Friday, September 30, 2016

Walking Days

There are days the legs and body doesn't want to walk, and they let me know in no uncertain way, but for every reason I would have not to walk are the very reasons I walk, to let the body and legs know, despite the pain, stiffness, soreness, tiredness, it still has to work, and to let the mind know it can't cave to simple things of muscles not wanting to walk.

It's not mind over body, but mind simply saying it's what we (body and mind) do, and if even it's the worst walk in many days, and the legs give out and the body runs out of energy long before home, it doesn't matter, we're in this together to get home, no matter the price then and later.

There's always a well-earned snack and nap waiting on those days.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Probiotics

Here's something I've thought and talked to my naturopath and primary care physician (PCP) about, the former had discussed it if we went that route with the digestive bacteria problem and my PCP was curious to remember. Which is?

If you're going to take any universal antibiotic, consider taking probiotics during or near the end of the usual 10-days of the drug use, even though most of it will be destroyed, and take probiotics immediately after for days if not weeks to re-establish the bacteria balance in your digestive tract.

I've thought about this since August 2014 when I took Amoxicillin for an ear infection, and while my normal bacteria always re-established itself within a week or so with past times of Amoxicillin, this time it didn't and the opportunistic bacteria used the window to proliferate.

My body wasn't able to respond to that bacteria for about a month (October 2014) but then did for about six weeks before it stopped fighting it and the opportunistic bacteria took over my digestive system, which since July I've been working with a naturopath to reclaim.

We haven't succeeded yet as the opportunistic bacteria keeps returning along with the prospect of new types of bacteria in the last few weeks. We're holding out the "nuke" option of a universal bacteria, namely Amoxicillin, since it's been my mainstay antibiotic for decades.

If we do use, exhausting all other herbal remedies, then I'll take Allicin and Berberine with it to fight the bacteria it's helped to control in recent weeks, and I'll take probiotics to flood the system with good bacteria and prevent the opportunistic bacteria from gaining footholds in the digestive tract.

For now that's the last option, but it's there and this time I'll be better prepared to help the body prevent the opportunistic bacteria from proliferating again. Something to keep in mind because it's doubtful physicians and/or specialists think about this option when prescribing antibiotics.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Food

I've written ad naseum about my digestive problems, and while I thought it was improving through August with the help of a naturopath, it goes worse in September (effecting walking days), both with the effects of the herbal drugs and with new problems.

We've seem to have hit the limit of what Berberine and Allicin does to combat the overgrowth of 3 opportunistic bacteria. The bacteria seems to wax and wane, sometimes with the drugs and sometimes without them.

This is in part because the side effects of the Allicin has had more of an impact on the system and my body than we anticipated and the likelihood the system can't keep up flushing the die-off of the bacteria from the drugs so it builds up and causes its own effects.

So we're still tinkering with dosage and frequency to find a balance, but the bacteria in the system may also be changing with good and/or new opportunistic bacteria. We have samples in the lab awaiting results to see if it's die, more of the same bacteria or new bacteria.

One goal is to reintroduce good bacteria, aka, probiotics, to the system but several tests of a variety of probotics (brands and types of bacteria, from single to multipel types) for the last two years have all produced disasterous results, like adding gasoline to a charcoal barbecue fire.

This applies to food with probiotics, commonly found in many dairy and other food products, such as yogurt and the like. I have to always read the ingredients when thinking of buying and/or trying new foods. Occasionally, though, I get a surprise.

I know I can't eat wheat. It's not the gluten so much as the wheat itself, described in the articles about FODMAPS (Google that to find a boatload of information) which I've followed with a lot of caveats as many foods there have been tested and are off-limits from the adverse effects.

But it's not know if those effects is from a normal situation or the current one, meaning the opportunistic bacteria is controlling more of my food senstivities than normal bacteria. One recent example is wheat.

A croissant recently made me sick for 3 days but some of a sourdough baguette didn't have any effect beyond normal. This was one test of each, but wheat has consistently produce adverse reactions which surprised me when the sourdough baguette didn't.

I keep trying food experiments which more often than not worsens things for a few days, but occasionally produce little or no effects more than normal, so it's still hit and miss, and sometimes the good (new) food is short-lived as the bad bacteria adapts and adjusts faster than the normal bacteria.

What I do know for sure is when I have to fast for medical tests, meaning no eating for 12 hours and sometimes 24-48 hours, the problems and the effects go to near zero, meaning the obvious, food feeds the bacteria and causes the adverse reactions.

Fasting also gives the system a respite from the internal war and helps the system flush any residual excessive bacteria and die-off out of the sytem. This means managing my food more which is hard because, as anyone knows, fasting always makes you hungry.

In addition I'm undergoing tests for possible side effects from the opportunistic bacteria, from what isn't recognized by medical professionals or science yet, but identified as "leaky gut syndrome", meaning the bacteria gets out of the intestinal tract into the body. The symptoms fit.

I've also learn the final answer might be what none of us wants, which is going the univeral antibiotic route, which destroys all the bacteria in the system, and then we have to rebuild it hoping the opportunistic bacteria doesn't survive long enough for the good bacteria to replace it and the body fight any future overgrowths.

Anyway, that's what I've learned to date. The fight goes on and the internal war goes on. The digestive system is so dynamic there's no permanent answers so far to improve things, yet anyway.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Milestone

Just a quick note, this week I passed a milestone. On my walk on Thursday (Sept. 22nd) I passed the 5,000 mile milestone. It was just two miles into the walk about a mile from my turn-around place at Starbucks, leaving me now at 5,004 miles to date.

September, unlike July and August, isn't turning into a good month for walks, from the problems with the bacteria in my digestive system and the herbal drugs I'm taking to fight the opportunistic bacteria overgrowths.

The problem is more system can't flush out the excess bacteria and the die-off, so it builds up until the system reacts to flush it all out. This process takes 7-10 days now, most of it with the buildup and then a few days with the reaction.

But that's another story for another time than here. I also got out my 3rd of 4 pairs of 5-10 Dome shoes. A few years ago 5-10 discontinued the Dome model, although some pair still linger in the market, but beware some stores (eg. outdoorplay.com) advertise them but don't actually stock them.

You have to actually confirm they have the shoes in stock. I got burned by outdoorplay.com on this issue. The store accepted my order, billed my credit card, and then back-ordered the shoes. It took a few months to get them to admit the shoes werre discontinued and not available, and then refund my credit card.

 I've already gone through 3 pairs of these shoes and found the shoes on 5-10's discontinued shoes Web page and bought the last 4 pair of them in my size. I've used two new pair already. I get 800-1,000 good miles on them and another ~200 miles if the sole isn't worn too badly or the inside liner and padding isn't shredded.

That means I can get to about 7,000 miles before replacing the Dome shoes with a new model, so I'm researching new models. I won't buy mainstream company shoes because they're not made for more than a few hundred miles and still costs the price of 5-10 shoes.

Anyway, that's the story to date, another milestone reached (reached 4,000 January 1st), so the goal is now 6,000 in 8-9 months and hope the health issue improves to get more days and miles in on the walks.