Welcome to my gastro intestinal (G.I.) journey. On this blogging platform I share my experiences of digestive un-wellness and how I turned it all around to reach a state of digestive wellness.
I want to describe to you the gastro intestinal illnesses that I’ve been afflicted with over the past 40 years in the hope that at least one of these experiences resonates with your own experience. I’m going to list them in chronological order so bear with me as some illnesses developed much later in life, but I firmly believe they are all related.
Before continuing I also want you to know that I cured myself of all of these illnesses and once I had formulated the blueprint they were all surprisingly EASY to cure. The hard part was trawling through all the irrelevant information on the web, most of which in my opinion, is designed to extract money from people without really providing a viable cure. I spent a lot of money on supplements and courses promising me ‘the cure’, all of which failed miserably, and much of the information on the web is either inaccurate or downright lies. I don’t believe that most of the people on the web that offer these ‘cures’ have ever suffered from these debilitating illnesses, or if they have, they must still be suffering to this day!
As stated above my cure is easy, in some cases you will experience almost immediate relief from the symptoms of whichever illness you may be suffering from (particularly yeast related illnesses). At its basic level my cure requires only a minor change to your diet. Yes, you can beat your illness with only a minor change to your diet! However, just like everything in life, the more effort you put in, the greater the benefits you will receive. I can guarantee that everything I write about below is a genuinely true account of my life and my cure is genuine and is no ‘snake oil’ product.
Please read on to see if my story bears any resemblance to your own battles.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
From as far back as when I was a 9 year old boy I had suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, alternating between constipation and diarrhoea. During bouts of constipation I can still remember my dad telling me that whilst sat on the toilet straining to rub my tummy and pat my head to alleviate the problem. Obviously it didn’t work and I continued through life tolerating IBS, writing it off to anxiety. I’ve had 2 sigmoidoscopies, plus several scans on my kidneys and bladder due to debilitating bowel pain in my lower back, sides, and groin area; suspected appendicitis; terrible pain in both my left and right side; sickness; and bowel spasms to name but a few, all at the hands of IBS. Food was never a trigger, with the exception of coffee, (to this day I will not touch a drop of coffee). Anxiety was usually the trigger, and has been my nemesis for many years, but as you will read later on, since developing my cure I haven’t suffered from IBS for over 7 years.
Yeast Infections
From my early teens I suffered from dandruff to the point where the doctor said it was borderline psoriasis. I used a variety of products to try and keep it at bay, but they never cured the problem.
I remember back in 2001 taking a trip to the seaside and after a dip in the sea, returned to the car to change back into my shorts. I noticed a reddening of the skin on either side of my groin. The doctors took skin swabs but couldn’t diagnose the issue. I’ve since discovered that it was a yeast overgrowth (which I’ve now cured). In fact I was plagued with yeast problems for over 20 years. Athletes foot, verruca’s, Dandruff, and I always developed oral thrush after taking a course of antibiotics, in addition the stomach pain and diarrhoea side effects of taking antibiotics. It’s worth noting that I’m still an advocate of antibiotic use provided they’re used as a last resort. I’ve read some terrible stories of people dying from infections from just a scratch from a rose bush prior to the invention of antibiotics, so in my view they have their place in modern society. If you do suffer when taking antibiotics, This blog will be very helpful, offering some great tips during, and after taking them.
Acid reflux/GERD
During 2001, at the age of thirty I was promoted into a senior managerial position at work, and with it came a great deal of stress. Coupled with the fact that I had some major turmoil going on in my personal life, I developed acid reflux which was later diagnosed as Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). I would feel ok at the start of every day, but within an hour of waking a gnawing pain in my chest would develop. This was the first time I googled my symptoms instead of going to the doctors, and ended up worrying myself so much that I was dying that I exacerbated the symptoms. A trip to the doctors and a prescription of a Proton Pump Inhibitor (Omeprazole) followed, and this pattern recurred for the next 12 years. I have developed an intimate relationship with the symptoms of GERD. The usual pain in the chest (heatburn), pain in my stomach region, pain in my back right between the shoulder blades, pain in my upper right side, hoarseness, pain in my throat, ulcers in my mouth, the inside of my mouth drying up and developing a white film, rotting teeth due to the acid in my mouth, waking throughout the night in a coughing fit due to inhaling the acid vapour, stomach ache and bloating after eating. I’ve also experienced too little stomach acid (Hypochlorhydria) when my stress has subsided (normally my GERD bouts would flare up for anything between 6 months to a year), and I quickly learned when to stop taking the Omeprazole. Again heartburn, pain between the shoulder blades in my back, stomach pain, bloating and stomach ache after eating, and one of the main symptoms was a pain under my rib cage which felt identical to a pulled muscle and lasted for a few days. It took many years but I developed a feel for when to stop taking the Proton Pump Inhibitor.
Helicobacter Pylori
In 2011 I separated from my now ex-wife. One of the most traumatic experiences I’ve ever dealt with, not least because of the impact at the time it had on my daughter. I started to suffer terrible stomach pains within a few minutes of eating or drinking. The pain was unbearable and unlike any of the symptoms I’d previously experienced with GERD or IBS. After a couple of visits to my doctors they suspected either a stomach ulcer or Gastritis. I was referred for an endoscopy, and tested positive for Helicobacter Pylori (a bacteria which buries itself into the mucosal lining of the stomach, and can cause excessive production of acid), I was prescribed something called triple Therapy which consists of two different kinds of antibiotics and a Proton Pump Inhibitor for seven days (the standard course of treatment for H Pylori). After finishing the treatment another visit to my doctor revealed I was still infected with H Pylori and subsequently I was prescribed the same antibiotics for a further fourteen days. A further follow up visit revealed I was still infected and the Triple Therapy had proved ineffective against the H Pylori. I was to receive no further treatment so was stuck with the H Pylori. The Endoscopy didn’t reveal anything abnormal other than severe scarring of the oesophagus from the GERD.
Haemorrhoids
At this point I made the fatal mistake of googling my symptoms. The results page made several references to pancreatic cancer. It’s fair to say that the panic and anxiety that followed only made my situation worse, much worse! Bring on the haemorrhoids.
I had constant blood all over my stool which continued for months. The doctors were prescribing suppositories, and lactulose, so were obviously treating me for haemorrhoids but I’m the sort of person that likes a definite diagnosis. Despite my conscious brain agreeing with the doctors that it could be haemorrhoids, my sub-conscious brain was telling me it was something more serious. In the absence of certainty, my sub-conscious brain is always king! After the haemorrhoids continued for several months a Barium Enema, followed by a Sigmoidoscopy were scheduled, which thank goodness confirmed nothing more than haemorrhoids were the cause of the bleeding.
Candida Albicans
Following the antibiotic treatments I was still suffering stomach pain after eating, which would last for several hours at a time. I would bloat to the point that I thought my stomach was going to burst open, I would wake up in the middle of the night trembling uncontrollably, and my memory was very ‘foggy’. I virtually stopped eating to control the pain, and subsequently lost two stone in weight over a 4 week period.
I started to suffer from alternating diarrhoea and constipation with the constipation quickly becoming predominant. I suffered terribly from oral thrush and had long white strands in my nasal cavity which reached down the back of my throat, (I later discovered these were colonies of Candida). As usual by now the internet search engines usually indicated I had a life threatening, terminal illness and I can honestly say I was terrified, everything seemed to come at once and nobody knew what was causing it.
The road to recovery
Then came a minor breakthrough! One Sunday afternoon I was making carrot & coriander soup and accidently put double the required quantity of coriander leaf into the recipe. As a result I had some minor intestinal relief for a couple of days. I started to research the properties of coriander leaf. A major compound of coriander leaf is a fatty acid know as Capric acid. Along with several other fatty acids contained in the leaf of coriander, it has antimicrobial properties. This discovery led me to investigate the possibility of intestinal Candida overgrowth and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). The more I researched, the more my symptoms matched those described for Candida overgrowth.
I discussed the possibility of Candida overgrowth with my doctor, who surprisingly was very open to the possibility and prescribed a two week course of the anti-fungal Fluconazole. I say surprisingly because most of the Candida websites imply that doctors don’t recognise Candida overgrowth as a medical condition. I don’t believe this holds true anymore, I think the medical profession has woken up to the many benefits of a healthy gut microbiota and more research than ever is now being conducted to discover the links between both commensal and pathogenic bacteria and their effects on human health. The effects of the Fluconazole were almost instantaneous. The pain and bloating ceased within two days, along with my dandruff. The reddened areas of my groin healed. I was astonished! However within two weeks of finishing the treatment my symptoms started to reappear and eventually came back worse than before the treatment. I now realise that this was my fault. My fault because I didn’t fully understand what was required to beat Candida, that in order to beat it, eradication was only one element of the overall treatment plan, and by just focusing on this one element, Candida would inevitably never be beaten.
Herxheimer Reaction
So the Candida was back and now worse than ever and to make matters worse I couldn’t take any more Fluconazole as I’d suffered a nasty side effect. Fluconazole is one of a number of antifungals that work by weakening the cell wall of Candida, literally causing it to burst. When this happens a number of toxins are released which get absorbed through our intestinal wall into the bloodstream. The liver has to deal with these toxins, but too large a quantity can overload the liver and cause the toxins to get backed up in the bloodstream, a response is initiated by the immune system causing flu like symptoms know as Herxheimer Reaction. In addition the liver has to filter and deal with the remains of the Fluconazole floating around in the bloodstream as well as the usual day to day filtering of hormones and other toxins. My liver struggled to cope and as a result hormones backed up in my bloodstream and I developed a condition called Gynecomastia. Basically the breast tissue swelled on the left side of my chest. It cleared up by itself after about 6 months, but was extremely painful and worrying.
The Candida Diet
My journey thus far had arrived at two major conclusions; one, I had a definitive diagnosis, and two, it could be cured! Allopathic antifungals were out of the question as the side effects were just too severe for me to handle, and I needed to prevent the Candida from returning once I had it under control. I read several books on the Anti Candida Diet, and also trawled through many websites and health forums, with each book and website more or less replicating the same information (even the ones claiming a new and revolutionary approach). Over the following two months I adjusted my diet in line with the Anti Candida diet and spent a fortune on supplements: coconut oil, Caprylic Acid, oil of oregano, Pau D’arco. I lived on yoghurt, oats, vegetables, cottage cheese, and water.
The standard Candida diet provided slight relief for the stomach pain and bloating, but progress seemed very slow. The more I visited the health forums the less confident I began to feel. Many of the posts revealed that they too were struggling on the standard Candida diet. It may be possible that people have managed to cure their Candida overgrowth whilst sticking rigidly to the Candida diet, but I have very little faith in its effectiveness.
The Cure
My own doubts led to intensive research and through experimentation, and trial and error I discovered a devastating cure. Surprisingly I was looking for a cure for candida, but the very nature of my cure is to re-programme the digestive system, which personally led to the eradication of my H Pylori, my IBS disappeared, all my yeast infections were cured, and my acid reflux disappeared.
I am very excited about my cure and it has motivated me to write this blog which I’ve named The Dysbiosis Diet.
The Good Gut Guide will show you how to re-programme your entire digestive system by:
- Reducing pathogenic micro-organisms using a combination of macrobiotics and a devastating supplement that no pathogen is immune to.
- Preparing the digestive tract to support beneficial micro-organisms by using the correct and most appropriate Prebiotic foods.
- Repopulating the digestive tract with beneficial micro-organisms through the correct choice of food and supplementation. In turn the whole large intestinal epithelial cells are nourished with beneficial short chain fatty acids and other long chain acids, which regulates peristalsis (calming the IBS response), communicates with, and calms the immune system, notably via dendritic cells, and also prevents yeasts and pathogenic bacteria from entering the small intestine.
- Maintaining the correct environment for the good bacteria to thrive and keep the numbers of potentially pathogenic micro-organisms down.
The strength of the my ‘cure’ lies in its mix of an indefensible, yet natural (and extremely overlooked) antifungal, coupled with the correct use of Macrobiotics, probiotics, and prebiotics. I will reveal to you this powerful antifungal, and teach you all about macrobiotic foods, as well as which foods contain the most effective strains of probiotic, and which foods feed and nourish these probiotics.
I hope you enjoy my blog and I wish you the very best of health.