Seeking advice for my weakened microbiome

[Ursus Minor]

I am struggling with a prolonged dysfunction of the gut flora.

Things went downhill when I underwent two consecutive colonoscopies at the end of January and I developed sudden mood swings, exhaustion, agitation and periods with an accelerated pulse and tight muscles. The intestinal lavage seems to have wrecked my microbiome.

The gut microflora test in March resulted in the detection of two significantly lowered bacteria:

- E. coli < 10^4 [ref. 10^6 - 10^7]

- bifidobacterium spec. < 10^7 [ref. 10^9 - 10^11]

Three months later I'm literally taking two hands full of probiotics and prebiotics a day (I was introduced to the necessity of taking prebiotics only some weeks ago). The situation has indeed improved somewhat. I'm currently at 14 to 18 days of 'relative well being' (which includes tenseness, nervousness or unease) and a relapse of a couple of days with feeling really sick.

My impression is that the newly added bacteria occasionally seem to 'slide away' but I may be wrong...

I have been warned that the procedure of healing the microbiome could take many months.
This condition is quite debilitating as I often don't find the energy to take walks or get on my bike.

My natural health practitioner is pushing for the consumption of 500 grams of vegetables a day and I have already introduced whole-grain rye and spelt bread into my diet for the sake of dietary fibers.

I'm prepared to do almost anything to get out of this hole.

The symptoms I'm experiencing seem to indicate that the gut may not be able to produce sufficient serotonin.

I wonder if my condition would improve if I tried some 5-HTP or L-Tryptophan or anything other that helps to build serotonin...

 

[Odin]

Hi Ursus,

I am no expert on this issue, nor do I understand everything that you have written in the technical sense regarding your situation.

I do however have had some real issues with gut flora and the many related issues whit it. I will put in my 2 cents and recommend that you find a good homeopathic practitioner. Also, keep up the usage of probiotics in accordance with the usages of homeopathic medicine. I don't know if this will help in your situation, but I hope it does.

As a side note, you can also experiment with the "programming" of water. I have tried this for some time now and had a really interesting result with a friend of mine regarding his extreme level of inflammation and low blood levels due to lupus. I cannot say for sure but I programmed the water for 2 or 3 weeks with the intention of "healing inflammation" and wrote the numbers of the letters to spell the intention, and it worked it seems! He did not change any of his usual medication and only drank the water for about 4 weeks. His results were so good that his doctor could not believe it. I think the more specific you are about what you want the water to "do" the better. Just fit it to your situation.

I hope your condition improves and that you will find a solution to your troubles.

 

[mkrnhr]

Hi Ursus Minor,
I don't have any specific advice unfortunately, but have you tried experimenting with some fermented (living, not pasteurized) products? First that comes to mind is fermented milk, homemade cheese/yogurt and sauerkraut. Also, from what I've heard, probiotics should be stored in specific conditions (mostly temperature) otherwise they lose of their potency.

 

[Yas]

Hi Ursus Minor,

I will second mkrnhr's suggestion. Homemade fermented food has much higher potency probiotics so adding that would certainly help you (unless you are sensitive to some of that food). They seem very complicated to make but once you try, you'll see it's quite easy.

I've recently read that it is also good to intercalate these types of food so that you have a good viriety of probiotics. So you could, for example, have water kéfir for some time, then sauerkraut, then coconut milk kéfir, then kombucha, then another type of fermented veggies, and so on. It also depends on what is easier to find locally.

 

[hlat]

Have you tried live fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut and pickles, even if they are store bought? Also, a fermented imitation ice cream called Renee's Live is pretty tasty.

 

[bauble]

I was just reading about the role of hydrogen peroxide in restoring gut health. In his book (a free PDF download), Dr. Levy says of nebulizing with 3% HP on a regular basis:

"At the same time HP nebulization is knocking out your cold, flu, or COVID, it is substantially (sometimes completely) resetting your gut flora back to normal, and greatly helping to restore overall gut function to normal as well. This “gut reset” allows the leaky gut to heal and thereby prevent easy access of pathogens and toxins to organs and structures elsewhere in the body. As this healing takes place, ALL chronic diseases come under better control, and a few of them may even completely resolve clinically if not present for too long a period of time already."

If you're interested in that topic, his book is a fairly short read and goes into well-sourced info on many roles for HP. It was the gut flora topic I was most interested in, having been significantly damaged by fluoroquinolone toxicity in 2015, so I will experiment with regular usage to see if it provides any noticeable impact.

Looking deeper into that I found an article:

"But which protective effects could be attributed to H2O2 in gut inflammation? We used models of gut barrier disruption together with a human Lactobacillus strain which was modified by deleting the enzymes required for H2O2 production. In contrast to the original Lactobacillus, this modified strain lacked the ability to enhance wound healing and to accelerate re-establishment of the epithelial integrity. The healing responses promoted by low levels of H2O2, as provided by lactobacilli, include the movement of epithelial cells to close a wound and the restoration of the impenetrable mucus layer. Other studies indicated that H2O2 is important for a balanced microbiota and its resilience to disruption. Thus, H2O2 production is a major part of the beneficial repertoire of lactobacilli."

And though it's not directly related, this is an interesting short article about how HP levels are maintained in safe ranges in the body.

 

[Olivierlejardinier]

My natural health practitioner is pushing for the consumption of 500 grams of vegetables a day and I have already introduced whole-grain rye and spelt bread into my diet for the sake of dietary fibers.

May I ask what is your current diet ? In my experience too much fibers can irritate the gut and worsen the problem...
As others said, naturally fermented beverage might help.

you can also experiment with the "programming" of water

I second this too, it's good practise to "use" the healing power of water IMO. Cheers Ursus Minor !

 

[Keyhole]

Hi Ursus Minor,

If you don't mind me asking, what was the original purpose for getting two colonoscopies in the first place?

 

[Ursus Minor]

Thank you for all your ideas...

As a side note, you can also experiment with the "programming" of water. I have tried this for some time now and had a really interesting result with a friend of mine regarding his extreme level of inflammation and low blood levels due to lupus. I cannot say for sure but I programmed the water for 2 or 3 weeks with the intention of "healing inflammation" and wrote the numbers of the letters to spell the intention, and it worked it seems! He did not change any of his usual medication and only drank the water for about 4 weeks. His results were so good that his doctor could not believe it. I think the more specific you are about what you want the water to "do" the better. Just fit it to your situation.

I had been experimenting with water programming before. I think it was about general health then.
I think I got tired about speaking to every glass of water or forgot about it.

I could be putting tags on freshly filled water bottles while 'informing' the tags to 'program' the water.
Do you think it would be specific enough to just write 'heal my gut' on them?

I don't have any specific advice unfortunately, but have you tried experimenting with some fermented (living, not pasteurized) products? First that comes to mind is fermented milk, homemade cheese/yogurt and sauerkraut. Also, from what I've heard, probiotics should be stored in specific conditions (mostly temperature) otherwise they lose of their potency.

I'm usually avoiding cheese because of the casein problem but adding sauerkraut to the menu shouldn't be problematic. Two of the probiotics I'm using do indeed have to be stored in the refrigerator.

May I ask what is your current diet ? In my experience too much fibers can irritate the gut and worsen the problem...
As others said, naturally fermented beverage might help.

My current diet is mostly minced meat, cooked chicken, fried or scrambled eggs with or w/o lard, sausages and cooked potatoes. I particularly like Vietnamese wok dishes with beef or shrimps.

Reliable sources on the internet as well as my health practitioner tell me to add fibers in order for the probiotics to adhere to the mucosa.

 

[benkostka]

I am struggling with a prolonged dysfunction of the gut flora.

Things went downhill when I underwent two consecutive colonoscopies at the end of January and I developed sudden mood swings, exhaustion, agitation and periods with an accelerated pulse and tight muscles. The intestinal lavage seems to have wrecked my microbiome.

The gut microflora test in March resulted in the detection of two significantly lowered bacteria:

- E. coli < 10^4 [ref. 10^6 - 10^7]

- bifidobacterium spec. < 10^7 [ref. 10^9 - 10^11]

Three months later I'm literally taking two hands full of probiotics and prebiotics a day (I was introduced to the necessity of taking prebiotics only some weeks ago). The situation has indeed improved somewhat. I'm currently at 14 to 18 days of 'relative well being' (which includes tenseness, nervousness or unease) and a relapse of a couple of days with feeling really sick.

My impression is that the newly added bacteria occasionally seem to 'slide away' but I may be wrong...

I have been warned that the procedure of healing the microbiome could take many months.
This condition is quite debilitating as I often don't find the energy to take walks or get on my bike.

My natural health practitioner is pushing for the consumption of 500 grams of vegetables a day and I have already introduced whole-grain rye and spelt bread into my diet for the sake of dietary fibers.

I'm prepared to do almost anything to get out of this hole.

The symptoms I'm experiencing seem to indicate that the gut may not be able to produce sufficient serotonin.

I wonder if my condition would improve if I tried some 5-HTP or L-Tryptophan or anything other that helps to build serotonin...

You might want to look into kombucha/fermented foods and also drinking lots of fresh teas if you can like mint, sage, oregano, dandelion, basil, elderberry, hawthorne, ect…. The Kombucha is a natural probiotic, just like any naturally fermented food and all those natural herbs will essentially promote the production of the healthy bacteria in your gut and suppress the bad ones, plus many help ease anxiety and other things. I use a french press and a few swing top bottles to store them in my fridge and drink the teas throughout the day. A little raw honey to sweeten them helps.

If you can grow the herbs yourself so much the better, or wild gather them. Anything in the mint family is great.

 

[Ursus Minor]

Hi Ursus Minor,

If you don't mind me asking, what was the original purpose for getting two colonoscopies in the first place?

It was intended as a precaution (I'm over sixty) which I had been putting off for years.
Two adenoids (benign) had been removed, something went wrong and I developed internal bleeding.

So I had to return to the hospital five days later to have another colonoscopy (and another lavage).

May I repeat my question whether adding serotonin in some form could alleviate the symptoms my enteric nervous system is producing?

 

[Cosmos]

Just throwing it out there in case it might help:

Have you considered the possibility that it isn't what you seem to suspect it is (wrecked your microbiome)? Apart from your health practitioner, have you consulted with someone else (a doctor for example) and described your symptoms? Please correct me if I'm wrong: is the wrecked microbiome idea a self diagnosis or has your health practitioner told you that?

 

[Ursus Minor]

Have you considered the possibility that it isn't what you seem to suspect it is (wrecked your microbiome)? Apart from your health practitioner, have you consulted with someone else (a doctor for example) and described your symptoms? Please correct me if I'm wrong: is the wrecked microbiome idea a self diagnosis or has your health practitioner told you that?

While reading this thread you may have noticed that I have inserted this test result...

The gut microflora test in March resulted in the detection of two significantly lowered bacteria:

- E. coli < 10^4 [ref. 10^6 - 10^7]

- bifidobacterium spec. < 10^7 [ref. 10^9 - 10^11]

I have indeed consulted two physicians and the health practitioner.

 

[Cosmos]

I have indeed consulted two physicians and the health practitioner.

What exactly did the physicians and/or the health practitioner say and/or diagnose?

 

[Ursus Minor]

What exactly did the physicians and/or the health practitioner say and/or diagnose?

Due to the course of events many of the consultations date back weeks and months and I have not received any written statements. I actually remember walking into the office(s) saying "I think I have a gut flora disorder."