It can be a difficult and extremely frustrating process finding the cause of your many, varied and seemingly unconnected symptoms. And it will take time, some curiosity, objectivity and some serious cash. Tests. Tests cost money, appointments cost money, data costs money, time off work costs money (opportunity cost at least for you economists). But without finding the reason you have become unable to adequately digest typical foods there is a good possibility of recurrence, in fact, a probability or certainty of recurrence.
Here's my quick list and I will update this as I come across more possible causes of digestive dysbiosis as I continue my research:
Here's my quick list and I will update this as I come across more possible causes of digestive dysbiosis as I continue my research:
- Gallbladder and liver congestion or other issues
- Colon congestion
- Hypochlorhydria (more likely a consequence rather than a cause)
- Leaky Gut (for our purposes this can be a "cause" but it has its own causes we will explore)
- Celiac disease
- Hypothyroidism
- Chronic diarrhea
- Candidiasis (possibly a consequence rather than a cause)
- Colitis (possibly a consequence rather than a cause)
- Excessive and/or long term anti-biotic use
- Diverticulitis (possibly a consequence)
- Cancer
- An episode of serious/extended digestive upset (dysentery, e coli, salmonella, giardiasis, etc)
Keep in mind I'm looking for cold, hard causes - not symptoms or consequences of dysbiosis. CAUSES. This is what your gastroenterologist is looking for when he innocently (or not so innocently) recommends for the millionth time that you get a colonoscopy/endoscopy (double). CAUSES. More often that not he doesn't find anything and then refers you to a nutritionist or dietitian since he claims he can no longer help you. OH how many times I've heard this sad, painful, frustrating story. How many deductibles have been wasted on endoscopies? Not to mention the prep will throw you off for a week and you'll have to take 1+ day off of work.
But that's the least of your worries. You need an enemy you can stare down and focus your ever-dwindling financial resources on destroying. Fortunately, all the causes I note above can be confirmed or denied with the following tests:
- HIDC for gallbladder function
- Endoscopy/colonoscopy for celiac, colitis and diverticulitis (also CT Scan for diverticulitis)
- Genova Diagnostics GI Effects Microbial Ecology Profile for #5, #8, #11, #6
- Genova Diagnostics Nutreval will help you find your deficiencies
- Saliva analysis will be helpful in determining any adrenal insufficiencis or need for DHEA supplementation which is quite common in chronic fatigue-related health problems
- Blood test for hypothyroidism
That's not that bad for finding the root cause(s) of your misery. The challenge will be creating a plan once you find the root cause of your digestive dysfunction. Most likely your plan will include multiple steps as you've probably screwed up multiple cycles in the process of living through months if not years of dysbiosis and malabsorption. For example, if you have hypochlorhydria that means you probably have SIBO, food intolerances, chronic diarrhea, insomnia, chronic fatigue, foggy thinking, memory issues, hypothyroidsim and even gallbladder issues and liver congestion issues. If you're walking you probably don't have acute liver issues since this is one of the most important organs in your body. Much to say, you'll have to attack each of those issues in a specific order until you can finally rid yourself of SIBO and your other symptoms by antibiotic or any effective means.
If I had to put ONE CAUSE at the top of the pyramid, well, I couldn't do it. But I could put TWO CAUSES at the top of the list: Thyroid/Adrenal Issues and Leaky Gut. If I could put THREE CAUSES all at the top of importance list it would be: Thyroid/Adrenal Issues, Episode of Extended Digestive Upset and Leaky Gut. If you take care of these, you will find that nearly all of your other symptoms will fall away (perhaps very slowly) by default. Until you take care of these three you will not heal. It is simply impossible to heal with these conditions lingering on in your body. In order: address your thyroid, address your adrenal issues, address your leaky gut. When you have done all these to your gut's satisfaction, your symptoms will either vanish or be 95% eliminated.
Let's address them one by one...
The liver and gallbladder are closely related. For our purposes, the liver produces bile and stores it in the gallbladder. The liver and gallbladder release the bile into the small intestine especially when fatty foods are eaten and this bile serves to enable digestion and absorption of nutrition as well as regulate bacteria and any sort of intruders such as parasites, viruses and pathogenic bacteria. For most of us, pathogenic bacteria are not the problem but bacteria are not well regulated when bile is not healthy or free-flowing and abundant. That's why typically the types of bacteria that overgrow are not pathogenic and therefore our body's immune response to that bacteria is confused at best. For example, Streptococcus and non-pathogenic E Coli. can overgrow and these strains are found in the nasal, oral, esophageal and intestinal tracts. So why would your immune system have an easy time regulating these strains when they are already typically present and have been all your life?
On an American diet which pays no attention to balance or food/liquid combinations and highly values fat, carbs and sugar the liver and gallbladder do not thrive. In fact, the American diet is just about the worst possible situation you can consistently throw your liver into. For some people, their liver finds a way and in the absence of any sort of upsetting event (giardia, dysentery, extended pathogenic infection, extended use of antibiotics, extended diarhhea, etc) things generally work out. I am not one of those people. I traveled abroad in high school and ended up with giardia on extended anti-biotics, never quite got better and continued to have daily diarhhea for 12 years before food intolerances and dysbiosis fully set in. That is exactly when I hit the books and dedicated most of my free time to uncovering the mysteries of a screwed up digestive system.
The liver/gallbladder needs to be flushed, cleaned and healed. See here for more info on how to do this. Initially this process takes about 2 months and after that just minimal maintenance is needed. Bile can coagulate and form soft or hard stones that get lodged in both your liver and gallbladder. If this coagulated bile stays there long enough it can start to become toxic and even get infected. When it gets toxic, you start releasing toxic bile into your small intestine which further irritates the lining of your gut, does not adequately do its job of aiding digestion or regulate bacteria and parasites. Can you see the many vicious cycles forming as we address more and more gut issues? Unless you flush and cleanse and heal your liver/gallbladder you will be continuing to release toxic bile into your intestines and further contributing to dysfunction and dysbiosis.
You'll soon see (if you haven't already) that there are no shortcuts with your body. Under the right conditions, given adequate time, your body will heal itself. Without the right conditions and the right amount of time, your body will not heal itself and will be driven further into dysfunction whether that process is slow or fast. If I could sum up this blog in one idea it would be the exploration of the details surrounding the conditions in which your body will heal itself. This is the central question. Why do all this? Life to the full. That's why.
The colon can build up residue and impacted fecal matter on its walls. This can also happen on the walls of the small intestine. This is a breeding ground for unwanted bacteria and parasites and since you do your absorbing of nutrition through the walls of the intestines, when they are blocked then obviously this inhibits absorption. This further contributes to dysfunction. Your colon will not cleanse itself to the extent that we're looking for and the liver doesn't have a chance if your colon is not cleansed first. See here for more info on how to go about this. This will only take about 10 days but requires 5 days of fasting which I was not able to do so I just did the colon cleanse during a liquid diet and separated my liquid food intake from the herbal cleanse intake by an hour or so and this seemed to work fine. This way, I still managed 1300 calories per day while colon cleansing. You may be surprised what comes out of you, or if you're not the sifting-through-your-own-feces type then you can simply trust that what you're doing is greatly aiding your cause.
Leaky gut is perhaps the most pernicious enemy in this whole ordeal. You've taken care of the colon. Wonderful. You're taken care of the liver/gallbladder combo. Great. Leaky gut may haunt the remainder of your recovery and will be the responsible party for setbacks, unexpected issues, random blow-ups. The problem with this entire digestive set-up is that you can't see any of the activity that is going on in your gut. The only thing you have to go on is other folks' experience, logic, a bit of science/nutrition and this inner intangible "feel good" barometer that, when properly calibrated, tells you when something is helping or hurting your healing process. Leaky gut refers to the propensity of your small intestine in particular to become perforated as the result of the dysbiosis, toxic bile, bacterial imbalance and parasites that find themselves deep-seated in your small intestine's ecosystem. When its perforated, your body responds with hypochlorhydria which further disables you from being able to digest your food fully. The perforations will also allow undigested food particles (cue gluten and other allergens) to enter your blood stream directly which tips off your immune system to react and label these allergens as intruders. Thus, you begin to react to things like wheat, gluten, onions, eggs, soy, lactose, anything really. Fortunately, these food intolerances are not allergies and can be dealt with simply by addressing the situation and creating conditions that allow the leaky gut to heal.
Again we focus on creating a situation in which your body can heal itself. The elements involved with healing the leaky gut include:
If I had to put ONE CAUSE at the top of the pyramid, well, I couldn't do it. But I could put TWO CAUSES at the top of the list: Thyroid/Adrenal Issues and Leaky Gut. If I could put THREE CAUSES all at the top of importance list it would be: Thyroid/Adrenal Issues, Episode of Extended Digestive Upset and Leaky Gut. If you take care of these, you will find that nearly all of your other symptoms will fall away (perhaps very slowly) by default. Until you take care of these three you will not heal. It is simply impossible to heal with these conditions lingering on in your body. In order: address your thyroid, address your adrenal issues, address your leaky gut. When you have done all these to your gut's satisfaction, your symptoms will either vanish or be 95% eliminated.
Let's address them one by one...
The liver and gallbladder are closely related. For our purposes, the liver produces bile and stores it in the gallbladder. The liver and gallbladder release the bile into the small intestine especially when fatty foods are eaten and this bile serves to enable digestion and absorption of nutrition as well as regulate bacteria and any sort of intruders such as parasites, viruses and pathogenic bacteria. For most of us, pathogenic bacteria are not the problem but bacteria are not well regulated when bile is not healthy or free-flowing and abundant. That's why typically the types of bacteria that overgrow are not pathogenic and therefore our body's immune response to that bacteria is confused at best. For example, Streptococcus and non-pathogenic E Coli. can overgrow and these strains are found in the nasal, oral, esophageal and intestinal tracts. So why would your immune system have an easy time regulating these strains when they are already typically present and have been all your life?
On an American diet which pays no attention to balance or food/liquid combinations and highly values fat, carbs and sugar the liver and gallbladder do not thrive. In fact, the American diet is just about the worst possible situation you can consistently throw your liver into. For some people, their liver finds a way and in the absence of any sort of upsetting event (giardia, dysentery, extended pathogenic infection, extended use of antibiotics, extended diarhhea, etc) things generally work out. I am not one of those people. I traveled abroad in high school and ended up with giardia on extended anti-biotics, never quite got better and continued to have daily diarhhea for 12 years before food intolerances and dysbiosis fully set in. That is exactly when I hit the books and dedicated most of my free time to uncovering the mysteries of a screwed up digestive system.
The liver/gallbladder needs to be flushed, cleaned and healed. See here for more info on how to do this. Initially this process takes about 2 months and after that just minimal maintenance is needed. Bile can coagulate and form soft or hard stones that get lodged in both your liver and gallbladder. If this coagulated bile stays there long enough it can start to become toxic and even get infected. When it gets toxic, you start releasing toxic bile into your small intestine which further irritates the lining of your gut, does not adequately do its job of aiding digestion or regulate bacteria and parasites. Can you see the many vicious cycles forming as we address more and more gut issues? Unless you flush and cleanse and heal your liver/gallbladder you will be continuing to release toxic bile into your intestines and further contributing to dysfunction and dysbiosis.
You'll soon see (if you haven't already) that there are no shortcuts with your body. Under the right conditions, given adequate time, your body will heal itself. Without the right conditions and the right amount of time, your body will not heal itself and will be driven further into dysfunction whether that process is slow or fast. If I could sum up this blog in one idea it would be the exploration of the details surrounding the conditions in which your body will heal itself. This is the central question. Why do all this? Life to the full. That's why.
The colon can build up residue and impacted fecal matter on its walls. This can also happen on the walls of the small intestine. This is a breeding ground for unwanted bacteria and parasites and since you do your absorbing of nutrition through the walls of the intestines, when they are blocked then obviously this inhibits absorption. This further contributes to dysfunction. Your colon will not cleanse itself to the extent that we're looking for and the liver doesn't have a chance if your colon is not cleansed first. See here for more info on how to go about this. This will only take about 10 days but requires 5 days of fasting which I was not able to do so I just did the colon cleanse during a liquid diet and separated my liquid food intake from the herbal cleanse intake by an hour or so and this seemed to work fine. This way, I still managed 1300 calories per day while colon cleansing. You may be surprised what comes out of you, or if you're not the sifting-through-your-own-feces type then you can simply trust that what you're doing is greatly aiding your cause.
Leaky gut is perhaps the most pernicious enemy in this whole ordeal. You've taken care of the colon. Wonderful. You're taken care of the liver/gallbladder combo. Great. Leaky gut may haunt the remainder of your recovery and will be the responsible party for setbacks, unexpected issues, random blow-ups. The problem with this entire digestive set-up is that you can't see any of the activity that is going on in your gut. The only thing you have to go on is other folks' experience, logic, a bit of science/nutrition and this inner intangible "feel good" barometer that, when properly calibrated, tells you when something is helping or hurting your healing process. Leaky gut refers to the propensity of your small intestine in particular to become perforated as the result of the dysbiosis, toxic bile, bacterial imbalance and parasites that find themselves deep-seated in your small intestine's ecosystem. When its perforated, your body responds with hypochlorhydria which further disables you from being able to digest your food fully. The perforations will also allow undigested food particles (cue gluten and other allergens) to enter your blood stream directly which tips off your immune system to react and label these allergens as intruders. Thus, you begin to react to things like wheat, gluten, onions, eggs, soy, lactose, anything really. Fortunately, these food intolerances are not allergies and can be dealt with simply by addressing the situation and creating conditions that allow the leaky gut to heal.
Again we focus on creating a situation in which your body can heal itself. The elements involved with healing the leaky gut include:
- colon cleanse, liver cleanse, parasite cleanse
- giving your system a rest by going on a liquids only diet for 1-2 weeks
- eliminating ALL allergens while still nourishing your body adequately
- listening to your gut and slowly only adding simple foods you can digest fully
- incorporating fermented foods (veggies, yoghurt) into each meal
- beef marrow bone broth with copious amounts of glutamine morning and evening
- rest, stretching, breathing, general stress reduction (these attempt to enable general bodily healing)
Give your body enough time under these conditions and you will heal. If you don't, something else is still lingering at the root of your digestive dysfunction.
Your quest is a quest to feel as AMAZING as you possibly can. That makes it sound nice doesn't it? This quest may cost a lot of money, this quest may make you lose A LOT of weight, this quest may bring you to funny places where you are eating very funny things but this quest must be undertaken inasmuch as your body requires for your healing. In other words, you are not the decider of what it will take for your gut to heal. You are NOT in control of this. Sorry. Your gut is in the driver's seat. If it heals in a few months, wonderful. If it takes years then it takes years, but if you do not delve as deep as is required into the quest you will not be giving your body the conditions it needs to heal itself.
My quest has included a month of a liquid diet that cost me $12000+/year, multiple attempts and failures with various supplements, too many setbacks to count, extended periods of refusing to admit that my diet was not restrictive enough, months of worrying about my low weight and therefore hesitating to take the extreme measures required to cleanse my colon and liver. OH how I wish it was easier to heal my gut but it's just not. I had to say goodbye to eating at restaurants for 4 years straight. I had to say goodbye to scrambled eggs at one point. I had to say goodbye ANY kind of processed food for 4+ years. I had to say goodbye to "convenience" and "easy." Why? Because it's what my gut required in order to heal. Your gut does not lie to you. It needs what it needs. It won't negotiate, it is not open to discussion.
Your quest is a quest to feel as AMAZING as you possibly can. That makes it sound nice doesn't it? This quest may cost a lot of money, this quest may make you lose A LOT of weight, this quest may bring you to funny places where you are eating very funny things but this quest must be undertaken inasmuch as your body requires for your healing. In other words, you are not the decider of what it will take for your gut to heal. You are NOT in control of this. Sorry. Your gut is in the driver's seat. If it heals in a few months, wonderful. If it takes years then it takes years, but if you do not delve as deep as is required into the quest you will not be giving your body the conditions it needs to heal itself.
My quest has included a month of a liquid diet that cost me $12000+/year, multiple attempts and failures with various supplements, too many setbacks to count, extended periods of refusing to admit that my diet was not restrictive enough, months of worrying about my low weight and therefore hesitating to take the extreme measures required to cleanse my colon and liver. OH how I wish it was easier to heal my gut but it's just not. I had to say goodbye to eating at restaurants for 4 years straight. I had to say goodbye to scrambled eggs at one point. I had to say goodbye ANY kind of processed food for 4+ years. I had to say goodbye to "convenience" and "easy." Why? Because it's what my gut required in order to heal. Your gut does not lie to you. It needs what it needs. It won't negotiate, it is not open to discussion.
In summary, do everything you can to find the CAUSE of your chronic and recurring digestive issues because there is one...or ten...somewhere...hiding. Once you find the causes then create and constantly update and revise your plan for creating the conditions your body needs in order to heal itself.
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