be like 50% clinically successful at resolving methane sibo, but paired with neomycin the success rate bumps up to the 80% range. I am planning to keep up the carrot salad, charcoal, and cascara during this course to make sure the stuff that is being killed off if pulled out of me and hopefully candida is kept at bay. When finished take megasporebiotics to repopulate the large intestine to crowd out opportunistic candida.

You might not need to go this nuts if you only have hydrogen sibo and could maybe use a more mild antibiotic approach were that the case.

Thats all I got right now. Heh. I'll post how I manage to rid myself of this demon in my gut.
Great set of suggestions. I've always wanted to try charcoal. But i can't seem to find a good particle size. Some say the powder form could get absorbed into the blood. What kind do you use? Any precautions to be taken if one if hypo? Thanks
 

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