THE BEST Of TIMES, THE WORST Of TIMES

[Jennifer]

I didn't block your calls

Ah, so I'm dealing with unanswered prayers then. Fair enough! Not really, but you're God so I'm forced to except it!

Anyhow, while I have you on the line, can we discuss your plans to end world hunger, sex trafficking, slave labor and the economic crisis? Oh and Charlie's teeth! I really need to talk to you about Charlie's teeth. And about all my female issues. Every...last...one...of...them.

God? You still there!?

According to your dexa scan it seems you have a direct hot line to Him!

LOL Charlie! It appears I may have been dialing the wrong number. :?

I found this from one of Ray's articles:

"Even seemingly identical x-ray machines, or the same machine at a different time, can give very different estimates of bone density.[3-10] Radiologists evaluating the same images often reach very different conclusions.[11] Changes in the tissue water and fat content can make large differences in apparent bone density,[12] and estrogen, which affects those, could appear to cause improved bone density, when it is merely causing a generalized inflammatory condition, with edema. A machine that is accurate when measuring an aluminum model, won’t necessarily give meaningful results when the composition of the tissue, including the bone marrow, has changed. Calcification of soft tissues can create the impression of increased bone density.[13] Studies of large groups of people show such small annual losses of bone density (around 1%), especially in the neck of the femur (which is important in hip fractures) that the common technical errors of measurement in an individual seem very large." RP

When I had the first DEXA scan done, I was only around 80 pounds and am now 110. I now wonder if that 30 pound weight gain could of falsely elevated my scores. Though, the decrease in bone pain has to be a good sign, right?

Okay, seriously tho. I know from personal experience that gut irritation that results in chronic diarrhea will drastically reduce your CO2 levels. Lowered CO2 triggers the release of even more serotonin and the downward spiral continues. If I were you, I would avoid milk while you are doing the raw garlic. I can't remember Jennifer, are you taking thyroid meds?

See, I don't have chronic diarrhea if I don't have juice. The day before I decided to do the garlic, I had a bout of diarrhea after having milk, but that was a rarity. If it weren't for the hives/redness on my cheeks that I get from it, I'd be golden. And I never use to get cramping from milk until fairly recently so I know it all has to be due to stress/estrogen.

This years has been unbelievably stressful with trying to heal my dog and cat from cancer, only to lose them both within 3 weeks of each other. Then about a month after that, my other dog had to have surgery to have a cancerous tumor removed from his eyelid. You'd never know I live in the country surrounded by woods and not a toxic waste dump.

I've talked with VoS about CO2 therapy and I just need to find a carbonics supplier in my area.

I cut out the milk, but now I'm not sure how I'll get enough protein.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

See, I don't have chronic diarrhea if I don't have juice. The day before I decided to do the garlic, I had a bout of diarrhea after having milk, but that was a rarity. If it weren't for the hives/redness on my cheeks that I get from it, I'd be golden. And I never use to get cramping from milk until fairly recently so I know it all has to be due to stress/estrogen.

This years has been unbelievably stressful with trying to heal my dog and cat from cancer, only to lose them both within 3 weeks of each other. Then about a month after that, my other dog had to have surgery to have a cancerous tumor removed from his eyelid. You'd never know I live in the country surrounded by woods and not a toxic waste dump.

I've talked with VoS about CO2 therapy and I just need to find a carbonics supplier in my area.

I cut out the milk, but now I'm not sure how I'll get enough protein.

Hmmm, well I guess I'm totally confused. I was thinking that you were doing the raw garlic because you had chronic diarrhea if you ate anything EXCEPT milk and you were suspecting SIBO and fungal dysbiosis in your guts. I guess I really have no idea what you are eating. I thought you could only eat milk and white sugar? Are you not able to eat eggs, cheese, seafood, steak and gelatin? Those are all good sources of protein. I would never have suggested you cut out milk if it was your only source of protein.

Have you had your CO2 checked? Mine was REALLY low at the height of my gut problems, but maybe yours isn't as bad as mine was if you aren't having chronic diarrhea. Bag breathing is easy and cheap...I guess I like the low-tech route, I'm a simpleton that way.

 

[Jennifer]

Hmmm, well I guess I'm totally confused. I was thinking that you were doing the raw garlic because you had chronic diarrhea if you ate anything EXCEPT milk and you were suspecting SIBO and fungal dysbiosis in your guts. I guess I really have no idea what you are eating. I thought you could only eat milk and white sugar? Are you not able to eat eggs, cheese, seafood, steak and gelatin? Those are all good sources of protein. I would never have suggested you cut out milk if it was your only source of protein.

Have you had your CO2 checked? Mine was REALLY low at the height of my gut problems, but maybe yours isn't as bad as mine was if you aren't having chronic diarrhea. Bag breathing is easy and cheap...I guess I like the low-tech route, I'm a simpleton that way.

I don't want to hijack your thread, but just want to clarify...

I was doing just milk, sugar and hydrolysate as an allergen free diet to heal up my gut because fruit/juices were giving me diarrhea and bloating and starches and veggies massive heartburn/reflux. My doctor had me drop the eggs to see if they were the source of my hives/digestive issues since I tested off the charts highly sensitive to them.

I've tried dropping the milk and did the potato juice protein and hydrolysate/sugared coconut water instead, but I was left feeling really cold and starving because I couldn't get enough calories on just those. I've tried every food combination out there, except for living off of meat, gelatin and sugar water only. At that point, I felt if I had to resort to that diet, I wasn't getting to the root cause.

After this last round of neomycin left me with a tongue completely covered in white with a sore throat and the worst brain fog I've ever had, my doctor was convinced I had a fungal infection. Before that, she was convinced I had SIBO and then she suspected high cortisol causing a leaky gut. After my saliva test and blood tests showed I didn't have high cortisol, she still felt my issues stemmed from a leaky gut. I had been tested for and tried everything under the sun and nothing had resolved my digestion issues so I did the raw garlic out of desperation.

The things that brings out the hives/inflamed skin the worse are, raw milk, cultured dairy/cheese, certain probiotics, shellfish and honey. But dairy is the one food where I don't get heartburn/acid reflux and were it actually relieves it. The heart burn/reflux only came about after being put on enzymes during RBTI.

I do bag breathing currently, but my blood CO2 levels have always been at the very top of the range or over anyway. Are blood levels at all accurate?

 

[thebigpeatowski]

I apologize in advance for this overly wordy update.

Below is a recap and then some. As many of you know, I have struggled with gut issues off and on for years, especially since my appendix ruptured in 2010.

I was pretty sure I had fungal issues which is one of the main reasons why I went low/zero carb.

I took a couple of rounds of Diflucan, initial improvement, but then symptoms returned.

I did Lufeneron with oral minconazole, that worked for a while too, but then even more and worse fungal issues (it had spread to places where I had never had it before), so it truly came back with a vengeance....worse than EVER.

I tried every combination of herbal anti-fungal known to mankind: rotated the oregano oil, caprylic acid, goldenseal/berberine, grapefruit seed extract, olive leaf and garlic religiously....drank the Pau d'Arco tea and starved myself into oblivion while trying to "starve out the candida". Minor improvements here and there, but never by any means was I cured or free from the clutches. My overall health was declining despite my OCD efforts and impressive supplementation program.

I ate boxes and boxes of probiotics, literally thousands of dollars worth. Every kind, every brand. Liquid kinds, 200 billion CFU's at a time, fancy doctor brands. I did the Colonix cleanse and colon hydro-therapy, again some mild improvement, but never achieved a long term cure....or health for that matter.

I felt like I was dying (and probably was) which is when I found Dr. Peat. I added carbs back in and ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE in my intestines. HOWEVER, as I implemented his ideas, all of my other fungal issues cleared up on their own. This was very confusing to me. I found it very odd that ADDING sugar to my diet would CURE the foot, crotch, ear, nose and scalp fungus that had plagued me for years. No more stinky salves and tea tree oil soaks....HOORAY! Eating MORE sugar is absolutely contrary to EVERYTHING you read on the net or in my doctor's office. In my opinion, Peat is 100% correct on this: raising temps/metabolism takes care of those kinds of fungal issues. Amazing.

Eager for more improvement gut-wise, I tried the crazy raw garlic Shock & Awe and was seemingly cured, so then I reasoned I must have had some sort of bacterial imbalance....perhaps C.diff? Months and months went by with no issues until I experienced a few mild episodes around the holidays. I thought maybe my symptoms were returning, but it never manifested, so I just blamed the few occasions on consuming A LOT of unfamiliar party foods, plus increased alcohol intake during the holidays. No biggee.

I became convinced that Peat was correct, merely fixing my diet/metabolism was what really had cured me and that I had simply nudged myself in the right direction with my herbal antibiotic shenanigans (looking back, perhaps they worked because they were anti-fungal). My digestion was absolutely stellar and I had no worries right up until Monday the 16th of this month.

That's the day that I took a single dose of Metronizadole. Within 3 hours of taking it ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE in my intestines. Insane bloating, gurgling, and profuse watery diarrhea for the next NINE days. It was completely unstoppable, no matter what I tried. Yesterday, I called my doc for the third time and begged for Nystatin, she finally relented and called a prescription in for me. I took one dose last night with dinner and one dose this morning with breakfast. Today I have NO bloating whatsoever, my guts are completely quiet and I had a perfectly normal bowel movement...just like nothing had ever happened. Wtf?

My beef with Peat is that he NEVER talks about people who cannot tolerate antibiotics. I clearly have a fungal imbalance in my colon. A grated carrot or sprinkling of Flowers of Sulfur on the tongue will never EVER fix this issue. WHY DOESN'T HE ADDRESS THIS??? Surely I'm not the only person on the planet that has been diagnosed with IBS, when what I really have is a virulent Diflucan-resistant form of fungus in my colon. I can actually feel it when it multiplies. It's like a nest in my cecum, normally I am unaware of it, but when it gets out of control it can irritate my ileo-cecal valve and also cause massive bloating in my transverse colon.

Eating huge amounts of fruit and sugar does NOT trigger it, taking antibiotics DOES. Oh, and my normally pink tongue is now coated with white fur, it took several days after the antibiotic for that symptom to show up. Nice.

I realize that everyone is different. We all have different gut flora, but I think with the rampant use of antibiotics in our culture that perhaps this FUNGAL imbalance is more common than people may realize. You have a stool culture done and they tell you that candida or other yeasts are normal commensal organisms....nothing to see here. Heck, I just read that even Saccharomyces boulardii can be pathogenic...


http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/41/11/1559.full

I ordered Nystatin powder today, apparently I'm going to have to take matters in to my own hands and go at this from the OTHER END. Even tho the Nystatin pills have completely stopped my diarrhea, bloating and misery in one dose, I want to make certain that this lingering nest of fungus is eradicated long enough for my own flora to keep it in check...sorry for my rant (it appears as tho I have diarrhea of the mouth now).

C'mon peeps....I can't be the ONLY one. What say you?

 

[thebigpeatowski]

NEWEST THEORY, version 2.1....There are indeed long term effects from having an appendectomy and NOBODY is talking about this.

My recent experience was as if my body went in to hyper overdrive in a desperate attempt to throw off the yeast/fungus that was rapidly accumulating in my colon following the single dose of Metroniadazole.

Technically speaking, I did not have an appendectomy, mine blew up, but still. My totally uneducated theory, based solely on my particular experiment of ONE, is that some peeps with NO appendix do not have the bacterial reserve capacity needed to mount a quick and speedy colonic gut flora re-population following total antibiotic annihilation.

Peeps suffering from appendicitis clearly already have a gut flora imbalance. In my particular case I had too much yeast/fungus and not enough of whatever keeps yeast in check. Being hypothyroid and malnourished for decades made it much worse and was perhaps the initial CAUSE of my appendicitis....SCORE ONE FOR PEAT.

Re-seeding for optimal balance has proven to be most difficult if not impossible, especially with probiotic pills from the top down. There is NO possible way to permanently overcome a gross imbalance with oral supplementation. Probies seem to be a total waste of time and money....SCORE TWO FOR PEAT.

Diet HUGELY dictates that which grows in your guts and also has a major impact on the immune system. I'm doing everything humanly possible and have seen enormous improvements, but sheesh a little resilience in the colon department would be nice. Most people I know don't have anywhere near the overreaction to antibiotics that I display.....WHY IS RP SO QUIET ON THIS??? Or have I missed it?

HOW CAN AN APPENDIXLESS OLD GAL REPOPULATE GUT FLORA FOR OPTIMUM BALANCE AND RESILIENCE??? I need to do something following my Nystatin assault. I have considered fecal microbiota transplant...not too keen on that option, at all.

Any ideas? Anybody? *crickets chirping*

 

[Peata]

I became convinced that Peat was correct, merely fixing my diet/metabolism was what really had cured me and that I had simply nudged myself in the right direction with my herbal antibiotic shenanigans (looking back, perhaps they worked because they were anti-fungal). My digestion was absolutely stellar and I had no worries right up until Monday the 16th of this month.

That's the day that I took a single dose of Metronizadole.

I don't have answers, but hopefully someone will come along to help.

But I was curious about why you took the metronizadole if you were doing OK. Did that medication give you your current problems or was the holiday eating what started it?

 

[tara]

My totally uneducated theory, based solely on my particular experiment of ONE, is that some peeps with NO appendix do not have the bacterial reserve capacity needed to mount a quick and speedy colonic gut flora re-population following total antibiotic annihilation.

In my similarly uneducated opinion, this seems at least plausible, verging on likely.

 

[BingDing]

From what I've read a fecal transplant is likely to be the best solution. The gross out factor is pretty high but they are being done every day and the success rate is outstanding. Might even be covered by insurance now, if that is a factor.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Did that medication give you your current problems or was the holiday eating what started it?

No, the holiday overindulging had nothing to do with this. My holiday hoo-haw resulted in a couple of slightly loose movements and only on occasion, never this profuse watery diarrhea.

My digestion and elimination were absolutely perfect all through January and half of Februrary. It wasn't until I took the single dose of Metronidazole that brought it on within hours, like 3 or 4 hours after I took it. I could not curb the diarrhea for over a week, truly it was non-stop pure liquid, nothing I took would even slow it down...until I took the Nystatin and literally overnight things were perfect again. My tongue is still white, but all bloating, gurgling and runs stopped immediately, like flipping a switch. BIZARRE!!!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

From what I've read a fecal transplant is likely to be the best solution. The gross out factor is pretty high but they are being done every day and the success rate is outstanding. Might even be covered by insurance now, if that is a factor.

Yes, BingDing...it's beginning to look that way. I have a call in to a Specialist in Seattle *wincing*

 

[Sheila]

Dear BigP,
I'm not saying you're not right and that it didn't happen - of course -, but I currently can't see how two doses of nystatin would stop your diarrhoea via its ant-fungal action alone. It's a relatively potent drug but those changes, that quickly, that sounds like perhaps something else is in play if the yeast population is as proliferant as you think it is. Could it have some profound anti-inflammatory action as well, and in which case, what did it target or better still what did it shut down that metronizadole set off? Metronizadole is nasty, many people experience crippling gut issues with it. It's largely metabolised in the liver so any toxic effect will, to my mind, start there. That damage in itself could set off diarrhoea and then some crippling hyperexciteability due to loss of electrolytes.

Your account of watery diarrhoea reminds me of cholera, not that I am saying you have cholera, where the dehydration does nearly as much damage as the bug. The longer the diarrhoea goes on, the worse the imbalance, energy etc gets., maybe the more the organism spreads (in your case fungus) but it's the dehydration that kills in the end.

Maybe the nystatin allowed your body to get on top of it, gave it a breather but to me this feels more like generalised inflammation with electrolytic imbalance making it almost impossible to right the ship. In your trial of usual things to shut it down these past days, were any of them anti-inflammatory by chance as opposed to bug killers? And did you notice yourself go a little yellow or bluish grey?

I am sorry I can't figure this out more clearly to help you, but just in case it's toxic-shock kind of inflammation (thanks metronizadole), rather than massive fungal colonisation, I thought it might be worth raising.

I am sure you will get it all sorted in the end, you have clearly come such a long way and remain an inspiration.

Best regards
Sheila

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Hi Sheila...Thank you for your input. I have no clue about the anti-inflammatory action of Nystatin. I have never taken either one of these drugs before, so I have no previous experience with which to compare. I was utterly shocked at my response to the Metronidazole. I didn't feel poorly in any other way besides the extreme reaction in my colon followed by the progressive white fur on my tongue and of course a sore itchy bum. (sorry, TMI ). Today my guts continue to be calm, but I do feel sort of dizzy/head-achy/flu-like/tired with the ongoing course of Nystatin, my doc told me to take it for two weeks.

I also don't know anything about cholera, so I'll go look that up.

 

[narouz]

So bigp-
You took the Nystatin orally?

BTW, is metronizadole "Flagyl"?
I took that stuff a few years ago...
man, what a drag.
It affected me mentally/mood.
It was depressing.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Yes indeedy narouz, Metronizadole the generic for Flagyl.

I started the Nystatin (oral tablets) because I was unable to stop the diarrhea. I could feel my cecum swell and literally watched my ascending and transverse colon blow up like a bowl of rising yeast dough. The tablets were the fastest way to test my theory that it was yeast causing this reaction by totally irritating my colon...I'm still waiting for my Nystatin powder. When that arrives I will blast the fungus from the other end and figure out how to restore the bacterial population from that end as well. I am so completely done with probiotic pills.

 

[narouz]

Yes indeedy narouz, Metronizadole the generic for Flagyl.

I started the Nystatin (oral tablets) because I was unable to stop the diarrhea. I could feel my cecum swell and literally watched my ascending and transverse colon blow up like a bowl of rising yeast dough. The tablets were the fastest way to test my theory that it was yeast causing this reaction by totally irritating my colon...I'm still waiting for my Nystatin powder. When that arrives I will blast the fungus from the other end and figure out how to restore the bacterial population from that end as well. I am so completely done with probiotic pills.

Did the metronizadole make you feel down and depressed?
Boy, it did me.
It is pretty renowned for that, and for other bad effects.
I believe Peat said it was very toxic to the liver.

Well...I'm proud of you for pioneering ahead with the Nystatin.
That "Jorge Guy" did say to blast away from both directions.

Maybe some of the Nystatin is making its way down to the lower reaches of your bowels,
into the ascending colon, cecum, etc.

I like your theorizing about special difficulties maybe experienced by those of us without appendixes.
Keep reporting!

 

[thebigpeatowski]

Did the metronizadole make you feel down and depressed?
Boy, it did me.
It is pretty renowned for that, and for other bad effects.
I believe Peat said it was very toxic to the liver.

I can't say for sure, I only took one dose. There were extenuating circumstances surrounding my situation that were contributing to me feeling angry (more like pissed as hell) I suppose that could be considered a liverish reaction?

I dunno...I actually felt really pretty good until Monday or Tuesday of this week when I just COULD NOT take the diarrhea anymore, that's when I called my doc (again) and begged/pleaded/insisted on Nystatin. I asked for powder, she said the tablets would be more comprehensive...whatever that means.

Well...I'm proud of you for pioneering ahead with the Nystatin.
That "Jorge Guy" did say to blast away from both directions.

Thank you for your kind words...if this works narouz, I will owe you my life. After all, YOU are the one that brought this crazy idea to my attention. Lately, I've been reading about people on various appendectomy forums, seems that IBS is VERY common after the removal of this "useless, non-necessary" vestigial organ.

Maybe some of the Nystatin is making its way down to the lower reaches of your bowels,
into the ascending colon, cecum, etc.

Must be...I have NO other explanation for my bizarre experience.

I like your theorizing about special difficulties maybe experienced by those of us without appendixes.
Keep reporting!

Upon further reading at various websites and hearing of other's chronic diarrhea, I cannot help but think that at least some of these people are struggling with a yeast overgrowth of the cecum specifically....just a theory, tho. :2cents

 

[BingDing]

It's a kind of funny thing to say, TBP, but I'm fascinated that you can identify the different parts of your intestine like that. It's all under a layer of fat with me and I haven't a clue, and hope I don't learn about it like you did!

A bit off topic, but FWIW last summer I had 10 days of the same kind of watery diarrhea and by chance I had some lab work done at the time. Serotonin was 525, at the low end of carcinoid tumor range, and the only thing that worked to stop it was 2X4mg ondasetron tabs.

It all went away over time, and a 5HIAA test of serotonin came back normal, have no idea what was going on. But it was a tough time, for sure.

 

[SQu]

Flagyl was prescribed for my cfs by a chronic infection theory doc who treated with a week of antibiotics per month and flagyl was one of her favourites but it made me very ill. 3 days down with the worst migraine and nausea. No gut symptoms but I could never touch it again. At the time she was surprised and I thought I just had a problem tolerating antibiotics as cyclimycin made me ill too - dizzy and more nausea -the only one I could tolerate was doxycycline. Later I read many bad reports on flagyl. Im surprised she was surprised but there's doctors for you. "Side effects??? Gosh how unexpected!!"

 

[narouz]

It's a kind of funny thing to say, TBP, but I'm fascinated that you can identify the different parts of your intestine like that. It's all under a layer of fat with me and I haven't a clue, and hope I don't learn about it like you did!

A bit off topic, but FWIW last summer I had 10 days of the same kind of watery diarrhea and by chance I had some lab work done at the time. Serotonin was 525, at the low end of carcinoid tumor range, and the only thing that worked to stop it was 2X4mg ondasetron tabs.

It all went away over time, and a 5HIAA test of serotonin came back normal, have no idea what was going on. But it was a tough time, for sure.

Bing-
Ondasetron...that's one I haven't experimented with.
Could you say a little about that experience,
and maybe about some of the other dietary things you changed
if any
that helped you out of that bad time?

 

[LucyL]

Yes indeedy narouz, Metronizadole the generic for Flagyl.

I started the Nystatin (oral tablets) because I was unable to stop the diarrhea. I could feel my cecum swell and literally watched my ascending and transverse colon blow up like a bowl of rising yeast dough. The tablets were the fastest way to test my theory that it was yeast causing this reaction by totally irritating my colon...I'm still waiting for my Nystatin powder. When that arrives I will blast the fungus from the other end and figure out how to restore the bacterial population from that end as well. I am so completely done with probiotic pills.

Have you ever looked into camel milk? It is favored by a lot of people dealing with autism for its beneficial effects on the gut... (Donkey milk also has similar reports).