Posted 5/9/2016 10:44 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Krimpet -
Yes, it's pretty frustrating to be someone with GI issues as most MDs are clueless--I agree with a lot of what you said. I spend a lot of time thinking about this...
I'm not sure that the lyme targets the GI but I think a lot of people underestimate how much the GI and digestion and nutrition are necessary components of other body systems including hormones, neurotransmitters, brain function, psychological health. And any time one of these inextricably linked functions becomes weak or is in jeopardy, the GI suffers. And from what I've read it doesn't sound like most MDs get any nutrition education in medical school. That sounds criminal.
Also, most of our lyme & co treatment is taken orally and it's very difficult to protect the gut while you're treating and I remain astonished at how many LLMDs don't help patients with this or seem to even understand it, much less the broader MD population. If you think about it there are 3 areas of vulnerability where GI health is concerned, regarding our type of treatment:
1. the abx themselves are obviously disruptive to a healthy gut flora, obviously but I think many people assume they had healthy flora before contracting lyme & co or starting treatment - many people didn't but have been conditioned for so long to ignore signs:
- The typical American diet (thanks to .gov's food pyramid) has been skewed for a few decades,
- the "low-fat" diet schemes and the "sugar lobbyists" of the food manuf. corporations have done well to keep our sugar intakes high,
- the copies amounts of antibiotics in animal products started the ball rolling, and on and on
- when our bodies do show clear signs of damage, the medical industry has conditioned MDs and nurses to soft-pedal the obesity language and instead, offer palliative care and cover up the symptoms - acid reflux is advertised as a comical nuisance that can be resolved with more drugs, any GI disturbance is given the name IBS and patients are told to change their diet and and take more drugs, otherwise nothing can be done (never mind trying to heal the gut in obvious ways)
2. Food sources today are a mess.
- The way the grain industry has modified foods includes poisons like glyphosate and other things that some people simply cannot tolerate - and there are very, very few uncontaminated crop sources left.
- we all know about the pesticides used on produce
- and there are many people concerned that "organic" doesn't necessarily mean organic
- I think some of these foods can damage the gut and disrupt functions like acid production (which as you stated helps keep bacteria managed)
3. I think many of us were born with DNA mutations that gave us a disadvantage from birth and maybe put us at risk for reactions to what might otherwise be benign issues:
- including low "good" gut bacteria,
- food allergies like celiacs that is still pretty misunderstood and woefully undiagnosed, and
- other issues with food digestion that are triggered by how today's food is grown, processed and packaged.
4. I am not advocating that people stop probiotics - but I think their impact is overestimated - we are doing the best we can with them but I've read in multiple sources that with the widespread abx that has infiltrated our culture, we've altered our gut flora forever and for some of us who were challenged to begin with, this is a deal breaker.
5. And yeast/fungal overgrowth is shockingly misunderstood and even discounted by the general medical profession.
- It's mostly accepted that only HIV patients can suffer from a gross imbalance of y/f, testing and diagnostics are inadequate and therefore treatment is also misguided.
- There was a horrendous news story not too long ago about a woman who had the first uterus transplant --which had to be removed only days later because of a yeast infection from the abx! I couldn't believe it.
- Most y/f overgrowth starts in the gut since most of the abx we take are oral, most of the food sources for the y/f are things we eat and drink. A "beer belly" is actually the result of the yeast creating a small brewery factory-like chemical process in the gut. Many people have spent a lifetime as alcoholics but were only able to nip the addiction by managing the yeast overgrowth.
...etc.
But to your point, I've read several lyme specialists state (and I'm starting to agree) that most people do have lyme & co but they were healthier when they contracted it and their immune systems were able to keep it in check, or are simply healthier and lead healthier lifestyles.
But back to the gut -
I have made incremental progress with my GI issues as my treatment and my education about everything has evolved. So has my opinion about several things regarding my own issues, treatment and how I think I am finally going to have a healthy gut.
I've been able to avoid additional destruction with IV abx--no way I would have survived any oral protocol. And even with the addition of a second abx (I'm now shooting up 3.5g of abx daily) I am VERY yeast/fungal overgrowth-prone--I think I was born that way (for several reasons) and I think t's hereditary. But I'm managing y/f overgrowth pretty well by using only a strong binder (I'm in an experimental mode and I stopped antifungals as well as the probiotic for about a month now and I'm doing pretty well).
Also, the vancomycin I'm taking is a broad and powerful abx, it's often prescribed for c-diff and MRSA. Within minutes of my first dose I had relief from the vise that I have felt gripping my upper GI for years. It didn't last - it has a short half-life but now now that I'm dosing every 12 hrs, it's helping more. But I think the reason its impact is short is because of something else connected that I came across in my research.
Studies on gut bacteria now suggest that people have certain bacteria or combinations of bacteria that cause issues with the way certain foods are digested. So, while I'm infusing the abx that is trying to manage the bad bacteria, I'm still causing that bacteria to grow or my body to react to something that I am eating. So I'm playing around with my diet - but this takes awhile.
The more I read, the more I'm becoming convinced that I'll never be free from my GI issues until I achieve balance with the gut bacteria (that I might never have had in the first place, being born w/ low "good" bacteria) and the only way I'm going to be able to do that "enough" so that I have sufficient impact is through fecal micro biome transplant.
Studies are showing an astonishing 90%+ recovery rate, mostly for c-diff sufferers, but also for others dx with the typical SIBO, IBS, chron's, etc. I've been looking through current studies and they are doing more and more on the effect of transplants with other disorders than c-diff.
Unfortunately, right now, MDs are not able to perform transplants for any other condition than untreatable c-diff right now so people are doing this on their own with pretty good results. The donor is key to success. I'm seriously considering this after lyme & co treatment.
I totally agree with you that the pharmaceutical industry loves a good set of symptoms they can mask - a TON of money in palliative care. And right now, big pharma is driving health care and what diseases and conditions are treated and what aren't.
But those are the lucky people (in some respects) who can find some relief from symptoms--although I really wish the purpose of that was to help them while the root cause is discovered, but that's not how our health care system works. If you peruse communities like ours, of those people suffering from these conditions, it's horribly sad how much they are struggling without the benefit of relief. And I'd bet far more people suffer than get relief w/ drugs.
So, if you and I and others are right, finding the root cause of most GI issues (and think how many other illnesses can be solved by healing the gut) in gut flora is probably the new frontier and I wonder how urgent because there likely isn't a gold mine at the end of that road.
-p