DIET and INFLAMMATION.

My son ended up with a serious B2 deficiency from removing dairy.

Dairy is the main source of B2 in our western diet. So maybe think about a good B-vitamin supplement, or at least some B2?

I've cut out all dairy, eggs, grains, legumes, nuts, legumes, and sugar. I basically eat vegetables and meat with a small amount of fruit. It has made a huge difference for me.

If you would have asked me a year ago if I could do that, I would have said absolutely no way. But I would feel so, so much worse if I tried eating any of that right now, that I'm really not even tempted.

Once I beat this thing, I will gradually try to add some of these things back in. I will probably never have gluten again though for sure. And I will still probably limit all other grains and dairy.

Pirouette said...
As in all things, context is king. There is dairy and there is good dairy. If you need to cut out dairy (I did for lots of good reasons with good success), cut out cow's dairy. Stick with 100% certified organic and non-GMO. And keep portions low.

I had a lot of gut damage and healed only with time and a very strict diet (no sugar, no grains, no legumes, no eggs, no processed foods, no caffeine).

diets are HARD.

-p

They do have plenty of goat dairy here, maybe I will try this. I've gotta do something. Most of my inflammation is in the muscle tissue. Much occurring shortly after eating.

mm57553 said...
I've cut out all dairy, eggs, grains, legumes, nuts, legumes, and sugar. I basically eat vegetables and meat with a small amount of fruit. It has made a huge difference for me.

If you would have asked me a year ago if I could do that, I would have said absolutely no way. But I would feel so, so much worse if I tried eating any of that right now, that I'm really not even tempted.

Once I beat this thing, I will gradually try to add some of these things back in. I will probably never have gluten again though for sure. And I will still probably limit all other grains and dairy.

I've cut out the milk, butter, grains, gluten and sugar and now I got some rough discipline ahead of me.

Im down to a half cup of coffee and skip it once in a while. I need to make it the exception rather than the rule.

is black bean a legume?

I am going to have to start charting the foods as I am certain something in my diet is adding to my inflammation. I may have to reduce food to once daily.

Pirouette said...
I love a good goat cheese. I'll get back to it someday.

Goats milk is a good source of protein, contains less sugar (lactose), 13% more calcium, 25% more vitamin B6, 47% more vitamin A, and 134% more potassium, and generally less "stuff" added to it than regular cow’s milk.

yes - all beans are legumes.


I was also experiencing high inflammation when my adrenals were a mess. I was also taking a LOT of Omega 3, which can be inflammatory believe it or not. Adrenals are better, I'm taking 800mg Omega 3, plus japanese knotweed and turmeric, both helpful for inflammation. For people like us - inflammation in the gut (along with likely mucosal damage) just wrecks ANY Lyme & co protocol, prevents good food absorption, just ruins everything.

You might try making things really simple on your GI - like reduce everything to pureed veggies (no fruit juice), bone broth (organic, please). Then slowly start adding in small portions of other things. This is the "elimination diet" approach to figure out what you might be sensitive too. But you also need to do this w/ your meds and supplements (within reason).

I think I'm one of hose people who would do well with a weekly/bi-wkly 1-day fast as I ALWAYS feel better when I don't eat… but that is not a good thing for me right now so even now after making a lot of progress, I still incorporate days when I eat nothing but broth and veggie puree soups and have a low-key day. I think this really helps.

One thing I did that was helpful is to break meals into small snacking sessions - or grazing. This helped make everything easier to digest (less to process), helped even out blood sugar and helped with energy and adrenal function. It was NOT easy or convenient, however.

I also take a binder before bedtime (a powerful one at high doses), which has solved quite a few problems for me.

I think everyone on abx should take them but I stopped taking probiotics - I think they can be tricky for people w/ GI issues. Some cause yeast/fungal issues or exacerbate them, some people have sensitivities to them, many people aren't taking the right ones. I've never had much success although I know others do but that might be one thing to investigate.

Good luck with this… it's not easy.

-p

Thank you for the elimination diet tips. I must try this. If I can beat the inflammation I know I can win.

I never gave up any dairy when I healed the first time - but it was all goat's milk dairy products that I made at home. Goat's milk is the only milk that both the TCM organization and Homeopathic organization promote as "the only healthy milk". I'm very lactose intolerant with cow's milk, but with goat's milk I don't notice it much at all.

I've given up gluten, dairy, all grains, legumes, nuts, most fruit, and many vegetables due to candida and possible SIBO. I still have lots of inflammation and swelling around my eyes. I'd love to give up meat, but I would starve. Once the candida is gone, I may be able to cut out more meat as I reintroduced more fruits and veggies. I'm sorry you're having to live on a strict diet too. Finding the diet and regimen that works best for each of us is the true challenge. God luck to you!

Been adding epsom salts to drinking water for a little over a week
now. Still tweaking the dose. It seems less is more, about 1/4 gram pinch per liter of water works best for me.

Somewhere around there is the right amount which seems to helps reduce inflammation significantly.

My dietary shift has been to mostly vegetables and brown rice, since I started the this thread, but I found I tolerate small amounts of chicken well.

I didnt give up yogurt and even added cottage cheese and flax.

I have had a bowl of chicken bone broth soup every day this week.

I have eliminated red meat and eggs as I noticed these two things would make me inflamed shortly after eating them regardless of the time.

I used to have eggs for breakfast and become inflamed by 10am.

I am paying very close attention now.

Today will be the just the second day in the last 3 decades where I opted not to take anything for pain.

There was inflammation but it was tolerable.

I have noticed it has been following a pattern of being at its worst between 1pm and 5pm after which it begins to subside.

I said if I can make it to 5pm without pain medication I just might learn something about its predictability.

As long as I dont exceed 6.5 hours of sleep the inflammation is mild in the morning.

I noticed even before the dietary changes that the inflammation is also milder at night.

The primary pain is inflammation of the muscles surrounding the spine.

I am not exactly sure what is happening here.

I am glad I am not addicted to the Kratom and therefore if I need it tomorrow I wont deny myself. I can only hope that I wont.

I dont want to get too optimistic just yet, but I wanted to take note of this and put it out there.

Maybe one day we will find out Bartonella is most active between certain hours but for now I am just considering the possibilities.

Speculations aside, I believe we can tweak how we feel and optimize through paying attention to what we eat and how we react to supplementation.

Just because we react poorly to a supplement initially doesnt mean its a bad thing, just that maybe we should tweak the dose.

I wanted to put this in the magnesium thread but decided to place it in DIET and INFLAMMATION.

Normally I dont like to duplicate posts in multiple threads but in this case I see good reason for exception.

i found by trial and error the best foods to avoid are gluten, dairy and sweets. If u can stay away from these i think u can eat anything else, including red meat, in small amounts.

But everyone is different, probably u need to try things on your own. Just when u settle on a diet make sure u understand what deficiencies your body will have if u continue eating that for years. If u dont eat dairy take some calcium and B vitamins, if u dont eat meat certainly take B vitamins. If u dont eat veggies (why would u do that, i dunno, they are very good) take vitamins especially vitamin C.... If u go vegan u need to take some protein supplements, one good vegan source is hemp protein, u can take it for example with almond milk and buckwheat flakes in the morning.

I lost a lot of weight by trying to do some crazy diets, years ago, without getting my homework done about what to supplement during the diet... .dont do the same mistake please.

Thanks for the info. and updates, Chicken. I gave up gluten years ago and last year I gave up dairy again. Dairy was creating a lot of inflammation for me. You mentioned you are a yogurt fan- I am too. Redwood Hill Farm's Goatmilk yogurt is very good. I used to eat it and liked that it was sweetened with maple rather than cane. Being dairy free now, I've enjoyed almond yogurts: Kite Hill yogurt on occasion (cane sugar though...) and Amande has been good in the past too (fruit juice sweetened). There is also coconut yogurts, like COYO, which some people really enjoy. Or, Greek/low-lactose yogurts too... so many yogurts out there!

If you like smoothies, I've found a protein powder that is pretty clean called Nuzest. It's pricer, but not loaded with tons of funky ingredients, which caught my attention. It is made with pea protein, but they say that the way it is processed reduces inflammatory components like lectins. I like adding two scoops to fruit smoothies or sometimes I'll make a pumpkin flavored smoothie with it.

I tried paleo for 3 months, but I kept losing weight and not feeling satiated. Healingdaily17- my Dr. is concerned about SIBO too, is the paleo diet working well for you? I thought I would have done better on it.

Pirouette- what binder do you use? Also, I've never heard of the biofilm buster you mentioned, sounds like it helped a lot.

Or do some myofascial release (local micro-stretching) on your hammies instead of stretching the whole thing, then work your way up. Hard to do on hammies.

If you have a hard floored stairwell (no carpet), or outs side steps- Sit on the top step with a golfball or lacross ball under a hamstring one at a time, looking for areas that hurt and hold there, even push down with the other hand. I did that untill I figured out how to do that with the small end of a TheraCane. Hammies literally can be a pain in the arse.