RE: Has anyone tried a 6 week diet to change Flora in your stomach?

When I read about experiences of remission with diet only, I am always wondering how much the diet plays a role and how much is actually placebo effect.
Considering how hard it is to stick for a long time to some of these very restrictive diet plans, those who do must be surely extremely motivated and believing in it, hence the strong placebo effect.

BTW, there's actually few bacteria in the stomach, because its acid environment makes it difficult for bacteria to survive. The vast majority of the gut microbiota is in the colon.

adamas said...
When I read about experiences of remission with diet only, I am always wondering how much the diet plays a role and how much is actually placebo effect.
Considering how hard it is to stick for a long time to some of these very restrictive diet plans, those who do must be surely extremely motivated and believing in it, hence the strong placebo effect.

BTW, there's actually few bacteria in the stomach, because its acid environment makes it difficult for bacteria to survive. The vast majority of the gut microbiota is in the colon.

trust me - it's not a placebo effect - I believe in God, not much else - i just do what works -

I didn't believe in diet either as my GI told me it was a problem with my immune system that makes my brain think I have food poisoning and it pumps stuff into my stomach that tries to fight an imaginary battle that really isn't there and thus I end up poisoning myself and it tears up my colon. So for the longest time I didn't think diet mattered until I tried eating chocolate and fried foods and nuts etc. These things put me into a fair immediately. So I tried to cut out sugar to eliminate the food that feed the inflammation. It helped but my UC ultimately came back. With this crazy diet it was time to get serious and remove all possible inflammatory foods and to my surprise it work. I still haven't been able to confirm whether it's all the same diet or do the blood tests actually determine what specific foods you have to avoid. But I'm seeing my friend on Monday so I will post something Tuesday to confirm it's the same diet or if he was given a different list of foods.

I feel you in regards to living life on a restrictive diet. Trying to avoid so many foods for me would have been too much to sustain especially long term which is why I'm working on alternative methods for my own case.
That said though, diet can definitely help in many cases, just not all. The importance of the different factors at work can vary person to person just like the medications that work vary.
If I were to throw out a quick theory on SCD, I would say someone with an impaired epithelial ion transport would have a hard time absorbing certain carbs/sugars leading to increased stool bulk, diarrhea and an altered microbiome. Such person would likely benefit from the SCD diet. I don't think it would cure it in most cases but it would likely bring relief and the chance to alter the biome. I would worry about sustainability though again.

I hated not being able to eat hot sauce and garlic. Everything else I was OK giving up but hot sauce and garlic made me go this far.
I'm far enough into my research to where it's not individual items I see but the cross feedback between multiple factors. For example, intestinal transit time can affect the flora just as the flora can affect intestinal transit time. The flora can also affect inflammation which can affect transit time which can affect the flora and so on. Diet can definitely affect these factors but I can't willingly place sole hope on any one factor. In my theory, each case is a different combination of factors and we have to be mindful that addressing 1 factor as much as we can may not fix the issue.
Also worth noting is that other than pathogens, most of the bad bacteria aren't really bad, they're just imbalanced. Even when you bring your flora into balance, the bacteria will still be present but just in a more healthy balanced relationship with the other bacteria.
Right now, diet wise, I can eat most of the foods that caused bleeding and such but I still don't touch dairy or gluten. I may someday but I'm not that brave today. I will say though modifying my diet helped me get through some pretty tough times I don't like to look back at.

Gee Dagan, why don't you copy and paste that reply a few more times in case there's one person out there reading these threads who hasn't seen your blog link?

By the way, your blog is improperly formatted and it causes my browser to block it as a security risk.

It's not surprising that somebody who doesn't know what the word CURE means also doesn't know how to make a blog properly.

adamas said...

TroubledTurds said...

adamas said...
When I read about experiences of remission with diet only, I am always wondering how much the diet plays a role and how much is actually placebo effect.
Considering how hard it is to stick for a long time to some of these very restrictive diet plans, those who do must be surely extremely motivated and believing in it, hence the strong placebo effect.

BTW, there's actually few bacteria in the stomach, because its acid environment makes it difficult for bacteria to survive. The vast majority of the gut microbiota is in the colon.

trust me - it's not a placebo effect - I believe in God, not much else - i just do what works -

What diet are you following and how long did it take to figure that out?

Are you taking any medications?

my "diet" is listed in my signature - at least the bulk of it - i aslo eat lots of fruits and raw/cooked veggies -

no meds for that last 5+ years -

Brucen36 - Here you go.

So, I spoke to my friend and what he had was called Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). I’d never heard of (SIBO) before but when I looked into this there was a lot of information about his diet on the internet. And the symptoms are very similar to UC. His treatment was similar to mine but still very different. His diet was much more forgiving but still not easy. His treatment was broken up into 3 phases. (See below) (Also, I looked at all the diets I could find for SIBO but could not find my specific diet nor could I find anything as restrictive.)

Phase 1: Treat SIBO, provide digestive support, start methylation/genetic support, begin preparing for the SIBO diet SCD+LFD. 

Phase 2: increase genetic support while continuing SIBO treatment (continued antibiotics or transitioning to herbals).  Phase 2 is complete when SIBO test comes back within normal limits and when highly methylated injectable or supplements are well tolerated. 

Phase 3: Maintenance for genetic variances, maintenance for SIBO, Start Treatment for Yeast.  Phase 4: Rebuild, repopulate, repair the gut.  Phases 1-3 should take a month each, give or take, with phase 4 being dictated on your response.

I found his diet online: https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_specific_diet_food_guide_sept_2014.pdf

As for this all being a placebo effect, I don’t know or really care, as this diet worked for me. Everything I read makes perfect sense, that a person has an excess amount of bacteria in their stomach or intestines and the common foods they eat only exacerbates that problem and never allows the stomach to go back to balance. And not some mysterious auto immune disease that has no cause and no cure like my GI doctor explained to me.

I am a sceptic and I just don’t trust modern conventional medicine when no cure is available and only suppression through the purchase of medication is the treatment - for life! When I saw my general practitioner last week for may annual physical and I told him about not having any symptoms of UC (a so called incurable disease) he said “Great!” and couldn’t care less on how I did it or what I did to feel 100% better. Why? Because he’s not interested in a cure as most doctors only believe in what is prescribed in traditional medical practices which are structured to ultimately keep you on the hook to keep buying their medication.

Here some detailed info on SIBO
https://blog.kettleandfire.com/sibo/

Remember, for those who love food as I do. It’s not forever, only a few months. But you have to suffer a little to get you stomach back to normal, then you can eat what every you want. And imagine not having to panic every time your stomach rumbles like I did. I hope more can benefit from this or any other diet available. Don’t give up or just accept that this is a way of life. My biggest fear of having this disease was that the rampant inflammation would lead to other problems such as diabetes or even cancer. I hope I’m on the other side of this but I would do it all again if it came back. Keep looking for a cure. And post your results on this board good or bad. I'll give updates when I can.

Good Luck.

Steve

Steve_A said...
Brucen36 - Here you go.

So, I spoke to my friend and what he had was called Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). I’d never heard of (SIBO) before but when I looked into this there was a lot of information about his diet on the internet. And the symptoms are very similar to UC. His treatment was similar to mine but still very different. His diet was much more forgiving but still not easy. His treatment was broken up into 3 phases. (See below) (Also, I looked at all the diets I could find for SIBO but could not find my specific diet nor could I find anything as restrictive.)

Phase 1: Treat SIBO, provide digestive support, start methylation/genetic support, begin preparing for the SIBO diet SCD+LFD. 

Phase 2: increase genetic support while continuing SIBO treatment (continued antibiotics or transitioning to herbals).  Phase 2 is complete when SIBO test comes back within normal limits and when highly methylated injectable or supplements are well tolerated. 

Phase 3: Maintenance for genetic variances, maintenance for SIBO, Start Treatment for Yeast.  Phase 4: Rebuild, repopulate, repair the gut.  Phases 1-3 should take a month each, give or take, with phase 4 being dictated on your response.

I found his diet online: https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_specific_diet_food_guide_sept_2014.pdf

As for this all being a placebo effect, I don’t know or really care, as this diet worked for me. Everything I read makes perfect sense, that a person has an excess amount of bacteria in their stomach or intestines and the common foods they eat only exacerbates that problem and never allows the stomach to go back to balance. And not some mysterious auto immune disease that has no cause and no cure like my GI doctor explained to me.

I am a sceptic and I just don’t trust modern conventional medicine when no cure is available and only suppression through the purchase of medication is the treatment - for life! When I saw my general practitioner last week for may annual physical and I told him about not having any symptoms of UC (a so called incurable disease) he said “Great!” and couldn’t care less on how I did it or what I did to feel 100% better. Why? Because he’s not interested in a cure as most doctors only believe in what is prescribed in traditional medical practices which are structured to ultimately keep you on the hook to keep buying their medication.

Here some detailed info on SIBO
https://blog.kettleandfire.com/sibo/

Remember, for those who love food as I do. It’s not forever, only a few months. But you have to suffer a little to get you stomach back to normal, then you can eat what every you want. And imagine not having to panic every time your stomach rumbles like I did. I hope more can benefit from this or any other diet available. Don’t give up or just accept that this is a way of life. My biggest fear of having this disease was that the rampant inflammation would lead to other problems such as diabetes or even cancer. I hope I’m on the other side of this but I would do it all again if it came back. Keep looking for a cure. And post your results on this board good or bad. I'll give updates when I can.

Good Luck.

Steve

Thanks for taking the time. So the diet you did for 10 weeks. What was the dose and timing of the supplements? In your initial posts you listed only 3 of the supplements by link. How many total supplements where there and can you provide links for the others?

Thanks.

keep posting there dagan - and use all the r and c words you want - myself, i have never understood all the fear attached to such things -

i haven't taken time to read all your offerings, but i will - thanks for sharing -



TT

But TT refuses to use the word remission....go figure.
q

Please don't take anything I'm posting as negative as I don't want to take away from your achievement and this is still just my own philosophy but I think pursuing the freedom to do what I want is a positive thing to do. I live a relatively healthy life and am in great shape considering. So I wont be eating pizza and beer for life if I'm cured but the freedom to choose what I eat is something I want. For a while I couldn't eat onions, garlic or broccoli. I have that back but I still don't consider myself cured as long as the underlying factors are still active and not addressed.
I also beleive there is a much deeper level of scientific understanding out there for me and I want to get more into the roots of the issue. Remission is a great achievement but it doesn't sit well with me if I feel I'm not digging enough to find the root causes. There is much more to learn and I enjoy science so it's not a punishment for me to keep digging for my cure.