Healing Your Gut


Below is an effective approach to healing a gut. For details on CFS/FMS medical tests, please click here. For information on how to locate a CFS/FMS Doc, click here.

1) Read Lipski
Read the book, "Digestive Wellness" By Lipski. This outstanding book explains what can go wrong with the gut, how to test for it, and how to deal with problems that one might find. For a more sophisticated description of what can go wrong with the gut and how to deal with it, please click here, here, here. The Great Smokies Paper on Digestion and Digestion Pathologies (click here to view it), with 90 outstanding scientific references to support it's comments, is the best paper on this topic on the planet. It is suggested that you read it at least 3 times at one month intervals if your digestion is not doing well and you have CFS or FMS symptoms.

2) Take ELISA Food Allergy Test
Perform an ELISA Food Allergy test to identify food allergies, and then refrain from allergic foods. Allergic foods do not necessarily lead to quick, noticeable allergic reactions (e.g. eat food and feel uncomfortable within 1Hr). Instead, the reactions can be slow, upset the ecology in the gut, and lead to bad digestive problems in a steady state situation. These can only be identified with an ELISA test, which involves sending a blood sample to a lab. To learn more about these kinds of tests, please click here, here and here. To see George's food allergies in 1998 pretreatment and his food allergies in 1999, post treatment, click here.

3) Take a CDSA w/ Parasitology 1x Purge Test
Test for parasites, bacterial overgrowth, fungi and other problems that can occur during digestion with a stool analysis test. Parasitology means that the test looks for parasites (this could add $250 to the cost of the test). "1x Purge" means that one induces diarrhea w/ an enema, to pull material from the small intestine into the collection container, to look for parasites deep in the gastrointestinal track. To learn more about these tests click here. To see George's problem gut in 1998 pretreatment and his gut in 1999, post treatment, click here.

Butyrate Is The Most Important Colon Nutrient
Your CDSA may say you have low Butyrate. Butyrate is one of the main nutrients used by cells that line the colon (last meter of your gastrointestinal track). If one is low here, they can easily supplement Butyrate, which is available from most health food stores. Butyrate synthesis can be inhibited by H2S and Sulfites.

4) Take a Lactulose/Mannitol Small Intestine Permeability Test
Leaky Gut involves a small intestine wall that is permeable to gut bacteria and allows it to enter the body, which it should not. The typical gut has 3LBs of over 400 different strains of bacteria that is used to digest food. This bacteria, along with digestive juices, is very harmful to the inside of the body. Therefore, the small intestine lining must allow nutrients to pass and must not allow larger molecules such as gut bacteria to enter the body. If gut bacteria enters the blood, it can find its way to various organs and be attacked by the immunity system, which attacks the organ as well as the foreign invader. Symptoms from gut bacteria in the blood include:

Allergies
The immunity system goes into an alarm state when it sees so many foreign particles, causing it to become more allergic to common things in one's environment, such as food).

Muscle Pain and Stiffness
The bacteria/fungi affix to the soft tissue cells, and then are attacked by the immunity system. Docs typically prescribe NSAIDs, which actually increases gut permeability, and can make things worse over a long period of time. The pain is usually the worst in the early morning, since there is less blood flow when one is sedentary in bed.

Joint pain.
This is similar to muscle pain, yet the bacteria/fungi affix to the joints.

Malabsorption.
When the small intestine wall is damaged, it does not absorb nutrients well, causing organs to be deprived of the molecules they need to operate. This can lead to virtually any problem, including blood sugar disregulation, insulin disregulation, fatigue, shakiness, temperature disregulation, and mood swings.

The cause of LEAKY GUT is typically one or more of the following:

* harmful bacteria in gut
* overgrown yeast and fungi in gut
* parasites in gut
* food allergies
* immune system shooting at bad guys and punching holes behind them

LEAKY GUT is identified with a simple $125 medical test called the "Lactulose/ Mannitol Small Intestine Permeability test". And if one is positive, further testing can indicate why (e.g. bacteria, fungi, parasite, food allergy). And then one can, quite easily (relative to not treating it), treat the issue, depending on the specific cause, as noted in Lipski. Tests to look for causes to leaky gut include the "ELISA food allergy" test and the "CDSA with Parasitology 1x Purge" test. Treatments include L-Glutamine (main nutrient for cells on small intestine wall) and Aloe Vera juice. Aloe tells the immune system to stop spraying poisons into the gut (anti inflammatory) and also helps heal the gut wall.

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a form of arthritis of the spine typically due to bacteria, yet spondylitis can be due to fungi as well (for details, please search "spondylitis AND Candida" at medline. A recent 1999 study found that folks with AS have more permeable guts than those without AS, and family members of AS patients who do not show symptoms have more permeable guts as well, indicating there may be a genetic component to pains associated with gut wall permeability. For details on this, please see REFERENCE 17.

To learn more about leaky gut click here and here. To see George's problematic gut wall in 1998 and his better wall in 1999, click here.

5) Check For Poison Gut Gas
Harmful bacteria or yeast in the small intestine typically ferment sugar and produce poison gas such as ammonia, formaldehyde, and acidic chemicals that leak into the blood through the gut wall. Itching of skin after eating can be caused by this poison gas. Excess acidity in blood can leech Calcium/Phosphorous out of bone, as described here. Additionally, sugar metabolism consumes much Chromium, Zinc, Magnesium and O2; and can therefore deplete these minerals.

The Infamous Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S)
When gut bacteria or fungi are attacked by something like a heavy metal molecule (e.g. mercury), they have a special defense mechanism (called a "resistance gene") that produces Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) gas, which binds to the attacker and neutralizes it. Subsequently this highly toxic and poisonous H2S gas is created in the gut. H2S can impair the immunity system, especially in the area of neutrophil function, which is used to fight the original yeast in the gut, and hence one can hit a vicious cycle. H2S is very similar to mercury, in that it can bind to many of the things that mercury binds to and inactivate them. In other words, all the bad things that mercury can do, as described here, H2S can do. H2S can also convert the safer Inorganic mercury to the more dangerous Organic mercury, as described here. H2S has a very special circular relationship with the heavy metals; and therefore, it is a very special gas.

Testing For Poison Gut Gas
If you get a CDSA test from Great Smokies Labs, and you see an elevated Dysbiosis Index, or you see yeast, or you see harmful bacteria (e.g. Klebsiella), you probably have an Poison Gut Gas problem. If the Dysbiosis Index is high, yet the test does not see specific bacteria or specific yeast, you probably have a strain(s) of yeast or bacteria that is not checked by the test (it only looks for a small subset). The Great Smokie Hydrogen Breath Test is also useful at detecting Poison Gut Gas. The importance of healing gut pathologies cannot be overemphasized.

Shutting Off The Poison Gut Gas Food Supply
There should be no fermentation in the small intestine, only "digestion". Therefore, if you have yeast or bad bacteria (as seen on a CDSA), you should consider the following no-sugar no-fast carbo dietary guidelines. If one's seratonin 5-HT2 receptors are clogged, they may have sugar cravings which can make dealing with this issue more difficult, as described here. One way to deal with the cravings is to pad-lock (key or combination) the kitchen cabinet, securing all sweets, and notifying all family members that sweets not locked up will be removed from the premises. Also, one can put locks on kitchen doors so that family members can create a secure perimeter while the pad-locked cabinets are open. Also, to satisfy the clogged 5-HT2 cravings, one keep a bag of rice cakes (0g sugar) next to them, and pop rice cake as needed. Eating many rice cakes is OK.

Foods That Encourage Fermentation (bad)
Sugar, cookies, cakes, soda, fruit juice, fast carbohydrates (e.g. refined wheat, white bread, pasta, pizza, sweet roles, muffins, cookies), nuts, sweet fruit (e.g. apple, orange, pears), egg, non-turkey meat (meat and also egg ferments into methionine-based toxins H2S and CH3SH) all encourage fermentation; and need to be avoided if you have a poison gut gas problem. Tofu encourages fungal growth since it contains fungi, and it therefore should be avoided or limited if one has fungi in the gut.

Foods That Discourage Fermentation (good)
The following foods are helpful when one has a fermentation problem: Complex carbohydrates (e.g. brown rice, buckwheat, popcorn, rice cakes), vegetables, cranberries and blueberries (non-sweet fruit), Lingonberries (red sour small berries), no sugar soy milk, Aloe Juice, no sugar yogurt, goat yogurt, Keifer milk, cheese, milk, tomatoes, peppers, sesame-seed paste, pocono buckwheat, hominy grits (white corn grits), squashes are excellent, olives (black and green, not from metal can, w/o sulfite preservative), goat feta cheese is excellent (not cow feta), potatoes in small quantities, brown rice is excellent, millet is ok most of the time, small amounts of turkey (possibly with digestive aids), fish, flax oil, olive and weight-lifters MCT oils (caprylate + gammalinolenate), and Rutabagas (good against Candida). One can use Alanine or Stevia for sweeteners.

Why Sugar, Meat and Egg Can Be Very Bad
Glucose and most sugars are "aldohexoses" which means they produce a chemical called aldehyde. There is a liver filtration process called sulfoxidation, and if it is impaired (e.g. due to enzymes that have been inactivated by bad molecule such as lead or mercury), then the aldehyde will consume more of the enzymes used by sulfoxidation and therefore slow it down, causing toxins to build in the body. Methionine from eggs, meat and wheat produce poisonous H2S, CH3SH and formaldehyde from fermentation, and these consume enzymes used by the liver, causing toxins to build as well. Sugar itself requires mono-oxidations to burn it, and this process is also used to make ATP energy, therefore, the sugar inhibits the generation of ATP energy by stealing away mono-oxidation. In summary; egg, sugar and meat can cause fatigue if several enzymes in the liver have gone down due to bad molecules. The test for this condition is to avoid the "bad" foods listed above for several days and see if one feels significantly better.

Probiotics and Prebiotics
The following are helpful at displacing the bad bacteria and yeast with good bacteria: tons of Probiotic Bacteria Capsules (e.g. acidophilus, bifidobacterium, lactobacillus, escherichia coli), tons of Prebiotic Capsules (e.g. FructoOligoSaccharides), tons of Kefir (a drink from the Caucasus Mountains) and tons of goat yogurt. If your gut has 1.5Kg (3LBs) of total bacteria, and you want to put 1LBs of good bacteria in to push out the bad, you would need to take many bacterial capsules. Note that the full 1LBs will not make it to the gut lining and survive. Some will die from stomach acid and some will not affix to the colon wall and will end up in the toilet. If you pop 300mg capsules of healthy bacteria, you would need to pop 1600 of them to get to 1LBs (1LBs = .5Kg = 300mg/capsules * 1600 capsules). And if you pop 6 at each helping, and do this 4 times a day (24/day), then it would take you 66days to get the 1LBs down. Taking bacteria by the half-tablespoon or quarter-tablespoon per helping (for example, mixed with a little plain yogurt) is good to. If one gets diarrhea, they need to reduce dosage, however, if no side-effects appear, large doses are considered safe. One often takes bacteria in-between meals, since stomach acid can sometimes kill it before it affixes to the small intestine wall. Heat kills the bacteria as well, therefore it is recommended that you purchase it from a health food store that keeps it in a refrigerator; otherwise, you do not know what you are buying and popping. Goat yogurt and kefir milk contain healthy bacteria and are very effective at dealing with poison gut gas, especially when one ingests a quart a day.

Mg02 Oxidation Therapy
The bad bacteria and fungi hate oxygen. They need a zero 02 environment to do their fermenting. One therapeutic approach is to put some oxygen into the gut via Mg02 (magnesium oxide) tablets. One can do this for 10 days or so, yet not over a long period of time. The disadvantage of Mg02 is that excess oxygen can damage tissues and ultimately cause cancer. Also, Mg02 has side effects such as nausea and headaches. It is not for the faint of heart. After killing the bad guys, one needs to replace them with good bacteria, otherwise they will grow back. One does this with goat yogurt, kefir, Probiotics and Prebiotics, as described above.

6) Treat All Pathologies Seen with Tests
Treat all the all pathologies found with the above tests, as described in Lipski's book. Goat Yogurt (e.g. Redwood Hills Goat plain acid) is one of the most helpful foods in treating a problem gut.


Example Case: George's Gut

George's FMS pain of 12yrs became significantly better after he healed his gut. He was able to stop taking pain meds (NSAIDS and Flexerile), and was able to be pain free during the day. Sedimentation rate dropped from 30 to 16. After healing the gut, the pain still persisted at night after sleeping for 1 to 2 hours (no pain meds were being taken at this point), yet this remaining early morning pain was eliminated with an antifungal drug several months later. A noticeable affect was felt after 30days on the antifungal "Lamisil". For maintenance to control fungi, Garlic (which kills fungi) and Thymus (which stimulates the part of the immunity system that kills fungi) was used. Without some kind of maintenance therapy, the pain would return within 30days.


BeatCfsAndFms Home ©Copyright 1999 gsw. All rights reserved.