Listen to your body!!! not your GI guy. It is like going to the dr and saying when I hit my thumb with a hammer, it hurts. So stop hitting your thumb with a hammer! Eating late can definitely cause digestive issues in people of our delicate age. If your apple snack causes you issues.... And reducing acid is the exact wrong thing to do. See Dr Berg on you tube for apple cider vinegar info. I really like that guy. Shutting up now.
You don't have to shut up...I never do I've been on this weird eating cycle for many years now. It's probably not good for me, but it's not causing the current issues. If doing a GoLytley cleansing every 3 years will keep this at bay, I'm perfectly fine doing that. It just seems that there's never relief from non-critical medical issues for me. I've been under this cloud of bladder issues for a while, and when I find a doctor who takes a reasonable stance and there are no more illnesses on my radar screen, my stomach issue pops up again. While I am grateful that I've not had serious ailments, I just wanna be 20 again (and I don't mean multiples of 20.)
She used vinegar for a while too, but by it self didn't seem to help. She also gave the vinegar to our goats for a while.
The H. pylori test is usually just drinking some "lemonade with before and after samples and blowing into a bag or two. The endoscopy could do tests for all, but the H. pylori is hard to culture. That is why it is usually done the other way.
I might have posted this before, but it is a great book that explains everything you ever wanted to know about the digestive system, and how to fix whatever is wrong when something is not working right. I have the Kindle version; but it also comes in regular book form from Amazon.
Thanks for that,Don. That's good to know. I was anticipating lining up a ride for an endoscopy. I'm actually giving a friend a ride to her doctor on Tuesday, but I don't think she'll be able to reciprocate...she's a lifelong anemic in her mid 70s and her hemoglobin count has started declining. Man, I need another peer group
According to the blurb, he is calling paleo and keto "elimination" diets. When I refer to an elimination diet, it is a temporary diet (usually 2 week) that is used to remove possible issues. Foods are then added to the diet in order to see what may be causing the issues. It is a diagnostic tool, not a lifestyle change. The results of this may lead to lifestyle changes, but the diet elimination diet itself is not one. Microbiome does not fix every problem, but is repairs many issues. It is said that if you have ever received an oral antibiotic, your microbiome will never be the same.
And that touches on the issue I had when I was told to take probiotics after my colonoscopy. The microbiome is still a mystery, and we're all unique. I won't grab some off-the shelf pill that populates everyone's gut with the same specific bacteria in the same specific ratios. I would quite possibly be screwing up my unique balance by overpopulating my gut with things that are sold solely because they are (a) easy to manufacturer, (b) easy to put into capsules and (c) profitable. I don't want to introduce things I might not need and that could crowd out my good native bugs, upsetting my unique healthy balance. Regarding the microbiome never being the same again...that's an interesting thing to postulate. I once went meatless for 6 months and my system stopped producing the enzyme required to digest red meat. Things were uncomfortable when I started eating it again, and my system quickly adapted back (obviously that's a single enzyme, not a community of bacteria.) I'm not certain I would buy into our microbiome being at some birth-to-date condition that at some point reaches a steady state that shall never been disrupted by foods or illness, and shall never recover from such disruption(s). Maybe the mass-extinction by an antibiotic could be catastrophic, but if so, one would notice the effects pretty quickly and never be "right" again. I cannot imagine the effects of a radically out-of-balance gut being subtle, especially if things were zapped en masse in a single event. To me, the lack of such symptoms is a lesson in resilience, not fragility. Or are there some bacteria we are born with that provide a tertiary benefit, that survive natural onslaughts, and that are irreplaceable once lost? I imagine those who study such things are asking these same questions, huh?
Throughout the history of mammals, our gut biome is inoculated first by breast milk. Those who are strictly formula fed probably have a different initial microbiome from breast-fed children. It all changes as we eat solid food and the diet make up in part dictates the gut flora. I was taught that the mice used for experiments who are borne and raised in sterile environments do fine, but if they are borne and raised naturally, then have their biome eliminated by strong antibiotics will soon die. I assume this holds for humans as well, but I cannot prove it. Many vitamins and nutrients are generated in the gut, the most prominent is vitamin K. If any here are on warfarin therapy, you know that you must control your diet lest you make too much vitamin K and out-compete the warfarin, thus defeating the therapy. "Bubble children" I think probably go through the same thing as the mice I mentioned. Eat fresh veggies from clean soil.
I got questions but don't wanna be Mr.Off Topic here. It's a fascinating subject. Maybe I'll start an "I Am Joe's Gut" thread so The Curious can discuss this subject, probiotics, etc.
I don't know if this is tyranny, but my gastroenterologist was caring enough to make sure my condition did not worsen to squeeze me in for an appointment in early November.
This medical system has got to a point of straight evil. Giving advice on diet than watch the population get obese. Than putting minerals in out water,tooth paste which lower your IQ, Tell you to take vaccines so they can treat all the side effects. Pure evil
So I've been reading about D-mannose ad trying to find reference to the specific amount contained in specific fruits & veggies and have not been able to find a reference. I am hesitant to routinely supplement due to there being a lack of history with people taking this (no reports on effects beyond 6 months of supplementing) and there being no frame of reference I could find regarding whether 1,000mg might be the equivalent found in a handful of cranberries or in 5 bushels of cranberries. That being said, the real reason I came back here to reply to you, Mary, is because I came across an article that said fenugreek seeds contain "lots" of D-mannose (again, not quantified.) @Yvonne Smith has a thread on growing sprouts and she got me started doing this. Funugreek seeds are inexpensive, they sprout easily (high germination rate), and they have a great flavor. Now I see they have this benefit as well.
You remember I am old, right? (my disclaimer) I was told about fenugreek as an aid to arthritis, long ago. Did not have success. I was told that drinking cranberry juice helped uti's But not much for me. I came across -d-mannose and it helped me and many others I recommended it to, as a supplement. But one does not stay on it for 6 months without a break. I get it in large quantity as it keeps forever (it is a sugar) and I keep doling it out. I recommend maybe a quarter teaspoon a couple of times a day for about a week. it needn't be measured minutely. One could stay on it for a couple of weeks but if one requires more time than that, something else may need to be thought about. I would go off of it for a bit before taking it again. I think it can be irritating to the kidneys if no breaks are taken and you have kidney disease but there have been tests done for longer periods. If Fenugreek tastes good, put it on your salad. I put a lot of wild greens on things as I know they have a lot of nutrients we use. Foods would be the best medicine if we could get enough of what we need just from what we eat. The amount of cranberries you would need would be more than I could eat, thus we supplement.