Weight Loss and Lyme?

Hey did you ever get checked for SIBO ( small intestine bacterial overgrowth ) like I mentioned? It's a simple breathe test.

I was about 130lb. I went on SIBO treatment I am back to 185lb.

I was just on too many antibiotics and probiotics and it messed up my gut balance. Not my large intestine. That was fine. I was my small intestine. I couldn't gain before even if I ate 5 meals of fat!

Just a thought.

I know this is old, but i need desperate help. I have mold, lyme, and possible mercury in brain tissue, but in January after an OAT test I was put on Candida treatment and also started strict candida diet and was doing an ifared sauna every 3 days. I originally weighed about 116 lbs. In middle Feb I went down to 109 and by May, 101. I know i have lost more and obviously stopped all diet and saunas but I think its too late and I have a phone appt tomorrow with a new shoemaker mold/Lyme doctor to discuss it before my live appt on 6/9. I am so bad that I dont want to wait 2 more weeks. Taking high dose vit c, omega 3 capsules, tudca, quercitin, magnesium glycinate. Soon vit d3, vit k, and others suggested. Any help would help.

I was 128 5 years ago when first got sick, I lost 20 lbs initially either from lyme or babesia. I am not having loss stools thankfully I am just so scared and have many other serious issues but right now its the weightloss. 10 years of daily mold exposure is the main cause of it all!

Garzie I was told it could possibly have hypermetabolism?

sdarrah said...
Garzie I was told it could possibly have hypermetabolism?

with Lyme etc you will find many doctors who say all sorts of things when they don't know what's going on

but i would not be quick to assume its something sinister - more than just an effect of chronic illness - at least until i have tried the above

i also lost 20 pounds after i got ill - and it took work, dietary changes etc to build myself up again - i think its a common feature of any chronic illness - inflammation drive gut dysfunction, and increased tissue turnover, and you are typically not doing the kind of physical things that help us keep a healthy weight - so we loose muscle - also if you don't do physical stuff appetite is effected - etc etc and you can see how left unchecked it will tend to spiral downwards - but it is not necessarily more than the effects of teh chronic illness itself and is reversible - although obviously harder than when we are well

start with the basics and try to avoid assuming its yet another untreatable diagnosis

sdarrah said...
Before I started the strict candida diet I was only around 125, and they say with such few calories and no muscle I might lose as much as 20 lbs.

Again I only started losing the weight after doing the strict diet.

good to hear - at least that all consistent and indicates its reversible with diet - not some strange untreatable further diagnosis

in your shoes i would try the supplementary fats for extra calories without aggravating the SIBO/Candida issues

Garzie said...

my favourite sources of fats are:
-fatty cuts of meat like shoulder of lam and beef brisket
-organic eggs
-extra virgin coconut oil
-extra virgin organic olive oil
-organic butter as tolerated
-nuts ( have to go easy as my digestive system react too much)

I also eat these fats but not as much olive oil after getting acid reflux from it and I also limit nuts.
Other fats I also eat a lot of is lard and tallow, all organic.

sdarrah said...
Ok, I eat all of those

hi sdarrah -
so the idea would be that its more about quantity than just whether they are in your diet or not

remember being chronically ill takes a lot of energy out of us and that has to come from somewhere - so we often have to work to replace it - and if you have digestive issues - which you tell us you do - then this can limit the other types of foods you can eat - so it can take more than you might think, and more than you used to consume in the past when you were healthier, to start to move the needle in the right direction.

its quite safe to just keep increasing the quantity of healthy fats in your diet until you find you weight stabilises and begins to increase - it can be a slow process - over a matter of weeks or months.
high quality protein is important in the diet also - especially if you are chronically ill and losing weight

some fats agree with some people more than others - so there is a certain amount of experimentation involved - generally avoid processed fats - eg seed oils ( sunflower, corn, "vegetable oil", groundnut oil etc)

luckily most healthy fats and protein tend to be well tolerated by people, even those with digestive issues - compared to carbs and fibre rich foods at least. but you may need to build up slowly at first to give your system a chance to adapt.

if you would like - it might be an idea to log the food you eat and work out how many calories you are actually eating as a stake in the ground to help understand over time how much you need to stabilise your weight - calories are not a perfect measure - but they will work well enough for this
there are websites and food labelling these days that give the nutritional breakdown of foods that make this much easier

good luck!