how do one heal the gut?

I was on 9 antibiotics, one of them caused me bad anxiety.  but I belive this is worse than anxiety. I belive these antibiotics messed up my HPA axis.

 

I hear healing the gut helps. but how do you heal the gut?

 

Probiotics taken with prebiotics is helpful.

Momack, diet is also helpful depending on you systems.  You can read on internet what you can eat that might help.  The one thing I have read is your probiotic should be low histimine.  You can go to the supplement forum in bb and read that.  There's tons of information on healing your gut.  Some bb's did a lot of research . Good luck hope u feel better.

Hi momack -

 

I am currently working with a holistic doctor to heal Leaky Gut Syndrome.  Leaky Gut is what is caused by years of stress, antibiotic use and too many carbs.  The doctor has me on about 15 supplements and vitamins.  I had extensive bloodwork done first, so he could customize my treatment.  I do know that probiotics are important.  In addition I take the vitamins I was low on, A, D, Zinc, DHEA.  I also take L-glutatime which is recommended for Leaky Gut Syndrome. 

 

I suggest you do some research online about how to heal Leaky Gut or how to heal your stomach.  It would be a place to start.  If you can find a holistic doctor near you who deals with Leaky Gut, I would definitely see them so they can guide you.  By the way, the diet is very restrictive as well.  I was doing most of it already, so I adapted quickly, but a lot of people have a hard time.  The diet is primarily proteins and vegetables.  I am not allowed ANY GRAINS AT ALL (at least for now), no potatoes, very little carbs, no dairy (eggs are ok), no caffeine, no sugar and of course no alcohol.  Good fats are allowed, i.e., avacados, almond butter.  I eat protein with any fruits to keep my blood sugar level.  No legumes (which includes peanuts and peanut butter, they are actually legumes).  My goal is 100 grams of protein per day (not easy) and 60 grams of complex carbs (fruit and vegetables).  It's basically a Paleo  or Mediterranean diet.  I got Paleo pancake mix from Costco which is grain free.  I also got Paleo granola there.

 

I hope this helps a little.

 

Good luck

Angel

thanks so much!

momack -

 

You're welcome.  Have you had an opportunity to research Leaky Gut?  Once you understand that your entire immune system emanates from your gut, it will all make sense.

 

Hope you are doing well.

 

Angel

momack, I think Angel's advice is excellent. It correlates with everything I've found in my own research.

 

Two things that might further help you:

 

- If you struggle to tolerate certain probiotics due to a histamine response, it almost always means you have SIBO (bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine) - many of us in w/d do. In this case, I highly recommend ThreeLac probiotics. It's one of the only ones on the market to treat SIBO effectively. Just start very slowly. I had to tear open a single sachet and only take about a third every second day in the beginning. Then you slowly work up from there. This website has solid info on ThreeLac: http://www.candidafree.net/

It's the only probiotic I could tolerate during withdrawal, and over time it's making a significant difference in my recovery.

 

- Complete gut healing can be a slow process, and diet is important, as others have mentioned. Be prepared to stick with it for at least a year. If you do that, you'll find many seemingly unrelated health challenges resolve themselves. It's very rewarding!

 

Best wishes for your healing.

I think leaky gut might be my problem too and the reason for my skin problems.  I'm going to try the diet (I can get rid of everything except the coffee).  I'm thinking the stress from trying to help my sister through this nightmare of benzo w/d might be making the leaky gut worse because in the past month my skin problems have gotten worse. 

Hi Laura4321-

 

I would highly suggest you even give up the coffee, at least for now.  Caffeine is definitely a stimulant and I think the coffee itself is hard on your stomach.

 

I was feeling "not horrible" for 2 or 3 days so this morning I had a few sips of Organic Decaf Coffee with about a tablespoon of French Vanilla Creamer.  It totally took away my streak of feeling good.  My heart has been palpitating all day and I've had a headache.  And that was Decaf.  I was so sorry I gave in to the craving.  Totally not worth it.  I will limit my coffee fix to the coffee flavored protein shake I have.

 

But good luck with the diet.

 

Angel

Hi Laura4321-

 

I would highly suggest you even give up the coffee, at least for now.  Caffeine is definitely a stimulant and I think the coffee itself is hard on your stomach.

 

I was feeling "not horrible" for 2 or 3 days so this morning I had a few sips of Organic Decaf Coffee with about a tablespoon of French Vanilla Creamer.  It totally took away my streak of feeling good.  My heart has been palpitating all day and I've had a headache.  And that was Decaf.  I was so sorry I gave in to the craving.  Totally not worth it.  I will limit my coffee fix to the coffee flavored protein shake I have.

 

But good luck with the diet.

 

Angel

 

Hi Angel-

 

Thanks for your suggestion.  I'm definitely willing to give up the coffee (I've done so in the past), but right now it's just not possible until things settle down for my sister.

 

I'm not working with a doctor on this, so I'm just kind of putting together a protocol and diet based on info I find online.  I'm also taking glutamine (still have to figure out the right amount--seems like people have differing opinions on this), and something called "Restore" that's supposed to help seal up the gut.