It's been over a year since I started blogging about my gut condition. Have I cured my case of SIBO-C, you may be wondering? For those of you with IBS-C, the "constipation" form of IBS, would you consider a daily bowel movement a victory?
To reverse constipation I added: diet, herbals, and supplements. It helped, but it didn't produce daily BM. So I added some lifestyle changes. They helped a great deal, but BMs were still not consistent. Knowing how important it is for me to eliminate toxins, I started taking a few swigs of liquid magnesium citrate any day that I didn't have a bowel movement. This worked like a charm. So, eventually I switched to one 250 mg supplement pill, taken twice a day. (A dose my doctor says would give an ordinary person diarrhea.) It wasn't until I cured my sleep problem, though, that everything fell into step. Now I'm down to 250 mg magnesium daily (a normal dose).
How did I cure my sleep problem? At first, I did all the things. I ate clean, stopped eating after 8pm, tried melatonin, got early morning sunlight and did daily walking, limited blue light at night by wearing the weird yellow glasses, left my phone in the other room, bought new pillows and layered the bedding for cool comfort, adjusted the temperature in the room, bought an IQair filter. All of this was good, but I still had interrupted sleep.
I didn't turn the curve completely until I balanced dietary fats. Was it this alone? Or was it this in combination with all the other things? I have since let some of the other things slip — daily walking, yellow glasses, yet I'm still sleeping well most nights. Something about the omega-3s has staying power.
Though I follow a Paleo-ish grain-free diet and cook with ghee, olive oil, and coconut oil, my balance of omega-3s wasn't optimal. My DH doesn't eat red meat, so we eat a lot of pastured chicken, especially in homemade soups from chicken bone broth that I make every weekend and freeze. I do get some grassfed beef. Once every few weeks I make a beef bone broth and freeze it to dole out for myself, for variety. And I try to eat a 1/4 lb of beef liverwurst a week from U.S. Wellness Meats, made with grassfed beef and without sugar, chemicals, and preservatives.
So, what changed? I added an apple a day to my lunch. I added a salad a day to my dinner. I added four servings of salmon a week on the recommendation of a rheumatologist whom I saw for my weird joint issue (more on that shortly). I also added a teaspoon of cod liver oil first thing in the morning. And fish oil capsules with meals. The idea was to quickly bring into balance my omega-3s vs. omega 6s—and all this did the trick.
I've had excellent cholesterol my entire adult life (after reading Jaminet, I think it's on the suspiciously low side, always below 200 and even hovering around 150 at times). I have stellar triglycerides and blood pressure as well. My docs regularly congratulate me on these things, especially my lipids and BP, though none of this means a damned thing to me — because I am deeply troubled by the nodules growing on my hands and feet.
My primary says it's Dupuytren's contracture. They call Dups the Viking Curse, meaning all us with Scandinavian, Celtic Isle, Eastern European heritage supposedly got this gene from maurauding.... whatever. Dupuytren's contracture, a condition so insignificant to the drug companies who fund all the studies that it's not likely to see any new research any time soon is a so-called "benign" condition, and so slow growing that we're all likely to die of natural causes before there's a cure.
But I'll tell you this. For all the literature that calls it "benign," it's painful and it's disfiguring, and it is a daily reminder that my body is out of whack.
What causes it?
Much like my other diagnoses — IBS and Fibromyalgia — when it comes to the cause of Dupuytren's, they don't know. All they have to offer is that it's "associated" with alcohol consumption and with diabetes.
Do you drink too much? they ask. I used to enjoy my wine. I'd have two glasses of wine with dinner most nights and when socializing on weekends. So I cut that way back to a treat on the weekends, and finally now I've cut it out altogether. But the nodules are still growing. The one on the underside of my pinkie finger is new this year. It feels like a tight little tumor that hardens and softens with seemingly no reason. The rheumatologist believes this one is in response to injury. This finger is particularly stressed by computer work, using a mouse—which I can't avoid in my job. Overactive fibroblasts zoom in, encouraging deranged collagen growth. My primary doc has little to offer, other than a referral to a physical therapist to learn hand massage techniques to keep the hands supple. The rheumy added the omega-3s to my diet. What else do the docs have to say?
Dups is also associated with metabolic syndrome and diabetes, says my primary. Do I have either in my family? Could I be a candidate?
Well, I wasn't when I first came to you, Doc, but despite six years on a grain-free whole foods diet without sugar or chemicals, my A1C and fasting glucose are rising every year, as we can see from my annual blood work ups. I'm now hovering on the boarder of "pre" and pretty soon I'll be in the neighborhood of numbers that might require actual prescription intervention. I can already see in my minds eye all my docs convening with the meds. Another victim of "diabesity."
Anyhow, getting back to SIBO. Did I cure it? I don't know. The bloating belly is still there and my weight has not returned to normal, but constipation has been reversed and I have daily BMs. My docs are calling this a success. Let's take stock:
I do feel much better, though I chalk that up to the fact that I'm sleeping again.
My career is back on track — fatigue has been beaten back to the degree that I'm able to work a full-time office job in my chosen field of work. Bueno!
Pain is way diminished. The fibromyalgia appears to be in some sort of a remission. I wake up with a few aches and pains, but nothing like I used to. I take the train to work with my laptop in my backpack, walk 20 blocks to the subway station and back, and I climb the stairs in the station instead of taking escalators. I'm able to keep up in my yoga classes. This all feels like a kind of victory.
My B12 levels are up, almost at peak and D3 is steadily climbing. This has mitigated the neuropathy — tingling and numbness in hands and feet.
But am I cured of IBS-C just because I have a daily BM? I see food particles in my stool that tell me I'm not digesting properly. I see signs of poor fat digestion. I see mucus. I feel certain I'll never be healthy until I close the tight junctures in my leaky gut, and I certainly won't be happy with my body again until I get rid of this spare tire and stop these nodules from crippling me.
Are the nodules related to my gradually rising A1C, fasting blood sugars, body weight? Could deranged hormonal activity be the root cause of my gut motility issues, gut lining permeability? Could lowering A1C, blood sugars, body weight halt the overactive fibroblast activity of Dupuyten's? Could it reverse nodule growth?
I'm about to find out. In a few days I'm going to be trying something radical—a water fast. Check back soon and I'll let you know how it's going.
