Thanks, Julie. It was a very long journey to get to the point of finally healing my leaky gut. I blasted it with an arsenal of interventions over a period of years, and I don't know with certainty which interventions actually worked. Maybe all of them did, but perhaps it would have been a quicker process if I had done them around the same time or in some specific (but tighter) order. For example, following a leaky gut diet before getting rid of my candida overgrowth ultimately failed to heal my leaky gut.Juliegee wrote:Apologies for going off topic... Allyson, you mentioned in another post that you healed your leaky gut. Congrats! Was that Dxed via SIgA? Out of curiosity, how did you do it? I don't have any yeast, nor "bad" bacteria, but I still have a leaky gut and SIBO.
I was not officially diagnosed with leaky gut by a test. However, if someone (like me) has an autoimmune disease and many food sensitivities, it's a given that leaky gut is present. (I have even heard experts say don't waste your money on testing for leaky gut if you have those issues going on, but I did the testing relatively recently because I wanted to check on my status, and Dr. Bredesen recommended the test.)
Could you elaborate on how you were diagnosed via SIgA? I'm unaware of that method. I know of the Cyrex Labs test and the lactulose/mannitol urine collection test.
During my journey, I supported my digestion with digestive enzymes (like Susan suggested in the other thread), but also with betaine hydrochloride (HCL) with pepsin. My stomach acid was too low, so I needed help digesting protein. (Most people taking Pepcid or other acid-reducers actually have low (not high) stomach acid.) I now take a digestive enzyme supplement that has a small amount of HCL in it, but I used to need to take several capsules of HCL with each protein-containing meal.
The fact that you have H pylori suggests you might have low stomach acid.
Besides that, the first major step forward was finally killing off my candida overgrowth (which I suspect was systemic, not just in my gut). I won't go into the details about that, as you don't have a candida issue. But as I mentioned in another thread, resolving your gut infections (H pylori and SIBO) is key to healing leaky gut.
The next step forward happened when I began following the paleo autoimmune protocol (AIP). I started consuming homemade chicken bone broth (in the form of soup with lots of veggies, herbs, and olive oil; this is my typical breakfast). Bone broth, whether from chicken, beef, or some other source, is rich in minerals that support the immune system and contains healing goodies like collagen, glutamine, glycine, and proline. The collagen especially heals your gut lining and reduces intestinal inflammation.
I also started eating homemade lacto-fermented vegetables. I personally believe ferments are better than most probiotic supplements, though I do both.
But a HUGE part of the AIP is determining what your food sensitivities are and eliminating them from your diet (at least temporarily; some can later be safely reintroduced after your gut heals). When we eat foods we're sensitive to, we inflame our intestines. Sarah Ballantyne is, IMHO, THE expert on the AIP. But there are others, like Eileen Laird and Mickey Trescott.
I also had to heal my gastritis and GERD, which were other sources of inflammation in my digestive tract. I used the natural healing method described in a book I can't find at the moment. It included replacing HCL supplements with drinking bitters before meals, taking deglycyrrhizinated Licorice (DGL) before and in between meals, etc.
I also drank slippery elm tea and marshmallow root tea (both made at home from dried herbs I bought in bulk). Slippery elm, for example, contains mucilage, which helps to heal the gut lining. Here's a bit of text about that from mindbodygreen.com's article titled: 8 Supplements to Heal a Leaky Gut.
Actually, that article is pretty good. I took all of those 8 supplements around the same time (and before, in some cases), except I stopped L-glutatime because I was getting that in my bone broth. And note that the recommended caprylic acid is antiviral and antifungal, so you wouldn't need that.It might have kind of a strange name, but slippery elm has been used as an effective gut healer for centuries in the United States. This supplement both contains mucilage and stimulates nerve endings in the body’s intestinal tract to increase natural mucus secretion, which is an instrumental part of the stomach’s protective lining and helps combat ulcers and excessive acidity in the digestive system. It also contains important antioxidants that help relieve inflammatory bowel symptoms.
If you would like a step-by-step approach (which would be more efficient than my round-about, figure-out-one-thing-at-a-time approach), I'd recommend the Solving Leaky Gut program developed by Jordan Reasoner and Steve Wright from http://www.SCDLifestyle.com. They promote the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), but they have gone deeply into the topic of gut healing and have many relevant articles on their web site. They aren't medical professionals but two young engineers who, as their one page states, "overcame digestive problems, skin issues, and hormone issues using real food, supplements, and lifestyle changes. Since then, they've made it their mission to help others do the same. So far they've helped over 160,000+ people in 157 countries."
I bought their Solving Leaky Gut program, but I had already done a lot of what they recommend. They have a free webinar about their program on Tuesday, September 6 at 8 pm Eastern. If you're interested, you can register here:
http://solvingleakygut.com/webinar/internal-leakygut2/
I later bought their Solving Leaky Gut Masterclasses (which I believe is now part of their Solving Leaky Gut program). I've attached a PDF that lists the speakers and the topics they discuss. (The program includes the mp3s and transcripts for each masterclass.)
You'll see that one of the masterclasses is by the naturopath Allison Siebecker. Her class is titled: "The SIBO-Gut Connection." As far as I'm concerned, she is THE expert in SIBO. Check out her web site at http://www.siboinfo.com.
Best of luck on your journey, Julie! Hopefully, now that you know what's going on, you'll finish your journey in a reasonable amount of time. I know you have a lot of pieces to your health puzzle. But you'll get there.
