Back in January, I posted about the start of my SIBO journey. (https://www.leahcutter.com/my-continuing-food-journey/) This is an update. It may contain TMI for some of y’all, as I’m going to talk about food, diet, and bodily functions.
As I said in the previous post, my main focus has been on increasing my gut motility. Basically, this is measured by regular bowel movements.
Just for the record, I have never had regular bowel movements. Never. I have DECADES of irregularity.
So imagine my surprise when, after about two weeks, I start going regularly.
Like, every day.
Not only that, in terms of the Bristol scale, I went from 1 or 2 to 4. (WARNING: Only look that up if you’re ready to see pictures of poop.) Basically, it means I’m normal now.
It still somewhat freaks me out to be so regular, and I celebrate every time.
How did I manage this so quickly?
Because last year I dealt with my stress. And I have learned that in order to have regular bowel movements, I need to relax. It’s called the “rest and digest” parasympathetic nervous system for a reason.
The other things that I was doing? Like the walking after every meal, the Wim Hof breathing, ginger tea (and homemade ginger beer), visceral abdominal massage, etc.?
I figure those things don’t hurt and probably help. However, I’m not consistent with them. The only thing I’m consistent with is relaxing so I can have a bowel movement every morning.
The other thing that I’m now very consistent with is taking magnesium chloride. I get 218 mg per day, which is 52% of what’s recommended. I get that using Salt-T drops (https://saltt.com/products/relax-drops-capsules). I’m also taking the Buoy brain drops, about 6 servings per day (https://justaddbuoy.com/products/brain-health-drops)
But that’s it. Those are the only changes I made. And I have good gut motility now.
So I went to see the naturopath, to inform her of my progress. It’s, uhm, kind of remarkable? I guess?
She doesn’t believe in killing off your entire gut and everything in it in the hopes that you’ll somehow repopulate it in a healthy manner. She’s well aware that 80% of people who do that relapse.
Instead, we’re going to try to repopulate my gut with healthier bacteria at first. Since I’ve been on a carnivore diet for so long, a lot of the good bacteria have already died out.
Now, most people who have SIBO, when they get the bacteria in their gut measured, are shown to have little to none of the type of bacteria known as akkermansia. So we are starting there, and trying to reintroduce that to my gut biome.
The problem? Just taking a quarter of a pill still resulted in horrific diarrhea as well as brain fog.
So tomorrow I’m going to try it again, with just one-eighth of a pill. I’ll eat a more hearty breakfast, so my stomach will be very full. Fingers crossed, my gut won’t throw a fit over that amount of the bacteria.
In addition, once I can start stomaching the akkermansia, I’m going to start concentrating on foods that have a lot of polyphenoids, mainly fruit like strawberries, blueberries, pomegranate juice, and cranberry extract. This is bringing more good bacteria to my stomach, without an excess of fiber.
The goal is to continue to slowly increase good bacteria, while at the same time, getting my stomach to tolerate more fiber. Right now, I can easily tolerate 6 gm of fiber per day. Any more than that, and I get both brain fog as well as diarrhea. Evidently, I’m supposed to eat about 30 gm per day. We’ll see.
So I’ve made a lot of progress on my new food/health journey. I’ll let y’all know howit goes as I continue.
How is your health journey going?