Leaky gut questions

Hi yellow_daisy…

I have battled leaky gut for over a decade. I only discovered that I had it a few yrs ago. I started working with (and spent A LOT OF $) a good ND but we didn't get too far before lyme & co. prevented much more progress (but she never tested me and no other doctor suspected it).

I will share what I know in my few years of study and from personal experience.

Leaky gut develops from two things—damage from yeast/fungal overgrowth and/or damage from foods due to celiac disorders or damage due to chemicals/toxins/GMO, etc. So, usually it is an outside force causing the damage—you weren't likely born with it.

With yeast/fungal overgrowth, the yeast grows roots that burrow through the mucosal lining of the intestines, creating holes and the toxins and debris from fecal matter in your intestines leaks out and into the blood stream and throughout your body. Your immune system doesn't recognize the toxins and creates an immune reaction to it, thereby creating food sensitivities to those very foods you are eating and digesting. From what I've read—damage from gluten and GMO foods is similar.

This is the kicker—it takes a LONG TIME to heal leaky gut. Diet is an absolute requirement that cannot be compromised (no sugar—yeast feeds on sugar the fastest, no fruits at first, no grains which are mostly compromised due to GMOs and also turn too quickly to sugar, no legumes, no simple carbs like potatoes and white rice)—basically a modified paleo diet is recommended. And, you will need to refrain from eating the foods that your food allergy tests indicate sensitivities to. Not forever but until your immune system isn't as reactive to them—which will happen after you heal your gut. You can start the dietary focus now without having any other information from a doctor or tests.

There are products on the market that are marketed to help heal the gut—the one I've used is called Intestinal Repair Complex from BioGenesis. A very high quality probiotic is required that has as many varied strains as you can find and at least 100 billion per day. You can find probiotics at a health food store in the refrigerated section—Garden of Life is a good brand. The amino acids and proteins you already have are not going to hurt—digestive enzymes would also be helpful. I would stay away from fermented foods for awhile until you know you don't have a yeast/fungal issue or that you've effectively treated it.

If you think your leaky gut is due to candida, candiadis, yeast/fungal overgrowth—which it likely does if you've ever taken courses of antibiotics without probiotics or if you have sugar cravings then you need to address the yeast/fungal overgrowth. If it's a very mild case of yeast/fungal overgrowth and/or if you have not had your leaky gut symptoms for too long (like less than a week) then there are many really effective natural remedies to treat it AND prevent it (I listed a few things in one of the threads below). If not, you should not waste any time and you should have an MD prescribe Rx for antifungals —specifically a local anti fungal like Nystatin. If you also have symptoms of a systemic yeast/fungal problem (link to more info below) then you'll need a systemic anti fungal.
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3287783

The real risk with leaky gut is that 70% of your immune system IS your GI tract. So, if it's compromised, you are more susceptible to illnesses and healing from illnesses, which requires your immune system is much more difficult.

Most regular MDs are coming around to gut health but the real problem is that nutrition is not taught in western medicine. It's a ridiculous failure, to be honest. So you need to educate yourself. There are a couple of great recent threads on this forum:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3292376
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3292789

Please let me know if you have any other q's—

-p

Pirouette and I were typing at the same time! P does say it more complete though.

Now you can make a plan. It will be worth it!

Can anyone recommend a digestive enzyme? I have never found one I liked.

yellow daisy—

Ok, good for you running away from that crazy surgery. I swear these guys know NOTHING about nutrition. How hard would it be to take a couple courses on nutrition in school? I've learned as much just reading about it online. So could they. It's criminal.

Anyway, it looks like you have good info—you've likely had leaky gut for a long while if you have the celiac gene indicating sensitivity to gluten. And you can bet on microbiota imbalance due to the abx and likely a yeast/fungal overgrowth. That is great that you are no longer eating grains and have already focused on your food sensitivities. But if you are eating primarily fruit, you still have a sugar problem.

It is common for people like us to have a very short list of foods we are not sensitive to. But I've talked with a couple of NDs about this and have also read recommendations—and the consensus is that there are some foods that are more harmful than others. And there are some foods that you absolutely need—and omitting the nutrition they provide is more harmful than any harm they do. So, there are foods that are harmful (GMOs and gluten in all the grains, sugars, some people have histamine allergies —that causes damage).

But the good veggies and foods like chicken or beef are not harming your intestines, even though they might be showing up on your tests. They are showing up on your tests because of the damage in your lining that has created holes. The fecal matter from ALL the food you eat is seeping through it so the antibodies your immune system creates against those foods (not recognizing what the particles are) are going to show up on your tests.

In other words, you STILL NEED NUTRITION. Lack of appropriate nutrition is also hampering your body's ability to heal the gut and repair your immune system. And if you are also struggling with lyme & co—nutrition is as important as your treatment.

I strongly recommend you exploring other dark colored vegetables (salads were tough for me for awhile because all the damage made it difficult to eat fiber—so that might be why you feel horrible eating some foods) stay away from legumes and try sweet potatoes, brown rice, spinach, broccoli—you know better than I do what might work. This sounds silly—but try eating veggies by way of baby food or by processing them to ease the digestive process a bit.

You also might want to seek the help of a nutritionist who can really help you with this. At the very least, there is medicated food powder that you can eat to help get some nutrients into your body in an easy way. A good brand is but this is a short-term solution. You really need whole foods.

My favorite Omega 3 oils is from Vital Choice.

Let us know how things go!!

-p

OOopps—
I guess my post didn't post. THX GP! was suggesting bone broth—here is a good recipe:

nomnompaleo.com/post/3615609338/slow-cooker-beef-bone-broth

A few links to other good discussions and resources for gut health:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3292376
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3292789

-p

Pirouette I bothered you with another email.

Hi Jane—

Are you still having those sx?

-p

aphysicalwreck—
I don't think yellow_daisy saw your question but a good test (the test I mention in my comment to Jane below) is a Doctor's Data stool test. It will indicate which natural and Rx are effective against the particular strains found in the stool.

Jane—
OK - got it. ;) I was going to suggest that if you are still having symptoms, you might want to switch things up a bit:

- I strongly recommend switching to a pure Nystatin powder. I shared about this in this conversation if you're interested:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3287783

The pills and other forms of the Nystatin have a lot of fillers and not enough of the medication—I wish manufacturers didn't do this because the Rx becomes almost ineffective it's so weak yet they charge much much more for the pills than the pure powder.

The pure powder can be swished around in your mouth and as you swallow it, it coats your throat and your entire intestines—all through the alimentary canal. No other anti fungal can do this and it really helps address the yeast/fungus throughout the GI. You can also take the pills in addition to the powder if you like so that the pills concentrate more in the lower GI (after passing through the stomach)—some people do this.

Many regular pharmacies won't carry it, of course, which is also ridiculous but they get more money from the pills Rx. So, either beg them to be less greedy, or do what I do—I take my business elsewhere. Find a compounding pharmacist (who, frankly, usually gives me much better service for MUCH better prices). If there isn't one near you —many can be found online and ship all over the country.

- Also, I suggest taking the systemic anti fungal (Diflucan) for longer than a week, which won't do much. Do at least 4 wks or pulse a week on/week off. You also need to check your liver enzymes after taking any systemic anti fungal, which passes through the intestinal barrier (milk thistle seed and burdock root help in keeping enzymes down).

If that doesn't help, try a different systemic anti fungal than the Diflucan—perhaps Ketoconazole. Yeast/fungus can grow resistant to them. A good way to do this is to do a stool test to find out what strain(s) of yeast/fungus you're dealing with—Doctor's Data is a good test and it will also give you a good snapshot of the good and bad bacteria you have growing.

- You might switch up your probiotic or increase it if you still don't have complete relief of sx.

- You do want to make sure you're taking a binder to help get the debris and toxins from all the yeast/fungal die off out of your system (bentonite clay, activated charcoal, cholestyramine).

- Your diet sounds solid (except the candy!! ha! it does not take much at all for the yeast to completely take over again). It does take a very long time to heal the gut. Bone broth and vegetable broth help heal and also helps provide nutrients that you need. I mentioned this to someone else but unless you are having severe reactions to foods, it is more important that you are getting a well-balanced nutritious diet than it is to abstain from eating some of the "allergic" foods—particularly vegetables.

- Last, if none of that works—I'd get more DNA mutation testing for methylation problems. I initially only had the typical MTHFR tests done, which revealed 1298 and 677 mutations—but then had more testing done and found I had several more mutations, which trumped the treatment I was taking for 1298 and 677. The methyl folate you're taking might not be the best for you, which can cause the same sx as you're describing.

YES - from all of my research, while the sx can be managed effectively, those who develop significant yeast/fungal overgrowth situations will likely never fully get rid of this opportunistic problem. I think it's because we may have a genetic predisposition to favorable environments (I know from testing that I have digestive mutations and that I was born with a lower quantity of good intestinal bacteria than others without this mutation) and also because of the nature of the beast—once it takes hold, it's with us forever. So diet and other precautions (maybe once you get past the main event you can transition onto more natural antifungals) will need to be a lifetime commitment.

-p

You're welcome! Please let us know how things progress for you… fingers crossed!

Good post ClaraS!

-p

yellow_daisy—

I totally understand your concern about medications. I'm one who wouldn't even take anything for pain relief no matter what the situation—migraine, cramps, injury. I had gall bladder attacks for over a year and never took anything. Staying "clean" was so important to me.

HOWEVER, a yeast/fungal overgrowth is an entirely different ballgame. I tried natural remedies for about 6 months and nothing worked no matter what I took or how much. And then I came across an ND's blog, who, by her own experience had battled decades-long challenges with yeast/fungal and GI issues. She's who turned me on to the Nystatin powder. Like me, she tried every natural remedy under the sun for years and nothing else worked for her either.

Nystatin powder IS natural—it is actually derived from the earth, it's a form of mold and was discovered during WWII—out on the battle field to help treat foot rot, which was so prevalent. It is VERY safe, never leaves your gut. And in the 6 months I wasted trying everything I could find, my condition worsened dangerously. I strongly urge you to skip all that high risky fast-lane living ;) and hit it with the Nystatin powder as quickly as you can.

The yeast literally proliferates your gut and prevents you from absorbing nutrients and it feeds on EVERYTHING—some say it also feeds on the probiotics. Just to be sure, I continue to take probiotics but with a buffer. Once you get it under control, then you can figure out what your long-term maintenance plan will be—incorporating other natural remedies, you will most likely need to always take something.

You can find a lot of info on the internet but a few remedies include virgin coconut oil, grapefruit seed extract, bitters, garlic… it's important to keep your body alkaline with lemon water or "carb-bi-carb" drinks and other remedies. But again, that's probably down the road. I know you don't want to hear this (I sure didn't) but it's best to hit the yeast/fungus hard and fast—it just causes too much damage.

Good luck with your foods investigation. I don't envy it at all. I would definitely stay away from cheese right now—all dairy has milk sugars and it's tough to find any form that doesn't also have a mold component to it (different kind than the nystatin—it can get confusing so for now I would just omit the dairy).

A couple of other thoughts I had after reading your post—

I had a lot of trouble eating foods—anything—whether it was a food on my sensitive list or not. So it became evident that it wasn't always an issue with the food itself but I was having mechanical trouble with the digestive process.

So, one idea is to experiment to see if you are producing enough digestive acids. When you eat, the pancreas is signaled by the stomach to produce bile, which triggers stomach acids. WIthout the acids, you can't effectively digest food and it is painful.

The symptoms of low stomach acids are very similar to too much acid, if you can believe that (pain, indigestion, acid reflux). The way to do this is to take hydrochloric acid (HCl) capsules (with pepsin is best). Start with one about 30 minutes before each meal. The next day, double it, and titrate up each day and so on until… you have acid clearly coming up and you can taste it in your mouth. Then start stepping the doses down backwards, taking one fewer capsule at each meal.

Also, I learned that I was having trouble digesting fats—turned out I have a gallstone and a condition that is hereditary that makes it easy for me to form them but also, I had to stop eating salads and other roughage due to my leaky gut damage. Lack of fiber makes the gallbladder conditions worse. And the Rocephin IV I'm on makes it even worse! There are also supplements than can help support fats digestion if you are interested—let me know.

Protein powders don't DO anything for leaky gut but they are a great way to get protein into you that is easier to digest—hemp might be good for you but I'd stay away from egg, bean and whey protein for now. I'm not familiar with Inflammacore. One caution—I fell in love with Garden of Life Raw Fit powders (they were like the holy grail for me—hit all my needs) but then I found out that the brown rice used was sourced from china and had high metals in it. Of course, when I stopped drinking it my hair stopped falling out in huge clumps. At this point I've found nothing comparable but also, I've been able to graduate to solid foods again, thankfully. So dig around to make sure the sourcing is good—Amazon reviews can sometimes be pretty helpful (that's how I found out about the issue with this product).

Regarding the mutations—
In your case, I think it would be VERY helpful for you to get more testing done and it's not that expensive. We have been talking a lot lately here about 23andme DNA testing, which covers over 300,000 SnPs or gene conditions… and the service also provides a means to connect with other people who share your DNA and you can participate in studies—pretty interesting. But for the purposes of discovering things about your health, I feel it's becoming a vital part of my health protocol:

Step 1
Order your saliva kit from /www.23andme.com for $99

Step 2
Provide the saliva sample and mail in the kit

Step 3
23andme will email you your results in a few weeks—it will be a 30+ page of tens of thousands of SnPs or DNA gene codes… (indecipherable—you will need to have the data interpreted by another source as 23andme no longer does this and when they did previously, it likely wasn't very comprehensive)

Step 4
Upload the data to interpretation services (some are free but you usually get what you pay for). I like www.nutrahacker.com—they make it very easy and have set up formal communication with 23andme.com so all you have to do is click a button and provide payment ($50 for the full report, which includes a list of medications you might be sensitive to, or just the mutations for $37 and they have lesser detailed reports for free). For the full package, you will automatically receive a fairly detailed report listing the various mutations, their categories (detox, hormonal, cardiac), a brief description, a list of recommendations for what to take and what to avoid. You also get a list of medications that the mutations may interfere with—much less is explained on this report but it's a place to get started if you see something alarming.

But with every report you really do need to take into context your other health conditions, lifestyle, and family history. For instance, if you have a heterozygous (only 1 copy of a mutation, verses the more intense homozygous or 2 copies) for conditions leading to diabetes, yet no one in your family history has ever had diabetes then maybe it might not be a huge risk factor for you. OTOH, if you have a lot of family members with diabetes, even though you have only 1 copy of the mutation, diabetes may be a real issue for you.

Another service is provided by Amy Yasko, who specializes in autism research. Her program goes a little deeper into methylation but doesn't cover much in the other categories. Since it's free, it's also good to run your 23andme data through her program as well.
knowyourgenetics.com

Hope that is helpful—

-p

yellow_daisy—

Your research about the rice is great—less to worry about. Not easy to find good sources.

Unfortunately, I cannot think of ANY MD who "specializes" in yeast/fungal overgrowth. They are mainly unaware—especially how to treat it. NDs are better informed. I think the best and most accurate way to determine if you have yeast/fungal overgrowth is to go by symptoms. The stool test is good for knowing exactly what the strain is and what else is going on in your gut, checking the good & bad bacteria but does not always accurately reflect yeast/fungal situation.

So I would review my list of sx and then maybe do some searches on the internet for typical GI and systemic problem symptoms and see if you might have more than a few sx.

-p