Almost 100% recovered, how I did it.

[raygoesmobile]

 

I caught Lyme back in the mid-2000s and it took a two year run of oral antibiotics to get rid of it. My microbiome was VERY angry for a long time. I did a lot of stuff that kinda worked, not gonna review those things, we'll focus on the cascade that led to an almost total cure.

 

I had brain fog to the point it was like narcolepsy - anything to do with gut volume change, food going in or out, could knock me flat for four hours or more. The first thing I found that helped with magnesium, but you want to avoid the oxide, that is poorly absorbed. Doctor's Best Bone Builder is what I usually get.

 

Your gut has about as many brain cells as a cat. The serotonin you have is made there, and the gut gets 90% of it for its own use. So I started using a 200mg 5-HTP time release supplement. Didn't change symptoms all that much, but I felt less anxious/depressed.

 

I finally got the doctor to give me Modafinil. It gets a strike through because it gave me tardive dyskinesia. The value with this stuff was that it shut down 80% of my symptoms. I knew it did something with dopamine, I happened to read an article shortly after I had to quit it, and it said that dopamine was a powerful anti-inflammatory for the gut. There's a supplement called L-tyrosine that is a dopamine precursor. The normal daily intake from your diet would be somewhere between three and six grams. When I first got on it I found I needed to triple that amount for it to work. Now I don't take so much, but if there's a hint of trouble I'm back on it for the day. You will like this one - less than $10 on Amazon and if it's gonna work for you it'll work between one meal and the next, it's really quick.

 

I had YEARS of runny nose, clogged ears, and so forth. It would obviously get worse when I ate, and much worse if there were a lot of carbs. I read the Lyme/IBS stuff on medicalxpress.com and I noticed an article about one of the possible IBS causes being two types of bacteria that produced histamine. I saw that these bacteria attack the gut lining and the light came on for me. I started with 50mg of Benadryl before every meal and ramped up to 300mg - 400mg a day.

 

I had been trying to restore my microbiome for a while. There is a probiotic called Visbiome that's gone through clinical trials and among the others I've tried I got really good results with Organic India's Psyllium Husk Pre & Probiotic Fiber.

 

I got some blood work done six weeks ago and the first thing I did after seeing the results was pitch my blood sugar meter, which had gone WAY out of specification. What I learned from the blood work is that my liver no longer does a good job of buffering my blood glucose levels. When I was in early middle age and really fit I would get a fasting score in the low  90s. I've been as low as 72 in the last week doing nothing more strenuous than fighting my cat to get the fluffy pillow when its bedtime. I got a fancy OneTouch meter with bluetooth, a whole bunch of test strips, and what I've learned is that for me, I need a blood sugar of around 120 for part of the day if I want proper bowel movements. I can tell when it's low without the meter though - when I eat my liver hurts. I've had it checked, no gall stones, it's being called upon to deal with blood sugar stuff and it just wants to rest.

 

I ran out of test strips a couple days ago, the few checks I did do were all in the 90s, and I'm taking the time to write this while waiting for the grocery guy to show up. I slipped a two pack Fleets enema into the order, gotta reboot things. This is my first down day since June 10th and I know precisely what to do to get back on track.

 

That being said ...

 

That's just my story. I think mostly its good advice, things you can try w/o spending a fortune and you'll know if they're working in a matter of hours to days. The sugar thing is tied to my weird genetics, it'll cost you roughly $125 to check into it. Looking back I wish I had done a few things differently:

 

• paid closer attention to Modafinil warnings. Not saying don't try it, just know the pitfalls.
• should have done periodic Benadryl vacations, to see how things were coming along.
• It had been two years since I'd had the blood work done, if you're trying to change ... do it quarterly?

 

IBS sucks and the doctors might pat you on the head like a crazy person rather than listening. I know I've ignored a bunch of that condescending crap over the years. You do NOT have to put up with that. You need the doctor for some things, but at least two thirds of my improvements over the years came from my own reading and careful note taking on how things were working.

 

So ... get going on your reading, figure out which thing you're going to try first, and if you get tired, don't give up, just stop and rest a bit.

 

[AnnaO]

What were your symptoms originally? Thanks for sharing your story