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.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Measuring Rivers
I won’t deny I have problems with heights, looking down gives me nausea, but one thing I love is being in a cablecar on a cableway strung across a river, the wider the better, high above the flowing water, the faster the flow the better. I loved streamggaging for the USGS, especially the big rivers with the high cableway, to spend and hour or more going across and measuring the width, depth and velocity to compute a discharge (flow), and sometimes take a moment in the middle to just sit and feel the quiet place.
I was only worried once during my career, when measuring Blue Creek above Hills Creek Resevoir, Oregon during a flood when I could hear boulders the size of cars (seen in followup measurements) rolling along the bed, moved by the the high velocity, realizing even with a floatation jacket (safety requirement) I wouldn’t survive if I fell in the river. The cableway and towers were well above the river, but it occurred to me when I took that moment to watch and listen to the loud sounds of those boulders I couldn’t see due to the high sediment flow but had a reality check on the power of rivers, no matter how seemingly small.
And of all the hundreds of wading measurements I, some up to the top of my chest waders, I never lost my footing or fell in the creeks or rivers. But there was a time on Gray Creek in the Middle Fork of the Willametter River basin, I had the scare every streamgager has at least once, find yourself in the middle of the creek or river realizing you can move forward across it or go back the bank you started .You were stuck there and this time the during the high flow the rocks on the bed were moving under and around me and started to move me downstream while the flow pushed against the upstream side of my body nudging me down stream too.
After a few minutes I realized I had no choice but to go forward with two possibilities, one I’d lose it and become part fhe flow to extracate myself out safely, or two, I’d be ok and get across, and then come back to make the measurement. The latter prevailed as I realized I was in the deepest and swiftest part of it and still standing, meaning I could finish it, which I did, and without getting wet except for the rain.
It’s the conundrums each of us have and live with.
Something
I've written ad nauseam about my digestive problems and food, and while I won't go into those again, I'd like to report I have answers, from a naturopath and not gastroenterologists, about the cause of the problems.
To begin with the naturopath did a full suite of tests on stools, looking at 9 different indicators, such as yeast, bacteria, parasise, microbes, pancreatic output, etc. and did real and complete Small Intestive Bacteria Overgrowth (SIBO) test.
The gastroentrologist prescribed the SIBO test in February 2015, but the clinic did the wrong test, looking at lactose and gluten, not SIBO, which the gastroenterologist didn't see, but even that test indicated a possible problem, which was ignored.
In addition the gastroenterologist looked for three known infectious bacteria in the stools, but not non-infectious bacteria and not for the amount of normal flora, meaning in short, they didn't do enough to rule out biological causes.
The naturopath also found I have a low level of pancreatic exocrine and a far higher level of inflamation immune markers, meaning I don't produce enough pancreatic enzymes to fully digest food and the system is overreacting to inflation in the small and large intestine.
The SIBO test showed I don't have SIBO but an overgrowth of three "opportunistic" non-infectious bacteria which are always present in the digestive system but kept in check by the immune system and other bacteria.
When the body can't keep them in check, then they proliferate in the system to replace "good" bacteria and causes an array of adverse reactions in the small and large intestine, the symptoms I've been having since November 2014.
The naturopath prescribed 3 herbal drugs known to fight the three non-infectious bacteria. She didn't prescribe antibiotics (naturopaths in Washington State can prescribe "common" antibiotics) because there are none for non-infectious bacteria overgrowths, only infectious bacteria in digestive system.
That would mean prescribing a universal antibiotic, which destroys all the bacteria in the digestive tract and rebuilding the bacteria after the period of the antibiotic. She chose to focus on herbal drugs which focuses specifically on those bacteria first, and will only prescribe antibiotics if they fail to work.
Anyway, that's the status to date, a month on 4 herbal drugs to fight the bacteria and flush it out of the system, hopefully leaving opportunity for all the good bacteria to rebuild the digestive process to normal and resume a wider diet of foods.
So I'll see what happens over the next month, but the good news is that I have answers, which the gastroenterologists didn't provide, and a treatment plan with options. It's up to the body now to do the work with herbal drugs to bring the overgrowths in check and improve the pancreatic enzymes.
What this whole process has taught me is that traditional medical professionals look for the obvious first, which makes sense since many medical condition are solved and treated from obvious symptoms and tests.
If that fails they go through the list of the less obvious in some order of common sense, experience, knowledge or learning, but there often comes a point or time they run out of answers, not for the want of opportunities to search, but for lack of interest.
It's sometimes easier for some to simply rely on what they know than explore what they don't know. This is true in gastroenterology when their knowledge with the biological side of the digestive system is limited, often by choice of the professional, to refer the patient than explore options.
This is what I experienced. They knew a lot of the physical side of the digestive system and searched for answers with tests they already knew, and lacking results, simply stopped looking, or worse, resorted to the obvious, "Take probiotics."
And that in the case of bacteria overgrowths is the worst thing you can do, add more bacteria to an overloaded digestive system. That and prebiotics or digestive enzymes which can worsen the problem than help it.
It also shows me the lack of resources for traditional medical science to treat less serious, but often equally adverse, conditions which don't fit into the text books. This is why gastroenterology has Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, which to me is short for "It Beats the Shit" out of me.
And there is "Leaky Gut" syndrome and other conditions gastroentrologists are only beginning to address as they discover most digestive problems are biological in origin, the physical side being symptoms than causes.
But it's also why some, maybe many, gastroenterologist don't get into the biological side. It takes more work, time and interest to explore and learn, something many don't seem to want to do when they can simply prescribe a drug or do a proceedure to "cure" the patient.
This is where it's better to find a naturopath which has the knowledge and experience with the biological side of the digestive system. Many are now covered by health insurance plans, although treatment and herbal drugs aren't usually covered.
Anyway, that's the story to date.
To begin with the naturopath did a full suite of tests on stools, looking at 9 different indicators, such as yeast, bacteria, parasise, microbes, pancreatic output, etc. and did real and complete Small Intestive Bacteria Overgrowth (SIBO) test.
The gastroentrologist prescribed the SIBO test in February 2015, but the clinic did the wrong test, looking at lactose and gluten, not SIBO, which the gastroenterologist didn't see, but even that test indicated a possible problem, which was ignored.
In addition the gastroenterologist looked for three known infectious bacteria in the stools, but not non-infectious bacteria and not for the amount of normal flora, meaning in short, they didn't do enough to rule out biological causes.
The naturopath also found I have a low level of pancreatic exocrine and a far higher level of inflamation immune markers, meaning I don't produce enough pancreatic enzymes to fully digest food and the system is overreacting to inflation in the small and large intestine.
The SIBO test showed I don't have SIBO but an overgrowth of three "opportunistic" non-infectious bacteria which are always present in the digestive system but kept in check by the immune system and other bacteria.
When the body can't keep them in check, then they proliferate in the system to replace "good" bacteria and causes an array of adverse reactions in the small and large intestine, the symptoms I've been having since November 2014.
The naturopath prescribed 3 herbal drugs known to fight the three non-infectious bacteria. She didn't prescribe antibiotics (naturopaths in Washington State can prescribe "common" antibiotics) because there are none for non-infectious bacteria overgrowths, only infectious bacteria in digestive system.
That would mean prescribing a universal antibiotic, which destroys all the bacteria in the digestive tract and rebuilding the bacteria after the period of the antibiotic. She chose to focus on herbal drugs which focuses specifically on those bacteria first, and will only prescribe antibiotics if they fail to work.
Anyway, that's the status to date, a month on 4 herbal drugs to fight the bacteria and flush it out of the system, hopefully leaving opportunity for all the good bacteria to rebuild the digestive process to normal and resume a wider diet of foods.
So I'll see what happens over the next month, but the good news is that I have answers, which the gastroenterologists didn't provide, and a treatment plan with options. It's up to the body now to do the work with herbal drugs to bring the overgrowths in check and improve the pancreatic enzymes.
What this whole process has taught me is that traditional medical professionals look for the obvious first, which makes sense since many medical condition are solved and treated from obvious symptoms and tests.
If that fails they go through the list of the less obvious in some order of common sense, experience, knowledge or learning, but there often comes a point or time they run out of answers, not for the want of opportunities to search, but for lack of interest.
It's sometimes easier for some to simply rely on what they know than explore what they don't know. This is true in gastroenterology when their knowledge with the biological side of the digestive system is limited, often by choice of the professional, to refer the patient than explore options.
This is what I experienced. They knew a lot of the physical side of the digestive system and searched for answers with tests they already knew, and lacking results, simply stopped looking, or worse, resorted to the obvious, "Take probiotics."
And that in the case of bacteria overgrowths is the worst thing you can do, add more bacteria to an overloaded digestive system. That and prebiotics or digestive enzymes which can worsen the problem than help it.
It also shows me the lack of resources for traditional medical science to treat less serious, but often equally adverse, conditions which don't fit into the text books. This is why gastroenterology has Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, which to me is short for "It Beats the Shit" out of me.
And there is "Leaky Gut" syndrome and other conditions gastroentrologists are only beginning to address as they discover most digestive problems are biological in origin, the physical side being symptoms than causes.
But it's also why some, maybe many, gastroenterologist don't get into the biological side. It takes more work, time and interest to explore and learn, something many don't seem to want to do when they can simply prescribe a drug or do a proceedure to "cure" the patient.
This is where it's better to find a naturopath which has the knowledge and experience with the biological side of the digestive system. Many are now covered by health insurance plans, although treatment and herbal drugs aren't usually covered.
Anyway, that's the story to date.
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